Jesus Shall Reign

[0:00] There's a sense in which the Bible is a book about kings and kingdoms. In fact, you could turn to most places in the scriptures and you find that kind of imagery, sometimes set forth as some type of metaphor or symbolism as it is here in Psalm number two.

[0:17] Other times it's physical kingdoms. We find Israel in the Old Testament. We find Rome very often in the New Testament. And of course, there is one overarching spiritual kingdom, the kingdom of God, over which Christ rules.

[0:33] So wherever you turn in the Bible, there's a good chance you're going to find some type of imagery related to kings and kingdoms. In the beginning, God creates an entire kingdom of sorts.

[0:45] And he fills it with creatures and he places them within the borders of the physical world that he also created.

[0:56] He creates a kingdom. And what does he do with this kingdom? On the final day before he rests, he crowns this kingdom with a single creature.

[1:07] And he names him Adam. And Adam's job was to image God. He was to reflect the glory of God, the character of God, by exercising kingly dominion over all the other creatures, over the rest of the kingdom.

[1:29] And unfortunately, as you know your Bibles well, Adam chose to do as was opposite of the blessed man in Psalm 1. He chose to walk in the counsel of the ungodly.

[1:41] And he rebelled against his creator. And now, this rebellious nature has continued in all of Adam's descendants.

[1:51] That's you and me. We now live in a fallen kingdom, which necessitates the prayers that we just prayed. It necessitates prayers for those who are dealing with terminal illnesses.

[2:07] It necessitates prayer for wickedness that unfolds in the faultless murder of police officers or of rioting and protesting in ways that are unhelpful on college campuses or whatever it may be.

[2:21] We recognize we need only to look ourselves in the mirror to see that we live in a fallen kingdom now. And we see the consequences of this fallen kingdom, the consequences of this sin all around us.

[2:33] But the silver lining in the story, of course, is that even in the midst of this fallenness, God is full of mercy.

[2:44] He's full of steadfast love. And he promises through the scriptures to provide another king, a new Adam, Paul calls him in Romans chapter 5, who would live and rule in perfect righteousness, who would reconcile the creature to his creator, abolishing the wicked and the wicked way.

[3:13] And then establishing, of course, an eternal kingdom for everyone who will take refuge in him. That's the big story of the Bible, isn't it? It's a king and his kingdom.

[3:26] Psalm 2 also uses this language of kings and kingdoms. On the one hand, we have the kingdom of God and we have his anointed son and king who rules with a rod of iron and then blesses all who love and serve him.

[3:43] That's one king and kingdom in the psalm. But there's another one as well. There are the kingdoms of this world who in the psalm, these kings of these kingdoms, they conspire together in a vain attempt to free themselves from the righteous rule of God.

[4:04] The plotting of the nations is symbolic here. It's symbolic of the rebellious nature of our own hearts. And the psalm, it issues for us both a warning against those who would persist in the rebellion of these worldly kingdoms.

[4:20] And it also issues an invitation. And an invitation for all to find safety and security and blessing by taking refuge in God's Messiah.

[4:34] That's the big picture of the psalm. There's God and his king and his kingdom. There's this world and its rulers and its kingdom. They're at war against one another.

[4:45] And God issues a warning about it and then an invitation as well. And we want to explore both the warning and the invitation this morning. Now, we discovered in our study of Psalm 1 that the first two psalms are meant to be understood together.

[4:59] They are standing as an introduction to the entire collection of poems that is the book of Psalms. In the second psalm, the author elaborates on what he introduces to us in the first psalm.

[5:14] So that the way of sinners is more specific, more severe, illustrated as a violent insurrection against the Lord.

[5:26] But then also, the blessed man is also more specific and clear. He is, we're told, the son of God who inherits a throne and exercises complete authority over the nations.

[5:44] He's the righteous king and judge who saves the righteous and destroys the rebels. Okay, so we need to keep that in mind. These two are working together.

[5:55] We have the blessed man and we have his way in Psalm 1. And all of that is being elaborated on here in Psalm 2. And as I said, the purpose of Psalm 2 is to send a clear message of judgment and salvation.

[6:13] It warns the world that rebellion against Yahweh and his word and his king is foolish and futile.

[6:23] But it's also a message of hope to believers that God will not allow this rebellion to continue indefinitely. Judgment is indeed coming.

[6:37] Christ will reign in perfect righteousness. And all who take refuge in him will be blessed forever. So if you can imagine yourself, as we did last Sunday, two millennium ago, gathering with faithful Jews.

[6:55] And Psalm 2 happens to be the psalm that you sing in worship that day or that is taught in worship on that day. What is it that you are declaring as you sing this as God's people?

[7:06] You are declaring by faith Christ's ultimate victory and the salvation of all who belong to him.

[7:18] So on one hand, it's a tragic psalm. On the other hand, it is a glorious, worshipful declaration of triumph is what it is, at least for the people of God.

[7:32] There's four stanzas to the psalm. Each one has a unique contribution to the whole. That's how I want to break them up as we study today, all right? The first stanza is this. I want you to see the rebels rage.

[7:44] The rebels rage. Verse 1, why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves. The rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying this, let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.

[8:05] This opening stanza, we're presented with this global coalition of people groups. And what is it that they're doing? They are preparing themselves for war.

[8:16] And surprisingly, this rally of nations has not developed in order that they might fight against one another. That's not the purpose of their union.

[8:29] They've actually united together here in order that they might fight against God and his anointed one. You see it right there in the verse. They have gathered against the Lord, Yahweh, and his anointed one.

[8:45] Anointed here, the Hebrew, it's transliterated for us in Greek and then further into English, which comes out to be this word, Messiah, that we're so used to, or Christ.

[8:58] So the author has an intention here as he's writing this, as Israel, as the Jews in ancient Israel gather together and they worship the Lord with this psalm. They have in view here, not just any king.

[9:11] They have a special king, the anointed king in view here, who they knew as Messiah. The author intends for us to have Israel's future Davidic king in view.

[9:26] And it gets clearer and clearer as the psalm unfolds. Now I want to point your attention to another word. It's this word, plot, or plotting. The plotting in verse 1 translates the same word that is translated as meditate in Psalm 1 and verse 2.

[9:44] Just set your eyes on that real quickly. We read it last week. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

[9:55] Same exact word in Psalm 2 that's translated here as plotting. It conveys this sense of muttering. You ever mutter to yourself? Maybe as you're going around and doing some housework inside the house or outside of the house.

[10:10] Maybe no one else is around. Maybe plenty of people are around and it just doesn't bother you. But you're muttering to yourself as you go. Convincing yourself of what the plan is for that moment. Describing, thinking out loud, we might say.

[10:23] That's the idea that's being conveyed here. The blessed man in Psalm 1, he mutters aloud to himself. He meditates. But what is the nature of his meditation? It is on the delight of God's law.

[10:38] As he goes about his days, night and day, he meditates on, he thinks on, he plots about his delight in God's word. Well, what is it that the nations are plotting or muttering about here in Psalm 2?

[10:55] They plot a conspiracy against the same law and lawgiver that the blessed man in Psalm 1 delights in. And what is the cry of their conspiracy?

[11:10] Freedom! Freedom! Freedom! Freedom! Notice what they say in verse 3. Let us burst their bonds apart. Let us cast away their cords from us.

[11:23] Whose cords? Whose bonds? The Lord's and his anointed one. They seek to be made free from accountability to their creator.

[11:36] From the restraint of God's law in which the blessed man makes his delight. And to be free from the rule of God's king.

[11:49] They set themselves against God. Striving for personal autonomy and self-determination. Wanting to escape the moral restraints of God's law.

[12:05] They seek to wage war against God. They realize, even as they realize now today, you can't actually destroy God. So what do you do?

[12:17] You do your best to destroy the idea of God. God. Insisting that it's actually impossible to know whether or not a divine being even exists.

[12:31] When their attempts to destroy the word of God and his law and his Torah continue to fail. What is it that they resort to? Well, they resort to claims that there's actually no such thing as true scripture.

[12:45] That what we have now is not what they had then and we can't be sure of anything. And they go further. Since they can no longer, even with a secular frame of mind, deny the true historical Jesus, what is it that they do?

[13:05] They preach that Jesus of Nazareth was just a good teacher. A moral example. Whose legend grew in the figment of the imagination of his followers.

[13:21] And why is so much effort put into this war against God? Because people have been deceived into thinking that a world without God and his law is the only world where personal freedom and autonomy can exist.

[13:39] Like the Israel of judges. They want to do what's right in their own eyes. And so long as there is some higher being, some creator, someone to which we must ultimately stand accountable to, someone who imposes his own will and his own desires on us.

[13:59] So long as that person or being or whatever it may be is out there, that puts a restraint on us so that we cannot do what we want to do. Or at least we should not do what it is that we want to do.

[14:11] The truth is that this rebellious rage, as David reminds us in that Psalm 51 passage, it is the natural disposition of our hearts.

[14:28] Meaning that our desire to be free from God is the result of our true slavery to sin. As we've seen even this week, not to just keep bringing it up, but as we've seen with the decisions made formalized and codified even among the United Methodist Church.

[14:54] Even many who profess to follow Christ have joined this global coalition of nations of wickedness that continues to wage its war against God.

[15:08] Let us cast off the bonds of his law. Let us cast off the cords of his word so that we may do what it is that we desire to do ourselves.

[15:21] And what we call freedom, Jesus then tells us is actually bondage. John chapter 8, verse 34, Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

[15:42] The slave does not remain in the house forever. The son remains forever. So if the son sets you free, you will be truly free.

[15:55] Jesus takes the wisdom of this world and he turns it on its head. He says, no, what you say and think is true freedom is actually just an indication of your bondage, of your slavery to sin, to the sinful nature that is in you.

[16:15] But if you want true freedom, you must come to the son for freedom. He alone can make you truly free. Christopher Ashe helps us with this. He says, we define freedom as the absence of restraint, as if it's freedom from God's law.

[16:31] But such so-called freedom sets us on a terrible path of destruction. True freedom is not about being free from God or his restraint.

[16:44] It's about being set free for living rightly in obedience to God's law. You can read deeper about that in Romans chapter 6.

[16:58] So the rebels believe that victory over God is actually achievable, which is why the psalmist paints this picture of them gathering together for battle against the Lord.

[17:09] But their plotting is vain, he says. They plot in vain. This is empty. It's worthless. It's foolish. It is an utterly foolish notion that elicits God's laughter in the next stanza, which brings us to the next point.

[17:23] The Lord laughs. The rebels rage. And then in response to that rage, the Lord, Yahweh, laughs. Verse 4. He who sits in the heavens laughs.

[17:35] The Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying, as for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.

[17:51] Consider the contrast that's taking place in these two stanzas. On the one hand, you have on earth this coalition of soldiers, of nations, that have gathered together preparing themselves for war against God.

[18:03] And as God sits enthroned in the heavens, he looks on this coalition of wickedness. And what is it that he does? He does not tremor before them.

[18:16] He does not increase in anxiety thinking, oh, I have lost control of my creation. What is it that he does? He laughs. He laughs. He mocks them.

[18:32] It's meant to demonstrate the futility of this war. Want to know why it makes God laugh? The psalmist says it's when rebels foolishly think that they'll actually be able to get by with their rebellion, somehow escaping the reach of God's judgment.

[18:54] What does the psalmist intend for us to understand here? It intends for us to understand that the creature's attempt to throw off the reign of his creator is laughable.

[19:05] Foolish. But though he laughs, this is no joke to God. So what does he do? He speaks to them in his wrath.

[19:18] He terrifies them in his fury. Which is another interesting word here. The word that is translated as terrify here. It's the same word according to Jim Hamilton.

[19:30] That describes what Joseph's brothers felt in Genesis chapter 45 when he finally reveals himself to them in Egypt. Do you remember this story? Remember what they had done to him?

[19:42] They had pretended that he was dead. They had cast him in a pit and then one of them sold him into slavery. And he makes his way up the ranks as he's in Egypt. Years and years and years and years go by.

[19:54] Suddenly there's a famine. Jacob sends his remaining sons to Egypt because they're the only ones that have food. And they get there and they find Joseph. But they don't know that it's Joseph.

[20:05] And as the story unfolds for us in the book of Genesis, eventually after playing some games with them, Joseph finally reveals himself. And what is it that they feel in that moment? Genesis 45.3.

[20:17] Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. Is my father still alive? But his brother could not answer him. For they were dismayed. That's that word terrify in Psalm 2.

[20:29] They were dismayed at his presence. Presence. There's a marked difference between the fear that Joseph's brothers felt when they only knew him as the ruler in Egypt.

[20:45] And then the fear that they felt when they discovered that he was the one all those years ago that we so grievously sinned against. There's fear in both situations.

[20:57] They're terrified to appear before him in the beginning before they know who he is. But once they know who he is, their fear is exacerbated. It's heightened by the nature of their sins against him.

[21:12] That's the idea that the psalmist wishes to convey for us here in Psalm 2 for what these sinners will feel when they inevitably face the judgment of God and his king.

[21:23] It will not simply be the fear that comes from standing in the presence of someone greater than you. But it will actually be the trembling, the terrifying dismay that comes from standing before the one against whom you have rebelled.

[21:39] And now you stand in judgment. The Lord mocks the foolishness of this world because he knows how all of this will end.

[21:53] Not everyone will be saved. But we're told time and again in the scriptures, everyone will bow. What is it that Joseph's brothers do?

[22:06] They bow. Why? Because they're before, essentially, the king. They have no other option. Romans chapter 14 tells us about this.

[22:20] For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me. Every tongue shall confess to God.

[22:33] So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. And God looks on the coalition of the wicked. And when he brings this to their mind, it terrifies them.

[22:49] Terrifies them. And what declaration does God make that strikes fear into the rebels? Now the attention turns to God's anointed king who will execute God's judgment on these nations.

[23:03] That's stanza number three. So we've got the rebels' rage. Then we see the Lord laughs. Now we see the sun reigns. The sun reigns.

[23:13] Look at verse seven. I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession.

[23:29] You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. In the first stanza, the plotting people speak.

[23:41] Remember what they say. Let us cast off their bonds. Let us throw away their cords from us. In the second stanza, Yahweh speaks. He laughs.

[23:53] He says, I have my king and I have set him on Zion's heel. In the third stanza, the psalmist speaks now from the perspective of this promised Messiah.

[24:07] This true king that God has set on Zion. And the statement gives us insight into three things. It gives us insight into who this king is, what this king will be given from God, and what the nature of his reign will be.

[24:26] So let's just work through those three things just quickly. The first thing is the king's identity. That's in verse seven. This language of sonship is the focus of the king's identity.

[24:46] Adam was called a son of God. Genesis 5 and in Luke chapter 3. The nation of Israel collectively was called the firstborn son of God in the book of Exodus in chapter 4.

[24:59] But this is focused primarily on the covenant that God made with King David in 2 Samuel chapter 7. It's on the screen for you to see it. When your days are fulfilled, this is God speaking to David, making covenant with King David.

[25:14] When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, that is David dies, I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body.

[25:27] You will be from David's line descendants. And I will establish his kingdom. David's house came to an end.

[25:43] Solomon's house came to an end. Particularly in the exile. This will be a king whose reign will never end. And then God says, I will be to him a father. And he shall be to me a son.

[25:58] So God promises that there would come a king from David's line. Who would be a son to him. And this king would establish an eternal kingdom over which he would rule.

[26:09] And throughout the Old Testament, the prophets, they speak of this Davidic king. They call him Messiah or Christ. And then the New Testament comes along and identifies this Davidic king as Jesus of Nazareth.

[26:26] Matthew chapter 1 and verse 1. Jesus is called the son of David. The son of Abraham. The son of Adam. John writes that he's the only begotten son of God.

[26:41] For God so loved the world that he gave, as it said in the King James Version, his only begotten son. In fact, there's at least four different occasions in the New Testament where this verse from Psalm 2 is explicitly quoted to associate Jesus of Nazareth as the fulfillment of this son.

[27:06] Who is he? Who is he? Who is he? He is Jesus. He's the son of God. He's God's anointed king. Well, then there's the king's inheritance.

[27:17] That's his identity. Now we see his inheritance. Verse 8. God says, ask of me. He's speaking to his anointed. And I will make the nations your heritage, your inheritance, and the ends of the earth your possession.

[27:34] The inheritance of the nations, which really just means supreme rule over all the earth. It indicates that this king will succeed where Adam and then Israel failed.

[27:51] The other sons of God, Adam and the nation of Israel, what were they to do? They were to reflect God's image to the world.

[28:02] But they sinned. Adam was expelled from Eden. Israel was expelled from Canaan in the exile. Jesus, however, he perfectly fulfilled God's law as the image bearer par excellence.

[28:18] God the Father has made him the heir of all things, revealing Christ's authority over all the earth. We see it in Hebrews chapter 1.

[28:32] In these last days, God has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things. And listen to the language that the writer of Hebrews uses.

[28:43] Through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God. He's the exact imprint of his nature. That's what Adam was supposed to be. That's what Israel was supposed to be.

[28:56] In Jesus, he is that imperfection. The exact imprint of the image of God. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

[29:08] After making purifications for sins, he sat down at the right hand of majesty on high. At the right hand of God. Sounds a lot like, I will give to you as an inheritance all of the nations, doesn't it?

[29:25] Thirdly, there's the king's reign. We see his identity and his inheritance. Now we see his reign. Look with me at verse 9. You shall break them with a rod of iron.

[29:39] Break who? These people that have gathered. They're fighting this war against God. You will dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

[29:51] Jesus shall reign. Jesus shall reign in perfect righteousness. Destroying all who conspire against the Lord and his anointing.

[30:06] Writes Jim Hamilton. Listen. They stand the same chance against Yahweh that a clay pot stands against an iron rod. A creature will no more overthrow the creator than a potter's vessel will break an iron rod.

[30:26] The iron rod in the hand of the mighty king will shatter the clay pot. Maybe you have found your place in the midst of this coalition of the wicked.

[30:41] You are fighting against God and his law. You are doing everything you can to cast away the bonds of your creator and of his desires.

[30:52] And the psalmist reminds us here that as futile you cannot win, God's king will come and judge.

[31:06] Here's what Revelation 19 says about this. From his mouth, that is the mouth of Jesus, comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations.

[31:19] What nations? The nations of Psalm 2. The nations of Revelation 19. They're one and the same. And he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.

[31:36] And on his robe and on his thigh, he has a name written. King of kings. Lord of lords. What exactly is it about this declaration in verse 6 that terrifies the nations?

[31:56] It is not the fact that God has a king. It is what God has determined to do to them through this king in judgment.

[32:07] So God laughs at their rebellion. He mocks their foolish attempts to escape his rule. And he authorizes his king to destroy them in their rebellion.

[32:21] Which brings us to the final stanza. We see the rebels rage. We see the Lord laughs. We see the sun reigns. Finally, we see the Holy Spirit pleads.

[32:36] The Holy Spirit pleads. Verse 10. Now, therefore, the psalmist writes, Because of this, O kings, be wise.

[32:49] Be warned, he says, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord against whom you rebel. Serve him with fear. Rejoice with trembling.

[33:00] Kiss the son that he has anointed and made king. Lest he be angry and you perish in the way. For his wrath is quickly kindled.

[33:12] Blessed are all who take refuge in him. Now, think about this. Meditate on it. What is happening in the last stanza? The attention is not on what the nations are doing or on what God is mocking or on what this king is judging.

[33:30] The attention is turned to the audience of the psalm. To you and to me. And he makes his plea. From the psalmist's perspective, the great judgment that is expressed here is a future reality.

[33:48] He does not have in view a physical coalition of kingdoms that have gathered around national Israel or in Jerusalem. They're fighting against David or against one of his descendants. That is not what's in view here.

[34:00] What is in view here is the end. What we read unfolding in the book of Revelation is that great and final judgment. The psalmist recognizes this. He understands that this is a future reality, which he also understands to mean that it's not too late for the rebels to be redeemed.

[34:20] So he makes his appeal to them. And in the final stanza, he pleads for the people of the earth to hear the warning, to repent of their rebellion, to be saved by the son rather than destroyed by him.

[34:37] But it isn't merely the plea of the psalmist. It's the psalmist. It's the plea of the spirit of God through the psalmist.

[34:48] Let me read you this from Acts chapter 4. I think this is on the screen if you'd like to follow along. The context of the story is two of Jesus' disciples and apostles, Peter and John, they've been arrested.

[35:03] They've been tried by a council of Jewish leaders. The Jewish leaders, afraid of a mob, decide that they will not punish them at the time. But they demand that Peter and John no longer preach the gospel of Jesus.

[35:15] And they send them away. And so Peter and John, they go and they find the early Christians who are gathered. And they lift up a prayer of thanksgiving to God. And this is their prayer. When they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, and then he quotes Psalm 2.

[35:48] Why did the Gentiles rage and the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves. The rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed.

[36:00] They're praying the psalm. For truly in this city, they continued to pray, there were gathered together against your holy servant, your anointed son and king, Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel.

[36:20] Everyone, no one's excluded from the coalition of the wicked to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. This is an amazing prayer.

[36:34] So influenced are these people by the psalms that it flows from their prayers to God. And this wonderful prayer by these early Christians, it identifies King David as the human instrument through which God gave us Psalm 2.

[36:51] And then it recognizes Jesus as the fulfillment of the psalm. And it also reminds us of the Holy Spirit's role in the inspiration of Scripture.

[37:07] They quote Psalm 2 and they say, David gave us this by the Holy Spirit. These are genuinely David's words. But they are simultaneously God's words given through his servant.

[37:24] This final stanza, it's God's plea. It's God's plea for you to receive the warning. It's God's plea for you to repent in order to serve the Lord with fear and with joy.

[37:39] It is God's plea for you to embrace the Son, Jesus Christ, as Lord and Savior. And God's plea comes with an eternal promise.

[37:49] It's the last phrase. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. Everyone who takes refuge in the king who will come to judge will inherit the reward of the blessed man.

[38:02] The end is still a severe warning, there's no doubt. But it's full of mercy and love. God gives us Psalm 2 to warn us and to win us back from the coalition of the wicked to himself.

[38:23] That's why when his king came the first time, it was to die, not to judge.

[38:36] That's why John 3 tells us God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

[38:51] He will come to judge. But at this point, he waits. And he pleads for you to turn and serve him with fear and joy.

[39:08] In the beginning of the psalm, the psalmist asked this question. Why do the nations rage? Why do the peoples plot in vain? He recognized that their war against God was foolish and futile.

[39:22] But we might add another question of our own. Why does God let them live at all? Why does God let them live at all? Why does God let them live?

[39:34] Why does God let them live? Why does he wait to send his king to judge those who so blatantly rebel?

[39:57] though God is holy and must judge sinners what we find to be abundantly clear in the scriptures is that he is also full of grace and mercy allowing sinners time to repent and believe is that not why he tarries his judgment it's a severe warning in psalm 2 to be sure but couldn't it be worse couldn't God have taken Adam out immediately after he eats the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden why does he let him live is that not the grace of God we just finished studying judges you know the big question is at the end of judges why is Israel still here over and over and over God judges them to be sure but he lets them live what is that is it not grace perhaps you spent years and years and years of your life fighting against the Lord fighting against his anointed fighting against his law and you must ask yourself why has he not judged me yet does it mean that this is all a farce and there is no judgment that could actually come or could it mean that God is actually gracious and he waits in order that he may woo you in his love

[41:35] Ezekiel 33 11 helps us here say to them as I live declares the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live turn back turn back from your evil ways for why will you die O house of Israel will God judge the wicked yes does he take pleasure in simply callously destroying them no Peter deals with this from a slightly different perspective in the New Testament when people were wondering why Jesus' return was taking so long here we are 2,000 years later there within the first 40 years of Jesus having been crucified and resurrected and ascended and they are already wondering why is this taking so long wouldn't you wonder the same thing if you watched what was happening in the destruction of Jerusalem and what is it that Peter says 2 Peter chapter 3 do not overlook this one fact he says beloved that with the Lord one day is a thousand years and a thousand years as one day the Lord's not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness he's actually patient toward you not wishing that any should be perished that should any should perish but that all should reach repentance but then he continues with the warning still but the day of the Lord will come like a thief he says and what will it look like the heavens will pass away with a roar the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed when all these passages are taken together we see God's magnificent glory on display he will judge all sinners who do not come to Christ by faith but he is not indifferent to their destruction he is not pleased that you continue in rebellion and he will not let your rebellion go on indefinitely judgment is coming but he also delays that judgment so that he might save all who will believe and repent and make no mistake the day of reckoning is coming that's why the psalmist gives such a stern warning that's why Peter reminds them yes the Lord waits but judgment is coming isn't that what revelation teaches us that God's king will return and when he returns everyone's going to be divided into two categories the judged and the saved it's coming what must we do hear God's warning respond to the spirit's plea and come to this king

[44:47] Jesus truly holy kiss the son give homage to him as lord and king embrace him as savior and friend and if you will take that refuge in him you will receive the blessing of someone you