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[0:00] It's been said that the Bible can be broken up into two parts. The first part being Genesis 1, 2, and 3.! And the rest of the Bible being the second part, the outworking of Genesis 1, 2, and 3.

[0:15] In Genesis 1, 2, and 3, in Genesis 3, we have, after the fall, the curse. And within the curse, contained within the curse, is the promise of the gospel.

[0:26] And that promise of the gospel, from Genesis 3 to the end of Revelation, is worked out or revealed by farther steps.

[0:38] Now, after the fall, in the curse, the declaration of the gospel is that from the seed of the woman would come one who would crush the head of the serpent.

[0:49] Or from here on, we'll refer to him as the skull-crushing seed of the woman. So, from Genesis 3, 15, to the end of the New Testament, and shortly thereafter, we have this anticipation, this lingering question, when will he come?

[1:05] When will this skull-crushing seed of the woman come and fix the sin problem? So, as God's plan of redemption unfolds, they, of course, don't have the closed canon as we do to know the coming of Christ.

[1:21] So, there's always this question, when will he come? So, we'll fast forward a little bit in God's plan of redemption, and then we find ourselves in Egypt. And the Israelites are slaves in Egypt, and God delivers them from the house of bondage.

[1:38] That is, he redeems them from slavery in Egypt, and God leads people of Israel through the wilderness and into the promised land, into Canaan.

[1:49] However, once they are settled into Canaan, they forsook the Lord, they forgot the Lord, and they worshipped false gods.

[2:00] And, in those days, there was no what in Israel. In those days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in their own eyes.

[2:12] So, when it says, everyone did what was right in their own eyes, what that meant was they did evil. So, in order to address the fact that everyone's doing what is evil, there needs to be a king.

[2:28] So, we're still waiting for the skull-crushing seed of the woman to come. We find there's a serious sin problem, and we find God's people needs a king.

[2:41] And then we fast forward a little bit further, and we have established a monarchy, and we have the Davidic monarchy with David as king. And God makes a covenant with David.

[2:52] And if you recall, that covenant is that, through David's lineage, the throne would be established forever, a kingdom that would last forever. So, these are some things, as Genesis 3.15 is revealed by farther steps, that we are anticipating as we work through God's outworking of his plan of redemption.

[3:13] So, to summarize that again, still waiting for the skull-crushing seed of the woman, still waiting for a perfect king whose kingdom will last forever.

[3:24] Now, if you'll turn with me to the book of Psalms, and turn to Psalm 2. Psalm 2.

[3:34] Psalm 2. Psalm 2.

[4:04] Psalm 2. Psalm 2.

[4:16] distress them in his deep displeasure. Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree. The Lord has said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you.

[4:32] Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel. Now therefore, be wise, O kings. Be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in him.

[5:12] Our great God, we thank you that we have before us your divine testimony, supernatural revelation, and that through your word that we may know that you are a triune God, and how we may be made right before you, how we may be reconciled to you. We pray that as we consider the things of your word, of Psalm 2, that you would, by your spirit, enlighten our minds, and illuminate your word to us by the light of faith, that we may know that which is spiritually discerned. Pray that you would lead us into all truth. Pray that you would attend the preaching of your word by your spirit, that you'd use even me, Lord, in the proclamation of your word to accomplish your purposes, that you would advance your kingdom, edify the saints, and glorify your name. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

[6:03] So in Psalm 2, what's going on here is that the Messiah King rules from Zion over the nations as his heritage with worldwide power. So I'll say that again. The Messiah King rules from Zion over the nations as his heritage with worldwide power. I'm going to divide it up into three parts. The first part being the rebellion, the rebellion against God. The second part being the response, which is God's response. And the third part being the requirement. Now there's 12 verses, as you see, and really it could be broken up into three verses, three verses, three verses. The first three verses being the rebellion, and then verses four to six and seven to nine is God's response, but that can be broken up into two.

[6:57] The first part being the king and the second part being the son. So in other words, God's response is, God's response to the rebellion is the king and the son, and then third, the response, or the requirement, what God requires of us. So first of all, the rebellion, verses one to three. You'll notice, it says, why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? So we are considering as a subject here, the nations, and what the nations are doing is raging and plotting against the Lord and against his anointed. In other words, what's going on? What it's saying is that the nations want freedom from God. They rage against God. They rage against God's ways. They rage against God's words, God's requirements. They rage and plot against God saying, we don't want that which is having to do with God, of his ways, of his wisdom, of his righteousness, of his justice, of his holiness. And what's interesting is the nations, this is in reference to all nations. There is nobody that is exempt from this. And that in Romans 2, we see in Romans 2 that, well, we confess that scripture is necessary. There's the necessity of scripture to know how we may be made right with

[8:27] God, and that we may, so that we may also know that God is triune, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one in essence, and how we are to worship with acceptable worship. So scripture is necessary, but scripture is not necessary to know that there is a God. We know from scripture that nature itself, creation itself, tells us that it was created by an eternal divine being who is infinitely wise and powerful and eternal. So everybody, all the nations, whether they've read the scriptures or not, knows that there is a God. And also by the light of nature, not only through creation, but within each person, God has put on the conscience, his moral standard, which we see codified or summarized in the Ten Commandments. So without even reading scripture, everybody knows within themselves that it is wrong to murder and that it is injustice against God, against divine justice. So because of that knowledge, that is true knowledge in which everybody, all of the nations has, that there is a

[9:38] God and that we are sinful and will be judged before him. They hate God. They hate that they will be held accountable. They want to sin. And so they rage and they plot against the Lord and against his anointed.

[9:54] So let me ask the question and what we've read and what we know of Psalm 2 verse, verse 1, is that you, what I mean by that is, do you think that you by nature are the Psalm 1 man? We read Psalm 1 earlier, do you think that you are the Psalm 1 man who by your nature is blessed and does delight in the law of the Lord? Or do you think you're more of the latter reference of the ungodly? Or as Psalm 2 starts off, the nations who rage and the people plot a vain thing? Well, Psalm 14 tells us that nobody, by nature, is the Psalm 1 man. Nobody except one. And then that's repeated again in Romans 13, but flip over to Romans 14 and we'll read 1 to 3 to understand who we, by nature, are.

[11:05] Romans 14, 1 to 3, to the chief musician of Psalm of David. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt. They have done abominable works.

[11:18] There is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside. They have together become corrupt.

[11:34] There is none who does good. No, not one. And this is repeated in Romans 3. Nobody, by nature, does what is right, does what is according to God's standard perfectly. So what needs to be required is there needs to be divine intervention, which is what makes God's grace so marvelous, so wonderful, is that we, by nature, are all Psalm 2.1. We, by nature, are not Psalm 1. So being, by nature, Psalm 2.1, the nations that rage and plot a vain thing against the Lord, against his anointed, need to be shocked. That is, being shocked by the Spirit of God convincing us of our sin and misery, being shocked by the gospel and being astonished at the grace of God, being astonished at the gospel, at God's salvation of sinners. So being shocked at our sinfulness, being astonished at the grace of God in his gospel, being dislodged from the course of the world, raging against God in darkness, being dislodged from it, uprooted, relocated, transferred into the kingdom of light, and reoriented, no longer according to the course of the world, and raging against God, but as a 180-degree turn, reoriented towards God, towards his word, his ways, or in other words, being regenerated. We need to be regenerated by divine intervention, and relocated into the kingdom of God, and given a new heart.

[13:21] Now I said, all of us, and Psalm 14 says, no, not one. So it's not, not one except for you, no, not one. But there is the one who is the Psalm 1 man, and that one is Christ.

[13:41] Christ is the blessed Psalm 1 man. Therefore, for all the rest of us who are not Christ, all the rest of us who by nature are not the perfect Psalm 1 man, who perfectly delights in God's law, we need Christ. We need the Psalm 1 man. Hence, I'm jumping ahead of myself here, but look at verse 12 of Psalm 2, the very last, well, I guess it'll be the last two lines. Blessed are all those who put their trust in him. Christ is the blessed Psalm 1 man, and blessed are all those who put their trust in Christ, who is the Psalm 1 man. So, back to our text. The nation's rage, the nation's plot. So what we have going on here is a unified, tumultuous culture that is adamant for freedom from God.

[14:40] Wanting freedom from God, they rage against God, they plot against God, but it tells us something about the effectiveness of their plotting. It says it's in vain. In vain, as in, it's for nothing. It's empty.

[14:56] It is bound to fail. So this rebellion of verses 1 to 3, this rebellion is a restless commotion of collective hostility toward God. That is, it's enmity against God. And all those by nature, according to original sin, because of the fall, are born with an enmity against God, and are bound to fail. So remember that. Though the nations rage and plot a vain thing, they're bound to fail.

[15:35] So next, in verse 2, if you see, it says, The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together. Now the kings and the rulers are now put into focus here, and it's not just kings and rulers.

[15:50] It's not just kings and rulers that rage against God. It is the nations. It is everyone by nature, according to their bondage to sin, under the power of sin.

[16:01] So it's not only kings, but it is especially kings. Kings who are influential, and influential rulers, and representatives of people, as the people rally under them and follow them in this rage against God, in this rebellion against the Lord and his anointed. It's not only kings, but especially kings.

[16:24] And so seeing that, the kings, the rulers, the nations, they rage, they plot. What is the object of their rebellion? It says, against God's anointed. Against the Lord and his anointed. The latter portion of verse 2.

[16:42] Against the Lord and against his anointed. The word anointed means Messiah or Christ. The Hebrew rendering of the word anointed, we get Messiah, the prophesied Messiah. The Greek rendering would be the Christ. So we have, starting to come into view here, something a little bit more of a person. While we haven't yet got into God's response towards this rebellion, we have an understanding of a person that it is God's anointed one. That is God's Messiah, God's Christ. And there's much in scripture that prophesies about the coming Messiah, who is to be the skull-crushing seed of the woman, who is to be in the lineage of David, who will establish a kingdom, whose throne there will be no end.

[17:34] So, against God's Messiah, God's Christ, and we know, having closed canon, that the climax of this rebellion, the climactic event of this rebellion, is at the crucifixion. And we have, with divine testimony in the book of Acts, it tells us, by quoting Psalm 2. So keep your finger here, because we're going to be working through Psalm 2, we'll return to it. Keeping your finger here, turn over to Acts chapter 4. And really, the narrative is verses 23 to 31, but for now, we'll just read verses 25 to 28. So Acts 4, 25 to 28.

[18:26] Well, speaking of God, who by the mouth of your servant David have said, why do the nations rage, and the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. For truly, against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles. So here we see rulers and Gentiles and the nations is from the same word. So, with the Gentiles, with the nations, and the people of Israel were gathered together to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined beforehand to be done. So the climactic event of this rebellion against God is found in the crucifixion, of the Lord's anointed, of the Lord's Messiah, the Christ, that is, as Acts 4 says, Jesus.

[19:33] So moving on in our text, we find in verse 3, it says, Let us break their bonds and pieces and cast away their cords from us. Now this is interesting, isn't it?

[19:45] Considering God's ways as bonds and cords, why do the nations rage and plot against the Lord and his anointed? Because of the sinful desire for autonomy, autonomy against God, autonomy against God's commands, autonomy against God's sovereignty. As in, it is a declaration that they will not bow the knee to God. In other words, they're saying, we will have it our way. God's way might be just, might be righteous, might be true, might be eternal, but we want it our way. We want our sin. We must have it my way. And that is the essence of sin. That is, the essence of sin is autonomy against God, not God's way, but insisting on having it my way.

[20:43] They want to have freedom from God's anointed king, his rule, and his law. They want freedom from God to sin. They want freedom to sin, which really does show us, it gives us a window into the deception of sin. Sin is deceit. It is deceptive. It is a lie. It is a lie that says that God's way, which is holy and righteous and just and good and blessed, Psalm 1, is not true. That's not actually real. But what is most blessed is to disobey God and to follow your own sinful desires. Sin is deceptive. It is a lie.

[21:28] The thought that autonomy and freedom from God as bondage, as being fettered by God's righteousness and holiness and goodness and truth is oppressive. There is deception to sin. And as such, they are blinded, blinded in darkness. But God's commands are not burdensome. Sin is a lie. This is deceptive.

[21:56] God's commands are not burdensome. But quite the opposite is that the truth will set you free. Now, here we transition to our second point. And we see that the focus changes from the earth to the heavens. The focus changes from the earth to the heavens. So our second point is the response.

[22:18] That is God's response towards this rebellion. Now, before we look at it, we're going to have three notes about our finite problem as creatures to be able to better understand something that's being said in this psalm. But as creatures, we have a finite problem with space. And having a finite problem with space is that we are bound to space. We are not unbound by space and that we can only be at one place and one time. And we as creatures, we get weary and we get tired. We're all sitting during the sermon. If we were to all stand during the sermon, we would start to get weary. We would start to get tired and our feet would probably hurt. Maybe our back would hurt. So we sit for it to be comfortable.

[23:10] Now, when the scripture speaks of the divine essence sitting in heaven, what truth is it trying to portray? Now, something we need to understand when we read something in scripture that describes God is that it's creaturely accommodating language. What I mean by that is because we are not infinite, we can't relate to what it means to be infinite and unbound by space and time. So it needs to be explained in words which we can relate to to better understand it. So we understand this best with a word called anthropomorphisms, where it attributes human body parts to God, who is spirit, who is not a body, or even under the shadow of his wings. So we know God doesn't have wings. He's not composed of feathers. But we understand that it's a metaphor to understand what it means. So anyways, when it says that God sits, when the Lord sits in the heavens, it doesn't mean that he's got tired and he has to rest himself. It doesn't mean that he's weary or getting sore. Rather, what this means, this anthropopathic language means enthroned. When it says he sits in heaven, he sits in the heavens enthroned, reigning, reigning, and ruling. So with this picture in mind, remember in verse 2, going back a bit in

[24:38] Psalm 2, in verse 2, it says that the nations, they set themselves. In other words, they take their stand. Now imagine, if you will, an earthly kingdom with an earthly king, and this kingdom is a city, and the city has a wall of defense completely around the city. And this wall is a very large wall, and it's a flat stone wall. It's too high to scale. It's too thick to break down. There's no way to get through this wall. It's a wall of defense around the city. And out of nowhere, there's this commotion off in the distance. And you can see dust along the horizon, dust that would indicate many footsteps approaching the city. Because of the dust, you can't really see what's approaching.

[25:30] Before you can see what's coming, you hear. And what you hear is the sound of battle drums. And battle drums, and to the beat of the battle drums, you hear the footsteps of an army marching.

[25:43] And then as the army starts to get closer, and comes to emerge out of the dust, first you see the cavalry. The cavalry is a bunch of toddlers on tricycles. And they pull up. And then behind them, you have the rest of the platoons come up in order. And the representative comes up to the king and says, your ways are too oppressive of your nourishing and nutritious free water and bread.

[26:15] And they're going to be free of this bondage. This is an insurrection. And we will hereby be a kingdom of of Sunny D and Dunkaroos. And they're going to overthrow this king and his kingdom. So first that comes up is the toddlers and their red jumpers. And they pull out their pea shooters. And then up behind them comes the toddlers and their blue onesies. And they pull out their Nerf guns. And then behind them comes the toddlers and their green onesies. And they pull out their super soaker water guns.

[26:51] And they get ready to rebel and retaliate against this king. So zoom out from that picture of the toddlers and then zoom into the king on top of this impenetrable wall of defense. What do you think he would do? Well, he would do the same thing that you just did. He'd laugh. And that's what exactly what's going on here with the nations. God's creation, God's creatures raging against the creator himself.

[27:21] What does it say? It says, he who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall hold them in derision.

[27:33] He shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep displeasure. Well, I don't think it would be an A for effort, probably more of an F for foolish. The fool says in his heart, there is no God, but be wise, O kings, kiss the sun.

[27:56] Next, we have our finite problem with emotion. We, being finite, cannot relate to God who is infinite.

[28:11] God does not learn things that surprises him that then changes him. Rather, God, at all times, is his perfection. He is always the perfection of all of his perfections. He is perfectly righteous. He is perfectly just. His perfections do not at any time decrease. They do not wax or wane.

[28:39] But we, as creatures, we are finite and we can't relate to what it means to be God. We can't relate to what it means to be infinite. So, scripture uses words which we can understand in that sense.

[28:52] Now, to help understand this, we, when we speak of the moon, or when we speak of things which are out of our reach, we use language to describe it which is according to our perspective, don't we?

[29:06] We might say, last night was a full moon, or we might say, last night was a quarter moon, or we might say, the moon is waxing, or the moon is waning. But that language is actually just descriptive of our perspective here on earth. The moon is always the moon. The moon is always full. The moon is always round.

[29:26] Rather, we describe it according to how we view it, according to our perspective here on earth. In a similar way, we refer to God according to the perspective from earth. God's holiness never waxes or wanes because of his love. Or God's justice does, he doesn't put aside his justice. He doesn't corrupt his justice because of something that happens that he would then learn that this happened and he would have to change. Rather, God is constant and we describe him according to the situation of human perspective on earth. Another example would be if in your house you have a wood stove and your wood stove is burning hot, the walls of your wood stove are always hot. And if you're on the other side of the house, it's not burning your hand. But if you walk up to the wood stove and you change your position or what you were doing and you put your hand on the wood stove, the wood stove is burning your hand. It's not that the wood stove then became hot and was not before, but rather because you have changed what you are doing. You have now realized how hot and burning the wood stove actually is when you put your hand on it. God's perfections do not wax or wane.

[30:47] And so we see here God's wrath. And God's wrath is a manifestation of his perfection, of his justice. And his justice does not change, which is wonderful to the elect, to those whom are in Christ, but to those who rage and plot against God, it is a dreadful thing that God's justice does not change. And it tells us that God's wrath is against all who refuse to bow to Christ. From the angle that is the applicable perspective of those who refuse to bow to Christ. So moving on to verse 6, we have here the climax of God's response. Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion.

[31:41] The king, this king referred to in Psalm 2 verse 6 is the Psalm 1 man. This king is the law-delighting, blessed man, the perfect law-delighting man of Psalm 1.

[31:58] And this king is set on Zion. Now Zion, an Old Testament time would be understood, it could be understood as a geographic location of the place of God's dwelling with his people, which is to us a symbolic understanding of the mountain of God's salvation, of his dwelling with people. In other words, the heavenly kingdom of Christ. So Zion is in reference to the heavenly kingdom of Christ. It says here, has set his king on Zion, God's holy hill, that is, the heavenly kingdom of Christ. So I have set my king. Being set as king in Zion on God's holy hill, the heavenly kingdom of Christ, this is in reference to Christ's exaltation and session. Now his mission would be the incarnation, his righteous living, his ministry, his suffering, his dying, his being buried, and his being raised from the dead, and his session is being exalted on high, sitting and reigning.

[33:11] So this is in reference to Christ's exaltation and session. In other words, it is the king of kings installation and the inauguration of his kingdom of righteousness. So things are starting to come into view here as we are awaiting the skull-crushing seed of the woman who would be in the lineage of David, whose kingdom would have no end.

[33:39] So, Philippians 2, 8 to 11 gives us a summary and an understanding of this picture. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God also has highly exalted him and given him the name, which is above every name, that in the name, at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So we started off in Psalm 2 with the focus on the name of Jesus Christ. And I want to take your attention back to the focus of earth, just for a moment. Consider this, that on this earth, for us, in this life, on this earth, when we are surrounded by this rebellion, by this tumult, when we're surrounded by rebellion against

[34:48] God, by unified wickedness, by unified darkness, our focus shouldn't remain on the earth. But just as verse 4 takes our focus from the earth to the heavens, so also should our focus.

[35:05] So in other words, think of the king, not of the rebellion. Verse 7. In verse 7, there's another change, and the change is from the perspective of the speaker. The speaker being from David, is the psalmist, now turns to Christ. Although Christ is the author of the whole psalm, the perspective of the speaker goes from David to Christ. And now we see that it speaks of the decree.

[35:38] A couple of notes about the decree is that it is eternal, it is infinite, and it is unchangeable. This is God's decree. And within God's decree, and that which God has decreed in eternity, unbound by time and space, we have the covenant of redemption. And the covenant of redemption is a pre-temporal agreement between the Father and the Son for the Son to be the mediator between sinful mankind and the Father. And as such, the Father promises to give the Son a people, that is his heritage, his inheritance. And the people which he promises to give him for his being mediator, even the very names of the people are written in a book. And scripture tells us that this book is called the Lamb's Book of Life, which was written before the foundation of the world. It is a people that is the heritage to be given to the Son for his work as mediator. So his heritage is his agreed reward for his mission as mediator through his humiliation, that is, being born of the Virgin, born in a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, suffering, dying, being buried, and remaining dead for a while. For his humiliation and his exaltation, his exaltation being having died, raised from the dead, ascended on high, and exalted with all power and authority and glory. So in verse 7, having spoken of the decree, it then speaks of the Son.

[37:30] Now, by God's providence, we finished the Baptist Catechism and subsequently read the Nicene Creed this morning. The Nicene Creed gives us a good understanding of what the scripture says about the Son of God, which is, it's important to have this and to confess it because all of those, it's considered an ecumenical creed in the proper sense in that agreeing with the faith is agreeing with what the creed says. And it's the very basics of the truths about God as the triune God and of salvation. Now, the Nicene Creed, when it was written, or when it was established, it was against Arian heresy, and Arius attempted to use scripture. So it's not that we can just point to a single verse and make a dogmatic statement. For example, if we were to say, today, you are my son, today I have begotten you, then somebody such as Arius could say, there was a time when the Son was not, because today, the Father begot the Son. So it is important to understand the historic Orthodox truths about what is confessed, or that which scripture rightly says about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

[39:03] So with the Nicene Creed here, in our understanding of the Son, when we read the Son, bring with you that understanding, the Son begotten of the Father as it's confessed in the Nicene Creed. That's what I'm getting at. This is the Son of God, whose divine nature is unaltered, was not converted, did not cease to be divine, did not cease, there did not cease to be a trinity, there was, the Son of God did not step away from divinity, or convert, or transform into human, but was united to human nature. So divine nature, unaltered, has come to us in human form, through the Incarnation, and has been raised from the dead in power. And it is he who subdues, rules, and defends his people, having conquered the enemy.

[40:04] In those days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. There needed to be a king to subdue, to rule, to defend, and to conquer the enemies. There's needing this perfect king, this Psalm 1, blessed man, and the lineage of David. And here, in Psalm 2, we have this king.

[40:24] And it is this king who subdues, rules, and defends his people, having conquered the enemy. Now, if you remember what the judges, they delivered the people from the Moabites, or the Ammonites, or the Philistines, but they did not deliver the people from all their enemies. They did not deliver people from the enemy of sin, Satan, hell, and death. Okay, so here we have our third finite problem, and that is with time. We have a finite problem with time, and that is, as God's creatures, we cannot relate to what it means to be infinite. And to be infinite means to be unbound by time. So let me use a little bit of an illustration. Today is the Lord's day. Today is the Lord's day, and it is Sunday. So we can rightly say today is Sunday. Or we can say Sunday is today. We can also say yesterday was Saturday. Or again, we could say Saturday was yesterday. And we would be right in doing and saying so. But what we can't say is yesterday is today. We can't say today was yesterday. Because we, as creatures, are bound by time. And we undergo the succession of change of time. So having under, being under, undergoing the succession of change in time, we have undergone yesterday. And it is past. That's why we say it's yesterday. Yesterday is not today. Saturday is not today. We are in this moment, in this moment of time, and we are bound by time. And so we can't say tomorrow is today. We can't say Monday is today.

[42:10] That is our infinite problem that we have. Or sorry, that is our finite problem as creatures that we have with time. God doesn't have this problem. God can say yesterday is today. Because with God, all of history, all of time, isn't a succession of change. God is unbound by time. So one moment, all of time is but one moment to God. There is not a moment in time where God is not there. And we cannot wrap our minds around it that we can relate to it, because we're finite creatures and God is infinite. So that's why I say we have a finite problem with time. With God, in eternity, essentially, it's an infinite now.

[42:53] It's an everlasting now, an unending now. So because God is eternal, because God is infinite and unbound by time, yesterday is just as much the same as today, because God is there. God isn't waiting for it to become tomorrow. So with God, there is at any point in any day where he can say today. And that is true with any day that we understand as creatures, because it is the same moment for God in eternity. So when God says, today, I have begotten you, that means that every single day that is experienced in time, what does not change in eternity, in God, in his essence, and in his persons, is that the Son is begotten of the Father, because the Son is eternally begotten of the Father. Which means, Arius was wrong.

[43:49] There was not a time that the Son was not. That's why we confess with an agreement with the Nicene Creed that he was begotten, not made. So in the incarnation, the Son of God was not coming into existence.

[44:03] But the Word, who in the beginning was with God, and who was God, became flesh. So, we have a finite problem with time. So when we understand, when it says, you're my Son, today I have begotten you, let me quote Augustine, who words it way better than I could ever do. In eternity, there is nothing past as if it had ceased to be, nor future as if it were not yet, but present only, since whatever is eternal always is. Yet as today intimates presentiality, a divine interpretation is given to that expression, today have I begotten you, whereby the uncorrupt and Catholic faith proclaims the eternal generation of the power and wisdom of God, who is the only begotten Son. So again, as I explained earlier, Augustine, his commentary in the Psalms would have been written at the turn of the 5th century. So again, understanding of the word

[45:10] Catholic then would not be the Roman Catholic Church, but the universal faith. So, who we have here is the eternally begotten Son. And eternity is always now. Eternity, there is not a was or a will be, it just is.

[45:31] That's why God says, I am. Because God is. It's not that God was or God will be or God will change to be something, but God is. And the eternally begotten Son of God rules from Zion over the nations as his heritage. Moving on to verse 8, it says, ask of me. Now, this is interesting. We have a glimpse into a conversation here, discourse between God the Father and God the Son. Who is speaking here?

[46:04] Ask of me. Is the Father speaking to the Son? And what it's referring to is Christ's reward or Christ's merit. Christ obeyed and perfected a covenant of works where he merited, where he earned a reward.

[46:23] There is positive merit in Christ's righteousness and his work, his obedience. It says, ask of me. And in John 17, we see the Son asking of the Father. And what is he asking of?

[46:42] In John 17, Christ prays for his heritage whom the Father has given him. That is, all those who will believe in him. The ask of me. Also, we further see the fruit of it. So, ask of me. And the covenant of redemption. We see Christ asking of the Father in John 17. And then later in Matthew 28, in the Great Commission, we see the fruit of this being worked out. The fruit of the Son asking of the Father of the nations as his inheritance is in the Great Commission where Christ commands the church, the Great Commission is given to the apostles, but the apostles don't go to the ends of the earth.

[47:26] So, it's worked out through the church, through the apostles' teaching. So, the fruit of this, ask of me. We see it worked out through Christ's commandment to the church to make disciples of all nations. Christ's inheritance.

[47:49] I will declare the decree the Lord has said to me. You are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations of your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession. Which this gives us, indeed, much motivation as the church to be a gospel light in our community. Okay, moving on. Verse 9 says, You shall break them with the rod of iron.

[48:17] Now, break them means ruling with authority, with a particular kind of authority. It is not a soft authority. It is not a malleable authority.

[48:31] In fact, if you recall, in Ephesians 3, sorry, Ephesians 1, Ephesians 1 gave us a glimpse into the kind of authority and power which we are speaking of. So, actually, keep your finger here and flip over to Ephesians 1, 19 to 23.

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[52:56] muchos of the psalm. So we're now looking at the last three verses, 10 to 12. Verse 10 starts off by saying, now therefore, we're moving from that of vanity, the nations raging and plotting in vain, we're moving from vanity and emptiness to wisdom. Notice the shift. Now therefore, be wise, that is be sensible, be warned, don't be foolish, but be blessed in him. Now therefore, be wise, serve the Lord with fear. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Be wise, fear the Lord, serve the Lord, and then here it is, it says, kiss the son. Now what does this mean when it says kiss the son? What it means is to give homage, as in kissing the ring of monarchy. It is to give homage, or it is to bend the knee, but there is, there's more to it than just to pay homage. There are a few uses of a kiss in scripture that I want to draw your attention to very quickly, but it is also a sign of reconciliation.

[54:23] Examples would be of Jacob and Esau, two brothers, and they, when they were reconciled, there was the kiss of reconciliation. Or the prodigal son, the prodigal son who demanded his inheritance from his father was, who is still alive, basically saying as though he's dead to him, and then going and squandering his inheritance, and then coming back, begging to be his servant, and the father saw him coming, ran to him, threw himself on his neck, and kissed him.

[54:55] It was reconciliation. It is also a sign of subjection and loyalty, for example, with Samuel in the installation of Saul as king when he anointed him with oil, and the kiss of subjection and loyalty.

[55:10] But it's also a sign of adoration. For example, the woman of disrepute, who poured expensive ointment of pure nard, which is a very expensive fragrant oil that is derived from the spike nard, she poured it onto Jesus' head and kissed his feet, anointing them with oil.

[55:35] Now, why did the woman of disrepute, having poured this oil on his head, kiss his feet? Well, it's not because he used cedarwood beard balm and had brand name sandal straps.

[55:52] It's because she recognized that here before her was the king, the Lord's anointed. Here before her was the Son of God, the one who had come to save his people from their sin.

[56:06] And she, being a woman of disrepute, had much to gain by God's grace through his salvation and forgiveness. So, the imperative to kiss the Son, understand that divine longsuffering has a shelf life.

[56:27] It has an expiry date and judgment will come. Divine longsuffering has an expiry date and judgment will come and the rebellious will perish without escape.

[56:38] Those who perish in their rebellion will perish without escape. Christ will return to judge the living and the dead. Kiss the Son.

[56:52] Believe the gospel. Turn to Christ. Submit to him. Receive Christ and all his benefits and promises. Now, finally, in verse 12, it says, Blessed.

[57:04] Remembering God's anointed king is the blessed psalm one man. And all those who bow to him will be blessed in this life and blessed to all eternity.

[57:18] It goes on to say, Blessed are all those who put their trust in him. All who trust in him. That is, all who take refuge in him.

[57:29] Embrace Jesus Christ as king and receive salvation in him alone. So, as you can see, Psalm 2 is the gospel. Psalm 2, we have the nations by nature sinning rebellion against God.

[57:46] We see the climactic event of this rebellion is the putting to death of the Lord's anointed. That is, the Christ.

[57:57] That is, Jesus Christ. But we see that he was not, he did not remain in the grave. But he ascended, was exalted, and installed in the heavens, where he was seated with worldwide power over his inheritance of the nations.

[58:17] Therefore, be wise. Kiss the Son. Turn to Christ alone for salvation. Now, one last comment is, if you recall, Psalm 2 begins with a question.

[58:29] What was that question? It was why. And then the question is in reference to the ways in which the nations rage and plot, and that is in vain.

[58:42] Why do the nations rage and plot in vain? If you see what's going on here, it's a bit of a spoiler alert. And that is that it is going to fail.

[58:54] The rebellion against God is going to fail. God wins. Revelation 19, 6. Let's pray.

[59:13] Our great God, we thank you for your word. And we thank you how all of scripture testifies of Christ. Christ, who is the Lord's anointed, the prophesied Messiah, the Christ, the eternally begotten Son of God, united to human nature, who is the mediator between God and man, and who died as a substitute in our place, and who was raised from the dead with power, ascended and exalted on high with all authority, with all power.

[59:49] Our Lord Jesus Christ, we praise you as king, as king of kings, and that you reign, and that you rule from Zion over the nations as your inheritance, as your heritage, with worldwide power.

[60:03] We praise you. You are the promised, skull-crushing seed of the woman, the descendant of David, who has established a kingdom which will not end, and that is the kingdom of Christ, of righteousness and glory and eternal life.

[60:18] We thank you for salvation and forgiveness in Christ, that all those who turn to Christ, who bow to Christ, will be blessed in this life and to all eternity. We pray for those, Lord, who have not yet kissed the Son, that you would shock them with the gospel, and that they would be astonished at your grace, and uprooted and dislodged from the course of this world, this rebellion against you, transferred and relocated into your kingdom of light, and reoriented towards you, and being blessed in Christ.

[60:53]  We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. If you take your hand in...