WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:14.000 I'm going to start out by sharing a quick testimony of God's grace throughout my life for all of those who weren't in the new members class with me. 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:19.000 So everybody who wasn't gets a sneak peek into my testimony. 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:35.000 When I was young, my parents, both believers, God gave me them. And, you know, they brought me to church and they told me the things of the Word, shared the Word with me and the gospel. 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:55.000 And through that, God used them in His grace to save me when I was, I would say, around seven years old. I just remember, I don't remember much beforehand of exactly if there was something, a sermon or something preached before that, but I do remember the weight of my sin. 00:00:55.000 --> 00:01:05.000 I remember just crying over my sin and how terrible it was before God, and then I knew I needed a Savior, I needed Christ. 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:14.000 And so I told my parents, and they helped me in prayer, and I believed truly back when I was seven that the Lord saved me. 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:30.000 And it wasn't until God definitely sanctified me over the years, it wasn't until I would say probably high school when my faith really, really started to take hold and started to take root in my life because the Lord brought some opposition. 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:44.000 He, I went to public school and encountered a lot of atheists and even some Mormons in my class, and so I was encountering new arguments I haven't heard before and new belief systems. 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:53.000 And so it made me look into what we believe and what the Bible actually teaches, and I started to become convicted over the Word of God and what it teaches. 00:01:53.000 --> 00:02:01.000 And through that, God really grew me in my faith, and I ended up going to Liberty University for college. 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:08.000 And in my first year, there were a couple of circumstances that God lined up. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:16.000 My grandpa, who—my grandpa's a missionary, and he used to be a pastor, and he's been a big influence on my life. 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:24.000 And he preached at a church nearby there when I was going to school, and also there were some other speakers that came to the school. 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:33.000 And also this was around the time where the documentary American gospel was becoming more popular, as some of you all probably know of. 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:43.000 But through all of that, God really started to stir in my heart and burden and desire for ministry and to minister to his people. 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:53.000 And so I started to—I changed my major to theology and apologetics to learn more about what the Word of God teaches. 00:02:53.000 --> 00:03:03.000 And back home, I went to a small, Reformed church, but a great, great group of Godly men and women, and grew there. 00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:09.000 And after, at the end of college, you know, starting to look where should I go, I knew I wanted to go to seminary. 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:13.000 And I followed Dr. White and Owen Strand on Twitter and heard things like that. 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:20.000 And so I heard about Grace Bible Theological Seminary and came and visited here, and it was amazing. 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:26.000 And yeah, and so I moved down here back in 2022, the fall of 2022. 00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:30.000 And so that's the work of God on my life. I'll praise be to him. 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:39.000 And so today I would like to just share a word that he has given me with you all. Let us pray to start out. 00:03:39.000 --> 00:04:15.000 O Lord, Father, I pray that you would meet with us this night, Lord, that you would pour out your Spirit, God, that you would give us understanding of your Word, understanding of who you are. Sanctify us, Lord God, help us to see more of Christ and behold His excellence, Lord, and help it to move out into our lives and into all our works and actions we do in all the days of the week, Lord God. 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:24.000 I pray that you would be with me in this time, help me to speak your Word, help me to speak what is of you and nothing false, Lord God. 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:29.000 Feed me and we thank you for this time, God. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:55.000 Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord, Ephesians 5, 18 and 19. 00:04:55.000 --> 00:05:14.000 Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with gratefulness in your hearts to God, Colossians 3, 16. 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:33.000 When we look around us, when we look at the state of the church, when we open our eyes and look around to the church in America, what we see is a church that is not doing so well. 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:44.000 We see a church that is not standing faithfully upon the Word of God and is not holding fast to and proclaiming the whole counsel of God. 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:53.000 The church here in America, instead, what we see is a weak church, an impotent church, a church with very little power. 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:58.000 For when we abandon the Word of God, what power do we expect to have? 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:04.000 There are various reasons we could point to for the church being in the state it is today. 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:11.000 We could point to shying away from the Word of God, not preaching the whole counsel, preaching the opinions of man. 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:27.000 We could point to the prevalence of false gospels like the prosperity gospel and the health and wealth that is so common in churches, in common in media ministries, on your TV and in online everywhere. 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:40.000 We could point to, just more recently, with the infiltration of wokeness and critical race theory creeping into the church and taking captive the flock of God. 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:49.000 Yet, I think there is one overlooked area that has caused the church to lack power. 00:06:49.000 --> 00:07:12.000 I think one of these areas that is overlooked and may even play a significant role is that we have neglected the Psalms, that we have neglected the singing of Psalms, and not just the ones we like, but all of them, even the ones that we may not be comfortable with. 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:24.000 The Psalms, they are a collection of Psalms given to us by God to worship Him and to praise Him in spirit and truth. 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:33.000 And so, why is this the case? Why don't we sing Psalms as the verses I read command us to? 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:41.000 For most of church history, we did sing Psalms. Psalms the church, for worship, consistently over and over again, would sing the Psalms. 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:59.000 It wasn't until around the 18th century that started to change with the modern hymn-making movement, which you had figures like Isaac Watts, who, a great songwriter, he wrote many great hymns that we sing today and give glory to God for. 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:27.000 Praise the Lord for him and his work. But he took the Psalms and he wrote what he called "imitations of them in the language of the New Testament." Now, that might not sound so bad, but what he was doing is taking, he saw the Psalms and he saw the language in there and said, "This is not New Testament Christianity enough. 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:45.000 There needs to be more Jesus. There needs to be more this." In his own quotes, he says this, "To the third thing I propose, and it is this, to explain my own design, which in short is this, namely, to accommodate the book of Psalms to Christian worship. 00:08:45.000 --> 00:09:15.000 And in order to do this, it is necessary to divest David and Asaph," the writers of the Psalms, "of every other character but that of a psalmist and a saint, and make them always speak the common meaning and language of a Christian." And what ended up happening is he took the parts that were kind of uncomfortable with, that he thought was too Jewish, was too harsh. 00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:32.000 You have, for example, with Psalm 137, which is a very, very difficult and tough psalm, but it's in the Kingdom of Scripture and it tells us that the Babylonians to cast their infants against the rocks, which is a tough force of Scripture to be sure. 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:38.000 But what he did was in his imitations, he took out all those instances of judgment. 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:47.000 And so what you had going on was Psalms divested of their full truth. 00:09:47.000 --> 00:10:00.000 And this caught on with the church to the point now where it's not, I mean, go to any mainstream evangelical church, and to sing a psalm in its entirety is unheard of. 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:07.000 We still read and preach these psalms, praise the Lord, and I'm thankful for that. 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:11.000 But there's something about what—singing. What makes singing different? 00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:16.000 Well, singing helps us to meditate. It helps us to chew. 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:24.000 It's something that God's given us music so that we can, you know, meditate and contemplate and think upon these things, and it becomes a part of us. 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:35.000 And singing psalms, God gave us that, the gift of singing psalms, to form our hearts, to form what worship should be. 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:42.000 And so they are, as I said, they're songs. Why not sing them? 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:50.000 There are many glorious truths as well in the psalms that God has given for us to sing in its entirety. 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:59.000 And we start to lose sight of these glorious truths when we pick and choose here and there what we would like to sing and focus on. 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:08.000 So one of those truths that is contained in the psalms that I would like to preach on tonight is the preeminence of Christ. 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:12.000 That's the series we're going through right now, Wednesday nights. 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:21.000 The preeminence of Christ is a theme, and Him being the preeminent King and His lordship and kingship is a theme that is filled throughout the psalms. 00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:26.000 It is full throughout them. And so that is what we'll be looking at tonight. 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:40.000 And as Pastor Tommy preached a couple weeks ago, preeminence, it's kind of a big word, but it means to have first place, to be paramount in rank and dignity and authority. 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:46.000 And so the text we will be going to tonight will be Psalm chapter 2. 00:11:46.000 --> 00:12:01.000 If you'll turn in your Bibles to Psalm chapter 2, starting in verse 1 there. 00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:13.000 While you're turning there, Psalm 1 and 2 are unique within the psalms, within the fact they serve as the introduction for what's to come for the whole entire rest of the songbook. 00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:28.000 They contain all the themes, and they set the stage for the themes of blessedness, the themes of the law of Yahweh, the law of the Lord, the themes of the vindication of the righteous and the destruction of the wicked. 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:35.000 They have the themes of the Messiah, the anointed one, and the reign of Yahweh and His anointed. 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:39.000 And so let us start in verse 1. 00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:49.000 The word of God says, "Why do the nations rage and the peoples meditate on a vain thing? 00:12:49.000 --> 00:13:21.000 The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers counsel together against the Lord," or Yahweh, "and against His anointed, saying, 'Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us.'" These few verses we get a full insight into the depravity of man. It's on full display. We know that mankind in His natural state is dead in sin. 00:13:21.000 --> 00:13:31.000 Apart from God, there is none righteous as we know. There's not one. No one seeks for God. There's none who understands. They all have turned aside. 00:13:31.000 --> 00:13:38.000 No one can please God, and no one can obey the law of God. 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:54.000 And what we have here, we have the particular sin, a sin that has been amongst humanity ever since the garden of making ourselves to be God and wanting to be our own God. 00:13:54.000 --> 00:14:01.000 What did Satan come to tempt Eve with? You will be like God once you eat of the fruit. 00:14:01.000 --> 00:14:08.000 And how did Satan fall in the first place? Of trying to usurp the throne of God. 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:22.000 So we see man who wants to be autonomous. He wants to be a rule in himself. He doesn't want God to rule. He wants to follow His own law and to do what pleases Him. 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:27.000 It is rebellion against God. This is exactly what it says in verse 3. 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:43.000 "Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us." The reign of God to those who do not believe, who are unbelievers, the reign of God is something that they despise. 00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:52.000 It is something that is a type of slavery to them. It's something that binds them. 00:14:52.000 --> 00:15:02.000 And it keeps them from their supposed idea of freedom, which is to do whatever sin they please, which we know is no freedom at all. 00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:05.000 But it's bondage, truly bondage. 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:10.000 So we see the wicked, they hate Yahweh. They hate His anointed. 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:18.000 They set themselves against Him as if they will overcome the God who is in heaven, the God invisible in heaven. 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:30.000 As if their wisdom and their counsel is greater than God's, is greater than the all-knowing and all-wise God who is in heaven. 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:39.000 So now for a second, I want to look forward. I want to look, what is the New Testament, which the New Testament does cite this passage. 00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:44.000 What does the New Testament say about what is going on here in this passage? 00:15:44.000 --> 00:16:07.000 We see in Acts 4.25, it references this verse. It says,"The Holy Spirit through the mouth of our Father David, your servant, said,'Why did the Gentiles rage and the peoples devise vain things?' The kings of the earth took their stand and the rulers were gathered together against their Lord and against His Christ. 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:33.000 For truly in this city there were gathered together against your Holy Servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel to do whatever your hand and your purpose predestined to occur.'" This puts the whole psalm in context. 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:41.000 The Lord Yahweh here in His anointed is God the Father and Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:16:41.000 --> 00:16:54.000 "And those who are against Him, the nations raging, the peoples flying, the kings of the earth, the rulers." What does the New Testament say? It says that those were the men who put Christ to death on the cross. 00:16:54.000 --> 00:17:00.000 Pontius Pilate, Herod, all the Gentiles who were involved and the Jews. 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:10.000 It says that this passage is a prophecy looking forward to the crucifixion of Christ. 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:16.000 But what does God do? He laughs. 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:33.000 Verse 4, "He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord mocks them." God peers down from His lofty heights and sees man, just like tiny ants, trying to build their little hills, like many battles trying to reach Him. 00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:43.000 How can the man reach God? How can the arrows of man's wisdom do a dent to the shield of God and of His power? 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:47.000 How can lowly man reach up to the heavenly throne? 00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:52.000 So God responds, as we saw, by laughing, by scorning them, by mocking them. 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:57.000 Look how foolish this is. 00:17:57.000 --> 00:18:06.000 And so God responds to these men who have been unhindered and unbridled in their rebellion against Him. 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:11.000 God responds by sending Christ. 00:18:11.000 --> 00:18:21.000 He responds by sending Christ, born of a virgin, living a life perfectly obedient to Him, obedient even to death. 00:18:21.000 --> 00:18:24.000 And then it says in verse 5 and 6, what does He do next? 00:18:24.000 --> 00:19:07.000 It says, "Then He speaks to them in His anger and terrifies them in His fury, saying, 'But as for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain.'" So God's response to these wicked nations, God's response to those who have set themselves up against Christ, who have put Him to death, is to speak and tear to them and terrify them, saying, "This is what I have done. My King, My King is on My mountain. He is reigning." Imagine the demonic hordes. Imagine the crowds, the leaders putting Christ to death. 00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:28.000 Think of them shuddering and shaking in terror at the voice of God, telling them that the man they crucified and put to death, that He is no longer dead, but that He is alive, and not just alive, but Lord of the universe, King of the universe. 00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:35.000 Then we see David looks forward and he explains here the dialogue between the father and son. 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:51.000 He says, "I will surely tell," in verse 7, "I will surely tell of the decree of Yahweh. He said to me, 'You are My Son. Today I have begotten you. 00:19:51.000 --> 00:20:15.000 Ask of Me and I will give you the nations as your inheritance and the ends of the earth as your possessions.'" So we have the Lord, the Father, speaking to His anointed to Christ. He says to Him that He has begotten Him, and because of this He will give Him everything. 00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:21.000 He will give Him all the nations. They're all will be His. He will give Him all the peoples of the earth. 00:20:21.000 --> 00:20:27.000 This is the gift that the Lord has given for the crucified and raised Christ. 00:20:27.000 --> 00:20:53.000 And again, we see what does the New Testament say? The New Testament says about this passage, we see in Acts 13.33, says God has fulfilled this promise to our children, this is the Jewish Christian speaking, in that He raised up Jesus, He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, "You are My Son. 00:20:53.000 --> 00:21:04.000 Today I have begotten you." So the Father raised up Christ from the grave. He gave new life to the body that once was dead. 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:17.000 He has installed Him and ascended Him to the heavens. He has installed Him on His holy mountain, on the heavenly Zion, and He has given Him first place. He has given Him the preeminence above all else. 00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:26.000 He has given the name Lord, that at His name everyone, every knee, every tongue, shall bow. 00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:34.000 This is consistent with what we heard from Pastor Tommy a couple of weeks ago in Colossians 1.18, where Christ has the preeminence. 00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:42.000 It says that Christ has that first place. Why? Because He was the firstborn from the dead. 00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:49.000 Because He is the one, the preeminent one, to come from the grave, the first of the new creation. 00:21:49.000 --> 00:21:57.000 He has a body that is never to be broken again. He came from the grave, and because of that, Christ is now preeminent. 00:21:57.000 --> 00:22:01.000 He is now Lord over all. 00:22:01.000 --> 00:22:08.000 This reality of the unparalleled supremacy of Christ shows up again and again throughout the Psalms. 00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:17.000 We see in Psalms 72.8-11, "May He also have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. 00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:22.000 Let the desert creatures kneel before Him, and His enemies lick the dust. 00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:26.000 Let the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands bring a present. 00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:56.000 The kings of Sheba and Seba offer tribute, and let all kings bow down to Him. All nations serve Him." Psalm 45.6, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom." Psalm 110.1-2, "Yahweh says to my Lord," speaking to Christ, "sit at my right hand until I put your enemies as a footstool for your feet. 00:22:56.000 --> 00:23:10.000 Yahweh will stretch forth your strong scepter from Zion, saying, 'Have dominion in the midst of your enemies.'" Christ has been exalted to the highest position, to the right hand of God. 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:15.000 There is no higher position in all of heaven and earth. 00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.000 And so the Father tells the Son in verse 9. 00:23:19.000 --> 00:23:35.000 Moving on, He says, "You shall break them," the nations, "with a rod of iron.""You shall shatter them like a potter's vessel." And so we see Christ has the nations. They belong to Him. 00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:38.000 Because He has been raised, He is preeminent, He is above all. 00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:44.000 All judgment has been given to the Son, and so He will break them in judgment. 00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:48.000 He will shatter them in judgment when they rebel against Him. 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:54.000 And He gives this very warning in the next part of the verse, in verse 10. 00:23:54.000 --> 00:24:05.000 He says, "So now, O kings, show insight. Take warning, O judges of the earth. 00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:14.000 Serve the Lord, serve Yahweh with fear, and rejoice, rejoice with trembling. 00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:25.000 Kiss the Son lest He become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled. 00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:34.000 How blessed are all who take refuge in Him." So what now is the consequence of Christ's exaltation, His preeminence? 00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:51.000 The consequence is that all kings, that all judges, which is summing up those with authority here in this earthly realm, it's saying that they must obey, that they must submit to Christ and kiss the Son. 00:24:51.000 --> 00:25:01.000 They must pay homage to Him. They must, or else, what does it say, or else they will perish. 00:25:01.000 --> 00:25:08.000 They will be destroyed by the Son's wrath. 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:20.000 I want us to really understand this, that according to the New Testament, this is speaking of Christ's death and His resurrection, His ascension to the heavens. 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:26.000 If that's true, then this is a reality right now. 00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:32.000 Christ is King now. Christ is Lord now. 00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:41.000 We are living in the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Supreme Lord of heaven and earth. 00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:44.000 The implications for this are unending. 00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:49.000 History is under His command. He is Lord. There is nothing that He is not preeminent in. 00:25:49.000 --> 00:25:53.000 He is first place in all things. 00:25:53.000 --> 00:26:07.000 History is in His hands. He is exalting and He is dethroning kings and nations based upon them kissing the Son, based upon them submitting to the Son. 00:26:07.000 --> 00:26:15.000 If you don't believe me, look around. Look to America. Look to our nation. 00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:23.000 Do we see a nation that is obedient to Christ, that has faith in Christ, that kisses the Son? 00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:27.000 Or do we see a nation that is in high rebellion to Him? 00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:33.000 And we see even already the judgment of God upon our nation. 00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:47.000 Now it's not full-fledged, but we see the Romans one type judgment, where God gives them over to a debased mind, where they approve of all sorts of wickedness and evil. We see that today. We see that. 00:26:47.000 --> 00:26:58.000 And if we don't repent, if the church does not continue to preach and hold fast to the Word of God, preach the whole counsel. 00:26:58.000 --> 00:27:26.000 And if our nation does not repent, if God does not pour out our spirit, what does it say? It says, "We will perish in the way." We know that there is no blessing without repentance. There is no blessing from God without acknowledgement that He is Lord. 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:46.000 Has Christ been raised? Is He at the right hand of the Father? If yes, then every nation and every king right now must give acknowledgement to Christ as the preeminent one, as the ruler of all things, King of kings and Lord of lords. 00:27:46.000 --> 00:27:57.000 And as I was getting at with the church, what is the church to be? We are to be the pillar and the ground of truth. We hold up the truth, right? That's what we... that's our job as a church. 00:27:57.000 --> 00:28:02.000 We are proclaimers of the truth. We're prophets. 00:28:02.000 --> 00:28:20.000 And so we have the responsibility to proclaim the Lordship of Christ to everyone, to our neighbors, to those we love, but even to those, even to those who are an authority over us, even to the rulers. 00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:32.000 We have to tell the news that Christ is on high, and if you do not repent, believe, and obey Him, kiss the Son, then you will perish. 00:28:32.000 --> 00:28:47.000 See, we often neglect... we often neglect that the Gospel, the good news, the good news of Christ's death, His resurrection, His work, His person, who He's done for... who He is and what He's done for us. 00:28:47.000 --> 00:28:53.000 We often neglect that part of this Gospel is that it's the Gospel of the Kingdom. 00:28:53.000 --> 00:29:01.000 And Mark, in Mark chapter 4, Christ comes, and what does He first proclaim? He says, "Repent." The time is at hand. 00:29:01.000 --> 00:29:22.000 It says, He says, "For the good news of the Kingdom of God has come upon you." So the good news is something that there is a Kingdom, that Christ is bringing a righteous, a good reign and rule to the nations, to all things. 00:29:22.000 --> 00:29:31.000 And this must be a part of what we preach. We must preach that Christ is bringing His Kingdom to the furthest corners of the earth. 00:29:31.000 --> 00:29:39.000 It isn't just the cry of the Psalms, it's a cry throughout the Old Testament. We see this. The Jews of the day, the Jews of Jesus' day were expecting this. 00:29:39.000 --> 00:29:46.000 They knew that the Messiah was to be a king, and He was to come, and He was to rule. 00:29:46.000 --> 00:29:55.000 What they didn't know, which this is crucial, what they didn't know though was that He had to suffer, or rather what they refused to believe was that He had to suffer. 00:29:55.000 --> 00:30:02.000 And He only becomes king through suffering. What happens in Jesus' temptations? 00:30:02.000 --> 00:30:14.000 We see Satan come to Jesus, and He tempts Him with something that wouldn't be something that Jesus would have no longing for in a sense, or it wouldn't be a temptation in that sense. 00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:39.000 But He presents Him the kingdoms of the earth. Satan's like, "Their mind, I will give them to you. I will give them all to you." And you know why that's a temptation? It's because Christ came for that. He came for all the kingdoms of the earth, but He would only obtain them through His death on the cross and through the resurrection, where God raises Him up. 00:30:39.000 --> 00:30:49.000 And God, as we saw here, gives Him the nations for His inheritance and for His possession. 00:30:49.000 --> 00:31:04.000 And so, let us preach the full good news and frame it within the righteous kingdom that Christ has bring, blessings that come from Him, from His death and resurrection to all the nations. 00:31:04.000 --> 00:31:14.000 And let's preach to those in authority, to our rulers, to those in government. Let's preach them and warn them, just as Paul did in Acts 17. 00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:28.000 What did Paul do in Acts 17? He said that Jesus has been raised by the Father, and He said that He will judge the world in righteousness, and because of this, everyone will have to give an account. 00:31:28.000 --> 00:31:37.000 And especially rulers will have to give an account for every wicked law, every unrighteous decree that they set forth. 00:31:37.000 --> 00:31:47.000 They will have to give an accounting to the Lord Jesus Christ, and the only way of escape is by faith and repentance in Him. 00:31:47.000 --> 00:31:56.000 So this is what we must reclaim, a pronouncement of this to all people, including those in authority. 00:31:56.000 --> 00:32:08.000 We must preach to them, for they set themselves to be preeminent in all things. How needed was this in just recent years, in 2020? 00:32:08.000 --> 00:32:15.000 The church was not prepared for 2020, and the COVID tyranny. 00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:20.000 Where was Psalm 2? Where was this Psalm? 00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:31.000 Where was it? Where was the Psalm in the evangelical church? It wasn't being sung. It wasn't being read. It wasn't being preached. 00:32:31.000 --> 00:32:36.000 It wasn't there because it wasn't in their hymnal. 00:32:36.000 --> 00:32:53.000 But I guess the majority of churches don't have hymnals nowadays, so point taken. But we proclaim to the rulers and authorities, to the magistrates, that Christ is Lord. 00:32:53.000 --> 00:33:03.000 We say, "No, government, you cannot mandate how the church is to worship." Why? Because Christ is preeminent, not you. 00:33:03.000 --> 00:33:10.000 No government, you cannot tell us that we cannot meet for worship. 00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.000 Because Christ is preeminent, you are not preeminent. 00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:31.000 No state, you may not force me to take your shot, because Christ has first place. He has first place over me and my conscience, and not you. You must obey Him. 00:33:31.000 --> 00:33:51.000 I'm thankful for churches. I mean, the biggest example that we see in our land is John MacArthur's church, Grace Community, who stood up and paved that way and proved to be an example against the tyranny of the authorities of his day. 00:33:51.000 --> 00:34:00.000 I'm thankful for them, but that wasn't the case for the majority of the church, and what a sad indictment that is of the church today. 00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:26.000 So then, let us reclaim the voice of God in the Psalms. Let us listen to them and see this glorious theme of Christ being Lord, Christ being preeminent, Christ being our ruler and authority, and sing Psalms praising Him for this, meditating upon them, recovering this vision of His preeminence in all areas of life. 00:34:26.000 --> 00:34:44.000 Now, getting closer to home, for us as Christians, do we live our lives in a way that shows that Christ is preeminent? 00:34:44.000 --> 00:34:58.000 Are our lives, are our families, are they beacons that Christ has first place and no other, that Christ has first place in our life and in our home? 00:34:58.000 --> 00:35:06.000 Do we really believe that Christ is Lord over everything? 00:35:06.000 --> 00:35:15.000 If we do, then let us live it. Let us not live along with the world and how they live, for their Master is their own, as we saw their Master as their own selves. 00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:21.000 They want to be God. They're serving their Father Satan, but we serve God. 00:35:21.000 --> 00:35:39.000 So let us in our own lives and also with our families, us as men, with fathers especially, this is a task that we have been given to, to lead our family and to model that everything we do is because Christ is Lord. 00:35:39.000 --> 00:35:43.000 And we are going to honor Him and obey Him in everything we do. 00:35:43.000 --> 00:35:50.000 As for my house, we will seek the Lord. 00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:58.000 And then, at the workplace, is Christ preeminent there? 00:35:58.000 --> 00:36:00.000 Indeed, He is. 00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:14.000 Christ has authority over your work, He has authority over how you treat others, but especially how you even perform your job. 00:36:14.000 --> 00:36:17.000 You work unto the Lord and not unto man. 00:36:17.000 --> 00:36:19.000 This is what the Bible teaches. 00:36:19.000 --> 00:36:27.000 So I say I will not lie. I will not cheat my neighbor. I will not cut corners. I will not be slothful. 00:36:27.000 --> 00:36:32.000 Why? Because Christ is Lord. 00:36:32.000 --> 00:36:52.000 Christ is Lord and He is my Lord and I must seek to obey Him in everything and to excel in whatever our hands, whatever He has given into our hands to do, to excel and to honor Him working not unto human masters, but unto the heavenly Lord who was our Master. 00:36:52.000 --> 00:36:58.000 He has first place. He is worthy of it. He is worthy of it. 00:36:58.000 --> 00:37:10.000 Finally, I want to take another look at this last line that we see, this last line in verse 12. 00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:26.000 And the glorious hope of the Good News, the promise, it says, "How blessed are all those who take refuge in Him." How blessed are all those who take refuge in Him. 00:37:26.000 --> 00:37:38.000 Christ is the King of heaven, the King of the rulers of the earth. All the nations must serve Him and obey Him and they must take refuge in Him through faith. 00:37:38.000 --> 00:37:47.000 Through faith and repentance they must take refuge in Him and be blessed forever, world without end. Amen. 00:37:47.000 --> 00:37:53.000 So this is the large scale picture and we've looked at the large scale picture of God's design here. 00:37:53.000 --> 00:37:57.000 But where do you, where do you fit in the story? 00:37:57.000 --> 00:38:08.000 Are you in Him? Are you in the Lord, in the preeminent Christ? The call, the call is to come. 00:38:08.000 --> 00:38:18.000 Come to the Lord. Be, be joined to Him. Be joined to Him in His death. Be joined to Him in His burial and His resurrection. 00:38:18.000 --> 00:38:30.000 His wrath, as it says here, His wrath may soon be kindled. Our life, our life is but a vapor. It's passing each and every day. 00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:39.000 We don't know when God is gonna say, "Your time's up." We don't know. 00:38:39.000 --> 00:38:51.000 His wrath may be poured out at any second. But what do we see? What do we see? It says take refuge in Him. 00:38:51.000 --> 00:39:00.000 There's only one place that is safe in all the universe and that is in Christ, that is in Christ. 00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:09.000 Don't take advantage of God's kindness. God has given you life and breath all the way up to this moment. He's given you so many good things. 00:39:09.000 --> 00:39:20.000 Don't take advantage of that. Don't presume in the Lord's kindness. It's meant to lead you to Him. It's meant to lead you to repentance, to faith in Christ. 00:39:24.000 --> 00:39:33.000 And we who flee to Him, I can assure you, you will not be put to shame. You will not be put to shame. 00:39:33.000 --> 00:39:42.000 We will not be judged along with the wicked. But instead, we will be with Christ. We will have eternal life. We will reign with Him. 00:39:42.000 --> 00:39:51.000 What is more glorious than that? To be joint heirs, to be co-heirs with Christ. Everything that He has is ours and we are His forevermore. 00:39:51.000 --> 00:40:02.000 Have you raged against the King? Have you rebelled? Have you despised His Lordship over you? Do you despise God's rule? 00:40:02.000 --> 00:40:16.000 Do you despise His rule in your heart? You would never say it out loud, but in your heart you don't want any part of God being Lord of your life. 00:40:16.000 --> 00:40:38.000 You want to do what you want to do. You don't want the restraint of that. But I can assure you this, that there is no other Master, no other Lord who is as kind, who is as gracious, who is as merciful as the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:40:38.000 --> 00:40:53.000 There is no other Master or Lord like Him. All other Masters, all other idols, they don't compare. They will leave you with nothing. They will leave you broken. 00:40:53.000 --> 00:41:03.000 The only thing that they will give you serving them is debt. There is nothing there for you. 00:41:03.000 --> 00:41:22.000 And so, Christ says that those who believe in Me, those who trust in Me, not just believing about Him, but actually giving your life to Him, joining with Him in that grave, dying to self to the ways you have lived in your sin and then raising to newness of life. 00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:32.000 Coming to Him in faith, He says that the one who believes in Me, He will never die, but will have life everlasting. 00:41:32.000 --> 00:41:45.000 So then, come to Christ and let us praise the Lord, the preeminent Lord in all things. Let us give Him first place. He already has first place. 00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:54.000 So then, let us submit to Him as being first in all things and let us pray. 00:41:54.000 --> 00:42:04.000 O Heavenly Father, Lord God, we have been lifted up to Mount Zion, Lord God. We have seen Christ, Lord, through faith. 00:42:04.000 --> 00:42:13.000 We have seen Him who was Lord of all. There is none who compares. He is preeminent. He is above all else, Lord God. 00:42:13.000 --> 00:42:19.000 And we thank You for this, Lord God. We thank You that we serve a Savior who is Lord of all. 00:42:19.000 --> 00:42:39.000 Lord, I pray that You would grow us in faith and that we would seek to serve Him more and in all areas and avenues of our life and our family and everything that we do, Lord God, that we would seek to please Him as Lord and help Him and His Lord should be evident in everything. 00:42:39.000 --> 00:42:46.000 Lord God, give us more faith and help us to obey You in all things. We thank You for Your work that You have done. 00:42:46.000 --> 00:42:52.000 May You continue to abide with us this week as we go out and please You in all things. 00:42:52.000 --> 00:42:56.000 And this I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.