On Psalm 2, beginning in verse 1, we find one of my favorite Psalms, in fact.
And the Bible reads in verse 1,
Why did the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?
Entitled in my sermon this morning is this,
Why do the heathen rage?
Now, what does it mean to rage?
Rage is a word that we would use for extreme, intense anger.
I mean, if you saw someone and they just went into a rage,
I mean, don't you just imagine their face turning bright red,
and maybe they're yelling, maybe they start throwing things around.
That's what you think of when you hear the word rage.
You know, you hear of road rage.
Somebody gets run off the road or cut off in traffic,
or somebody waves at them, but they're only using one of their fingers.
And basically, they go into a rage.
You know, they get upset, they flip out.
And the question that's close to you,
I always think it's interesting when the Bible asks a question.
The Bible asks the question here,
Why do the heathen rage?
And let's keep reading, and I'm going to explain to you
this morning a little bit why the heathen rage.
I love this chapter.
It says, Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord
and against his anointed saints.
So who is it, according to the Bible here,
that the heathen and the nations are raging against?
They're raging against the Lord.
They're infuriated and they're angry at him.
And they're also enraged at his anointed.
Now, the word anointed there, if you go to the New Testament,
you don't have to turn there, but in Acts,
this chapter is quoted in Acts chapter 4,
and it's actually quoted as
against the Lord and against his Christ,
because the word Christ means the anointed one.
And so it actually substitutes in the New Testament
the word Christ as anointed.
So they are raging against the Lord,
and they are raging against Jesus Christ,
according to this passage.
Now, if we look at what they're saying,
we can see why they're so enraged.
Let us break their bands asunder
and cast away their cords from us.
Now, what does that mean, their bands and their cords?
Well, bands and cords,
that's something that's used to basically restrain someone
or restrict someone.
If you look up that word throughout the Bible, bands,
the Bible talks about bands being used.
For example, we would probably use the word shackles.
You know, metal iron bands are used
to keep a prisoner restrained, right?
Chained down.
Or they're cords.
Cords are used to, you know,
tie someone's hands together or tie them up.
So basically, in the term of Luke chapter 19, if you would,
basically what is enraging the heathen today,
what is enraging the people of this world,
is God trying to exert authority over them
and restrain and restrict their actions.
Now, that's the way they look at it.
They look at it as, you know,
He's restraining us from doing what we want to do.
Let me show you a great illustration of this
in Luke 19, verse 12.
The Bible says,
He said therefore, this is Jesus talking,
a certain nobleman went into a far country
to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.
And he called his ten servants and delivered them ten pounds
and said to them, Occupy till I come.
Now, this is a parable that Jesus is telling.
And when he talks about a nobleman
going into a far country to receive a kingdom
and then returning,
what he's using that to illustrate
is our Lord Jesus Christ.
He ascended up into heaven,
and basically, he's going to return one day
to receive the kingdom,
to set up the kingdom,
and the kingdoms of this world
will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ,
and he shall reign forever and ever.
So that's what this represents.
But look at verse 14.
But his citizens hated him
and sent a message after him saying,
We will not have this man to reign over us.
They're saying, We do not want this man to reign over us.
We don't want him to rule us.
Look at verse 15.
And it came to pass that when he was returned,
having received the kingdom,
then he commanded those servants
to be called unto him,
to whom he had given the money.
Then he might know how much
every man had gained by trading,
but jump down for the sake of time,
if you would, to verse 27.
We're not going to get into this morning
what goes on with the servants
who were given different amounts of money,
and they used that money or squandered it.
But look at verse 27.
After he's done dealing with his servants,
he says, But those my enemies,
which would not, that I should reign over them,
bring hither and slay them before me.
The ones who did not want to be reigned over,
the ones who did not want to be ruled over,
the ones who hated him.
I mean, they didn't just dislike him.
It says they hated him and they said,
We will not have this man to rule over us.
We don't want him to rule over us.
They raged against him.
They were angry with him.
They hated him with some serious hatred.
Why? Why did they hate him?
Why did they want to throw off his cords
and break their bands?
Go, if you would, to John chapter 7.
John chapter 7.
Actually, go to John 3.
We'll go to John 7 in a second,
but let's start in John 3.
John 3 is a great scripture,
obviously, on salvation.
Probably the key scripture worldwide on salvation
is John 3, 16, right?
For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son to the world
to condemn the world,
but that the world through him might be saved.
It was not his intent to come
as one that would condemn,
but one that would save.
But, he says,
he that believeth is not condemned, verse 18,
but he that believeth not is condemned already,
because he hath not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
But watch verse 19.
And this is the condemnation
that light is come into the world
and men loved darkness rather than light
because their deeds were evil.
For everyone that doeth evil
hateth the light,
neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproofed,
but he that doeth truth
cometh to the light
that his deeds may be made manifest,
that they are wrought in God.
Now, I don't want you to misunderstand this passage.
This passage is not teaching
that you have to give up your sins to be saved.
That's a false doctrine.
Because if you have to give up your sins to be saved,
well, guess what?
Then nobody would be saved
because the Bible says
there's not a just man upon the earth
that doeth good and sineth not.
Jesus Christ said there's nothing good but one
and that's God.
The Bible says if we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
And that was preached
by the greatest of Jesus' 12 disciples,
John, the one who Jesus loved,
the one who leaned on his breast.
He said if we say we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves.
So we all are sinners.
Nobody's going to quit sinning
because we're flesh.
We live in the flesh.
But the Bible is just stating the fact here
that although all you have to do to be saved
is just believe on Christ,
it's just whosoever believeth,
those who do evil,
they have a tendency to shun
and reject the light of the gospel
and not to be saved
because their deeds are evil
and they don't want to face up
and admit that their deeds are evil.
Now if they acknowledge that God exists,
if they acknowledge that the Bible is the word of God,
if they acknowledge that Jesus Christ,
the savior of the world,
they're going to have to acknowledge
all of his preaching.
They're going to have to acknowledge
everything he said
and they don't want to come to grips
with the fact of how sinful they are
and so they just tell themselves,
well, God isn't real.
Well, I hate that.
I hate the Bible.
I hate Christianity.
I don't want anything to do with that.
It's because of their lifestyle is not compatible.
Now look, you try to tell people sometimes
and you tell them,
look, you don't have to change your whole life
around to be saved.
You just have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's it.
But you know what?
They don't even want to believe that
because they know if they do believe it,
they're acknowledging that there's a lot of things
that are in their life that need to be changed.
They don't want to face up to that fact.
And not only that, the evil person,
when they look at a righteous and holy God,
they're not drawn to that.
They hate that.
They love darkness.
They love Satan.
They love...
I mean, how many people have you seen
that love Satan?
It's true.
I mean, go down to the high school.
You don't believe me?
See, nobody loves Satan past and present.
Go to the high school and tell me that.
Look at the Gothic,
the people who are cutting themselves
and putting on makeup to look as if they're dead.
I mean, they put on this...
They try to stay out of the sun.
You know, good luck with that in Arizona.
But they try to stay out of the sun,
they probably move to Seattle or something, you know,
where they can get a little less sunshine.
That way they can get really pale.
You know, nothing against Seattle, but...
You know, they can get really pale,
and then they can dye their hair black
and dye their fingernails black.
And, you know...
And basically, they glory in listening to music
that's antichrist, that blasphemes God,
that hates God.
You know, they listen to bands with names like Ministry.
That's not talking about the Baptist Ministry
when they say Ministry.
They're talking about ministering of Satan, not God,
not the Lord Jesus Christ, okay?
And they have music and songs that blaspheme God
and blaspheme Jesus.
They like to hang around with the graveyards
and they like to cut themselves
and do all the things that people do in the Bible
that are demon-possessed.
And the Bible says,
all they that hate me love death.
And so it's no wonder.
But you see people who love darkness
and they love violence.
I mean, they love...
Look, if you go to the movies
and you watch somebody's head being blown off
and you watch people being killed in a brutal way
and you think that that's cool and fun,
there's something wrong with you.
Yeah, amen.
I mean, if you see somebody killed
in a horrific way,
if you see someone dying in a horrible accident,
if you see someone killed on the battlefield,
you shouldn't glorify that
and think that that's cool and wonderful.
Yeah.
Yeah, you should look at that and say,
it's that.
It's horrible.
It's repulsive.
I don't want to look at it.
I don't want to look at a bunch of people being killed
and mangled and tortured.
That's something that's repulsive to me,
but there are people who like it
because they're evil, wicked people.
Those are not the kind of people
that gravitate toward Jesus.
They don't get a sweet feeling in their heart
when they hear John 3.16.
Okay.
Because they're bad people, that's why.
And so the Bible is stating here
that those who do good, look at verse 21.
But he that doeth truth cometh to the light,
that his deeds may be made manifest
that they are wrong in God.
So basically, here's what it comes down to.
Being saved has nothing to do with how good you are.
It's only based on whether or not
you believe on Jesus Christ,
but there is a tendency for good people, quote, unquote.
Obviously, nobody is good enough in God's eyes,
but people who are somewhat normal
and somewhat nice people,
they have more of a tendency to gravitate toward
the Bible and the truth because they like the truth,
because they're an honest type person.
Whereas people who live a life that's around lying
and they live a life around darkness and gloom and Satan,
they're less likely to accept the gospel.
It's a fact.
It's the truth.
That's what the Bible is teaching you.
And so we see here that people hate the light.
And why do they hate the light?
Look at verse number 19 again.
It says, or I'm sorry, verse 20.
For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light.
But why do they hate the light?
Why do they hate God?
Why do they even rage?
It says, neither cometh to the light
lest his deeds should be reproofed.
They don't like being corrected for their sins, okay?
That's why they don't like this kind of preaching.
That's why people who live a wicked life,
they don't gravitate toward a church that preaches hard on sin.
They gravitate toward a church that goes soft on sin.
And this kind of a church,
you know, when you start shining the light on some sin,
maybe that applies to them,
they're going to scatter.
They're going to run like a cockroach.
When you turn the lights on, all the cockroaches run away.
They don't like the light.
They like to live in the darkness.
But that should not be our role model, okay?
But look, if you would, at John chapter 7.
Look at John 7.
It's just a few pages to write in the Bible.
John 7.
And this is a very profound statement
out of the mouth of Jesus in John 7.
John 7, 7 reads,
The world cannot hate you.
He's referring to his unsaved family members.
He had some people in his family that were not saved at this time.
Later on, they got saved, thank God.
But he's looking at his unsaved family members,
and he says to them,
The world cannot hate you, but me it hated.
Now, ask yourself this question.
Did the world love Jesus when he was on this earth?
Did the world love and embrace Jesus?
He said the world hates me.
The world can't hate you.
But he said, but me it hated.
And he said, why would they hate Jesus?
He was loving.
He was kind.
He went about doing good.
And that's true.
He did go about doing good.
He was loving.
He was kind.
He was the good shepherd.
But why did they hate him?
Why did they kill him?
Because I testify of it,
me it hated,
because I testify of it,
that the works thereof are evil.
And nobody likes to be told,
your works are evil.
Nobody wants to hear that today.
But that's why they hated Jesus,
because he preached on sin,
and he exposed that,
and they hated him for it.
Now let's go back to Psalm 2.
Let's do a little more in the book of Psalms here.
Let's go forward here.
Why did the heathen rage?
Let's understand a little bit why they raged.
Let's go on in the chapter
and understand a little bit further.
So he says in Psalm 2-3,
let us break their bands asunder
and cast away their cords from us.
What is God's response
to the rage of the heathen,
to the rage of the unbelieving world
that hates him and hates Jesus Christ?
What is his response?
It says in verse 4,
he that sitteth in the heavens shall what?
So is God sitting up there saying,
I don't know what to do to make people like me.
What do I need to change?
Do I need to turn hell down a few degrees?
Do I need to just tone things down a little bit?
Look, is his response to change at all?
No.
It's not his problem.
It's their problem.
And we ought to have the same reaction.
We don't need to change the Bible
to make the world like it.
If somebody wants to rage at the Bible,
I mean, that's what he did.
I mean, I've been out so many, many times
and had people just so mad at me
just from the Word of God that I'm preaching
that they're shaking and raging
and you know what?
I try to just laugh it off and just move on.
You know, I usually walk,
I've been soloing with some people
where you walk away from a really intense door
where somebody cursed you out
or yelled at you or whatever
and you walk away and the person's really mad.
But honestly, a lot of times
I walk away from a door like that
and you know, I stay calm in front of them
and then as soon as I get away from my dispersed out laughing,
I'm like, what was that about?
You know what I mean?
Because it doesn't matter.
I mean, why would I get mad about it?
Why would I care?
It's not my fault.
Shake the dust off my feet and move on.
I did the best I could.
I brought the truth in love.
If they're mad, if they're enraged,
they're not mad at me.
They're mad at God.
And if God can laugh it off
and he's the one they're really mad at,
I might as well laugh it off.
You know, I even went soloing with a guy one time
and he said, and it was at this church,
we had a guy just chew us out.
We didn't do anything wrong.
And this guy just screamed at us and chewed us out
and he said, I'm never going soloing again.
And he never did.
He would never knock a door again
because of the fact that he just didn't like
the way that guy treated us.
But you know what?
His better reaction would have just been
to laugh and go to the next door, you know?
And you got to be able to do that
because look, God doesn't take it
as something wrong with him
because he knows there's nothing wrong with him.
He just laughs at it.
He says it's ridiculous.
And if you go back to verse one, he said,
why did he even raise you?
People imagine a vain thing.
A vain thing means whatever they imagine,
whatever they think they're going to accomplish,
they're going to fail him.
You can't defeat God.
You can't win in a fight, in a struggle against God.
And so he says it's vain.
It's a way.
It's worthless.
It's a joke.
He says, I'll laugh at it.
And they'll even attempt such a thing.
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh.
The Lord shall have them in derision.
You say, what does the word derision mean?
Well, if you look up every time
the word derision is used in the Bible,
it's basically, it's something that's a joke,
something that you'd laugh at,
something that you'd make fun of,
something that's ridiculous.
If you make derision of something,
it means you're making a mockery of it.
And that's what he's doing there.
Now, let me show you this concept elsewhere
in the book of Psalms.
Look forward, if you would, to Psalm 52.
If you're in Psalm 2, just go to chapter 52.
Psalm 52.
And look at verse 5.
I love the book of Psalms, by the way,
one of my favorite books.
Psalm 52.
It's funny, when I was a child,
I had a certain view of the book of Psalms.
I kind of thought of it as,
you know, it's just a lot of praising the Lord.
It's kind of a song book,
and it's a lot of, you know, praises and things.
But then I remember when I first read the Bible
cover to cover.
I started when I was 16.
I finished when I was 17.
And when I started reading it at 16,
I instantly recognized that the book of Psalms
was far deeper and more interesting
than I had given it credit for.
And it became one of my favorite books right away.
But look at Psalm 52.5.
The Bible says,
God shall likewise destroy thee forever.
He shall take thee away
and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place
and root thee out of the land of the living.
Selah.
The righteous also shall see and fear
and shall what?
Laugh at him.
Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength,
but trusted in the abundance of his riches
and strengthened himself in his wickedness.
Go to chapter 59,
just a few pages to the right of your Bible there.
Chapter 59 of Psalms.
It says in verse 8,
But thou, O Lord, shall laugh at them.
Thou shalt have all the demon in derision.
So we see the same thing again.
Go to Proverbs 1.
Actually, you know, go to Psalm 37.
I'll just read for you from Proverbs 1.
You go to Psalm 37.
Proverbs 1, 26.
This is God speaking.
I also will laugh at your calamity.
I will mock when your fear cometh.
When your fear cometh as desolation
and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind,
when distress and anguish cometh upon you,
then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer.
They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me,
for that they hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the Lord.
Look at Psalm 37, verse 9.
The Bible says, For evildoers shall be cut off,
but those that wait upon the Lord shall inherit the earth,
for yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be.
Yea, thou shalt diligently consider its place,
and it shall not be.
But the mean shall inherit the earth
and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
The wicked plotteth against the just,
and gnasheth upon him with his teeth.
The Lord shall laugh at him,
for he seeth that his day is coming.
Now, focus on verse 12 for a moment.
The wicked plotteth against the just.
This reminds me of Psalm 11, where the Bible says,
Lo, the wicked bend their bow.
They may ready their arrow upon the strain,
that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.
But they're plotting against the righteous.
They plot against the just.
You say you're paranoid.
Well, the Bible keeps telling me over and over
that people are out to get me.
How am I supposed to not be paranoid
when the Bible's telling me the wicked
are plotting against me.
They want to fire arrows at me.
The devil himself is walking about as a roaring lion
seeking whom he may devour.
Our adversary, the devil, is out there.
That's why we need to put on the whole armor of God
that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
But look what it says.
The wicked plotteth against the just.
And doeth what?
And nasheth upon him with his teeth.
Now, again, doesn't this go back to the subject of rage,
extreme anger?
I mean, have you ever seen people get so mad
that they start grinning their teeth in anger?
Or that they kind of lock up their teeth
and talk through their teeth?
Who knows what I'm talking about?
I have a recurring dream.
Who has recurring dreams?
Do you have the same dream?
I have this one recurring dream.
And I have a lot of dreams that ball my teeth for some reason.
I've had this dream where all my teeth crumble
and fall out of my mouth.
And if you really want to find the interpretation of a dream,
you know, Joseph's not around, and Daniel's not around.
So I just typed into Google.
That's always a good idea.
I typed it into Google.
What does it mean if I have a dream that all my teeth fall out?
And I found like 20 different answers.
They were all completely.
It's just people making up stuff.
Now I see why Nebuchadnezzar was going to turn
those people's house into a gun kill.
Remember?
When he told him, you need to tell me the dream
and the interpretation?
He said, you're a bunch of deceivers.
So that's why you don't Google stuff
if you want to know the truth.
But get this.
I've had this dream more recently involving my teeth,
and I had this recurring dream
where something happens in my dream,
and I get really mad.
I get really upset in the dream.
Turn to Acts 7, if you would.
I get really upset in the dream,
and my teeth just lock together in the dream.
And I can't get my mouth open.
Like it's just completely locked up,
and I was turning to crying with my mouth open
with my hands.
I couldn't get my teeth to open.
I was just locked up.
And I was trying to talk,
and I couldn't hardly talk through my teeth.
But it was just triggered.
But then I started thinking, maybe I have tetanus.
This is what I'm thinking in my dream.
Because I heard that tetanus is called lock jaw,
and your jaw locks up.
I was like, I have tetanus.
And I woke up in bed,
and I literally was about to say to my wife,
like, I have tetanus.
Take me to hospital.
But then I realized that my jaw was working fine.
It was my dream.
You know that moment when you wake up
and you still think your dream is real?
I thought my jaw was like...
But all that to say this.
That was a completely unnecessary part of the sermon.
But all that to say this.
When people get mad,
they do grit their teeth together, don't they?
They lock their teeth up, and they go...
And they start talking through their teeth like this,
and they go...
And the Bible says that the wicked plod up against the just
and gnashes upon him with his teeth.
Look at Acts 7.
Now, Acts 7 is a scripture where Stephen,
one of the deacons in that first church in Jerusalem,
he preaches a great sermon.
But he preaches it to a bunch of people that are not saved,
and they don't want to hear his sermon.
And the Bible says that he spoke with such a spirit
and with such power and with such logic,
they could not find a way to defeat him through his words.
They could not gain, say, or resist
the spirit by which he's saved.
And so they had to tell lies about him
and get him arrested.
So basically, they plotted against Stephen.
They told lies about him.
They got Stephen arrested.
Now he's in the courtroom,
and he preaches this powerful sermon in the courtroom,
a biblical sermon.
Look what happens when Stephen finishes his sermon
in verse 54 of Acts 7.
When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart.
So his sermon hit pretty close to home.
And it says,
And they gnashed on him with their teeth.
Isn't that the exact term from Psalms?
They gnashed on him with their teeth.
And watch this.
But he, being filled with the whole pool of the Holy Ghost,
stood up, looked up steadfastly into heaven,
and saw the glory of God
and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,
and said, Behold, I see heaven opened
and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.
Watch their reaction.
Tell me this isn't rage.
Tell me this isn't just madness.
Then they cried out with a loud voice
and stomped their ears
and ran upon him with one accord.
So their reaction to his preaching the Bible to them
and preaching the truth to them
is to cover their ears and start shouting,
kind of like you do this when we were kids.
We'd plug our ears and say,
Because, you know, you didn't want to get to hear it.
Your siblings are trying to say something to you,
and you don't want to hear what they have to say.
So you don't want to just plug your ears,
because if you plug your ears, right,
you can still hear a little bit.
So when we were kids, we'd plug our ears and go,
Who did that when you were a kid?
Anybody else?
That was what you might have said something different.
That's what we said.
That's what they're doing.
Like, I did that when I was, like, three or four.
These people are adults.
Bah, you know.
Then they run toward them.
They're stomping their ears.
They're crying out, just trying to drown out.
Now, look, why do they want to drown out the truth so bad?
I'll tell you why.
Because they were cut to the heart, that's why.
And you see, well, let's look at what they did next.
It says in verse 58,
They cast him out of the city and stoned him,
and the witnesses laid down their clothes
at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.
And they stoned Stephen, calling upon who?
And saying what?
It looks like Jesus is God.
They called upon God and said,
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice,
said, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.
And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Now, why do they not want to hear the truth?
Because they're cut to the heart.
Now, we've all had people insult us before, right?
We've all had people tell us something that was insulting,
say something rude to us, right?
Now, there have been times when somebody said something
that was very insulting to me,
but there was absolutely no truth in it at all.
And you know what I did?
I just laughed it off.
You know, that's ridiculous.
There's no reality in that.
This is a joke.
But, you know, have you ever had somebody insult you
and you were cut to the heart
because there was some truth in what they were saying?
You know, and sometimes what they're saying
is not completely true,
but maybe there's a little bit of truth in it, right?
And then it hurts more, and you're offended more,
and you get more upset.
You get more sad or angry, you know,
whatever your reaction is.
And if what they say is just really hitting
the nail on the head,
well, you're either going to be sorry for what you've done.
Maybe you're going to change.
Or else you might just become enraged.
You know, I mean, that's not the right reaction to have,
but that's what some people will do.
But if you notice that when somebody insults you,
let's say, you know, you say,
you know, I don't want to insult people, you know.
Let me do some examples.
I don't insult people.
Who should I pick on? Jerry.
I don't know what to insult about him.
He's such a well-rounded guy, you know.
But anyway, if I said to somebody, for example,
let's say I went up to somebody who was really thin, okay,
and I said, hey, you're fat.
Do you think they're going to be just crying and heartbroken?
Hey, you've got to be careful doing that today
because I'll tell you what.
There are these girls now with eating disorders
where they're thin and they think they're fat,
and it's weird.
I don't know if they're being brainwashed or what,
but they have this anorexia nervosa,
and they, you know, you tell, you know,
you say to them that they're, you know,
you should never say that to anybody
with all these eating disorders.
It's crazy.
You used to be able to say that, okay, a long time ago.
Don't say it anymore.
But let's say somebody said to me,
okay, let's choose the man, okay, because men don't care,
you know.
Don't ever say that to a woman, no matter if she's,
you know, 90 pounds.
But anyway, you know, if somebody said to me,
Pastor Anderson, you're fat.
Do you think I'm going to be offended by that?
I would just laugh and say, no, I'm not.
No.
But if somebody insulted me, like, for example,
when I was growing up, I was really short.
Now I'm a normal hank.
When I was growing up, I was really short.
If somebody would have said to me, you're fat,
I would have laughed at it, because I was not,
I was very thin.
But if they would have said to me, hey, shorty, hey, shrimp,
and yes, they did say that to me, okay,
when they called me shorty and shrimp, guess what?
It made me mad.
It offended me.
It hurt my feelings.
It made me sad.
Why?
Because there was truth in it, that's why.
And here's the thing.
When you look at the way the world rages against Jesus,
rages against the Holy Bible, rages against biblical preaching,
rages, I mean, people get so mad about it.
You know, I hear about Islam, I don't get,
I just laugh at it.
You know, somebody sent my wife some scriptures from Islam.
This woman that she knows is Islamic,
and she sent her these scriptures from Islam
where Jesus is being born,
and he's talking while he's being born to Mary.
He's talking to her as a newborn.
Okay?
Now, look, I just look at that, I don't rage at that.
I mean, it's blasphemy.
It's wicked.
But you know what?
It's really just, I just don't even take it seriously enough
to even spend time getting enraged about it.
Okay?
Because it's so ridiculous.
It's nonsense.
I laugh at that.
But you know what?
It's amazing how people rage at the Bible,
and they rage at Christianity,
and they rage against biblical preaching.
They rage against somebody.
Now, look, I can see you getting enraged
when somebody rear-ends you in the car and drives off.
I can see somebody being enraged.
If somebody comes to you and spits in your face,
I can see you being enraged by that.
If somebody came and slapped you across the face,
I can see rage coming into your heart at that time.
I can understand being enraged if someone robbed your house
or if someone hurt someone that you love.
But here, Stephen has done none of those things.
He has done violence to no one.
He's not attacking anyone.
He's not hurting anyone.
All he does is just preach the Word of God,
and rage is the result.
Why?
Because what he said was so true,
and it hit the nail on the head.
That's what made people so mad.
And that's why they even rage today at the Bible,
because the Bible's true, because God is real,
and because their lifestyle is wicked and ungodly,
and they don't want to face that.
And when the preaching comes, it hits them,
and it enrages them, because it's so true,
because it's so right,
and that's what we see here in Acts 7,
where people are enraged at Stephen,
and they actually killed him.
I mean, they murdered him right there.
Go back to Psalm 2, if you would, and I'll finish up.
Let me just finish up one more point here.
I'm going to have to trim some stuff here for the sake of time.
But Psalm 2, let's keep reading.
So the first thing is that, you know,
the heathen are in raid.
They don't like God's rules.
They want to throw off his bands and his cords.
God just pretty much laughs about it.
He doesn't take it seriously, because it's such a joke
that they think that they can defeat him, this almighty God.
Look what he says in verse 5.
Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath,
and vex them in his sore displeasure.
Yet have I sent my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
We're talking about the Lord Jesus Christ.
I will declare the decree the Lord had said unto me,
Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee.
Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen
for thine inheritance,
and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
Now, who is he talking to here?
Who is the subject that he's talking to
when he says, I'm going to give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance,
and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession?
Who's he talking to?
The son, right?
Because he says, thou art my son, this day have I...
So this is God the Father speaking to God the Son,
saying, ask of me, and I shall give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance.
Look what he says next.
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron.
So who's talking to who in that verse?
The Father's talking to the Son.
He says, thou shalt break them with a rod of iron.
Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a poggers vessel.
Now he switches gears, and he says,
be wise now, therefore, O ye kings.
Now, God is speaking unto the kings of the earth.
He says, be wise now, therefore, O kings.
He's warning them.
He says, be instructed, ye judges of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son, lest he be angry,
and ye perish from the way,
when his wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.
Now, all those that put their trust in him
are all those that are saved, by the way,
because that's what it takes.
Look at Ephesians 1.
Putting our trust in him is the same as believing on him,
according to Ephesians chapter 1.
But look, Psalm 2 is one of the most quoted
Old Testament chapters in the New Testament.
I mean, this chapter is quoted over and over again
in the New Testament.
Look at Revelation 2.
Here's a really interesting place that it's quoted.
Revelation chapter 2.
Revelation 2.
You see, he told Jesus, the Father told Jesus,
he said, thou shalt break them with the rod of iron.
Talk about the nations.
Talk about the heathen.
Thou shalt bash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
Look at Revelation chapter 2, verse 26.
This is Jesus now speaking unto the seven churches,
and he's speaking at this time to the church of Thyatira.
Now, here's what's so funny.
A lot of people will take this passage
in Revelation 2 and 3, and they will say,
oh, these represent seven periods of time.
Who's ever heard that doctrine?
And they'll say, right now we're living in the Laodicean
church age, before that was the Philadelphia age.
You know, it comes from the Scofield Bible
is the place where that got popular.
But honestly, people will say,
these are time periods of church history.
Well, here's what's so ridiculous about that.
Revelation chapter 2,
where he's talking to the church of Thyatira,
he's talking about the millennial reign of Christ.
So how could this be some period that was hundreds of years ago
when this hasn't even happened yet?
Because look what he says to the church of Thyatira, verse 26.
And there are plenty of other reasons why that's false,
but, and he that overcometh,
and the overcoming was talking about,
this is the victory that overcometh the world,
even our faith, who is he that overcometh the world,
but he that believeth that Jesus the Son of God.
That's in 1 John 5.
But he says, he that overcometh and keepeth my works
unto the end.
So this isn't just somebody who's saved.
This is somebody who is saved,
and they're keeping his works unto the end,
and they're a faithful Christian unto death.
He says, to him will I give power over the nations,
and he shall rule them with a rod of iron.
Notice the quote from Psalm 2.
As the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers,
even as I received of my Father.
So he's saying, I received authority from my Father.
Remember in Psalm 2, when the Father said to the Son,
ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance,
and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession,
thou shalt break them with the rod of iron,
thou shalt dash them in pieces like the Father's vessel.
Well Jesus is saying in Revelation 2,
just as my Father gave me that authority,
those who overcome and keep my works unto the end,
to them will I give power over the nations,
and they shall rule them with the rod of iron,
as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers,
even as I received of my Father.
Now, let me tie this all together.
What does this all mean?
Well if you would turn to, let's just go to Acts chapter 4.
Acts chapter 4.
You see, Psalm 2, when he says,
why did the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together.
He's talking about two different things in this chapter,
and this is what I want to tie together right now.
He's talking first of all about the first time
that he came to this earth,
and he's also talking about the second time
he's going to come to this earth, okay?
Now the part that we just read in Revelation 2,
that's talking about the second time he comes,
when he sets up his kingdom, it's millennial reign,
and it is millennial reign on this earth
when we rule and reign with Christ a thousand years.
He will rule with the rod of iron.
It's not going to be just this free-for-all on this planet.
Oh, there will be much more freedom and liberty
than we have today,
but God will be putting the smack down
on those who want to throw off his rules
and don't like his rules and don't want to obey.
He's going to be ruling with the rod of iron.
We're going to be ruling with the rod of iron.
That's what the Bible says.
It's not going to be a soft, hands-off rule.
It's going to be a very hands-on rule, okay?
But you see, there are a lot of similarities
from the first time that Jesus came
to the second time he came.
Look at Acts 4, and it ties it together.
Acts 4 is a direct quote from Psalm 2.
It says in verse 24,
They're using past tense
because it's already happening around them.
Why did the heathen rage
and the people imagine vain things?
The kings of the earth stood up,
and the rulers gathered together against the Lord
and against his Christ,
for of a truth against thy holy child Jesus,
whom thou hast anointed,
both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel,
were gathered together.
You say, what's he talking about?
Well, stay in Acts 4,
but listen to this from Luke 23, verse 12.
And the same day,
Pilate and Herod were made friends together
for before they were at enmity between themselves.
The Bible says that the day they crucified Jesus,
Herod and Pilate became good friends.
They used to hate each other.
They were at enmity.
But crucifying and killing Jesus
somehow brought them together.
And Pilate, the Roman governor,
and Herod, the Jewish king,
became friends on the day that they killed Jesus.
Now, why would God tell us that?
Why do we care if they used to be bad to each other
and now they're friends?
So what?
Because God is using that as a symbolism
of what's going to happen before his second coming.
This ties into both the first coming of Christ
and the second coming of Christ.
You see, at the first coming of Christ,
the heathen raged.
They were angry.
Jesus said, the world hates me
because I testify of the works thereof are evil.
The rulers took counsel together,
symbolized by Pilate and Herod coming together
and taking counsel.
He says that in Acts 4-27.
And, of course, Jesus Christ
did not take the kingdom at that time.
He ascended up into heaven.
He'll come again to take the kingdom.
Now, if you would, look at verse 28.
It says, they were gathered together
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel
determined before to be done.
Now, you see, wasn't it God's plan all along
that Jesus would be crucified
and that he would die on the cross?
The Bible says he was the lamb slain
from the foundation of the world in Revelation 13.
So it's not like Jesus came on the scene
and they killed him and God was surprised by that.
No.
It was all planned.
He sent his son to be the savior of the world.
And the Bible says he's the lamb slain
from the foundation of the world.
Now, people get mixed up on it.
It's funny.
It never ceases to make me how foolish
some kind of people can be.
Remember Nicodemus asked that dumb question?
Because, you know, Nicodemus was this really theological,
you know, he was a ruler of the Jews
and he was an expert in the Bible.
And Jesus talks about being born again,
and he's like, so, you know, do we enter the second time
into our mother's womb to be born?
I mean, wasn't that kind of a dumb question?
Oh, so we're gonna crawl up into our mother's womb
and be born again?
Now, isn't that dumb?
You know, there are still modern-day Nicodemusists today
that ask dumb questions like that.
Like, this is what somebody said to me.
So if Jesus was slain from the foundation of the world,
you know, where did that take place?
Was he nailed to a cross in heaven?
And these dispensational brain-dead followers
of Peter Ruckman,
that's who comes up with this kind of nonsense,
the modern-day Nicodemusists, who say,
oh, Jesus, this is what they say,
in the Old Testament, Jesus hadn't died on the cross yet,
so people couldn't go to heaven
because Jesus hadn't died on the cross yet.
And you say, the lamb's slain from the foundation of the world.
Well, where did that happen?
Like, why do I have to explain it to you?
If the Bible says it, why don't you just believe it?
But here's what's ridiculous.
They actually think, oh, yeah, he's physically nailed up
somewhere else before the foundation of the world.
Look, you know why it says he was the lamb slain
from the foundation of the world?
Because when God said it was going to happen,
it was as good as if it had happened.
Amen.
Because when God says it's going to happen,
like, look, has Satan been cast into hell yet?
No.
Has the millennial reign of Christ taken place yet?
No.
Has God destroyed this earth yet?
No.
But guess what?
Those things will happen,
and nothing will stop them from happening.
And so it's not this retarded doctrine,
and that's the only way to describe it.
This retarded doctrine that says,
well, in the Old Testament, people couldn't go to heaven yet
because Jesus hadn't died on the cross.
I guess, what, just because God just wanted to make sure
he's really going to go through with it?
Well, I better wait until it actually happens.
You know, I better wait and see here.
Look, he already knew it was going to happen
because when he says something's going to happen,
it happens.
And all the stuff he says is going to happen in Revelation
that hasn't happened yet?
It's going to happen.
And Jesus Christ, before the foundation of the world,
the Bible says in hope of eternal life,
which God that cannot lie promised before the world began.
And Jesus promised before the world began
that he was going to be crucified.
That's good enough right there.
And that's why in Isaiah 53 it uses the past tense.
700 years, dispensationalist.
Weirdo.
700 years before Jesus died on the cross.
You know what the Bible says?
He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him.
And by his stripes, we are healed.
So don't tell me that people in the Old Testament weren't saved.
Isaiah said, I'm healed by his stripes.
I'm saved because Jesus died on the cross for me.
I am going to heaven because of what he did on the cross,
Isaiah 53.
And then they turn around and say,
well, he hadn't done it yet.
Well, that didn't seem to bother Isaiah when he preached it.
Didn't seem to bother him from saying it already happened.
He was killed because he was from the foundation of the world,
the savior.
Because he dwells outside of time.
He dwells in eternity.
He's God, folks.
And so I don't know how I got off on that.
But I've been wanting to get that off my chest for a long time.
But oh yeah, verse 28.
For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel
determined before to be done.
So God already had decided what the plan of salvation would be.
He knew that Jesus would be crucified.
He planned his death, burial, and resurrection.
It wasn't an accident.
It was something he knew about before he even
created the planet, according to the Bible,
according to Revelation 13.
So therefore, Pilate and Herod, they
thought they had all this power, didn't they?
And remember Pilate says, knowest thou not
that I have power to release thee and I
have power to condemn thee?
And Jesus looked at them and said,
thou wouldest have no power at all against me,
except it were given thee from heaven.
You remember that?
He looked to Pilate and said to him, flat out,
because Pilate's trying to intimidate him
and tell him what to do.
And he wouldn't answer Pilate.
And Pilate's like, you don't know who you're dealing with.
You don't know what kind of power I have over you.
And Jesus looked at Pilate and said,
you have no power except the power that I give you.
And that scared Pilate when he heard that.
And then Pilate was trying to let him go and everything,
because he realized that it was true.
He was the son of God.
He walked in.
He said, who art thou?
What cometh thou?
And Jesus wouldn't answer.
Why?
Because Pilate and Herod, they think they have all this power.
They think they have all this power as they crucify Jesus.
And then later, Herod killed James, the disciple James,
with the sword.
And he thinks he's got all this power.
And you know what God's doing up in heaven the whole time?
Laughing at him and saying, you know what?
I already knew this was going to happen.
You're the one that's going to be destroyed.
You're the one that's going to hell.
The guy that you're crucifying,
the guy that you're hanging on the cross,
the guy that you're fighting and bickering whether or not
to put a sign over his head that says,
this is Jesus, the king of the Jews,
or whether it should say he said he was the king of the Jews.
There's no difference.
Because if he said he's the king of the Jews,
he is the king of the Jews.
Because what he says in reality are one and the same.
And if they argued about what kind of a sign
to put over his head, he's thinking to himself,
you know what?
I'm ruling over this whole thing anyway.
You're nobody.
You're going to be broken like a piece of pottery.
You're going to be dashed with a rod of iron.
But you see, the same thing surrounds his second coming.
Look at verse 29.
And now, Lord, behold their threatenings,
and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness
they may speak thy word.
And so just to wrap it up, the same type of thing
is going on today in preparation for the second coming of Christ.
Now, we don't know when the second coming of Christ
will be.
We know that there are certain things that will happen first.
We know the rundown that the Bible gives us
in Matthew 24 and elsewhere, Mark 13.
But you see, just as those symbolic things happen,
before Christ comes again, the rulers of this world
and the kings of the earth will take counsel together
and will be joined together again.
The Bible's clear in Revelation 13.
They will form a one-world government.
That's clear.
Read Revelation 13.
Read Psalm 2.
It's very clear.
Revelation 17 is another one that clearly lays that out.
They're going to be joined together,
and they're going to have a plan,
and they're going to have an imagination
of dominating the entire world.
People have had the same idea in the past.
Adolf Hitler comes to mind?
Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great?
You know people like that?
Probably the person who came the closest to doing it
was probably Adolf Hitler.
And obviously God just stopped him
because it was not what God wanted to happen.
But I'll tell you this.
They have an imagination of world domination
and world conquest and a one-world government
and a throwing off of God and Christ and the Bible
and religion and righteousness
and bringing in their own satanic order.
And let me tell you something.
They'll accomplish it for about five minutes.
And when they say peace and safety,
then sudden destruction will come upon them, the Bible says,
as travel upon a woman with child
when they shall not escape.
You see, and I'll close with this.
Psalm 37.
Go back to Psalm 37.
I'm skipping over the last page.
I go to the conclusion.
Psalm 37.
You say, what did we learn from this?
We get all these biblical facts and doctrines
about Jesus Christ, His death, eternal resurrection,
His first time He came, the second time He's coming,
His millennial kingdom when He's gonna rule and reign,
the first time when He came to be the sacrificial Lamb of God
which taketh away the sins of the world.
How do we apply that today?
Well, first of all, we need to just stand in awe of it.
First of all, we just need to back up and say,
wow, this is an amazing story.
This is an amazing book.
This is an amazing God that we serve.
Such infinite wisdom and power.
But not only that, here's a practical application.
Look at Psalm 37.
And this is a great passage when things aren't going your way.
Look at verse 1.
Friend not thyself because of evildoers.
Neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity,
for they shall soon be cut down like the grass
and wither as the green herb.
He says, don't get all bent out of shape
when you see the wicked raging,
when you see the heathen raging,
when you see people blaspheming God and blaspheming Jesus
and hating on the Bible and hating on church.
He says, trust in the Lord and do good.
So shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed.
Delight thyself also in the Lord
and He shall give thee the desires of thy heart.
Commit thy way unto the Lord.
Trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass
and He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light
and thy judgment as the new day.
Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him.
Friend not thyself because of the prosper in His way
because of the man who bringeth wicked device to pass.
Look at verse 8.
Here's the key.
Cease from anger and forsake wrath.
He says, look, chill out, relax.
So what?
What are you so worked up about?
He says, for evildoers shall be cut off,
but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.
You know, don't get so upset when you see the wicked prosper.
And you know, sometimes it gets you mad.
I mean, sometimes more than others,
but you ever just get mad
when you see all the bad stuff going on in the world
and all the evil in this world
and all the people that are hurting innocent people
and, you know, you get mad about what our government's doing,
you get mad about what other governments are doing,
and you just get so mad you just say, God, what's going on here?
And you know what, God's just calmly in heaven
just laughing at it, saying, you know what?
There's a timetable that I'm on here
when I'm going to pour out my wrath of fury
and I will right every wrong.
You don't have to right every wrong.
You don't have to fix every...
You know, just trust in the Lord, do good, serve Him,
preach the Gospel, get people saved,
live according to His commandments,
but you don't have to fix all the problems in this world
because He's saying, you know, I'm going to fix it.
And He's the only one that can fix it.
So don't fret about it.
Don't, you know, bite your nails and sweat
and be awake at night.
What are we going to do?
What's our country going to do?
You know, I'll just laugh at it and say, you know what?
Let's go soul-willing.
Let's read the Bible.
Let's go to church.
Let's praise God's name.
This life's but a vapor.
We'll be in heaven for all eternity.
God's just laughing it off because He's saying,
you know what?
Nothing can stop the fact that they're going to be destroyed
and I'm going to beat them down with a rod of iron
and rule at right now.
And so if you really understand this morning's sermon
and really get it down and really understand,
especially Psalm 37, what He's saying here,
you know, it'll probably add years to your life
because you're not going to be so mad and stressed
and angry and, you know, you can just have peace
knowing that all they can do is kill the body.
They can't kill the soul.
They can rage.
They can stone Stephen.
But what does that get them?
Nothing.
Stephen today and the people who threw stones at him today,
you know, they're in a much different situation
than they were in that story in Acts chapter 7
because Stephen's up in heaven right now.
A lot of those people who stoned him are in hell right now.
Okay, so don't fret about it.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, thank you so much for your word, dear God,
and thank you for salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
What a blessing it is to know that we're saved
and that you will take care of every wrong in this world.
Just please help us to rely and trust in you to do so
and not to try to always take things into our own hands
and to get so worked up, dear God.
Help us to do the best we can to stand up for what's right
and to fight against what's wrong
and to fight against the spiritual wickedness in high places
and fight against the ungodliness of false religion
and lies and Satan.
But God, help us to realize at the end of the day
that we're just a foot soldier in your army
and that really you're the one who is going to have to fix things.
And just help us to rely on you and trust in you
and do the best we can.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.