When The Son Is Crowned Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Politicians speak of vast conspiracies against them, but the real conspiracy is that of the nations of the world in revolt against God. Psalm 2 tells us that God sits in heaven, laughing at man's attempt to remove him from society. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, the world is full of evil powers drawing their energy from the prince of the power of the air. I guess they're all in for a rude awakening someday.

Dave, they really are. Centuries after Psalm 2 was written, Jesus is born in Bethlehem, and Jesus Christ becomes the answer to man's evil, to all of the conspiracies that are against God. And of course, Jesus came as Savior, but all of us also know that someday he will come as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

My friend, God has it all under control. I won't even have you guess how many different times it has been my privilege to celebrate Christmas, all the different seasons of my life, but I always look forward to Christmas. And no matter how often I hear Christmas music, I always want to hear it again.

You never tire of it. It touches your heart, it touches your emotions, and it instructs you. I have in my hand a CD entitled In All of His Glory, recorded from the Moody Church, the choir, and the orchestra.

All of your favorites are here, favorites such as All is Well, In All of His Glory, which indeed is the title of the CD, Merry Did You Know, Sleigh Ride, Hodie, and a whole host of others. If you are interested in receiving this, not just for yourself, but it would be a wonderful Christmas gift, here's what you do. You go to rtwoffer.com.

That's rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now let us open our Bibles and once again go to Psalm 2, where we see the triumph of Jesus, who was born in Bethlehem. But there's plenty of evidence that he laughs at something stupid. And this is stupidity. He who sits in the heavens laughs.

I mean it is funny. Ants in a field saying we're going to band together and not allow the farmer and his plow and his tractor to disturb our nest. Give me a break.

Fish in the ocean saying we own these waters and we are going to band together and prevent an aircraft carrier from coming into our waters. Excuse me. He who sits in the heavens laughs. You're going to take on God and win? Laugh.

That is funny. God laughs and God says not only am I laughing, I'm also installing. He says I am putting a king on my holy hill of Zion.

In fact, he says, I've already done it. Zion is Jerusalem. We sing glorious things of the earth spoken Zion city of our God. Zion was one of the hills of Jerusalem. You can go to Jerusalem today and you can see Mount Zion, but actually Zion in the scriptures has come to represent all of Jerusalem. And God says, I've put my king on the holy hill of Zion. Jesus has been installed as king.

You read it and you say, wait a moment. This was written 3000 years ago. And where is Jesus in Jerusalem today?

Answer. He's not ruling there. Chaos is. But Jesus isn't.

But I love this text. First of all, because it's in the past tense, God says, I have installed my king. As far as God is concerned, the Bible says he calls those things that are not as if they are. And he's speaking about the return of Jesus. And he's saying that there is a time when Jesus is going to come back to earth and Jesus is going to install his kingdom there on Mount Zion. And he's going to rule from Jerusalem and Isaiah, the prophet, his prophecy will have been fulfilled when he says the law shall go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations and shall rebuke many people and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation.

Neither shall they learn war anymore. Jesus installed in Jerusalem. He's coming back to the Mount of Olives. The Bible says when he does, it's going to split in two north to south. He's going to establish his kingdom.

He's going to rule as king. That's God's answer to man's rebellion. You say, well, where are we going to be at that point? You're going to have a heavenly body already.

That is a glorified body, because whether you believe that the church goes through the tribulation or is spared from the tribulation, you do believe that at the glorious return of Jesus, which is spoken of here, at that point, most assuredly, we will have been translated. We will have met the Lord in the air and we will be like him or we shall see him as he is and we shall actually rule with him in the kingdom. He's going to have a place for us to rule. And all of you who have cleaned up so well here for Sunday morning today and look so good, you're going to look so much better in your glorified state.

Isn't that wonderful? And as for those who have died, who have rebelled against God and will have died before those events, they will be raised at the end of this period to give an account because God says every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And my answer to man's rebellion is my anointed king. That's what God says his answer is. And it's coming.

It's coming. It's going to all turn out all right. Did you know that?

I'll take four claps today. So that's the voice. That's the voice now of the father. The father says, I've installed my king.

It's a done deal. That's the decree. In fact, now we have the voice of the son.

He's speaking. And here we pick it up in verse seven to nine. I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, that says Jesus now speaking. You are my son. Today have I begotten you. Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage. God is saying, just ask me and I'll do for you whatever you want. I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession.

You will break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. It's the voice of the father also still speaking about the son. But the Lord said to me, Jesus is quoting here, the words that the father told him.

And what is it that he said? It says, you are my son. Today have I begotten you. Now, Jesus in one sense has been the son throughout all of eternity because he's the second member of the Trinity. He therefore is God, a very God. We worship Jesus just as we worship the father. What a lovely hymn we began this meeting with as we sang about to thee the great one in three. We worship the spirit. We worship the son. We worship the father. But we worship one God. And we don't believe that three is equal to one, by the way.

It's not a contradictory proposition because we don't believe in three gods. But Jesus is saying today, he says, you have begotten me. There's a sense in which Jesus was begotten to be the king of Israel when he came in the incarnation and was raised from the dead. You see, when God made it a covenant with David, he says, David, I'm going to give you a son and that son, he says, is going to rule. And he says, I shall be a father to him and he shall be a son to me. That part of the sonship could have never been fulfilled until Jesus was incarnated because that son had to be related to David genealogically. That son had to be a human being, though we know him to be a divine human being. And so it says in Acts chapter 13, it quotes this passage and it says this was fulfilled when God raised Jesus from the dead. So there is a kind of sonship that Jesus had to earn through the incarnation that would enable him to be the king about which this passage is speaking. And so it says, the father said to me, you are my son.

Today I've begotten you. You are going to be installed now as Israel's king. And you can ask of me and I will give you all of the nations. In fact, I will give you the ends of the earth as your possession. We sing, Jesus shall reign where ere the sun doth its successive journeys run.

He's going to reign over all of the earth. And then it says, you shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Now, I do need to ask you the question, what is the imagery here? Well, in Old Testament times during those eras, sometimes a pharaoh would take all the vessels of a competing country. Vessels were often used in worship, and therefore they symbolize the gods of the different nations. That's why you have such concern today in such mythology that grew up around the Holy Grail. It's all mythology. Nobody knows what happened to the cup that Jesus used.

But there's such interest in it because vessels were often used in pagan rituals. Well, the imagery here comes to us from that where a king might then take his scepter and smash all of the rival gods or the vessels that belong to rival nations. And Jesus here is spoken of very harshly. This is the meek and mild Jesus, by the way, of confronting all of the opposition and all of the opposing gods and taking complete control over them and bringing this world into subjection to himself as king of kings and of Lord of lords. Jesus will rule. Jesus will be king. And so you know the answer to our problem today as we look around us and we see this opposition to Jesus, to the anointed, and to the father, we see the opposition, is to know that God says, I have installed my king who will rule and it's a done deal.

It's finished. I think it was Spurgeon who says that hell cannot erase a single line of God's purposes. He says that skeptics cannot cut a single twig from the forest of God's promises. Atheists, God bless the atheists. They cannot pluck a single flower from the garden of God's decree.

And Satan cannot dilute a single drop of the ocean of God's power. I want you to know today God is in control. It's OK. It's going to come out all right. I love to tell that old story about the boy who is reading the novel in the living room. His mother said, come, come do the dishes. And he said, no, mom, I can't because right now I'm in chapter six. And he says the villain, actually the villain, he says, has the hero down and he's about to kill the hero, the good guy. He says, I have to see how it turns out.

But she persisted as most mothers do. So he very quickly flipped to the back of the book and he read it. And there he discovered that everything turned out OK. The villain died and the hero won. And when the boy went into the kitchen, he said, you know, the villain is doing OK in chapter six.

But is he ever in for a shock when he gets to the last page? I'm here today to tell you that we have read the last page. Jesus will reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The last three verses are really the voice of the Holy Spirit calling us to respond. Verse 10, now therefore, O kings, be wise, be warned, O rulers of the earth, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.

Kiss the sun lest he be angry and you perish in the way for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. What it's saying is, in light of what you know, you had best get on the side of Jesus in this particular struggle. It says, therefore, be wise, be warned, O rulers, serve the Lord with fear. Yes, rejoice, but do it with trembling because Jesus is King. Jesus is God.

And you had better watch what you think and whom you believe in this struggle. And then I like the translation that says, kiss the sun, because that's what the Hebrew says. I know that many translations say, do homage.

Well, that's actually the idea. But literally, it is kiss the sun. And this also was a custom with which people would have been acquainted. There are three different kisses in scripture, at least. First of all, there was the kiss of Judas that was a kiss of deception. You remember, he told the authorities, he says, whichever one I kiss, because Jesus was picked up in the darkness and they didn't know who to arrest, whichever one I kiss, he's the one that you should take and arrest. So Judas goes over to him and Jesus says to him, friend, why are you coming to me? And Judas has some words with Jesus, some words of beautiful comfort and interaction and kisses him. That is the kiss of deception.

There are people like that today. They look at Jesus and they give lip service to Jesus and they sing songs about Jesus and they admire Jesus, but they still don't belong to Jesus. That's the kiss of deception.

And sometimes you and I can't tell the difference. Judas looked like one of the pack, actually. In fact, the disciples didn't know that he was a deceiver, which is mind boggling to think that they were together with him for three years and never picked up on it. There's also the kiss of reconciliation. Jacob and Esau, you remember, they were out and they hadn't seen each other for 20 years and there were hard feelings between them and they went and they kissed one another. It's the kind of reconciliation that you see in the story of the prodigal son, the boy who's in the wilderness and in the far country and he comes back with the smell of pigs and the father gives him a hug and kisses him. It's the kiss of reconciliation.

It's us and Jesus being reconciled. There's that kiss too. But then there's a third kiss and that is the kiss of worship. You remember Mary in the New Testament and also a prostitute in the New Testament to be distinguished from Mary of Bethany. Both of them, they opened a flask of ointment and they anointed Jesus and one of them wiped his feet with her hair and kissed his feet. Now that's the kind of kiss that is spoken of here.

It's the kiss of adoration and worship. And what the text is saying is in light of what is happening in the world, in light of the fact that there is a winner who has already been declared by the father as having won, and in light of the fact that all people are going to have to give an account to him in the world to come and explain their actions and the truth is going to come out, in light of that, kiss the son lest he be angry, the Bible says, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. Blessed are the ones who know that they are sinners and who come and trust Christ as Savior and believe on him as the one to carry their sin away.

Because when you stand in the presence of a holy God, what you are going to need is the righteousness of Jesus to stand there. Blessed are those who come to be forgiven, come to be reconciled, and come to worship. Bottom line, let's all smile.

It's going to end very much. Okay. All right. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you today for the triumph of Jesus. We thank you that there is no slippage in your purposes, that not one single line, not one single line of your promises is in doubt. We thank you today for Christ who is Lord, who is God, who is King, whom you have already installed to reign and to judge. We thank you. Thank you for all the opposition that we receive because we know, Lord, that in the end, if we endure well, we shall reign with him.

Thank you for your mercy, for those who have never trusted Christ as Savior, even now overcome their objections and cause them to believe. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. My friend, I don't know about you, but I'm sure glad that I was born since Jesus Christ came in Bethlehem. And you know, I don't know how many different Christmases I have celebrated, but I need to say that every year I love Christmas music and I believe that you do too. I'm holding in my hands a CD entitled In All of His Glory, recorded here at the Moody Church with our choir and orchestra.

For a gift of any amount, it can be yours. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com.

That's rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. The name of the CD, this resource, In All of His Glory. It's time again for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question you may have about the Bible or the Christian life. Pastor Lutzer, a listener got in touch with us, concerned about something you teach.

Here's his question. I've heard you say that infants go to heaven when they die, but does that not violate the verse that says no one comes to God but through Jesus? What about others who don't have a chance to hear the gospel before they die? An excellent question.

As a matter of fact, you've asked two good questions. First of all, regarding infants, I do believe that they go to heaven when they die. And there's evidence for this in scripture. And if you're asking how to reconcile that with the fact that no man comes to the Father except by me, the words of Jesus, I do believe that God includes their sin in the death of Jesus. I believe that they are saved on the basis of what Jesus Christ did on the cross, because they are in a position where they can make no rational decision on their own.

Whatever I say about infants, I also say about those with mental disabilities who are really not able to make rational, informed decisions. I believe that they go to heaven as well. And it is indeed because of Jesus, their sin credited to his account. Now, the other question that you ask is, what about others who don't have a chance to hear the gospel before they die? That is entirely different, because here you're talking about adults, you're talking about people who can respond to truth. And the Bible says that unsaved people, they suppress the truth in unrighteousness. By the way, you know, children can't do that. They're not in a position to be able to do that.

The babies are those who have these limitations. But there are people out there who are responding to truth, and they're responding negatively. And maybe they've never heard the gospel.

Bottom line. God will judge people with what they did with what they knew. He who knew God's will, but did it not, shall be beaten with many stripes. The person who didn't know God's will, will receive lesser punishment. So remember that the way in which people respond to nature and to conscience is going to determine the degree of judgment that they will receive. Well, there's much more that I could say about that, but I hope that that starts you thinking about these very important matters. Thank you, Dr. Lutzer, for helping all of us think carefully about these matters. If you'd like to hear your question answered, go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer. Or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337.

That's 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. When God chose to communicate how He cares for us, He gave us the picture of a shepherd tending his flock. Shepherds, they do much more than guide their sheep to food and water. They take a personal interest in every sheep. Next time on Running to Win, we look into the writings of David, a shepherd turned king, and learn from his famous 23rd Psalm. For Dr. Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.