807. God’s Message to the Nations

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina.

The school was founded in 1927 by the evangelist Dr. Bob Jones Sr. His intent was to make a school where Christ would be the center of everything so he established daily chapel services. Today that tradition continues with fervent biblical preaching from The University Chapel platform. Today on The Daily Platform, we're continuing a study series entitled Return of the King, which is a study of the second coming of Christ. Today's message will be preached by Dr. Mark Minnick, pastor of Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina. It's a real privilege to have the opportunity of participating in this series.

So grateful to Dr. Pettit for the invitation. This series, as you know, deals with an area of theology that is massive. And that is the area of eschatology.

And I was first really impressed with how massive it is. In a graduate class here that was taught by one of the most beloved members of our Bible and seminary faculty for many, many decades, Dr. Stuart Custer, who went to be with the Lord two years ago. One of his most anticipated seminary classes was on New Testament eschatology. And when you went into that class the very first day, he informed you that in the New Testament alone, there are some 1,500 prophetic verses. And then he announced to you that he would be discussing every single one of those verses and that you would be required to know the interpretation for his tests. These were in the days, of course, when you took notes with a pen or pencil.

I still have my very thick file folder of all those little microscopic notes that I took in that class. So when you're dealing with something that is so broad, it's tremendously helpful to be able to find a passage or two in scripture in which God condenses the fundamental components of that down to something that's really manageable. And we have a passage like that in our Old Testament that I'd like to invite you to open your Bibles to this morning. It's in the book of Psalms. And I want to remind us as we turn in Psalms that this book that is the believer's primary devotional book in the Bible isn't just devotional, but it's actually the Old Testament book that New Testament authors quote most frequently in confirming New Testament theology. And the passage that we're going to be looking at this morning, the second Psalm, is one of the bedrock passages when it comes to this whole area of scripture theology, the area of eschatology. Now what I'd like to do this morning for the sake of time is just take it stanza by stanza without reading the entirety of it first. And I don't have it up on that PowerPoint, so you'll have to reference it in your own copy of scripture, but we are going to look at some cross-referencing on the PowerPoint this morning. This first stanza consists of three verses, and they concern something called the nations.

I'll read it. Why do the heathen, that is the Hebrew word goyim, and it's translated elsewhere in our Old Testament, Gentiles and nations. Why do the nations rage and the people imagine a vain thing? And then it goes on and narrows to the heads of state among the nations, the kings of the earth, and the rulers. And it tells us that they're taking counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, and what they say in their conferences, though they don't put it in these words, their policy proposals amount to exactly this in divine viewpoint. They are conferring in order to break there, that is the Lord's and His anointed's, to break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. Now I want to raise the question first of all this morning as to who and what these nations are.

And I'm going to take you back to the very beginning. This is the last verse of the tenth chapter of Genesis, and the chapters just preceding this are the flood chapters. After the flood there's Noah and his three sons, and the tenth chapter tells us of the descendants of Noah's sons, Shem, Ham, Japheth, their descendants. These are the families, the last verse of that chapter says, of the sons of Noah after their generations, in their nations, and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood. There are some seventy families in that chapter.

Today there are a hundred and ninety-five recognized nations. That is what this psalm is referring to, these nations. Now what is it saying that they're doing? The passage says that they are raging and imagining. This is divine viewpoint. From God's viewpoint, those national entities, particularly as concentrated in their governing officers, their kings, their heads of state, their parliament, we would say for our country, our senate, our house of representative, our executive branch, our legal branch, from divine viewpoint they are raging against God, and against his anointed.

Who is that? That word translated anointed is the Hebrew word Mashiach. And in English we say that how? That is the word Messiah. They're raging against the Lord and against his Messiah. And what are they imagining in their rage? God summarizes it all in just one verse. Their imagination is that they can cast off God's moral restraints on them to break the bands asunder.

How far are they willing to go with that? The next chapter of Genesis records for us that these people groups banded together, as you know, to build a great tower. God looked at it and this is what he said, that the people is one, they all have one language, and I want to take your attention down to the end of the verse, and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. And those of us in this room, of course, who are over a half century old, that sounds ancient, but 50, 60, 70 years of age in this country, we today are confronted with things nearly every day in the headlines that it would have been difficult for us in our youth to ever imagine would be public policy in this country today. In other words, if you will just stop and think of illustrations of this, divorce and remarriage laws, freedom to abort a baby, the marriage of people of the same gender.

From divine viewpoint, these are the nations attempting to free themselves from God's moral bonds and they do it in the laws and policies that they propose. Now, the next stanza of this psalm gives to us the response of God. Verse 4, he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh.

The Lord shall have them in derision. Dr. Bob Senior, who founded this school, said your arm is too short to box with God. You probably have seen a father with a small child and the boy wants to box and he's fiercely pummeling the air. His dad just has his hand on the boy's forehead. The boy can't even begin to reach him. Now, when we see something like that, it's humorous, but when this verse says that he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, God is not laughing because he takes this as being something that is humorous.

This is a derisive laugh. God is holding them in ridicule at the thought that they actually could throw off all of his restraint. And you see that when you go to the fifth verse because it says then he's going to speak to them in his wrath. And God's message to the nations from the time of the Tower of Babel, from the time that he scattered them in the earth and he built into the race and he built into the geography of his scattering of them, he built in these divisions in Christ and in the church there is a unity. But the will of God before people come together in that unity is that to a certain degree they remain nationalized and separate.

Why is that? Because if they get together, there's no stopping what they'll try to do. So God has one message for them. And the message is in the final verse of that stanza. I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion.

And the message in essence is that there is but one ruler. And all of the earth can locate him. He is identified here in terms of the geography of his installation.

I have set or I have installed, some of the translations render it, or some of them render it, I have anointed him on my holy hill of Zion. And you know of course when you look at the Old Testament scriptures that Zion is a particular city in the earth. And even more specifically, after Solomon built his temple on the mount of that city, that temple spot known today as the temple mount, you can envision it in your mind by the dome of the rock, that great golden edifice that is the top of the temple mount. Here's a space that's 35 acres, that's about 24 football fields in its acreage.

That's smaller than the campus of Bob Jones University. But it is the most disputed piece of territory on the globe today. And God says there's but one king, and he's installed there.

That's how you know him when you find him. Now the third stanza of the psalm is the speech of that king. And the seventh verse of the psalm begins this way, I will declare the decree the Lord hath said unto me. In other words you've got a speaker here and he's declaring what the Lord said to him.

The rebellion is against the Lord and his Mashiach. The Lord says I've installed my king. And now the next speaker in the psalm says yes and I'll tell you what the Lord said to me. The Lord said to me you are my son and today I have begotten you. Have you ever read that verse and been a little confused by it? Have you ever wondered if that's actually a reference to Jesus Christ, Jesus the Messiah, if he's the speaker but God says to him I've begotten you, that sounds as if he was a created being. Well it's real important that we understand that phrase and it has a lot to do with our understanding of the eschatology of this passage and the big picture.

And that's really the point of the message this morning. I was asked to do something that's the big picture. What's the whole plan? In the midst of this whole history of the raging nations from the Tower of Babel right up to the present and right through to the end when the king comes back, what's the plan?

Well it includes this. You're my son, today I've begotten you. What do those words mean? There are two passages in the book of Acts and we're going to kind of balloon here now for a moment. There are two passages in the book of Acts that are necessary to understand in order to properly interpret that passage. And the first of those passages is in the fourth chapter of Acts and this is after the apostles have, it's interesting I should just mention this, Peter has just been used of the Lord to raise this lame man at the gate beautiful at that temple mount.

And they've preached to the people the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. They have been arrested and all the chief officials, the passage tells us the rulers of Israel, Annas and Caiaphas and all the kindred of the high priests and all the elders, they gather together, they meet with Peter and John, they hear them, they command them not to speak any more in the name of Jesus or preach any more in his name and that's when you have Peter's famous response whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you or unto God you judge. And the rulers threaten them, these are the same rulers who just crucified Christ, the rulers threaten them and Peter and John go back to their own company.

The Bible says that they pray and their prayer is scripturally informed and this is how they pray. By the mouth of your servant David you have said, now look at those words, they're quoting the first two verses of Psalm 2. And then they go on and they say this, of a truth against your holy child Jesus whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles, they're heads of state, here are the Gentiles, here's Herod he's a ruler, here's Pontius Pilate he's a ruler, and the people of Israel, he comes into his own and his own don't receive him either, and the people of Israel, they're all gathered together and they're gathered together to do whatever God's hand and counsel have determined before to be done. Now what had God's counsel determined before to be done? Well, go back to it, the kings of the earth stood up, the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ, and the early church understands that that verse was fulfilled when Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, and Israel all gathered together against God's holy child Jesus whom he anointed, alright, and what do they do? Acts 13.

This is the Apostle Paul preaching at Antioch of Pisidia some years later, and he too quotes the second Psalm, and it really picks up the story line from Acts 4. Though they found no cause of death in him, yet they desired Pilate that he should be slain, and when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, you remember that when the early church prayed they said what they did, they did in fulfillment of what you had determined should be done. Paul's saying the same thing, they fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and they laid him in a sepulcher.

I want to pause right here. Folks, I want to take us back in our minds to what God said in Genesis 11. If these people hang together, there will be nothing restrained from them which they imagine to do. And when you read that early on in your Bible and you wonder, well what would the nations come up with to do if they were able to have their way? And Psalm 2 says they would actually cast off the totality of the restraint of God and of his Messiah. And if you ask yourself, well how far would they be willing to go? You give it about a thousand years from when David wrote that Psalm and what they will do is murder him. That is how far they will go. When God said it in Genesis 11, he was right.

If they get together, there's nothing that will restrain them. But the next verse says, but God raised him from the dead. Folks, what do you do if you have such animosity and hatred for someone that you murder him, but what do you do if he comes back? And that is exactly what this passage goes on and explains. Paul says, we declare unto you glad tidings how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God has fulfilled the same unto us their children. What promise did God make that is such glad tidings and he's fulfilled it?

Look at the next line. In that he raised Jesus up again like it's written in the second Psalm. And if you ask yourself, where in the second Psalm does it have any reference at all to the resurrection? Look at that line written in the second Psalm. Thou art my son this day I have begotten thee.

Folks, what is a begetting but a bringing to life? When did God bring his Messiah to life after they murdered him? You can see that raised up Jesus, I begotten thee. And that is the message that the anointed son has for all the nations of the world right through until the next verse. The next verse in Psalm 2 says, this is the Messiah.

He says, the Lord said to me, now you ask of me and I will give you all these nations for your inheritance. And he also said to me, and what you will do is you will break them with a rod of iron. That sounds severe.

It will be severe. The next line says, you will dash them in pieces like a Potter's vessel. And the fulfillment of that is something that Dr. Ormiston preached in the last message in this series, taking us right to Revelation 19 at the conclusion of the tribulation, when this person returns and out of his mouth goes a sharp sword that with it he should smite the nations and he will, here's the fulfillment of it. Well folks, when is that fulfilled? When is Psalm 2 fulfilled? When he rules them with a rod of iron.

When the king returns and the very next chapter in Revelation chapter 20, when for a thousand years this king reigns. And you and I want to remember this, the law of God must be vindicated. I want to say that again, the law of God must be vindicated. And the law of God is not a strange thing.

It is not unduly harsh, even with all of its penalties for breaking those bands asunder. The law of God is holy and righteous and good. Can you imagine living in a world where the law of God is enforced, if necessary, with an inflexible rod of iron, where the law and all of its penalties is upheld. Think of the safety of a world like that.

Think of the peace in a world like that. And for all of these centuries, man has never been reconciled to the law of God. He has never accepted it, even though it is in his conscience, the Bible tells us. So in the view of man, this is an unreasonable thing.

And the penalties of the law are unusually cruel. That's all got to be vindicated. It was vindicated in the first place at the cross. But folks, it will be vindicated as good and righteous and bringing peace, when for ten centuries, the king demonstrates this actually is the way things work best, is when the law of God is enforced that way. So that brings you to the very last stands of the Psalm, and we're out of time, but the last stands of the Psalm is an invitation.

It's actually a council to all the nations of the earth, to be wise, to be instructed. And this God, against whom you've mounted this universal insurrection, you need now to serve the Lord. And when it comes to the son, you need to do what Samuel did when he anointed Saul, and the Bible says he kissed Saul. That was an act of homage. And all the nations are told at the end of this Psalm, these things being the case, this being the plan, the fact that God himself laughs at your effort to box with him, you need to wise up and be instructed.

Instead of bowing up, you need to bow down, you need to kiss the son, and blessed is everyone who does that. And that, folks, is the great commission. That is Jesus saying, after his resurrection, I have all authority in the heavens, on the earth, you need to disciple all the nations, and you need to instruct them, folks, how does it go? You need to instruct them to keep all things whatsoever I have, what's the next word? Whatsoever I have what?

Commanded, that somebody is in charge. And Romans 10, 9, and 10 says, and I want to leave this with any of you individually, if you will believe in your heart that God did raise him like that, after the nations did their worst, God raised him. Do you believe that? And if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is what? What's it say? Confess with your mouth that Jesus is? If you will confess him to be Lord, then you'll be saved from the destruction to come.

But apart from that, men and women will be broken for all eternity, because this king will reign. Let's bow for prayer. Loving Heavenly Father, thank you for our time, thank you for your word. Help us by the ministry of your spirit to comprehend and to grasp for ourselves this message. We ask in Christ's precious name, amen. You've been listening to a sermon preached at Bob Jones University by Dr. Mark Minnick, which is part of the study series about the second coming of Christ. Join us again tomorrow as we continue this series here on The Daily Platform.