WELCOME
Good morning First Baptist. We welcome you to worship this morning. Be sure to remember your brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the week as you pray for them, and as the Holy Spirit brings their faces to your mind. Be sure to also connect with them in the ways that are possible. And if you have any questions or would like to talk to someone, please don’t hesitate to contact the church through the church telephone and leave a message. (519-733-4144)
Songs
Call to Worship
We open our hearts and spirits today to hear the great good news of His power and presence within His people.
Lord, fill our hearts with rejoicing, enliven us and remind us that you are with us, through the Spirit amongst us, through the magnificent words of the psalmist, through the ministry and love of Jesus Christ.
Good Morning FBK….WELCOME TO WORSHIP!
Songs
Prayer
Prayer of Confession & Assurance
The act of confessing our sin is not simply a recitation of our faults and wrongs, but also an opportunity to receive God’s mercy and share in that abundant grace. Confident of God’s love for us, let us offer our prayers, first in silence.
We think we know so much, O God, and with our meager knowledge we presume to judge others. We arrogantly announce our own righteousness without a compassionate thought. We proclaim your word when it suits us and often only to those with whom we want to associate. We shut others out because of our faulty judgment and our blindness. There have been so many times in which our humble help would have been a blessing to someone, but we have placed our comforts before serving others. In the competing voices of today’s world, we have turned around and around, trying to find the way to live. Help us, merciful God, to again listen to you. Help us to truly open our hearts to you. Remind us again of your great love and presence in our lives. Forgive us our foolishness and our stubbornness. Create in us new spirits, filled with your love, offering peace and hope to all. In Jesus’ Name we pray. AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon:
Quiet your hearts, Church of God, for God is speaking to you with love.
Rest your spirits, open your lives to God’s power and presence and above all, do not be afraid. God is with us, now and for all time. AMEN.
Psalms for the Season
Psalm 2
Today's Message: Pastor Dave Page
Cancel Culture is an increasingly common term you hear today – But what exactly does that mean?
Cancel Culture is a modern form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of a social or professional circle, whether it be online, on social media, or in person. Those who are subject to this ostracism are said to have been “canceled”. And while it may be proper for whistleblowers to reveal corruption and illegal activities, cancel culture takes it a step further. It makes up new rules to retaliate against speech, behaviour, or even personal opinion that has been pre-judged as offensive, controversial or irrelevant. And often, rather than dealing with a specific incident, it results in boycotting businesses or people. This has ruined many people’s lives even though they haven’t broken any laws.
So, why would I begin a message focused on Psalm 2 by talking about cancel culture…we’ll get to that in a moment….
In case you missed our message last week- we opened our discussion of The Book of Psalms, we said that as literature, this is a collection of inspired poetry and songs, and it serves as a timeless reflection of the human experience in its various seasons – joy, sorrow, gratitude, and, at times, rebellion. Today, we delve into what I really see as the 2nd part of the introduction to the Psalms – Psalm 1&2. And perhaps in His knowing that we would not choose the path of righteousness offered to us in Psalm 1, Psalm 2, becomes this very powerful composition that addresses the rebellion of humanity against the sovereignty of God.
Join me in reading Psalm 2….
Scripture Reading: Psalm 2
1 Why do the nations conspire
and the peoples plot in vain?
2 The kings of the earth rise up
and the rulers band together
against the Lord and against his anointed, saying,
3 “Let us break their chains
and throw off their shackles.”4 The One enthroned in heaven laughs;
the Lord scoffs at them.
5 He rebukes them in his anger
and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,
6 “I have installed my king
on Zion, my holy mountain.”7 I will proclaim the Lord’s decree:
He said to me, “You are my son;
today I have become your father.
8 Ask me,
and I will make the nations your inheritance,
the ends of the earth your possession.
9 You will break them with a rod of iron;
you will dash them to pieces like pottery.”10 Therefore, you kings, be wise;
be warned, you rulers of the earth.
11 Serve the Lord with fear
and celebrate his rule with trembling.
12 Kiss his son, or he will be angry
and your way will lead to your destruction,
for his wrath can flare up in a moment.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
Cancel Culture is not a new phenomenon in the tapestry of God’s creation. Our culture seems to be increasingly permeated with the assertion that “all truth is relative”. Everyone has “their truth” and what is true for one person is not true for another person. A new “slogan” for today’s culture is “inclusion” and/or “tolerance”. Now there’s nothing wrong at all with inclusion and tolerance except that in so many instances in the world today, a heart for inclusion and tolerance often comes with an asterisk – for anything or anyone that even hints of absolute truth. Our culture has an increasingly difficult time tolerating, let alone accepting absolutes, hence in the cultural discussion around each of us there is the push for being “politically correct” and for even more reasons, we have developed this “cancel culture”.
You see, what this Psalm shows us today, is the absolute truth that the Lord God created a moral universe with absolutes ultimately, and this is an inescapable fact of reality. If the Psalmist were writing today I think they would pen something like “Life is more than simply logic applied”… and when the proverbial dust settles, we will all come to realize that our call to fear the Lord and in humility follow His ways and become like His Son is not just a truth to be debated, it’s an absolute that will be played out in God’s own timing.
So, none of this is new – it begins in Genesis 3 and Psalm 2 is one of many passages that points this out.
I read this psalm as an excellent example of a warning against an ancient near east cancel culture. It’s as if God says to a rebellious humankind, “OK! Cancel me – Rebel against me all you want. No matter what you do, what I’ve determined will come to pass, it will come to pass! Look! It’s as good as done. I have installed my King on Zion, my holy mountain”
There’s a story about a man who once met Horace Greely, the famous newspaper editor of the New Yorker and the Tribune, on the street and said, “Mr. Greely, I have stopped your paper.” “Have you?” Mr. Greely said, “that’s too bad,” and went on his way. The next morning, Mr. Greely met the man again, and said, “I thought you had stopped the Tribune?” “So I did,” was the reply. “Then there must be some mistake,” said Mr. Greely, “for I just came from the office and the presses were running, the clerks were as busy as ever, the compositors were hard at work, and the business was going on as yesterday and the day before.” “Oh,” said the man, “I didn’t mean I had stopped the entire newspaper. I meant that I had stopped my copy of it because I didn’t like your editorials.”
In the same way, sometimes this can be us too. When we rebel against God, we are like this man who proudly announces to Horace Greely that he had stopped his newspaper. We think that if we cancel and reject God’s rule in our lives in any area, that we will stop God’s rule in the earth. That is not the way this works!
Whether a person rebels against God’s rule in their life or submits to God’s rule in their life, God is going to do what God is going to do. God has declared that one day, despite humankind’s rebellion; Jesus Christ will reign upon the earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
Where our discussion of Psalm 1 last week landed squarely in the realm of the sovereignty and necessity of God’s law and will for our lives. This week, for our discussion of Psalm 2, we land squarely at the feet of the Messiah, Jesus.
Now, let me say something about that. To understand this psalm, we must realize that on one level it applies to King David. The schemes of these rulers against the Lord and His anointed are rooted in a time in David’s reign when some of his allegiant nations sought to rebel (such as 2 Samuel 10, when the Ammonites and Syrians rebelled). The Author, likely David although he is not shown here as the author, writes this song to show the ridiculousness of rebellion against God’s anointed king because of the promises God had made to that king. And so, on one level, Psalm 2:1‑3 refers to those rebel kings and their attempts to shake off David’s rule over them.
But, it is also obvious that the psalm goes far beyond David’s experience. It is ultimately fulfilled only in God’s Anointed (Hebrew, “Messiah”), God’s Son who is also David’s son, the Lord Jesus Christ. In a deeper and much more complete way, this psalm is about Messiah Jesus, and just as these kings rebelled against King David, so all of us have rebelled against King Jesus.
God’s word teaches that:
SATAN IS THE ARCHITECT OF THIS REBELLION.
Isaiah 14:12‑14 describes the rebellion of Satan in heaven against God. When he fell, he led a portion of the angels with him. Under his authority, these demons now wage war against God and the righteous angels. Our world is one of those theatres for this great struggle to take place. Man was created in the image of God and placed on earth to reflect God’s image and rule as His representatives over His creation. But the Scriptures also teach that …
ALL PEOPLE ARE IMPACTED BY SATAN IN HIS REBELLION AGAINST GOD.
When Adam and Eve succumbed to Satan’s temptation and disobeyed God, the human race fell into sin and thus came under God’s judgment; the serpent of temptation is cursed by God. But even in His curse upon the serpent, God pointed to the way of redemption that He had planned for fallen man:
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He [the woman’s seed] shall bruise you [the serpent] on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel” (Genesis 3:15).
Messiah Jesus, born of a woman, would be bruised on the heel by Satan in death as the sin‑ bearer for the fallen race, but He would bruise Satan upon the head in His triumphant victory over sin and death in His resurrection from the grave. By bringing people from every nation under the lordship of God’s Anointed, Jesus, ultimately the rebellion of Satan is thwarted.
Meanwhile, where is God in all this rebellion? Did He go to sleep? Has He lost control? No, the psalmist goes on to show that even though the nations have rebelled against God – God is sovereign (Psalm 2:4‑9).
Notice, that God doesn’t even get up from His throne to deal with these schemes of rebellious kings: “He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them” (Psalm 2:4).
This doesn’t mean that God gets a kick out of humanity’s rebellion or its catastrophic results.
“‘As I live!’ declares the Lord God, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live’” (Ezekiel 33:11).
Instead, God’s laughter shows the ridiculous nature of rebelling against Him. It shows us that …
Psalm 2:4‑6.
All through the expanse of time, Mighty men and women rise and proudly think that they’re so great and powerful. They cancel God, moving ever farther to a posture of self-reliance. God laughs: “You’ve got to be kidding!” “He removes kings and establishes kings” (Daniel 2:21) according to His will. The mighty Nebuchadnezzar, the greatest ruler on the earth in his day, grew proud and attributed his greatness to himself. God humbled him with a strange disease, so that he lived in the fields and ate grass like a beast, until he learned that
“the Most High is the ruler over the realm of mankind, and bestows it on whomever He wishes”
(Daniel 4:25)
Let me assure you that God is not worried about humanity’s rebellion against Him? He isn’t sitting on the edge of heaven, biting His nails, and saying, “Oh, what am I going to do?” He lets us go on for a while in our rebellion, but then our prideful plans will come to nothing. It’s God’s plan that will prevail. The psalmist thus goes on to show that …
Psalm 2:7‑9.
This plan centres on the person and the power of God’s Messiah, His Anointed one.
The person of Messiah (2:7): Verse seven obviously goes beyond David to Christ. The verse is quoted several times in the New Testament with reference to Jesus (Acts 13:33; Hebrews 1:5; 5:5).
God’s predetermined plan for dealing with humanity’s rebellion involves the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, whom God sent into the world to pay the penalty for that rebellion (John 3:16; Galatians 4:4). He died according to the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God at the hands of godless men (Acts 2:23; 4:27-28). But God raised Him from the dead and He ascended to heaven, where He is now waiting to return with power. That’s the second part of God’s plan:
The power of Messiah (Psalm 2:8‑9): Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, will return bodily to this earth in power and glory to crush all opposition and to reign in righteousness from David’s throne. John describes his vision of the Lord Jesus in that great day in Revelation 19:15‑16:
“And from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may smite the nations; and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, ‘KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.’”
That is God’s plan for dealing with both a rebellious humanity and with Satan and His forces. His plan involves the Second Person of the Trinity, the eternal Son of God, who is going to return to this earth in power to put down all rebellion and to rule in righteousness. If you accept that as truth then the question begs itself – how should we respond to this truth?
Psalm 2:10‑12. We must submit to God and His Anointed while there is time.
And, in many ways, that takes us back to Psalm 1 – we have a choice, we have to decide….are we going to submit our lives to God in Christ or not?
It is not just the proud kings of David’s day who have rebelled against the Lord and His Anointed.
“All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
We have all, in our own way, said toward God,
“Let us break their chains
and throw off their shackles.” (Psalm 2:3).
We’ve all said, “I’ll do it my way!”
At first glance, you would have thought that everyone would welcome God’s Messiah, who came to save us from our sins. But the issue isn’t just salvation. Jesus didn’t come to save us so that we could get a free ticket to heaven and then go our own way. The issue is one of lordship. That’s the key theme in this psalm. The Lord’s Anointed is the King who will reign, if not by our willing submission now, then by another form of submission when He comes again. This is going to make some in our culture bristle when I say this but it’s an absolute truth: He does not take second place to anyone. Every knee shall bow!
Here’s some application to consider, it’s the insistence of Psalm 2:10-12:
- Be wise – perhaps you might receive this today as a reminder, possibly a warning…At the very least something worthwhile to meditate on this week – What is God calling me to be wise about in my life???
- Serve Him – what is he calling you to do in his kingdom – Job fair after service today, how might you line up your giftings with your desire to honour Him and participate in the church in some way.
- And then the encouragement is for us to kiss him. Meaning, make Jesus the Lord of your life, your whole life. Do you remember the last vs of Psalm 1 – For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction. That doesn’t feel very good does it ? But consider this….on our own…
You can’t find peace and safety anywhere in the world, but only in Jesus does that truly come. Many years ago, in the facing of a rapidly changing world, a retired couple, alarmed by the threat of nuclear war, studied all the inhabited places on earth, looking for the place where they could most likely escape the threat of war. They studied and traveled and traveled and studied. Finally, they found the perfect place: a small, obscure island off the coast of South America. You know them as the Falkland Islands. They moved to the Falkland Islands just before Britain invaded to reclaim that territory from Argentina!
World chaos and war will only increase as His coming draws near. If we can’t escape it, what can we do? The last line of the Psalm is God’s gracious invitation: “How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!”
Don’t run from God; run to Him!
Even as we witness the chaos in the world on the news channels this week, be confident that you can be truly happy and blessed by taking refuge in our God.
“Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”
Prayer
What have we done, Lord? We want to praise you, so we splash your words on screens on a wall, with brightly coloured and powerful images. We shout your praises, with hands held on high. We teach and preach your word. But we don’t listen carefully for you. We are so busy trying to shout above the noise of the day, that we don’t take time to really listen and know you. The voices of the prophets spoke to people long ago who were too busy and anxious to hear. Their words streamed in the winds of time and have come to us. We need to pay attention to your message offered through them.
You are our God, the God of all creation, the God of power and love, whose mercy is offered to us. In Jesus’ time, he proclaimed the good news through words and actions, reaching out to those who were troubled, alienated, cast aside. He offered healing and hope to those others turned away. Help us to learn that you alone can heal us and fix those areas in our lives that are wounded and twisted. Help us to understand that you alone can offer to us a new way of life through Jesus Christ. Remind us again that as we have spoken the names of people and situations that concern us, praying for your healing touch, that the same touch is offered to us in Jesus’ name. Lord, we need to let go of our control issues and place our trust wholly in you. Now and forever. AMEN.
Song
Benediction
Jesus comes to us, offering healing and hope, speaking with grace and authority.
Listen to him.
Go into this world, confident in God’s love and healing power.
Go in peace and may God’s love and peace always be with you. AMEN.
Blessings, Have a great week!