What in the world is going on?
Notes
Transcript
What in the world is going on?
Text: Psalm 2:1–12 (KJV 1900)
1 Why do the heathen rage, And the people imagine a vain thing? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, 3 Let us break their bands asunder, And cast away their cords from us.
4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: The Lord shall have them in derision. 5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, And vex them in his sore displeasure. 6 Yet have I set my king Upon my holy hill of Zion. 7 I will declare the decree: The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; This day have I begotten thee. 8 Ask of me, And I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, And the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. 9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. 10 Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: Be instructed, ye judges of the earth. 11 Serve the Lord with fear, And rejoice with trembling. 12 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.
Introduction:
* What is going on with the world today?
* We live in very uncertain and frightening times.
* Most of us have lived out our lives in a time when the “Fear of God” has prevailed in our society.
* We grew up in a time when society, as a whole, had a reverence for the Bible and the things of God.
* When I grew up, we didn’t lock the doors when we left home for a few hours, We didn’t lock our doors for fear of someone harming us in the night.
* These things did not come by accident to us. The safety and freedom we have all enjoyed in our lifetime was the result of churches full of men and women who taught their families to fear God.
* Children were taught the fear of the lord. Children were taught that the Bible is the Word of God, and that it was a Holy book!
* Most people think that the world holy means, good or sinless, but the world holy means “Not like anything else,” “set apart.”
* Children grew up with the knowledge that God and the Bible was “high and set apart,” holy and was to be feared and revered.
* Over the last couple of generations this understand of God and the Bible has gradually been changing.
* One of the biggest contributors to this has been the systematic breakdown of the basic building block of society, the family.
* The God ordained institution of marriage and family has been under attack by the Devil and ungodly men and women for several generations.
* This breakdown of the family started with the change in attitude about divorce. Now more than half of all marriages in this county end in divorce.
* We have become like the people just before God judged the world the first time with the flood.
* Listen to the words of Jesus as he described the condition that the world would be in right before He comes back to judge the world again:
Luke 17:23–30 (KJV 1900)
24 For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.
25 But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.
* Friends, we are living in the last few years before Jesus comes back not as a savior, but as the Judge of this wicked world. Jesus said here though, that He must suffer many things and be rejected of this generation.
* What generation, Jesus’s generation or the generations that will be alive on the earth when Jesus comes back to judge the earth?
* Jesus here is referring to this generation in which we live right now, the generation that will see the return of Jesus to judge the world!
2 Thessalonians 2:2–12 (KJV 1900)
3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first,
* The Bible teaches that just before Jesus comes back to judge the world, there will be a great Apostasy, or turning away from God.
* Notice that this must happen just before the Anti-Christ is revealed:
and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. 5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: 9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
* Now back to what Jesus said in Like 17:
26 And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. 27 They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. 28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; 29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
30 Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
* As I said before, we are living in very frightening and uncertain times!
* It seems the world has gone crazy!
* Things are happening in the world today that make us wonder what is going on in the world:
* The ungodly people, (heathen), have taken over the government and are using the government to wage war against God in our society.
* All these things were predicted by Jesus in Matthew 25, where Jesus spoke to his disciples of the end of the world:
Matthew 24:4–12 (KJV 1900)
4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. 5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
* There will be an increase of church that preach in the name of Christ, but do not know Christ. There are the ones that tell Jesus about all the good works they did in his name, but Jesus will them the “Depart from me for I never knew you.”
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars:
* We have just been through the greatest attack on America since Pearl Harbor and two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now at this very moment, communist North Korea has declared war on the United States and South Korea. North Korea this week moved a nuclear missile to the shoreline, and aimed it at the United States.
* The United States for the last week has flying B52 bombers along the border that divides North and South Korea.
* This week, the US moved a floating radar base of the shore of North Korea to detect any missile launches, and re-activated dozens of missile silos in the southern us that had been previously de-commissioned.
* As we speak Iran is embattled with the United Nations over it’s nuclear program and continues to threaten to nuke Jerusalem.
* At the same time, that Arab world has been in turmoil with what is being referred to as the “Arab Spring.” The Arab nations believe that the Mahadeed of the Koran, their messiah, is re-aligning the Muslim nations of Syria, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and pockets of Muslims planted in every nation around the world in order to carry out a Jihad against all those who will not become Muslims.
* The world is poised to begin World War III! The Chinese are obligated to back North Korea, Russia is allied with the Chinese, the US is obligated to defend South Korea. The US is also obligated by treaty to defend Israel. The entire world is a hotbed of wars and rumors of wars.
* Then we turn our attention to the Middle East, where every nation in the world is telling Israel that they must give up her land to the Muslim Palestinians in order for the world to have peace. All of the Muslim nations are poised to go to war with Israel and all her allies like the United States and Great Brittan.
* This is exactly the way Jesus said things would be right before He comes back!
* Jesus went on to say in Matthew 24 and verse 6:
see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
* We are now living in the days just before the return of Jesus. Jesus called this “the beginning of sorrows”
* Economist are warning of a total collapse of the world’s financial systems.
* In the past year we have seen the collapse of the economy of the nation of Greece.
* In the past weeks we saw the nation of Cyprus, freeze the bank accounts of their entire population for two weeks, while they decided whether or not to withdraw money directly from the bank accounts of their citizens to repay the bailout by the European Union.
* We are being warned of a looming food crisis that will affect the entire world.
* I read last week that Egypt has no wheat and now is in a dire position because they now have no reserve wheat resources.
* We are being warned that genetic engineering of our seed supplies has corrupted our seed supplies, and some groups are claiming that this is going to lead to failed crops and the inability to produce enough food to feed the world’s population.
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. 10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
* We are now seeing this come to pass before our very eyes. We are now in the very beginning, but things are going to get much, much worse.
* Those who follow Christ and the Bible have become the most hated group upon the face of the earth. If you stand with the Bible against this sins of homosexuality and abortion, then you called a hatemonger and a bigot! We are called racists, haters and bigots when we teach what the Bible says about controversial subjects.
* And now even our own children, who have been brainwashed by the worlds system, are turning against for what we believe!
* Soon the day will be upon us that Jesus had told us about:
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. 10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. 12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
* As a result of these things, the false preachers and churches, men like Rick Warren, will try to remain friends with the world and deny the real Jesus.
* By this will men and women be drawn away from the real Jesus to a Jesus of the world own making that loves unconditionally and will never judge anyone’s sin.
* This is that “great falling away” of the days just before Jesus comes back and judges the Earth.
Who are the heathen?
The primary interpretation of this passage.
* This Moring I would like to answer the question that is posed to us in our text: “Why do the heathen rage?”
* In order to do this, I must take you to a companion scripture to Psalms 2, Romans chapter 1 starting with verse 18:
Why do the heathen rage?
Romans 1:18–32 (KJV 1900)
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
* The ungodly, the heathen, are mad that God has the audacity to judge them.
* The first thing that comes up in a conversation with someone who hates God is “The Bible says you are not supposed to Judge?” They try to use the Bible, which they hate, to set you straight! Now that makes a lot of sense doesn’t it?
* That’s exactly what the Devil did when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness. He misquoted and misused the Bible against Jesus!
* The heathen in our text verse say “Who is God, and who are these Christians, that they should Judge us? Why should we be limited, or tied down, by these Bible thumpers! We ought to be free to live any way we want to!
* And so the heathen, the ungodly men of our day are trying to shut us up by falsely accusing us of hatred and bigotry.
* The heathen, or the ungodly men and women of this generation cannot meet the resistance of the preaching of the Word of God with reason and wisdom, so all they can do to move the masses of people against God and those who follow Him, is to out yell us and talk over us.
* Have you ever watched a television interview between a Christian and an ungodly liberal? They intimidate, talk over, interrupt, and ignore. They don’t reason with a Godly person with well thought answers, but the use these thug like tactics to silence the Christian.
* This reminds me of the book of Acts where when Steven reasoned with the Jewish people and told them that they were guilty of murdering the Son of God, the Bible says that they could not resist the reasoning and wisdom of Steven, so they were reduced to gnashing upon him with their teeth and stoning him to death.
* The world we live in is saying Silence the Christians! Silence the voice of God! And my friend this is not going to stop with words. Even now the violence against true Christians has begun!
* This is exactly why we are seeing our religious freedoms that we have enjoyed for over 200 years being slowly stripped away from us. The heathen want to silence the Voice of the Word of God, and the only way to do that is by taking away our religious freedoms.
* Now, they do this in such a way that it is ok, or “politically correct,” for them to speak against Christians and the Bible, but is not ok for the Christians to speak out about anything.
* If you have ever watched video footage of confrontations between the Gay rights folks, and the power grabbing liberal union thugs, when the Christian exercises his freedom of speech, the ungodly chant and yell over the Christians.
* When I used to preach at Brushy Mountain Prison, the Muslim inmates would come to the services and chant in order to silence the preaching of the Word of God.
* When the heathen of our day don’t like what the Christian has to say, they attack his character; they hurl curse words at him!
* If the reason and wisdom of the Christian is seen to overpower their argument, then they resort to violence and threats and a mob mentality. We have all seen video footage of this in the news in recent months!
20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
* The first attack on God was to remove God as the creator. This was a deception by the heathen, in the name of science, fueled by the Devil, an carried out using government mandated public schools.
21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
I want you to notice the similarity of words used here in Romans chapter 1, and in our text back in Psalms chapter 2- Psalms chapter 2 says:
1 Why do the heathen rage, And the people imagine a vain thing?
Romans 1:21 says: “but they became vain in their imaginations.”
* Now you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that one of two things have happened here- either the apostle Paul is directly quoting Psalms 2 here in Romans 1, or the Holy Spirit lead Paul to write down, and the men who translated what Paul wrote in Greek to exactly match what David had written down in Hebrew.
* Either way, this is no coincidence that the words are the same in both passages of the Bible.
* (By the way, this is another evidence that the Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit, and preserved by the Holy Spirit.)
22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
* The world has been cramming down the throats of our children for decades the lie that they were not created in the image of God, but they are like the animals.
* Our modern generations has no problem with people who behave like animals and glory in unclean and acts of lusts and dishonor their bodies, because they have been systematically brainwashed and desensitized to perversion.
24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
* You see, this generation, more than any other, has changed the truth of “Who God is,” our creator, into a lie. The lie of evolution!
* Now that man has been liberated from his creator in his mind, just like the Devil did, mankind has begun to worship himself. Man has become his own God! Man serves himself more than the Creator!
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters
* My friend there is no one who hates God more that a person who has given him or herself over to sexual perversion. Why is this?
* Well the reason is simple- they know that God has said He will judge them for their sin! They love their sin, so they deceive themselves and tell themselves what I am doing is ok because there is no God! I am not created by anyone, so I will have to answer to no one!
, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
This is why the heathen rage.