1. "God is the boss of government. This is where man's desire to self-rule comes in. We want to be the boss, we want to rule. Consequently, wherever we find ourselves in, even places like government, that's going to rise up against anything that seeks to live by and operate out of the standard set by God." - 45:13

2. "In a world of chaos and Evil, God is Not phased. He has a plan, that plan is Jesus, and now is the time for everyone to get on board with that plan." - 38:12

3. "These verses remind us of man's desire for self-rule. We don't want to be under the authority of God, we want to rule ourselves. This shows just how much people don't want to be under the authority of God." - 41:38

4. "God gives his authority to different government agencies so that they, on God's behalf, can justly exercise The Authority that God gives them. Governments on their own do not have any Authority, the only Authority that governments have is the authority that God has instituted to them." - 43:01

5. "Jesus acknowledges that he is King and that the truth points to this. When one knows the truth, they will then operate out of that truth. The truth that Jesus is speaking to is the fact that the coming Christ is going to come, he's going to conquer sin of death and he's going to make all the wrongs of the world right." - 34:52

Yes, crisis. It says Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus, and asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?"

"Is that your own idea?" Jesus asked, "or did others talk to you about me?"

"Am I a Jew?" Pilate replied. "Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?"

Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place."

"You are a king, then?" said Pilate.

Jesus answered, "You say correctly that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."

This is a remarkable conversation. Jesus acknowledges that he is King and that the truth points to this, and that when one knows the truth, they will then operate out of that truth.

See, Pilate, he did not know the truth. Even here, with Jesus' confession of being the king, he did not know and did not operate out of that truth.

What is the truth, though, that Jesus is speaking to? It's the fact that Scripture speaks to the coming Christ, who is going to conquer sin and death, and he's going to make all the wrongs of the world right.

In our Psalm today, as we look at Psalm chapter 2, this is a specific passage in Scripture that really speaks about this exact truth that Jesus is talking about in John 18.

So let's look here at this passage of Scripture, and it will also be up on our screen here this morning.

So Psalm chapter 2, there are 12 verses:

"Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, 'Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.'

The one enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. He rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, 'I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.'

I will proclaim the Lord's decree: He said to me, 'You are my son; today I have become your father. Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will break them with a rod of iron; you will dash them to pieces like pottery.'

Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and celebrate his rule with trembling. Kiss his son, or he will be angry and your way will lead to destruction, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him."

Our Psalm here this morning, Psalm chapter 2, is one of the most heavily quoted Psalms in all of the New Testament. If you were to look in your Bible, most Bibles do not indicate the authorship of Psalm chapter 2. When you go through all the Psalms, at the very beginning, you will see "A Psalm of Asaph" or "A Psalm of David." Most Bibles don't actually tell you who this is, but we can look through the New Testament, specifically Acts chapter 4, verse 25, where Peter quotes this Psalm.

In quoting this Psalm, he actually attributes it to David. So in attributing it to David, we can see that this Psalm then is a Psalm of David. When we think about that, it gives us a little bit more insight into the background of the Psalm and why the psalmist here is saying what he's actually saying.

So as we look now and we're going to break this Psalm down, let's look at this Psalm from 10,000 feet. Now, I know we have a lot of pilots that come to our church, right? So this is for you pilots. This is the 10,000-foot view. When you're looking down at this Psalm, this is what the broad view of this Psalm will actually say:

In a world of chaos and evil, God is not phased. He has a plan, and that plan is Jesus. Now is the time for everyone to get on board with that plan.

This is the Psalm from 10,000 feet. So we're going to break it down into three different sections.

It's going to start with verses 1 to 3, which we’re going to call a worldwide rebellion. Then we're going to look at verses 4 to 9, which is God's response to the rebellion. Finally, we're going to look at verses 10 to 12, which is the call to act.

So let's start with a worldwide rebellion. Verses 1 to 3 say:

"Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, 'Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.'"

These first three verses give us a lot of insight into the struggle for power that King David was experiencing during his time as a king. But it also gives us insight into the condition of man.

You see, when we read these three verses, David is actually speaking from personal experience. He is the king at this point, the king of Israel, and he actually has other nations that are coming against him, conspiring, wanting to kill him, remove him from the throne so that they can come and take it for themselves.

So you have these exterior rulers and kings coming against him, but he's also experiencing this internal power struggle where his own family members are coming against him, wanting to knock him off the throne and take it for themselves.

So this is very real for David. I'm sure that when he's writing this Psalm, he is recalling the covenant that he has with God. You can read that covenant in 2 Samuel chapter 7. The prophet Nathan comes to David and he says, "This is the covenant that God wants to establish with you," and he says, "Your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever; your throne shall be established forever."

So David is understanding that him being king and what was coming against him really wasn't just about him, but this was also when other kings and rulers are coming against him. This is about them wanting to actually try to overthrow and end what God has already authorized.

See, God has appointed David to be king, and out of the line of David will come the Messiah. So when kings and rulers and nations are coming against David, it's not just about him as a person; it's about who he represents—the coming Messiah.

So no wonder that all these evil powers in the world are seeking to remove David from the throne. This is a real picture that David is living.

But there's also something else going on here, and these verses give us a picture into the condition of man. Dr. David Tripp says that these verses remind him of man's desire for self-rule.

We see this specifically in verse 3: "Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles." This is the kings and the rulers of the world saying, "Let us break off these chains. Let's break away from God and his rule. Break these shackles. God, you are shackling us. We don't want to be under your authority anymore."

That is the view of these kings. So what they're really saying is, "We don't want to be under the authority of God. We want to rule ourselves."

See, this shows just how much people don't want to be under the authority of God. And what often happens is when we realize that we have this propensity within us for self-rule, for self-autonomy, we bring this to every part of our lives.

We bring this to how we deal with finances, how we manage our families, how we run a business, institutions, education, governments. And even here, in this case, we see specific inferences to government with kings and rulers.

David is talking about specific governments coming against him. I want to speak really quickly about government because I think we have kind of maybe a bit of an incomplete picture of what the purpose of government really is supposed to be.

You know, when we look at Romans chapter 13, I think it's pretty clear. God gives his authority to different government agencies so that they, on God's behalf, can justly exercise the authority that God gives them. Governments on their own do not have any authority. The only authority that governments have is the authority that God has instituted to them.

I believe Scripture teaches that there are three different God-ordained institutions: one, the family; two, the church; three, governments. And all three of these are accountable to God. He has authorized them to act on his behalf. Therefore, there is a standard in which they are to operate.

Government fits into this same standard. In fact, they are designed to be a tool that God uses, and he wants them to use the authority that he then gives them to do two things: to refrain from and punish evil, and to promote good.

That is what God is authorizing government to do. And the standard then for how government is supposed to operate—what is the standard for what is punishable and what is good? Well, it is God's word. God authorizes government, and out of that authorization, he says, "The standard now is my word."

So governments, you are held to account for how you operate. Churches are held to account for how we operate. Families are held to account for how we operate. That is what it means to be a God-ordained institution.

See, all governments have to recognize that they are indeed a God-ordained institution and, as such, have to operate as God intends. God is the boss of government.

This is where man's desire to self-rule, though, comes in: the rule, our propensity to want to be the boss. We bring it to all these different institutions. We want to be the boss; we want to rule.

Consequently, wherever we find ourselves, even in places like government, that's going to rise up against anything that seeks to live by and operate out of the standard set by God.

And this is really the world that we are living in today. Think about these God-ordained institutions. Evil is always going to try to oppose that which God has authorized, including family, including church, including government.

So evil is going to want to try to take those things because this is power that they do not have. Evil does not have the power that God has. He has his power, and he's authorizing these institutions, and the power of evil wants it for themselves because they want to rule.

So we see, even in a day like today, how much stuff is coming against the family, how much stuff is coming against even just what it means to be made in the image of God as a human, how much stuff is coming against the church, how much stuff is being inflicted through governments that are corrupt and not acting the way that God has intended them to.

This is the worldwide rebellion that David is living in. Everyone wants to rise up to go against the Lord and his anointed and to shed their authority from him.

That's the worldwide rebellion. But how does God respond?

Verses 4 to 9 say:

"The one enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. He rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, 'I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.'"

Okay, we're going to just stop there.

So the kings and the rulers of the world have all come against God in his rule, and they've made this statement: "We want to now be the boss. We want control. We are going to start calling the shots."

And before we look at God's response, I want us to notice where God is. God is enthroned in heaven. God is seated on his throne in heaven.

If you were to quickly look back at verse 1, David starts off with this question: "Why do the nations conspire?" I mean, why do you think they would even attempt this? Why would you think that overthrowing the God of the universe, who is seated on his throne in heaven, is even possible?

Come on, like why? This is insanity. What makes you think that you can actually do this? And David recognizes this. If David recognizes this, imagine how God sees this looking at it.

See, think how God sees our rebellion, which really is like a coup that's designed to knock God off his throne and place themselves on it instead. That's really what this is.

He responds by laughing, by scoffing, by rebuking. See, this is a response from an all-knowing, all-powerful God who knows that he and he alone is sovereign and in charge, and there is nothing on earth, there's nothing in any other power or principality, or nothing in heaven, there's nothing in this universe that can give him a challenge.

There's no power or principality that actually has God worried. This is why he's sitting enthroned. He's not sitting here pacing, wandering back and forth, trying to figure out how do I deal with this. That's not the picture we see. He's not worried at all about this.

In fact, even in this moment when he's laughing and scoffing, you guys are trying to do this, well, kings and rulers, there's a bit of a snag that you're going to find yourself hitting here: I have already installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.

See, the manner in which God responds to the kings of the earth is that after he does his thing—composes, laughs, scoffs, and rebukes—he lets them know that there's zero chance that they're ever going to be king. Zero chance.

In fact, God, in his sovereignty, has already declared a king. Guys, you can't be king because I've already named one. I've already named one. He is currently sitting on the throne right now.

D.A. Carson puts it this way: "The Lord neither negotiates with the rebels nor adjusts himself to suit their demands, but simply reaffirms his royal plan. His king is installed, and that is the end of the matter."

So who is the king? As we keep reading in verses 7 to 9, we actually see these three verses, 7 to 9. This is now the king that has been installed speaking.

So God responds, "I've already installed my king. Here he is. I'm going to let him speak."

Verses 7 to 9 say:

"I will proclaim the Lord's decree: He said to me, 'You are my son; today I have become your father. Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will break them with a rod of iron; you will dash them to pieces like pottery.'"

Well, you might have an idea who this king is, but the whole idea of starting off with John chapter 18 shows us that the truth speaks to who the king is.

Let's have a look at what some of this truth, God's word, says. This whole idea, "You are my son," think about Matthew 3:17: "And a voice from heaven said, 'This is my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.'"

Somebody just got baptized. I don't know who it is. Do you guys know who that was?

Next, "Today I have become your father." The word that is usually used here is the word "begotten." Today you are begotten of the Father.

The word "begotten" means to be brought forth, to be born from. Well, think of Colossians 1:18: "He is also the head of the body, the church, and is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself will come to have first place in everything."

To be begotten, to be brought forth, the first person from the dead. Do we know of somebody that died on a cross and rose again? I don't know. Does that ring a bell at all?

Let me finish, Chad. Let me finish.

"Keep saying the nations will be his inheritance, the ends of the earth his possession." Revelation 21:3: "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will be with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be among them and be their God.'"

Does this make sense?

"He's going to break them with a rod of iron." Revelation 19:15: "From his mouth comes a sharp sword so that with it he may strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron."

"He's going to dash them into pieces of pottery." To the church in Thyatira, Revelation 2:27: "And he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken into pieces, as I also received authority from my father."

Who is this king that God has already installed? It's Jesus.