In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of choosing to serve God wholeheartedly. He states that there are only two sides in the world: those who are with the king (Jesus) and those who are against him. The preacher urges the congregation to let go of sin and turn away from any unhealthy relationships. He encourages them to repent and ask for forgiveness, promising that God is faithful to forgive and cleanse. The sermon concludes with an invitation for those who haven't been baptized to consider taking that step and fully committing their lives to Jesus.

The second psalm is a psalm that's written about an anointed king that God has put on the throne in Jerusalem. When he became king, some of the vassal states that were under him, some of the countries that he ruled over, felt like, uh-oh, they're weak right now. We can burst out from under this king. We don't have to sit under his heel or under his thumb. Let's break out and rebel against this Jewish king. In the Old Testament, in the psalms, especially with the early kings, David and Solomon, when you rebelled against the king, you were rebelling against God because the king was the extension of God's authority. This psalm, the occasion of this psalm, is about the reaction to these nations which are plotting, planning, cursing, raising their fist against God's leader, God's king. God has set his king upon the throne, but these people say, no, how about that? You won't rule over me. We're gonna break out. A lot of people think it's spoken of a Solomon because David was such a strong anointed king that when David died, Solomon, remember, was young, a little shaky, so a lot of people think this happened. It's very hard to date all the psalms and even who wrote them, but this one, a lot of the experts think was written around Solomon's early reign when the nations were saying, let's throw off this yoke. Let's get free from this stuff. We don't want to hear that God is operating through this king. The thing about this psalm is that it is used in the New Testament as a prophetic psalm about Jesus Christ and about God in another sense. It's not one of those psalms that talks about his death or his resurrection. No, it's a psalm that speaks of his government, the fact that Jesus is king and that God has set a king on the throne, and if you fight against that king, you will lose. So this psalm is about the great sovereignty of God and his power. So it has a double meaning as many Old Testament passages have. It has a meaning that's for that day, that king, maybe Solomon, right, what we just said, but it has a prophetic significance because it's speaking of Jesus. And in the book of Acts, when the church is persecuted, they quote this psalm when they start to pray. Very interesting. We'll read the whole psalm, then maybe go back over it. Why do the nations conspire and the people's plot in vain? See, this is now, think Old Testament, think Israel. The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his anointed one. Who's the anointed one? The king. He put on the throne. Let us break their chains, they say, and throw off their fetters. We're not letting them rule over us. The one enthroned in heaven laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, I have installed my king on Zion, my holy hill. I will proclaim, now someone else is speaking, it seems like the king. I will proclaim the decree of the Lord. He said to me, you are my son, today I've become your father. Ask of me and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession, and you will rule them with an iron scepter. You will dash them to pieces like pottery, those who rebel. Therefore, you kings, be wise. Be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son. In other words, bow down and worship him. Do obeisance to him, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way. For his wrath can flare up in a moment, but oh, how blessed are all who take refuge in him. That's the word of the Lord. See, that's a little different for you, isn't it? You're trying to place this and say, what is this saying? And you're not used to that language about God, but it's in the book. The whole counsel of God are not the verses you and I like, it's all the verses in the Bible. Okay, let's look at it again. Why do the nations conspire in the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his anointed one. Here's what they're saying. Let us break their chains, they say, and throw off their fetters. Let's just stop there. So a king of Israel has been put on the throne. He's God's anointed. God has given him authority to rule and reign over certain areas of the earth. And now the people are saying, we don't want that king. How about that? We don't want that king. We don't want him to rule over us. We're rebels. We're revolutionaries. We're going to have our way. Now the prophetic meaning of that, of course, is of Jesus. When they were persecuted, the early church, the first persecution they ever faced, they had done nothing wrong to anybody. In fact, they had healed somebody and they had thrown in a slammer. Peter and John were thrown in the slammer. And finally they were released, but they were warned, no more talking in the name of Jesus. You know what we did to him? No mention of Jesus. Stop that or else. So Peter and John are released. They go back to a big prayer meeting at somebody's house and they lift their voice up in prayer. And here's the prayer. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father, David. Why do the nations rage and the peoples of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one, Jesus? Indeed, Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed. So just as that early king was rebelled against, they are now seeing the world in a spiritual prophetic sense. And what they're saying is this. All the nations of the earth, they lift up their hands against the king that God has set on the throne, even King Jesus. And they say, just fulfilling the word of God, we don't want him to rule over us. Don't tell us there's right and wrong. Don't tell us when we die we have to be judged. We don't want that stuff. We don't want it in our schools. We don't want it in our history books. We don't want this God. We don't want this Jesus. We don't mind if you say God, if you say Allah, if you say Buddha, you can say all of that. But don't you say Jesus. I bought a book for my grandson on Friday. I bought two books. One book had little things you press and it makes noises. He likes those kind of books. We read it together. But I bought another book. It said ages two to four. I just saw the cover of the artwork and it was about friends and I thought, well, I'll give him that book too. We'll read it together. So I'm babysitting him, but he never left the first book. He just wanted to do those sounds and we did all of that. When Pastor Brian came to pick up his son, he went home with both the books. So the next day I get a call and they say, what kind of book did you give? I said, what do you mean? What are you talking about? I bought a book. It's for two to four year olds. What's wrong with the book? Oh yeah. Well, we were reading it out loud before we read it to him, just seeing what the book was about. And one friend says to the other friend, something like, oh, I want to know more about you. Let me tell you about my life. I have a mommy and a daddy and a brother. And then the other friend says, I have two mommies. No, see, that's fine. Glamorize sin. Get up in your grill and just rant at you. Don't give us this Jesus stuff. And all it does is fulfill the word of God. Why do the heathens rage and the kings of the earth imagine vain things? This is reality now. We live in a world which is very hostile to Christianity. You don't have to be in India or Bangladesh where I was. You don't have to be in Saudi Arabia. It's a subtle kind of opposition. You can talk about anything in this world. Let's real talk, okay? You can talk about anything in this society right now and people will say it's fine. Sex with animals, sex with children, any kind of filthy, horrible thing. You just say the name of Jesus and they will explode. But I got news for you. They're wasting their time because God has set his king upon the throne. Come on, can we say amen to that? God has set his king on the throne. And we don't have to get all up in arms and get all disturbed and rattled and lose our composure, which we're tempted to do. I was sick when my granddaughter called and told me that. She's like laughing at me. Papa, what kind of books are you buying for Levi? How would I know that? How sick is that? Ages two through four. But that's the society we live in. It's ungodly. It's going to get more ungodly. And all the kings of the earth and all the leaders are going to rage against the one that God has anointed and put on the throne. And they're raging right now. They rage in the U.N. I've been in certain business circles where the ungodliness of it, the lies of it, the opposition to Christianity, it would almost take your breath away. And you just say, just say those two syllables and the eyes just focus on it. Who did he ever hurt? Read the book. Who did he ever hurt? What did he ever say wrong? Why do they hate him so? Tell me what he did wrong. I'll reason with you. No. It's because sin and Satan has so stirred up opposition in people. They don't want to know. They're in denial. They hate that their conscience reminds them, you will die one day. And you will stand before God. And you will need a savior. They won't admit that. So they will rage. For they have chosen not to believe. It's not that they can't believe. The Bible says unbelief is a sin. If you can't believe, then it can't be a sin. How could God blame you for something you can't do? They have chosen not to believe. But notice what God says in these next verses. Let's go back to verse. The one enthroned in heaven, he laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. Now that's using human language to describe God's attitude like, are you kidding me? Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath. Just sends a few little earthquakes. Just shakes the earth a little bit. And everybody is, oh God, oh God. I thought you didn't believe in God. I believe in God right now. Help me God. Am I right? Now this is the word of God. I'm not making this up to manipulate your emotions. I'm reading the word of God. God scoffs. God looks at it like, you puny little ants on the earth. I just blow on you and you're gone. And you're raising your fist against the creator of the universe. The one who gave you breath. The one who put the stars in place. The one who created everything we see out of nothing. And you're raising your fist against me. Come on, let's put our hands together. So then God says, I have installed my king on Zion, my holy hill. So I want you to know tonight as you go home, God has a king sitting on his throne. And that king is named King Jesus. He's not American. He's not black. He's not white. He is King Jesus. We don't see him now fully in charge of everything. The Bible says he's waiting in heaven until God puts his enemies as a footstool so he can just rest his feet on his enemies. They're going to all bow before him. For every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess. Every enemy of the cross, the secular humanists, the demon possessed people, all false religions, all the people in this country which are so sick in their opposition to Jesus and Christ. They're all going to just be bowing and he'll lay his feet on them. When God sets his king on a hill, that king will have the last word. So there is a king sitting on a throne, but now we're waiting until all things are subjected to him. So now we see Christians persecuted. Where's God? He permits in his wisdom and sovereignty for Christians to die like Stephen and people in Bangladesh and other places. He permits a lot of things. He permits you and I to be opposed and hated for righteousness sake. He permits that. But it's not always going to be like that. One moment's going to come where God's going to say, enough is enough. I am going to establish my king. You know, one of the emperors of the Roman empire that persecuted the church the most probably was Diocletian. He wasn't one of the early emperors, like early after Julius Caesar and Augustus and Claudius and those. He was beyond that, after Caligula, after Nero. And under Diocletian, he hated Christians so much that they have found a medallion that was made in his reign because he's one of those people who burned Christians at the stake, fed them to the gladiators and to starved animals. Diocletian was one mean dude. They have a medal commemorating Diocletian, it says. They have found this, who eradicated the name of Christianity. They thought they were going to eradicate the name of Christianity. Nobody even knows who Diocletian is. How many know he's long gone? Jesus is building his church. And the gates of hell, come on, they cannot prevail against him. Everybody say hallelujah while you clap your hands. This is what this psalm is telling us, because at times in our life, you got to remember how this thing ends. We live now by faith. We don't see everything work out the way God is going to eventually work it out. But in the end, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess. So you be encouraged today, because I read to the end of the book, and I found out we win. And Christ is seated on the throne. You just be encouraged today. You feel like everybody's bombarding you, hating you, the bottoms dropping out. Just know God is with you. If I can just oppose all the modern day Christian emphasis, especially only in America, but mostly in America. It's spreading now, unfortunately, from America to other places. It's all on the here and now and money and materialism and all of that. But you go in other parts of the world, they have a more biblical Christianity, because the great hope of the early Christians was that Jesus is coming again. Do you believe that Jesus is coming again? And when he comes, all the people will mock him and curse him. Now, the Bible says they're going to say to the mountains, rocks fall on us and hide us from the wrath of the lamb. See, this is a picture of God we got to keep. Otherwise, we're going to get a sloppy, agape, mushy kind of Jesus. God's anger is one day going to be expressed against all these horrible things of teaching children about two mommies. Oh, God will express his anger. Well, Pastor, who are you to say? I'm not to say God's to say. And God is going to express his anger. That's why the psalm ends. Kiss the sun now before him today. Don't pick a fight with Jesus. If you're here today, I don't know why you would be here, not serving God on a Tuesday night prayer meeting. But if you're living some double life and you got something working that you think no one knows about, are you kidding me? God sees through it. And one day he's going to bring it into the light. And what you've whispered in a corner is going to be shouted from the rooftop. You know, the Broadway play that was on there years ago, your arms are too short to box with God. You can't fight God. That's why the Bible warns us, kiss the sun, lest he become angry in the way. Even when you rejoice, rejoice with a fear is our God is an awesome God. Can we give him one more hand clap of praise? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We love you, God. I never dreamed I would be saying these words tonight. But if you're here tonight, I want you to know God divides the world in just two parts. There's those who are with the king. There are those who are against the king. There is no fence you can sit on. You're either with the king and you'll reign with him in glory, or you're going to be with the crowd that's against the king that God is laughing at now and saying, go ahead, make your silly threats against my son. Make your silly threats. I'll just breathe a little harder on you and you'll be shaken with fear. And in the end, you'll be broken like pottery unless you submit to the king. So if you're here tonight and you're not serving God 100%, if you haven't said goodbye to all works of darkness, sin, you're hooked up with some guy, some girl, you know you shouldn't be hooked up with them. That's wrong. That's wrong. Come out in the light and say, I'm giving my life to Christ. I'm going to serve Christ with all my heart. I'm not going to get caught in the end on the wrong side. Come on, the world is going to be divided, sheep and goats, wheat and tares. Don't fight against God and don't think you can trick them. Nobody's tricking anybody. If anything in your life needs to be fixed up tonight so that you get right with God through Jesus Christ, come out of your seat right now from the balcony or downstairs you come. If there's only one of you, I'll praise God and hug the one of you. But if there's anyone else who said, pastor, that was for me. The enemy's trying to pull me back, trying to pull me back. You come here right here, my man. Somebody else want to come and join one honest soul here? As long as it's called today, as long as the spirit's calling you. Look, you can make a mistake about a lot of things. This is one thing you cannot make a mistake. But pastor, I go to church. You can go to church and be lost. It's a relationship with Jesus Christ. You got to be real. You got to come in the light. You got to repent and get rid of that junk. Get the junk out so you can serve Jesus with joy. Come on, God wants to do something great tonight. You got to humble yourself. Anybody else want to come? Everybody keep your eyes closed, but you in the front look up at me. Look up at me, you in the front. We're going to do this right tonight. Okay? You're going to turn your back on sin and wrong relationships and drugs and sleeping around and everything else. You're going to turn your back on it. If you don't want to turn your back on it, go back to your seat. We're going to get right with God. Jesus is going to help you. He's going to wash away all your sins. Come on. Congregation, am I right? Come on. And some of you need to be baptized. You haven't been baptized. A Christian baptism will baptize you, will take your names. It's the last thing I thought I'd be doing in a Tuesday night prayer meeting, but it is what it is. Did you know what the angels are doing now in heaven? They're rejoicing over you. It's like, yeah, she's come home. Look at her. That's okay. You know why you're crying? It's because God's talking to your heart, isn't he? He's telling you that he loves you, and the way you're going is nowhere's ville. You're going nowhere that other way. No more. No mas. We're going to go all out for Jesus. Listen, if he gave his life on the cross, are we going to serve him half-heartedly? No. We're going to serve him for real. Look at this congregation. Is this beautiful on a Tuesday night prayer meeting? Help my friends in the front congregation. Pray after me out loud. Now, you in the front, I'm going to try to say words from my heart, but I want you to speak them from your heart as best you can, okay? Don't just repeat after me like a parrot. I want you to say it from your heart, okay? And the congregation will help you, and then we'll dismiss, but we want to talk to you folks. We're going to get you baptized. We're going to get your name, get the cards, get people up on the platform ready to help them, and we got to be careful because we can't go on the steps because of the pictures, so you're going to have to come behind them. All right, everybody, let's pray out loud. Dear God, thank you for keeping me alive until tonight. Those verses were for me. There is a king that God has put on his throne, and that king is Jesus. He will rule the universe, and all his enemies will be defeated. I will not be his enemy. I will be his follower. I repent of my sin. God, have mercy on me. Forgive me. I violated my conscience. I knew it was wrong, but I still did it, and I ask you to forgive me, and I stand on your promise. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I give you my life tonight. I'm not going back. No more filth. No more junk. I'm going to serve Jesus. I'm going to be on the winning side. He is my king. He is my savior. He is my Lord. Help me to read the Bible and teach me what it means. Every day, feed my soul. Teach me how to pray and be honest in your presence. Keep me sincere and humble, and I will follow you all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Oh, how happy are those who put their trust in him. Oh, how happy are those who put their trust in him. In Jesus' name. Amen. Come on. Let's give them an aplauso fuerte. Fuerte aplauso.