In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of kissing the Son, which symbolizes worship, allegiance, and love towards Jesus Christ. The sermon references the story of a woman washing and kissing Jesus' feet, highlighting her gratitude for being forgiven much. The preacher urges believers to not only worship Jesus, but also obey His commands and seek to understand them through scripture. The sermon concludes by emphasizing the duty of believers to hear, come to, and trust in Christ, highlighting the blessings that come from putting our trust in Him.

He's in rage, and the people imagine the same thing. This is a general observation. This is a universal, perennial problem. He's in rage, and the people are imagining the same thing. But the authority of God is set over the earth, because God is unperturbed and undisturbed in heaven. It says, He that sitteth in heaven, and contrary to popular opinion, God is not frantically running about, wondering what to do with earth. God is sitting in heaven, content. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. He will have them in derision. The word derision there simply means mocking. He will have them mock themselves. He will have them deride themselves. He will have them in confusion. In the end of the age, at the end of the world, He will have His authority recognized. He will have His authority recognized. He has given that authority to another on this earth. He has given it to Christ. And it says in verse 6, Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. God the Father has set in motion a plan to redeem men from sin, and to put in derision those who reject that king and that plan. I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. Then Christ comes in in verse 7 and says, I will declare the decree. I will declare that which Jehovah has already said to me, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, the Father said. Ask of me, verse 8. And I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Here we see that the heathen that are raging in the first verse, God has given them to Christ. Those who will be given to Christ out of the heathen for Christ's inheritance. The rebellion of the heathen against the authority of God is phenomenal. It is universal. It is unfathomable. The depths of hatred, and the scale and magnitude that the world and the ungodly can and will go to in order to deride the name of Christ, and in order to undermine the cause of Christ. Thousands if not millions have been spent in recent days in London in a campaign against the God of Heaven. The heathen rage. And the people imagine a vain thing. The word imagine in verse 1 there is the same word that is mentioned in verse 2 of chapter 1 of Psalm 1. Meditate. This is what they meditate on. This is what preoccupies their mind. This is what they are thinking about. They imagine vanity against God. Many and mighty are those who have stood against God in the world. But not only mighty are they, we see from verse 12 and indeed the tenor of the entire Psalm, that it is the entire world has stood against God. Because the invitation is to all them that put their trust in Him. Same as a universal problem. It's a universal problem. It is not only those in high places, it is not only those who have the money to go in this tirade and this campaign against God, who are to be judged by God, it is those in the common privates of the people, the grassroots of the people, who have rebelled against God. The heathen rage. And the people imagine a vain thing. The futility of this continued rebellion against God is seen throughout the Psalm, but right in the first word. The question why? Why do the heathen rage? Why do you meditate against God? Why, if I can make it more poignant to you unbelievers in this meeting, why do you reject God? Why do you reject Christ? To what gain? And to what purpose? And to what end? And that is the thought, that is the thrust behind this question, right in the first line. Why do the heathen rage? To what end is it? For what purpose is it? Because at the end of the day and at the end of the Psalm, the Psalmist says, you will perish from the way. You will be taken out of the way. You will be led to destruction. Because you have raged against God, because you have imagined and meditated bodily, because your mind has not been taken up with the great of heaven, but your mind has been taken up with the trinkets of the world, why, the Psalmist says, why do you act so? Why? It's futile. It is futile. The Father says, God the Father says here, that He has set His King in place for the remedy and the redemption of sinners. Now, our duty to Christ is expressed in the latter part of the Psalm. What is our duty? It's to hear Christ. It's to come to Christ. Be wise, verse 10, therefore, O ye kings. Be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and ye perish from the way. Where His wrath is kinder but a little, blessed are all they that put their trust in Him. Our duty is expressed here in the latter part of this Psalm with figurative expression in order to highlight the nature of that duty and how we are to act upon that duty, how we are to carry out that duty. Verse 12, kiss the Son. Kiss the Son. There are three words I want us to pick up on this morning. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and ye perish from the way. What does it mean to kiss the Son? Why is this figurative language used? Why does it not just say come to Christ? There is a general call in modern evangelicalism that invites men to come to Christ. Come to Jesus. If you have a problem in life, come to Jesus. And Christ is received as some sort of a talisman, some sort of a fetish, some sort of superstition that Christ is going to solve all of the problems of life and you can go on living as you please. You can have fire insurance from hell, but you can live as you please. But the Lord uses figurative language like this to illustrate for us the nature of our coming to Christ, the nature of our relationship to Christ, the nature of our obligation to Christ. It is not enough, it is not enough, listen, not enough to say some simple, meaningless, vain prayer and think that you have settled your account with God. It is not sufficient. There has to be a deep, a deep, meaningful, sincere, intelligent, informed relationship with God. And so the psalmist says, kiss the sun. The use of the word kiss in Middle Eastern culture was used for different things. And the language of scripture gives us different ideas concerning this kiss. What does it mean to kiss? The first thing I want us to look at is the kiss of worship. The kiss of worship. Because kissing in the Middle Near Eastern countries was a sign of worship and adoration. We read in 1 Kings 19, verse 18, Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. Elijah thought that he was the only one left on the earth. And the Lord says, there will be a friend in Elijah's mind, that there are more, Elijah, who have not bowed the knee to Baal. There are those in the country who have not kissed Baal. There are those who are not worshipping Baal. You are not the only one who is worshipping the true God. There are others who have not kissed Baal. So, here we see this idea of worship. It is our duty to come to God in worship. It is our duty, otherwise you would not be here today. To worship Him. To adore Him. In Job chapter 31, verse 24-27 we read, If I had made gold my hood, or had said to find gold thou art my confidence, if I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten much, if I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness, and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand. What Job is saying here, in his argument against those would-be friends, He says, I have not made gold my confidence. I have not made fine gold my hood or confidence. My hand, my mouth has not kissed my hand. In other words, my mouth has not kissed the works of my hand. My mouth has not kissed what my hand has attained. And here we see both the worship of another deity, so-called deity, Baal, or the worship of that which we possess. The worship of that which we interact with every day. Job says, I have not worshipped this light. I have not worshipped my material gain. I have not made my material gain my confidence. If I were to lose it all, as I have done, Job says, my hope is still in God. My confidence is still in God. Why? Because I didn't make that my hope. I did not worship gold or silver. I worshipped God. What Job is saying here is that he did kiss the sun. He did not kiss the deities of the other nations. He did not kiss his own attainments. He kissed the sun. As he said, I know that my Redeemer liveth. That was Job's kiss to the son of God. The knowledge, the confidence, the hope that he had in Christ, that in the midst of an economic downturn, that in the midst of a depression, as far as Job was concerned, he knew Christ. His confidence was in Christ. He worshipped Christ. Having not seen Him, as Hebrews tells us, having not received the promises, but having seen Him afar off, were persuaded, and called themselves pilgrims and sojourners on this earth. Kiss the sun. Worship Christ. That's possible. As it may be with those some here today, to have a form of worship. To gather here in this room and worship in form with the church of Christ. The Israelites did this for centuries. The Israelites carried the ark of God into the battlefield against the Philistines. In some vain hope, and superstitious hope that the presence of God would go with the ark. Whereas if they had kept the ark where it was meant to be, in the temple, in the tabernacle, then the Lord would have been with them. And if they had been sincere towards the ark in its proper place. But the Israelites took God, as it were, and the worship that He had given to them, and they perverted it. They had a form of worship. But they weren't. The Philistines, you can all say, they worshipped such and such a God. But in reality, they didn't. They didn't. Why? They had the God of Heaven as their God, as their deity. They were not obedient to Him. This leads us to the next point. Not only the kiss of worship, there is the kiss of allegiance. There is the kiss of allegiance. Because it is not enough to say, this is my God. I have the God of Christianity. It is not enough to say that I have the God of the Bible, and I hold to every jot and tittle of the Bible, and I take it all literally. And I'm as orthodox as the next man. It is not enough to say that. It's not enough to name the God of Scripture, and the orthodoxy of Scripture as your God, without allegiance. Without allegiance. Thomas Watson says, He who will not have God's law to rule him, will not have God's blood, Christ's blood, to cleanse him. He who will not have God's law, or Christ's law, to rule him, will not have Christ's blood to cleanse him. You cannot, you cannot, have a form of worship, and rebel against God. This is what the heathen were doing. They were rebelling against God. They had a form of religion, but in which they denied Him. This apostle tells us. 1 Samuel 10, verse 1. We see an illustration of this used as far as the allegiance is concerned. And Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it upon his head, that's Saul's head, and kissed him. And said, Is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance? Here we have Samuel paying allegiance to the king. The anointing was part of that ritual that God had ordained. For the anointing of a king. That was as far as God was concerned. That was the anointing of Samuel. The anointing that Samuel poured upon Saul, was Samuel working in his prophetic office. Now follow me. That was him in his prophetic office, that was him by way of office, what he had to do for God. But when he kissed him, that was him as an individual, saying, Saul I have anointed you as king over Israel, now I kiss you. And I pay allegiance to you. Why? Because he said, Is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance? Here we have Samuel the prophet paying allegiance to Saul the king. Because God had anointed him. Yet I have set my king, the Lord says, upon my holy hill. I have set my king upon my holy hill, God says. The duty of man today is to kiss the son in allegiance to him. Not only to worship him, but to obey him. Not only to have the form of worship, but the heart of worship. To obey. To seek as far as lies within you. To obey every commandment of God as He reveals it to you. And to go to the scripture in order that He might reveal it to you. Not to boast, not to rebel against the commands of God, not to rationalize the commands of God, but to obey them. To obey them. Anything less is not enough. It's not enough. Kiss the son. As Samuel said, lest he be angry, he perish from the way. Because there are those who do worship in form. There are those perhaps who do pay allegiance as far as the law of God is concerned. Yet they have no heart. They have no heart in religion. In Hosea 13 verse 2, we have the prophet saying, And now they sin more and more. Speaking of the adultery of the nations of Israel. And now they sin more and more and have made them molten images of their silver and idols according to their old understanding. All of it the works of the craftsmen. They say to them, let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves. Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves. I want you to be aware of what's happening here. These people here have built up calves of worship. That of their own imagining. Their own imagination, their own understanding. They have crafted out of silver and gold these calves to worship. But there are those who are worshipping there who have not yet paid allegiance to them. They are there worshipping. They are giving a term of worship. They are giving the idea that they are worshipping. But they have not yet paid allegiance. And the wicked say, let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves. Why? Because that will reveal. That will reveal the heart of those who are sacrificing. There are those in the body who are Jews and who will not kiss the calves. They are there among the body. They are going along with this. But this command, this exhortation to kiss in allegiance will expose them for who they are. I.E. the true children of God. They will not pay allegiance to these calves. There are those in that body who will kiss the son today. Pay your allegiance to him. Be earnest in your walk with God. Be earnest in your walk with God. Not half-heartedly. Not half of your life. Not making this dichotomy between Sunday life and Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and the rest of the week life. Not this dichotomy between my church family and the rest of the world family. God demands allegiance to the son. And the psalmist says, kiss the son. Kiss the son. It is not enough to worship him if you have no allegiance to him. That leads us to the last kiss. There is the kiss of worship. There is the kiss of allegiance. There is the kiss, finally, of love. It brings us a step further. To give someone your allegiance without your love and affection still stops short. It is possible. It is possible. To give someone or something your allegiance without your affection and love. Many a child will pay allegiance to the commands of the house. And obey the rules of the house. But they are rebellious in heart. But the psalmist says here, kiss the son. Lest he be angry and ye perish in the way. What is true Christianity? True Christianity is a love for God. It is not mere worship of the external. It is not mere allegiance to the law of God. True Christianity is a love for God. A heart love. An emotion for God. An affection for God. An affiliation to God. And it is interesting that this kiss, the psalmist says, kiss the son in love. This kiss, my friend, is the only true kiss that will be reciprocated by God. If we come and kiss the son in love and affection, we can be guaranteed that that kiss will be reciprocated. Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you. James chapter 4 verse 8 tells us. Here is a kiss that not only speaks of a worship. Here is a kiss that not only speaks of allegiance and obedience. Here is a kiss that speaks of a drawing near. Here is a kiss that speaks of a closeness. Here is a kiss that speaks of affection and warmth toward the one kissed. Here is a kiss that is reciprocated. If you read the song of Solomon repeatedly, you will find the language of the lover. Right off the bat in the first chapter, the bride, the Shulamite bride says, Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for his love is better than wine. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for his love is better than wine. If I could tie in what he said about Job. Job did not put hope in all of the joys of the money and the possessions and the flocks and the servants and family that he had. He had no confidence, he had no hope in that. But he had hope in God. He had hope in Christ. And the Shulamite bride says that the kisses of Christ are better than wine. In other words, the kisses of Christ are better than all that the earth can give me to keep me happy. Happiness. Wine in the scripture speaks of merriment and happiness and contentment and lightness of heart. You may attach to yourself and you may buy and accumulate all the trinkets of this world and try what we call today retail therapy, try and keep your life stable by retail therapy. But if that is what your hope is, if that is what your confidence is, if that is what your life is built on, my friend, it is not enough. Kiss the Son. And you will find that if you kiss him in love, he will kiss you with the kisses of his mouth and his world for you will be better than wine. Will be better than all of the trinkets and materialism of this world. Kiss the Son. The Psalmist said, lest he be angry, he perish by the way, from the way. As the kiss is reciprocated. How does Christ reciprocate that kiss? If we go near to him and kiss him in love, how does he reciprocate that? How do we receive that kiss? I can speak very practically. What are the kisses of God? They are the ordinances of God. They are the means of grace. They are those things that God has given to us whereby he conveys to us his grace as it is promised. What are the means of grace? What are those means? What are those conduits? Whereby God gives us grace. Whereby God kisses us. They are the scriptures. To speak on a personal level, they are the personal, private study of scripture. Kiss the Son. And he will kiss you as you read the scripture. You will feel his affection. You will feel, you will receive his kisses as you read the scripture. Kiss the Son and you will know his affection as you come to him in prayer. The ordinances, the means of grace are those things whereby we receive the affectionate kiss of the Son of God. And are assured of his continued grace. There is a public reading of scripture, the public preaching, the public meeting for prayer. As a means of grace. As a means of encouraging. As a means of strengthening. As a means of knowing the presence of God. And the application of Christ to the heart. The public means of grace. Kiss the Son. Kiss the Son. You see now, what I meant when I said earlier, that it's not enough simply just to come and worship. And it's not enough simply just to keep the commandments of God and pay a lip service, allegiance and obedience to God. There's a heart issue at heart, at the heart of this. At the essence of Christianity is the heart of Christ. The life of God in the soul of man. And the psalmist says, kiss the Son. Today. In 2 Solomon 1. We read, O that thou wert my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother. When I should find thee without, I would kiss thee. Yea, I should not be despised. I want you to understand what she's saying here. Here's Ishmael, my bride, wishing that her lover, that this king lover, was her brother. So that when she meets him in the street, she can kiss him, she can show her affection without question, without reserve. Without being scrutinized, without being looked upon. And what she's praying here is, O that I could kiss him without being despised. O that I could kiss Christ without feeling shame. Without feeling scrutinized. O that I could kiss Christ without feeling the eyes of the world upon me. And understands here the application of that to our hearts in this world today where Christians are bird-mouthed and ashamed to mention Christ. O that we could kiss Him today in the street. O that we could speak of Him today in the street. O that we could talk of Him to our friends, our family, our acquaintances, those in our circle, without feeling ashamed. Paul said, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Why? Because it's the power of God unto salvation. And until you understand the power of the gospel, until you have an experience of the power of the gospel in your own heart. Until you have an understanding and an apprehension of the power of the gospel in the life of an individual, you will be ashamed to speak of Christ. Because you don't have an understanding of what the power of it is. Of what it can accomplish. But we need a vision of the power of the gospel. We need a vision, we need an understanding of what the gospel can and does accomplish to a people who are wholly given, wholly given unto God. Kiss the Son. Kiss the Son. Let Him be your confident. Let Him be your lover. See your sin for what it is. And kiss Him for what He has done. And as the Lord says in Luke 7 verse 38 and following, To him who has been forgiven much will be thankful much. The story there is of the woman washing his feet and kissing the Lord's feet. And the disciples and Pharisees and so forth, criticizing her for kissing the feet of Christ. But she had been forgiven much. And therefore she was not ashamed to kiss Him in public. She was not ashamed to show her affection to Christ in public. Why? Because she had been forgiven much. My friend, when you see your sin for what it is. You see your life for what it is. You see your thought processes for what they are. In the heinousness of their sin. When you come to Christ, you will be thankful for a Savior that forgives much. And you will speak for Christ. Kiss the Son. Lest He be angry and you perish by the way. Let me close by saying, We ought not to guard against this. We ought not to kiss Christ. Never. With the kiss of Judas. Perhaps there is someone here today. Who is here to worship. You have come today to worship. You have come today to gather with the people of God. And you, as far as the world is concerned. And as far as others in this congregation are concerned. You are kissing Christ. With the kisses of worship. And in reality it is the kiss of Judas. You betray Christ. Such a kiss is destruction to yourself and your soul. Lest we perish by from the way. We are cut off from our destination. We are cut off from, and this is what the text means. Cut off from that intended destination. Cut off from that assumed destination. Because we have kissed the kiss of Judas. We have lived for three and a half years. In perfect outward assimilation to the ways of God. That no man, even in the closest circle. Could dey and say. And in reality. I kiss the kiss of Judas. And go to that place. That was prepared for him. Kiss the son. Lest he be angry and ye perish from the way. Kiss the son because he is the way. The truth and the life. Kiss the son because he is the only one. Whom the father has put in your place. To kiss. And in your stead. To bear the sacrifice for sin. He has been set as my king. Upon my holy hill. None other. And today the exhortation is to you. Kiss the son. Let's go in prayer.