The Winning Side

The Winning Side

Prairie Baptist Church – 8/30/09

P.M. Service

Text: Psalm 2

Key verse: Psalms 2:12 - Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

Premise: Encouragement should come in the fact that we are on the side of the King of kings and Lord of lords and that no matter what sinful man does, in the end, Christ will win for eternity.

The Introduction

In Warren Wiersbe’s Meet Yourself in the Psalms, he tells about a frontier town where a horse bolted and ran away with a wagon carrying a little boy. Seeing the child in danger, a young man risked his life to catch the horse and stop the wagon.

The child who was saved grew up to become a lawless man, and one day he stood before a judge to be sentenced for a serious crime. The prisoner recognized the judge as the man who, years before had saved his life; so he pled for mercy on the basis of that experience. But the words from the bench silenced his plea:

“Young man, then I was your savior; today I am your judge, and I must sentence you to be hanged.”

One day Jesus Christ will say to rebellious sinners, “During that long day of grace, I was the Savior, and I would have forgiven you. But today I am your Judge. Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire!”

- Doug Van Essen, In Warren Wiersbe’s Meet Yourself in the Psalms -

This is a messianic Psalm, which means it is about Christ.

We have a glimpse of our King and Conqueror, Jesus Christ.

There are times when it seems like the whole world and those who are wicked prevail.

We find ourselves looking at the success of evil man and get discouraged.

God does not want us to fret about those who continually sin and flaunt their rebellion in the face of an Almighty God – Proverbs 24:19-20 - 19Fret not thyself because of evil men, neither be thou envious at the wicked; 20For there shall be no reward to the evil man; the candle of the wicked shall be put out.

This Psalm speaks directly to the conflict of the ages and that, when you know Christ as Savior, you are on the winning side. We need to keep looking up and stay confident and motivated by what He tells us.

Body

1. The Attitude of the Rebellious – 2:1-3

A. In a book entitled Down to Earth, John Lawrence tells the story of a city that dared God to show Himself and paid a terrible price. It seems that the city of Messina, Sicily, was home to many wicked, irreligious people.

On December 25, 1908, a newspaper published in Messina printed a parody against God, daring Him to make Himself known by sending an earthquake.

Three days later, on December 28, the city and its surrounding district was devastated by a terrible quake that killed 84,000 people. Today in the Word, October, 1997, p. 25

B. The sinful nature of man detests a Holy God and His standards:

i. They become angry over the thought of the Messiah ruling over them (1)

ii. They believe there is strength in numbers (2a)

iii. Their rebellion is targeted against Jesus Christ (2b)

iv. They desire freedom from the Sovereignty of God (3)

v. Man can never destroy God - A medal was struck by Diocletian, which still remains, bearing this inscription, “The name of Christians being extinguished.” And in Spain two monumental pillars were raised on which were written the names of several Roman rulers and on the first pillar they were credited for “having extended the Roman Empire in the east and the west, and for having extinguished the name of Christians, who brought the Republic to ruin.” On the second column the same Roman rulers are listed with this inscription “for having adopted Galerius in the east, for having everywhere abolished the superstition of Christ, for having extended the worship of the gods.” As a modern writer observed: We have here a monument raised by paganism over the grave of its vanguished foe. Neither in Spain nor elsewhere can be pointed out the burial place of Christianity; it is not, living have no tomb. Charles Spurgeon

C. Our response to mankind is our ongoing commitment to God and encouragement in the following:

i. We have a mission (Christ’s mission is our ongoing mission) - Isaiah 61:1 – “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;