In the sermon titled 'The Folly of Plotting Against the Lord (Part 1),' Trent Moody delves into Psalm 2, which questions why the nations rage and plot against the Lord and His anointed. He connects this Psalm to the events in the book of Acts, where the disciples invoke it in their prayers after being released by religious leaders. Moody emphasizes the ongoing rebellion against God's authority, both historically during the time of Jesus' crucifixion and in contemporary society. He argues that this rebellion is futile and parallels the folly of attempting to overthrow God's divine plan. He further discusses the cultural disdain for God's sovereignty and the reluctance of many modern churches to declare Jesus' supreme authority. Moody stresses the importance of understanding the wickedness that opposes God's anointed and highlights the spiritual battle between truth and falsehood, righteousness and wickedness. He critiques the false dichotomy between secular and religious spheres, asserting that all public life is inherently religious. The sermon concludes by emphasizing the folly of conspiring against God's established order and the ultimate triumph of God's sovereign will.

Right, if you will go ahead and make your way to Psalm chapter 2, or the second Psalm. And the reason that I'm going here looking at Psalm 2 this morning is really because our next section in the book of Acts, the disciples appeal to Psalm 2 in their prayer to God. And I just felt like it would be a really timely message as well in preparation of our next passage in the book of Acts, but also with other things that are going on within our local community and even within our nation. So Let's begin by reading Psalm 2. Thus says the word of the Lord.

Why do the nations rage and the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying let us break their bonds and pieces and cast away their cords from us he who sits in the heavens shall laugh The Lord shall hold them in derision. Then he shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep displeasure. Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree.

The Lord has said to me, You are my son. Today I have begotten you. Yes, or excuse me, ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.

Now therefore, be wise, O kings. Be instructed, you judges of the earth, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. 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." Let's again ask the Lord for help. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for Psalm 2.

We thank you, dear God, for the instruction that we see here. We thank you, dear God, that you correct our thinking about the state of the world and all of the nations within this world. We thank you, dear God, that you have declared your sovereignty and your authority over all peoples and over all nations. There is nothing outside of your authority. Lord, you are God.

You are the King of Kings. You are the Lord of Lords. And Lord, we rejoice to be called your people. Help us to live as your people and Lord help us to think like your people we pray in Christ's name. Amen.

So I want to talk to you this afternoon about the folly of plotting against the Lord. The folly of plotting against the Lord. So we're looking again as I said in Psalm 2 because in the book of Acts in the chapter 4 and verses 23 through 31, the disciples after being let go by the religious leaders, they meet together and they pray. Their prayer is interesting because they are praying scripture. Much like what we do on a Wednesday night when we gather, you will hear people praying the Word of God.

It's the perfect prayer when we pray God's Word. And so that's what the disciples were doing and the apostles who were there, Peter and John were there. And they quoted the first part of Psalm 2, the first two verses, and they asked the question to the Lord, why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed." And the reason that they were praying that is because they had just lived that. They were right in the midst of the huge part of the fulfillment of Psalm 2 that David was writing about.

David was not simply writing about himself, he was writing about the Lord Jesus Christ. He was writing because the nations had raged against God and against his anointed and they thought in their foolishness that they were going to overthrow the plan of God. They were the ones who were more concerned about losing their place among the Roman Empire than they were about being cast into the lake of fire because they had rejected their Messiah. Not a good place for them to be. They understood that the events surrounding the crucifixion of Christ and the continued rebellion against the kingdom of God is what the disciples were witnessing and what we have been witnessing ever since then was and is the fulfillment of Psalm 2.

And so we also see that the kings and the rulers of this world not only during the disciples times were plotting against the the anointed of God, but they're still plotting against the anointed of God. They still are taking counsel together to see how they can can break their bonds in pieces and how they can cast God's cords of restraint away from them. It's a futile task. We live in a culture, brothers and sisters, that hates God. Don't be deceived about that.

We live in a culture that hates his authority and hates his sovereignty and hates his son and hates his disciples and his people. That's the culture and the world that we live in. We also live in a time when the church, unfortunately, is afraid to declare the sovereign right of King Jesus over all nations. I don't understand that. When Jesus said all authority in heaven on earth has been given unto me, that's a declarative statement that not only all authority on earth but all authority in heaven is given unto the Lord Jesus Christ.

What is outside of that? I have no idea. Nothing. There's nothing outside of that. But we live in a time when too many pastors are afraid to say that Jesus is king and ruler.

They're afraid to look at a civil authority in the face and tell them, kiss the son lest he be angry with you. And you perish in the way. What we see in Psalm 2 is so important because we as God's people need to understand the mindset of the wicked that we are coming up against. This wickedness is not sitting idly by. This wickedness is growing and pressing in upon the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It always has. It ebbs and flows in different parts of the world and in different nations. You see it and it looks different, but there's always a constant pressing in of the wicked against the Lord and against his anointed. And guess what? We are the body of Christ.

Do you remember when the Apostle Paul was coming after the church and the Lord Jesus knocked him off his off his horse and he said to Paul, Saul, excuse me, he said Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? When the nations and when people in this world persecute the people of the Lord Jesus Christ, they are persecuting and coming after the Lord and his anointed. It's a very foolish thing to do. I want you to listen very carefully regarding the mindset of the wicked that we are up against. I want you to understand something that this is not play time.

This is spiritual wartime. This is a time that we should be putting on the whole armor of God that we need to understand that we're not on a playground, we're on a battleground. And it is the battle between truth and falsehood. It is the battle between the wicked and against the righteous of God, the righteousness of God and His anointed. And What we see going on in our nation, I want you to understand this, it's not secular.

There's no such thing. You've believed a lie if you think there's a difference between the secular and religious. It's all religious. It's not will there be religion in public schools, it's which religion will be in public schools. It's not will there be the separation of church and state, it's which church will be influencing the state.

Will it be the church of the secular humanist or will it be the church of the Lord Jesus Christ? That's the options there. It will be one option of Is it the Lord Jesus Christ and His perfect law, or will it be any of the other myriads of religions in this world, which are all the works and doctrines of demons? That's the options. It's religious by nature.

Romans 1, Scott just preached on this a few weeks back, Romans chapter 1 teaches us this. Everyone will either worship and serve the Creator or they will worship and serve the creation. That's the only options. And so what we see going on here, this we need to understand is not that battle between secular and religion or religious as if we need to keep our religion out of the equation, know what we must bring is the gospel to bear in every area of our lives. There is no area of life where God does not have absolute authority.

We should not shrink back from standing before a civil leader and saying, thus says the Lord. David didn't. David says to who? He says to these, now therefore in verse 10, now therefore be wise, O kings, be instructed, you judges of the earth. The idea here is not only the king of Israel, he was the king of Israel.

He's talking to other kings. He's talking to the judges of the earth, of the Gentile world, And he's telling them that you need to serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling and you better kiss the Son lest he be angry with you and you perish in the way. If you want to look throughout all of history and even in biblical history you can look back and Scott and I were talking about this morning if you look back at all of the kings throughout all of Israel's history and if you want to look out through church history and if you want to continue on and look through all of the history of this world every nation that turns its back on the laws of God and the Word of God, God destroys and crushes like a potter's vessel. Nations rise and nations fall, and it all depends on what they do with the Word of God. There have been no exceptions.

I want to encourage you to stop believing the lie that we cannot bring our faith into the political realm. Because a nation's politic is the outworking of that nation's religion. A law, you know, that's been said that you cannot legislate morality. That's true and false at the same time, depending on what you mean. In other words, I cannot make a law that's going to make you a moral person.

But all you can do is legislate morality because every law that there is written on the book underneath that and the foundation of that is a law that is based upon a religious belief and a worldview. Every one of them. Again, it goes back to there's no such thing as secular. Every law that you see written is based upon a worldview. So keep that in your mind.

Because that nation's politic is the outworking of that nation's religion. So, what are we dealing with? Turn back to Romans chapter 1. We have to get a revamp and a reminder on Romans chapter 1 and verse 16. Romans 1 16.

This tells us what we're dealing with. Romans 1 16 and I want to again just remind us of what verse 16 says. Listen to what Paul says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Why did he say that? Why would he need to say this?

Because there is a temptation in the heart of man to be ashamed of the gospel of Christ. The temptation there is to try to reason with people, but there's no foundation to that reasoning. We need to have the foundation of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. He says, I am NOT ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Why?

For it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it, in the gospel of Christ, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them, for since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and bird and four-footed animals and creeping things. Listen, therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever.

Amen. For this reason, again, God gave them up to vile passions, for even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting, being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness. They are whispers, backbiteers, and here's what I told you at the beginning, haters of God, violent, they're proud, they're boasters, they are inventors of evil things.

There are things going on in this world today that I could not even imagine. Because they are possessed by demonic influences, they are inventing things that are evil. Things that a man who has been born again cannot even comprehend. Why would their mind even go there? They invent evil things.

They're disobedient to parents. They're undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful. That is the natural man apart from the gospel. And God, guess what, has given them up to it. Why?

Because they suppress the truth in unrighteousness. This is the judgment of abandonment. When you see a nation doing these things, this is a sure sign that God's judgment not is coming, but has come. What in the world is the answer? There is an answer.

Do not think for a moment that as Christians we cannot stand up and say, thus says the Lord. Not we should, we must. We must say, Thus says the Lord. Upon what do I base this argument? It's because of who I have seen gone before us.

In Mark 6, 17, for Herod himself had sent and laid hold of John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, for he had married her because John had said to Herod, John had said, John the Baptist went to the king and said, it's not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. Let's keep morality out of politics. He said it's not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. And in Acts 24 we see Paul reasoning with Felix, the Roman governor, about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come. And after some days when Felix came with his wife, Drusilla, who was a Jewish, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ.

Now as he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid. Why was he afraid? Because he preached righteousness. He preached to them the judgment to come. This man was a man who did not have self-control.

He had stole a wife away from someone. She was a young woman, and she had been stolen away from another ruler. And here we have Paul reasoning with him about his lack of self-control. Doesn't seem like Paul's place does it? Daniel 3 17 if that is the case Daniel says our God whom we serve is able, I'm sorry, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego says, our God who we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O King.

But if not, let it be known to you, O King, that we do not serve your gods." Listen, you're either serving the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of glory, or you're serving the gods of the nations. That's the only option. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said, we will not serve your gods. We will worship, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up. But it goes on from there.

Moses in Exodus 5.1 says, afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, thus says the God of Israel. Turn with me to Daniel chapter 4 and verse 20. There's no way I'm getting through this. We'll do it next time. How about that?

We will finish next time. Daniel 4 verse 20. Daniel 4 20. The tree that you saw which grew and became strong whose height reached to the heavens and which could be seen by all the earth, whose leaves were lovely and its fruit abundant in which was food for all, under which the beasts of the field dwelt and in whose branches the birds of heaven had their home. It is you, O King, who have grown and become strong, for your greatness has grown and reached to the heavens and your dominion to the end of the earth." And inasmuch as the king saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, Chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave its stump and roots in the earth bound with a band of iron and bronze and the tender grass of the field.

Let it be wet with the dew of heaven and let him graze with the beasts of the field till seven times pass over him. This is the interpretation, O King, and this is the decree of the Most High, which has come upon my Lord the King. They shall drive you from men. Your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make you eat grass like an oxen. They shall wet you with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over you, till you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he chooses." What?

Till you know. Till you know that the most high rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever he wishes. That's our God. And in as much as they gave the command to leave the stump and root of the tree, your kingdom shall be assured to you after you come to know that heaven rules. Therefore, O King, let my advice be acceptable to you.

Break off your sins." Daniel looking at the king and he's fearful and trembling. He didn't really want to tell him but he did And he says, let me tell you something. This is going to happen. He says, my advice, O King, is this, break off your sins by being sins by being righteous. Define that please.

What is righteous? How do we know How do we know what righteous is? By what standard? Help me out somebody. By being righteous.

It's the Word of God. God determines what is right and what is wrong. And Daniel looks at King Nebuchadnezzar and he says, stop sinning. Break off your sins and be righteous. Conform your life to the Word of God.

Understand that God is the one who rules in heaven among the kingdom of men. It is he who rules. He is the one. Therefore, O king." And he tells them, then he says, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, perhaps there may be a lengthening of your prosperity. And all this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar.

In the end of twelve months he was walking by the royal palace of Babylon. The king spoke saying, is not this great Babylon that I have built a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty. While the word was still in the king's mouth a voice fell from heaven, King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken, the kingdom has departed from you, and they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beast of the field. They shall make you eat grass like an oxen and seven times shall pass over you until you know until you know until you know that the most high rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever he chooses our God reigns Jesus shall reign wherever the Sun He is the King of Kings and he is the Lord of Lords. And when he finally knew this, it says, at the end of a time I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven and my understanding returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation and all inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing he does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth No one can restrain his hand or say to him, what have you done?

No one. And we could go on. But let us turn to Psalm 2 because Psalm 2 gives us the insight and the instruction of our thinking into God's sovereignty and authority over all nations. And so let us take a look at this inspired text. I want to begin.

I'll probably just get through the first one and then we'll do the next. I have four points. We'll do the next three the next time on a Sunday afternoon and I might bump one of you guys, sorry. Maybe. Anyway, number one, the nation's rebellion against the Lord and his anointed.

So there you ask a question. This question is raised and it is upon this question that all of the rest of this is laid out before us. It's broken down really easily. It's basically 3-3-3 and 3 and it's a Hebrew parallelism of poetry here that we have, but he asked this question, why do the nations rage and the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed.

Why do they do this? How foolish is it? Why are they raging? This idea of to rage or do rage, it means that they're in rebellion. They formally resist the one who is in authority.

They conspire to be an open defiance of a king and a coronation. It implies a tumult and disorderly conduct in the act of attempting to overthrow of government. You know, our government is concerned about Christians overthrowing the government, but they should be concerned that they are conspiring together to overthrow the government of the King of Kings. That's the conspiracy. And it's foolishness and folly for them to try it.

It's utter destruction for them, but they don't understand that. They rage because as Romans 1 says, they are haters of God, they are proud, and they are boasters. That's why they rage. They plot, they plan, they think, and so decide, of course, of action with a focus that verbal exchange takes place. So they're coming together, they're gathering together.

Why do these nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? The idea here is the Gentile world. Again, we're not just talking about this Hebrew Republic. We're talking about the world. Why do the nations rage?

Why do all the peoples plot vain things? And why do the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together? They're coming together, they plot, they're focusing on what should they do, what is your idea? And they have groups that they think about these things and they're wanting to come against Christ. They hate his law, they hate God, they hate his people.

They plot. What do they plot? They take counsel together. They plot, though he says in verse 1, a vain thing. It describes the vanity of human plans and efforts in the face of the will of the sovereign God of the universe.

Anytime you plan something that goes against the revealed will of God and the sovereign secret will of God, Let me just go ahead and let you know something. It's vain. It's empty. It's useless. It's void of all wisdom and understanding.

Your end is going to be destruction. When You can take God's word and you say, well, I know that's what it says, but this is the way I feel about it. I don't like his rule. I don't like his reign. I don't like his government.

I don't like his anointed. I don't like his authority. And here's what we're going to do about it. How ridiculous is that? You're talking about the King of Kings.

You're talking about the one who spoke and everything was created. He said, let there be light in there was light. And what concerns me is I have spoken to people recently and they're concerned about AI. Whoop-de-doo. They're, as I preached at the conference last year, they're in this little tiny sandbox And they can't get out of it.

Oh, God lets them build all kinds of funny little things in their sandbox. But guess what? They're just little children playing in a sandbox. Our God is so much greater. He is so much bigger.

He is so much more holy and righteous and just and good and holy. Holy, holy, holy is our God. And there is nothing that is concerning him about AI. So guess what? That means nothing should concern me about it either.

It's nothing compared to the wisdom of God. It's utter foolishness. It's vain. They want to do this because they think that they are going to create a God in their own image. That seems like that's been tried before.

Didn't turn out well and it won't turn out well this time either. In verse 2, they take counsel. The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed. And so now we enter into the wicked's council chamber, the back room. We get to sit in as a fly on the wall.

What are they talking about? Don't worry about the Bilderbergs. Don't worry about all these people meeting in Davos. We are as a fly on the wall in their back room meeting. And here's what they're doing.

They take council together and ultimately it is this. They are coming against the Lord and against his anointed and they're saying something. Do you know what they're saying? Let me say this first. They're setting themselves to take their stand in opposition against God.

That's their plan. They're fixing their seats together. They're in their little conclave, and the Word has the idea that they want to build a foundation upon which they will overthrow the King of Kings. And here's the plot. Verse 3.

Let us break...wait, wait, wait. I got an idea. How about this one, guys? Let us break their bonds in pieces. Let's take all of the things that God has ordained to be abound by which God says to the oceans, this far and no more.

Let us take these bonds that this God has created and let's break it. Let's break outside of His universe and outside of His law word, let's do our own thing and we will be as God. Hey, I know. Let's cast away their cords from us. God is only about restraining us and keeping us from having the fulfillment of everything that our inventive minds may think up that are evil and wicked continually.

Let's break their cords. God is only about shackling us and chaining us down with fetters. He's just bound us like prisoners. We need to be set free. Spurgeon says, let us be free to commit all manner of abominations.

Let us be our own gods. Let us rid ourselves of all restraint. That's what they're saying in the back room meeting. And these arrogant folks speak as if this is something that they can actually do. The folly of plotting against the Lord and his anointed.

What they don't realize is he's in the room too. What a foolishness. To break the bonds of Almighty God that he has fastened, that they think they can cast the cords away of Almighty God, the ones that he has tied." Spurgeon says, to a graceless neck the yoke of Christ is intolerable, but to the saved sinner it is easy and light. We may judge ourselves by this. Do we love that yoke or do we wish to cast it from us?

That'll tell you a lot about yourself. So brothers and sisters, I'm going to stop at the end of verse 3, but this is to be continued and I want you to understand something. It is utter folly to plot against the Lord. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, true freedom is found in your Son Jesus Christ and him alone.

I am so glad that you have made us free. I am so glad that your word teaches us that you do whatever you want to do in heaven and on earth. The kings of the earth are nothing apart from you, O God. Oh, they rage and they plot, but it's vain. So Father, thank you for keeping us in the secret place of the Most High.

That your children in the midst of a tumulus world We can sit at peace because we are in Christ Jesus who is seated at your right hand. And nothing will happen apart from your will. And your will is holy and just and good. And we delight, Lord, to be under your rule, for your yoke is easy and your burden is light and we pray and ask these things in Christ's name Amen.