In his sermon 'Conspiring Pawns,' Peter Allison examines Acts 23, focusing on the providence of God as seen in the events surrounding the apostle Paul's life. Three entities have plans for Paul: the Jewish conspirators, the Roman Kiliarch, and God. While the conspirators and Kiliarch are primarily concerned with their own interests, only God guarantees the fulfillment of His plan for Paul. The conspirators plot to kill Paul, but their plan is thwarted when Paul's nephew uncovers it and warns the Roman commander. The Kiliarch, acting in his own interest to maintain peace and protect Paul as a Roman citizen, sends Paul to safety in Caesarea. God's providence is highlighted as He uses the conspirators' and Kiliarch's plans to achieve His purpose of bringing Paul to Rome. The sermon emphasizes God's constant presence with His people, using historical examples of divine appearances to encourage and strengthen His followers. It concludes with a reminder that conspiring against God's will is futile, as His plans are always accomplished.

Acts chapter 23. I'd like to begin reading at verse 11. But the following night the Lord stood by him and said, Be of good cheer, Paul, for as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must bear witness at Rome. And when it was day, some of the Jews banded together and bound themselves under an oath, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. Now there were more than forty who had formed this conspiracy, and they came to the chief priests and elders and said, we have bound ourselves under a great oath that we will eat nothing until we have killed Paul.

Now you therefore together with the council suggest to the commander that he be brought down to you tomorrow as though you were going to make further inquiries concerning him, but we are ready to kill him before he comes near." So when Paul's sister's son heard of their ambush, he went and entered the barracks and told Paul. Then Paul called one of the centurions to him and said, Take this young man to the commander, for he has something to tell him. So he took him and brought him to the commander and said, Paul the prisoner called me to him and asked me to bring this young man to you. He has something to say to you. Then the commander took him by the hand, went aside and asked privately, What is it that you have to tell me?

And he said, The Jews have agreed to ask that you bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, as though they are going to inquire more fully about him, but do not yield to them, for more than forty of them lie in wait for him, men who have bound themselves by an oath that they will neither eat nor drink till they have killed him. And now they are ready, waiting for the promise from you. So the commander let the young man depart and commanded him, tell no one that you have revealed these things to me." And he called for two centurions saying, prepare two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen, and two hundred spearmen to go to Caesarea at the third hour of the night, and provide mounts to set Paul on, and bring him safely to Felix the governor. He wrote a letter in the following manner, Claudius Lysias to the most excellent governor Felix. Greetings!

This man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them, coming with the troops I rescued him having learned he was a Roman. And when I wanted to know the reason they accused him, I brought him before their counsel. I found out that he was accused concerning questions of their law, but had nothing charged against him deserving of death or chains. And when it was told me the Jews lay in wait for the man, I immediately sent him to you, and also commanded his accusers to state before you the charges against him. Farewell.

Then the soldiers, as they were commanded, took Paul and brought him by night and to Patrus. The next day they left the horsemen to go on with him and returned to the barracks and when they came to Caesarea and had delivered the letter to the governor, they also presented Paul to him. And when the governor had read it, he asked what province he was from. And when he understood that he was from Cilicia, he said, I will hear you when your accusers have come. And he commanded him to be kept in Herod's praetorium.

The Lord is our hiding place and our shield. We hope in His Word. Gracious Father in Heaven, please search our hearts with Your Word, sanctify us by it. It is a discerner of our thoughts and intents. We ask that You might apply it by Your Holy Spirit to us and that we might be equipped to obey You more faithfully.

And I ask that you would sanctify my sinful lips this morning, that they might be used to proclaim the riches of your grace in Christ. Amen. Well, this is one of the more dramatic and historical narratives of the New Testament. Of the New Testament. In this true story, there are three entities that each have their own plans for the life of Paul.

But only one of these is directly concerned for Paul's welfare. The other two are primarily concerned for their own welfare, their own position, not Paul's. Only one of these entities can guarantee the accomplishment of their plan. Only one of these entities is completely proactive and not reactive. All the others are reactive, responding to something.

Only one of these plans never needs modification, revision, or reversion to an alternative backup. And Only one of these plans includes all the other plans, because it was made with complete knowledge of all of the other plans. These other two plans were made with that best incomplete knowledge, and in some cases, incorrect knowledge. The Jews have a plan for Paul's life. After they failed to kill Paul when he was first discovered in the temple a couple days ago, the Jews formed a conspiracy.

And a conspiracy is simply a secret plot to do evil. It's a secret plot to do evil. It's kind of a pejorative word today, but it shouldn't be. It's a good word. It's a biblical word.

The Bible says there are lots of conspiracies. And we would be fools. We would not be believing the Bible if we thought that conspiracies were only for crazy people. If we believe the Bible, then we know that there are conspiracies. And so they form a conspiracy to do evil.

Binding themselves, they form a conspiracy. That is a plan to do evil. And they bind themselves together under a curse to kill Paul on the following day. Only problem is, Jesus reveals their plans to Paul and the Kiliarch the same day. And He does it through a young man.

And on hearing of the Jews' conspiracy, the Kiliarch, or the Tribune, or the Commander, as he's called in some translations. He immediately forms his own plan for Paul's life. To thwart the conspiracy of the Jews, and he does it by having Paul secretly delivered to Caesarea in the middle of the night, essentially by a full cohort of soldiers, 470 Roman soldiers, including 200 spearmen and 70 horsemen, cavalry. And he revealed his plans to Paul the same day and to the conspirators on the following day. But before the foundation of the world, long before any of these plans or even these people existed, God had a plan for Paul's life.

And God planned to send Paul to Rome to testify to the king, and to kings that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Just as Paul had testified to Christ to the Jews in Jerusalem, and He had testified to the Gentiles throughout the Roman world. You see, God's plan isn't ever thwarted. So that means that Paul had to be protected from the murderous Jews in Jerusalem and transported to Rome. And see, I think the amazing feature, the absolutely amazing feature about God's plan is that he used both the conspirator's plan and the Kiliarch's plan to accomplish his plan.

He used the conspirator's plan and he used the Kiliarch's plan to accomplish his plan. I think this is the glorious and comforting doctrine of God's providence. God's providence, as it's defined in our catechism, is his most holy, wise, and powerful, preserving and governing all his creatures and all their actions and ordering them all to his own glory. The Jews thought they were coming up with a plan to kill Paul on their own. All on their own.

And they were. It was their own plan. There was no one outside of themselves forcing them to do anything against their will. Everything that they purpose to do was exactly what they wanted to do. But they were just a pawn in the hand of God.

God used their anger, and He used their hatred of Paul to bring Paul into Roman custody. And God used their conspiracy to cause the Kiliarch to move Paul to Caesarea. You see, God is going to bring Paul to Rome on Roman expense and at Roman taxpayer dollars. And you see, in the same way, the Kiliarch formed his plan of his own free will. He acted according to his judgment in a way that he wanted to act in the light of the facts as He understood them.

In his mind, the best option for his purposes was to get Paul out of Jerusalem and down to Felix in Caesarea. And that's what he did. But see, He too was just a pawn in the hand of God. God used him to send Paul on his way to Rome. And there were several more steps in Paul's journey to Rome, but at each step is God's providential judgment, providential government, ordering all the actions of His creatures to accomplish His plan.

His plan from before the foundation of the world, which has never thwarted, it's never changed, It never fails. And so with that introduction then to God's providence, let's look at this account of God's providence in the life of Paul and what it teaches us about God's providence. First, in verse 11, Jesus Himself comes to encourage Paul. It's the Lord stood by him that night. I think it's probably an understatement to say that Paul has been through some difficult times in the last ten years of his life.

And we've talked about that, all the difficulties that he's endured as we've gone through this second section in the book of Acts. And he has written to the Corinthians especially about his many tribulations and his distresses, and he's also written a little bit of them to Timothy. And there have been times that Paul has been discouraged and Jesus has comforted him in various ways. Sending help to him, providing funds to him, or some other relief, or spiritually blessing Him with joy and peace. But in the days that before the Scriptures were completed, Jesus has sometimes also manifested His physical presence in some way to His weary saints, to comfort them, to strengthen them, to encourage them.

These are very rare, which makes this all the more significant. But they have happened. Jesus appeared to Hagar in her deep distress in Genesis 16, after she had conceived Ishmael. And Sarah had treated her very harshly and drove her away into the wilderness. Remember the story.

Abraham and Sarah are beginning to doubt that God can do what He's promised to them. It's been a number of years. And they've had any child, and so they're getting a little desperate and they try a different way. And Sarah gives Hagar to Abraham. That's the story.

And then Sarah is angry and harsh with her and drives her away into the wilderness. And she's in despair in the wilderness, pregnant with no home, no food, no water. And Jesus appeared to her in a pre-incarnate theophany. In Genesis 16, she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, you are the God who sees. For she said, have I also seen Him who sees me." And so she was greatly comforted.

She was comforted by the physical presence. God saw her and she recognized that God was present. In Genesis 18, God appears to Abraham in another pre-incarnate theophany. In person, he renews this promise that Abraham and Sarah were beginning to doubt and wondering about. And he provides additional information at that time that the son would be born the next year.

God appeared in visible form to Jacob at Bethel on his flight from Esau. And he appeared to him at Peniel on his return to Medesaw some twenty years later. And each time Jacob recognizes God's presence and he is strengthened and encouraged. Remember at Bethel as he's coming back, It was a time Jacob was very afraid. He'd betrayed Esau.

He'd tricked him. And now he's coming back and he knows Esau has every reason to hate him. He had fled because Esau wanted to kill him. So Jacob is genuinely afraid as He comes back. And it's then that God appears to him.

After Peniel, he said in Genesis 32, I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." God appeared to Jacob after his return from Padden Aram in Genesis 35, and He blessed him. God said to him, Your name is Jacob. Your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name. So he called his name Israel. And God said to him, I am God Almighty.

Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body. The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give you, and to your descendants after you I give this land." And then God went up from him in the place where he talked with him. And so Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, a pillar of stone, and he poured a drink offering on it, and he poured oil on it. And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, Bethel.

See, Jacob didn't have the scriptures. And God gave to him this physical presence to comfort him. God appeared to Moses in visible form at the burning bush. God appeared to Joshua in Joshua 5 as he's preparing to take Jericho, the very first battle after they crossed the Jordan River in the land of Canaan. And He said, See, I have given Jericho into your hand, its king and the mighty men of valor.

Joshua needed that strength. Jesus appeared to Gideon when Israel was under the oppression of the Midianites. And in Judges 6, it says, the angel of the Lord came and sat under the turban tree, while Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress in order to hide it from the Midianites. Why is he hiding it? Why in the winepress?

Because he's afraid. This is a day of oppression. And he's afraid of being killed or all his crops and food being stolen. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, The Lord is with you, you mighty men of valor. And Gideon said, well, if the Lord is with us, why is all this stuff happening to us?

Why are all these bad things happening if God is with us? And where are His miracles, which our fathers told us about, saying, did the Lord not bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites." Gideon was discouraged, and he did not recognize the presence of God with him. And so God physically came to him. And the Lord turned to him and said, Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hands of the Midianites.

Have I not sent you? But Gideon is not quite sure that this could be true, and he says, Oh my Lord, How can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest clan in Manasseh, and I'm the least in my Father's house. And what is the Lord's promise to him? Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man." You see, Gideon and all of Israel is very discouraged.

But it's God's presence and His assurance to Gideon that He is with them that strengthened Gideon. God appeared to Elijah when Elijah became very depressed after the great victory he had won at Carmel. And God comforted and strengthened him with his presence. He appeared to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego as they're in the fiery furnace to be burned up. There is the fourth person physically present.

He appeared to Daniel as well when Daniel was mourning for Israel. You see, Jesus appeared to each of these saints to strengthen them. And His visible presence that they could see was a great comfort to them. It's what they needed in that moment. The Lord providing a visible reminder of His presence.

And this is what Jesus does here. Standing beside Paul after this tumultuous trial before the Sanhedrin. Paul has come to Jerusalem to bring a gift and to report on all the wonderful things that the Lord has been doing around the Roman world. He's been through ten years though of many trials and afflictions. And he tells the Corinthians, he's been beaten five times by the Jews, 39 stripes, three times beaten with rods, one stone, three times he's shipwrecked, a day and a night he's been drifting in the ocean, in journeys often in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of his own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils of the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness and hunger, in thirst and fastings, in cold and nakedness.

And He's come to Jerusalem to bring a gift to these people, to bless them, and to tell them what the Lord's doing. But instead of a welcome rest and encouragement, he's nearly killed by a mob, bound in chains, nearly flogged, attacked by the Sanhedrin, and now for a second night, he's in prison. And Luke doesn't say, but the fact that the Lord appears to him and stands by him tells you that Paul was discouraged. And God stood by him and said, Be of good cheer, Paul, for as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must bear witness in Rome." See, these theophanies, the pre-incarnate ones as well as this one, are a reminder that Jesus is always with us. He is always spiritually present with us.

Always. He is with us in whatever we are doing at every moment of the day. And He reminds us throughout His Word again and again of His presence with us. We're not always aware of it, are we? We can forget that He is with us.

That He's walking with us through the deep waters, through the fire, as well as through the mountaintops. And so we need God's Word continually teaching us and reminding us that He's with us. Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, preached to a people going into Babylon captivity. Those were bleak days for God's people, for God's faithful people in Israel. And the Lord continually reminds Jeremiah throughout the book that I am with you.

I am with you. Jeremiah 1.8. Don't be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you. Little later, they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, says the Lord. Jeremiah 15, they will not prevail against you, for I am there to save you.

I'm with you. Jesus parting words to his disciples in Matthew 28, where that I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. And the very last words of the Bible. Revelation 22, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

Amen. You see this continual awareness and recognition of the presence of Jesus with us is something that we want to cultivate. It's something that we want to remember. And I think this is the first and most important lesson of God's providence. He is always, always, always present with us.

All the time. Whether we're in the midst of heavy labor, or in the midst of critical corporate negotiations, whether we're washing dishes, Whether we're watching a movie, or whether we're in our bedrooms, or whether we're working out in the yard, or working at our computer, or working on our car, or working on the property, whatever we're doing, whether we're on the other side of the world, God is always with us. He's always with us. And If that's not a comforting thought, then maybe it's an indication we're going in the wrong direction. You see, that presence, that realization and recognition of God's continual presence with us ought to be not only an encouragement, but also a reminder that He sees all that we do and we don't want to.

If we love Him, we don't want to grieve Him. But not only does Jesus come to be present with Him, to comfort Him, He also comes to tell Paul of His plan. You see, previously the Lord had revealed that chains and imprisonment awaited Paul in Jerusalem. And now the Lord tells him the purpose of those events that he just experienced, and he tells him what's going to come next. Saying in effect, I brought you to Jerusalem to testify for the Lord, and now I'm going to take you to Rome to testify for Me there." Amos 3.7 says, "...Surely the Lord does nothing unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets." Surely the Lord does nothing unless He reveals His secret to His servants, the prophets.

He reveals His plans to His prophets who are under obligation to proclaim His Word. In Jesus' very intimate upper-room discourse with His disciples, He said, No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends. For all things that I heard from My Father, I have made known to you." Friends know what their friend is doing. So in coming to tell Paul his plans, Jesus is not only confirming that Paul is His prophet, His mouthpiece, but He's also saying to Paul, you're my friend. And He reveals in revealing to him what He's going to do.

And so what better comfort could Paul receive in this time than to know that He is the Friend of God? You know, As people say, it's not what you know, it's who you know. Well, we know the Almighty God. He is with us. He is our friend.

Now the Jewish conspirators are also planning. It's one of the aspects of our being made in the image of God, in knowledge and righteousness and holiness, it's that we plan. God disposes, of course, but we can and we should plan. God's Word teaches us to plan. And so the Jews come up with this plan of what they want to do with Paul's life.

They want it to end. You see, Paul preaches Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, who is crucified for our forgiveness and raised for our justification. And this is anathema to them, because it means they have entirely missed the boat and crucified their Messiah, and that makes them angry. So they invoke this self-maledictory oath. They swore an oath to kill Paul and invoke a curse upon themselves if they don't.

That word for bound themselves with a great oath is the word from which we get anathematize. Anathematize. It's to invoke consequences. The Greek word means to invoke consequences if what one says is not true or to put under a curse. It's what the Masons do when they take all the vows for their various ranks and orders.

They take self-maledictory oaths. It's what these Satan worshippers did. But not only does the Lord inform Paul of his plan, He also informs Paul and the Kiliarch of their plan, of the Jews' plan. And he uses a young man. The Lord is able to use the weak of this world to confound the mighty.

A young man is not a child. This is the word that's used for Paul when he held the cloaks of the Sanhedrin as they stone Stephen. It's the word used of Eutychus, the young man who fell from the window in Troas as Paul was preaching. It's typically someone that most of the lexicons say it's someone in the physical prime of their life between the ages of 24 and 40. I don't know how they came up with that, but a number of very reputable lexicons have included those.

So it's somebody between the ages of 24 and 40. So God uses this person to discover the plans to kill Paul. The Kiliarch then is informed of their plans and he forms a plan to thwart them. His job is to keep the peace, to prevent riots, to uphold and enforce Roman law. And so that meant that Roman citizens needed to be protected and given fair trials.

And so the Chiliaque's goal is to preserve his own reputation, but in order to do that he has to preserve Paul. So you see how the Lord uses even this unbeliever who's only thinking of himself, and we see that in the letter he writes. He twists the things a little bit to make himself look better. That's what he's doing. He's looking out for himself, But the Lord uses even those wrong desires, even those sins, of this person who is not a believer to protect Paul.

And so he aligns in God's plan, Paul's best interest is served by the best interest of the Kiliarch. That's God's providence doing that. So he can't turn down this request because that would create conflict with the Jews. But he can send Paul to Felix, and so when they come to ask the next day, hey, can you bring Paul down? He can say, oh, I'm sorry, I just sent him up to Caesarea.

You'll have to go up there if you want to do anything. I mean, it's the court up there. And so he cleverly escapes and satisfies all his requirements. And he wants to keep the peace, he wants to keep the Jews happy, he can't overtly offend them, and so he manages to do that with his plan. And so what do we see then in all of these plans of these three entities?

Well, one, we see first God's providence. Paul's life followed God's plan from before the foundation of the world, which was revealed to Paul at his conversion. Paul would testify for the Lord to the children of Israel, to the Gentiles and kings. That's what God told Paul when he was converted. That was God's plan for Paul.

And he did that. Testified in Damascus to the Jews, in Jerusalem, in Tarsus, in Antioch, and in the many cities of his missionary travels. He testified to the Gentiles from Antioch, to Cyprus, to Asia, to Macedonia, to Illyricum, to Achaea, and beyond. And now the Lord wants to have him testify to kings, some of the most powerful kings on the face of the earth. Secondly, we see the Lord uses the weak to confound the strong.

God used Gideon with 300 soldiers to defeat the Amorites. He used David, a shepherd boy, to kill Goliath. See, it's not our strength, it's not our wisdom. God can use the weak of this world to accomplish His purpose. Paul didn't have a counterintelligence network.

He had no morning intelligence briefings about what everyone was planning to do. Paul's family had probably disowned him. This nephew may have grown up hearing about his uncle who had apostatized and turned against the Jewish faith he had once professed. Not sure for sure, but that's a good possibility. But this nephew, this young man was made privy to the plans against Paul.

And I think the only way he would have been made privy to them is if somehow they thought he was completely with them. Or in some way God caused him to overhear them. We don't know. But whatever met the case, God worked in His heart so that He wanted to go and tell Paul. Because see, even the heart of kings is in the hand of God.

And certainly all of our hearts. And He turns them with us whoever He will. They're acting out of their own free will. They're doing what they have chosen to do, but it's what God has ordained. Fourthly, we see that there is no secret that God cannot reveal.

There is no secret that God cannot reveal. None. Ecclesiastes 10-20 says, Don't curse the king even in your thought. Do not curse the rich even in your bedroom, for a bird of the air may carry the matter, carry your voice, and a bird in flight may tell the matter." And that principle is incorporated into the laws of the Navy as well. God revealed the plans of the king of Assyria to the king of Israel so precisely and so consistently that the Syrian king thought there was a spy in his cabinet.

But it's especially sins that we think are secrets that God can reveal. The tribe of Manasseh and Reuben and Gad tried to get out of crossing over the Jordan to help their brethren in the conquest. And Moses confronted them, and they changed their mind and agreed to help. But Moses warned them in Numbers 32. He said, but if you do not do so, then take note, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out, because God is the revealer of secrets.

And so he revealed the sins of these Jewish conspirators before they had a chance to carry out their plan. Other times, He reveals sins after the fact, sometimes long after the fact. But we don't need to live in fear of enemies or we don't need to live in fear of enemies of the cross, and we don't need to live in fear of their plans because God is able to reveal them and to thwart them. Jesus said the same thing, do not fear these enemies, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be known. But fifthly, the Lord uses means to accomplish His purpose.

He uses means. See, even though the Lord told Paul that he would go to Rome, Paul didn't just say, okay, well, I can just sit back and do nothing. When he got this information, he took action because the Lord uses means. I think that's obvious, but it's also something that I see people forget a lot, and get mixed up at times. A number of years ago, as a Christian revival that began in this country in the 60s was moving into homeschooling.

There were more than a few books written, I have a few on my shelf with titles like, Letting God Plan Your Family. And many people followed these ideas. And I know they're well-meaning authors, but no one is letting God plan their family. If people had to let God plan their family, God wouldn't be the sovereign. God has already planned every aspect of our lives and everyone else's life.

The question is, are we going to obediently follow God's plan or disobediently run from God's plan for our lives? But whatever we decide, it will have absolutely no impact on God's plan. But it will have huge eternal implications in your life. There are many other examples we don't have time to look at this morning. But the Lord uses means to accomplish His purpose.

And He isn't frustrated by what people do or don't do. And so the means that are used here in this Kiliarch's plan, first Paul has his nephew go to the Kiliarch. The Kiliarch uses secrecy. He uses overwhelming military force. He uses cover of darkness.

You might think, well, why did he need so many, many soldiers? And why couldn't he have securely brought Paul down to the Sanhedrin? Well, think about it's not so much that he didn't have enough soldiers. It's the walk that Paul would have had to go from the Antonia fortress to where they met, where some places where you couldn't fit hundreds of soldiers. And so those are places, especially if people are standing around there, where they simply could not bring the numbers to bear that they would have needed to bear and have been very easy to assassinate Paul, just like the Harvey Oswald was assassinated as the police were transferring him.

Sixthly, though, we see that God uses the evil actions of wicked people to accomplish His plan. This was a plot to murder. This was a lie, a pretense to get Paul to the assembly. But you see, none of this ruined or altered God's plan and purpose for Paul's life. He used the free decisions of the Kiliarch to affect his purpose as well.

He used the Kiliarch looking at this situation and realizing that Paul is in a small space. And he could not get enough soldiers there to protect Paul. And God used His desire to protect the peace. He used His desire to promote Himself and to preserve His career and to have a good reputation of being one who maintains the peace in Jerusalem and doesn't let riots happen or get out of hand, or doesn't get the Jews all upset and discontent at Him. And so all these factors motivate the Kiliak to do what he did.

He was acting in His own will, out of His own what He wanted to do. And so God used the free decisions of this unbeliever to affect His plan. And I think the last thing that we see in this passage about the providence of God is that it's futile to conspire against the Lord. It's futile. God's plan can't be altered.

And It's dangerous to our health. It's dangerous to our well-being. It's dangerous to conspire against the Lord. And these people were warned on several occasions against conspiring against the Lord. Remember Gamaliel in Acts 5.

Warned the assembly, don't harm these people lest you be found to be fighting against the Lord. And the Pharisees in the previous chapter at the trial that got out of hand. We're saying, hey, maybe the Lord has spoken to him. And we don't want to go against him. And that is the words of Psalm 2.

The psalm that talks about the nations conspiring together against the Lord. Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? That's a conspiracy. Plotting, conspiring together against themselves, some translations have. 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.

What we're seeing is a conspiracy in our nation, is a conspiracy against the Lord as well. But it's called vain. You can't conspire successfully against the Lord. He who sits in the Heavens shall laugh. The Lord will hold them in derision.

He will 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." God says, I will declare the decree. You are my son. Today I have begotten. You ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession.

You will break them with a rod of iron. You will dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel. Now therefore be wise, O kings of the earth." This is an instruction to the kings, to the rulers to be wise. But it's also an instruction to us too, not to conspire against Him, not to think that we can plan against His purposes. Be instructed, you judges of the earth, serve the Lord with fear, rejoice with trembling, kiss the Son lest He be angry.

To kiss the Son is to bow before Him, to acknowledge that His plan is the right and good and true plan. And to seek to walk in obedience to it. 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 and in His plan and in His purposes. All other plans will fail.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the assurance of Your victory. We thank You for the assurance of Your victory. We thank You for the assurance of Your presence that Your Word gives to us again and again. Open our hearts, Lord, to hear these words, to believe them and to rest in them, and to live each moment of our life in the recognition of your presence of your power And of your good purpose for us in Jesus Christ In His name we pray, Amen.