If you would, I want you to put your marker in Acts chapter 4. Go ahead and put your ribbon in Acts chapter 4. And once you do that, then we can go back to the second Psalm. Acts chapter 4, and then make your way to Psalm 2. Just by way of remembrance, the Psalms It's not one book and 150 chapters, it's 150 individual psalms. These were songs that were sung by the Jews. It's like the Jewish hymn book, for lack of a better term. But it is the word of God. It's the inspired word of God. In fact, in the book of Luke, Jesus actually referenced the songs along with the Old Testament prophets and the law. He certainly considered it inspired scripture. And so what an encouragement we'll find in these Psalms. The Psalms are divided into five books or five scrolls. The first book is Psalm 1 through 41. And the theme is human suffering and the need for divine deliverance. And we're going to see this right off the bat this morning in Psalm 2. About human suffering and the need for a deliverer. Just to kind of give you a a 30,000 foot view of Psalm 2 before we get into this. This Psalm is actually about the suffering that's brought in the form of wicked leaders. I don't know if you realize this or not, but wicked leaders enslave people. Wicked leaders are so drunk on power that they don't care about people. They care about themselves. They care about power. I think about the communist regimes over the last 120 years and how over 100 million people have died due to those regimes. You go to certain places in third world countries, we can see in the history of Islam and different things what happens when men unbridle power. Proverbs 29 verse 2, it says, When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. Now, Psalm 2, I told you that the Psalms have different genres or different categories. Psalm 2 fits into the category known as the Royal Psalms. The coronation of the king. It's all about the king. And when the king... When King Jesus returns, He's going to destroy His enemies. I know we just sang that song together, and it seems, man, this is a song of judgment. This is a song of wrath. Where did this come from? Where did that God come from? Well, it's the God of the Bible. He is a God of love, but He's also a God of wrath and justice. And by the way, you cannot have true love without justice. True love and injustice cannot exist together. They can't do it. That's why He's both. And when King Jesus returns, He's going to destroy His enemies. He's going to fix all that is broken. He's going to right every wrong. And He's going to take that which is crooked and make it straight. I'm going to enjoy this. I can already tell I'm going to thoroughly enjoy this. And so this is what Psalm 2 is about. He will return and He will rule the nations with a rod of iron. With that in mind, let's go ahead and read our text and then we'll come back. And I'm actually going to only preach the first four verses, but to give the full context, let's read the full Psalm. Psalm 2, verse 1. Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? 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 bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sordid pleasure. Yet if I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion, I would declare the decree the Lord hath said unto me. Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just come to you in Jesus' name, so thankful for your great salvation which only comes by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work. Lord, His death, His burial, His resurrection. We're so thankful for your word, God, that we have your revelation to man in Paige. And I'm so thankful that we don't have to go through this life without a guide, without your word. Lord, I pray that you would just empty me of sin and self, fill me with your Holy Spirit. God, I'm just so weak and frail, and Lord, even the breath in my lungs comes from you, Lord. And I pray that you would remove me from the way that Christ would be magnified. Lord, if somebody is listening this morning either here in person or online that's not saved, I pray that you draw them to salvation in Christ. And Lord, I pray that for all of your people that know you, through Jesus Christ that this would be a reminder not only of what you accomplished when you came the first time, but also what you're going to do when you return. And Lord, I pray that our minds could be on that. It's in Christ's name we pray these things. Amen. So this morning we're going to begin a two-part series in this psalm on the King is coming. The King is coming. You know, we have to understand this is what Psalm 2 is. It's a prophecy of the coming King. And, you know, like so many Old Testament prophecies concerning Christ, there is a dual meaning. There's a near meaning, and there's a far meaning, and there's a ditch on either side. You know, the Reformed Preterist friends, they would tell us that all of this was fulfilled when Christ came the first time. Every bit of this was fulfilled when Christ came the first time. But that just doesn't, that's not going to line up with scripture and it's not going to line up with Psalm 2. It can't possibly have all been fulfilled when he came the first time. Not unless every single promise he made about a future kingdom was just totally allegorical. And we just can't accept that. The greatest event in human history, the return of Jesus Christ is just kind of an allegory. It's so anticlimactic, is it not? But the other ditch would come from the hyper-dispensationalists, and they would say, well, no, it's only future. Every bit of it is future. But as so many times in the Bible, and certainly concerning prophecy, we're going to see it's not either or, it's both and. And we're going to see this straight from the New Testament writer. Listen, the New Testament quotes Psalm 2 so much. By the time we get done with this study, we're going to have zero doubt as to what this prophecy means, because the New Testament tells us. And so, what I want you to know is this, and I'm going to spend the next two weeks proving this. The dual meaning is this. The first half of Psalm 2 was fulfilled when Christ came in His death, burial, and resurrection. The second half of Psalm 2 is fulfilled at His second coming, which has not happened yet. We're going to say all of this hashed out even in the New Testament. And here's something that I find interesting as well. Psalm 2 is quoted, I believe, I didn't get complete confirmation on this, but just by checking the references side by side, I think Psalm 2 is quoted second most of any text in the Bible, just next to Psalm 110 and verse 1. Psalm 110 and verse 1 is the most quoted verse in all the Bible, the most quoted text, and by the way, that's also a royal psalm. I think the theme of the King is coming is pretty important to the Lord, don't you think? And so this is what we need to see. Psalm 2 is quoted multiple times in Acts, Hebrews, and Revelation. We're going to see all that. But the question that I really want to wrestle with over the next couple of weeks is how can the promise of the coming King encourage suffering Christians? Well, before we get into the meat of the prophecies, as always, you know I do this. We have to ask ourselves, what would this text have meant to an Old Testament Jew prior to the coming of Christ? Because if we miss that, then we're going to miss the more complete meaning that we get from the New Testament text. And so in order to answer that question, what would this have meant to a Jew, you have to understand a little bit about the Davidic covenant. Now I'm not going to, I mean I could do a whole series on the Davidic covenant. That's not my goal, that's not my aim for this point in time. I'm sure we will get there. But if you would like to read about it, you can find that in 2 Samuel chapter 7. You can find it in a more condensed version in 2 Chronicles 17 verses 11 through 14. But the breakdown of the Davidic covenant is this. The Davidic covenant is a covenant of promise in which Yahweh promises to fulfill all the conditions of the covenant on His own. You know, there were covenants of condition, but then there were covenants of promise. And this is a covenant of promise. Man has nothing to do with this. God says, I'm going to perform this no matter what you do. a covenant of promise, and the promises are this, that a son, or a descendant is what that means, a descendant of David, of the tribe of Judah, would take the throne in Israel, and would rule in perfect peace over the Gentile nations, and that his kingdom would stand forever. Now of course we know that was at least in part fulfilled when Jesus Christ came. We're going to see he was a descendant of David, he was of the tribe of Judah. But obviously, at least in a physical form, in a physical kingdom on this earth, He is not ruling over the Gentiles. He is not ruling and reigning from Jerusalem. Now, He's ruling and reigning from the right hand of God. And He's letting evil and suffering have its day, but even that's accomplishing His will. But one day, He is going to rule and reign from Jerusalem, and He is going to rule over the Gentile nations. Aren't you looking forward to that day? And so that's what the Davidic covenant is. Now think about this, just from the point of view of an Old Testament Jew, who knew nothing about the coming of Christ, who knew nothing about the New Testament, all that it entails, what comfort this psalm would have brought the Jew, who was constantly fighting wars, constantly in and out of captivity. Can you imagine being a Jew under Babylonian captivity? Or under Assyrian captivity? and wondering if they're ever going to get out of this. I imagine they sang Psalm 2 quite a bit, don't you think? The king is coming, that was their cry. He's going to make all things right. By the way, that's still our motto today, isn't it? The king is coming and he's going to make everything right. And so, I know that right now, we live during a peace time in the United States. But I don't know if you realize this. You might take notes on this. This is deep. This is profound. We have wicked leaders in this country. And you almost wonder how long it's going to take before they completely mess everything up. Everything. But no matter where our suffering comes from this life, our encouragement should be found in the fact that King Jesus has come and He will come again. That's going to be our series for the next two weeks. This morning I'm really going to emphasize the fact that the King has come, which also guarantees us that He's coming again. So that's what we're going to look at. The King has come and He is coming. And our hope is that the King has already come. We can find comfort in what the King has accomplished during His first coming, and this is where I want you to keep your place in Psalm 2. But we're going to see what Christ fulfilled concerning Psalm 2. We need to go to Acts chapter 4. Luke is the writer of the book of Acts. He is writing under the direct inspiration of God, and he gives his commentary on exactly what we just read. We don't even have to guess. And so what he says in Acts chapter 4 beginning in verse 23, and being let go, this is talking about Peter and John being beaten for preaching in the name of Jesus, and being let go, being freed, they went to their own company and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them. And when they heard it, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, thou art God. which has made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in it, who by the mouth of thy servant David hath said, Why did the heathen rage? And the people imagined vain things. The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ, or against His anointed. for of a truth against thy holy child Jesus whom thou hast anointed. Both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. And so we see right here that Luke breaks it down for us. When it talks about the heathen raging, And the people imagining a vain thing, it's talking about the Romans and the Jews coming together to kill Jesus Christ. This is talking about the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, while we're here, let's go ahead and go over to Acts chapter 13. He gives us some more commentary. Acts chapter 13 and verse 28, And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulchre. But God raised him from the dead, and was seen many days of them, which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who were his witnesses unto the people. and we declare unto you glad tidings how that the promise which was made unto the fathers." God hath fulfilled the same unto us, their children, and that he was raised up Jesus again. As it is also written in the second Psalm, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. And as concerning that, he raised him up from the dead. Now, no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David. And so here we see even the language when it says, this day have I begotten thee, that's talking about the resurrection of Christ. And so we see what this psalm is talking. We don't have to guess. So let's go back to Psalm 2. And since we're looking at this near prophecy, the first coming of Christ, I want us to read through the first four verses of this psalm. And we're going to look at it from the lens of the first coming of Christ, the death, burial, and resurrection as we just saw from the hand of Luke. So let's just read through this and break it down. Verse 1, here in Psalm 2. Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain thing? And so, this word heathen here, it doesn't mean somebody that lives like the devil. We used to use that word a lot in the South. He just living like a heathen, you know, or heathern. We had an R in there. But that's not what this is talking about. The Jews understood this to mean Gentile nations or Gentile rulers. And so based on what we just read in Acts, this is talking about the Romans. And then there's a second group here he mentions. Why do the heathen rage? And the people imagine a vain thing. And so this is talking about the Jewish leaders. We just read about that in Acts chapter 4. And so this is what it's talking about. The Jews and the Romans imagine a vain thing or plot a vain thing is what that means. What do you think that vain thing was? That was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. And three days after they murdered Him, they found out what a vain thing it was because He rose from the dead. And so this is what verse 1 is talking about. Look at verse 2. The kings of the earth set themselves, that's Roman leadership, and the rulers, that's Jewish leadership, the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed saying, now this is super important, When you're reading through your Bible, and I would say this is much more true of the Old Testament, since it was translated from Hebrew, this is more true of that than it is the New Testament. You will find some exceptions to this in the New Testament. But in the Old Testament, almost without exception, and it may be without exception, when you see the word LORD with all four letters capitalized, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D here in verse 2. The reason that the translators did that is they wanted the readers to know that that is the covenant name of Yahweh. That is Yahweh. And so when it says that they take counsel against Yahweh and against His anointed, who do you think that anointed one was? That was Christ. We just read about it in the New Testament. In fact, you need to get this too. The word Christ is not even really a name. It's not His last name. It's a title. And it means the anointed one. And so when it says that they have counseled together against the Lord and against His anointed, that's talking about the Christ. The Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. They have taken counsel against Yahweh and His Christ And so there's no doubt about who this is talking about. And by the way, kind of circling back to the Davidic covenant in which a descendant of David would come, listen, this is amazing to me. Christ was obviously a descendant of David and of the tribe of Judah. We know this because in the New Testament there are two different genealogies of Christ. You find one in Matthew chapter 1 and also in Luke chapter 3. What's interesting is the genealogy in Matthew chapter 1 is the genealogy of Joseph. Now obviously Joseph was not Jesus' biological father because Christ was born of a virgin, right? But it was still his adoptive father. It was his legal earthly father. And that genealogy goes through the line of David and also the tribe of Judah. Well, the genealogy in Luke chapter 3 goes through the lineage of Mary. And it goes through David to the tribe of Jude. Isn't that amazing? And so what this means is that Jesus is a descendant of David both by adoption and by blood. Isn't that amazing? Just in case anybody had a question about that. He is a descendant of David, of the tribe of Judah. He is the fulfillment of this coming king, this coming anointed one in Psalm 2. And so, He is the Messiah. There's no doubt about that. But in verse 3, let's break this down. I'm getting to a central point here, but I want you to see what the text is saying here. What I have to say is not important. The text is important. Verse 3. These leaders, these Romans, these Jews, let us let their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. Now isn't it amazing that Christ never sinned. He never hurt anybody. He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, raised the dead, and yet because of the message he preached, somehow he was bringing shackles and bondage that deserved death. Isn't that amazing? What a commentary. What an illustration of the absolute wickedness and depravity of mankind. I want you to understand this world is not neutral concerning God. This world hates God. Now that comes in different packages. Sometimes it looks different, but this world is at enmity with God. There is none righteous, Paul said in Romans chapter 3. There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that seeketh after God. There is none good. There is none that seeketh after God. I think I needed repeating. They have all gone out of the way. They have all turned everyone to their own way. All righteousness is as filthy rags in the sight of God. And I'm telling you, that is the biggest problem, and I will have a rabbit genocide if I get on this trail right here. I'm serious. I think one of the greatest problems, if not the greatest problem in the professing American church, is that we do not understand the nature of man because we do not understand the nature of God. We have way too elevated a view of man and way too low a view of God. But in the eyes of God and His own description of mankind, apart from Jesus Christ, we are sinners. We are lost. We are under the wrath of a holy God. We deserve hell and we'll get it if a person does not repent and place their trust in Jesus Christ. God is a holy God. He's ferociously holy. He has zero tolerance for sin. And so, we see that they hated Christ. The Romans and the Jews hated each other. That's so amazing to me. The Romans and Jews, they hated each other. They were always fighting. I mean, they never got along about anything. And yet, for a short period of time, they were able to come to the table and hold hands and sing kumbaya to come together for the purpose of killing Christ. Isn't that amazing? This world hates Jesus Christ. They want to cast His bonds, or what He called His bands, or the cords, these chains and shackles. That's what they said Christ was bringing to this world. But hear this, that's always been Satan's chief lie from the very beginning, that there is freedom and satisfaction apart from God. When the truth is that sin brings slavery. The problem with the sinner is that he thinks that he knows more than God, and that the creature knows more than the Creator, and therefore is better off without God. Listen, we see this everywhere in our world today. I could think of hundreds of examples, but just a few that I jotted down. Every time an atheist denies the existence of God, they are attempting to throw off His rule. Did you know Two things that are true about the atheist. They absolutely believe there is no God and they hate Him. Think about that. There is absolutely no God and yet they hate Him. It's because they do believe in God. They just don't want to acknowledge Him. Atheists say they don't believe in God. God doesn't believe in atheists. He's revealed Himself. We find this in Romans 1. They're without excuse. He's made those things clear. But every time that someone denies God's created order, such as a man belongs with a man, or a woman belongs with a woman, or a man can be a woman, or a woman can be a man, when statements like that are made about God's created order, you know what they're doing? They're trying to cast off the clear boundaries that God's made. And they can't do it. It's impossible. You can't just say something and make it true. Only God can do that. You can't speak your gender into existence or out of existence. The best thing to do is just glory in who God made you to be. We're created in the image of God. We're fearfully and wonderfully made. Anytime a so-called, now this is important, anytime that a so-called church gets together and makes a mockery of the holiness of God by putting on a circus, they're trying to cast off the rule of God. They're not satisfied with the God of the universe. We see this everywhere. And I usually, listen, I try to be a positive person. I try not to chase rabbits. I try not to cause a huge stir on social media. The truth is I got such a talent for it that if I just toe dip it melts everything. But this week, and I'm going to say this and move on. I saw where a church, so called church, they're having this what they call series at the movies. And they spent countless thousands of dollars making their church look like a movie theater. The theme was Toy Story 4. You can get any deep spiritual insight from that. And the pastor came out dressed like Woody. And the pastor's wife came dressed like Bo Peep. And they're up there having their play acting and they're not any good at it. The world's a whole lot better than that. I hate to tell them that. And they do that because the death and the burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ isn't enough. How can that possibly be more exciting than Genesis through Revelation? That's what Charles Spurgeon called entertaining the goats because it sure ain't feeding the sheep. How could you possibly add to this? Because you're entertaining the goats. You're appealing to the flesh and you salt it with just enough churchianity that people think, oh, well, they really mean what? No, they don't. I'm just sick of talking. I'm sick of walking on eggshells about it. And I just need to move on because I think I've just probably put the rabbits on the endangered species list. But the reason I bring that up in reference to what we're talking about is what they have done is they have not submitted themselves to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. They have created a God after their own image and they've called Him Jesus. I hope you understand that just because a so-called pastor or a so-called church or religious group, just because they say they worship Jesus, it doesn't mean it's the Jesus of the Bible. You can call anything Jesus. You can call this microphone Jesus if you want to. It's not the Jesus of the Bible. And when you create a Jesus in your own image instead of submitting to the Jesus of Scripture, you know what you've done? You just created a God in your own image and likeness. It may not be a God made with your hands, but it's a God made with your mind. They didn't want anything to do with Christ, they wanted to kill Him. Every time a cult worships a false God and false Christ, they are trying to cast off the rule of God. This world is not neutral to God. Every time wicked rules and laws are passed by these politicians that go against God's law, they are trying to cast off the rule of God. And every time I see any of the things that I just mentioned, sometimes I say it out loud, sometimes I think it, sometimes I mutter it under my breath, but I say, enjoy it while you can. Enjoy it while you can. Every time a sinner plays down his own sin, he is attempting to cast off the rule of God. because he or she is not submitting to the definition of what Christ has called us. Listen, I got news for you. God does not accept us just the way we are. Did you know that? God does not accept us just the way we are. Not everybody is a child of God. In fact, we're all born children of the devil. Jesus said to the Jews in John chapter 8, ye are of your father the devil. That's who we are apart from Christ. Listen, this is why when it comes to our salvation, there's certain familiar language that's used. We are adopted into the family of God. Now why do we need to be adopted if we're already a child of God? We're born again into the family of God. We're married into the family of God. We're the bride of Christ. And in fact, that's really the only three ways legally to get into a family. Birth, adoption, and marriage. We're in like Flynn. We're in like all three. Isn't that a wonderful truth? And so, these Jews, these Romans, and really the world as a whole are trying to cast off these cords and these shackles. But look at verse 4. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Now, notice here, that the LORD here is not in all caps. That's because this is not speaking of Yahweh, it's speaking of Adonai. And Adonai means Master. And in the Old Testament and also in the New Testament in certain places, it usually speaks of Christ. Yahweh and His Adonai. And that's what it's speaking of here. The LORD shall have them in derision. I wonder how He did that. The word derision here It means to be mocked. That's literally what it means. That God is mocking them. Now how do you think the Lord Jesus Christ mocked these Jews and these Romans? I would say easily by raising from the dead three days later. Can you imagine the humiliation? I mean, I really would have loved to have seen their faces. Because you understand, when Jesus rose from the dead, it's not like He just waved at the disciples and ascended to heaven. The Bible says He walked the earth 40 days and 40 nights after He resurrected from the dead, and went into the Holy City many times. And many of the Old Testament saints, the Bible said they rose from the dead and went to the Holy City. Can you imagine the commotion? I think one of the greatest proofs of the resurrection is the fact that they didn't try to kill him again. I mean, think about it. What an embarrassment. What a slap in the face to the Romans. Shaking his fist at the Jews. Walking among them like nothing had ever happened. And they didn't touch him. Don't you think that they would have jerked him up and made an example of him? And made sure that he was dead this time. They would make sure that the tomb was sealed this time. Why did they do that? because they did all those things the first time. They knew He had died. They knew they had sealed the tomb. They knew they had guarded the tomb. And they knew that He was walking around three days later like absolutely nothing happened and they didn't want any part of that. I would have loved to have seen their faces. He mocked them. They killed Him. The ultimate undoable deed is killing somebody. They killed Him. Brutally murdered Him. in cold blood and three days later he rose from the dead. I wonder if he winked at him when we went by. He's not, he's not, the Lord is not, he's probably not as sarcastic as I am. And he's certainly not arrogant, he's the precious lamb of God. I just wonder, I just wonder what that interaction was like. Can you imagine? He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision. He mocked I would say that the Lord had the last laugh, wouldn't you? And also, not only has He had the last laugh, He will have the last laugh. I've tried to bring these things out from the text and now I'm going to wind down with some application here. But as Christians, We can find our comfort in what we just read. That Christ came to this earth, God in human flesh, the King of all glory. And listen, the whole world came against Him. The Romans came against Him. The Jews came against Him. Satan came against Him. Even death itself came against Christ and Christ won. Think about this. This is where our hope comes from. That the God of the universe the creator of everything, the second eternal person of the Godhead, entered into his own creation, the creator, came down to the creation through the womb of a virgin. He lived a sinless life that you and I could never live, fulfilling all the just demands of God's law. He died on the cross for our sin. And when He was on that cross, God the Father placed our sins in Jesus Christ, in His body on the tree, Peter tells us. And that He was punished for our sin in our place. And that three days later, He rose from the dead to prove that God was satisfied with that sacrifice. That is the only sacrifice that God is pleased with. He's not pleased with your good works. He's not pleased with your religion. He's not pleased with how good of a person you think you are. He is only pleased with us in and through and because of Jesus Christ. And the only reason that I'm right with God this morning, that I'm guaranteed a home in heaven, is that because my sins were imputed to Christ on the cross, and at salvation through faith, His righteousness was applied to me. I am clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And if you're saved, you are saved. That's how we're right with God. So when God sees us, He sees Christ. Isn't that wonderful? But think about this. If Christ had not come, we would be hopeless. If Christ had sinned even one time, we would be hopeless. If Christ had not died on the cross for our sin, we would be hopeless. If Christ had not risen from the dead, we would be hopeless. But He did all those things. And because of that, we have all the hope in the world. This great victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? This victory of His first coming proves the certainty of the victory of His second coming. But the question is, is that where you find your hope this morning? I mean, honestly, where do you find your hope at? Because, listen, we live in a time that is tired of wicked leaders. It's tired of oppression by government. It's tired of being lied to. And it's not even a Democrat or Republican thing. We're just tired of it. Tired of it. But here's the problem. I don't think anybody's looking for the right solution. The Bible says, put not your trust in princes. There may be some better than others, but nobody's going to fix what's broken right now. That's why we've got to look past the White House. to the King that is coming and the King that has already come. Do you find your hope in the gospel of the death and burial and resurrection of Christ or do you find it in the coming King? If not, where's your hope come from? What hope is there in this life outside of Jesus Christ? If you don't believe these things, it ought to give you a healthy fear because the King is coming and you're not ready. You're not ready, but you can be. You can be ready. You can be on the right side of this thing if you repent of your sin and your self-righteousness and you would just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross. That's where our hope is. Isn't that wonderful that the best they could ever do is kill us? And all death is for the believers, an escort home. That's where our hope has to come from. It certainly can't come from Washington or the politicians or the tax laws, or the 401K, or your health, look, those things can change today. I'm thankful that my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and His righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand. Is that where your hope is? Because the King is coming.