The NXR Podcast - THE CONFERENCE - Postmillennialism - Session 8 - Doug Wilson ｜ Blueprints for Christendom 2.0 2024

00:00:00.400 It's always encouraging when you speak two times at a conference to have people show up for the second talk.

00:00:08.920 So, thank you.

00:00:11.260 So, let's pray.

00:00:12.960 Father, we give this time to you. We ask you to watch over us.

00:00:15.500 I pray your Holy Spirit would be at work, teaching, encouraging, and instructing.

00:00:19.960 We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

00:00:21.600 Amen.

00:00:22.300 So, I've tentatively titled this talk, Psalm 2, the Postmill Key to Everything.

00:00:31.820 Psalm 2, the Postmill Key to Everything.

00:00:35.560 But before getting to Psalm 2, the Postmill Key to Everything, let us define us some terms.

00:00:43.120 The millennium is a thousand years of peace that Christians like to fight about.

00:00:52.300 It is, too.

00:00:55.100 Seriously, the three main positions have a prefix that tells you where advocates of that system place the second coming of Christ in reference to the millennium.

00:01:08.400 The millennium is mentioned one time in the Bible, in a most difficult passage, in a most difficult chapter, in the most challenging book of the Bible.

00:01:18.220 And so we named all the positions after that one term.

00:01:22.300 I would refer you to my commentary on Revelation when the man comes around, reminding you at the same time that Ambrose Bierce defined Revelation as a book in which St. John the Divine concealed all that he knew.

00:01:38.120 The revealing is done by the commentators who know nothing.

00:01:44.040 And Chesterton once said that John saw many strange monsters in his vision, but none so strange as any one of his commentators.

00:01:52.300 So, with these exhortations in mind, let us tread carefully,

00:01:58.560 recalling Bierce's definition of exhortation,

00:02:01.620 which was to put the conscience of another upon the spit

00:02:04.360 and roast it to a nut-brown discomfort.

00:02:07.580 So, where was I?

00:02:10.120 So, pre-millennialists, here are the three main positions.

00:02:13.000 Pre-millennialists place the second coming of Christ prior to the millennium.

00:02:18.760 Pre-millennial. Christ comes before the millennium. 0.81

00:02:22.300 Ah, in amillennialism, the ah is a term of negation.

00:02:27.800 So amillennialists say that the millennium is a spiritual reign with Christ in the heavenly places.

00:02:33.780 And so the second coming has no reference to the millennium.

00:02:37.520 So amillennial means the second coming happened. 0.61

00:02:41.120 All Orthodox Christians believe in a literal bodily return of Christ at the end of human history to judge the quick and the dead. 0.94

00:02:49.340 We all believe that. 0.74

00:02:50.760 But premillennialists say that that coming is right prior to the millennium, and then he reigns on earth for a thousand years in person.

00:02:59.640 Amillennialists say the second coming comes at some point in history.

00:03:03.000 We don't know when, but it's not in reference to any earthly millennium.

00:03:08.520 And then postmillennialists are those who see a literal second coming at the conclusion of the millennium, which will be ushered in by means of gospel preaching.

00:03:19.040 So the post-millennialists and the pre-millennialists both believe that there will be a literal earthly millennium.

00:03:26.680 But the pre-millennialists believe that the earthly millennium will be reigned over by Christ, the incarnate Christ, reigning over the earth.

00:03:36.540 Post-millennialists believe that Christ is going to reign during the millennium through his Holy Spirit, planting of churches.

00:03:43.580 The earth will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

00:03:47.500 So pre-, ah-, and post-millennial.

00:03:51.180 Now, there are other terms I could define for you, but I'm not going to bog you down.

00:03:55.080 These we'll do in a rough-and-ready way.

00:03:58.140 So the next thing I want to do is I want to explain, give you a little autobiographical account of how I got myself in as much doctrinal trouble as I did.

00:04:07.020 and then I want to go to Psalm 2 to map out for you a sort of a textbook case of how this method

00:04:16.620 works. So I would encourage you to get an old beater Bible, the Bible you don't mind marking

00:04:22.980 up, and I would encourage you to make for yourself an apostolic study Bible. An apostolic

00:04:30.040 study Bible. What do I mean? Well, almost all Bibles have little footnotes or some notation

00:04:36.200 in that middle column where they'll tell you in the New Testament, if the New Testament quotes

00:04:41.540 the Old Testament, it'll be indented or set apart in some way, and then there'll be a little footnote

00:04:48.320 that says this gives you the reference in the Old Testament where it's from. Well, oddly, a lot of

00:04:55.780 Bibles don't do it the other way. So they'll tell you in the New Testament if this is a quotation

00:05:00.640 from the Old Testament, but they don't tell you in the Old Testament if this passage that you're

00:05:05.580 reading is quoted somewhere in the New. That's not set out or marked in any distinctive way.

00:05:12.160 So the making of an apostolic study Bible is where you undertake to fix that. So years and

00:05:18.820 decades ago now, and I don't know what possessed me to do this, but I went through the New Testament

00:05:24.560 and I highlighted every Old Testament quotation that was found in the New Testament. And then I

00:05:32.140 highlighted the place where it told me where it was, and I just, I wasn't reading, I was just

00:05:36.820 highlighting. I went through and highlighted them all, and then I spent a couple of weeks

00:05:41.340 looking up all those verses in the Old Testament and highlighting them there, and then writing in

00:05:47.280 the margin where in the New Testament that citation was found, okay? So that, and when I was

00:05:54.620 done, I had an apostolic study Bible. Instead of going to an evangelical commentary where

00:06:01.220 a believing evangelical who believes in inerrancy is arguing with some obscure German scholar about

00:06:07.780 what this means. Instead of that, I was reading along and, oh, Peter quotes this. Oh, Paul quotes

00:06:15.980 this. Oh, Jesus quotes this. And so what I could do is I would run into these, oh, this is quoted

00:06:22.200 five times in the New Testament. And then I could flip over and look at what the New Testament said

00:06:27.020 these verses we're talking about.

00:06:30.400 And I can tell you, I'm here to tell you

00:06:32.780 that this was entirely disorienting.

00:06:37.940 Because the New Testament said crazy things.

00:06:41.340 Things I wouldn't have ever guessed.

00:06:44.040 You're reading along and you're reading about Noah's flood

00:06:46.340 and you say, ah, Peter tells me

00:06:49.020 that this is talking about Christian baptism.

00:06:50.860 and then i'm reading also in genesis oh hagar and sarah these women are two covenants as paul

00:07:01.580 teaches in galatians and you get starting and slapped around where you think oh

00:07:06.960 maybe the bible is more mysterious than i thought i maybe there's more going on maybe i should

00:07:15.280 learn from jesus and the apostles how to handle how to handle the old testament

00:07:21.440 Now, it is very easy for us to assume, to just be reading along in the Old Testament,

00:07:28.580 and to just assume that we know what it's talking about.

00:07:31.900 We're reading it like we're reading a newspaper article or something.

00:07:36.480 And there is that level, that historical meaning that is there.

00:07:41.100 You should read it that way, the grammatical historical method.

00:07:43.980 But then there are other things going on.

00:07:46.660 So you get to, when you were first converted, somebody told you, you heard a preacher say,

00:07:52.220 you know that there are over 300 messianic prophecies of the coming Christ.

00:07:57.280 And they were all fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth.

00:08:00.580 And you've been a Christian for two months and you think to yourself, yay, great faith builder.

00:08:05.800 This is wonderful.

00:08:07.140 And then you get around to reading the Old Testament for the first time.

00:08:11.060 And you start having these wait a minute moments.

00:08:13.520 so Matthew says when Joseph and Mary and Jesus flee to Egypt Matthew says so that the word might

00:08:23.940 be fulfilled out of Egypt I called my son well if you've got your apostolic study bible you

00:08:29.840 you're reading along in Hosea and Hosea 11 1 says when Israel was a child I loved him and out of

00:08:38.200 Egypt I called my son. And you think, wait a minute, this is talking about the exodus. Hosea

00:08:44.820 is talking about the exodus, and Matthew is talking about the holy family running down to,

00:08:49.380 wait, wait, wait, wait. And so that's the moment where your faith gets a little rattled. You think,

00:08:55.340 oh, these 300 prophecies, maybe they're all like this. Now, then you grow up into the third stage,

00:09:03.100 which is a faith-building stage again, because it occurs to you that this is the very first time

00:09:08.180 in your life that you've ever read Hosea, and you think that, you know, maybe Matthew had Hosea

00:09:18.420 memorized, and maybe Matthew's up to something. So this was touched on, Joe in the previous talk

00:09:26.800 touched on this, in Matthew chapter 4, Jesus is baptized. Well, was Israel baptized? Yeah,

00:09:34.320 Israel was baptized in the cloud and in the sea.

00:09:36.760 Jesus was baptized in the Jordan.

00:09:38.740 What happened to Israel when they were baptized into Moses? 0.52

00:09:42.240 Well, they go into the wilderness for 40 years.

00:09:44.440 What happened to Jesus when he was baptized by John the Baptist?

00:09:48.840 He goes into the wilderness for 40 days.

00:09:51.200 What happened to Israel when they were in the wilderness for 40 years?

00:09:53.880 They were repeatedly tested and fell.

00:09:56.520 What happened to Jesus in the wilderness for 40 days?

00:09:59.820 He was repeatedly tested and stood.

00:10:02.780 And you think, oh, and then what did Israel do at the end of the 40 years? 0.82

00:10:05.840 They invaded Canaan. 0.62

00:10:07.200 What did Jesus do at the end of the 40 days? 0.86

00:10:09.480 He invaded Canaan.

00:10:11.140 And you think, oh. 0.82

00:10:12.480 And just two chapters earlier, Matthew said, out of Egypt I called my son.

00:10:18.260 And you think, oh, oh, oh.

00:10:20.340 Matthew is telling us, Christ is Israel.

00:10:24.900 Christ is the new Israel. 0.93

00:10:26.600 And here, at last, is Israel doing it right. 0.97

00:10:31.780 Israel finally quit screwing up all through the Old Testament Israel veers off after idols they 0.92

00:10:39.480 get into trouble the Midianites take over the Philistines take over they get they're oppressed 0.74

00:10:43.740 they cry out to the Lord and the Lord delivers them raises up a judge and you turn the page and 0.98

00:10:51.040 they're worshiping idols again and then over and over and over again and then you come to the New

00:10:58.000 Testament, here's Jesus doing it right. And you think, okay, okay, there's an awful lot in the

00:11:04.820 New Testament that is commentary on the Old Testament. So if you're a new Christian, I would 0.99

00:11:09.800 say, read the New Testament a couple, three times, read it through, then mark it up, then look up all

00:11:14.600 the verses in the Old Testament and mark them, and then start reading through the Old Testament.

00:11:21.260 You're also going to discover, if you listen to any speaker, oh, he likes C.S. Lewis a lot,

00:11:27.140 he quotes them all the time. Or he likes Chesterton, he quotes him all the time.

00:11:32.620 Well, you're going to find the same thing out about the New Testament writers. What were their

00:11:36.600 favorite books? The ones they quote all the time. And what are they? Genesis, Deuteronomy,

00:11:44.740 Psalms, and Isaiah. Genesis, Deuteronomy, Psalms, and Isaiah. So you're a new Christian,

00:11:50.760 you're going to read the Old Testament, start with those books, read through those books,

00:11:53.880 and then read the whole thing. You know, I'm not telling you to read part of the Bible and not the

00:11:56.960 whole Bible, but I'm saying read intelligently, approach it with a plan, so the New Testament a

00:12:03.180 couple times, look at all the places the New Testament quotes the Old Testament, concentrate

00:12:07.200 on getting Genesis, Deuteronomy, Psalms, and Isaiah down, and then read through the whole thing,

00:12:12.020 and you're going to be, you're going to find yourself in all kinds of trouble at your church.

00:12:16.760 but that's a separate credit

00:12:23.900 okay now to Psalm 2

00:12:27.180 now to Psalm 2

00:12:28.920 now I want you to picture it this way

00:12:31.580 take the whole Old Testament

00:12:34.260 or take in this instance just Psalm 2

00:12:37.700 and lay it out on the table

00:12:40.180 like it's a parchment or a map

00:12:43.860 or some kind of text

00:12:46.700 lay it out on the table. Then what you do is you lay the New Testament over top of it. And every

00:12:52.980 time the New Testament tells you this is talking about that, drive a nail. Just drive a nail and

00:12:59.540 say, okay, this verse is the New Testament tells me what this is talking about. And then you read

00:13:05.180 down a few verses and then there's another verse quoted, drive another nail there. And so you drive

00:13:10.660 nails everywhere the New Testament tells you this is what this is about. And when you do this with

00:13:16.040 Psalm 2. Psalm 2 is a great textbook case for doing this because all kinds of things fall out.

00:13:23.980 All kinds of things are revealed about the meaning of Psalm 2 in its entirety. Because I know the

00:13:30.040 New Testament tells me what verses 1 and 2 are talking about. The New Testament tells me what

00:13:33.940 a few verses down are talking about, what verse 7 is talking about, what verse 9 is talking about.

00:13:37.900 And I've driven nails there. And the conclusion of what the rest of the psalm is talking about

00:13:43.620 is now inescapable you can't get away from it so let's uh let's uh do work through this is in a

00:13:52.400 workshop sort of way so in the second psalm we have a wonderful prophecy of the reign of messiah

00:14:00.340 the prince a wonderful prophecy of the reign of messiah the prince now there's another thing that

00:14:07.680 And this is something you'll discover if you conduct this operation with Psalm 8.

00:14:13.440 But I'm going to fill you in because it helps you understand this.

00:14:17.380 God is always sovereign.

00:14:19.720 There's never been a moment in human history where God was not exhaustively sovereign over the number of hairs on your head,

00:14:26.840 what sparrows are doing when they fall to the ground, when a cat catches one.

00:14:32.200 A sparrow doesn't fall to the ground apart from the will of the Father.

00:14:35.800 So God is always sovereign.

00:14:39.140 But in the Old Testament, the cosmology is this.

00:14:42.840 God as sovereign, mediatorial princes, celestial beings, angels, powers, then man. 0.52

00:14:51.780 Man in his minority. 0.54

00:14:54.000 Man is not yet 21.

00:14:57.620 He's not come into his trust inheritance.

00:15:00.460 So it's God as sovereign, mediatorial princes, many of them corrupt and evil and fallen.

00:15:05.000 and then man now and you see this in the old testament when daniel's praying

00:15:11.060 his prayer the answer to his prayer is delayed by like three weeks and then the angel shows up kind

00:15:17.780 of i imagine disheveled and he said i would have been here sooner but i got a got in a fight with

00:15:24.500 the prince of persia right so he was delayed by the prince of persia there was a battle there

00:15:30.720 And so you have celestial forces behind Tyre and behind Ekron.

00:15:40.740 So Beelzebub is the god of Ekron, and he comes up later as Beelzebub in the New Testament. 0.79

00:15:47.580 So he's the demonic entity behind the Philistine city of Ekron.

00:15:52.600 So you have these, the Bible doesn't tell us that these spiritual entities are superstitions. 0.69

00:15:59.860 They are angelic forces, angelic beings who are fallen

00:16:03.400 and who are the power behind the throne, okay?

00:16:07.360 Now, that's who occupies the second tier,

00:16:10.520 God in his sovereignty, and then the mediatorial princes,

00:16:14.460 corrupt and many of them receiving worship as though they were gods, 0.88

00:16:19.420 and then man. 0.59

00:16:20.780 In the New Testament, in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus,

00:16:24.520 what you have is a cosmological revolution.

00:16:28.040 That's what the incarnation was.

00:16:30.160 That's what the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ accomplished.

00:16:33.680 It was a complete revolution of the way the world runs.

00:16:38.820 Now, God is sovereign at the top in the New Testament.

00:16:42.480 God is sovereign as he always was.

00:16:44.840 And then you have the mediatorial prince, just one, the Lord Jesus.

00:16:50.660 The mediatorial prince is now ruling all things.

00:16:55.560 What does Jesus say in the Great Commission?

00:16:57.400 All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

00:17:02.200 Therefore, go disciple the nations, baptizing them, teaching them to obey all that I've commanded.

00:17:08.440 So Christ is the prince.

00:17:09.780 He's Messiah, the prince now.

00:17:11.400 And then underneath Christ is man in Christ, man in Christ.

00:17:16.960 So God is sovereign, Christ, the prince, and then man in Christ.

00:17:21.900 That's the cosmological revolution.

00:17:24.160 That's what was accomplished 2000 years ago.

00:17:26.700 and that is why it is such a tragedy 0.73

00:17:29.360 that evangelical believing Christians

00:17:31.640 think that they have 0.99

00:17:33.520 we think that we should go out 1.00

00:17:35.760 into the slums of the world 1.00

00:17:37.040 and live as paupers there 0.99

00:17:38.440 because this world is not our home

00:17:40.040 we're just passing through

00:17:41.300 that is false

00:17:43.020 it's false

00:17:44.320 how can you say this world is not our home

00:17:46.480 when Jesus bought it with his blood

00:17:48.440 he bought the nations

00:17:51.580 and we're going to see this in Psalm 2

00:17:53.260 he

00:17:53.740 He, well, we will if I get to it.

00:18:01.160 So, this prophecy does not concern the reign of God and his sovereignty,

00:18:06.600 because God is always sovereign,

00:18:08.120 which is the necessary result of the creator's relationship with the world that he created.

00:18:13.840 But it's a reign that results from, God's sovereign reign is a reign that results from his sovereign decree.

00:18:21.340 So God is sovereign, and that's the way it is.

00:18:23.860 And then in his sovereignty, he issues a command regarding his son, the Lord Jesus.

00:18:31.240 So he gives a sovereign decree, the mediatorial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ.

00:18:36.620 In other words, God rules the world just as he always has,

00:18:40.760 but now he rules the world redemptively through Jesus Christ.

00:18:47.140 the the king and prince of this world has now got salvation for the world in mind

00:18:54.720 behold the lamb of god what does john the baptist say behold the lamb of god who takes away the sin

00:19:00.800 of the world in first john and he is a propitiation for our sins and not for our sins only but also

00:19:07.920 for the sins of the whole world right next to the most famous verse in the bible john 3 17 it says

00:19:14.300 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be, what?

00:19:20.480 Saved.

00:19:22.060 Now, most evangelicals believe that God sent his Son into the world to condemn the world.

00:19:31.100 But God says, I didn't send my Son to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

00:19:35.960 That's postmillennialism.

00:19:38.120 All right, so, God rules the world just as he always has,

00:19:41.800 but now he rules it redemptively with the redemption of the human race in mind

00:19:46.620 and the putting back together of every mess restored in Jesus Christ.

00:19:53.620 Now, let's jump into the psalm and see,

00:19:56.700 and I trust that you're going to see this meaning just unfold naturally from the text.

00:20:03.760 Let me read the whole thing, the whole psalm.

00:20:06.800 Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?

00:20:11.800 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord

00:20:17.540 and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords

00:20:23.220 from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision.

00:20:30.220 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set

00:20:35.720 my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art

00:20:42.040 my son. This day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine

00:20:47.640 inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a 0.98

00:20:53.300 rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise now, therefore, O you 0.98

00:20:59.120 kings. Be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

00:21:05.720 Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and he perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.

00:21:12.860 Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

00:21:16.160 The word of the Lord.

00:21:18.820 So we are Christians, and this means, among other things,

00:21:22.260 that we should always seek to have the New Testament tell us, teach us, what the Old Testament is talking about.

00:21:29.360 We're Christians. We follow Christ. We follow Christ and his apostles.

00:21:32.940 What is the Old Testament talking about?

00:21:35.200 And so consequently, our method for learning the meaning of this psalm

00:21:39.580 is to pay close attention to what the New Testament says about it.

00:21:44.060 The New Testament says a great deal about Psalm 2,

00:21:47.180 and we should tuck that away.

00:21:49.500 We should remember these things, like Mary.

00:21:51.220 We should treasure them up in our hearts.

00:21:54.200 These New Testament references should be our anchor points,

00:21:57.680 or the places where I said you should drive the nail.

00:22:00.720 These New Testament references should be your anchor points,

00:22:03.480 and we're going to consider those anchor points first.

00:22:07.400 Why do the heathen rage?

00:22:09.900 We are told in Acts 4, verses 24 through 28,

00:22:14.240 that the first two verses of the second psalm are a prophecy of the crucifixion.

00:22:19.920 We are told in Acts 4, 24 through 28,

00:22:23.500 that these words of Psalm 2, 1 and 2, are a prophecy of the crucifixion.

00:22:28.920 We also learn, incidentally, of the Davidic authorship of the psalm there,

00:22:33.480 the Old Testament doesn't say that David wrote it, but the New Testament does.

00:22:38.260 In addition, we see that the psalm, this psalm is the basis for saying

00:22:42.360 that the murder of Christ was predestined.

00:22:46.100 The murder of Christ was predestined.

00:22:48.840 God used the wickedness of men to save the world.

00:22:53.120 God used the wickedness of men, the treachery of Judas, the cowardice of Pilate, 0.77

00:22:58.560 the, I don't know what was going on with Herod, the envy of the Jews, he took all those things, 0.98

00:23:06.960 Herod, Pontius Pilate, and all the Jews did, it says in Acts 4, they did what your purpose and will 0.85

00:23:13.140 determined beforehand to be done. Now that means, now when I was, before I was reformed, 0.99

00:23:20.720 this verse, Acts 4, was my undoing, because after I came to grips with what it was saying,

00:23:27.560 I didn't believe, I didn't have to believe yet

00:23:30.740 that God ordained every evil thing that has ever happened

00:23:35.440 but I now knew that he knew how to do it

00:23:38.160 without ceasing to be holy

00:23:39.380 so he predestined the most grotesque murder

00:23:44.740 that ever happened in the history of the world

00:23:47.380 God predetermined it

00:23:48.580 it was prophesied a millennium before it happened

00:23:51.840 and the treachery price was settled

00:23:55.540 centuries before it happened

00:23:57.240 the murder of Christ was baked in. So why did the heathen rage? Well, we're told that this is all

00:24:03.580 about the crucifixion. So we drive one nail from Acts through Acts 4 into Psalm 2, 1 and 2. That's

00:24:10.600 a fixed point. Verses 1 and 2 are talking about the crucifixion. Now I'm going to jump to the next

00:24:17.000 anchor point and then we'll come back through and fill in the gaps. In Acts 13, 33, Acts 13, 33,

00:24:25.700 we learn that verse 7 of our psalm is a prophecy of the resurrection verse 7 is a prophecy of the

00:24:33.680 resurrection one and two of the crucifixion verse 7 of the resurrection and this is one of those

00:24:40.020 things that could trip you up because if you're not cross-checking if you're not looking at acts

00:24:44.420 13 when you read psalm you are my son today i've begotten you it's very easy for you to drift into

00:24:50.340 a theologically correct misunderstanding of the passage. We affirm that the Apostle John

00:25:00.620 uses the term monogamous for only begotten. Jesus, the second person in the Trinity,

00:25:06.320 is eternally begotten by the Father, eternally begotten in the intra-triune life. The Son

00:25:12.300 is eternally begotten, and Psalm 2, verse 7, is not talking about that. You are my Son,

00:25:19.300 today I've begotten you. Because the Arians, the early heretical followers of Arius, would say,

00:25:26.180 well, see, you are my son, today I've begotten you. Yesterday he wasn't the begotten son,

00:25:31.260 and today he is. There was a time when he was not the begotten son. See? Psalm 2, verse 7.

00:25:37.160 Well, no, I don't see, because Acts 13, 33 tells us this. It says, what God promised for them,

00:25:44.220 he fulfilled for us their children as it is written in the second psalm you have uh you are

00:25:51.220 my son today have begotten you so he is fulfilled for us their children by raising up jesus as it

00:25:58.340 says in the second psalm and then it quotes that verse you are my son today have begotten you is a

00:26:03.140 prophecy of the resurrection it is not talking about the eternal begetting of the son it is

00:26:07.940 talking about jesus as it says in colossians being the firstborn from among the dead

00:26:13.300 You are my son, today I have begotten you.

00:26:15.240 It's a prophecy of the resurrection.

00:26:17.960 And then that verse, verse 7, is quoted in two other places as well,

00:26:22.240 in ways that harmonize.

00:26:24.120 In Hebrews 1.5, it shows that this passage shows the supremacy of Christ over the angels.

00:26:33.800 And then Hebrews 5.5 quotes it as describing Christ entering his office as high priest.

00:26:39.680 so when he comes when he rises from the dead he is fulfilling the prophecy of verse 7 he is

00:26:48.680 showing his supremacy over the angels hebrews 1 5 and he is entering into his office as high priest

00:26:55.760 at the point of the resurrection so you put all three of those verses together and we see that

00:27:01.700 in the resurrection christ is begotten from the dead the firstborn from the dead he enters into

00:27:08.040 his high priestly work and he begins interceding for you and for me and he is made higher than the

00:27:13.920 angels that is what verse seven is talking about so one and two jesus was crucified because the

00:27:22.160 kings of the earth were raging against him jesus is crucified then in verse seven he is raised from

00:27:29.020 the dead then in verse nine two verses later then there's the rod of iron the book of revelation

00:27:36.980 refers to verse 9 three times, and the usage there is very interesting. Revelation 19, 15, and 16

00:27:47.040 refers to Christ's rule over the nations with his wrath in view. All right, so Christ rules over the

00:27:54.460 nations with his wrath in view. Revelation 12, 5 refers simply to Christ's rule over the nations,

00:28:02.400 And then Revelation 2, 26 through 29, teaches us that Christ rules the nations through his saints.

00:28:10.800 God has made us kings and priests on the earth.

00:28:14.300 So how does Christ wield the rod of iron?

00:28:18.220 He does it, according to Revelation 2, through his saints.

00:28:22.900 In Genesis, where the promise is made that the seed of the woman is going to crush the head of the seed of the serpent,

00:28:32.500 that's the first messianic promise in the Bible in Genesis 3.15.

00:28:37.900 Then in Romans 16, the Apostle Paul says to the Roman Christians,

00:28:43.480 the God of peace will soon crush Satan beneath your feet.

00:28:48.420 Also, incidentally, Satan is never mentioned in Genesis.

00:28:51.980 It's just the serpent.

00:28:53.440 We don't know from the Old Testament that it was Satan there in the garden.

00:28:57.900 We do know it from the New Testament.

00:28:59.440 Because in Revelation it says that ancient serpent, that dracos, that dragon, was cast down out of heaven.

00:29:06.220 And then in Romans 16 it says that it quotes Genesis 3.15 saying to the Roman Christians that the God of peace will soon crush Satan beneath your feet.

00:29:19.000 in other words you collectively the saints of god are the seed of the woman you are the seed of the

00:29:24.760 woman and you're going to crush and defeat the serpent and the woman is going to have her revenge

00:29:31.540 and it's going to be a full and complete revenge he does this through his saints so this is one of

00:29:38.660 the features of post-millennial uh thinking which is that the rule and reign of jesus christ

00:29:44.300 the kingdom of God, is extended out through the world through the faith of his people.

00:29:52.720 It says in 1 John, what is it that overcomes the world? Is it not our faith? What is it that

00:29:59.080 overcomes the world? Is it not our faith? So we are used by God to wield the rod of iron.

00:30:07.100 We are used by God to wield the rod of iron. So what are the implications of this?

00:30:14.300 this psalm has 12 verses. It's a short psalm. The psalm has 12 verses. We now know that verses 1

00:30:21.920 and 2 are about the crucifixion, that verse 7 is about the resurrection, and that verse 9

00:30:29.640 addresses the reign of Christ through his word through the church. Those are the anchor points,

00:30:36.240 crucifixion, resurrection, and the rule of Christ through the saints. What do we then

00:30:41.740 consequently learn from the rest of the psalm. You see what we're doing? You anchor those points,

00:30:47.640 and then you go back through and say, I wonder if these anchor points shed any light on the in-between

00:30:52.960 verses, the verses that are in between these anchor points. Yes, it does. Having established

00:31:00.120 the fixed points in the psalm, and they are fixed by authoritative commentary from the New Testament,

00:31:07.440 We are in a position to see what the rest of it means.

00:31:10.820 The language of verse 3 refers to the nation's resentment over the fact

00:31:15.800 that they had to plow underneath the yoke of the Lord Jesus Christ.

00:31:19.520 They chafed at the idea of having to serve Christ.

00:31:23.300 And so the kings of the earth, they took counsel together. 0.99

00:31:26.880 We are going to kill him. 0.99

00:31:28.680 We are going to deal with Jesus. 1.00

00:31:32.180 He has become a problem.

00:31:34.020 And we are going to fix the problem the way we always have.

00:31:39.460 Now, this is another big topic, but let me just touch on it.

00:31:46.040 Jesus tells us that prophets frequently come to an unhappy end.

00:31:54.580 Prophets are a pain in the neck as long as they're alive.

00:31:58.840 And then, after they're dead and safely in the ground, we honor them.

00:32:04.020 okay and jesus says you build the tombs of the prophets you guys are the curators of the memorial

00:32:10.420 tombs of the prophets and if any one of those prophets came back you would be aghast right

00:32:17.840 we name things after uh dead and gone heroes and we name our our evangelical institutions

00:32:25.400 after men who could not get a job in those institutions today.

00:32:31.740 Could Calvin get a job at Calvin University?

00:32:35.660 No.

00:32:37.320 Could Tyndall get a job at Tyndall House Publishing?

00:32:40.940 No.

00:32:43.460 And we can just go down the roster.

00:32:45.440 What we do is we decorate.

00:32:47.080 We decorate, we decorate. 0.55

00:32:47.940 The live prophet is the pain in the neck,

00:32:51.040 but then when they're executed and safely put away,

00:32:54.400 then we the machinery goes into motion and we honor them i don't have any this is going to be

00:33:00.920 a little bit cynical on my part but i i don't have any problem believing that caiaphas who was

00:33:06.600 instrumental obviously in the railroading job of getting jesus killed would have been the person

00:33:13.900 10 years later who made the motion to build a memorial for the prophet who so lately walked

00:33:20.680 among us okay now jesus wrecked that plan by coming back from the dead

00:33:26.320 that was that was the most disruptive thing that god ever thought of doing

00:33:34.820 oh there's so many wonderful things um in the gospel of john when before lazarus is called out

00:33:43.700 of the tomb uh martha tells jesus i know she's a faithful jewish woman she knows about the

00:33:49.760 resurrection at the last day. He says, I know, I know he'll be raised at the last day.

00:33:55.600 And Jesus, and it's quite striking when Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead,

00:34:00.420 there's a crowd of people there. And he, and Lazarus has been in the grave for four days

00:34:05.960 and he'd begun to decompose. And Jesus reaches underneath the history of the world, grabs,

00:34:12.800 what he's doing is he's giving us a proleptic prophecy of what's going to happen.

00:34:19.980 He doesn't really reach under the history of the world until his own resurrection,

00:34:24.040 because Lazarus was resuscitated and had to die again, right?

00:34:28.280 Jesus, when he rose again, that was Jesus grabbing something at the end of the world

00:34:32.780 and causing it to erupt in the middle of history.

00:34:36.240 That's what happened there.

00:34:37.520 And he gave a little harbinger of what he was going to do himself

00:34:40.980 by bringing Lazarus back from the dead.

00:34:44.640 So he does that.

00:34:45.500 Lazarus comes back after four days in the grave,

00:34:47.900 hopping out in his grave clothes,

00:34:49.680 and they unwrap him and say,

00:34:51.280 Are you hungry?

00:34:55.320 But there's a crowd of people there,

00:34:57.720 and that miracle didn't convince all of them.

00:35:03.760 What?

00:35:04.740 Jesus did that and didn't persuade everybody.

00:35:08.900 Some of them, not persuaded,

00:35:10.980 go off to consult with the people who eventually had Jesus killed.

00:35:17.220 The other thing is, well, sometimes the rabbit trail is the point,

00:35:22.660 but sometimes rabbit trails lead you astray.

00:35:25.340 I will simply say that when Jesus, in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man,

00:35:33.400 that's the only parable where somebody is named, where Lazarus has a proper name,

00:35:39.280 and the rich man is dressed in fine regalia

00:35:42.980 and they are the colors of the high priest.

00:35:47.040 Colors of the high priest.

00:35:49.160 And the rich man in Hades says,

00:35:53.240 I have five brothers.

00:35:54.920 Go tell them.

00:35:56.740 And Caiaphas famously had five brothers.

00:36:01.140 I think Jesus is doing some pointed political commentary there.

00:36:05.940 Because he concludes that parable by saying,

00:36:08.400 they have Moses and the prophets. If they don't listen to them, they won't believe if someone

00:36:13.620 comes back from the dead. So this rebellion is a moral issue. It's a hard-heartedness issue.

00:36:22.480 It's not a cognitive issue. So these rebels are staunchly against what God's going to do.

00:36:31.240 They don't like Jesus when he's alive, and then they kill him, and then what does God do? Then we

00:36:36.720 come to the laughter of God. I want you to consider two things about the laughter of God

00:36:43.240 here in Psalm 2. First, if the laughter of God can accomplish such great and terrible things,

00:36:50.780 what will his wrath be like? And secondly, who would have thought of this? Divine laughter,

00:36:58.620 when the sun was dark, the disciples scattered, our Lord in anguish, the Sanhedrin gloating,

00:37:05.440 Satan triumphant, Peter wretched, Judas in despair, and Mary in tears.

00:37:11.520 And yet God laughs.

00:37:14.200 The plan is unfolding perfectly.

00:37:18.340 The plan is on track.

00:37:20.340 The devil took the bait.

00:37:23.340 If the rulers of this age had known what they were doing,

00:37:25.980 they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

00:37:28.940 They did not know that they were pulling down the roof on their own heads.

00:37:33.100 They didn't know that.

00:37:34.280 And yet God will do what he intended to do through all of this.

00:37:39.620 Despite their pitiful little schemes, the Lord will establish his king in Zion.

00:37:44.520 That's verse 6.

00:37:45.800 However little they like it.

00:37:47.440 That's verse 5.

00:37:48.920 So God looks at their puny efforts at stopping him, and he laughs at them.

00:37:55.620 He holds them in derision.

00:37:57.320 And then he says, now watch this.

00:38:00.100 I'm going to establish my son.

00:38:02.640 Now after the crucifixion

00:38:05.440 And after the resurrection

00:38:07.220 So the resurrection

00:38:09.680 Remembers in verse 7

00:38:10.920 After the crucifixion and then after God

00:38:13.640 Laughs and holds him in derision

00:38:15.640 And then he issues the decree

00:38:17.780 And Jesus comes from the grave

00:38:19.760 What does it say in Romans 1

00:38:21.540 4 it says

00:38:22.720 It says that Jesus was

00:38:25.560 Declared with power to be

00:38:27.700 The son of God by his resurrection

00:38:29.920 From the dead

00:38:31.500 That's God's declaration.

00:38:33.220 God is declaring something in the resurrection.

00:38:36.320 Also, incidentally, going back to Joe's talk on apologetics,

00:38:41.440 we modern evangelicals think we need an apologetic argument to prove the resurrection.

00:38:47.460 In the Bible, the resurrection is the proof.

00:38:51.000 That's the proof.

00:38:51.780 We don't need to prove the proof.

00:38:53.580 Jesus comes back from the dead, and this is God's declaration that he is the Son of God.

00:38:59.600 All through Jesus' earthly ministry, he's telling demons to shut up about who he is.

00:39:04.380 Peter confesses that he doesn't want them spreading the word who he is.

00:39:10.200 I believe that Jesus was waiting for the declaration of God.

00:39:14.280 That when God makes his declaration, this is my son, I've raised him from the dead,

00:39:19.840 now he wants us to go and tell everyone.

00:39:23.500 Now, if there is someone who is able to reach under all of history, including our portion of history,

00:39:30.060 reach to the end of the world and grab the resurrection

00:39:32.980 and cause the first fruits of that resurrection at the end of the world to erupt in the middle of history,

00:39:39.660 what can we say about that man?

00:39:42.580 We can say that he owns this place.

00:39:46.020 He can't be touched.

00:39:48.780 Death no longer has dominion over him.

00:39:50.920 They killed him once, they can't kill him again.

00:39:54.220 And he exercises his rule of iron through his saints.

00:40:00.240 So, despite their pitiful little schemes, God is going to establish his son on his holy hill.

00:40:07.500 So, after the resurrection, after the resurrection, in verse 7,

00:40:12.820 God Almighty extends an invitation in Psalm 2 to his son, Jesus Christ.

00:40:19.500 He invites him to just ask.

00:40:22.760 Verse 8.

00:40:25.260 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, 0.93

00:40:30.000 the ends of the earth your possession.

00:40:33.700 You've done this. You died on the cross.

00:40:35.880 You've been in the grave three days.

00:40:37.460 I've raised you from the dead.

00:40:38.640 I've declared you to be with power.

00:40:40.860 I've declared you to be the Son of God.

00:40:42.420 Now you've entered into your high priestly work.

00:40:45.180 You've entered into your triumph.

00:40:47.160 Jesus, ask me for whatever you want, and I will give you whatever you want. 0.88

00:40:52.000 You want China? You've got China. 0.56

00:40:54.440 Do you want America? You've got America. 0.98

00:40:56.120 Do you want Canada? You've got Canada.

00:40:57.880 Do you want Thailand? You've got Thailand. 0.79

00:40:59.600 Do you want Taiwan?

00:41:01.140 And Jesus says, in effect, through his prophets, he wants them all.

00:41:06.440 There is no nation, there is no tribe that he purchased with his blood

00:41:11.000 that he's going to leave there and go home without them.

00:41:14.860 That's not going to happen.

00:41:16.620 And so this is, God says, ask of me, just ask.

00:41:22.060 Why would Jesus go through all that, purchasing all the nations of men,

00:41:26.380 and then not claim what he purchased?

00:41:29.340 God invited him to, ask of me, whatever it is, you may have it.

00:41:34.200 Jesus claimed it all.

00:41:36.720 And this is why in the Great Commission, all authority in heaven and on earth.

00:41:42.580 Now notice, it's not all authority in heaven, which you will recognize when you get there.

00:41:48.580 It's all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

00:41:54.240 Therefore, go disciple the nations.

00:41:56.600 It's not enough to go.

00:41:58.480 It's not enough to witness to people.

00:42:00.960 We have to therefore go.

00:42:02.760 Just going to preach the gospel is disobedience.

00:42:05.920 We have to therefore go.

00:42:07.820 And what do we go on the basis of?

00:42:09.580 We go on the basis of Christ having all authority, absolutely all authority.

00:42:14.960 There is no authority on earth or in heaven that outranks the Lord Jesus Christ.

00:42:20.800 None.

00:42:22.780 And so consequently, we ought to act like it.

00:42:25.680 We ought to walk into the public square.

00:42:29.240 We ought to walk into every meeting where we're going to testify to something or witness to someone.

00:42:34.080 We should walk in, not as though we own the joint in our own name or on our own authority,

00:42:40.780 but we walk into these places as though we know somebody who owns this place.

00:42:46.740 So, after the crucifixion, after the resurrection, God extends the invitation.

00:42:52.040 Ask of me.

00:42:53.300 So what belongs to Jesus Christ now?

00:42:56.680 What nation is not his present possession?

00:43:00.720 His present possession?

00:43:03.020 None.

00:43:04.080 Can you find one?

00:43:05.480 Is there one that he didn't want?

00:43:07.800 Did he refuse to ask for one?

00:43:10.300 Remember, the rod of iron extends over all of them.

00:43:13.080 That's verse 9 again.

00:43:14.920 So, what do we do?

00:43:18.100 What, therefore, is the responsibility of our Congress,

00:43:22.900 our Supreme Court, and our President?

00:43:26.560 They must seek wisdom, and they must receive instruction.

00:43:31.020 they must seek wisdom

00:43:33.640 and they must receive instruction

00:43:36.380 now

00:43:37.440 people say

00:43:41.260 and it's amazing that we

00:43:43.080 fall for these tired arguments

00:43:45.200 well we believe in separation of church and state

00:43:48.040 well yeah so do I 0.99

00:43:49.420 Christians invented that 0.99

00:43:51.060 separation of governments 1.00

00:43:53.640 a bunch of colonies

00:43:56.620 at the time of the American War for Independence

00:43:59.260 had what, to moderns, would be bewildering contradictory laws.

00:44:05.380 You could not, in a number of colonies,

00:44:07.660 you could not be a member of the legislature

00:44:09.700 if you were an ordained Christian minister.

00:44:13.160 And you had to be an evangelical Protestant.

00:44:19.680 What?

00:44:21.240 You had to be an evangelical Protestant in order to be in the legislature,

00:44:24.220 and you couldn't be a minister.

00:44:25.960 Why?

00:44:26.620 Because they believed in the separation of church and state.

00:44:29.260 But did they believe in the separation of truth and state?

00:44:33.720 Or the separation of morality and state?

00:44:36.260 Or the separation of ethics and state?

00:44:39.360 Do you really want to live in a country where we have successfully separated morality and state?

00:44:47.160 But morality is based on faith.

00:44:51.040 It's based on revelation.

00:44:52.720 It's based on the word of the living God.

00:44:55.900 so you can't have morality that appears from nowhere that just sort of floats above our heads

00:45:02.040 and we all know that this is everybody recognizes that this is the true and right morality because

00:45:08.320 Immanuel Kant hung it from an invisible skyhook and we all recognize it no have you been paying

00:45:16.620 attention we have some people who believe that it's right and moral to dismember little children

00:45:22.340 in the womb. You have people who believe that it's right and moral to mutilate them in the name of

00:45:30.440 sexual equality. That is a radically divergent view of morality. That's not what we hold.

00:45:37.480 And what they're doing is consistent and based on the word of their God.

00:45:43.380 What we hold is based on the word of our God. But their God is an idol, and their God has been

00:45:49.520 toppled. Their God has been defeated. Our God

00:45:53.280 rose from the dead, and he owns this place. That's what we're

00:45:57.400 talking about. So, the United States, this means

00:46:01.260 that the United States, on the basis of Psalm 2, has an explicit

00:46:05.600 duty to be a Christian nation.

00:46:10.020 And, to be historically accurate, this means that we have

00:46:13.400 an explicit duty to be a Christian nation again. 0.99

00:46:17.620 We need to return to that. 1.00

00:46:19.500 That is what we once were,

00:46:21.460 and we have a solemn duty to return to him.

00:46:25.480 We have a deep responsibility as Americans to kiss the sun.

00:46:31.680 That's what should you rulers of the earth do.

00:46:35.320 Therefore, at the end of Psalm 2,

00:46:36.880 on the basis of the crucifixion,

00:46:38.560 the basis of the resurrection,

00:46:40.120 on the basis of Jesus asking for all the nations of men,

00:46:42.920 and the fact that God is going to rule the world through his son,

00:46:46.860 through his saints. On the basis of that, what should President Biden do? Kiss the son.

00:46:53.940 And that's not negotiable. That's not negotiable. So kiss the son, lest he be angry and he perish

00:47:02.000 in the way. So did the psalmist conclude his psalm by saying that every ruler, every last ruler,

00:47:09.120 should kiss the son except for the Americans due to their gross distortion of the history of the

00:47:14.200 First Amendment. I repeat, did the psalmist say that? No. No, he didn't. Now, there's two levels 0.51

00:47:24.080 here. One of them is, if the First Amendment really did say that, if the First Amendment said,

00:47:31.400 Psalm 2 doesn't apply here because we're Americans, and there's a separation between

00:47:35.500 every religious claim and the American civil arrangement, well, then we would say as Christians,

00:47:43.040 Well, that's too bad for the First Amendment, right? 0.87

00:47:46.200 The First Amendment is part of your idol.

00:47:49.340 But this argument from the First Amendment is a gross distortion of the First Amendment. 0.54

00:47:54.560 What they're doing is lying about the First Amendment, and they're taking a Christian statement and using it to festoon their idol with. 0.67

00:48:01.960 And many Christians, we don't know the history of the First Amendment. 0.76

00:48:04.840 We don't know what's going on there. 0.70

00:48:07.080 And so we just say, oh, and then try and change the subject.

00:48:13.040 The First Amendment, what's the first word in the First Amendment?

00:48:18.180 Congress.

00:48:19.620 The only entity on earth that can violate the First Amendment is Congress.

00:48:25.720 Congress shall make no law concerning the establishment of a religion

00:48:29.340 or prohibiting the what?

00:48:33.480 Free exercise thereof.

00:48:35.440 What are they currently doing?

00:48:37.880 Prohibiting the free exercise thereof, right?

00:48:41.200 It says not to do that.

00:48:43.040 And Congress will make no law concerning the establishment.

00:48:49.060 Well, what about the establishment of religion?

00:48:52.060 The United States, at its founding, was a confederation of sovereign states.

00:48:57.200 And we created a federal government.

00:49:00.360 And if you have 13 colonies, 13 states by this point after the war,

00:49:06.280 if one state decided on a particular bird to be their state bird,

00:49:11.380 Maryland did one thing and then Massachusetts picked a different bird

00:49:15.660 you are unlikely to have any wars resulting from that

00:49:19.520 if you have a state flower in Maryland and a state flower in Massachusetts

00:49:24.040 we're okay a state anthem and a state anthem we're okay

00:49:29.400 but if you establish the Anglican Church in Maryland and the Congregational Church in Massachusetts

00:49:34.880 now what well you're going to have a problem when you come to the federal level

00:49:40.080 The only thing that the founding fathers were saying is we do not want a church of the United States the same way there's a church of England or the church of Denmark.

00:49:49.500 We do not want an established state church at the federal level.

00:49:54.020 And when they made that determination, nine of the 13 colonies had official relationships with Christian denominations.

00:50:03.800 Connecticut didn't give up their tax support for the congregational church until the 1830s.

00:50:09.880 Now, I happen to think, I happen to believe,

00:50:12.300 that state establishment of a particular denomination at the state level

00:50:16.640 is not a good idea either.

00:50:19.160 I don't think it's a good idea.

00:50:20.740 I like the separation of church and state there.

00:50:23.180 But it's not an unconstitutional idea.

00:50:26.760 Because when they adopted the Constitution,

00:50:29.020 they were doing it right that minute.

00:50:31.460 Right then.

00:50:32.500 So, the First Amendment does not separate truth and state.

00:50:37.220 it does not separate Jesus and state, it does not separate morality and state, it separates a

00:50:43.260 particular ecclesiastical government and the civil government. It separates those two, making them

00:50:49.380 distinct, but it doesn't prohibit them from talking to each other. And it certainly

00:50:54.220 doesn't prohibit the president and the Supreme Court and congressmen from kissing the sun.

00:51:00.900 it does not prohibit that so when the church hears the word of god rightly

00:51:07.020 the whole world is set to rights when the church hears the word of god rightly the whole world

00:51:13.280 the bone that is broken gets set properly the three great offices of christ are set before us

00:51:21.740 in this psalm he is the prophet we must hear the words of his instruction in verse 10 he is the

00:51:28.880 king established in Zion, verse 6, and he is the priest, verse 7, cross-reference Hebrews 5, 5.

00:51:36.280 He is the high priest who enters in to intercede for us. So we see that the Lord has already

00:51:43.280 received his inheritance. Jesus Christ has entered into his inheritance. The matter is settled.

00:51:50.880 The question is not being brought before the United Nations for consideration. They would say no.

00:51:55.540 it's too bad for them the reign of christ has been established already the nations who object

00:52:03.660 to this trouble the decrees of god about as much as dogs barking at the moon trouble the moon

00:52:09.300 so this is why jesus christ reigns redemptively throughout the entire earth this is what we're

00:52:16.980 proclaiming we are talking about practical boots on the ground theology comes at your fingertips

00:52:24.460 This eschatological faith puts iron in your blood.

00:52:28.100 It gives you confidence that, oh, God sent his son to save the world,

00:52:35.800 and he will be content with nothing less than a saved world.

00:52:40.420 So Christians are those who are called to believe what God has declared concerning this.

00:52:46.300 The one who trusts his word is always blessed.

00:52:49.180 God has spoken on this glorious subject.

00:52:52.060 Are we blessed in hearing it?

00:52:53.880 Do we believe him?

00:52:57.000 One of our names, we're Christians, but one of our other names is believers.

00:53:02.260 Shouldn't believers believe?

00:53:05.860 Jesus reigns from the river to the ends of the earth.

00:53:11.200 Which river?

00:53:12.900 Well, it doesn't really matter, does it?

00:53:17.540 From the Thames to the Hudson, from the Nile to the Ganges,

00:53:21.160 from the Rhine to the Mississippi, from the Potomac to the Amazon,

00:53:27.420 the name of the Lord will be praised,

00:53:30.280 and pure sacrifices will be offered up to him from every nation,

00:53:34.080 and the earth will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

00:53:39.660 So, am I a post-millennialist?

00:53:44.240 Yeah.

00:53:48.100 Let's go further.

00:53:50.060 I'm a yellow cake post-millennialist.

00:53:52.940 I am a black coffee post-millennialist.

00:53:56.020 I am a crawl over broken glass post-millennialist.

00:53:59.300 And I am a black coffee post-millennialist.

00:54:02.040 All of those.

00:54:04.020 Why?

00:54:05.040 God is good.

00:54:07.200 God is good all the time. 0.95

00:54:09.580 He could have just blasted the world and sent everybody to hell.

00:54:13.620 But it says in Romans he wanted to be just and the one who justifies.

00:54:16.660 All right, he wants to be just and the one who justifies and the solution to that dilemma was the cross of jesus christ

00:54:22.700 God could have been just and blasted us all

00:54:25.940 But then no salvation

00:54:27.660 He could have just winked at all our sin and then said everybody goes to heaven boys will be boys

00:54:33.120 But then he ceases to be just

00:54:35.240 The bible tells us that god wants to be just and the one who justifies

00:54:39.400 And so he has given to us unfolded for us unpacked for us the mystery of the cross

00:54:45.100 the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus.

00:54:47.580 And this is the means by which we conquer the world.

00:54:52.240 And the thing that's astonishing about this is that he does it.

00:54:55.700 He tricks the devil.

00:54:58.040 The devil didn't know what he was doing.

00:55:00.060 He was destroying his own kingdom.

00:55:02.180 He offered his kingdom to Jesus if Jesus would just bow down and worship him.

00:55:07.040 And Jesus said no, not because he didn't want those kingdoms,

00:55:09.820 but because he didn't want them that way.

00:55:11.420 He wanted to bind the strong man and take his stuff

00:55:16.640 That's what he says in Luke

00:55:18.400 I'm going to bind the strong man and take all of his things

00:55:23.320 And so what we do

00:55:25.300 What we are to reflect on

00:55:28.320 What we are to think about

00:55:29.580 Is that we are privileged to stand in the spot

00:55:33.920 Where God is extending his kingdom

00:55:36.240 Through pitiful beings like us 0.63

00:55:39.560 and his ways are not our ways he conquers through the death burial and resurrection of christ

00:55:49.860 who who thought of that well god the father in the eternal councils he's the one thought of that we

00:55:55.900 we never would have thought of that and then he says okay he comes back from the dead and he

00:56:01.900 appears to his disciples and i'll finish with this he appears to his disciples and they gather

00:56:07.140 together on the Mount, Mount of Olives, before he ascends into heaven. And he says, okay, boys,

00:56:15.500 you're going to conquer the world, right? And they look around, there's just a handful of them.

00:56:23.840 This is worse than the feeding of the 5,000, right? 0.98

00:56:28.500 Okay, it's just a group of ragtag fishermen. We're going to conquer the world. 0.99

00:56:32.700 and someone says,

00:56:37.100 are we going to have any weapons?

00:56:39.780 What are you going to give us?

00:56:41.100 What will we use to conquer the world?

00:56:45.460 He says, in effect,

00:56:47.180 word and water, bread and wine.

00:56:52.460 That's the plan on three.

00:56:54.400 and some of the disciples in the back row perhaps are going

00:57:04.060 and then wonderfully mercifully jesus oh go back to jerusalem and wait for the holy spirit

00:57:11.880 go back to jerusalem and wait and when the holy spirit is poured out there's going to be

00:57:18.100 no ignoring the church of God forever and ever.

00:57:22.500 Our Father and gracious God,

00:57:24.020 we thank you for your goodness to us

00:57:25.340 and we thank you for this wonderful gospel.

00:57:27.720 We thank you in Jesus' name, amen.

The NXR Podcast - May 14, 2024

THE CONFERENCE - Postmillennialism - Session 8 - Doug Wilson ｜ Blueprints for Christendom 2.0 2024

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