This is our God - Gods Greatness

Intro
What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.
This was a quote by a pastor called AW Tozer.
Im not saying that this is to be treated as Gospel, but I think it will be the perfect starting
point for todays message.
I really do love this quote. Lets take a second to think about it. What you think about when
you think about God is the most important thing about you. So, who do you think God is?
What picture comes to the front of your mind?
In CS Lewis book, the Screwtape letters, he highlights some of the ways in which the devil
distracts us or disempowers us. One of the ways that the devil does this is by allowing us to
form an image of who God is in our minds, so that when we pray, we are praying to that
image that we have created and not our real God as we know Him to have revealed Himself.
And this can have a horrible effect on our relationship with God.
The truth is that God existed independently from us. God is self-sufficient. He did not create
us to fill a void in himself. And as such, we must remember not to formulate our own god in
our minds. We must seek to understand God as He has revealed Himself to us through His
Scripture. And even then, we must be careful about taking our human words and analogies
and metaphors too far. Sure God is like a Father, and like a Mother hen and like a Fountain
and a Vine. We know that in various Scriptures God is compared to these things. But we all
know better than trying to create an image in our own minds of some Father like hen mixed
with a fountain and a vine! Furthermore, we must be careful of over emphasising any
attribute of God at the expense of another. We cannot proclaim that God is love without
understanding that His love would not be perfect if He was not also just.
This series is called This is our God. And what I have been trying to do is lead us in the
direction of the goal of the series. The goal is to strip away all nonsense, all misconceptions
and false images from a common, contemporary view of God and to replace it with a
Biblically consistent and true understanding of the real God. So that when we are faced with
the question: Who is God?, we dont picture a Saint in a halo, or a mean father with a

whip, or see God as this positive energy or force, but rather that we would think of Him as
He is, as He has revealed Himself to us through the Scriptures.
Last week we looked at the goodness of God. We saw that he is relational, personal and
present.
This week we will be looking at the greatness of God. That is His majesty and His
magnificence. The Scripture that we will be reading is Psalm 2. This is a hard-hitting
Scripture. And as we read it we must keep in mind that this is not merely human words, its
also not my thoughts, and its not an optional piece of Scripture. It is Gods authoritative
Word for our lives. And I hope that it will do a great deal in allowing us to form a correct
view of God and his surpassing greatness.
Psalm 2
1 Why do the nations conspire
and the peoples plot in vain?
2 The kings of the earth rise up
and the rulers band together
against the Lord and against his anointed, saying,
3 Let us break their chains
and throw off their shackles.
4 The One enthroned in heaven laughs;
the Lord scoffs at them.
5 He rebukes them in his anger
and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,
6 I have installed my king
on Zion, my holy mountain.
7 I will proclaim the Lords decree:
He said to me, You are my son;
today I have become your father.
8 Ask me,

and I will make the nations your inheritance,

the ends of the earth your possession.
9 You will break them with a rod of iron;
you will dash them to pieces like pottery.
10 Therefore, you kings, be wise;
be warned, you rulers of the earth.
11 Serve the Lord with fear
and celebrate his rule with trembling.
12 Kiss his son, or he will be angry
and your way will lead to your destruction,
for his wrath can flare up in a moment.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
The state of the world is rebellion (vs 1-3)
Looking at the text, specifically verses 1-3, we see that the nations are in an uproar. The
kings are planning a rebellion. They are no longer satisfied with being under the rule of this
king. They want freedom. They want to make their own rules.
These verses talk to the historical context where there were different nations and kings
under the rule of King David. And they are at a place where they no longer want to remain
under his authority. They are rejecting Davids authority, and because David was appointed
by God, they are effectively rejecting God.
But that is not the only context for these verses. Their second application is to the grand
narrative of the Bible. They are referring to a different King who is to come (and we know
that this King is Jesus). We know that when he came he was crucified by the rulers of the
earth.
In Acts 4, we see these verses quoted in the context of Peter and John who were part of the
early church and were being threatened for their belief in Christ: Acts 4: 24-28
Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them,
25

who by the mouth of Your servant David have said:

Why did the nations rage,

And the people plot vain things?
26 The kings of the earth took their stand,
And the rulers were gathered together
Against the Lord and against His Christ. (This is verses 1-2 from our Psalm that are being
quoted here)
27 For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius
Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together 28 to do whatever
Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.
This shows how the Psalm foreshadowed how the rulers of the earth (quoted here as Herod
and Pontius Pilate) would reject Jesus when He came. It says that the cross was not a
mistake, but that the rulers were only doing what God (long before) had determined they
would be allowed to do.
And even now, in our current context there is application for these verses. There are rulers
of this earth and there are nations that refuse to acknowledge Jesus authority over their
lives. The Bible calls us to place our trust in Jesus. And part of this is acknowledging Jesus as
our Lord and King. As the ruler over our lives. And yet many still refuse to do this. Many will
not relent their ownership over their lives.
And so we have the context of these verses, rebellion against King David in the Old
Testament, against Jesus when He was put to death in the New Testament, and now as we
speak as people refuse to place their trust in Jesus and acknowledge His Lordship. This is the
starting point for the rest of the verses in the Psalm and therefore for my message this
morning: The state of the world is rebellion.
The historical occurrence and cause of this rebellion
But what causes this rebellion? What causes the nations to plot against God? When did it
start? I think the Bibles answer is that it comes from our sinful, flawed nature. From the
beginning of time we have tried to make ourselves equal with God. And as a result we have
always been reluctant to hand over control. This idea of rebellion is all over the Bible. It is at
the very heart of sin. And here are a few Biblical illustrations of this rebellion:

In Genesis 3 we see Adam and Eve refusing to accept Gods rule over their lives as they
sought to become equal to Him, by doing exactly what God had commanded them not to
do, and ultimately leading to them being removed from Gods presence for their rebellion.
Just a few chapters later we get to Genesis 11 where the people attempt to build a tower so
that they may reach heaven and make a name for themselves! They were determined to
become self-sufficient and rid themselves of their need for and dependence on God. And so
the tower is a depiction of their rebellion against the rule of God over their lives.
Then throughout the book of Exodus we see the people of God rebel against Him over and
over again.
For example, in Exodus 32: 8-9, God has just rescued the Israelites from the rule of the
Egyptians and yet He finds them worshiping a manmade calf: "They have quickly turned
aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten
calf, and have worshiped it and have sacrificed to it and said, 'This is your god, O Israel, who
brought you up from the land of Egypt!'" The LORD said to Moses, "I have seen this people,
and behold, they are an obstinate (which means stubborn) people.
Moving to the Prophets, in Isaiah 1, we see Isaiah rebuke the people of God for refusing to
obey His word and live under His authority: Vs 5: Why will you still be struck down? Why
will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
And finally, in Revelation we see that it is not only humans, but also angels that have been
guilty of trying to rebel against God: Revelation 12: 7 And there was war in heaven, Michael
and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war. The
dragon here is Satan and he is trying to compete with God for ultimate reign over the earth.
This was my attempt to illustrate how rebellion is mentioned from the beginning of the
Bible to the end. It is seen as something that is fundamental in our genes and it took the
death of Jesus on the cross to allow us to escape our rebellion and to be able to come to
God. Since the fall of Adam humans have been in rebellion against God. We have denied His
rule over our lives. Our implicitly sinful nature, which was inherited from Adam, is at the
heart, and is the cause of, our rebellion.

Now I know that many of you may be sitting there and saying, I dont feel very rebellious. I
have not plotted or schemed to kill Jesus or any ruler. But I would urge you to reconsider
this Scripture. This is not only active rebellion that is spoken about here, but passive
rebellion that is implicitly included too. If you do not surrender your life to Christ then you
are in rebellion against Him. This passive denial is just as harmful as an active denial of God.
And both amount to rebellion against Him. It is possible to not yet be a follower of Jesus and
to picture a middle ground were you can sit and be neutral. I dont hate God, but I also dont
worship Him. The Bible however does not refer to a middle ground. Matt 12:30 Whoever is
not with me is against me. According to Jesus, we need to choose a side.
And so I ask. Are you for God or against God? More specifically, have you surrendered your
life to Him completely? I am not initiating a fear tactic here to get you to come to Jesus. The
last thing I want is anyone to not love Jesus and yet try to now follow Him. What I am trying
to do is to make it crystal clear, that the Bible says that we cannot not follow Jesus and still
be accepted by Him. We must fully commit our lives to loving and following Him otherwise
He says that we are living in rebellion against Him. And this makes sense, if you consider
that He is the King of the universe, why should He not call us to all follow Him?
And now I want to quickly add a strong call to all Christians here today. Because we are not
excluded from this notion of rebellion. In fact we often rebel against God. And so my appeal
is that we would not live our lives with a kind of constant to and fro battle of surrender and
non-surrender to God. Lets not do what a lot of us do which is to hand over everything in
our lives, except that one thing. Except work or relationships or purity or or or. Jesus is our
King and He did not hold back anything on the cross. He is calling us to whole-hearted
surrender. And the beauty is that once we surrender fully and fill our lives more and more
with Him, we will realise how precious and satisfying He is and how we were so wrong to
fight against Him for so long! Psalm 16:11 says in your presence there is fullness of Joy.
Fullness of Joy! Not a burden, or a boring life! But fullness of joy! Trust God. Move towards
Him and surrender everything in your life to Him. Bring your whole life under the scrutiny of
His Word and let His Spirit guide your life towards Him.

God is not threatened (vs 4-6)

If every man on the earth became blind it would not diminish the beauty of the sun and if
every man turned atheist it would not diminish the glory of God This is another quote by
AW Tozer. And I think this quote is so great in that it enlarges our view of God and allows us
to correctly view Him as independently Glorious. God most certainly celebrates and rejoices
when more and more people come to put their trust in Him. But this by no means means
that it adds to His Glory or that His Greatness could diminish by people not believing in Him.
Lets have a look at the Scripture again. How does God respond to verses 1-3? To the
apparent turmoil and rebellion by the earthly nations, atheists, kings and rulers?
Unfortunately modern views of God are not able to answer this question very well. They
tend to paint Jesus as a smiley, handsome man with a halo above His head. We sometimes
think of God as a nervous God. Someone who is desperate and almost embarrassed when
people refuse to come to Him. We pity God and I fear some people come to Him for the sole
reason of saving God from this embarrassing situation He has found Himself in where He
desperately needs followers.
How awful and sinful is this view of God!
Look at the Scripture: God is sitting in heaven and laughing at these plans! He is actually
laughing at Atheisms attempt to refute him and at people who think that they can alter the
plan of God. And although He is laughing at the triviality of their plans He is also deadly
serious. He promises to avenge His name and He will bring about His wrath on those that
work against Him.
Vs 6 says: I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain. This is Jesus. God knows
that despite historical efforts to kill His King, despite any current efforts in our generation to
undo the Christian movement, His King will be victorious. Jesus came to the earth as part of
Gods original plan and in dying and rising again He has redeemed a people for God. He is
now seated at Gods right hand. And God knows this. He has always known that His plan will
never be undone.
And so he laughs.
Which leads me on to my next point:

Jesus is a mighty warrior

Lets take another look at verse 7-9. This is Jesus speaking, and He says:
7 I will proclaim the Lords decree:
He said to me, You are my son;
today I have become your father.
8 Ask me,
and I will make the nations your inheritance,
the ends of the earth your possession.
9 You will break them with a rod of iron;
you will dash them to pieces like pottery.
This illustrates why God is so confident despite the fact that the nations are plotting against
Him. He has appointed Jesus to conquer the rebellious nations and to take the church as His
own. More specifically He will come to break them with a rod of iron; He will dash them to
pieces like pottery. See what happens when we get used to picturing Jesus as a sweet,
smiling man with a halo above His head? It makes it hard for us to reconcile Scripture like
this. We must learn to look at Scripture as a whole to inform our view of God. Only then will
we be able to understand that God is so merciful and so loving, but at the same time He will
exercise His righteous judgement. These verses above depict Jesus as a mighty warrior that
will conquer the rebellion that is rising up against Him. And these verses are not the only
time that we see Jesus as a mighty warrior,
Revelation 19: 11-16 says:
11

Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called

Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. 12 His eyes were like a
flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew
except Himself. 13 He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The
Word of God. 14 And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed
Him on white horses. 15 Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should
strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the

winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16 And He has on His robe and on His
thigh a name written:
KING OF KINGS AND
LORD OF LORDS
Wow! This is epic! This is our God! He is a mighty warrior! When you are wondering if Jesus
is in control amidst rebellion, go and read these verses again. When you wonder if Jesus is
powerful enough to save you - read these verses. This is why God laughs in spite of the
rebellion. This is why He is not moved by the attacks on Christianity by Atheists or earthly
rulers or other religions. Because He has installed His King, and His King will conquer. Yes
please!
Serve the Lord with fear (Vs 10-12)
The Psalm ends with practical advice for us, which includes serving the Lord with fear.
But what exactly does serving the Lord with fear look like? Are we to constantly wonder
whether we are on the right side of God, fearing if we will be saved or not? No! God tells us
that if we have our faith in Him then we will be saved. His attitude is not going to suddenly
change one day.
Is it then that we are to come to church trembling as if appearing before a relentless and
harsh Father? No! We are told The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving
sin and rebellion. (Numbers 14:18). So this is by no means a paralysing fear. But rather it is
about having a reverence and respect for God.
I think that it is this: firstly, we are to have a correct view of God that leaves us in awe and
adoration of who He is and how great and mighty He is.
In Revelation 1, John has a vision of God: vs 17: and when I saw him I fell at His feet as
though dead.
John falls down at the feet of Jesus. Seeing Jesus in all of His majesty will cause us to do the
same, to fall at Jesus feet in absolute wonder and in a position of service. Consider your
view of Jesus. Is He the mighty King depicted in the Revelation by John? Does your view of

Him cause you to fall to your knees in worship? Does it cause you to worship God in fear and
to celebrate with trembling? Lets not settle for a low view of God but rather let us be a
community that ascribes God the glory that He rightly deserves.
(2) At the same time, I believe that serving God with fear means we are to beware of not
continually rebelling against God and His authority over our lives.
2 Corinthians 13:5
Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize
that Christ Jesus is in you--unless, of course, you fail the test?
So this is what serving the Lord with fear is about - having an accurate view of God as
glorious and majestic that will lead us to serve Him (and secondly) ensuring that we are
surrendering everything we have and are to Him and not taking our salvation for granted
but understanding how precious it is.
Elaborating on this further, look at verse 12: Kiss His Son, that is pay homage to the King
(Jesus). This is a strong picture of how we are to serve Christ. Gods love and Gods fatherly
affection towards us does not negate the fact that He is holy and He demands our worship
from us. He will not accept us as co-kings of our lives. We must bow to Him. I find this hard.
There is often still an innate desire inside myself that wants to be my own king. And I
therefore understand that many sitting here today may feel uneasy with this strong
language describing how Christ is our King and we must serve Him. But I have made sure to
stress it because Scripture emphasises it and because it is true.
Why do we struggle to submit to God?
And we have already touched on why we struggle to do this. The first reason is because of
sin. We looked at this when we considered the reason for our rebellion. Our sinful nature
does not allow us to submit. Romans 8:7 says: For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile
to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Here Scripture tells us that
on our own, that is apart from Gods intervention, we are not able to submit to His rule over
our lives.
And the second reason is probably the fact that our view on submission is informed by
earthy rulers. We are surrounded by corrupt, self-serving, harsh, unfair leaders, presidents

or even bosses. And so we begin to associate paying homage to a ruler as something

onerous and dutiful.
But now, in order to fully understand these verses on paying homage to our King, I want to
turn to the last part of the last verse: Blessed are all who take refuge in Him. I love this! Do
you see it? This is why it is not hard to reconcile joy and servant hood. We are called to
submit to Christ. But we are so blessed in doing it! Because the King we are submitting to is
not an earthly one, but is Jesus, who is a kind, tender-hearted, loving King, and so we are
able to find joy, ultimate joy, when we seek our refuge in Him!
Take refuge in God
This leads me to my last point: be reassured as you take refuge in God.
When we look around us, we see rebellion. We see our Christian brothers and sisters being
martyred for their faith. We see terrorism. We see tyranny. We see injustice and
materialism. And yet we can rejoice. We can be rest assured that because we rest in God we
are on the winning side. We know that God will bring all of those that are rebelling under
His Lordship. And so in the face of turmoil and rebellion we have peace and joy. My
Christian brothers and sisters please leave here reassured. Reassured that you are covered
by Gods love and Christs blood and that there is refuge in Him. There is shelter and
protection and harbour and rest all to be found in Him!
And now I want to speak specifically to you if you dont yet follow Jesus. Please contemplate
what I have said today. Please consider the possibility of it all being true. Listen for Gods
voice speaking to you now. Have you felt as if you are living in rebellion? By this I mean, do
you often feel that you are not peace? With yourself or others, wondering what the point of
this life is? Dont continue any longer in your own strength. Remember that there are only
two sides. And until you submit to Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, then you are living in
rebellion against the Creator of the universe. But the good news is that Jesus died so that
we can live. He took upon Himself the punishment for our rebellion and He is calling you to
come and seek refuge in Him. Will you do that?
Let us pray.