“12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for His wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
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Imagine a young lady leaving work for her lunch break. Her boyfriend is hiding in the parking lot to spring his plan. He watches her car drive away; then he decorates her cubicle with roses and photographs of them together. When she comes back, he is waiting in the office breakroom to watch her response. She isn’t happy when she sees her cubicle. She is less happy when she sees him. ‘I have work to do,’ she says. ‘I can’t get anything done with all this junk on my desk.’ Where do you see that relationship going?
Imagine that same young lady leaving work for her lunch break. Her boss puts a packet on her desk outlining an upcoming project. She returns from lunch, opens the packet, and slams it down on her desk. She storms into her boss’s office and asks, ‘who gave you the right to be in my area? That is my space.’ Where do you see her employment going?
Those examples might sound outrageous, but they are the sort of thing that the Lord endures every day. He bears with humans abusing His kindness. He bears with humans denying His authority. Where do you see this relationship going? Where is your relationship with Him?
The Lord is patient, but He will deal with defiance. Cherish His kindness. Accept His authority. That is the claim of this sermon: the Lord is patient, but He will deal with defiance. Cherish His kindness. Accept His authority.
We see how the Lord deals with defiance in our first point: wrath. We see what God does for those who cherish His kindness and accept His authority in our second point: refuge. First: wrath. Second: refuge. The first point comes from the first sentence of verse 12. The second point comes from the second sentence.
First: wrath. This Psalm ends with a picture of two ways: wrath and refuge, or the way of death and the way of life. That is the second Psalm that ends that way. “For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,” says Psalm 1, “but the way of the wicked will perish.”
The first Psalm was about living wisely. Foolishness leads to death. Wisdom brings life. This second Psalm is about honoring God’s Son. Defying him will lead to death; don’t do that. Accepting him brings life; do that.
This second Psalm ends by calling everyone to, “kiss the Son.” This kiss was a sign of loyalty and submission. You still see this in the Roman Catholic Church when parishioners kiss the hand of a bishop or pope. You see it in the Godfatherfilms when people kiss the hand of the Don. They are proving their loyalty. They are showing their submission.
God calls humanity, all of us, to show that to Jesus. Those who reject that call don’t know what they are doing. They are abusing God’s kindness. They are acting like that young woman throwing a fit over the roses on her desk.
When the world rejects the Son, they are rejecting the Father’s kindness. “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
The author of Hebrews looks at this abused kindness and asks, “how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?” The answer is, ‘we won’t.’ “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you be destroyed in your way.”
Jesus has already done more than you would dare of him, unless you would have the gall to ask him to die for what you’ve done. The Triune God hasn’t just gone the extra mile. He has gone an extra ten-thousand miles. When people reject this kindness, God has every right to do what He was within His rights to do before the cross. He has the right to wrath. People will not escape unless they stop abusing God’s kindness. You will not escape unless you stop abusing God’s kindness and start embracing God’s kindness as demonstrated in Jesus.
You will also not escape if you defy such a great authority. If you refuse to pledge loyalty to Jesus, if you refuse to submit to this king, look at who you are rejecting. You are rejecting a king who serves rather than growing rich off the backs of his people. “The Son of man came not to serve but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many.”
You are rejecting a king who is emotionally involved in what is best for his people. ‘When he drew near and saw [Jerusalem], he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace!”’
You are rejecting a king who sacrifices for his people rather than demanding sacrifices from his people. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
You are rejecting a king who and will make your life worth living. “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
You are rejecting a king who is God Himself. To reject Jesus as king is to reject God as your authority. If you choose to reject this authority—and note the surpassing generosity of God in that He gives you that choice—you will live with the consequences of your choice. You will be destroyed in your way.
Do you recognize the rightness of the wrath of God? If you prefer a God without wrath, you will find it impossible to understand the God of the Scriptures. You will find it impossible to understand the amazing grace offered by the Father. You will find it impossible to understand salvation because, ‘what have you been saved from?’ You will find it impossible to understand the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the church, and a thousand other things and all that we do together as a church will seem rather pointless to you. Is that you? If so, come to terms with God as God is. He is far more compelling than any of your imaginations of Him or of any human imagination of Him.
If you are persisting in sin, which is the same as refusing loyalty and submission to Jesus, I beg you to be sensible. God is patient, but He will deal with your defiance. He might deal with it tonight. You could be destroyed in your way as verse 12 puts it. John Calvin might have been talking about you when he said, “the wrath of God will cut them off when they think themselves to be only in the middle of their race.”
You might think you are in the middle of your life. You might think you are in the first quarter of your life. You might think that you can repent later. You might think that you can stop following your heart and start following Jesus later. You might think that you can savor sin tonight because forgiveness is always tomorrow. You might be called to give an account of your life to God tonight in the midst of savoring your sin. “It is an awful thing,” said Spurgeon, “to perish in the midst of sin, in the very way of rebellion.”
This is a message that we need and that the world needs. The world thinks it is in the midst of its race. Listen to Jesus, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.”
When God brings judgment upon this world and, in their own time, upon each man and woman of the world, it will be sudden. That’s what the Psalmist means when he says, “His wrath can flare up in a moment.”
The Psalmist isn’t telling us that God loses His cool. The Psalmist isn’t telling us that the Father is impulsive when people reject His Son. The Psalmist is telling us that when the Father decides to deal with defiance, He will do it without hesitation. Not surprisingly, the Father outdoes the productivity gurus. When He decides on a course of action, He does it all the way, right away.
How could it be otherwise? Do you think that God will pull everyone aside a few days before they face His judgment and say, ‘now let me walk you through it one more time… Are you sure you want to disobey me? Are you sure you want to live your life rather than Christ’s life?’ Do you think that God is such a people-pleaser, that He is so afraid that we might be offended, that He will run to us to make sure that we are okay being judged by Him?
God doesn’t need us to agree with anything. Daniel was right, ‘No one can hold back His hand or say to Him: “What have you done?”’ Paul was right, ‘who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?”’
Imagine for a second that the Father chose not to love the world by sending His Son, but instead gave all of us the wrath we deserve. What could you do about that situation? To whom would you appeal, ‘God isn’t being fair. He won’t suffer to make up for the fact that I disobeyed Him’? If the Father chose not to love the world by sending His Son and instead gave us the
wrath we deserve, here is what you would do: you would die in your sin and God, the universe, and all that ever was, is, or will be would never give it a second thought. That was within God’s rights, but He chose otherwise.
He chose mercy. The Lord loves the world He has made. He loves the people in it. He loves the people of Lyon County. That doesn’t mean He forgoes wrath. That doesn’t mean He tolerates abused kindness. That doesn’t mean He is fine with defiance against Him. It means that He offers a refuge from wrath for all who enter. That’s our second point: refuge.
We humans tend to pit the love of God against the wrath of God. We look back on previous generations and say, ‘they believed in a god of wrath. We have met the God of love.’ A second century religious leader named Marcion went so far as to say that the God of the Old Testament was inferior to the God of the New Testament. The God of the Old Testament was a God of wrath. The God of the New Testament is the God of love. That man was rightly declared to be a heretic because there is abundant love in the Old Testament and warnings of wrath all over the New Testament.
Many well-meaning Christians seem to believe that Jesus is loving, but his Father is wrathful. They seem to think that thankfully Jesus succeeded in convincing his angry Father to save us from hell. They seem to think Jesus jumped on His father’s explosive wrath for us. ‘I know you want to hit them, Father; hit me instead!’ I do wonder if these Christians look forward to spending eternity with God the Father. I do wonder how recently these well-meaning souls have read Jesus’ words about his Father.
The gospels don’t pit the Father’s wrath against the Father’s love. They give us a more complex picture than a God of wrath or a God of love or a God who is fifty percent vengeful and fifty percent forgiving. The gospels show us a God who loves the world by constructing a refuge in the midst of His wrath. They show us a God who deals with defiance and creates a way to become obedient. That’s more complex than calling wrath a neurosis of a bygone era. That’s more complex than imagining a God who loves like a sentimental fool.
It is more complex but that is as it should be. GK Chesterton is right, “If [a creed] is right at all, it is a compliment to say that it’s elaborately right. A stick might fit a hole… by accident. But a key and a lock are both complex. And if a key fits a lock, you know it is the right key.”
We rightly fear the wrath of God. We rightly long for the love of God. That’s complex. This refuge from wrath in Psalm 2 is a complex key that fits that complex lock. “His wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.”
When faced with the wrath of God, the proper response is not to run away from God but rather to run towards God. He offers refuge from His own wrath.
Where is this refuge? Where must you run? You must run to the Son. You run to the Son by kissing him. “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for His wrath can flare up in a moment.”
This is a Psalm about the Son. He is God’s agenda for human history. God laughs at the idea that the world can do without the Son. The Father invites the Son to ask for people; “ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.”
The Father wants people to run to the Son for refuge. This has always been His plan. “God loved the world in this way: He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him might not perish but have eternal life.”
The Father loves the people you work with and so He makes a refuge from His wrath. He doesn’t apologize for His wrath as if it is wrong. It isn’t. His kindness is abused. His authority is defied. This deserves wrath and God will have no reason for shame when His wrath does flare up. He also loves people and so He invites us to repent. He invites us to confess that we’ve abused His kindness. He invites us to confess that we’ve defied His authority. He invites us to change.
You need to change to enter this refuge of verse 12, “blessed are all who take refuge in Him.” You cannot enter this refuge from wrath without repenting. No man can come to Christ without acknowledging that he has abused God’s kindness. No man can come to Christ without acknowledging that he has defied God’s authority.
Have you acknowledged that you have abused God’s kindness? Have you acknowledged that you have turned what He has given you into weapons of darkness? Have you acknowledged that you have felt entitled to His generosity?
Some lost men and women sin flagrantly and unashamedly but most sin respectably. They are good people. They don’t cheat on their spouse. They don’t steal from their boss. They don’t sell drugs to kids. But they haven’t acknowledged that they have abused God’s kindness in a thousand different ways. They have no sense of their guilt before God. Paul talks about them this way, “although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools…”
That might describe someone in your family. Perhaps your aunt is very respectable, and yet she doesn’t thank God for a thing. She doesn’t think she owes God anything for the beauty of a sunset. She would never say she abuses God’s kindness, but she does every day. She needs to repent just as badly as the most notorious sinner you could imagine. Until she does, she will not enter the refuge God provides. She will not kiss the Son.
No man can come to Christ without acknowledging that he has defied God’s authority. Have you acknowledged that you have defied God’s authority? Do you recognize that sin is lawlessness, meaning that it is the breaking of God’s law?
Plenty of well-meaning people think that sin is about them. They take a purely psychological view of sin and only consider how it flows from their fractured soul and how it further fractures their soul. They think that when they deal with sin they will fix themselves.
They might also think about the sociological dimension of sin; how our sin affects others and the sin of others affects us; they think about how sin affects communities and how communities encourage or discourage sin. All this says that sin is about us.
Sin is never first and foremost about us. Your sin is never first and foremost about you. Your sin is first and foremost about God. Your sin is first and foremost lawlessness. You have defied God.
It does you no good to feel guilty about your sin unless the weightiest part of that guilt comes from the realization that you’ve defied God. If you can think about your sin without thinking about God, then you haven’t repented of that sin. The submissive heart looks at sin and says with Joseph, “How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”
Have you acknowledged that you have grievously defied God’s authority and are worthy of whatever punishment He sees fit? If not, you have not come to Christ. I can’t tell what you’ve been saved from, but it certainly isn’t the just wrath of God upon your sin.
You need to acknowledge that you’ve defied God’s authority if you ever hope to come to Christ. Yet can’t just feel bad that your sin has had an effect on you and others. That isn’t sufficient to enter the refuge because it isn’t kissing the Son. You can’t pledge yourself to Jesus unless you own up to the fact that you have had other masters before him.
Christianity doesn’t just say that sin causes damage to the sinner. It isn’t hard to find a woman of this world who recognizes that her hatred for her mother is causing her damage. Christianity doesn’t just say that sin causes damage to the person you’ve offended. It isn’t hard to find a man in this world who recognizes that his adultery has hurt his wife.
Christianity tells us that sin offends God. Christianity says that my adultery is even more of an offense against God than it is against my spouse and that is not to minimize the offense against my spouse. Christianity says that whatever my sin has done to me, it is nothing compared with what my sin has done to God. The cross makes that clear.
If you want to take refuge in Christ, you must come by way of the cross. You can’t be a Christian and avoid dealing with the God you’ve offended. You deal with him at the cross. This is where God’s wrath and God’s love meet. This is where you meet Him.
This is the refuge. This refuge brings blessing. “Blessed are all who take refuge in him.” Those outside the refuge are lost. Those inside the refuge are blessed.
This evening you are either inside the refuge or you are outside the refuge. You are either lost or you are blessed. There is no middle ground here. Do you know where you are? If you are not in the refuge, do you know that you are lost? If you are in the refuge, do you know that you are blessed? If you are outside the refuge, do you know that those inside are blessed? If you are inside the refuge, do you know that those outside are lost? Are you in Christ? “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Amen.