Does God Laugh

If you would, take your Bibles and turn to Psalm 2. I know my voice is a couple of registers lower today, but then the wrestling season has started. And my voice isn't quite used to that yet. I want you to look at Psalm 2 as we read together this psalm, Remembering this is a psalm written to tell us about God's King, His Messiah, Jesus. Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury. As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.

I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, You are my son. today I have begotten you ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession you shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel now therefore O kings be wise be warned O rulers of the earth serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling kiss the son lest he be angry and you perish in the way for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you now for our time in your word. We pray that you would help us to see clearly our Father and our King, the Lord Jesus. we pray Father that this would encourage and enlighten us that through this we might have hope and be able to stand in this world this wicked culture in which we now live until Jesus returns Help us now we pray in Jesus name Amen Psalm 2 is a drama, a drama in four acts.

We've seen the first act last week, verses 1 through 3, where the curtain opens and we see the whole world is in revolt against God and his Christ. You see the evidence of that around you every single day. The seething activity of mankind is evidence of the cry of rage we find in verse 3 of this psalm. Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.

Look around, and again, you see a vast universal rebel army hating God and his Messiah, seeking to overthrow his rule, hating his commandments. And as you look around at such great hatred and rebellion, do you ever wonder where God is? Do you ever wonder that? God, why aren't you doing anything about this? And as this rebellion sweeps along, attacking God's people, do you wonder God what are you doing?

Well in this psalm David reveals to you how God responds to that rebellion. Now remember this psalm is God's call to all men to submit to his Messiah, to his King Jesus but all of humanity is in rebellion against the living God and his Christ and it flows from this deep rooted depravity that's in every human heart. It hates God and His sovereign rule.

And now in verses 4-6, the curtain opens. It's closed on that great rebel army, the vast array of rebels. Now it opens on the second scene of this unfolding drama. And we wait with anticipation. This is no small skirmish. This is a whole of humanity arrayed against God and against His rule, Surely this is cause for alarm, right?

Some great and forceful action is required. The curtain closes on the chaotic battlefield and its teeming multitudes and when it opens we see one divine being sitting on his throne And let's look at that. Second scene, verses 4-6. Let's look at it again. He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision.

Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying, As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. As the curtain closes on this rebel army, as we anticipate great action, the curtain opens, and what do we see? We see God sitting on his throne, and he is what? Laughing. He's laughing. Now, if we're going to understand fully the reign of Christ and get a full picture of our Messiah, then we have to understand God's reaction to this rebellion.

First of all, what is God's view of the rebellion? He views it with utter contempt. He views it with utter contempt. He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision. God laughs in derision at man's attempt to overthrow his king.

Now this is not the laughter of amusement. This is not the laughter of delight. Because as you look, there's anger. In verse 5, he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury. He's angry. He's furious.

This is the laughter of contempt. Right? This is the laughter of contempt. Can a flea attack an elephant? Can a rabbit do battle with a lion? Right?

What would the heavyweight champion of the world do if you walked up to him and said, you, yeah, I'll take you. I can take you any day of the week. What do you think he'd do? Right? Especially if he saw somebody like me saying that. What do you think he'd do?

He'd laugh in derision and contempt. It be contemptible You know It just that the way God reacts to this rebellion And it no wonder I mean do you remember what we just read in Isaiah I want you to look at Isaiah Alright? Isaiah chapter 40 again. Just look at some of these descriptions of God. Isaiah 40 is one of the, I don't know, one of the mountain peaks of the Bible.

Where it talks about, who are you going to compare God to? Look at verse 15. Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are accounted as the dust on the scales. Behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. The world is so insignificant to God that they're like dust on the scales. Have you ever gone to the store and you say, give me three pounds of ground round?

And as he's going to put it on, you go, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're not going to cheat me. Sweep that dust off there. I don't want you charging me too much, right? Of course you don't. For one thing, you wouldn't like dust on the scales.

But on the other, the dust is so insignificant, it wouldn't even count, right? That's how God sees the nations. Isn't it interesting? We look around and we are terrified about what's going to happen in North Korea. What's going to happen in Iran and Iraq? Look at all these places that are boiling over and we are so tense about that.

What's going to happen? And God says, you know, those nations are nothing more than dust on the scales, a drop from a bucket. Go over to verse 21. Haven't you heard? He who sits above the circle of the earth and his heavens are like what? Grasshoppers.

The inhabitants of the earth are nothing more than grasshoppers. He's the one who stretches out the heavens. Like when you're getting in the shower and you just shoot the curtain along the rod. That's, right? That's about what it's like. He stretches out the heavens that way.

It's like, wow, there it is, all stretched out. This is the God who sits in heaven. Of course he laughs with derision. Who can compare to him? Who can compare to him? again let me just suggest to you that often times we are worried we are overwhelmed because we don't have an overwhelming sense of who God is God laughs with contempt Our God is enthroned in heaven.

Who can touch Him? Who can touch Him? He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision. He is the Lord. Now look, can I point out something?

I want you to see something here. Look at Lord in verse 2. What do you see about that Lord? You see this on every page of the Old Testament. And some of you have been here for years. This is going to be the thousandth time you've heard this.

When you look at that word LORD in all caps in the Old Testament, that is not the word for LORD. That is the word for YAHWAH. That is God's personal name. Like my name is Tim. God's name is YAHWAH. and Lord in all capital letters is his personal name. Okay?

Now when you come down to verse 4, you see the word Lord. But it's not all in caps, is it? That's because it's a different word. It is the word Adonai. Adonai. Which is the word for Lord, Master, Ruler, King.

Okay? So can you remember that? write it somewhere in your Bible so you can see it. Capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D is God's personal name, Yahuwah. Translated, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. When you see regular Lord, capital L-O-R-D, that's Adonai, that is Lord, Master, King. So what's the point?

The point is, God sits on his throne as the Lord and the master of the universe. He is untouchable in the heavens. He is ruling as the Lord and sovereign of all. Nothing can happen apart from His will. A massive army is on the march against Him. And the one enthroned in heaven does not show the least bit of uneasiness.

No uneasiness. There is displeasure but no panic There is no fresh initiatives to meet the crisis This is the God of heaven God remains unshaken by all that human animosity can do No matter how brilliant they are, no matter how powerful they are, they cannot succeed against the Lord of heaven who sits enthroned. He is the one in control. all right now i just want to sit here and have you meditate on that for the next five minutes right how often do you think of god how often do you think of the problems around you and not just the problems that we have but but the things like where's our religious liberty going and what's happening in our country and to the people of god and those sorts of things this is when we need to start thinking clearly about who God is.

He is the Lord of heaven. All those who are arrayed against him, which is manifested as a raid against his people. Why do we worry? We think that our problems are bigger than God. They are not. And that sounds so cliche, doesn't it?

But it's true. here is the God of heaven the nations can't do a thing he's so enthroned in heaven he is so far beyond their reach he can just sit there and laugh at them and all their rebellion but God also looks with great anger at his enemy not because of its power verse 5 then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury. He's angry not because of their power. It's laughable.

But because God demands complete loyalty to his representative and his king. God demands complete loyalty to his representative and his king. Listen, when people reject Christ, they're rejecting the rule of God. They're not just rejecting their ticket to heaven. they are rejecting the rule of God expressed in his son so this great rebellion against God's Messiah is outrageous and it is laughable again that should bring comfort and confidence to us right away you know it hard for us to imagine God laughing isn it Have you ever thought of God laughing Probably hardly any of us ever give but a smidgen of a thought to that in a decade.

God laughs? Sure does. That should give us confidence and comfort as a child of God. Sometimes we cower before what looks to us the brilliance of God's enemies. Sometimes we are afraid. And we're afraid at the very basic level of, and I'll admit to it, afraid of speaking of Christ to people.

We're afraid of that. Why? God will never be pulled off his throne. The rebellion will never succeed. The rebellion will never succeed. The success of his kingdom does not rest on our shoulders.

It is all on his. And so through it all, God is untouched, unhindered, unthreatened, unharmed, unchanged. But what is God doing? Does he just laugh? And the answer is no. He speaks with anger and he says this, As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.

We have to see God's action against this rebellion. What is it? He sets his king up. I don't know about you, but as I read that, as I read that and thought about that, I thought, so what? What does that have to do with it? They're still rebelling against him.

Well, let's think about it. Let's think that through. God has decreed that he has established his Messiah. There is no panic, no crisis initiative, but the unilateral appointment of his king. That is how he responds. The rebellion continues, but it cannot succeed.

It will not prevent God from setting up his king. It will not prevent God from ruling through that king. this Messiah is king he already is installed the rebellion is pointless now what man response to that and here is where I think we need to camp for a few minutes What is man response to God setting up his king What happened at Calvary? What happened at Calvary?

Soldiers mocked him as a king, right? They put a purple robe on him. They jammed a crown, a crown of thorns down on his head. They gave him a weak scepter and they bowed before him and they mocked him. Pilate, in contempt for Jews and their religion, placed a sign above his head that said, King of the Jews. Right?

The Hebrews denied that he was the king. The message was clear. We do not want this man to be king. How can God laugh? How can God laugh? Well, let's look at Acts 4 again.

Pivotal, pivotal, pivotal, pivotal chapter in understanding this king. Acts chapter 4. the prayer of the church after the apostles had been hauled before the sanhedrin and they came back and it says verse 23 when they that is the apostles were released they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth, the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit. Now I quote, they quote now Psalm 2.

Why did the Gentiles rage and the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his united. for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel to do whatever your hand and your plan and predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant your service to continue to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant, Jesus.

And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. What's happening here? God can laugh because in their response to his king, throwing off his bonds, they failed. They failed miserably. And what happened? The king was enthroned through the very act of rejecting him.

You see? Why can God laugh with derision? Because even when they bring their best against his king, when they crucify him, when they deny him and mock him, the very action of that all is the very avenue by which he assumes the throne. Because you remember, if you look again back two chapters, what did Peter say about this Jesus? Chapter 2, verse 36, in his first sermon, he says, Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him, both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucify.

Why is it that God can laugh? Because even when they bring their best against the king, when it seems that they're going to end the king's rule by his very death, that becomes the very method by which God exalts him to the throne. This Jesus, whom you crucified, God has made both Lord and Christ. You see? It's amazing when you look at that. That is why God can laugh.

Because nothing that they can do will ever, ever succeed. and by the way God's Messiah now then already reigns over God's people Peter makes that clear at the very start of this age in which the church is born he makes it clear at the very start that Jesus rules he's been made both Lord and Christ he has ascended to heaven and sits on the throne promised to David. And in Psalm 2 it says, I have established him on my holy hill, on Zion. Now Zion is a hill in southeast Jerusalem where the temple was.

This is the place where God manifested His presence Remember in the Old Testament God manifested His presence in one place and that was the temple And if you wanted to commune with God you had to come to the temple, right? You had to come to that place. It was the center of worship and of government. It was where God made His presence manifest. That's where he revealed it.

What about today? There is no temple in Jerusalem. We don't go to one place. What happened? Well, turn over to Ephesians chapter 2 for a moment. Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians chapter 2, verse 19. So then, speaking to Gentiles now, okay? He's talking to those who are Christians who were Gentiles. He's made the point Jews and Gentiles have been brought together into one man. There's no longer this difference between us. Then he goes on to say, So then you, Gentiles, are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.

Now note this. Built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Today the center of worship and Messiah's rule where it is manifested is in the church, God's new covenant temple.

And that's why we don't have to go to Jerusalem. we can come together by the way not in the house of god but as the house of god and we come together and god indwells us by his spirit this is the new covenant the new covenant temple now listen the rebels may fight but god laughs because his king is reigning with power in the church God can laugh who will ever overthrow his church who will ever overthrow his church you want to see this in stark terms let look at Revelation 12 Look at Revelation 12 for a moment Alright, why can God laugh? Because the rebellion will not succeed. The rebellion will not succeed.

It will not succeed. As His Messiah manifests His rule among the people of God in the church of God, They will not succeed against him. Revelation chapter 12, verse 7. Now watch this. Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. and the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, who was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come. I believe he's talking here about after Jesus has died. That's when Satan was thrown down. That's when he lost his power. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.

And they have conquered Him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. therefore rejoice O heavens and you who dwell in them but woe to you O earth and sea for the devil has come down to you in great wrath because he knows that his time is short what do I want you to see here where is the authority of Christ seen in his people the authority of his Christ have come for the accuser has been cast down and how do we conquer him by the blood of the lamb and by what notice when we die we've conquered him when we hold fast to the testimony even in the face of death when the vast rebel army sweeps over us it seems and even kills the people of god that is when we win the victory he cannot they cannot succeed again what you have to see there is when you faithful to the testimony of Christ and you die the world looks at you as what? You're the loser. We won.

God says, no, it's a manifestation of Christ and His power. You see? Just like with Jesus. The same with us. Who will overthrow his church. No one.

No one will overthrow his authority. Not only that, but he has the power to save. That's why God can laugh. Do you know what? God can take rebels out of that great army at will. He can save them.

You know why God can laugh? Because He can save the rebels. And He does. You sitting here today, you were once part of that great rebel army. What happened? The king came and claimed you.

He claimed you. It's the power of the Gospel. Keep that in mind. Listen, this is what we have to keep in mind. As we look around, and we see the things that are happening and the increasing hostility of our culture, the increasing hostility of our culture and its institutions to what we hold dear. And we may get worried and we may start to fret.

And this is when we need to remember the Lord sits on His throne and he laughs because we will not be overcome. He will succeed. He will succeed. And if that's not enough, God can laugh because his king will finally reveal his power clearly, manifestly, not just in the church, but to the whole world. Again, and we're going to have occasion to go back here because I think this is a key passage, Revelation 19.

Another occurrence of Psalm 2. Another occurrence of Psalm 2. Here's what you see. You see the apostles in that prayer saying, Right? It's fulfilled. Or it's beginning to be fulfilled, where the rule of God is going to be manifested in His Messiah.

And yet, there's still more. Revelation 19, verse 11, Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, the one sitting on it, is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood and the name by which he is called is the Word of God.

And the armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth, and here's Psalm 2, from his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Here is the final revelation of the power and the rule and the authority of this king Let all of humanity rebel God plan has not changed He has installed his king. And no one will ever, ever succeed against him. What a pointless rebellion. How useless. Christ is reigning and he will reign both are true what does that say to us Christians as we are in this Christmas season we ought to remember not just this baby that's helpless but this king who rules and we ought to rejoice because the rebellion is useless God laughs but some of you may still be part of that rebellion you may still be a part of God's wrath and scorn and to you I would say this why why do you continue in your rebellion It useless You don want to submit to Jesus You don want to listen to his commands You actively rebel against that.

It's useless. Why not surrender? Why not just surrender and embrace this king in faith for what he has done for your sins? And leave the rebellious army. And become the part of the unbeatable, undefeatable people of God. Father, thank you for your word.

We thank you for your power. We're thankful for the vision that we have of a God who can laugh at all his opponents. At all his enemies. that Your power and Your rule is manifested among Your people, and that all rebelling against You is useless. It vain God we pray that that would instill hope in your people that we would realize that we're no longer the object of your scorn but the objects of your love and for those father who are here today who have never bowed the knee to Christ I pray Lord that you would show them the absolute foolishness of their continued rebellion that Lord you would make clear to them that their rebellion is useless and it will eventually lead to the wrath and the fury of God but that they can surrender today and know the gracious loving rule of a king who will always love and protect them.

Thank you for your word. Thank you for your king. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.