if you will, come to. There are very few mentions in
scripture of God Almighty laughing But every time, every mention,
it speaks of God laughing at someone. And this Psalm 2 is one of those. After declaring, in the first
three verses, what modern religion in his day
was doing and saying. Now, I say in his day. The psalmist here, we believe,
is David, and religion then was modern to him. But after declaring what modern
religion in his day was doing and saying, The psalmist writes
in verse 4, he that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision,
or mock them. Well, let's see what it is that
the Lord laughs at, or shall laugh at. Look at verse 1. Why do the heathen rage, or my
margin says, tumultuously assemble? Why do the people, why do the
heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing or think up a vain
thing? Now, he mentions the heathen and he
mentions the people, two separate classes here, I believe. He's
talking about the heathen being Gentiles, or I want us to think
of them as irreligious, the irreligious or nonreligious, or the people,
the people being the Jews who claim to be the people of God,
or thought they were. And he asked this question, why
do the heathen rage? Why do the heathen rage? Now I could not help but think
of this when I read the word rage there. I couldn't help but
think of all the latest rage in our day. You know what I'm talking about,
any fad or style or Whatever goes on in our day, it's all
the latest rage, they would say. Why are they doing this? Why
are they doing that? Why are young people putting
holes in their nose? Why are they sticking things
in their bodies? Why are they marking up their
bodies for the rest of their lives? Why? Why, it's all the
latest rage. That's why. I can't help but laugh at that. The next thing you know, they'll
be putting bones in their noses and plates in their lips. You laugh? I never thought I'd see what
we're seeing now. Have you? Why are you doing that? Why are you killing yourself?
Why are you marking yourself? It's all the latest rage. Why?
Everybody's doing it. Well, that's a good reason, isn't
it? It's all the latest rage. Well,
that's not the rage he's talking about, but I could not help but
give that little mini thought there for our young people's
sake so you'd see the utter, utter absurdity to this debauchery of the human body. It's laughable, isn't it? But
that's not what he's speaking of. He's talking about religious
rage. And I have to ask why religion
is doing what it's doing today. All this wild and ridiculous
stuff that's going on In religion, the world is laughing at it.
You know, the world is laughing at this ridiculous nonsense that's
called Christianity today. You know that? The world is laughing
at it. Perhaps you have some people
you work with who love to make fun of modern religion. Well, it's laughable. But this is speaking also of
how the ignorant or superstitious religious world rages against
the truth. How that heathen religion is
what it is. They are religious, but it is
heathen. It is pagan. It is corrupt. But they rage against the truth. They rage against preaching of a sovereign, just,
and holy God. They rage against that. Rage
against all talk of man being depraved and guilty and under
the judgment of this God. They rage against all talk of
a need for a blood sacrifice. They rage against these things.
This heathen religious world rages against the truth, against
the gospel. Don't they? You know, you who
have merely dared to say where you work, you've just merely
dared to declare to someone that God is God, you have seen their
rage. Haven't you, Stan? Haven't you,
John? Haven't you? You've seen it,
haven't you? You've heard it. You've seen
their anger at your merely declaring that God is God, and that man
is helpless and dead, and that Christ is his only hope. And
you've seen their rage, you've heard their rage. And he says,
why do the people imagine a vain thing? The people, as I said,
being the Jews, imagine in vain that Christ is yet to come. You
know, the Jews are still looking for the Messiah. They look for another other than
Jesus to be the Christ. And those who side with the Jews,
you know, the religious right, who believe that Israel can do
no wrong and side with them. They talk about our Judeo-Christian
ethics and so forth. Judaism and Christianity people
are not the same. No, Christ took away the first,
established the second. They're not the same. They don't
go hand in hand. That's the old. He brought in
the new. They don't go hand in hand. The
Jews imagine that Christ is yet to come, and yet modern religion
people have a God of their own imagination, a salvation they imagine. And
the psalmist says here, it's a vain thing. It's a vain thing,
a God who cannot save. Well, look at verses 2 and 3.
Look at it here, verse 2 and 3. The kings of the earth set
themselves, and rulers take counsel together. against the Lord and
against his anointing. They take counsel together. And
you know this is so, that nearly every denomination
today is joining hands. Even so-called Protestantism
is joining hands with Catholicism. Yes. They are Methodists and Baptists,
and used to be they didn't have anything to do with one another. Presbyterian. They're all joining
hands, and there's one great worldwide call or cry for unity. Right? Right, Ed? You read these
things. And what they're concluding is
that they all believe, we all believe in the same God. They do. A false one. They ought to join
hands. They should have long time ago.
They believe the same thing. The religion of Cain. The religion
of Balaam. Right? The religion of Korah.
They believe the same thing. They believe the same want. Just
a little different turn on him maybe. false God and a great
cry of unity. They agree to disagree on some
things, but they all agree on this. They all agree on this. They
all agree to be against this sovereign grace stuff. And you know it so. Everybody
you work with, they can be a Methodist or they can be a Southern Baptist,
which are poles apart, really. But they'll join hands and gather
up against you, you who believe the truth. They
believe the same way. They don't believe like you.
And they're against you. And it's really not you they're
against. Our Lord said this, didn't he? David wrote this several thousand
years ago, and many, many years after that, Christ said it again.
He said, it's not you they hate, it's me. And now here in our day, the
same thing holds true. They are against. Look at it.
They set themselves, rulers, leaders, especially church leaders,
so to speak, to take counsel together against the Lord, against
this sovereign Lord, against his anointed, against this sovereign
Christ, wanting nothing more than to break up these little
bands. Let's break up these little bands. These little bands of
believers here and there who believe and espouse this doctrine
of this sovereign God. Let's break this thing up. Let's
get together and put them out of business. You don't think
it's so? It is so. Now I like verse 4. He that sitteth
in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision.
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. Now note there it
says, he shall last. Note that. It doesn't say he
is laughing. It says he shall last. We have
an old saying, I don't know where we got this, but it sure is true. He that lasts last, laughs best. Isn't that an old saying we have?
Why did man coin that little phrase? He doesn't realize that who it
is that's going to laugh last. He shall laugh. It says he shall
laugh because it's no laughing matter now. It's no laughing
matter now what's going on in the name of God. God is not laughing
at what men are saying about him or saying he said. Or saying what they're saying
about his son. It's no laughing matter to him, Stan. I want you
to look over at Psalm 11, verse 7. I'll show you what God is
doing right now. No, I'm sorry. Psalm 7, verse
11. Psalm 7, verse 11. God judgeth
the righteous. God... Psalm 7, 11. You got it? God judgeth the righteous
and God is angry with the wicked. Every day. Today, right now,
God is not laughing. He's angry. If I appear to be
angry right now, so be it. God, it is no laughing matter
to God what men are saying about him or about his son. And it's
no laughing matter to his people. Like I told you, Brother Shank
said, he said, it makes me angry when I hear men talk about my
Lord the way they do. Nor is it any laughing matter
what they are doing to his people, what they are saying to his people.
Oh, no. Go back in the text there. It
says, He that sitteth in the heaven shall laugh. He will have
the last laugh. It says that in Proverbs 1 sometime. Boy, that's a sobering passage
of Scripture, isn't it? He says, When you cry unto me,
I'll not hear, I'll laugh. Well, verse 5, Then shall he
speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Then shall he speak. Now, men and women, are constantly
saying, are constantly claiming that God spoke to them. You hear
it on the TV, you hear it on the radio, you hear preachers
saying it, men and women. You see it in these little periodicals, these little newspapers,
you know, God spoke to this person or that person. God told them
this. God told them that. No. No. The scripture says, God hath
spoken once, yea, twice, audibly. God has spoken from
heaven at one point in time, yea, twice. In the Old Testament,
God used to speak many times audibly. And then in the New
Testament, God spoke again audibly, twice. Yet the scripture says, men perceiveth
it not. They're not interested. In what he said back then or
what he said in the New Testament, not interested at all. And now
God is silent. Now God is silent and God only
speaks through this book. And the next thing men will hear
from the mouth of God audibly is not him say anything, but
his laughter. Know what that says? It seems to indicate the first thing
that men will hear is a trumpet and real laugh. God's people
Like Psalm 126 says, when the Lord turned our captivity, our
mouths were filled with laughter. It's a joyful sound when we hear
that trumpet. The next thing we hear from heaven
is going to be a trumpet! And we're going to laugh. But then the world will hear
laughter. God's laughter. at them. Have you ever been laughed at? I'm not dramatizing this, am
I? Isn't this what this says? Knowing
therefore the terror of the Lord, Paul said, let us persuade man There's nothing worse than being
laughed at, is there? There's never going to be anything
like when God laughs at somebody. Then there's no hope. You say, that's cruel. No, it's
true. It's true. But then he's going
to say something. After laughter, it says, he shall
laugh and then shall he speak. Then God's going to speak. Well,
what's He going to say? What's God going to say? What's
the first thing God's going to say? What's the first thing men
and women are going to hear God say? God who's been silent for
2,000 years. What are they going to hear Him
say? The same thing they heard Him say 2,000 years before that. This is my Son! Look at it in Psalm 2. Then shall
he speak, verse 6, I've got a king on my holy hills I am. I'll declare
the decree, this is my son." Isn't that wonderful? The next thing men are going
to hear him say, in case you didn't hear me the first time,
The very next thing God's going to say, two thousand years later,
is the last thing he said. This is my beloved son. Now back then he said, hear him. Salvation is to hear his voice
and to follow him. That's salvation. But later on
God's going to say, you will hear him now. Not interested then. You will
hear him now. You will. Talking about a captive audience
to the gospel. All men who have rejected, and
women and young people who have rejected the gospel now will
be forced to hear it then. You see why it says, today is
the day of salvation. Harden not your heart. Today,
if you'll hear His voice, don't wait on His laughter. You
don't want to hear His laughter. I've sent my King. I like this.
I've sent my King. my King on my holy hill of Zion.
This is my Son. Men speak of making Jesus Lord.
God's not laughing at that. And when I hear that, that doesn't
make me laugh either. That just makes me sick. Doesn't
it, you? Men talk about, what will you
do with Jesus? That is not the question. It
was at one time, wasn't it? Pilate said that one time. God
put Jesus in the hands of men one time, didn't he? And Pilate
said, who do you want, Barabbas or Jesus? They said, Barabbas.
That's what men are saying now. They're saying the same thing,
aren't they? We want a thief and a robber. Well, what will you have me do
with Jesus? Kill him. We don't want him. He said he
was king. Crown him. All these songs that
talk about, we're going to crown him, we're going to crown Jesus.
Are we now? No, we crowned him once before
with thorns. But God has crowned him with
a regal and royal crown. God hath made this same Jesus
whom we crucified, Lord and Christ, and he is now seated on the throne,
we ain't going to crown him. We're not going to get that high.
We can't reach that high. We can't get above his feet.
Scripture says we're all going to be under his feet. We can't
reach his head. He's from above, we're from beneath.
God's crowned him. Men don't make him Lord. God did a long time ago. He said,
I will declare the decree, look at it, verse 7, the decree. The
Lord has said to me, the Lord has said to me, to Christ, Thou
art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. This is the decree that
Jesus Christ is God's Son, that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory
of God the Father, and that every knee will bow. to him and confessed
it. This is the decree. This is God's
purpose. This is God's will. This is God's
decree. And it was written before the
world began. I want you to look over at Proverbs 8. Turn over
to Proverbs 8. Thou art my son, he said, this
day have I begotten thee. Proverbs 8. We see unto us a
child is born, but the son is given. He's the eternal Son. He was with the Father long before
he became a man. Look here in Proverbs 8. Proverbs
8, look at verse 22. I love this chapter. Read down
through verse 25. The Lord possessed me in the
beginning of his way before his works of old. I was set up from
everlasting, from the beginning, wherever the earth was. When
there were no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains
abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before
there was a hill to sit on, I was there. I was brought forth. Verse 30, then I was by him as
one brought up with him. I was daily his delight, rejoicing
always before him. And then verse 31 says he rejoiced
in a habitable part of the earth. He came. He was made a man. But
long before that, in a covenant, in a decree, in a decree made
between God the Father and God the Son, this is what they said. Now back
to the text. This was what happened in this
decree of God Almighty and God the Son, long before the world
began. Look at it, verse 8. Now this is the Father speaking
to the Son. He says, ask of me, and I shall
give thee something. Ask, and I will give thee. See, before the world began,
God purposed to save some of this fallen humanity. And to save them, he would give
them to his Son. He would give them to Christ
to save them. Give them to Christ. for Christ
to come down here and live a holy life and then reckon it to their
account, and then die the death their sins deserve. God decreed
before the world began to save certain individuals, and He gave
them that decree and that covenant to His Son to come down here
and do what was necessary to save them. He and He alone could
do that. There is no cooperative effort.
who is solely the work of God's Son. All right? And God says, now
which ones do you want? You're going to save some of
humanity. Which ones do you want, son? The high? The mighty? The
noble? The beautiful people? No, I'll
take the heathen. I'll take those nobodies, those
nothings. Oh, we'll leave the wise and
the prudent. I'll take the babes. Oh, we'll take the somebodies.
I'll take the nobodies. We'll take—you can have those
high and mighty, rich and famous. I'll take the common, the meek,
the lonely, the helpless, the helpless. All those who have
all that strength and can do something, we'll leave them.
We'll pass them by. Let's take those who can't do
anything. Helpless, without strength, without God, without hope. Let's
take them. That's who I want. Heathen. For his inheritance. Do you notice that? He says that's
his inheritance. What are you getting when you're
parents die, or what did you get when your parents died? I'll
just be honest with you, I'm not getting anything. My parents
don't have anything. They don't own a home. But what
did you get? You know, you've heard these
stories of people who inherited vast fortunes. You know, like
the Hunt brothers or whoever. Most of these rich and famous
people today, they didn't earn that money. They did not get
rich themselves. Their daddy worked real hard,
you know. He started in a little storefront
building and worked real hard and worked his way on up until
he had two or three stores and finally had a whole slew and
a franchise of stores all over the country. And he died and
gave it to Junior. And Junior just, he's born rich. And he lives rich and he inherits
a big mansion with all the Rolls Royces and he's got it all, you
know. He didn't do anything. Right? Christ was given an inheritance. And the inheritance that God
gave him was a broken down mess. They used to kid my father-in-law. Well, he used to kid me. Before, when I started dating
his daughter, he had a nice car, a sports car, a Jaguar XKE. Steve knows what that is. And
he'd let me and Mindy go out in that car. We'd drive it. He tried to get me married off
or get her married off, Steve, I guess, but he had that nice
car, you know, and he had a golf course. He owned a golf course.
Oh, I loved golf at the time. I loved to play golf. He let
me play free. I should have seen all this. And then he had an old bulldog. Have you ever seen one of these
English bulls? They're ugly. Oh, they're ugly. Now, maybe he meant well by this,
but maybe he didn't. Well, after we got married, he
sold the car and sold the golf cart. But he kept the bulldog. And
he said, that's what you're going to get. If something ever happens
to me, I want you to have muffins. Thanks, Dad. Well, maybe he meant well. Maybe
that dog was dear to him, but I didn't want no broken-down,
smashed-face dog. That's what they are. That's
what I was getting. Well, all kidding, all joking
aside, really, what did Christ get when he got us for his inheritance?
A dog. This is what I'm going to give
you. Now listen, here's the beauty of this whole thing. Here's what
you get, son. You get a mass of fallen humanity,
broken down, vile, wicked, corrupt. Here, I'm going to marry you,
son. I'm betrothing you to a woman. I'm going to give you a woman
to marry, son. Now, who would you give to your
son, Nancy? You've got one left. And who would you give her? The
finest, the beautiful. You wouldn't. the women in the
world. Well, let's find the finest and
get them betrothed. The fine, rich, and beautiful,
and talented, and dumb, but we'll give her to him. God says, I'm
going to give you some. I'm going to give you a harlot.
I'm going to betroth you to a harlot, a broken down old woman on an
auction block, and a broken down old shack called Man. It's yours. Now here's the beauty of the
whole thing. Watch what he does with it. You see, the glory of
God is saving people. The glory of God is purposing
and decreeing to save somebody. He doesn't have to. He says,
I'm going to. I'm going to save some of this
cesspool called man. I'm going to save some of them.
Now here, son, here they are. And the glory of the Son is watch
Him save them. Watch Him save them. Watch him
take that old broken-down man and make him a new creature.
Watch him take that harlot and make her a beautiful bride. Watch
in the end as he brings her in on his arm into glory. As the
angels say, Is that, is that Gomer? That's her. Don't recognize her, do you? Listen as the Son says, Behold,
I and the children that you gave me. Here they are. Aren't they
beautiful? My inheritance. I turned nothing
into something. Now that's something, isn't it? An old common Joe. Turned an
old common Joe truck driver. How many Joe's are truck drivers
on the road? How many truck drivers named
Joe are on the road? How many truck drivers named
Joe are going to be standing with Jesus Christ in glory? Guarantee you, Joe, there won't
be many. Oh, that would make a man smile,
wouldn't it? Man, that's something. You see
what I'm trying to say? He didn't get anything for his
inheritance. Boy, he turned nothing into something,
didn't he? And he did, after all. And we're
joint heirs with him, the scripture says. Joint heirs with him. Oh,
what do we get? We're like those sons that inherit
everything. It's all we get. The unsearchable
riches. That's what we get. Well, look
at verse 8 and I'll close. He says, Now I will give you
the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession too. Psalm
24 says, "...the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof,
the world, and all they that dwell therein." God owns every
human being. He says, "...all souls are mine."
And He gave them all to Christ to do with as He pleases. So
Jesus Christ, in that sense, owns all men. There He is. Now
some He makes vessels of mercy. for his glory, vessels of mercy,
and sets them aside as his inheritance. The others, it says, he's going
to break them with a rod of iron into pieces. Why does he do that? Well, here he's going to show
his glory, his mercy, his grace, his love, his power. He's going to show his power
in these vessels of mercy. Show, look what I've done. That's
what heaven's all about. Showing men and showing angels
what Jesus Christ has done. We're trophied. Jeanette, we're
going to be standing there like trophies in a trophy case for
all to look at. Look at there. Christ will say,
I won her! Yeah, that's just exactly what
we're going to be. That's all right with me. Is
that all right with you? That's all right. That's all
right. But the others? Vessels of wrath. He's going
to show his holiness. He's going to show his justice.
He's going to show his hatred, his anger, and break them in
pieces and cast them into hell. Is that all right? Well, it better be, because that's
the way it is. God said, I've declared the decree. Now this world rages at that.
I don't like that! Well, that's the way it is. Why do the heathen rage? Why
rage against it? Huh? Why fight? I'll tell you
what we need to do. Rather, God tells us what we
ought to do. Look at it. Be wise now, verse
10. Be instructed. ye judges, ye
rulers, ye hyenas, serve the Lord with fear." You know, the
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Tremble, rejoice with
trembling at his word. This word ought to make us tremble,
shouldn't it? Tremble. Here is what we need
to do. Kiss the Son. Lest ye be angry. And Henry says in his wrath,
you perish from the way when his wrath is kindled. How much? Just a little. Men watch these hurricanes and
tremble in fear at tornadoes and earthquakes, and they ain't
seen nothing yet. And the overflowing scourge of
His wrath comes through. I'm in Iraq. But it will, son. It ought to
make them tremble in fear, doesn't it? Know, and therefore, the
terror of the Lord. We try to persuade men, don't we? Try to persuade men. Kiss the
son. You know, men, people, women all over the world are clamoring
to kiss the Pope's toe. Aren't they? Kiss the Pope's
ring. They believe it's some power,
some honor is conferred, and if they kiss that fellow's toe, I told you before I had I'd like
to try it. I'd bite that sucker off is what
I'd do. I'd bite his toe and watch him
holler. Or have me a little ball-peen
hammer in my pocket. Well, but I tell you, this is
where men are going to kiss the sun. If they're going to kiss
him at all, it's going to be his feet. Now, be wise. Bow before Him. That's the reason
you've got to kiss His feet. You've got to bow. We don't walk
up and accept Jesus as our one-on-one equal, our friend. So we bow before the Sovereign
Lord and kiss His feet. It's like Mary weeping over our
sins, wiping His feet with the hair of our heads, saying, Then he'll raise us up to be
with him. Oh, blessed are all they that
put their trust in him, this one, this one. John, not everybody
putting their trust in this one. They're raging against him, John,
chiefly. Are you putting your trust? Is
this the Christ you believe? This is the one you worship and
believe in all blessed art. Blessed is the man whom thou
hast chosen and caused to approach unto him." Not everybody is a vessel of
this mercy. Be wise now, all of you who have
not bowed yet and come to Christ. You best do it now. This ain't no fairy tale. All right, Brother Joe, would
you please? One twenty-seven. One twenty-seven. Stand with
me and let's sing the first and the fourth stanza. Hallelujah,
what a sight. First and the fourth. In our sorrow, what a day for
the Son of God who came, ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Lifted up was
He who died, in His Spirit was His pride. Now in heaven exalted high, Hallelujah! What a Savior! Thank you, and you're listening. Oh.