Welcome to the audio channel of Dr. Sadat. Preach Christ, teach the Bible, make disciples. So church, I would ask the congregation to stand as we will be continuing our series, Christ the King. And our theme verses will be Psalm chapter 2, verses 4 to 6. Psalm chapter 2, verses 4 to 6. Let us pray. And now we humble ourselves before God Almighty, whose grace has gifted us and whose love has saved us. Patiently now we wait for thee. You are as a lamp to our path and a light to our feet. May the Holy Spirit strengthen your servant to deliver a word of power, so that many to Jesus will come and meet. Amen. So Psalm chapter 2, our focus today is verses 4 to 6. I'm going to read starting at verse 1. Psalm 2, verse 1. Why are the nations in an uproar, and the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them. Then he will speak to them in his anger and terrify them in his fury, saying, but as for me, I have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain. Please be seated. So Church, we're continuing our series, Christ the King. Last month, we had Cosmic Rebellion A and B, and we defined Cosmic Rebellion as the resolve of the world to rebel against the Lord. And we answered the question, why are people hostile to the idea of God, and provided three distinct answers. Today, in the sermon titled, God Laughs, We're going to answer the question, do you know God? Today's sermon is going to answer the question, do you know God? And we're going to provide three distinct answers. So the text says, Psalm 22 verse four, he who sits in the heavens. Now isn't this ironic because in verses 1 to 3 we're told the kings of the earth take their stand and they're standing on earth but God is he who sits in the heavens and he is so unfazed by the cosmic rebellion going on on earth that God Almighty doesn't even have to get up from his seat. And he who sits in the heavens laughs. There's only one other place in the Psalms where God is mentioned to laugh, and that is Psalm 37. In both places, this is not a happy laugh. This is not a joyful laugh. God is not laughing because an angel told him a good joke. It is a laugh of derision. The text says, he who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them. God laughing is his way of saying, are you kidding me? You can't be serious. I am the creator of heaven and earth. And he is looking at creation's revolt against him. So in his grace, he laughs. And the Lord scoffs at them. And the irony is this. From the perspective of the kings on earth taking their stand, their rebellion makes sense. Their plans are formidable, but in the eyes of God Almighty, their cosmic rebellion is despicable. Because when kings make plans, God laughs. Let's go back to Pharaoh once again in Exodus. Pharaoh was the king of the most powerful nation on planet earth at the time, Egypt. And Pharaoh gave the order that all newborn Hebrew male babies be killed. But while Pharaoh made that plan, Pharaoh's daughter was raising the man who would one day take the Israelites out of Egypt. So while he wanted Hebrew male babies dead within his own house, the deliverer of the Hebrews was being raised. Certainly in that case, God must have laughed. He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them. Then he will speak to them in his anger and terrify them in his fury. Now you may read this verse and say, here we go again. This is another Old Testament mean, angry, fire and brimstone God verse. But I dare say this verse suggests the exact opposite. Let's break this down. God, the sovereign maker of heaven and earth, makes the world. He makes all of those who are revolting against him. He sees this cosmic rebellion, and God's first response is to laugh. Then what does God do? Does he send tanks down to earth? Does he amass a nuclear stockpile? Does he give a horde of angels the order to go down to earth and strike down and wipe out the rebellion in progress? He doesn't. The people revolt, God laughs, and then he speaks? Wait a minute, time out. God could, in the blink of an eye, wipe all the rebels out, but he doesn't. God could send down hail, fire, thunder, and a massive earthquake and wipe everyone out, but he doesn't do that. He could flex his God muscles and annihilate everyone on earth, but he doesn't. He chooses not to. He exercises restraint. and his response is to laugh and then to speak, which means God could respond with tit-for-tat justice, but he doesn't. So God speaking in and of itself demonstrates restraint, demonstrates God not flexing his God muscles when he could. God speaking is grace in action. And I asked you at the top, do you know God? Because if you did, you would know that God is perfectly graceful and perfectly just at the same time. One more time, do you know God? Because if you did, you would know that God is perfectly graceful and perfectly just at the same time. So God is graceful. Psalm 1038 says, the Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness. The Lord is also just. Isaiah 30, 18 says, Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him. So God is perfectly graceful and perfectly just. What does God being graceful mean? Grace means unearned favor. It's not something we deserve. It's not something we work for. It's not something that's owed to us. God's grace is his unearned favor, which means You do get what you don't deserve. God being gracious means you do get what you don't deserve. And there are different levels of his grace. There's general grace to the entire world. Yesterday at the barbecue was perfect weather. It was a lovely blue sky. We woke up that morning. We stepped out. When we breathed in, we didn't breathe in toxic gas. We breathed in nourishing oxygen. The sun is beautiful in the sky. It warms and it irradiates us. When we look at a sunset, that is beautiful. No human being on earth earned that from God. He gave it to us for free. And that includes people who profess faith in God and who don't. There's a general degree of grace in living in a world that's hospitable to life. Then there's preparatory grace. Preparatory grace means God bothers with you even when you don't bother with Him. God doesn't start interacting with you and giving you grace when you begin professing faith in Him. He's actually looking out for you and watching over you when you're running away from Him. When I look back on my life, and there were periods in my life when it was the most despicable, when I knew what God's Word said, and did the exact opposite. And I look back and say, why didn't I get sick? Why did I walk away from the car accident? Why didn't I take the fall? Why did that person that one night say, you should go home? Because it's preparatory grace. God is bothering with you, moving his fingers through reality, steering you, leading you, and guiding you to a position. He's bothering with you even when you don't bother with Him. And then there is grace that He gives to His children, that He gives to the elect. is what gave us Jesus Christ. Grace is what gives us the forgiveness of sins. Grace is what gives us a relationship with God. And grace is what gives us our salvation because we are saved by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ alone. So when the text says, he who sits in the heavens laughs, and God's initial response is to speak. That is the grace of God in action because all of those people who are rebelling against God, they do get what they don't deserve. They're giving the space and they're being given the time to consider their ways and repent. And this is a model of God sending forth his word before his judgment running all throughout the Bible. There's always a gap between God sending his word and there being judgment. God's chosen people, the Israelites, when they were in the Promised Land, he told them, if you guys don't shape up, something bad is going to happen. For hundreds and hundreds of years, God sent forth his word through the prophets and nobody wanted to listen. And after hundreds of years, a period of grace, Then the Israelites were exiled. Northern Kingdom by Syria, the Southern Kingdom by the Babylonians. Do you realize that we are now, each and every day, after Christ was crucified and resurrected, we are now living in a 2,000-year history of grace? Take a step back for a second. The last face-to-face interaction God had with humanity was Jesus. What did we do to him? We killed him. The fact that God didn't rain down fire and brimstone at that moment on humanity was an act of grace and God has sent forth his word through Jesus in the Bible telling us That one day, judgment is coming. God has sent forth his word, and for the last 2,000 years, humanity is living in a space, a time of grace, because God is purposely delaying his judgment. to give us time and room to repent, because grace means we do get what we don't deserve. And God even takes incremental steps to get more personal with us. In the Old Testament, God sent forth his word. He spoke to the people of Israel atop a mountain in fire and thunder. Then what happens? God becomes more intimate. He incarnates. as a human being, now we can speak to God face to face. Then after Jesus ascends, now we have the Holy Spirit speaking to each and every person individually through our consciousness, sending forth his word. Because the grace of God means we do get what we don't deserve, and grace is never ever fair. It's never ever fair to God because he gives us everything when we can't reciprocate. And if grace ever was deserved, if you ever earned your grace, then it's no longer grace. That's just another name for justice. So grace means you do get what you don't deserve. Grace also means that you don't get what you do deserve. Grace also means that you don't get what you do deserve. And what do I, what do you, what does everybody deserve? God's justice, which is always 1,000% fair. And the bad news is anyone who's exposed to the justice of God, without Christ, the result is always the same. Destruction. Now if I've done an adequate job of explaining to the church what grace is, You must be thinking in your mind, this grace thing sounds like a fantastic deal. And you are absolutely right. If you've ever gotten a good deal on a car, if you've ever gotten a good deal on a house, that pales in comparison to the best deal you will ever get. And that is the grace of God. Because it is grace that has eternal ramifications. but in spite of grace being a free gift, in spite of grace being unearned favor, the ungodly will reject grace and will not perceive God's words until they are felt. John Calvin wrote in a commentary on these verses that, wicked men may now conduct themselves as wickedly as they please, but they shall at length feel what it is to make war with heaven. In other words, All those who don't hear will feel. And God's grace in his quiet dignity, he responds by first laughing, and then scoffing, and then speaking. He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them, then he will speak to them in his anger and terrify them in his fury. God's laughter leads to anger, which is always an expression of God's righteousness. If God didn't get angry, something would be wrong. Let's make this plain. Any human being, if you saw a child suffering, if you saw a child being the victim of abuse, you would get upset. You would get angry because hurting an innocent child isn't right. It's a departure from that which is good, a departure from that which is right. Being human It's a natural, visceral reaction to see a departure from that which is right. And God works in the same way. Because someone who is holy, who is perfect, who is just, and who is the definition of truth, when he sees a departure from what is right, the response is that he will become angry. So here's the second answer to the question. Do you know God? Because if you did, you would know that he exhibits righteous anger. Do you know God? Because if you did, you would know that he exhibits righteous anger. So what is righteous anger? Righteous anger is the emotion of someone who knows God's law. when they see that same law being broken, when they see that same limit being transgressed. Now let's make this simple. So on the one hand, God exhibits righteous anger. which validates our righteous anger, guys without sin. So there's nothing inherently sinful or bad about getting angry. When we as Christians see something, a departure from what is right in the world, there is no sin in exhibiting righteous anger. Ephesians 4.26 says, be angry and sin not. But now let's be careful. So anger in and of itself is a neutral emotional state, but righteous anger now qualifies why you are angry and what you do with it. The message last week was on Jonah, and God asked Jonah, do you have good reason? to be angry. Jonah was angry over something which God was doing. He didn't have a good reason to be angry. He was angry at God acting in his righteousness. This week I found out via email that the company that sends me my Chinese green tea every week was closing down. That was not a good reason to get angry. That's a first world problem. So when we talk about righteous anger, we have to first ascertain why we are angry, what are the reasons behind it. But on the other hand, the person who doesn't become angry at transgressions, the person who doesn't get upset when they see unrighteousness in the world, soon becomes a partaker in it. So that's the cause of the righteous anger. Now that we're in our state of anger, which is not in and of itself sinful, but what can make anger sinful is what we do with it. Because look at the irony. If you are someone who gets angry overseeing that which is not right, and now in response, out of vengeance, out of malice, you now do what is not right. You've now become a hypocrite. So what do we do? What do we do as Christians when we have righteous anger, when we see that which is not right in the world and we have a visceral, emotional response? We take that anger and we bring it to God. We bring it to the one who is just. We bring it to the one who is merciful. We bring it to the one who we know What he does with that anger will always be righteous and just. Because there's an important point. I personally think when Christians get angry, the devil has a party. When we get angry, literally speaking, in our brains, the part of our brains that is childlike, that wants to do what it wants, it gets really, really loud. But the part of our brain that reads its Bible, that prays, that meditates, becomes very, very quiet. Our blood pressure goes up, our heart rate goes up, and even the blood flow to different areas of our body changes. And the enemy loves it when Christians become angry because we are easily susceptible. We are easily tripped up and easily provoked to sin. So the strategy we must have when we have anger is to take it, to package it, and to bring it to God's doorstep and to validate that point. There are 14 Psalms that are called imprecatory. What does that mean? Imprecatory is a fancy word meaning these are Psalms that are not nice. They don't say, God, everything is great, everything is wonderful. These are Psalms about real life, where people say, God, I'm fed up. I'm broken. They're accusing me. I'm angry. I'm upset. But the Psalms also say, you are sovereign and you are just. So here it is, Lord. Here is my anger. Now search me and guide me as to what it is I'm supposed to do with this anger. Psalm 83 is an example. So righteous anger is not sinful. We always have to be aware, number one, of what caused our anger and now what we do with it. The anger itself isn't sinful, but what we do with it can be. So as Psalm number two tells us, the heathen are angry and thus sin, but God's anger is righteous and he responds with his word. The text continues, but he who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord scoffs at them, that he will speak to them in his anger and terrify them in his fury, saying, but as for me, I have installed my king. Now when you read this in Hebrew, there is a pronoun before I have installed. So literally it reads, I, I have installed my king. The point of that is the writer is giving emphasis to God. God is saying, I, me, myself, and I, and no one else, I have installed my king. The reason why this exists is simple. Because there's no ambiguity. There's no gray area about legitimacy. And God has installed, past tense, his king. So while the heathen rage in verse one, they're raging, they're fighting in the present tense, but God has already installed his king in the past tense. So the very thing the rebels are fighting against has already happened. So while they are raging, God has already disposed of the matter. The text says, but as for me, I have installed my king. The key thing to realize here is this is God the Father speaking. And he is saying, I have installed my king. My king points us to Jesus and tells us something, that Jesus is a threefold king. He's God's king, he's king of his people, and he's king of the world. Jesus being God's King means that He is the King of Kings. There's certainty. There's no ambiguity. Jesus being God's King tells us that when someone says Jesus is not God, they're not only insulting Christ who is King, they're insulting the one who installed Him as King, the Father. Jesus being our king, the king of his elect, the king of his church, tells us that he rules us with grace and love. And Jesus being the world's king, the king of the good and the king of the bad, tells us that he is king of all of reality. So Christ is not only the king of the disciples in the boat, Christ is also the king of the storm around the boat. So when Christ tells the storm, be still, the weather has to obey the king. And when there's an evil spirit, when there's a demonic persuasion persuading you in your Christian life, Christ is the king who has a chain around that spirit's neck. And when you say, Lord Jesus, save me, he's the one that tells that spirit, be still. And they are therefore unable to defy the sovereignty of Christ who is King. The text says, I have installed my King upon Zion, my holy mountain. Now Zion is referred to 40 times in the book of Psalms. Whenever the Bible says Zion, It's talking about one of two things, either the city of Jerusalem or the hill just north of the city of Jerusalem. Zion refers to either the city of Jerusalem or the hill north of the city of Jerusalem. Zion does refer to places on earth But the symbolism of Zion always points to something heavenly or transcendent. For example, in Revelation 14.1, Teck says, Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion. Now I want to make sure the church understands the richness and the depth of this one little phrase in Psalm number two. The text says, the father is saying, I have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain. The hill just north of the city of Jerusalem, Zion, was where the temple once stood, the Jerusalem temple. What happened in the temple? The temple was a place of worship where people who had a focus, who had a gaze on God, came together in fellowship. They came together to worship and to glorify God because they were all like-minded. They all gathered in the temple. The temple was an intersection point between heavenly things and earthly things, where once a year, God's spirit would descend onto the temple, and it was literally a meeting place between the divine and the human. In the temple, there was a priest who mediated for the people. There was shedding of blood. There were sacrifices, which served as an atonement to pay the price of sin. So that was the physical temple which sat on Mount Zion. Now what is the Father saying? I have installed my King on Zion, my holy mountain. His King is Christ. Now look at the correlation. Christ now is the one who we worship. And we as believers gather together with a unified gaze on Jesus. And we now gather together in fellowship, in a common thread unified on Christ the King. Christ is the perfect intersection between divine things and human things. He is fully God and fully man in one person. Christ is our high priest. who mediates for us. He is praying on our behalf as we speak. And his blood sacrifice on the cross served as the perfect atonement. His shedding of blood paid the debt, the penalty owed to God for our sins forever. And to make the connection between the old temple and Christ being the better temple complete. is in John 2.19, Jesus said, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. They thought he was talking about the physical temple, but he was talking about the temple of his body. Now this richness, this depth, this symbolism is encoded in just a few short words in Psalm number 2. This highlights the precise degree to which God already worked everything out before it unfolded in our reality, before it unfolded in our timeline. So when we take that awareness and zoom out and look at Psalm chapter 2 verses 4 to 6 in general, We see now the reason why God laughs is that he doesn't need to terrify the earthly rulers with any direct action. Because while they are raging in the present, he has already written the end of the story. The reason why God laughs is that he doesn't need to make an announcement. He doesn't need to send forth his word for his sakes. He's actually doing it for the sake for those who are rebelling against Him. Psalm 2 tells us that if God does not immediately stretch forth His hand, when we are suffering, when we are broken, when we feel as if the world is crumbling around us, and we look up to the sky and say, God, why aren't you doing something? Psalm 2 tells us that He is. It tells us that when the heathen rage, God laughs. It tells us that God is active and purposely applying grace and sending forth his word as a warning, as instruction to other people. So the same grace that saved me, the same grace that saved you, that we do get what we don't deserve, he's giving others that same space, that same time, to consider their ways and repent. And when we also ask God, why aren't you doing something? The fact of the matter is he already did it. The story is done and he already turned the last page of the story in eternity. We're just flipping through the pages. So dear Christian brother, dear Christian sister, you may weep But you can wipe away your tears knowing that God is active and exhibiting grace at all times in all reality and moving his fingers through the fabric of reality. And in his eyes, it was finished long, long ago. Now my third and final point to the question, do you know God? My third point is this. That question in and of itself is flawed. Because there's a better question than, do you know God? And the better question is, does God know you? In Matthew chapters five through seven, Jesus gives the greatest sermon of all time, the Sermon on the Mount. He ends that sermon by saying, on the final day of judgment, there will be many who say, God, we knew you, you did all these wonderful things in your name, and he'll respond by saying, depart from me because I never knew you. So the barometer for the salvation wasn't what they did or what they said, it was whether or not Jesus knew them. So I'm gonna leave the church to take home with them three questions this week. So do you know God? The better question to ask is, does Christ know you? These are three questions from that point. The first is that, does Christ know your voice? Does he know your voice every day? Does he know your voice in earnest praise, in earnest adoration, in making supplications or interceding for other people? Does he hear your voice very infrequently? And when he does hear your voice, what's the subject matter or the content of who you're praying about? Does Christ know your work? Can he look at the relationships? Can he look at the situations? Can he look at your job site? Can he look at the things you become involved in in your everyday life? And he can see you being a mirror, you reflecting his love and his light into the people and situations around you. And the last question to ask is, does Christ know your worship? Does Christ see you prostrating yourself before his throne, saying, Christ is King, my Lord and my God, or does he see you bowing down, worshiping something else that is on the throne? So does Christ know you? Does he know your voice? Does he know your work? Does he know your worship? He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them. Then he will speak to them in his anger and terrify them in his fury, saying, but as for me, I have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain. Church, God bless you. Thank you for listening to this sermon by Dr. Sadaffo. For more valuable content and resources, please visit WCSK.org.