Book of Psalms - Psa. 2, Vs. 4-5 (07/17/2022) | Note: Audio malfunction until minute 8:57

Alright, good morning. Did everybody hear this morning? So, I wasn't here last week.

We were on a trip, and Ben took over some of his Gold Horse. Thank you for that,

Ben. We listened to you on our own. Just to kind of recap where we've been, so that we'll know where we're going.

We've been in Psalm chapter 2. We kind of just picked up where Brother Bill left off. And we were looking at the heathen.

And the beginning of the chapter starts off, Why did he rage? He will not have anything. And we determined that this chapter is describing how those who are against God's people are plotting against the

Lord and against his people. They are taking a very purposeful position against us.

They're hoping to break our bands asunder and cast away our courts from them.

That's what they want to do. That's ultimately the goal of their plot.

And Ben did a great lesson where he was describing the Edomites. And how, essentially, he gave us a very practical way in which to work with plots against God's people.

He showed us an example of that in scripture. Today what we're going to do is we're going to look at God's response to that plotting.

So we're in Psalm chapter 2. And we're just going to start from the beginning of the chapter and read right down to where we are today.

So why did the heathen rage? He will not have anything. The kings of the earth set themselves and rulers take counsel together against the

Lord and against his people, saying, Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their courts from us.

He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them endured.

Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sordid pleasure. That's what we're going to get down to today.

We're going to get down to verse 5, hopefully. Lord, Lord, do we have enough time? I know we're going too slowly.

But if you'll remember, as the heathen is raging, they are banding together themselves.

They are taking counsel together against the Lord. And the idea is if they can remain unified in their attacks against us, then perhaps they can disband us.

They want to disband the unity between us and between us and our Lord. The whole reason why they want to do that is because they are tired of the spiritual, that's a good word, spiritual holding we have.

We have a spiritual hold on this earth. We're supposed to. We're supposed to have an influence.

They're tired of it. They want to get rid of it. So they want to cast away our courts from them.

Now, we see this manifesting in the world today in a big way in what we call cancel culture.

The idea is if you are one of the lords or if you are conservative, then we're going to cancel you because your ideas are racist.

They're bigoted. They are unloving. They're hateful. That's the way the world describes us.

Does that sound like the way a Christian should be described? What do you guys think? It should not be described that way.

And ultimately, we're going to take kind of a left turn in this Sunday school lesson and look at perhaps the reason why you got this response, right, or at least one of the reasons.

So let's look first at what God's response to the human race is.

So we see his response begin in verse 4. He that sitteth in the heavens shall not die.

Here's my question. Why is God laughing? What do you guys think?

Because his enemies have no chance against him. Okay, his enemies have no chance against him. I think that's certainly true.

Any other reasons why we would think God is laughing? And what kind of laugh would you say it is?

Sure. It's a facet of his character. Oh, say that again. A facet of his character.

It's a facet of his character. I like to use the word character. It's truly part of the lesson, too, so that's a good one to pull out.

So we have the enemies don't stand a chance. And this is a facet of God's character.

He laughs. So let's talk about that for a second. God's laughing.

What kind of laugh would that be? Imagine what would it be like for God to laugh?

Any time God does something that is very common to humans, one of my favorite questions to ask is why?

And what is it like? Because we know that we're created in his image. So if we're created in his image, obviously we got that from him.

So it originated with him. So why is it surprising to us when he does things that we would do? So it is, though.

It makes me stop and wonder. So let's just ponder that for a second.

What would God's laugh be like? And believe it or not, if you dig into the Hebrew of this, you actually get a good glimpse into what kind of laugh this is.

So we're going to do that real quick. Okay. First I want to point out something a lot of scholars said.

A lot of scholars are quick to point out that this isn't an actual laugh. They want to say that God doesn't actually laugh because laughter is dependent on surprise.

And God cannot be surprised. I disagree with that.

I think there are a lot of reasons why we laugh, and it's not always depending on surprise.

I don't think that surprise is ‑‑ I don't think it's required for a laugh.

I want to bring up a lot from Brother Otis. He used to describe a joke, which is something we often laugh at, as leading the mind in one direction and then suddenly turning it to another direction.

And the surprise change in direction produces a sudden and often overwhelming motion which can manifest as a laugh.

And this is certainly an element of surprise. That's not going to happen to God.

So we know that it's not the kind of laugh that would result as a surprise joke.

But there are different kinds of laughs. We have nervous laughter, which is what people use to cope with a stressful situation.

So there's certainly no element of hilarity there. It's not something funny to them.

But sometimes it may be an element of surprise. If I were to ask you a question that you weren't ready for, you might nervously laugh, right?

That's not going to happen to God either. So we know it's not a courtesy laugh. We know it's not a nervous laugh.

There's contagious laughter, which is where some of you can start laughing. You guys start laughing as well, right?

If you've had that happen, you might not even know what you're laughing at. But here's the thing. Contagious laughter is a conditioned response.

It's something that is influenced by someone else. And the water is certainly not conditioned by anyone else.

So it can't be a contagious laugh either. Let's look at some of the darker forms of laughing.

There's something called a sinister laugh. It's one of my little boy's favorites. He thinks it's so funny.

When a bad guy laughs. He practices a sinister laugh. It's quite cute and disturbing at the same time.

A lot of people, if you will do a Google search on why does

God laugh, a lot of people will attribute God's laughter to something sinister. And if you look up the word sinister, it actually has a few different meanings.

The meaning that a lot of people attribute to God's quote -unquote sinister laugh is that he enjoys evil.

And that he likes it when bad things happen. They try to prove this with scripture, especially here in Psalms.

Because there are three times when we see that God laughs in Psalms. And for reference,

I actually have those three times. Let's see if I've got them in here somewhere. Well, I'll give those to you in a minute.

It may be further down. But there's three different places in which we see

God laughing. Oh, here they are. Psalms 59 .8 is a second place.

So we have it here in Psalms 2 .4. It's also in Psalm 59 .8.

And it's in Psalm 37 .13. Let's go ahead and turn and look at those other places as well.

And let's see if the laughter in those places is similar to the laughter here. And keep in mind, when the world looks at these three examples, they think the word sinister, and they attribute that to something evil.

So I'm going to pull up, let's see, it's Psalm 59.

And that's verse 8. And it starts off with, but thou, which means it's a continuation of a thought.

So let's go up a little bit. We'll just go up to verse 2.

So we can see what's being described here. Psalm 59, verse 2. Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from bloody men.

For lo, they lie in wait for my soul. The mighty are gathered against me.

Not for my transgression, not for my sin, O Lord. They run and prepare themselves without my fault.

Awake to help me, and behold, thou therefore, O Lord, God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen.

Be not merciful to any wicked transgressor. We're going to describe, we're going to get into that word salah in a later study when we get into Psalm chapter 3.

They return at evening. They make a noise like a dog and go round about the city. Behold, they belch out with their mouth.

Swords are in their lips. For who, say they, doth hear? But thou, O Lord, shalt laugh at them.

Who's God laughing at here? The heathen.

Who is He laughing at in Psalm chapter 2? The heathen. The word that's used to describe

God's laugh here is sakah. Same in Psalm chapter 2.

And it means to laugh, play, or mock. There's one more place.

And a more descriptive definition for this word sakah, or laugh, is to laugh usually in contempt or derision.

One more place where we see God laugh in the Psalms, and that is Psalms 37 .13. So you can turn there real quick.

The Lord shall laugh at him. Well, let's figure out who he's laughing at. All right, one verse up.

The Lord shall laugh at him.

Who's he laughing at? The wicked. The wicked plotting against the just.

Seems like it's the same situation each time. You have God's people, or God's man, and the wicked, or the unjust, or the heathen, are plotting against them, and they cry out to the

Lord, saying that the heathen rage, and imagine a vain thing. Kings of the earth set themselves, rulers take counsel together against the

Lord, and against his anointed, saying, let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us.

He that is in the heavens shall laugh. That's where we're at in Psalm chapter 2. Again, this word in Psalm 37 is sakah, to laugh.

But it means to laugh usually in contempt or derision. Now contempt, if you look it up in Webster's dictionary, is the feeling that a person or a thing is beneath consideration.

It's worthless or deserving scorn. So if you think about God laughing at the heathen, it is a laugh that indicates one's position in relation to the laugher.

So the person who's laughing is essentially saying you're worthless. You are beneath even consideration.

Pretty strong words without words coming from the Lord, isn't it? And it says to laugh, play, mock, usually in contempt or derision.

Now derision is something a little different. Derision is the contemptuous mockery of a person.

So in other words, if someone is beneath consideration, derision would be mocking them for being beneath consideration.

It takes it a step further. It's not just you're unworthy of consideration, but it's also saying if I were to consider you at all, it would be only to mock you.

So here we see God laughing three different passages in Psalms. All three passages, it's a darker form of laughing.

This is not a laugh of joy. It's not a laugh of happiness. This is a laugh of contemptuous mockery.

A laugh of derision. It's a little wonder why when the world reads this, they want to attribute this word sinister to the

Lord because they look at it and it seems evil to them. But there is another definition of sinister.

And the other definition of sinister, see, when we think sinister, we often think bad, evil.

Right? Another definition of sinister, which

I have in here somewhere. Let me bring it up.

I may just have to go back to my dictionary. I thought I'd put it in my notes. Sinister.

Okay. Two other definitions come with the word sinister. One is just that it is accompanied by or leading to disaster.

So sinister could just mean that disaster is coming. It could also mean that it is a presaging or a foreshadowing of ill fortune or trouble.

Now, we know that the Lord is not evil. And he does not take pleasure in evil.

He does not take pleasure in those who produce evil. How do we know this?

Well, there's many, many different places in the Bible that tell us, but one in particular is

Psalm 11 and 5. So if you'll turn there real quick, we'll deal with this idea of is

God sinister, meaning evil. The reason why I want to do this is while I think I'm kind of preaching to the choir, we do record these and we put them online.

So if anybody were to stumble across this online, I want to deal with this because if you just go and Google God laughing, you're going to find a very in -depth discussion.

And you can tell right from the start, it's between people who love the Lord and people who don't.

And the people who don't love the Lord almost unanimously say that God has a sinister evil laugh.

And they question why anyone would follow this man, Jesus, who claims to be the

Lord. Because he laughs at evil. And he laughs with evil is what they think.

But Psalm 11, 5 is speaking directly to the character of God. And it says,

So God hates evil and he hates those who do evil.

That's what God's character is like. So we can't say that God laughs sinisterly.

Is that the way to say that maybe? We can't say he's got a sinister evil laugh.

Because that would be against God's character. And like Kyle pointed out, this is a laugh that will be cohesive with God's character.

So if God's character is against evil, then he can't have an evil laugh.

Look throughout all of Scripture. Any time God describes himself, he never once describes himself as evil.

He never once describes himself as loving evil. He never once describes himself as approving of those who do evil.

So this is not a sinister laugh in the way in which the world looks at it. But let's deal with these other two definitions of sinister.

These other two definitions of sinister are accompanied by or leading to disaster.

Or presaging or foreshadowing ill fortune or trouble.

Now let me ask you, is it possible that God's laugh at the heathen is foreshadowing trouble for the heathen?

What do you guys think? Probably so. So would we be accurate in saying

God has a sinister laugh? I think it's a little bit strong for this reason.

Because sinister can also mean singularly evil or productive of evil.

So I wouldn't use that word. I think it's a bad word to use. But I understand why the world wants to use it.

Because God's laugh definitely comes with a disaster for them.

It definitely is foreshadowing ill fortune for them. We see that here in Psalm chapter 2.

I think a better word to use would be that God's laugh mocks and also threatens.

I do think that it threatens. Because it without a doubt has a foreshadowing of disaster for those who would plot against the

Lord and against His anointed. So what we see here is we see in Psalm chapter 2, we see the heathen plotting or threatening the

Lord and threatening His people. Now we dealt with the fact that Psalm chapter 2 is really just talking about the father and the son.

But when David wrote it, he wrote it from his own perspective. He himself was also an anointed king who viewed the father as his father.

So when David wrote this, he may have been thinking about himself. But we also saw later in Acts chapter 5, we saw

God's people recognize that Psalm chapter 2 is about Jesus Christ.

We also found that we ourselves as the church are anointed kings in Christ.

So there is an application to David as king. And there is an application to us as anointed kings in Christ.

Acts chapter 2 is really only talking about Jesus. That's who this is about. But there is an application for David and there is an application for us.

So when the heathen or the world plots against the Lord and plots against us,

His anointed children, we see God's response is a threatening laugh.

That's a little scary. But it is. It's a very threatening laugh. And this laugh, without ever using words,

God is mocking. He is disrespecting the heathen.

It's like a snicker or a snort. We often group snickers and snorts in with sinister or evil.

But it's not always the case. Mocking and disrespect is a little bit different from foreshadowing of disaster.

It's a little bit different from the singular evilness.

So that's another dark form of laughing is mocking or disrespect. And I think we do see an element of that in God's laugh.

He is mocking, He is disrespecting, and He is threatening those who threaten

Him and those who threaten His people. So I think when we see that God's laughing, that is why.

Because it's a threat and it's a mocking. But there's another reason why

I think we see God laugh. And so while we can read into this and we can say, oh,

God is threatening and God is mocking, I want to ask ourselves, why is

He mocking? Because He knows the outcome. Okay. Yeah, He knows the outcome.

And it goes back to what Kyle said. They really don't stand a chance. But when you mock somebody, don't you typically have something you mock them for?

I know we're all thinking, I don't mock people, right? But if one were to mock another, they usually focus on something worthy of mockery.

What would you guys say is worthy of mockery coming from the heathen here?

Yes. All right. So Mr. King says that the heathen are placing themselves in God's position as if they have any power whatsoever.

And not only in God's position, but perhaps above the Lord, because they think that they can break

His bands asunder with His people. It's a full frontal direct assault on God Almighty.

It sounds very similar to Satan when he said, I will be like the most high. Right? Yes.

Yes. Right.

Okay, that's an interesting thought that Pop brings in that he goes into, for those of you online, he goes into the idea of mocking in sports.

We called it trash talking in basketball, right? You talk trash and it's really a mind game, trying to get into the mind of the quote unquote enemy and reduce their level of confidence.

And at the same time, boost your team's level of confidence. There's certainly,

I mean, we know that the Lord could play mind games, but He doesn't need to, does He?

It's such a mockery that He doesn't really even... He doesn't need to for Him, but He does for us.

Okay, well, that's an interesting thought. Let me ask you this. When you hear that the Lord doesn't even consider the world worthy of consideration, when the world is trying to cancel us and making our lives harder on us, when you hear that God just kind of laughs at it, does that give you confidence that maybe your

God is bigger than they are? It does for me. So maybe like what

Pop says, maybe it's more for a laugh for the team than it is for His own sake.

Yes, sir. Right.

Right. Right. So in other words, what

Mr. King was saying is that the Scripture is written in a way where we get a glimpse into something

God is that we aren't. And then it goes on to describe in terms that we can understand what that thing is so that we can comprehend it.

Does that kind of sum it up? So God doesn't necessarily laugh, again, out of surprise for Himself.

It's not a laugh out of joy necessarily. He doesn't really have a need to mock the enemy.

But He does describe His position in relation to the enemy.

Even without using words, He just uses a laugh. And He uses a type of laugh that we can understand because we have experienced a laugh like this.

Right. Right. I'll repeat that, too, for those online.

So God is perfect. There is nothing sinister about Him. We are imperfect and we can be in the flesh so we can have that singularly evil laugh, you know, the thing where we get into the flesh and we have what the world truly would consider a sinister laugh.

And I think it's important for us to recognize what Mr. King just said because this is giving us a glimpse into God's character and it's giving us a glimpse into the manifestation of that character.

He is 100 % above and beyond anything.

He is over everything. And sin doesn't stand a chance against Him.

The world and the rulers of the world don't stand a chance. So when God laughs in mockery, it doesn't come from a place of evil at all.

It comes from a place of authority and of superiority. And so when we understand that God has authority overall and He has superior superiority overall, we get a glimpse into His character and we recognize that this laugh has absolutely zero evil in it.

In fact, it's 100 % good. Got a couple of other discussion points. Yes.

We know that God knows the heart of every person. So, you know, we might think of it even as just everyone out there doing that thing right now.

Some of us even may save something, right? That's from our perspective. God's perspective. He's talking about the demons.

I believe He's most likely talking about the ones that are deliberately doing everything they can to destroy

His kingdom, His people. And maybe not, but perhaps.

He's certainly not talking about saved sheep in this verse. Yeah, exactly.

And so what we're talking about, and perhaps it's only like the demon, like the ghost.

And so what you have, you have God who is laughing at, to use pompous now, the other team.

And you ask the question, like, what is there worth mocking? Or you can phrase it that way, but kind of along those lines.

And if you can imagine being on a team that won, and yet the other team is acting like they won.

That is 100 % worth mocking. Yeah. And it's not going to be from an evil angle. You're just acting like you won.

I really like the direction Ben took this. So for those of you online, Ben is reminding us that the battle's done.

The battle is finished. God sees the beginning from the end. He sees it all. He knows it all. And when he laughs, he laughs from not just a position of authority and superiority, but of having already won, victory.

He laughs from a place of victory. So what Ben described is if you were to play a basketball game, for instance, and your team won the game, perhaps even heartily.

Not a last -minute shot clock buzzer, but like an absolute trouncing. And you destroy the other team and win by a mile.

And at the end of the game, the other team starts celebrating as if they had won. That is worth mocking because there is no victory.

They have no victory. It is complete loss. It is complete embarrassment.

And yet they feel as though they have won. So I like where you took that because that has to be the way that the

Lord sees it. He doesn't see it as, oh, are they going to win? No, I'm going to get in their head and make them lose confidence and then we'll win.

From our perspective, it certainly feels that way, right? From Anne's perspective, it's like we're still in the battle. But from the

Lord's perspective, it's done. And I still like Pop Pop's analogy because from our perspective, the game is still ongoing.

So we get pumped up from our coach or our team captain or whoever. And so he is doing that mockery to get us to realize, okay, let's get in there.

Let's trash talk or whatever. But from this perspective, sorry, everyone, the fact that they're down there raging and fighting and stuff is a total rip point.

There's no time to fight left. They turned it over. One thing that our coach used to say is that you guys have this one in the bag.

And he would let us know, no, this is your game to win. And he would phrase it that way.

He wouldn't say it's your game to lose because that was not an option. You're just going to win this game.

And that gave us confidence to go out and manifest what he told us we were going to do. And I think there's certainly an element here.

The reason why the Lord lets us know that he's laughing from a place of victory and authority and superiority is because the game's over and it's ours to win.

Yes. Yes. Yeah, it is definitely a victorious thing.

And Melissa, you had a thought that you wanted to share? Ignorance.

Okay, so I really like that answer too.

And it does bring another layer into it. Melissa said that as a father, God has knowledge that his children don't have.

And we as parents, we understand that because when our kids ask something, we almost laugh because it's just so cute that they don't know it.

And we've had a lot of situations like that with our kiddos where we just laugh.

It just makes us laugh. And if you'll remember, this whole chapter started off with God's children asking a question.

Why do the heathen rage? And this laugh is almost a parent -like response.

It's done. You don't even understand. We have defeated them. So while you are in a position where it's kind of scary, you have victory.

And you might not even know it yet. The Lord knows it. So he laughs a threatening laugh at them, a mocking laugh at them.

And we see that laugh. And as a child, we don't really understand why Daddy's laughing.

But it's because we don't have the place of victory that he has manifested to us yet.

We do have the same place of victory. It is ours. It's our game to win. But we haven't seen it with our eyes yet.

And that's why we ask these questions. There's another reason, I believe, because now we're getting into the realm of irony, aren't we?

And I really want to show us one more aspect of irony here. And hopefully we'll have time to get to our next two verses.

There's another aspect of irony. And this is where we're going to diverge from Psalm 2. And we're going to go into Acts 2.

So turn with me there real quick. And we're going to go all the way to the bottom of the chapter.

And what we're seeing here is the birth of the church. So the day of Pentecost has come.

The Holy Spirit has been provided. Peter has stood up and told everyone around what this event is.

He describes this event and explains that it is the Holy Spirit coming into God's people.

They've got the tongues of flames above their head. They've been speaking in languages where everyone around could hear in their own language.

And it begins to describe what the church does from that day forward. And part of that description is,

And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.

So we see a unity. We see that the church has banded together. The very thing that the heathen are wanting to disperse, this idea of unity between the

Lord and His anointed, which was provided through the Holy Spirit, and a unity between God's anointed with each other.

It's there. It's the beginning of that. It's the church. And so we see this at its birth.

And I want you to see what's so ironic about the heathen plotting against this very thing, because in the next and last verse of chapter 2, we see praising

God, that's something that the church did, and having favor with all the people.

And the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved. Now hear where it says, and having favor with all the people.

Who are all the people? Say it again. All the people who are present, certainly.

Now are all the people present God's people in this verse? Okay. But if you go up even further, you find that there are some people who listen to the tongue speaking and have assumed, oh, these men are drunk with wine.

So we have early indication in this chapter that there may be two groups of people present.

And if this were to mean only God's people, hold on a sec,

I'll get to you. If this were to mean only God's people, we might would expect the word all here to mean some of all types.

That word pas that David often preaches about from the pulpit. Pas meaning some of all types, all kinds of people that would have favor.

But we find that the word all here is not pas, it's holos. And holos is a different word for all, meaning the whole, collectively.

So everyone who's present, like Mr. King said, everyone there, whether they are God's people or not, that is who this word all includes, everybody there.

But what is it talking about? It's talking about the church having favor, holos, the people.

So the church has favor with everyone. And we have to break that down to really understand that.

But first, my mom has a thought. It says in the

Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved. So all the people are looking at the church saying we want what they have.

Okay. God, it's like that's the way it seems. That's the word we're drawn to. And so God is using that to call people into the fold.

Okay, so mom's saying that the last verse where it says in the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved, indicates there are some that should be saved and some that are not.

So very obviously we have mixed company here. She also says the people are looking at the church and saying we want that.

Some, yes. Those who wouldn't be saved, they're the ones who would say we want that.

But then that would also indicate that there are some who say we don't want that. So for us to read this and say the church had favor with all collectively the people, it almost doesn't support our idea of favor, does it?

Because when we read this and we see, oh, they had favor with all the people, what do we automatically think?

All the people liked the church. But that's not what this verse means. This verse is showing us that the people of the church had favor.

Is favor something that you have or is favor something that you do? It's something that you have, and it is something that you receive.

Right? But let me ask you, where does favor come from? See, when we read this and we say that the church had favor with all the people, our minds go to the people gave the church favor, that the church received favor from all the people.

That's not where favor comes from. If we'll look up the word favor, and you can do that if you've got a blue letter

Bible, you'll look up the word favor, you'll find these definitions, the first being grace.

Can grace come from those who are not God's? Here's some other definitions.

Goodwill, loving kindness. Of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting

His holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the

Christian virtues. Can a goat have that kind of favor?

Can it give that kind of favor? No. Another definition is what is due to grace.

The spiritual condition of one governed by the power of divine grace. Can a goat have that?

Can it give that? No. So when we read that the church had favor with all the people, we think that it means all the people bestowed favor upon the church, meaning they liked the church, but it doesn't mean that at all.

It actually means that the church did have favor, but where did it come from? It came from God.

Favor comes from the Lord. So then what's this with all the people?

How does that fit? Well, we have to look at the word with to understand it. So let's look at the word with.

If you look up the word with, the word for with is prose.

And it means to the advantage of. Yes, ma 'am. So that's where it says, like, we have the church.

We, the church, have favor with all the world. Favor comes from God. They're enjoying the fact that we're still here.

That's exactly right. Mom says they're enjoying the fact we're here. They don't even know it.

And that kind of gets to the punchline here because prose means to the advantage of, so you could read this that the church had favor to the advantage of all the people.

So, because the church had favor, everyone within the vicinity of the church experienced an advantage.

Why does God mock the heathen? Because the heathen wants to disband. God's people.

And the unity that God's people have with the Lord, which is the very thing that activates our favor.

So. God is sitting there in the heavens. Laughing from a place of victory.

Laughing from a place of authority and superiority. And he's laughing. In mockery.

And the thing that he's mocking is that the heathen think. That they can disband us and they'll somehow be better off, but they're very advantage comes from the fact that we have favor from the

Lord and are unified with each other and with our God. That's where their advantage comes from.

Now, what is this advantage? Well, Favor has produced a lot of things.

It's produced exponential advancement in science, in technology, in medicine, in agriculture, in commerce, in art, in storytelling and exploration and transportation.

The world benefits from God's favor on his people. And it's only on his people.

But they can learn from us. They can learn science.

They can learn communication. They can learn math. And if you go back in history and see some of the most incredible technological and medical advancements, you'll find that a lot of times it's

Christians who played a huge role in those advancements. It's God's people who played a huge role in it.

It's often surprising to us because we tend to think that we're the only ones left.

We think that God's people are so far and few between, but really, yes, we are a remnant, but God has installed his remnant at various levels of government at various levels of medicine at various levels of entertainment.

I was with a gentleman at one of our tradeway events one time. And I found out he was in the entertainment industry.

He was a Christian man who was into making movies. And I asked him just how bad is it in the entertainment industry?

And here was his response. He said, you don't need to worry about the entertainment industry. We're winning there. He says, it's the social media industry that we are losing right now.

He said, but we're actually gaining massive ground. He said, Hollywood has actually discovered that the

Christian message, though they don't understand it, sells. The Christian message is something that people desire.

And he says, so we are actually gaining funding in the entertainment industry. And that's why we're starting to see higher quality.

Christian shows and movies. He was particularly, particularly excited about this new cartoon,

David coming out. He says, it's just as good as any Pixar film you've ever seen. He said, you're going to like it when it's done.

But I thought that was interesting and surprising to me. I was like, I've always heard that we've lost in the entertainment industry.

But what that shows me is that God has put some of his people in that realm to help and to win and to fight the battles not done.

And we've already won the battle. We've already won the battle.

And that includes in all areas of life. It includes the social media area. Everything is one.

We have defeated the enemy. Rather our Lord has defeated the enemy for us. And so when he laughs.

And holds them in derision, which means he's going to. Have them mocked.

He does so because he sees the beginning to the end and he already knows it's done. It's like what

Ben said, the losing team who has already lost is trying to act as if they've already won. And they haven't, but he also mocks them because the very advantage that they receive by our unity with God, the favor we have with the

Lord. Is the thing they hope to destroy. So they lose their advantage when that happens.

It's truly worthy of mocking. So God will mock.

But then. He will speak. It says he will speak into them in his wrath.

We're back in Psalm chapter two again. He will speak into them in his wrath.

The word speak here. Means to declare command. Warn. Or threaten.

So there's the threat. He has a threatening laugh. A mocking laugh.

He hasn't said a word. And yet he's already threatening those who threaten us. Now he's going to take it a step further and actually.

Produce a threat. And so he threatens.

And he doesn't just threaten, he threatens in his wrath. And the word for wrath means nostril.

Nose. Face. Anger. So imagine God. Laughing a threatening laugh.

And that laugh giving way. To flaring of the nostrils. And a heated verbal threat.

Is that scary or what? I imagine trying, like if I was on the. Receiving.

Thank you. The receiving end of this. I'd be pretty. Terrified. Ironically, the next verse.

Next part of the verse says. And vex them. Which means. To terrify.

He's going to disturb. Alarm them. Terrify them. And he's going to do so in his sore displeasure.

Which literally means. Anger. Heat. Burning. So God is.

He's going to have this. Hardy almost belly laugh. The world says a belly laugh is the most genuine laugh there is.

There's another type of laugh. And it's called the silent laugh. It's very similar to the belly laugh. And we usually silently laugh in.

Situations when noise is unacceptable. But God is seldom worried with acceptance.

And he is always consistent with his character in genuine. So I imagine when God laughs, this threatening laugh, it is a true belly laugh.

It is one in which it is. One of the most genuine laughs he could possibly have.

And he's genuinely mocking. Our enemy. But that laugh gives way to a flaring of the nostrils.

And a heated threat. That is produced out of his anger. So this laugh.

To the world. Looks very sinister. But if they understood

God, as we understand him, they would know it's really just just. And so.

God's response. To the heathen. And. Hoping to break our bands of Sunder and cast away our courts from us is really.

One that should instill fear in them. And hope in us. It should help

God's team. Like pop said, it should encourage us. There's nothing evil about his laugh.

There is nothing perverted about his laugh. He's just already won.

And so if we. And he looks at those who are laughing and despising and trying to cancel us and says, seriously, you lost the game.

It's over. It's done. It's finished. He said that on the cross. It is finished.

And so. That's why God laughs. And then. He threatens.

And he vexes. He terrifies those who would. Dare to terrify us.

We have a, we have a lot of hope and a lot of peace. Knowing that our God has already finished the fight.

Our God reigns. Is one. And it's over. So if we will operate from that position,

I'll leave us with one last thought. And that is how should we communicate? Because what

Mr. King shared with us. Is that we have a tendency. To sometimes get into the flesh.

And if we can get into the flesh, that means our laugh could be. In a sense, sinister. Mom even admitted to sometimes being.

Right. Y 'all ever heard Mimi sinister laugh. So if we can be sinister.

Should we be. There's a question for, should we be sinister? Should we, should we be.

Singularly evil. No, we're supposed to be a model of Christ.

So how would Christ. Communicate. It's certainly important that we tell them.

That the battle is over and that God has won. But we have a, we have a tendency to think we should beat him over the head.

And, and get righteously angry. Which is okay, but the Bible tells us to be angry and sin not.

So we're supposed to communicate and love. And I have a quote that is not from scripture.

This is a quote from one of our past presidents. Who I think. I think he got this concept. He understood it.

Because. If we look at Jesus, the way he communicated with his people always lovingly.

When he communicated with people he knew were. Goats. It was threateningly.

But Jesus had a unique ability. To know the difference. We don't have that ability.

We don't have that ability to love our enemy. And so that's why Jesus tells us that we're supposed to love our enemy. That's why he tells us that we're supposed to speak in love.

And we're supposed to meekly. Instruct those who oppose themselves. That God per adventure would give unto them.

Repentance. Right. So. We don't get to do what Jesus did.

Where we get to just blast them. We don't get to do what Jesus did. He gets to, cause he knows who his are and who his or not.

We have to go in meekness. So we tend to forget that we tend to think, oh, we.

We're right there wrong. And that's a goat. So I'm going to blast them. And we have lost patience with the world as they have lost patience with us.

And so. As the world tries to cancel us, we just try to turn the tables on them and cancel them.

That's not how we're supposed to communicate. We had a president who understood this. And his name was

Abraham Lincoln. And I want to share with you a quote that I think is pretty convicting from him.

If I can find it, that is. Oh, here we go.

There's that. I shared this at our Wednesday night

Bible study, which guys y 'all are more than welcome to join us Wednesday nights. We're meeting.

6 .00 PM. We may be starting to meet here at the church. Is that right? So we're going to start doing it here at the church just to make it easy for everyone to show up.

We'll be 6 .00 PM Wednesdays. Kate, if you want to be a part of that, let my wife Katie know she texts everybody to remind when we're doing it.

And if something comes up and it needs to be canceled, she'll let you know. So that's Wednesday nights.

But I'll share this quote with you and then we'll, we'll call it quits because we're out of time. When Abraham Lincoln was 33 years old, he gave a speech inside a

Presbyterian church to a temperance society. His message was this. The assembled.

That's us. Ought to be nicer to drinkers and sellers of alcohol. Rather than shunning them or denouncing them as moral pestilences.

Indeed, they ought to use kindly persuasion. Even if a man's drunkenness had caused misery.

To his wife or left his children hungry and naked with. Want. For people are never less likely to change.

To convert to new ways of thinking or acting. Then when it means joining the ranks of their denouncers.

To expect otherwise. To have expected them not to meet denunciation with denunciation.

And anathema with anathema. Was to expect a reversal of human nature. Lincoln explained, if you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend.

Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which say what he will, is the great high road to his reason.

And when gained, when once gained, you will find, but little trouble in convincing his judgment.

Of the justice of your cause. However, Lincoln caution. Dictate to a man's judgment command his action or mark him to be despised.

And he will retreat within himself, close all the avenues of his heart and his head.

And even though your cause be naked truth itself transformed to the heaviest

Lance harder than steel and sharper than steel can be made. And though you throw it with more than Herculean force.

And precision. You shall be no more able to pierce him. Then to penetrate the hard shell of a tortoise with a rice straw.

Lincoln understood. That if all we do is, is blast the enemy.

And we don't speak in love. They will just continue to blast back because it's war.

And that's how war is done. When someone's shooting at you, you shoot at them. It's a war of words.

It's a war of ideals. And Jesus told us that we are going to. Have saber in this world.

We're going to be a light. And to this world and that the world should see our good works and glorify our father, which is in heaven.

Which means we're supposed to have a good influence. And that includes having this, the temperance and self -control to communicate in a way that's very difficult.

When we're being canceled, when we're being. Railed upon.

To respond in love, to keep hot coals on the heads of our denouncers. And to convince them that we are really here.

As friendly folk. We have a very. Dire message for them.

And it is a serious one that should not be lost on us. But we need to share it in love.

We can, we can preach hellfire and brimstone. We can preach hellfire and brimstone. There's not enough of that. In fact,

I think the church has swung so far in the opposite direction that we forgotten the. The importance.

And the seriousness of the message. But if all we do is preach hellfire and brimstone.

It's certainly better than. Not. We may be able from our perspective to win more souls.

We can't really win more because it's God's got the number already determined. But we, we may have a longer lasting influence on this world.

And those who will never be saved. May subject themselves to the advantage that they received by the favor.

God gives us. If we remain a loving and friendly people. No one likes to be the bad guy.

And even the world will try to make themselves seem good for being the bad guy. So when we come lovingly, it makes it harder for them.

To plot. And to imagine a vain thing. That's all I have for today. I know again, we're out of time, more thoughts.

Yes, ma 'am. Recently, he's had a conversation. Conversation.

And. We have a tendency to think. When we're in conversations like that.

It's up to us to make all the points. And. It's up. And we forget that God is already.

If that person is one that God has chosen. And he's already done.

And we, it's not up to us to do all the work. It's not that.

It's up to us to just stand back and see what God has done. And see what

God. And whenever I was talking with this man. And. I gave a soft answer.

And his response was. You understand. This is what he said.

You understand. That's interesting.

Well, so one thing that we need to realize. His mom gave an example of when this was applicable in her life.

And I'm going to read it to you. One thing that we need to realize is that Jesus told us we will know each other by our love.

One for another. That is the defining characteristic in a Christian love. And if we extract love from our communication.

It's like Paul said, though, I speak with the tongues of angels. If I have not love, I'm nothing. So we have to remember, even when we are righteously angry at the world for their canceling of God.

And his principles. We still have to speak in love because we really don't know which ones are which. They, it may be another

Saul. It may be another Saul. And God may be using the worst of the worst.

To ultimately bring glory to his name. Anyway, let's let's pray. We're out of time. Heavenly father,

Lord, we just thank you for your word. We thank you that. It is so descriptive of you.

And that like brother King said that we have. Times in scripture when you, you use this.

This language that describes something that we are not, but only you are.

And it helps us to understand it better because it uses language. We can understand. So we thank you for that.

Father, we have to realize that when we're communicating with the world that is plotting against you and plotting against us.

That our victory doesn't come from what we do, but from what you've done. And because it's from what you've done, we have to be careful about what we do because it represents what you've done.

Help us to remember that help us to speak in love. Help us to have long suffering and self -control.

And help us to continue to be a light into the world. So that they'll see our good works and glorify you because it's all about you.

Psalm chapter two, it's about you. Or we love you. We thank you. For the

Sunday. And we, we hope that. You are pleased with what we learned today.

And father help us to not let it stop here, but to continue to study. And apply it to our lives.