He Who Sits in the Heavens

Introduction

Indeed, I do believe that he who sits in the heavens is worthy of our adoration, worthy of our exaltation. And what we have done here today is ennobling to our lives, to our souls. He is real, and he has made a difference in me. And a difference, and I hope all of you. He who sits in the heavens. What we do in this place must absolutely get out of this place to his very throne where there is fullness of joy and pleasures forever. And as my good friend and now aging evangelist of many years has said over and over again, if we miss heaven, we’ve just missed all there is. Evolutionary theory is absolutely preposterous. And I don’t hesitate to say that. It is absolutely preposterous.

It’s so hard to believe that even theoretical physicists struggle to believe it though they espouse it. And thus I talked to you this morning briefly about multiverse. Fancy animation for a fancy term. And it has nothing to do with preachers throwing together a bunch of verses. It ought to be my verse, right? Multiverse. A sermon with several verses is a multiverse server. That’s not what it is. Evolutionary theory is so preposterous, it is so outlandish to believe that all the things necessary to sustain life in our universe just so happen to all come together, all being necessary, it is so hard to believe that now many scientists, physicists, some of the great intellects of our time are suggesting that this can’t be the only universe, that there must be a parallel universe or universe, multiverse, if you will, metaverse, or perhaps an infinite number of universes, with ours being the really lucky one.

And that’s where a lot comes into play. I mean, once you rule out God, it’s all about luck and chance. And everything just so happened in this particular soup, in this particular universe, all the things have come together that are necessary to sustain life. And they all understand how very unlikely it is. Dr. Bo Kirkwood wrote on this recently. I’ve referenced his book before. It’s a relatively new book called The Evolution Delusion. You can buy it at Amazon. He said in that article, the physical laws we find and the various constants we observe in our universe must be exactly what they are. Or we would not be here. As neither would our universe.

Planck’s constant, I have no idea what that is. The strong molecular force and the weak molecular force, well, that’s five of the 35 constants that I’m told are necessary to sustain life on this universe. But some are content to just cite the anthropic principle that no matter how unlikely is this thing to happen, it happened. And so that’s enough proof that it could happen. Boy, is that some faith. You talk about a blind leap of faith. Well, it’s very wild, very unlikely that all of these things could come together and these 35 constants can be fine-tuned so that life could be sustained on our hands. Well, it’s hard to explain, almost impossible. In fact, I would suggest to you it is impossible, but it happened.

And so it’s enough proof that it could happen. Bernard Carr, a British professor of mathematics and astronomy at Queen Mary University of London has said if you don’t want God, you’d better have a multiverse.

1. A Fatal Miscalculation Against the Lord

And it just so happens that this particular one is the magical one in which your life is sustained. And that is just it if you don’t want God. And that’s where most of this comes from. And that’s the tenor of Psalm two. Folks who don’t want God from beginning to end. Man can do all the posturing he wants, all of the arrogant and defiant maneuvering he desires, and chase every whim. And he does. All of the arrogant maneuvering, chase every whim. But in reality, he who sits in the heavens is undeniable. And so I talked to you about this psalm that I mentioned last week in passing as we talked about fatal miscalculation. As we read in Psalm 2 and 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. The one that he selects, the one that he chooses. They take their stand against the Lord and against his anointed. And here’s what they say. Here are the words that come out of these opposers’ mouths. Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us. Fatal miscalculation. How’s that going to go for you? Ultimately, not very well. 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. But as for me, I have installed my king upon Zion, the Lord says. My holy mountain. How often throughout history and even now, men have shook their fists defiantly in the face of God, saying, I know better than you, I can successfully oppose you or disregard you.

I do not need you. I want to affirm to you that whether you want to acknowledge it or not, you need he who sits in the heavens. You need him. And it is a fatal miscalculation to say, I’m going to rip apart his fetters, his chains, and his cords, and I’m going to do things my way.

That’s the ultimate mismatch.

2. Enjoy the King's Reign or Be Undone by It

If I might give you a comparison. Well, I have been bit by a fire ant before, and that hurt. But you know what? When those fire ants attacked me, they went down one by one. Pretty quickly. I stomped the life out of them in a hurry. An ant is no contest against a man. But probably a better match than even kings and rulers of this earth going up against the mighty God. Fatal miscalculation. Let me tell you something about this psalm. It is actually quoted in Acts 13 and verse 33 in a sermon that Paul preaches in Antioch of Posidia, where he is heralding the good news about Jesus, as he mentioned in verse 32 and the promise made to the fathers. And he says in verse 33 that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that he raised up Jesus as it is also written in the second Psalm.

Now I find this interesting for a couple of reasons. He doesn’t just say this is a quotation in the Psalms, but it just so happens to be the second Psalm in our book of Psalms, even today, as they were arranged at some time before the time of Christ, and we know that because they’re found in the Septuagint version of the Bible, the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures in 280 BC. And so, as they were arranged, this Psalm, that Psalm, it was the second Psalm and is regarded as the second Psalm, even in the New Testament. And that psalm is referenced, thou art my son. Today I have begotten you.

High claims for God’s anointed. No man could stop it, no man could successfully oppose it. They tried to eliminate him by putting him to death, as Ross read to us before the Lord’s Supper. No one could thwart God’s plan. And here, hundreds of years before it came to be, God is saying in Psalm 2, I have installed my king, the descendant of David, who would rule. And his special relationship to the one who sits in the heavens, the very Son of God. And his universal kingdom is here envisioned. As for me, I will surely give the nations as your inheritance, verse 8, and the very ends of the earth as your possession. There is fierce delight in God’s dominion. Enjoy the king’s reign or be undone by it.

Those are really your two options.

College options, you have a lot of options. You ought to stay in the SEC, I’m just saying.

It’s the two options that lead to those destinations. You can either enjoy and delight in God’s dominion in the reign of the king, the conquering king that we read about in the book of Revelation, who, oh, by the way, in the book of Revelation is being opposed by these very nations and kings. That’s the psalmist is talking about here in Psalm 2. This is what they do. The opposition fostered by the great red dragon, the devil. People take their stand against the Lord and against his anointed. And at the end of the story, we all know how it ends. Jesus comes riding on the white horse, he who is faithful and true. And he wins. He rides to victory. And he will. So you can either delight in God’s dominion.

Or you will be undone by it. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. And you shall shatter them like earthenware. Just go home as an illustration today and break something. Good idea, right? Yeah. The boys go, hey, that’s the best thing I’ve heard the preacher say in a long time. Mom, preacher said I could go home and break. Get an old dish. Surely mom wants to get rid of an old dish. And just shatter it. Or shatter two if you like.

3. We Too Are Prone to Do It

Okay, and moms are frowning on this. I’m sorry, guys. But it’s a great illustration. Opposing God’s anointing. It’s disastrous. It’s a fatal misconcalculation. But you know, we too are prone to do it. The peoples who devise a vain thing. Behavior that is prescribed in the New Testament for Christians was never intended to punish or restrict unnecessarily. That’s so often the attitude that develops. You know, we start reading about the righteousness in the New Testament, the self-control we were talking about in the Bible class, and we’re going, okay, getting a little too close to home. I really don’t want to do that. Self-control and repentance are probably two of the least favorite concepts in the New Testament. Maybe we can compile a list of the least favorites, but I think they’re right up there at the top.

Self-control. You mean actually say no to the urges that I have? That’s not really an exciting concept. Or to mean that I have to change significantly. I can’t just embrace this salvation thing, you know, forgiveness, acceptance by my creator, and then I got to do whatever I want. You mean, no, it doesn’t work like that? I don’t get the ice cream and the cake and just get to indulge myself without any effort. It’s not the way it works. No one comes to the Lord without repentance. Yes, baptism is the culminating step that places us in Christ, but it’s a reflection of our repentance.

He’s the reigning king and Lord. But it is repentance that is a part of this process that is reflected in our baptism. We’re what? Rising to walk in newness of life. That’s not just about the fact that, oh, God has cleansed those bad things in my. He’s expecting a course, a changing course. So often people want to think, man, God’s making this so hard, and it’s so distasteful, and as if these restrictions are bad for us. I’ll just tell you, I don’t know. I don’t know all of God’s wisdom about why he has instructed what he has. I wish I could tell you in regard to everything the New Testament says you should and should not do. Here’s what God was thinking. You know, sometimes I think we can figure some of it out.

God was thinking this and that, and he tells us some of those things. But I don’t know that he tells us everything. In fact, we probably couldn’t grasp it all if he did. He doesn’t have to explain himself to us. God, I want you to tell me right now why this is like it is. And Job sort of bought into that a little bit. Asking for an audience with God, and God condescends and provides it. And says, basically, Job, now, you understand who I am and who you are. Where were you when I caused the dawn to know its place? And the most important thing Job was told was not why he was suffering. Because I don’t think he really got an answer for that in the conversation he had with God.

The most important thing he got told was, you need to trust me. You need to let me be the ruler of the universe. And what I know from reading the scripture is this. No one’s going to tell me I should have quoted Isaiah 55, 8, and 9, right? As the heavens are. No, he says no. Yeah, you would have. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways to your ways and my thoughts to your thoughts. And that’s demonstrated throughout the entire message. Here’s my wisdom. Here’s God’s wisdom. Way up here. As high as the heavens compared to my wisdom. And yet we come along in all of our grandiose thoughts of ourselves. I know better than he does. But we need to understand that rejection of his way or our own way not only jeopardizes the soul, but it reduces our quality of life.

God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness.

This instruction comes from the one who created life. That’s why your belief about origins is so important. That’s why you can’t ride the fence there. Acknowledging God as the creator is the very foundation of a faithful response. We read in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 3. The fathers of old gained approval because they acknowledge their creator. You acknowledge that he is the life bringer, he is the life giver, he’s the one that holds those 35 constants together to sustain life, and ultimately, he’s going to remove some of them. Or in some way, all of this is going to go up in smoke. In him we live and move and have our very being. We are only here today. Because our God wills it. And for as long as he wills it, we account that.

The long-suffering and salvation of our Lord. 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 15. And so what we really need to grasp when our wills come into conflict with his will. And it does. It has. And it will again. Where what we want doesn’t jive with what God has prescribed. We need to come back to this right here. God isn’t trying to punish me with the behavior that he has prescribed. It is in my best interest. It is for my well being, even if I don’t understand it, because his wisdom is vastly superior to my own, and I’m only hurting myself when I reject his way. When I defiantly say, no, Lord, this is the way I’m going. We only injure ourselves. We kick against the goads.

Wait a minute. That’s what Saul of Tarsus was doing. That’s right. He thought it was the right way, but he was kicking against the goats. And so when we say, I don’t need to be a faithful participant among the Lord’s people. I could sort of do this however I want to, however, it suits me. And I could arrange all of this better if someone would put me in control and basically I’d show up once a month, and that’d be good enough for me. And, you know, we start saying, this is the way I want to do it. It’s not about you. It’s not about me. It’s about him. And there is no sacrifice that I am called upon to make that is too great for what he has done for me.

4. Do Homage to the Son

Where does the psalm end? Psalm 2. It’s where the sermon ends. Do homage to the Son. How blessed are all who take refuge in him. Do you believe that? More on that for a few minutes tonight at 5 p.m. An awesome statement. Do you want what’s best for yourself? Do you want the ideal? Or are you going to accept less? Are you going to oppose God? Know this, O kings, show discernment. Take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, lest he become angry, and you perish in the way. This lesson is about your discernment. This lesson is about you doing homage to the great king who sits in the heavens. Our Lord who reigns.

Show discernment, do homage, or beware. That’s really what the Hebrew writer is saying. Hebrews chapter 12. How blessed are all those who take refuge in him? You have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the souls of righteous men made perfect, to the better blood, to name a few, to myriads of angels. You have spiritual connection. You have connection to the spirit realm. So many things working on your behalf. I’ve always said about Hebrews chapter 12, he’s saying, you have arrived at the very pinnacle of human existence. You who are in Christ, you who have come to him, you have received an eternal kingdom which cannot be shaken. Therefore, serve him with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

Conclusion

Do not do not refuse him who speaks. Hebrews 12, verse 26. As he said earlier in this book, it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. So the choice this morning. Do you need to make a choice? Is that where your life is and resides at this moment? Do you need to choose?

Fierce delight in the fact that the king reigns. Fierce delight in God’s dominion. Or are you taking on God in the ultimate mismatch of all time? Show discernment. Do homage. Or you’ll perish in the way. If you need to respond, come now as we stand and sing.