The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord taunts them.He who sits in the heavens will laugh. The Lord will have them in derision.He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.He that sitteth in the heavens will laugh: The Lord will have them in derision.
7 sermons cite this verse
Verse four, he who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall hold them in derision. Then he shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep displeasure. Strong words. But listen, if you're open, God is speaking to your heart, and he's saying, listen to this. You've always done things your way. Even your parents would tell you, why do you do this? Stop doing that. Can't you see? you will either say, Wow, I've heard this before. This guy's a stranger standing up there. He doesn't know me. How can he be saying these things? It's like he knows. I don't know anything, but I know him who knows everything. And he knows you. I find it remarkable that in our day and age, we're starting to hear more children, I say children, more teens tell us, I wish somebody would have told me no in my life. Wow. I wish somebody would have given me guidance in my life. Wow. we also learn this verses 27 to 28 is that we need to turn now and ask God for mercy he says when your terror comes like a storm notice it's a warning it hasn't happened yet he's warning when your terror comes like a storm and your destruction comes like a whirlwind when distress and anguish come upon you then listen then they will call on me and I will not answer them. …
Well, it's been said in the world there are three types of people, and only three. Those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who ask, what just happened? I wonder this morning, do you understand what's going on in this world? Do you have a lens through which to read the news or to watch it on television and all the terrifying scenes that are set before us? Do you understand what's going on in the world? The chaos, the confusions, the downright contradictions in modern man or postmodern man. Look at us today in America, the greatest nation in the world, and in one sense, the worst. No nation has such light given to it as America has received. Two great awakenings, the preaching of a faithful church for centuries since the beginning and before, were technologically brilliant. Look at the advances our scientists have made in recent years in technology and industry and farming and every other area of human study. Just think of computers for a second. …
I think Christ also speaks thus as a rebuff to those who seem to imagine that Christ's work will be a failure if they do not come to Him! You know how many talk, nowadays, about the Gospel being old-fashioned, worn out and not adapted to this enlightened age! Oh, yes, Sir, I know what you think and how you talk! But are you foolish enough to suppose that Christ's great Sacrifice on Calvary will prove to have been offered in vain just because you refuse to trust to it? Oh no, "He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied." Here is a poor silly fly drowning in a glass of water. He might as well imagine that his dying struggles would convulse all the empires of the earth as an atheist might think that he can demolish the whole system of Christianity by the nonsensical whimsies that he harbors in his stupid brain! I tell you, Man, that you cannot frustrate the eternal purposes of God, or rob His Son of a single grain of His Glory! What if you will not come to Christ? He never expected that you would come, so He will not be surprised or disappointed! But if you will not come to Him, others will. If you will not enlist in the army of the Cross and join the innumerable hosts that rally round His blood-stained banner, others will, and the great Son of David will never lack brave soldiers who will do and dare for Him more than even David's mighty men did for their royal leader! Voltaire said that he lived in the twilight of Christianity, but if so, it was the twilight of the morning, not of the evening! Julian the apostate vowed that he would put down the Nazarene, but his dying cry was, "O Galilean, You have conquered!" Yes, and so He always will—and they who oppose and reject Him will find that the stone which the builders refused will become the cornerstone in the great Temple of His Church—and also a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to those who reject Him! Woe be unto those upon whom that Stone shall fall, for it will grind them to powder! …
I learn from this, then, that the peace proposed is one quite unsought by man. Man revolted against his Maker and was determined to continue in revolt. He was evil and would have remained evil if God had not interposed. Men go astray from God by nature, but they only return to God through Grace. Further, and yet further, and yet further, still, will they go away from God! Deeper and yet deeper will they plunge into the abyss of sin! It is easy for humanity to descend into Avernus, but for it to retrace its steps, "this is the work, this is the difficulty." And until God, Himself, comes in, man is as unwilling as he is unable and as unable as he is unwilling to make peace with his God! We might have thought, if we had not known the dread nature of sin, that the first thing Adam and Eve would have done, after they had transgressed their Maker's Law, would have been to cast themselves down at His feet and say, "We have taken of the fruit of the tree of which You have said that we must not eat." But instead of doing so, they ran away to try to hide themselves from His eyes—and when His voice was heard in the Garden and they were obliged to face Him—instead of frankly confessing their sin, the evil juice of that forbidden fruit had so poisoned their nature that they both began to make excuses! The man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." And the woman would not bear the blame, herself, but cast it upon the serpent. There was clear evidence there that man, though he had become a rebel against his God, would not turn unto his God, confess that he had done wrong and beg for mercy. Never did a prodigal say, "I will arise and go to my Father," until the Grace of God had put that resolve into the prodigal's heart! The centripetal force, the force which makes us seek the center, is not in us—ours is centrifugal force which drives us further and yet further away from the great center of all Light, Truth, peace and purity. When God draws us, we shall run after Him—but until He does so—we shall still remain afar off from Him. So the sending of an ambassador from God shows clearly that it is not man who seeks peace. …
No Doctrine in the whole Word of God has more excited the hatred of mankind than the truth of the absolute Sovereignty of God. [See Sermon #77, Volume 2—DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY.] The fact that "the Lord reigns" is indisputable—and it is this fact that arises the utmost opposition in the unrenewed human heart. "The kings of the earth set themselves, and the 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." We know what the Lord thinks of their rebellion against Him—"He that sits in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath and vex them in His sore displeasure." Let us, Beloved, not be among those who refuse to believe this great Truth of God, but may we humbly bow before that dread Sovereign who does as He wills among the armies of Heaven and among the inhabitants of this lower world— "God is a King of power unknown; Firm are the orders of His Throne! …
side. Does not the same thing happen among those who ally themselves with the Son of David at this day? Although He whom we worship is despised and rejected of men, yet unto you who believe, He is precious! They that fear the Lord, love Christ and embrace His Gospel. Those that have a new heart and a right spirit are not at all dubious which side to take. They have lifted up their hands to the Crucified One and they are sworn to do battle for His cause as long as they live! We need not be ashamed to side with Jesus, for we shall be in good company—not in the company of the nobles of the earth, those who bear its titles, own its wealth, or enjoy its empty fame—but in the company of the pure in heart, of the heirs of the promises, of those to whom God has been pleased to reveal Himself, yes, of the babes out of whose mouths He has perfected praise! Oh, we may well be content to cast in our lot with God's elect, be they who they may in the world's esteem, or be their lot what it may in their pilgrimage to the better country! With them would we be numbered! With them would we be associated! With them would we go! Let Christ's people be our people. Where they toil, we would toil. With them would we live. With them would we die. With them would we be buried, in the glad hope that with them we shall rise again to live forever in the fellowship of the saints! …
"The dying thief rejoiced to see That fountain in his day— And there have I, though vile as he, Washed all my sins away!" His enemies gave our Lord Jesus an opportunity for still continuing the seeking, as well as the saving of the lost! They found Him an occasion for manifesting His conquering Grace when they supposed they were heaping scorn upon Him. How truly did the Prophet in the Psalm say, "He that sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision," for that which was meant to increase His misery revealed His majesty! Moreover, though it was intended to add an ingredient of bitterness to His cup, I do not doubt that it supplied Him with a draught of comfort. Nothing could so well have cheered the heart of Jesus and taken His mind off, for just an instant, His own hitter pangs, as having an object of pity before Him, upon whom He could pour His mercy! The thief's confession of faith and expiring prayer must have been music to his Savior's ears—the only music which could in any degree delight Him amid His terrible agonies. To hear and to answer the prayer, "Lord, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom," afforded our Lord a precious solace. An angel strengthened Him in the Garden, but here it was a man, nailed up at His side, who ministered consolation by the indirect, but very effective method of seeking help at His hands. …