Let's stand together, brothers and sisters, for the reading of God's Word. The title of today's sermon is Laughing with God at His Enemies. The reading from verse 10 of chapter 23 of the book of Acts through to verse 24 are verses of focus, or verses 11 through 22. Please listen carefully, because this is God's holy and infallible Word. Now, when there arose a great dissension, the commander, fearing lest Paul might be pulled to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him by force from among them and bring him into the barracks. But the following night, the Lord stood by him and said, Be of good cheer, Paul, for as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome. And when it was day, some of the Jews banded together and bound themselves under an oath, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. Now there were more than 40 who had formed this conspiracy. They came to the chief priests and elders and said, we have bound ourselves under a great oath that we will eat nothing until we have killed Paul. Now you, therefore, together with the council, suggest to the commander that he be brought down to you tomorrow, as though you were going to make further inquiries concerning him. But we are ready to kill him before he comes near. So when Paul's sister's son heard of their ambush, he went and entered the barracks and told Paul. Then Paul called one of the centurions to him and said, take this young man to the commander for he has something to tell him. So he took him and brought him to the commander and said, Paul, the prisoner called me to him and asked me to bring this young man to you. He has something to say to you. Then the commander took him by the hand, went inside and asked privately, what is it that you have to tell me? And he said, the Jews have agreed to ask that you bring Paul down to the council tomorrow. as though they were going to inquire more fully about him. But do not yield to them, for more than forty of them lie in wait for him, men who have bound themselves by an oath that they will neither eat nor drink till they have killed him. And now they are ready, waiting for the promise from you. So the commander let the young man depart and commanded him, Tell no one that you have revealed these things to me. And he called for two centurions, saying, Prepare 200 soldiers, 70 horsemen, and 200 spearmen to go to Caesarea at the third hour of the night, and provide mounts to set Paul on, and bring him safely to Felix, the governor. Thus ends the reading of God's word. Amen, amen. Please be seated. Brothers and sisters, let me tell you, we do not laugh enough. We do not laugh enough. Be of good cheer, Paul, could also be along the lines of, Paul, you need to laugh more. Courage leads to laughter. And you know that word rejoicing that we see so often is tightly, tightly linked to this word laughter. Laughter and rejoicing are connected. Today we're going to join by God's grace and word and spirit working in us. We're going to join with him and laughing at his enemies today. First, we're gonna look again quickly in verse 11, be of good cheer, Paul. And we're gonna see the Jewish conspiracy that is hatched and comes forth in verses 12 through 15. We're gonna see its futility in verses 16 through 22, God's overruling providence, rescuing Paul from them. And then we're gonna laugh, laugh with God at his enemies. And as usual, along the way, some questions to know and to love and to obey God. So verse 11. The following night, the Lord stood by him and said, be of good cheer, Paul, for as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome. Things are pretty low for Paul right now. Things are looking pretty dark. He arrived in Jerusalem for the Passover feast with a large financial gift and a large contingency of Gentile converts. He has these hopes to encourage and strengthen the believers in Jerusalem and to see the church unified Gentile Jewish believers brought together throughout the Roman Empire. He's hoping for this. But when he arrives, James and the Jerusalem elders kind of like, thank you very much for your gift. It's nice to meet you Gentiles. But Paul, listen, they really want him to work for them because there's concerned that his presence will stoke division amongst the church there between the Gentile and Jewish believers. You remember there were these things that were being spoken about Paul. It appeared as though rumors were circulating that he didn't love God's law, that he didn't love God's people. So James asks Paul to make a vow and perform it in the temple to demonstrate that he has not denounced the Jewish law and to help mend tensions within the church of believers there in Jerusalem. Paul, submits. He agrees. So he goes to the temple to fulfill his vow. And what happens there? The cruel Jews from Asia spot him. Remember, it's the Passover, so they're all there. They accuse him of a capital crime, bringing a Gentile into a spot where he shouldn't have brought a Gentile, which he didn't do. And a riot erupts. While they're beating Paul as if to kill him. So he's on his way to the pearly gates. The Roman leader, Claudius Lysias, arrives with soldiers and rescues him. Discovering he's a Roman citizen, Lysias places Paul in the barracks to protect him from these murderous Jews. Paul had given his speech to the Jews, gotten their attention. They just tried to kill him afterwards. And so then Lysias calls for the Sanhedrin to have a trial, the council, hoping to ascertain what, if any, crime that Paul had committed. Lysias is trying to figure out what's going on. And during the trial, it didn't help. Lysias didn't gain any ground and understanding. All he saw was that a dispute broke out. Paul was wise. He brought up the disagreement among Sadducees and Pharisees regarding resurrection and angels. And they're trying to tear him apart, we're told. So he's about to die again right there. And Lysias again rescues Paul and puts him back in custody to protect him from the Jews. So here he is in Roman custody alone with no visitors mentioned until in this section where we see his nephew comes to see him. He's under constant threat by those that he loves so dearly. Remember, we looked at his love for the Jewish people. He loves them dearly. And of course, he remembers his past where he had the same kind of hatred, probably worse for Christians like they do towards him. He longs to see them saved. So there he is. And Jesus appears to him to comfort him. So what happens here is Jesus comes near to Paul, stands by him, he speaks aloud to him. Paul hears his voice and Jesus doesn't ask him or invite him. He commands him to be of good cheer. Take courage, Paul, be of good cheer. So, you know, he was in the midst of discouragement at this point in time. And Jesus comes near to encourage him. If you need to be encouraged, there's only one place to go. to draw near to Jesus. And he'll draw near to you. Paul's gaze had drifted where? To his problems. Instead of maintaining his focus upon Christ and who he is. He needed a gaze. He needed a gaze reset. How often do you need a gaze reset? How often do we need a gaze reset? It's so easy to look at our sin, to look at our problems, to look at this world around us and become discouraged. Hebrews 12. Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Jesus could certainly hear the father's laughter, even as he was upon the cross, knowing that the enemies of God were as nothing. I think David could hear the father's laughter as well. My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he shall pluck my feet out of the net. You know, what do you look at when your feet are stuck in the net? We tend to fix our gaze. Really, this endurance that we're called to is an enduring gaze upon Jesus. A constant consideration of who he is and what he has done and where he is and what he is doing. The great promises that he has made to us as his beloved ones. He not only comforts Paul with his presence there and commanding him to be courageous, But he tells him his future. He tells him his future will surely lead to Rome, where Paul will bear witness of Jesus. So Paul now knows, as a result of this visit, that every Jewish effort to kill him will fail, including the one we're gonna read about today, until, at least until, Paul has testified for Jesus in Rome. So at this point, Paul knows that he cannot die before he gets to Rome. So that's gonna be very helpful to him. So he's got this gaze reset. And when this happens, when our eyes, when our hearts, when our focus is back upon Jesus, it always leads us to solid hope for the future. Even if we don't get some specific revelation like this about our own personal future, we have multiple glorious promises about who Jesus is and what He is doing in our lives and in His church and in this world. But if we look away from Him, we forget these promises. We look at our own sin. We look at the failures in our life. We give way to regret and self-loathing. We look at how powerful the forces of evil are today. But when we fix our eyes back on Jesus, we remember His, as we sang, His all-supreme sovereignty. and His promises. We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He predestined, these He also called. Whom He called, these He also justified. And whom He justified, these He also glorified. His endurance on the cross is glorious. And His endurance on His throne is glorious. He always works in us to make us like Jesus. So we have hope for our future as well. We know each day what God is doing. We don't know like Paul knew it. We don't have that kind of specific revelation. But we can also hear the Word of God and know the future in general for each of our lives in Christ. So a conspiracy comes and Paul is prepared for it. Jesus has prepared him for this grave attack. And, you know, when you when you hear God's word and you grow in courage, you believe his promises about your future, then you are also prepared for grave attacks against you and your family. Verse 12 to 15, when it was day, some of the Jews banded together and bound themselves under an oath saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. Now there were more than 40 who had formed this conspiracy. They came to the chief priests and elders and said, we've bound ourselves under a great oath that we will eat nothing until we've killed Paul. Now you therefore, together with the council, suggest to the commander that he be brought down to you tomorrow as though you were going to make further inquiries concerning him. But we're ready to kill him before he comes near. So look at their persistent hatred. Nothing will undo it. Nothing underneath the sun will undo their hatred. They want to kill Paul. Just like Paul in his days as Saul, these Jews hate the church of the Lord. I want us to recall Saul's vicious hatred for Christians together. Paul knows the hatred that he had for Jesus and his church. And he knows how Jesus saved him out of this darkness. See, that fuels his compassion for them. Do you remember when you were like Saul? Do you remember the darkness of your own heart towards God and His people? Do you remember that before coming to Christ? Acts 7.57, where's Paul? The witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. That's verse 58. So Stephen's being stoned to death. Saul is there helping. In Acts 8, it says that Saul was consenting to Stephen's death. There was a great persecution arose against the church there at Jerusalem. The church was scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. The apostles stayed in Jerusalem, though. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. Saul hated Christians. He knew what these Jews were feeling. He had felt it himself. Acts 9, what was Saul doing when Jesus saved him? Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven, No wonder he was willing to preach to all of them with hope. He remembers that he was on a blood-shedding journey when Jesus saved him. He knows that Jesus can save any man. See, if we forget this, we won't have that same kind of evangelistic confidence. Well, you know, that guy, oh, he's really lost. I don't know if I should share the gospel with him. Well, not Paul. So these Jews are now fueled by this same kind of deep deception and vicious hatred towards Paul. Think about what they had to have in their mind about him. Commentary says, what a monstrous idea must these men have formed of Paul before they could be capable of forming such a monstrous design against him. They must be made to believe that he was the worst of men, an enemy to God and religion, and the curse and plague of his generation, when really his character was the reverse of all of this. So they've done everything they can at this point. They've contrived everything they could think of so far. Hasn't worked. They haven't been able to kill him. So what do they do? They hatch an assassination conspiracy plan. Commentary says they found they could gain nothing by popular tumult or legal process and therefore have a recourse to the barbarous method of assassination. They will come upon him suddenly and stab him. They can but get Him within their reach. So restless is their malice against this good man, that when one design fails, they will turn another stone. Brothers and sisters, we need to understand the lengths at which sin will go to destroy the righteous around them. Do you see how far they're willing to go to destroy God and His people? So let's look at this conspiracy a little bit. It appears to be a bit of a grassroots conspiracy. It says some of the Jews banded together. It appears as though it's not initiated by the chief priests and elders. So there's this widespread apostasy. To incline to do evil and intend to do it is bad, but to engage to do it is much worse. This is entering into covenant with the devil. It is swearing allegiance to the prince of darkness. It is leaving no room for repentance. Nay, it is bidding defiance. to it. It's not just a grassroots conspiracy, it's a covenanted conspiracy. They bound themselves under an oath. Who knows what they did to bind themselves in this oath? Commentary calls it an anathema that they bound themselves under, imprecating the heaviest curses upon themselves, their souls, bodies and families if they did not kill Paul. This is a dark deal with the devil. And it's urgent. They make it urgent. They would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. So consider also how this denies God's providence over all things. You see how their hatred has fueled their insanity. They think that the strength of their hatred can overcome all things. But these mere men believe their puny oath can override God's providence. They've forgotten what James teaches us. Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell and make profit. Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow, for what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that. But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So we see the arrogance of this conspiracy. We see that it is also widespread. It's not a small thing. More than 40 who had formed this conspiracy. Some kind of long-term deception was in place in Jerusalem, in the Jewish culture, that allowed for this seedbed of deception to be in place in their minds. It was very easy for this apostasy to turn into this conspiracy. Government schools in our nation have a very similar effect on our population. It's very easy for deceptions to run wild through vulnerable, deceived minds. Commentary says it was strange that so many could so soon be got together and that in Jerusalem, too, who were so perfectly lost to all sense of humanity and honor as to engage in so bloody a design Well, might the prophet's complaint be renewed concerning Jerusalem? Righteousness is lodged in it, but now murderers. And the end of this we see. When the Roman armies destroy Jerusalem and the temple not leaving one stone and ultimately. The nation of Israel is completely dislodged from this land. So it was a widespread conspiracy, was urgent, it was covenanted, it was grassroots. but it was also organized and approved by the leaders. The chief priests and elders joined in when asked. What a mean, what an ill opinion had they of their priests when they could apply to them on such an errand as this? Think about how wicked these priests and elders are that they knew they could go to them and not face repercussions for this evil plan. And yet vile as the proposal was which was made to them, The priests and elders consented to it, and at the first work, without boggling at it in the least, promised to gratify them. Instead of reproving them as they ought for their wicked conspiracy, they bolstered them up in it because it was against Paul whom they hated. And thus they made themselves partakers of the crime as much as if they had been the first in the conspiracy." There's a legal maxim regarding conspiracy. The hand of one is the hand of all. They're joining in. It's as if they had taken knives in their own hands as well. It's a well-planned conspiracy. It is a scheme that they have thought through. They know the hurdle. They can't get into Fortress Antonia. They've got to get Paul out of there. Well, you know what? The council meeting didn't go so well before. He was looking for information he didn't get. Well, let's have another council meeting. Yeah, that's it. They're using what they assume is a motive of the commander, and that is to get some clarity. They want to deceive the leader and get Paul out in the open and kill him. Now, this is also a risky conspiracy. Look at the risks that hatred is willing to take. Roman reprisals were to be greatly feared, and yet they hate Paul more than they fear The Roman reprisal, this should certainly also ask us, do we love God more than we fear reprisals? Their hatred often could shame the weak, tepid love of Christians. This is not the first conspiracy of sinners against God that we find in our Bibles. We're going to do a little kind of leapfrog through some Conspiracies we see in scripture. Oh, there's no conspiracies, you're told. You're just a conspiracy theorist, right? That's certainly one of the key schemes of those who make conspiracies, is to create this idea that if you believe in conspiracies, you're a fool, you're a simpleton, you're easily deceived. But in fact, we may say as a matter of theological necessity, sinners, fully given over to their sin, will eventually join together to intentionally destroy God's law and God's people, and they will accuse others of being the real conspirators as they go on in their vain plotting. They conspire to destroy God and his law and his church, and then accuse those who call them out on it of being crazy conspiracy theorists. Joseph's brothers, that when they saw him afar off, even before he came near them, they conspired against him to kill him. What are conspiracies? It's just sinners coming together, joining in rebellion against that, which is good. Saul's accusations against David is a great example of the person doing evil, accusing others of doing evil. When Saul heard that David and the men who were with him had been discovered, now Saul was staying in Gibeah under a tamarisk tree in Ramah with his spear in his hand and all his servants standing about him. Then Saul said to his servants who stood about him, here now, you Benjamites, will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards and make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds? All of you have conspired against me, and there's no one who reveals to me that my son has made a covenant with the son of Jesse. And there's not one of you who is sorry for me or reveals to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me to lie in wait as it is this day. So you tell the truth. You get accused of misinformation. During the post-captivity rebuilding of Jerusalem, we see a conspiracy. Now it happened when Sin-Balot-Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were being restored and the gaps were beginning to be closed, that they became very angry and all of them conspired together to come and attack Jerusalem and create confusion. Brothers and sisters, don't be surprised with conspiracies. It's what sinners do when they get together to cast God's law out of their sight. to reject Jesus Christ, to eliminate his name from the face of the earth, which is what the devil wants. The devil wants to stand on the earth, an empty earth with everyone dead and shake his fist in God's face and say, I win. There's also the false accusations of lying Amaziah against the prophet Amos. Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to Jeroboam, king of Israel, saying, Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said, Jeroboam shall die by the sword and Israel shall surely be led away captive from their own land. When conspirators speak and make accusations, they are accusing others of doing the very exact things they themselves are doing at that moment. David's son Absalom conspires against his own father, trying to make himself king. Then Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then you shall say, Absalom reigns in Hebron. And with Absalom went two hundred men invited from Jerusalem, and they went along innocently and did not know anything. Then Absalom sent for Hithophel, the Gileadite, David's counselor, from his city, from Gilo, where he offered sacrifices. And the conspiracy grew strong. for the people with Absalom continually increased in number. Sometimes conspiracies move quickly, like we're reading today. Other times they move very slowly and require generational level thinking and plotting to try to pull it off. There's an ongoing futile international conspiracy against God and his Messiah and his law. David, It was occurring in David's time. Psalm two is not just a prediction about the future. Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? 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 bonds in pieces and cast away their courts from us. You benefited and enjoyed a sermon on this very song last week from Pastor Carly. Praise be to God. But it wasn't just during David's time. It also occurred during the time of Christ, as we've seen before in Acts chapter 4. Why do the nations rage and the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand and the rulers were gathered together against Christ the Lord and against the Lord and against his Christ. For truly against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done. So they know there as they're praying that this psalm, the events surrounding Psalm 2 are the same kind of events surrounding the crucifixion of Jesus and the attack on his people. And yet we see this glorious phrase here at the end, to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done. Our Father's sovereignty is over all things. Brothers and sisters, this conspiracy against God occurred in heaven as well. Revelation chapter 7, chapter 12, and war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought. But they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, the serpent of old, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. The very first conspiracy was the conspiracy of the devil gathering demons together against God in heaven. This kind of Action against God and his kingdom is still present in today's world, teaming up of demonic forces and rebellious individuals who have set themselves against God and against his kingdom. These Jews in today's text are but one little example of the same kind of thinking applied over generational terms. The Communist Manifesto says there are besides eternal truths such as freedom, justice, etc. that are common to all states of society, but communism abolishes eternal truths. It abolishes all religion and all morality instead of constituting them on a new basis. It therefore acts in contradiction to all past historical experience. This is a conspiracy against God and against his law that has been present in the Earth, at least since the time of Marx. But the idea is certainly in place before he wrote it down like this. They have a catechism. Question 22, do communists reject existing religions? Answer, all religions which have existed hitherto were expressions of historical stages of development of individual peoples or groups of peoples. But communism is that stage of historical development which makes all existing religions superfluous and supersedes them. Government schools have been teaching this very truth to our children for generations now, that religion is superfluous, that God is not necessary to be educated, that his word is not the foundation for all truth. And thus, when communist political officials come forth with their smiles and their promises, we have a grassroots group ready to be deceived en masse. It's very similar for Islam. Surah three one fifty one says we shall cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Surah two one ninety one and kill them, non-Muslims, wherever you find them, kill them, such as the recompense of the disbelievers, non-Muslims. Surah nine five, then kill the disbelievers, non-Muslims, wherever you find them, capture them and besiege them and lie in wait for them in each and every ambush. You see that word ambush there. There's a conspiracy constantly underway by Islamic peoples to come into unsuspecting lands through migration and immigration. And when they outnumber them to kill Christians, this is what Islam has done throughout history. Every single time it becomes a majority. These conspiracies are still in place today, communism and Islam. Islamism seemed to be teamed up in many ways right now in our world, if you look closely, both of them with the common enemy in their minds of Jesus and his people and his glorious kingdom and law. Also, there are conspiracies amongst the halls of false religion in our day to day. I'll give you two examples. Christianity today and the Trinity Forum have both been completely subverted by leftist flow of money and are now mostly just mouthpieces of ungodly political positions. I invite you to read the evidence in Shepherds for Sale by Megan Basham, a helpful book that shows us the conspiracies that are in place, evil people teaming up with evil purposes against God and his people and his truth. This magazine founded by Billy Graham, who by all accounts was a man of God, desired to see the Bible as the guide. So this subversion of Christian voices is taking place in our world today. And we could go on and on with what's occurred with mainstream denominations who are now mouthpieces of evil. So the devil's schemes are predictable. It's the same kind of thing today as we have always seen. Now, up to this point, you might be thinking, I'm kind of bringing you down. Maybe you're kind of feeling heavy under the weight of these things, because I'm sure it's far worse than what I've laid out there for you in terms of the extent of all of this. But we need to see the futility of the Jewish conspiracy of that time and of any conspiracy set against him. And I hope that now your heart is going to begin to move into laughter mode. So when Paul's sister's son heard of their ambush, he went and entered the barracks and told Paul. Then Paul called one of the centurions to him and said, take this young man to the commander, for he has something to tell him. So he took him and brought him to the commander and said, Paul, the prisoner called me to him and asked me to bring this young man to you. He has something to say to you. Then the commander took him by the hand, went aside and asked privately, what is it that you have to tell me? And he said, the Jews have agreed to ask that you bring Paul down to the council tomorrow. as though they were going to inquire more fully about him. Do not yield to them, for more than 40 of them lie in wait for him, men who have bound themselves by an oath that they will neither eat nor drink till they have killed him. And now they are ready, waiting for the promise from you. So the commander let the young man depart and commanded him, tell no one that you have revealed these things to me. Here we see God's great sovereignty, his great power. Is God the father chuckling through this wondrous act of providence here? God uses one man, one young man to undo this widespread, carefully planned, well-organized and covenanted conspiracy against Paul. Note how God's providences overrule all things, and he can take a small thing and undo a giant thing. Somehow this one man became aware of this murderous conspiracy. How did he know? We're not told. Note God has many ways of bringing to light the hidden works of darkness, though the contrivers of them dig deep to hide them from the Lord. He can make a bird of the air to carry the voice or the conspirators own tongues to betray them. As I've told you, I have prayed for God to expose the evil deeds of darkness behind particularly the coronavirus madness and these evil people who enacted this against humanity. and that they would be revealed in the same way that this we see this revelation here, the evidence on display that the same thing would occur in our world. Oh, it's too big. It's too great. The corruption is too big. They'll never be justice. God sits in the heavens and laughs and he can expose it any time he desires to do so. and bring forth justice in ways that would cause us to marvel anytime he would choose to do so. And we are to long for this. And we will see it someday, for sure. And all of us with hearts submitted to God's timing and planning are still crying out, oh, Lord, make it quick. We see God maintain the allowance for Paul to have visitors. He had this connection there with the centurions and with the commander. We saw that develop in earlier texts. So he has enough influence there that his request for his nephew to see Lysias is honored. Commentary says, Paul had got a good interest in the officers that attended by his prudent, peaceable deportment. He could call one of the centurions to him, though a centurion was one in authority that had soldiers under him and used to call, not to be called to, and he was ready to come at his call. And there's so much we could say here, but just quickly, being courteous and dealing with people in love and in respectfulness You never know how God may use that to unseat evil in due time. Not everyone in the halls of power is caught up in wickedness here. We see Lysias, this pagan, and the centurions with him. They're not caught up in wickedness. We should expect the same in today's world. We will find pockets of justice, pockets of goodness, and we never know what kind of providential connections there may lead to undoing evil plans. So the commander, also we see Providence, is wise enough to quickly hatch a plan to safely carry Paul away from Jerusalem to Caesarea. He apparently is impressed by the urgency of their plan. He's impressed with the fact that there are a lot of Jews out there, at least 40 he's told, could be 400, could be 4,000. Now think about it. Contrast this with the evil cooperation of the Jewish leadership. I think about it similar today to conservatives who are promoting biblical ethics and politics, but who really aren't involved in going to church. And yet you've got these Christians over here supposedly calling out for all of these ungodly things to take place in the earth. What a melancholy observation it is. The Jewish chief priests, when they knew of this assassination plot, should countenance it and assist in it, while a Roman chief captain, purely from a natural sense of justice and humanity when he knows it, sets himself to baffle it and puts himself to a great deal of trouble to do it effectually. So we should join in with laughing at God's enemies with him. Psalm two, one through four, I've read one through three already, particularly in verse two against the Lord and against his anointed. Ultimately, these are actually directed against God, the Father and Jesus Christ. And practically in the earth, let us break their bonds and pieces and cast away their cords from us, they see the law of God as bonds and they want to destroy the law of God from the earth. I can be a woman if I want to today. Tomorrow, I can be a man. Next week, I'll be a kitten. These people want to cast all restrictions away and literally make themselves into their own gods. And this is the world that we live in. And if we tell them, no, you can't do that, you make them uncomfortable. It's your fault and you've got to suffer. But God has a response to this. And I hope it's your same response. This is madness. It's madness on in so many different ways. He who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall hold them in derision. It's like a giant and maybe like a little tiny mouse comes and tries to undo the giant, right? He just laughs. He just laughs at the mouse and there goes the mouse. It's all done. He who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall hold them in derision. Even as the entire world and its power may set itself in well-laid plans against Jesus Christ on his throne, even with the assistance of all the dark devils of hell, to destroy God's law and to cast it out of this world into oblivion, even their most subtle plotting over generations, over millennia, is but laughable futility and vanity, serving as nothing but scenes of comedy, bringing forth divine laughter. And we need to see this and be of good cheer and join in with this. Two things. We still suffer and there's still pain as we laugh. And the compassion towards the lost persists, even as we laugh at the enemies of God who are under his judgment. Our hearts maintain compassion towards them like Paul's, remembering that we were right there with them. It's not a prideful laughter. It's not a laughter that looks at myself. It's a laughter that looks at Jesus and his glory and his power and marvels that anyone would be so foolish as to set themselves against him. Psalm 37, same idea. The wicked plots against the just and gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord laughs at him for he sees that his day is coming. The wicked have drawn the sword and have bent their bow to cast down the poor and needy to slay those who are of upright conduct. Their sword shall enter their own heart and their bows shall be broken. It is a great act of just comedy for an evil man to draw his sword in malice against God, against Christ, and his people and his righteousness and then send that same malicious sword through his own evil heart for him to draw back an arrow only to find his own heart pierced through by his own actions. We can laugh with God. As we observe these same types of things occurring today, justice upon evildoers, brothers and sisters, especially in this reversal, when they dig a pit and fall into themselves, when they swing on the gallows that they have made for others, justice upon evildoers brings forth the laughter of heaven in our hearts. Let it come. Psalm 59. At evening, they return. They growl like a dog and go all around the city. Indeed, they belch with their mouths. Swords are in their lips, for they say, Who hears? But you, O Lord, shall laugh at them. You shall have all the nations in derision. I will wait for you, O you his strength. For God is my defense. My God of mercy shall come to meet me. God shall let me see my desires on my enemies. Brothers and sisters, part of laughing with God is understanding that it is okay to join in with the joy of justice. It is okay to join in with the joy of justice. We are never to be vigilantes. We are never to take matters into our own hands. But when God in his perfect timing and providence brings down his judgment upon the wicked, we laugh and rejoice with him. And I will tell you, there are a few things that would bring this heart greater joy than to see Islam completely eliminated off the face of the earth. The wickedness and the evil that has been perpetrated by that system of thought throughout the millennia, throughout the hundreds of years, over a thousand years of evil. And what we've seen with communism, the number of people killed by the hand of communist tyrants. These are evil deeds. These are these are things that have breathed the air of hell and been fueled by the heart of the devil. And they mock Christ in his glory. I will wait for you, O you his strength, for God is my defense. My God of mercy shall come to meet me and hear the psalmist again. God shall let me see my desire on my enemies. You just have a hard time singing the imprecatory Psalms until you understand this. We may wait and rest in God's strength and defense, awaiting his mercy, knowing that he will bring forth his justice upon his enemies in due time. I remember standing in South Sudan and that new nation and some of their leaders asking my friend Jeff Botkin, well, what about America, you know, the great Christian nation? And he said, America is in trouble with Jesus Christ. And there's no more loathsome place to be than to be under jeopardy of His judgment. Psalm 52. The righteous also shall see and fear and shall laugh at Him and say... You see, so far everything I've shown you is God laughing. But here, we actually see the saints laughing with Him. Verses 6 and 7. The righteous also shall see and fear and shall laugh at Him, saying, Here is the man who did not make God his strength. but trusted in the abundance of his riches and strengthened himself in his wickedness." See the laughter of rejoicing. And I want us to see the connection between this laughter and rejoicing when you look at the meaning of these words and the way they're translated in English. Sometimes it's laughter, sometimes it's rejoicing. The words are very tightly linked together. The laughter of rejoicing belongs not only to God, brothers and sisters, but as we as people observe his jolly justice upon the wicked, we see and we fear God more. We contemplate what we've been delivered from. And yet we also revere his awesome power and justice and his infinite wisdom to bring forth such Haman like reversals. And we join. laughter of heaven and our confidence grows. Let them bring what they may. We can look at the chariots of Egypt on one side and the Dead Sea on the other, Red Sea on the other, and laugh. We can look at a grave with a corpse in it and laugh. We know our baptism charge. We say it over and over again. Do you believe it? No, come what may, we will smile and rejoice and join in the laughter of heaven that any would be so bold as to resist the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even as the wicked mock God and appear unassailable in their wisdom and power in this world, I'm sure Mr. NSA is listening to me right now. Repent, quit your job and do something righteous. Always tell them when that comes up. Even as they mock God and appear unassailable in their wisdom and power this very day, the laughter of heaven continues. We watch and we wait prepared for that great day of laughter when God's hilarious, total redemptive justice appears upon all those who refuse to repent and mock his son and attack his people and mock his word and cast it out of the public square. Brothers and sisters, let us join with the joy and the laughter and the courage of heaven, knowing that no enemy of God shall ever, ever prevail. Amen. Let us pray. Almighty and gracious Heavenly Father, Lord God, we confess to you that we are often not of good cheer, that we are cast down, that we are discouraged, that we are cowardly. Oh, Father, lift up our hearts today, we pray. Grant to us to be of good cheer, to see you for who you are, to join with you in heaven's laughter, Lord God. The right kind of laughter, the right kind of rejoicing, Lord, that looks to you and your glory. And even though, Lord, as we are joining with you, that our hearts would remain compassionate towards all who are currently set against you, and that we would not be looking at ourselves as we laugh, but looking at you and your glory and your power Oh, Father, bless us, we pray to rejoice and laugh with you today and every day in Jesus name.