The Rivalry
Scott Bayles, pastor
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 2/26/12
I’ll never forget watching the 1991 NBA Finals. It was billed as one of the greatest matchups in NBA history. It was dubbed “Manifest Destiny: Magic vs. Michael” by the Chicago Tribune and called “The Dream Series” by sportscasters. In the public’s mind it was Air Jordan versus the Magic man.
It was Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls’ first trip to the NBA Finals and Magic Johnson’s Lakers last run at the title. The Bulls were coming off a 61-21 regular season with home court advantage, but the Lakers had been in this situation before and they knew how to win. The first game of the series was a heartbreaker for Bulls fans as Michael Jordan missed the game winning shot and allowed the Lakers steal home court advantage. Fans’ faith in the Bulls ability to perform under pressure was shaken.
But the Bulls were undeterred. In the second game of the series the Bulls served notice early that Game 1 was already a distant memory. They exploded to an early lead and never relented. The 1-2 combination of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen was too much for the Lakers to contain. In the third quarter Jordan performed a layup that been on every highlight reel for the last 20 years, switching hands midflight and laying the ball off the glass. In the end the Bulls blew out the Lakers by more than 20 points, setting the tone for the rest of the series. The Lakers could only helplessly watch as the Bulls soared to their first NBA Championship. What was promoted as one of the greatest rivalries in sports history, turned out to be an almost entirely one-sided victory.
Last week we read Psalm 1, which delineates the difference between those who follow the path of God and those who don’t. Building on that difference, Psalm two publicizes a rivalry of biblical proportions—not between Christians and non-Christians, but between the Creator and his creation. Between God and man.
This rivalry begins with a rebellion.
• A SERIOUS REBELLION
George Bush senior once said, “I do not like broccoli and I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And now that I’m president I’m never going to eat it again.” I guess rebelling against broccoli isn’t too bad, but Psalm two talks about a much, much more serious rebellion.
Psalm 2 opens with these words: “Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the LORD and against his anointed, saying, ‘Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles’” (Psalm 2:1-3 NIV).
The psalmist envisions this international summit of kings, rulers, and people from every nation gathering to conspire together. They rise up and rebel against God and God’s people. The imagery, of course, is metaphorical, but the reality isn’t far off.
The truth is—all throughout history people been rebelling against God or the very notion of God, pitting themselves as his rivals. They see God or religion as an oppressor. They think that if they can throw off the shackles and chains of religion that they would be free, the world would be a better place, or they could simply do as they please unfettered by outdated morals or faith-based ethics. They dream of a world without God. Some have gone to great lengths to make that dream a reality.
I’ve heard people claim occasionally that Hitler was a professing Christian. While he certainly sprinkled plenty of Christian rhetoric throughout his feverish, sometimes frantic speeches, Hitler was in every way an enemy of God. Hitler hated Christ and wanted to eradicate Christianity. He authorized the murder of thousands of priests and nuns, and did everything he could to suppress the influence of the Church. Shortly after assuming power in 1933, Hitler told Hermann Rauschnig that he intended “to stamp out Christianity root and branch,” and “It is through the peasantry that we shall really be able to destroy Christianity.”
You don’t have to be a sociopathic megalomaniac to rail against God and his people, though. Voltaire was one of the leading figures of the French Enlightenment of the 1700’s. He had an exceptional talent for writing, and to this day, he is known as one of the world’s greatest philosophers. Yet, he hated the God of the Bible with a passion and he once said, “In twenty years Christianity will be no more. My single hand shall destroy the structure it took twelve apostles to build.”
This uprising against God hasn’t slowed down any in modern times. In fact, it’s gaining momentum. The attacks on Christianity in the media, movies and academia have just been unrelenting as a whole new breed of atheists with rock-star platforms rally against religion in any form—but especially Christianity. In Christopher Hitchen’s book, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything—which pretty much tells you everything you need to know—he argues that faith in God is superstitious nonsense. Richard Dawkins, in his book, The God Delusion, asserts that teaching your children to believe in God is a form of child abuse and he writes, “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”
These are the voices of decent, which have conspired together to throw off the shackles of religion—to rebel against God. In the next part of Psalm 2, however, we see God’s reaction to all of this.
• A SOVEREIGN REACTION
How do you think God reacts when people claim that he’s nothing more than a fairytale or that the world would be better off without his faithful followers? Let’s see what Psalm 2 says: “The one enthroned in heaven laughs. The Lord makes fun of them.” (Psalm 2:4 GWT). This reminds of the one about the scientist and God.
One day a group of scientists got together and decided that man had come a long way and no longer needed God. So they picked one scientist to go and tell Him that they were done with Him. The scientist walked up to God and said, “God, we’re to the point that we can clone people and do many miraculous things, so we’ve decided that we no longer need you.” God listened very patiently and after the scientist was done talking, God said, “Very well, how about this, let’s say we have a man making contest.” To which the scientist replied, “OK, great!” But God added, “Now, we’re going to do this just like I did back in the old days with Adam.” The scientist said, “Sure, no problem” and bent down and scooped up a handful of dirt. God slapped his hand and said, “No, no, no. You go get your own dirt!”
Remember that French philosopher, Voltaire? Well, shortly after his death his estate was purchased by the Geneva Bible Society adapted into a warehouse for Bibles. You can’t tell me God doesn’t have sense of humor or irony.
But, this isn’t just a light-hearted laughter we see in Psalm 2. The next verse says, “Then he speaks to them in his anger. In his burning anger he terrifies them” (Psalm 2:5). We don’t normally like to think of God as angry. We like a kinder gentler God—a God of love, a God of grace, a God of compassion, and patience. And God is all those things. But he is also prone to anger. You and I should be too.
Love sometimes demands that we be angry. I love children. And because I love children, abortion makes me angry. God feels the same way. God loves us and he wants a relationship with us, so when people Richard Dawkins use their influence to convince people that God is just a fairytale, it makes God angry. There is nothing more terrifying than for sinners like us to fall into the hands of an angry God.
Christoper Hitchens knows all about that. Christopher, who I mentioned earlier, was one of the most prolific and outspoken atheists of our day. In the last few years of his life, Christopher was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. He grew increasingly weak and frail. Christians all over the world actually set aside a day to pray for Hitchens, but he remained unbending in his unbelief to very end. He died on my birthday December 15, 2011. Now his spirit awaits the resurrection when he will stand before the God whom he denied his entire life. The Bible says, “For we know the One who has said, Vengeance belongs to Me, I will repay, and again, The Lord will judge His people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!” (Hebrews 10:30-31 HCSB).
The truth is—all of us have made God angry enough to deserve his judgment, but we find something hopeful in the next few verses of Psalm 2: “The LORD said to me, ‘You are my son. Today I have become your Father. Only ask, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, the whole earth as your possession” (Psalm 2:7-8 NLT). This psalm is a typological prophecy pointing forward to the climax of human history and the coming of Christ into the world. And the coming of Jesus provides us with a safe refuge from God’s anger.
• A SAFE REFUGE
The final picture we see in Psalm two gives us a hope for the future. It assures of the final outcome. And it provides us with a safe refuge. Here’s what it says: “Submit to God’s royal Son, or he will become angry, and you will be destroyed in the midst of all your activities—for his anger flares up in an instant. But what joy for all who take refuge in him!” (Psalm 2:12 NLT).
Here’s the thing—it’s not just the atheists, the agnostics, the heathens or the garden variety pagans who’ve rebelled against God and provoked a Sovereign reaction. It’s all of us. We’ve all sinned and fallen short of God’s glorious standard. We’ve all, at one time or another, made choices in defiance or indifference to God’s will and expectations for our lives. We’ve all ticked God off at some point. But no matter how angry God is about the choices we make, he allows us to make one choice that will override all the others.
Anthony Flew, like Christopher Hitchens, was also one of the most infamous and outspoken atheist of our day. For more than fifty years, Anthony asserted, argued and articulated his belief that there is no God. He was a Cambridge educated philosopher who debated Christian apologists like William Lane Craig and wrote over 30 books and countless essays arguing against the existence of God. The last book he wrote, however, was titled There Is A God: How The World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind.
Flew’s belief in Socrates’ philosophy to “follow the evidence wherever it leads” influenced his work and eventually led him to announce in 2004 that he had changed his mind about the existence of God. This final book, chronicles how he became an atheist and what led him, fifty years later, to accept that God is real. Although he was convinced that the mounting scientific and natural evidence, particularly in the area of DNA, could only be explained in light of an intelligent Creator God, he stopped short of belief in Jesus and in the Bible. But I have hope that before he died in April 2010, he took a step of faith and placed his trust in God’s royal Son!
If you’re like me, you’ve probably made some bad decisions in life—ticked God off a time or two. Maybe you have a rebellious streak of your own. Have you ever wished that there was some way to make up for all the bad choices? That somehow you could make one good decision that fixes everything? The good news is—there is! You can! One right decision about Jesus overrides every other mistake or poor choice you’ve ever made. Surrender your heart and faith to God’s royal Son—Jesus—and he will give you safe refuge not just for a time, but for eternity.
Conclusion:
For thousands of years there has been this epic rivalry of biblical proportions between God and mankind—between the Creator and his creation. Myriads of militant skeptics have risen up and conspired together to create a world free from faith—a world without God. And in the early stages of series they’ve won some victories and stunned spectators. But it’s a long series and God has home court advantage.
God has promised Jesus the nations as an inheritance and the whole earth as trophy. And what make his victory so wonderful, is that God’s plan has always been to conquer his enemies, by making them his friends. The Bible says, “While we were God's enemies, he made us his friends through the death of his Son” (Romans 5:10 NCV). That’s a winning strategy!
Invitation:
If you’ve felt bombarded by the barrage of attacks against God and Christianity—maybe you have friends, family or co-workers who are adamant unbelievers—come talk to me. I’d like to give you some resources that will help galvanize your faith and equip you to give an answer for the hope that you have with gentleness and respect.
If you feel like you’ve been on the wrong side of this rivalry and you’re ready to switch to God’s team, then take a moment to talk to him right where you are. Ask Jesus to be your forgiver and the leader of your life, and then come share that with me we’ll get you a jersey.
