Well, I want us to turn to that
portion that we read. I'm sure it's not unfamiliar
to you. The song of Moses here in Exodus chapter 15. Of course,
we have another song of Moses also at the end of Deuteronomy. The end of Moses, his life really,
there in Deuteronomy chapter 32, but it's Exodus 15 that I
want us to turn to tonight. We've been reading through the
book of Exodus the last few days in our morning devotions at home,
and I was much struck just the other day when we came to this
15th chapter and read this portion. Now, you know the previous history,
of course. Chapter 14 is the historic account
of how the Lord God brings the children of Israel through the
Red Sea, and as the armies of Pharaoh pursue them into the
sea, so the Lord God destroys those armies of the Egyptians,
saving His people, and of course, previous to that, We have the
record of God's terrible judgments that came upon the Egyptians
in the form of the 10 plagues. I was thinking, oh, there we
see God working. He is mindful, of course, of
his people, the children of Israel. They're a typical people. They
were in cruel bondage, and they cried at the end of chapter 2.
We read how their sighs and their groanings came up before the
Lord, and He remembered His covenant, and so He delivered them. And
in delivering them, He made a spectacle, really, of Pharaoh. And how we see Pharaoh behaving
in such a contrary fashion. He would agree that the children
of Israel should be released and go to worship the Lord in
the wilderness when the various plagues came, but then no sooner
he agreed to that than there was that change of mind. He hardened
his heart, or on other occasions the Lord hardened his heart,
but the Lord was in all of these things. And I was thinking about
the awful situation in our own land. We see all the machinations
of men, the politicians, all their schemings and plottings
and plannings, and how they seek to frustrate the will of the
people. And we know that there is yet
a remnant in the land, It's a very small remnant, alas, and yet
surely that little remnant, those God-fearers who cry and sigh
before the Lord, are not they to be identified with Israel
here in Exodus? This was never a Christian country. This land of ours, it has been
greatly favoured and blessed by the Gospel. in times past,
but now we know that the God-fearers are but a very small remnant. and they are the spiritual Israel
of God and God does hear us in our prayers in spite of all that
the politicians do and so we're not to be discouraged and here
in this particular song of Moses we see how ultimately God does
answer the prayer of his people and deliverance comes and surely
that should give us hope. But I want us, in particular,
to turn to the opening verses, verses 1 and 2 of this 15th chapter. where we read then, saying, Moses
and the children of Israel, they sung unto the Lord, and spake,
saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath
he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song,
and he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will prepare
him an habitation, my Father's God, and I will exalt him. and observe particularly those
words at the end of verse 2, where we read, "...of my Father's
God, and I will exalt Him." Or the way of salvation for the
children of Israel was through the Red Sea, as we see in that
previous chapter. And there at the end of chapter
14, verse 29, the children of Israel walked upon dry land in
the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall unto them
on their right hand and on their left. Thus the Lord saved Israel
that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the
Egyptians dead upon the seashore. And Israel saw that great work
which the Lord did upon the Egyptians, and the people feared the Lord,
and believed the Lord and his servant Moses. Then sang Moses
and Israel, and the children of Israel this song." They were
a saved people, saved through the Red Sea. And isn't that the
way of salvation? We sometimes sing the words of
Joseph Swain's hymn, in which he exalts the Lord to him that
brought us back to God through the Red Sea of his own blood. It points us into that spiritual
Israel, and how God has been pleased to deliver his people
from all their enemies. He delivered Israel, and in the
deliverance of the children of Israel, there is the destruction
of Egypt, the destruction of their enemies. And now, in all
these dealings we see that God does make a difference and a
distinction between the Egyptians and between the Hebrews. Back
in chapter 11 verse 7 we read, The Lord hath put a difference
between the Egyptians and Israel. The Lord puts a difference. And
then those striking words that we have in chapter 8 and verse
23, I will put a division between my people and thy people, says
the Lord God to Pharaoh. I will put A division. The margin says a redemption.
I will put a redemption between my people and thy people. Tomorrow shall this sign be. And God does put that difference.
And we see it, of course, in the matter of the destroying
angel, the Passover, that's recorded here in chapter 12. And the language
that we have there At verse 13 God says, to those Hebrews sheltering under
the blood of the Paschal Lamb, as it had been taken and applied
to the doorpost and the lintels, the blood shall be to you for
a token upon the houses where you are. When I see the blood,
I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you
to destroy you when I smote the land of Egypt." God is the one
who makes a difference a distinction. There is a redemption. There
are those who are the redeemed and Israel are those who are
the redeemed. Well, coming then to consider
these words at the beginning of the song, two things tonight
I want us first of all to observe that it is very much a song of
triumph and then secondly to notice the typical nature of
this song. First of all, a song of triumph. And we have it here in the opening
verse, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. Oh, it is a celebration of what
the Lord God himself had done. And we can observe at least some
four things with regards to just what God had done for his people. Is he not the one who fights
for them? He fights for them. Just as he
had said, he gives promise that he will fight for them. Speaking to Moses and then Moses
speaking to the people. Verse 13 of chapter 14, Moses
said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the
salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you today. For
the Egyptians, whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again
no more. The Lord shall fight for you,
and ye shall hold your peace. And how that word was so wonderfully
fulfilled in verse 25 of that 14th chapter. Now God took off
their chariot wheels that they drove them heavily so that the
Egyptians said, let us flee from the face of Israel for the Lord
fighteth for them against the Egyptians. It is God who triumphs,
it is God who makes his people a triumphant people because he
is the one who is with them. He is the one who fights for
them. and as he fights for them, so
we see him as that one who is clearly leading them. And this is what they celebrate.
In verse 13 of this chapter, Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth
the people which Thou hast redeemed, Thou hast guided them in Thy
strength unto Thy holy habitation. It's all attributed to God. He's
not only fighting for them, He is leading them, and guiding
them, and directing them. Remember what the psalmist says
concerning God's providences, He led them forth by a right
way. Or the Lord leads His people
in those paths that are right. and so God's people of times
have to pray that He would indeed be ever directing their way. Give ear, O shepherd of Israel,
thou that leadest Joseph like a flock, thou that dwellest between
the cherubim. Shine forth is the prayer that
we find at the beginning and the end of Psalm 8, asking that
God would indeed do this, and He did. We see how subsequently
He leads them by the by the fiery pillar in the nights and the
cloudy pillar in the day. Throughout all their wanderings
through the wilderness it is God who is leading his people
and he is the one who fights for them and leads them because
he has redeemed them, he has purchased them for himself. What
do we read there? We read it just now in In verse 13, they are a people who are redeemed
by the Lord. In verse 13, or rather verse
18, they are spoken of there as those whom he hath purchased. I'm thinking more of chapter
14 chapter 15 and verse 13 we have
it thou hast redeemed the people which thou hast redeemed and
then again in that same chapter and the 18th verse where they are
bidden that they should not fear the Lord wrong references but
certainly there in verse 13 we have them mentioned as those
that the Lord has redeemed. It's verse 16, the end of verse
16. It's the people which thou hast
purchased. They are his own possession because
he has redeemed them, he has purchased them to himself. He
is their God and therefore he is that one who reigns in the
midst of them. In verse 18, the Lord shall reign
forever and ever. God does all of these things.
and does all of these things on behalf of his people. And so, what do we see when we
consider the content of this particular song? It very much
centers in the Lord now worshipping him. It's a song of worship. The Lord is my strength and song. He has become my salvation. He
is my God. I will prepare Him a habitation,
my Father's God, and I will exalt Him, is the language that we
have here in the second verse. Now, what we see here in this
song of praise is so different to much of what is called worship
in our day. So much worship today, of course,
is man-centered. In many places, what do they
do? They introduce novelties. They want to make the worship
interesting and exciting. And so, really, oftentimes, it
appears that that sort of worship is nothing more than entertainment. It's a carnal approach to worship. It's what Paul, in Colossians
chapter 2, refers to as will-worship. when men worship God in a way
that is pleasing and right only in their own eyes. So little
then of the seriousness of man's condition. A man is a sinner,
a man needs redemption. So little of the sovereignty
of God in the salvation of his people. All they're concerned
about is to give people something that will
interest them and make them feel good and happy. It's a man-centered
worship, whereas what we have here in this song is a glorying
in God. The end of verse 2, I will exalt
Him, is the language of Moses and the children of Israel. It's
God who is at the very heart of all their praises. And why
so? Because of what God has done.
He destroys all the enemies of His people. He vanquishes all
their foes. At the end of verse 1, He has
triumphed gloriously, it says. the horse and his rider as he's
thrown into the sea." In verse 4, Pharaoh's chariots and his
host as he cast into the sea, his chosen captains also are
drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them.
They sank into the bottom as a stone. All this is the work
of God, and this is, of course, that glorious work that has been
accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ. how He has triumphed
gloriously, how He has vanquished sin and death, Satan the grave. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, the
strength of sin is the law. But, says the Apostle, thanks
be to God, thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And in all this work in destroying
his enemies, we see how God's ways are just and righteous ways. All the ways of God are equitable. In verse 10, Thou didst blow
with Thy wind, the sea covered them, they sank as lead in the
mighty waters. Who is like unto Thee, O Lord
among the gods? Who is like unto Thee, glorious
in holiness? fearful in prizes, doing wonders. Even when God comes to destroy
His enemy and the enemy of His people, it is a work of holiness. Had not Pharaoh sought to destroy
all those male children, all those boys that were born to
the Hebrew women, they were to be cast into the sea. We were looking at it only this
last Lord's Day, considering those first two chapters of the
book. And there at the end of chapter 1, Pharaoh charged all
his people saying, every son that is born ye shall cast into
the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive. Every son.
every son to be cast into the river. And what does God do?
Oh, what does God do? He comes now and He drowns the
armies of Pharaoh in the Red Sea. He is holy. He is righteous. He is just in
all His ways. He is a God who is perfect. in his dealings, glorious in
holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders, and as he destroys
the Egyptians, so we see him as that one who delivers his
people. And as I have said, the children
of Israel, they're a typical people, they're a type of God's
spiritual Israel, a type of the holy election of grace, and God
delivers his people. And so what do they say here
in verse 2? The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my
salvation. Oh, He is the salvation of all
His people. Again, because the language in
verse 13, Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth the people which Thou
hast redeemed. And yet again we have it at the
end of verse 16. the people which thou hast purchased."
They are His people. He has made a difference, a distinction. He has redeemed them. He has
brought them unto Himself. And it's interesting to observe
what we have there at the end of that 13th verse. Thou hast
guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation." Now observe
the language and the tense here because what we have is referred
to usually as the prophetic perfect. It doesn't say thou wilt guide
them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation." The holy habitation
was to be the land of promise, that that he had promised to
Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, promised to their fathers. He
would take them into that land, and there they would worship
him. They would establish his worship initially at Shiloh,
where the tabernacle was first set, and then at Jerusalem. But it doesn't say thou wilt.
It says thou hast guided them It's the perfect tense. And God is with them, God is
guiding them at all times when they come to the borders of that
land. In Deuteronomy 8, they are reminded
they shall remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee
these forty years in the wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee
and to know what was in thine heart whether thou wouldest keep
his commandments or no. God will do it. And then we see
it so clearly, of course, when we read in the book of Joshua,
how all the peoples there are afraid of this nation that God
has brought out of the midst of the Egyptians. Verse 14, the
people shall hear and be afraid, sorrow shall take hold on the
inhabitants of Palestina, Then the Dukes of Edom shall be amazed,
the mighty men of Moab trembling shall take hold upon them, all
the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away. All the Lord will
do it. And it is so sure and so certain
that we have that statement at the end of verse 13, Thou hast
guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. It has not
yet occurred. but it was so sure it could be
spoken of now as that that was already accomplished." Oh, this
is the way of God. Does he not say, shall I bring
to the birth and not cause to come forth? Shall I cause to
come forth and shut up the womb, saith the Lord? God's way is
perfect. He is holy in the way in which
he deals with the enemies of himself and his people when he
destroys them. And when he comes to his dealings
with his people, his work is perfect. Paul says, being confident
of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you
will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Oh God is the
one who hath triumphed gloriously. What do we read at the end of
that 14th chapter? Israel saw the Egyptians dead
upon the sea shore and Israel saw the great work which the
Lord did upon the Egyptians and the people feared the Lord and
believed the Lord and His servant Moses. It is very much then a
song of triumph and exalting the Lord God as the one who is
the deliverer and the savior of his people. But I said we
must also observe that this is a typical song and we see that
when we come right to the end of the scriptures in the book
of the Revelation, and of course, the Revelation is a book that
is full of symbols and signs. As we've said before, when the
Lord gives this Revelation to His servant John, He sent and
signified it. It says in the opening verse,
He sent and signified it by His angel. unto his servant John
signs and symbols are very much used and much of the imagery
in fact we might say in principle the imagery throughout is taken
from the Old Testament and that is the case with regards to what
we read in Revelation 15 where we read of a sea of glass Back in the portion we're looking
at, we have the Red Sea and God making a way through the waters
for his people. In Revelation 15 we have a sea
of glass. Verse 2, I saw as it were a sea
of glass mingled with fire. And them that had gotten the
victory over the beast and over his image and over his mark and
over the number of his name stand on the sea of glass having the
harps of God, and they sing the song of Moses, the servant of
God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous
are thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, thou
King of saints." See, the imagery is the same. Here in verse 11 of Exodus 15,
"...who is like unto thee, doing wonders." And what do we have
in Revelation 15-3? Great and marvellous are thy
works. It's interesting how God works.
Oh, God works in mercy and in justice. He works in mercy in
saving His people. He works in justice when He comes
to His dealings with His enemies. As I said, his work is a holy
work. But how we see it principally in the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ. What does the psalmist say? Mercy
and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. What a revelation of the attributes
of God we see there in the Lord Jesus Christ. We see clearly
how God is a just God. and yet God is the justifier
of him that believeth in Jesus. There in the cross we see the
greatness of the love of God, His mercy, His grace to sinners,
but we also see how the God is holy, righteous, just, and cannot
pass by transgressions. He must punish sins, and He does
it. And He does it in the person of His Son. All these are those
works great and marvellous. In the language that we have
in Revelation 15, these who stand on that sea of glass mingled
with fire, With God's harps in their hands, they sing the song
of victory. They sing the song of Moses,
the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and
marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are
thy ways, thou King of saints. Now, two things then in the works
of God are brought out here. We see that God's works in justice,
When he condemns the wicked, we see that God works in mercy
when he saves his elect. And the language that we have
in the Revelation, so striking at times. There in Revelation
18-20, what does God say to his people? Rejoice over her, thou Heaven,
and ye Holy Apostles and Prophets, for God hath avenged you on her."
This is at the Dome of Babylon. Rejoice over her, thou Heaven,
and ye Holy Apostles and Prophets. It's interesting, there's a sermon
by Jonathan Edwards. on that very
verse, Revelation 18, 20. And it bears the title, The End
of the Wicked Contemplated by the Righteous. No Occasion of
Grief to the Saints in Heaven. You're probably aware of that
famous sermon of Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.
But that is also another striking sermon preached by that great
American theologian. where he speaks of the end of
the wicked and that being contemplated by the righteous in heaven and
it doesn't cause him any grief. No, rejoice over her thou heaven
and ye holy apostles and prophets for God hath avenged you on her. And then again later in chapter
19 here in Revelation. True and righteous are his judgments
for he has judged the great whore which did corrupt the earth with
her fornication and hath avenged the blood of his servants at
her hand. And again they said, Alleluia! And the smoke rose
up for ever and ever." And what do we see back in the portion
that we're considering in Exodus 15? We see the song of Moses
as a celebration of the way in which God had destroyed the armies
of the Pharaoh. And there's nothing wrong with
that. It's right, it's proper. All the praise, the glory must
be given unto God. As Moses says, I will prepare
Him an habitation, my Father's God, and I will exalt Him. But then it's not only justice,
it's also mercy. It's that song that they sing,
the song of Moses, the servant of the Lord and the song of the
Lamb. Previously in Revelation 5 verse
9 we're told how they sang a new song. Oh yes, the imagery is taken
from The Old Testament from what we have here in Exodus 15, but
there in Revelation 5, 9, they sang a new song, saying, Thou
art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for
thou was slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of
every kindred and tongue and people and nation. They rejoice in God's great work
of salvation. Or they rejoice in all that He
is, all that He has done. Now the Lamb is all the glory
there in heaven, in Emmanuel's land. It's a song of Moses, yes,
but it's a song of Moses the Lord's servant and the song of
the Lamb. And we remember always, of course, how that the law was
given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. As
we said on the Lord's Day, Moses was evidently the greatest of
all the prophets in the Old Testament. What are we told at the end of
the books of Moses there, Deuteronomy 34, there arose not a prophet
since in Israel. like unto Moses, whom the Lord
knew face to face in all the signs, and the wonders which
the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and
to all his servants, and to all his land, and in all that mighty
hand, and in all the great terror which Moses showed in the sight
of all Israel. And all the prophets of the Old
Testament, they appealed to Moses, as Isaiah says, to the law and
to the testament. If they speak not according to
this word, it is because there's no light in them. And the promise, the promise
that's given by God there in the 18th chapter of Deuteronomy,
that God will raise him up a prophet like unto Moses. But not only
like unto Moses, but greater than Moses. The law was given
by Moses. Grace and truth came. by Jesus
Christ. We sing that blessed song of
the Lamb then, but we see so much here in type. Then sang
Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and
spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord. For he hath triumphed
gloriously, the horse and his rider, hath he thrown into the
sea. The Lord is my strength and song. He has become my salvation. He
is my God. And I will prepare Him an habitation,
my Father's God. And I will exalt Him. Oh, let us not doubt then that
the Lord still has regard to His Israel, that spiritual Israel,
the election of grace, that poor, that afflicted people. those
that sigh and cry because of the abominations that are done
in the land. And we come together week by
week to seek His face, to lay these matters before Him. Oh,
the Lord help us then as we pray to believe that the heavens do
truly reign and that our God has triumphed and will triumph
gloriously. Mother Lord, bless his word to
us. Now let us before we do pray
sing our second hymn of praise 833 and the tune Swabia number
71. Thy mercy Lord we praise of judgment
too we sing for all the riches of thy grace our grateful tribute
bring the hymn 833