Several of you have mentioned
I'm getting hard to hear. And I am. I've had a habit of
dropping off at the end of a sentence ever since I've preached. But
now that I'm getting an old man's voice, it's getting worse. I'm
starting to sound like Walter Brennan. I realized that the other day.
I said, man, I'm sounding like Walter Brennan. But I'm going
to start wearing a mic whenever we can find it, and I'm going
to try to remember not to do that, because I listened to myself
not long ago, and I thought, Man, I can't even hear myself.
I couldn't hear my eyes dropping off so much. So I'll try not
to do that, but habits are hard to break. The title of this first
message, Lord willing, I'm going to bring two messages from this
portion of Scripture. Verses 1-21, This morning the
first recorded song of praise, that s the title of the message,
the first recorded song of praise, and Lord willing, well it won
t be next Sunday, it will be the next week, the week after
that, from redemption to worship. I
want to talk a lot about worship, the worship in the Lord Jesus
Christ. But this morning I want to look, I really want to do
an overview of the psalm first, and then we'll go back next week.
But this is the first recorded song of praise. Now I know that
others sang, they sang unto the Lord songs of praise, but this
one is the first recorded song. And what a fitting song for the
first one recorded after redemption, after the lamb was slain, the
blood was shed, and they were delivered. What a fitting song
to be recorded. It's the first song of praise.
And true worship does not happen until we understand our full
salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's when we truly worship
the Lord, when we have a real understanding of Christ crucified. In Psalm 47, 7, For God is the
King of all the earth, seeing ye praises with understanding. The songs we just sang, did you
understand what you were singing? Songs of redemption. Now in verse
1, Moses and the children of Israel, they land safe on the
other side of the Red Sea. Before they crossed, they were
murmuring, complaining, and now they're singing. And really, when we finish out
this chapter 15, they're back to complaining. How sad. My,
the patience and long-suffering of God with us. Because shortly after this, they
complain again. We have no water. We have no
water. But anyway, they're on the other
side of the Red Sea, safe, safe and sound. And they sing this
song and Moses leads them in this singing. And this song is
all about the Lord. It's all about Him. Our song
should be all about Him. Not us, about Him. In this song,
reference to the name Lord or Jehovah is made reference 12
times. And reference is made to He,
Him, Thy, and Thee thirty-three times. In reference to man, and
what He's done is reference zero times. You see, true worship
is when we focus on Him. It's all about Him. And the theme
of this Psalm is God's glorious triumph over Pharaoh. and Egyptians who held them in
bondage. They were slaves to them. It
says in verse 1, The horse and his rider hath he thrown into
the sea. God threw them into the sea. And I don't hear any apologies
being made at all for it. What do we have to sing about?
You know, they sang at that time for that physical deliverance
from Egypt and going across the Red Sea and they're safe now
over on the other side of the Red Sea. What do we have to sing
about? You see, our song is a spiritual
song. Worthy is the Lamb, slain, who's
redeemed us to God. Our song is a song of the Lord
Jesus Christ's triumph over Satan who held us captive. He held
us in bondage. It's the Lord's triumph over
sin. He said sin shall not have dominion over you. That's what
Paul wrote in Romans and I can say that's what the Lord said
because He moved Paul to write it. This is God's Word. And He
has triumphed over the curse of the law. He's removed that
curse from every one of us who believe. Every one of us. Every sinner whom God brings
to faith, that curse has been removed. But to those who die
in unbelief, that curse is still there. That's the only curse
that's real. A voodoo curse, you know, a pincushion
curse, that's not real. NOBODY PUT A CURSE ON YOU, BUT
THERE IS A LAW CURSE. CURSED IS EVERYONE THAT CONTINUES
NOT IN THE THINGS CONTAINED IN THE LAW. THAT'S A REAL CURSE. BUT WE'VE BEEN DELIVERED FROM
THAT. AND WE'VE BEEN DELIVERED FROM OURSELVES. LORD, BOY IF
I LEARNED THIS, DELIVER ME FROM MYSELF, MY OWN BELIEF, MY SINFUL
NATURE THAT I'VE BEEN Deliver me from that. Deliver
me from myself. You see, we have something to
sing about. It's all about the Lord and what He's done. We have
more to sing about because what we have to sing about is spiritual
and not just of this flesh. And then we see the praise of
God s character and salvation in verses 2 and 3. And I want
you to notice this in verse, well let s read verse 1. 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 he has thrown into the
sea. The LORD is, MY STRENGTH AND SONG, HE'S BECOME MY SALVATION,
HE'S MY GOD, I WILL PREPARE HIM IN HABITATION, MY FATHER'S GOD,
AND I WILL EXALT HIM. The LORD IS, HE THAT COMETH TO
GOD MUST BELIEVE THAT HE IS, THAT HE IS WHO HE SAYS HE IS,
AS HE'S REVEALED HIMSELF IN HIS WORD, BUT WE'VE GOT A GLIMPSE
HERE OF WHO HE IS. THE LORD IS MY STRENGTH. THIS IS MORE THAN THE LORD GIVING
ME STRENGTH. HE DOES. THE LORD GIVES ME STRENGTH
EVERY DAY. HE GIVES ME STRENGTH TO GET OUT
OF BED. THE LORD HAS GIVEN US STRENGTH TO BE HERE THIS MORNING.
HE'S GIVEN US THE DESIRE TO BE HERE THIS MORNING. THE ABILITY
TO BE HERE THIS MORNING. THERE ARE SOME WHO WOULD LIKE
TO BE HERE THIS MORNING THAT CAN'T. BUT THE LORD HAS GIVEN US STRENGTH. BUT HERE, LISTEN, HE IS MY STRENGTH. as He is my life. He doesn't
just give me my life, He is my life. He's my wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. These are not just things He
gives me, these are things He is to me. Everything the Lord
gives me, and I put this in the bulletin, everything He gives
to me, He is to me. He is the embodiment of it. He's my strength and He's my
song. He's my song. He's the song of
my heart, my song of praise, my song of joy. He's my song. The other morning, I take Gus
out every morning, about six o'clock or so. And boy, I just
hear the birds singing. And I was listening to them sing
and I thought, how quiet this world would be If there were
no birds, if there were no crickets and birds, it would be dead silence. But they're singing. God's given
them a song. And He's put a song in our hearts.
He's given us a song. It's a song of praise and a song
of joy, a song of thanksgiving. He's given us a SONG to sing. Listen, He's my strength, He's
my song, He's my salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ is my salvation. I don't look to or think of my
faith as salvation. I don't think of repentance as
my salvation. I do not think, and I know I
don't, I don't think of the doctrines I believe as my salvation. There's
a man in glory seated at God's right hand that's my salvation.
He's there representing me, interceding for me. He's there as my Mediator,
as my Advocate, as my High Priest, as my Sacrifice. He's there for
me, personal. He has become my Salvation. Now
brethren, if God's my Salvation, I can't lose it. Because if I
could, because I believe I would, I'd do everything I can to do
it. We sin far more than we realize. And this God is worthy of worship. Nobody else is, nothing else
is. This God is worthy of worship. I can't imagine, I cannot imagine
going through life, going through my whole life and never worshiping
God, never giving Him the praise, the glory, and the honor that's
due His name. Can you imagine what kind of
life that is? Well, if you had a child that's just ungrateful,
unthankful, whatever, What ought to happen? I said,
Lord, don't let me be ungrateful and unthankful. What You've given
me. You give me breath, life. You give me my family. You take
care of me every day. Oh, don't let me be an ungrateful
child. And now listen, and there's no apology for this. Verse 3,
THE LORD IS A MAN OF WAR. HE IS NO WEAK SOVEREIGN. HE'S NO WEAK LIMP-WRIST LEADER. You say, that's not very politically
correct. No, but it's Biblically correct.
He's not weak. He's not weak. He's a man of
war. When a battle needs to be fought,
guess who fights it? The Lord said, ìThe battle is
not yours, it is Mine.î Listen to this in Revelation 19, verse
11, ìAnd I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and
he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness
he does judge and make war.î You know there is a spiritual
war going on right now? We see the wars that goes on
in this world, like the one right now over in Russia and Ukraine,
and there's always going to be wars, wars and rumors of wars,
always. But I'm telling you, there's
a greater war going on that we can't see with our physical eyes.
Every war that we see on this earth, there's a spiritual war
behind it. Was it Michael the Archangel
who spoke to, I'm going to get in, my mind is, I can't quote
it, so I'm not going to get into it. But he had said, I got to
go back and help the king of Persia. There's a war going on. He was going to help fight it.
It may have been Daniel he was talking
to, but anyway, some of you who read the Bible, you know what
I'm talking about. But He says that He doeth judge and make
war. And notice here, He is called the LORD as Jehovah is a MAN. Now I know God is spoken of in
the masculine form all the time, but God is SPIRIT. I have no
doubt this is a prophecy of the Incarnation of the Son of God. He came into this world and did
battle. When he hung on Calvary's tree, there was a war going on.
Guess who got defeated? It wasn't the one hanging on
it, Satan and sin. And this human race, this ungodly
human race, the Lord's defeated them. He's on the throne, the
battle's already won, you know that? The battle is already won,
the victory's already his. You and I just got to experience
some things that we may be conformed to the image of Christ. But the
victory is won. I already know who won. And I'll prepare him a habitation
there in verse 2, where it has the meaning of I will praise
him. You know it says in Psalm 22.3,
our Lord is praying. He says, But thou art holy. That
never changes. Whatever God does, don't ever
think of Him as being unholy or that's not right. No, it is right. If God did it,
it's right. OR THOU THAT INHABITEST THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL Our Lord
inhabited our praises this morning. I just can't comprehend that.
But He just took in all of our praises. Psalm 65, verse 1, Praise waiteth
for thee, O God, in Zion, and unto thee shall the vow be performed.
But praise waiteth for thee, O God, it continually, continually
waits for thee. God is continually praised. You
know, every believer desires to praise God. I WISH I COULD
PRAISE GOD AS I OUGHT TO. I WISH WE FROM OUR HEARTS COULD
PRAISE HIM AS HE OUGHT TO BE PRAISED, TO GIVE UNTO HIM THE
GLORY DUE UNTO HIS NAME, AS WE OUGHT TO, AS WE OUGHT TO. ALL BLESSINGS FLOW TO US THROUGH
HIM. BUT I ALSO THOUGHT ABOUT CHRIST, THE MAN CHRIST JESUS
HAS PREPARED A HABITATION FOR GOD AND IT'S the church. God dwells in His people. You
are the temple of God. God dwells in His people. We
are the habitation of God. Of all the places God could dwell,
of all the places that God could create and dwell, He chose us
to make us a habitation. Oh, what we are about to experience
here in just a little And then we see in verses 4 through
10, God defeats the Egyptian army, Pharaoh and his army. He defeats them, which really
is a type of our sins and Satan being defeated. You know, whenever
Israel went on dry ground and they all landed on the other
side and God brought that sea back, they saw them floating
dead upon the shore. God has put away all our sins,
they're gone. Just like that army, just like that Egyptian
army, all were coming after the Israelites, God's children, and
God put them away. He drowned them. Like He says,
I've cast all thy sins. All my sins are cast into the
depths of the sea. God took Pharaoh, his chariots,
and his elite troops, and He drowned them in the sea. THE
THING THAT ISRAEL FEARED THE MOST IS GONE. GOD PUT THEM AWAY. OUR MOST POWERFUL ENEMIES ARE
NO MATCH FOR CHRIST. THEY'RE NO MATCH FOR CHRIST.
WHAT ARE YOU UP AGAINST? CHILD OF GOD, WHAT ARE YOU UP AGAINST?
IF YOU'RE NOT, YOU WILL BE. BUT THAT PROBLEM IS NO MATCH
FOR GOD. HE'S NO MATCH FOR HIM. you'll endure the trial until
it's done until the lesson is learned christ is glorified and
then the trial of the trial will be removed and then another one
will come and the lord will do the same
thing bring you through it instruct you teach you conform you to
the image of christ and then take it away and then the next
one will come until time shall be no more Our most powerful enemies are
no match for the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord can put away our worst
sins. Our worst sins. Nobody in here
wants anybody else to know their worst sins. God knows it. And He put it away. David, adultery
and murder. And you know what Nathan said
to him? God hath put away your sins. God has put it away. In verse 6 and 7 we see God's
power in His right hand and His wrath have they destroyed the
enemy. Thy right hand, O LORD, is become
glorious in power. Thy right hand, O LORD, hath
dashed in pieces the enemy. And in the greatness of thine
excellency, in the greatness of thy person, thou hast overthrown
them that rose up against thee. Thou sentest forth thy wrath,
which consumed them as stubble." God's powerful right hand. Who
is this? The Lord Jesus Christ. This is
the right hand This is the arm of the Lord. He said in Isaiah
42, Behold My servant, he shall not fail. He shall not fail. He shall not fail to deliver.
He shall not fail to redeem. He shall not fail to save. He
shall not fail. And those waters in verse 8,
And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together.
I thought about that this morning. You know what this shows? THIS
SHOWS HOW EASY GOD DESTROYS THOSE WHO OPPOSE HIM. YOU COULDN'T BLOW A FLOWER OFF
YOUR ARM WITH YOUR NOSTRILS. YOU COULDN'T BLOW DUST OFF THE
DESK WITH YOUR NOSTRILS. BUT THIS IS HOW EASY GOD CAN
DESTROY YOU JUST WITH THE BLAST OF HIS NOSTRILS. HE CAN PART
THE RED SEA. I THOUGHT MY SOUL IF HE BLEW
WITH THE BREATH OF HIS MOUTH HE'D REMOVE THE UNIVERSE. It
removes the universe. You know, you can blow something
off the desk with your breath. If you take your mouth and just
blow it, you can blow it. You can't blow anything with
your nostril, but God can. Because He's God. That's just
a demonstration. What it is, it's a small demonstration
of the power of God. Just a blast of His nostrils.
That's all. Nothing is a problem with God.
Oh, if we could remember that. I'm always thinking I got this
problem, I got problems. God has no problems. Our God
has no problems. Zero. What He does have is a people
He's saving and conforming to the image of His Son. That's
what's going on right now. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
subduing all powers to Himself. And then we see here the arrogance
in verse 9. The arrogance of the enemies
of God. The enemy said, I will pursue,
I will overtake, I will divide, despoil, my lust shall be satisfied
upon them, I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. You
notice something in this verse that keeps popping up? I will, I will pursue, I will overtake,
I will divide, despoil, I will draw the sword. That's what Satan
said in Isaiah 42, I mean Isaiah 14, 12 through 15. I will ascend
to the heavens, I will have my throne above the throne of God.
No, you won't. I will. And I thought this morning,
I WILL, and I believe I'm right, I will is the cause of all conflicts. I will is the cause of all conflicts.
I will is the downfall of all marriages. It's the downfall
of all marriages. He says, I will, and she says,
the hell you will. And then it's all downhill from
there. It's all downhill from there.
If we take God at His Word and we conduct ourselves according
to the Word of God, that's not going to be a problem. Because
we're going to first submit to God's will. And I'll tell you
what, that'll take care of all of the problems. That'll take
care of all of the problems. And then there in God in verse
10, and he says here, God, thou didst blow with thy wind, and
the sea covered them, and they sank as lead in the mighty waters.
And they rejoiced. There's going to be a day. There's
going to be a day. When God Almighty cast the wicked
into hell, all the unbelieving world into hell, and it says
this in the Roman Revelation, and the whole host of heaven
is going to shout hallelujah, hallelujah. If a mad dog came into this room,
and I shot it, and I killed it, I believe every person in this
room would thank me. I think you would. And when God does away with the
wicked, we're gonna say hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. We don't have
to deal with this no more. We don't have to deal with it
no more. And then here in verse 11 and 12, here's a declaration
of God's uniqueness and His power. Boy, ought to always be aware
of the uniqueness of God. There's none like Him. He said,
there's none like me. There's none like me. Who are you going
to compare me to? No one like the Lord among the
gods. No one in Egypt could do what
God did, remember? He brought those plagues and
the Egyptians, those magicians tried to mimic it. He let them do it a couple of
times. You know, God will send you strong delusion to believe
a lie and be damned if you don't believe Him. Yeah, He'll let
that magician make a snake too. He'll just cement you in your
delusion. He'll turn your back on Him.
But for the most part, they couldn't do anything. There's nothing
like God. They even had to say that. They
even had to say there's nothing like the God of Israel. HE'S GLORIOUS IN HOLINESS! EVERYTHING
HE DOES IS IN HOLINESS! He does no wrong. Be careful
when we go through something difficult and we charge God with
folly or question His wisdom. Be careful with that. Let's be
careful with that. DOING WONDERS, HE SAID! DOING WONDERS! WONDERS
OF GRACE! I tell you what, I'm looking
at wonders of God's grace. WONDERS OF GRACE! It's a wonder
you and I are here this morning and not someplace else. It's
a wonder we're here. Wonder of POWER, we are the POWER
of God. You know you are, every believer
here is a demonstration of the POWER of God. It's not that God
offered you salvation and you chose it. God saved you, He commanded
LIFE, He commanded LIFE Just like in the beginning in Genesis
when He commanded LIGHT, He commanded LIFE. It took the same CREATIVE
POWER to give you LIFE right now as it did in Genesis when
He created the heavens and the earth. Oh, it is a wonder of
God's POWER! You are a wonder of God's POWER!
It is a wonder of DELIVERANCE! You know, Calvary is a wonder
of wonders! It is an absolute wonder of wonders!
GOD in HUMAN FLESH HANGING ON THAT TREE! REDEEMING PURCHASING
A MULTITUDE OF SINNERS NO MAN CAN NUMBER HE DELIVERED HIS PEOPLE SAFE
ACROSS THE RED SEA. Listen, what was a deliverance
for them was DEATH TO THE OTHER. Does it not say that the gospel
is a saver of life unto life to some and a saver of death
unto death to some? What became a way of salvation for the Israelites
became a way of death for the Egyptians. And I tell you what I do with
that, I bow to it. I bow to the sovereign will of
God in all things. Then in verse 13 through 18,
I wind this up. We see God's guidance. Who guided
them through the Red Sea? The same one that guided them
through the wilderness, which we're about to go through. We
see his guidance and future promises in 13, 18. Thou and thy mercy has led forth
the people which thou hast redeemed. And it's a good thing, he says,
thou and thy mercy you led them forth because they started complaining
just shortly after they got over on dry ground. Thou and thy mercy. They don't
deserve this. They ought to be drowned right
there with the Egyptians. They ought to be drowned with
them for complaining against God on every turn. But he didn't. He didn't. And I can tell you,
there are many, many times God ought to drown me with the rest
of this world and perdition, but He's not. He's not. Because He sees me and deals
with me in His Son, Jesus Christ. I see that more clearly now than
I ever have in my life. And that's where, and I realize
now, listen, when you grow in grace and you grow in knowledge
of Christ, that's where an assurance starts to grow. Because your
assurance is in Him, not in your feelings, not in a profession. It's in that one seat of God's
right hand. Which thou hast redeemed, thou
hast guided, thou hast redeemed, you've purchased IF GOD PURCHASED
SOMETHING, YOU THINK HE'S GOING TO HAVE IT? HE'S GOING TO HAVE
IT! HE PURCHASED IT! He says, YOU PURCHASED THESE
PEOPLE, THOU HAST GUIDED THEM IN THY STRENGTH UNTO THY HOLY
HABITATION. We're going to GLORY! We're going to where God dwells!
That's where He's guiding us to! and he says here the people shall
hear and they are going to be afraid and sorrow is going to
take hold of the inabitants and he names these places and he
said fear of you because you are God's people and what God
has done with you, through you, for you, they are going to stand
in fear. I am going to plant you and I
shall bring them in His people's purchase, listen, fear and dread
is going to be upon them. And verse 16, by the greatness
of thine arm, they shall be as still as stone. That's their
enemies, till thy people pass over. He's not going, Christ
said, I won't lose a one. I will not lose one sheep. All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. I'm not going to
lose one of them. Who is able to separate us from
the love of God over in Romans 8? Go over and read that, nothing. He names off His list of things,
nothing. Oh Lord, till the people pass
over them, they are safe, which You have purchased. And
Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of
Thine inheritance. We are going to be TREES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS,
it says in Isaiah, the planting of the Lord. O LORD, which thou hast made
for thee to dwell in, in the sanctuary, O LORD, which thy
hands have established. Salvation is of the LORD, this
is all of God, you know salvation is all of God, from Alpha to
Omega. At no time do I add to it, at
no time do I make myself secure, my security is in my Lord, in
my Lord. and listen here in verse 8 and
the Lord the Lord shall reign the Lord Jehovah the Lord Jesus
shall reign forever and ever every leader on this earth has
a time limit he's got a shelf life if he doesn't get put out
by the people if God doesn't use the people to put him out
death's gonna put him out he's gonna die what's gonna happen
But not the Lord Jesus Christ, not the man Christ Jesus. His
reign is forever and ever. For the horse, he recaps here,
he recaps the Red Sea event in verse 19. For the horse of Pharaoh
went in with his chariots, with his horsemen into the sea, and
the Lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them. But the
children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea. And Miriam the prophetess, the
sister of Aaron, she took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women
went out after her with timbrels and with dance." Remember David
danced before the Lord, his wife got mad, you know, you dancing
out there showing off in front of all those women? Well, I'm not going to start
dancing right now, but I can tell you this, I can. There's
times I've sat when Henry's preaching, man, I wanted to stand up and
just shout. I wanted to become a Pentecostal
for a minute. I'm being stupid now, but I understand. I understand. I do. I understand. Sometimes it's
hard to contain. It's really I mean when the Lord
makes it so real to you and what you're about to receive and who
you're about to be with it's when it becomes so real it's
hard to contain it in this body. It's hard to do it. And Miriam answered them. She
didn't change the song. She didn't change the song. Sing
ye to the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously the horse and his
rider hath he THROWN INTO THE SEA, THE LORD HATH PUT AWAY ALL
MY SINS. They're gone. Satan has no power. He's nothing more than a pit
bull on a chain. He's only allowed to do what God allows him to
do for God's glory and my good and your good. This is the first
song of praise and how fitting a song and a time for it to be
recorded. Alright.