Join me if you would in the book
of Revelation chapter 15, and I thought we were going to get
through this chapter, but we're not. We're not going to get through
verse 3. And I appreciated some of the
things that Robert Hawker had to say. Sometimes he doesn't
say a lot about a passage, but sometimes there's two or three
pages, and he said, Paraphrasing this is worthy of looking into
and this these two verses here that mention the song of Moses
and the song of the lamb the words of the singers are just
overwhelming This could be made into a song to sing here, because
we're going to get to sing it in glory. That's what it says
in Revelation 15, verses 1, 2, 3, and 4. And I saw another sign in heaven,
great and marvelous. And that word marvelous means
passing human comprehension. It was great and marvelous. The
reason I brought that up is because we're going to run into it again
in verse 3 there. Great and marvelous, seven angels
having the seven last plagues for in them is filled up the
wrath of God. And I saw as it were a sea of
glass mingled with fire. 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. Now
these are the redeemed ones. And they stand on this sea. And
we mentioned as we went over that, that they stand on the
gospel. They stand on the covenant of
grace. They stand on God's free grace
in Christ Jesus. That's all the church stands
in. They don't stand in any of their
works. It is no wonder that the Apostle Paul was used by the
Holy Spirit to write, there's wood, hay, and stubble, gold,
silver, and precious stones. Now, if we're standing in our
own righteousness, we're not standing on a sea of glass. We're
not standing on these endurable, long-term, everlasting comforts
of grace. We're standing on our own righteousness. It is wood, hay, and stubble,
and it says when they are set to fire, they'll be consumed. Now that's the difference between
standing in Christ and standing in our own righteousness, is
when the heat hits, that will be gone, and so will those who
practice them. We must be standing on this righteousness
of Christ, trusting in his blood and righteousness alone. And
it says there, having the harps of God, and
they sing the song of Moses. And we looked last week and saw
that that song of Moses is a song of victory, number of stanzas. Moses was given words to make
more than all the stanzas of amazing grace. That whole chapter
is filled with his gracious words given to him by the Holy Spirit
to describe the victory that God had over Egypt on the behalf
of the Jews, on the behalf of the Hebrews. And I'm convinced
that when those Egyptians began to travel down between those
great walls of water, they felt like they were going to be able
to accomplish exactly what those ahead of them had. And yet we
find that that kind of faith, and not faith in God, that kind
of faith will fail. They had faith But it failed. Faith that is given to us by
Christ will not fail. Our own faith will fail. But
his faith given to us will not fail. And then it says they sang
the, he's the servant of God, and they sang the song of the
lamb. Now notice these words. It's
just taking all of that Song of Moses and all the Song of
the Lamb and putting them together in a verse and a half that is
absolutely chocked full. There is no extra room. It is so full. This is what they said, great
and marvelous are thy works. Lord God Almighty, just and true
are thy ways, thou King of saints or King of nations. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord,
and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy, for all
nations shall come and worship before thee, for thy judgments
are made manifest. Now there's, I don't, haven't
studied this out, and I don't pretend to, no, but there's an
interesting term in that verse four, for all nations shall come
and worship before thee. Now there's a difference between
that and worshiping the Lord. I almost am of the opinion right
now, without going any further, I may change my mind between
now and next Wednesday, but the saints worship the Lord, and
the goats are going to worship before the Lord. They won't worship beneficially,
but they will bow their knee to him. All right, I just, I'm
gonna spend a little time tonight on those words that are mentioned
there in this, these words of the Song of Moses and the Song
of the Lamb. Great and marvelous are thy works. Great and marvelous. The first
thing that came to me is that the fact that there is a church
is an act of God. that there just is a church,
that there just is an assembly, that there just are lambs, there
are sheep, there are saviors. That's an act of God. It is recorded
in the book of Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2, that he is the looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Just to have a
church sitting at the feet of Jesus and to have the body of
Christ in the world today is a miracle of grace. And to have
it uncorrupted, declaring the free grace of God and enduring
to the end, that's an act of God. We know our frame. We get tired. We get weary. But he doesn't, and we're thankful
he doesn't. We sometimes cast to the right
hand or to the left hand, but he doesn't. Sometimes we look
up or we look down, but he doesn't. He is ever abiding to make sure
that all his children will endure to the end. He doesn't leave
it to them. He carries his sheep. And so
just to have a church, just to have a body, the believers in
Christ Jesus in this world today is a miracle of God's grace.
But to have that body, to have these uncorrupted and enduring
to the end, is all of grace. And when we see that, when God
is accomplishing what he wants to accomplish in his church,
the words that come out of the mouth of those who know that
kind of grace are, great and marvelous are thy works. I know
my frame, I know, we sang a song, that the sun would come down
and converse with worms. Those old writers, they just
put it in real perspective for us. It's been changed over time,
and these songs have been changed in the new hymn books, but those
old guys, they just put it right in perspective. God, the Lord
Jesus Christ, came down and talked to worms. Not only did that,
but he laid down his life for them, and now they're called
his sheep. and it just to have them. The
gates of hell will not prevail against the church and the teaching
of the church. I'm amazed after all the assaults
that have gone on against the church and against God's word
and against God's word to the church and against the saving
matter of saving people, the doctrine that we know as the
doctrines of grace, the assaults, the assaults from all sides against
that, that it's still here. But he said to Peter and to his
disciples, Upon this rock I'll build my church, and the gates
of hell will not prevail against it. What's that mean? The doctrine
won't change. The teachings won't change. Salvation
won't change. Why? Because people don't change.
The same need is here. It's prevalent and prominent.
The need is here. And the same thing that saved
sinners in centuries past is what's required to save sinners
today, and that's the free grace of God. the gospel in its purity
and in simplicity, not making it more than it is or less than
it is, but preaching it and allowing the Holy Spirit to take it and
apply it to people's lives. People say, well, I don't think
he's doing it anymore. He still is. We're here. God's still doing
it. He saves his people. God's still
applying His grace, and it takes that word of grace. Now, let's
look at these two words, great and marvelous. Great, that word
is used over 80 times in the book of Revelation alone. It's
used almost as much in the book of Revelation as it's used in
the rest of the New Testament. And if we just followed that
through the book of Revelation, we'd find out God's doing great
things. He's doing it against great things
too. The great city of Babylon, Babylon
the great, the great grace of God is going up against the great
city of Babylon and what? Overcoming it. Going up against
great sin and overcoming it. Going up against great enemies
and overcoming them. His greatness is greater than
the greatness of anything that this world has ever produced.
And greater than the sin of Adam. His grace is greater than Adam's
sin. And that was great sin. But his greatness is greater.
In fact, the church says, Lord God Almighty. And we can put
another L in there and really get what that means. Every bit
complete and total mighty. Nothing is out of your power. Nothing is free floating. Everything
is in your power. Great and marvelous are thy works. Lord God Almighty. Turn with me if you would to
the book of Matthew chapter two. Matthew chapter two. Matthew chapter 2, we have the
same word used here, great and marvelous, great and marvelous.
Sometimes it's translated just a little bit different, but we
just run into this word and it's all through the New Testament
and it has to do generally with the greatness of God, using that
name of Him, Lord God Almighty. Now, everything that the Lord
God Almighty does is great. He stilled a great wind and produced
a great calm. We can't comprehend that calm.
Nancy and I were driving down the river the other day and we
looked out and it was just like glass. There's just a few places
like that. That lake was calm. There wasn't
even a ripple on it. And that wind was greatly stilled. There wasn't even a breath left.
Every time God acts, it is great. And that's what Saul of Tarsus
said about the grace of God when he saved a great sinner. It's
great grace saves great sinners. And he's a great savior. All
right, Matthew chapter two, verse 10. Matthew chapter 2 and verse
10, it says here, when they saw the star, they rejoiced with
exceeding great joy. When God's people see the Savior,
they rejoice with exceeding great joy. When they saw this miracle,
a new star moving across the heavens, placed there by God
to lead these people to the newborn Son of God, the incarnate Son
of God, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. It is unable to comprehend. That kind of joy, the world knows
nothing of it. Only the church understands this
kind of joy. It is God's joy given to us.
It's exceeding great joy. As we read there in Matthew chapter
two and verse 10, rejoice with exceeding great joy. I can't
put that into words. I can't mathematically draw that
out. It's X to the nth power, exceeding
great joy. You never get to the end of it.
Turn with me to the chapter 4 and verse 16. As we look at this
subject of great joy, exceeding great joy. Now, there is a light
that comes that's great light. It's incomprehensible and un-understandable. What does it say? Matthew chapter
four and verse 16, the people which sat in darkness saw great
light. Oh, a shaft of light come down
through the prison door. I see all kinds of stuff when
I'm subbing. I saw a really interesting video the other day on the sun.
Learned a lot about the sun, stuff that, was 16 millimeter
film when I was in school, if they had it. But here, there
is a building up in Sweden or Norway or somewhere
up there, has a door in it, the biggest man-made structure out
of stone in the world. There's one day of the year that
the sun shines down through that doorway with the brightest sun,
and that's the shortest day of the year. How those guys knew
how to do that. But here is an absolutely dark
place. It was a burial place. And the
shortest day of the year, a shaft of light comes down through there.
And that just reminded me of the great light of God coming
to where no other light could ever shine and shining upon death. in such victory and raising us
from the spiritual darkness and spiritual death to his great
resurrected glory. Here, the people that sat in
darkness saw a great light. Well, it may not be visible with
these eyes, but it is visible with this heart. It is a great
light. It's the light of God. There
was light before God created the sun. There was light before
God created the stars. There was light before God created
the moon. There was light, and that is a great light. It's the
light of God. It's the light of glory. It's
the light that those disciples, Peter, James, and John saw on
the Mount of Transfiguration. They were standing in a place
to see the Son of God in His glory. And it said the only way
that the Holy Spirit could give to the writers to describe that
was it was his clothes were whiter than any bleach could bleach
him. Any fuller, any bleach. That's just as much as could
be described about it. The light of his face. Now we
hear of and read about Moses being up on Mount Sinai and coming
down, they'd put a veil over him, you know. With Christ, this
light is to our advantage. We don't ask for a veil. The
law, my goodness, cover him up, cover him up, cover him up. But
with Christ, oh, great light. They that sat in darkness saw
a great light, verse 16, and to them which sat in the region
of the shadow of death, light is sprung up. All right, just
a little further in this book of Matthew, chapter 27. Now in
chapter 27, there are several greats. I've almost said that
looks like a good Easter sermon. Right here. Great. Just to grab this a little bit
of what those saints were singing, the Song of Moses and the Song
of the Lamb. Great and marvelous are thy works,
O Lord God Almighty, incomprehensible with the natural mind, and it
is staggering to the spiritual mind. incomprehensible to lost
dead people without Christ and without God and without help
in the world. But to save people is still striking. It's no wonder
that Peter said, we really need to build three tabernacles here.
It is great light that they saw, incomprehensible light, light
that was beyond their greatest imagination. They'd never seen
anything like it. And I'm afraid that Peter spoke
for everybody. We got to do something here.
This is just too much. And the Lord was spoken of, this
is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Here he is. Don't go off and build something. Don't go off and do something.
Hear Him. It's all that's expected of us.
Hear Him. Our whole being is to be active. Sometimes it's just the hardest
thing that I've ever had to learn to do is sit and relax. Because
I grew up not ever relaxed. There was always work to do.
Religion is just that way. It takes God's grace to make
us sit down under his vine just to be at rest with him. Now,
notice here in Matthew 27, verse 46. And about the ninth hour, Jesus
cried with a Great voice. That's what that word is. Same
word, loud voice. I cannot imagine how loud that
is. We have it described in the book of Revelation as the sound
of thunder. I mean, being right under the
thundercloud, being right there where it shakes your teeth. That
thunder shaking you, that's what this is. He cried with a loud
voice, a great voice. There are several things that
that shares with us about the crucifixion. Number one, he did
not die from nails. He did not die from beating. He did not die because he was
suspended between heaven and earth. He did not die from the
loss of blood. He did not die because he couldn't
breathe. He laid down his life that he might take it up again.
He is sharing with us in this great loud voice, I am in command
of all things. They're not taking my life. I'm
laying it down. They didn't take me. I gave myself. We've been hearing that in the
Bible class. They didn't take him. He laid
his life down. He gave himself. He gave up to
them. They took him off because he
wanted to be taken off, or they'd have never taken him off. And
so it is with a loud voice. Verse 46 there, it says, with
a loud voice, cried with a loud voice, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani,
that is to say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? In
absolute control, he speaks to God. Prior to this, he says,
Father. After this, he says, Father.
Right now, he is excluded from that conversation because he
is sin for us. He is feeling the pain of his
iniquity. That verse over in the Psalms.
Now it's not his by nature, and it's not his by practice, and
it's not his in that sense, not by birth, but it's his because
he claimed it. He claimed the sins of his people. He took upon himself that claim. He became great and mighty in
sin. because of us. Father, my God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? And then in that same chapter,
in verse 50, it says, Jesus, when he had cried again with
a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. I am in command. It is
a great, great and marvelous Great voice, loud voice. This is a voice that shook the
earth from its poles, on its poles. And then we read in the
next verse 60 of that same chapter, it says, and they laid it in
his own new tomb, which he had hewn out of the rock, and he
rolled a great stone. Same word, great. I can't imagine
how big this is. This is more than just a two
foot stone. This is a great stone. It's thick. It's heavy, it's tall, it is
a great stone. It is as great in its greatness
as the greatness of the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
it is as great in its mass as it is great and marvelous are
thy works. This is a seal for a tomb. This is not something that some
grave robber can come by and move. The ladies themselves said,
who's, we forgot something. Where's Peter, James, John, Andrew,
Philip, and Bartholomew when we need them? There's a great
stone there. Who is going to remove that stone
for us? We forgot about that. It's a
great stone. Why? Because there is one sealed
in there who is a great God, a great Savior with great sin
that must be in this earth for three days and three nights.
A great stone covered him up. He's covered by a great purpose,
great determination, great pleasure, as we find in the book of Hebrews.
Again, it says, who for the joy that was set before him endured
the cross, despising the shame, is now set down at the right
hand of the Father. This is a great stone. It is
equal to the great voice of God. It is equal to the great and
marvelous works. It is equal in its mass and its
size. And then we hear Pilate say,
go put some mortar around it, here's my ring, put this seal
in it, make it as sure as you can. It is a massive stone, not
one person's gonna move it away, probably not two or three, but
he made it as sealed as he could, and God rolled it away. All right,
let's go just a little further here in this next chapter, verse,
chapter 28, another couple more greats, verse two. And behold,
there was a great earthquake. Chile hasn't seen anything. Haiti
hasn't seen anything. This is a great earthquake. This
is so great that the saints are shook to life. It's a great earthquake. There's
a great earthquake where the angel of the Lord descended from
heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat
upon it. Great earthquake. I can't imagine
what that was like. And can you imagine living in
Jerusalem on these days? These have been pretty interesting
days. All the miracles that went on.
This man hung on a cross. Pilate washes his hands. Can
you imagine the priest going back home and says, I never saw
that before. He washed his hands from this. And the people in
the streets said, let his blood be upon us and our children.
And it has been. And then in that same chapter,
chapter 28 verse 8, and they departed quickly from
the sepulcher with fear and great joy. These ladies departed. Oh my
goodness. They saw something Marvelous,
great and marvelous are thy works. There's a great and marvelous
work took place that day. The stone is rolled back, but
it didn't let Jesus out. He's already gone. That angel
wasn't required to get involved to free the Lord Jesus. It's
going to be just a few days later, he's going to demonstrate that
to the church. He went through a wall without
opening the door. He went through a tomb without
opening the door. Oh, a sinful and adulterous generation
seek after a sign, but no sign shall be given but the sign of
the prophet Jonah. as Jonah was three days and three
nights. Now I'm not sure that Jonah understood
all that was going on, but Jesus, in the purpose of grace, said,
here is going to be a marvelous, great and marvelous type. We would say, with all intents
and purposes, if we're the mariners on that boat, and we help Jonah
overboard, because he begged us to. And a great fish comes
and swallows him up. We could write in a log book,
one guy died today and we'll never see him again. Wouldn't
it be interesting if those mariners traveled to Tarshish and there
was old Jonah? It was a great and marvelous
work. He's swallowed by a great fish. And three days and three
nights later, he is spewed out on the beach. Well, that fish
couldn't hold him any longer. And I like what a speaker at
camp said, this earth couldn't hold the Lord any longer. Great
and marvelous. What's it say there? Verse 28,
they went away with great joy. And the church has been ecstatic
about the resurrection of Jesus Christ ever since. It's been
great joy when we realize by the Holy Spirit's influence upon
us, by the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, that that
tomb is empty on purpose. It is empty because God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit were pleased with the
sacrifice of the Son, and now we're back where it was before
the world began, and a whole host of people will be as if
they had never sinned. They will go to their house justified. Sinners justified by Almighty
God great and marvelous turn with me if you would to John
19 verse 31 John 19 verse 31 this word is used again there
and it's used with regard to a day now this day Is the day
that they couldn't crucify Jesus on? That wasn't just the regular
Sabbath I Notice here, this is the Passover. And I like how
it's described here. It's called a high day. John 19 31. It says this, the Jews therefore,
because it was the preparation that the body should not remain
on the cross on the Sabbath day, for that Sabbath day was a high
and high day. Now the Passover, whenever it
came through, it's like your birthday. Every once in a while,
it falls on the same day that you were born. But most of the
time, it just travels through. And it moved, and sometimes it
fell on the Sabbath, and sometimes it fell after the Sabbath, on
the first day of the week, and sometimes on the second day of
the week. This time, it happened to fall before the Sabbath, and
it is called an high day, a great day. Now, for the church, we
can't say that enough. This is our Passover day. This
means so much more than that Passover ever meant to the Jews
when they left Egypt. This means when God the Father
sees the blood of His Son, which is the life, His life given a
ransom for many. He, the Father, will pass over
us because of the substitutionary death of the Son. And it will
be called a high day, a great day, a great day of redemption. It was a high day. Besought Pilate
that their legs might be broken, that he might be taken away.
And they came and found Jesus already dead because he gave
himself up. He was not gonna go through that. Not a bone would
be broken. They would be out of joint. But
they would not be broken, and the rest of those two others
were executed by the breaking of their legs. All right, and
one other verse. If you would turn with me to
the book of Acts chapter five and verse 33. Acts chapter five
and verse 33. Great and marvelous are thy works,
and the works of God are always great and marvelous. And here
in Acts chapter five, verse 33, The same word is used, but notice
with me. That's not the one I wanted. Chapter four, verse 33. All right,
thank you. Yes. And with great power gave
the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace
was upon them all. Now that's great grace. That's
loud grace. That's big grace. That's outstanding
grace. That's beyond human grace. This
is God's grace. It's great grace. Great power
gave the apostles witness of the resurrection. They spoke
with great power. They spoke with conviction. They spoke believing it. They
commented with regard to the Lord Jesus. They said, oh my,
he spoke with authority and not as one of the scribes. What's
that mean? He really believed what he was
saying. He really believed what he was
reading. And the church really believes
God. what he has said, what he is
saying, and what he will say. They believe it to the point
that they will say, singing the Song of Moses and the Song of
the Lamb, great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord God Almighty. And I don't know the meter, and
I don't know the tune, but I know the words. Great and marvelous
are thy works. And again, there's a cousin to
this word found in 2 Peter, 2 Peter. It's just a different form, but
it has the same meaning, much the same meaning. Read with me,
2 Peter 1, verse 4. When we're dealing with the Word
of God, and we're dealing with the promises of God, and we're
dealing with the purpose of God and the covenant of grace, listen
to what it says. Whereby are given unto us exceeding
great. Exceeding great. It wasn't enough
for the Holy Spirit just to leave us one word. He left us two.
Exceeding great. Exceeding great and precious
promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature
having escaped the corruption that is in the world through
lust. Ye, by these you might be partakers of the divine nature. And I'll tell you, that takes
great grace. that takes a great voice, that takes a great stone,
that takes a great earthquake, that takes a great God, that
takes a great Savior, that we might be partakers of the divine
nature. That's a birth. partakers of the divine nature,
exceeding great and precious promises. Where were they made
before the foundation of the world? When are they executed?
In time for every one of his lost sheep, exceeding great and
precious promises. The Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit promised together in covenant mercy. And now there's
exceeding great and precious promises on the church's behalf. And as a result of that, the
church might be partakers of the divine nature. Having God
as father. That's bigger than we can imagine. And then it goes on, and our
time is up. There's some marvelous things said too. Passing human
comprehension. And Lord willing, we'll look
at some of those next time. And then just to look at that,
just and true are thy ways. Thou King, who shall not fear
thee, O Lord, glorify thy name. You're only holy. All nations
shall come and worship before thee. Thy judgments are made
manifest. There's one thing about this
recognizing he's the Lord God Almighty and he's the King and
he is the Lord, is whatever he does is right. We're going to just a little
bit later, not far, not very far. We're getting to the point
where God shows what will happen to those without Christ. And
the church is already singing the song. Great. Your purposes are perfect. Whatever you say is right. You're
the only holy one, just and true are thy ways. Preparing the church. Just...