This portion of scripture that
I read to you is the very first song that was ever sung that
is recorded in the Bible. It's the first piece of poetry. It's much older than any other
poetry or any other song that has ever been written or sung. Now that's not to say that the
saints of God before this didn't sing. I suspect they did. You
know, Adam, God made him full of intelligence. And I would
think that he would have composed a hymn of worship unto his creator. I just believe that. And I believe
that when God gave him Eve, that the two of them would worship
God in singing. However, it isn't recorded that
they did. I would think that after the Son
of God killed animals, and then shed the blood and skinned those
animals, and then robed Adam and Eve I would think that they'd
break out in singing. Oh, thank you, God, for saving
us. Thank you for sparing us. Thank
you for finding a suitable, innocent victim that that animal, those
two animals would die and Adam and Eve would be spared. I'd
want to sing then, wouldn't you? I'd want to praise the Lord.
Because the Lord had said in the day thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die. And they did die spiritually,
but they didn't drop dead physically. I think they'd be singing about
the the goodness of God to them, the mercy of God to them, just
like we enjoy singing of the mercy and grace of God, and of
the sacrifice that the Son of God gave to the Father, to divine
justice that put away our sins, and we break out in singing,
we sing the songs of redemption unto our God. I would think that
Abel would have sung of substitution. He brought the firstling of his
flock. He brought lambs and offered
them to God. And he blessed the name of God.
And I would think that Enoch did as well. He walked with God
and was not, for God took him. And Noah when God shut the door
of the ark and there's no one, his wife and the sons and daughters-in-law
safe on the inside and the fountains of the deep were opened up and
the windows of heaven were opened up and that great canopy, that
great canopy of water that was over the earth, God broke it
loose in just a tremendous onslaught of water, a great flood of waters
came, and they're safe on the inside. And perhaps they could
hear the squealing and the yelling and the fearful voices, the cries
of the people who were perishing just outside of that ark. I would
think that Noah and Mrs. Noah and the sons and daughters-in-law
would have said, let's sing praise to God because we're saved by
His grace. Otherwise, we'd be outside here
perishing with the rest of them in the judgment of God. I would
think that Abraham would have sung when God entered into a
covenant with him, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Joseph, but there
is no mentioning of their singing, and I checked very closely in
a concordance. You'll not find the word singing
or sing or even the word song anywhere through the book of
Genesis and not through the first 14 chapters of Exodus. It isn't
until we come to Exodus chapter 15 that we find Moses and the
saints of God breaking out and singing. I love singing songs that honor
God, don't you? I really do. We sang Psalm 89
one Sunday night. I will sing of the mercies of
the Lord. You know how long we'll sing
of the mercies of the Lord? Forever. Forever. And David said, with my mouth,
I will make known. Thy faithfulness to all generations. I love singing those words. Those
choruses that we sang Sunday night and the hymn Rock of Ages
that we just sang. We sing these songs and we sing
these choruses not just to fill up time and space in a service. Do not ever treat the music section
of portion of the service as being relatively unimportant. It is very important. Psalm 100 verse 2 says, serve
the Lord with gladness and come into his presence with singing,
with singing. Book of Colossians 3 verse 16,
let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom,
teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. We're to sing these songs of
praise from our innermost being. Ephesians 5.19 says, speaking
to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
and making melody in your heart to the Lord. These songs are
sung to worship God and glorify His name. And they're sung to
edify one another. Sing from your heart. I don't care whether you can
carry a tune or not. That don't matter to me. And
if you can't carry a tune, listen, we won't ask you to sing a special. Can you not lift up your voice
and sing praises to the God of your salvation? I love, I love singing. And I know the music part, the
notes, and I know the timing. I know those things are important,
but I also know that most of us in here don't know much about
those things. There are no professional musicians
in here. And nobody should be paying attention
to what you sound like when they sing. Sing from your heart to the Lord. I tell you, hear the Israelites
led by Moses. He's the first song leader, Joe.
Moses was the first song leader. Then sang Moses and the children
of Israel. And I'll tell you what they sang
with enthusiasm. Because they had just been delivered
from captivity. I'll tell you when we'll learn
to sing from our hearts, and to sing with joy, and to sing
with true praise to our God, when the Spirit of God reminds
us again of where God brought us from, where He lifted us up
from, from the miry clay, from the depths of depravity, and
He set our feet on this solid rock of Christ Jesus the Lord. And when the Spirit of God overwhelms
us with a sense of the mighty, sovereign, free grace of God
to us through the bloody sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, I'd
say like Isaac Watts, who can refrain to sing then? He said,
let those refuse to sing who never knew our God, but children
of the heavenly King may speak their joys abroad. We're marching
to Zion. That's what he said. Beautiful,
beautiful Zion. I'm happy when I sing. Somebody, you said, At the funeral,
I guess, I enjoyed singing that last song. I surely did. I tell you, we sang it as well
with my soul. And I can't sing that third standard
without just having this tremendous wave of thanksgiving and joy
coming over me. My sin, oh, the bliss of this
glorious thought. My sin, not the part, not in
part, but the whole, is nailed to the cross. My sins were nailed
to the cross and I bear them no more. Did you hear what he wrote? I
bear them no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Oh, my soul. I can enter into that a little
bit. Sing with feeling. And I'll tell
you this, pay attention to the words of song. When I read this, most of this
chapter, you paid attention to the words, didn't you? Because
they're important. You see, it isn't the melody
of a song. That melody, I wouldn't take
things away from the literal music of it. But here's what
we're listening for, the words, the message of the song. If the
message of the song doesn't grip your heart and bless your soul,
no use in singing. We're not singing just because,
well, that's a pretty song. Well, there's been a lot of pretty
music written and the words are lousy. We don't sing any lousy
songs around here. I don't allow it. And Bill didn't
allow it and Henry didn't allow it. We don't go for that. We go for songs that humiliate
us and exalt our God. We sing songs that put us down
as sinners and exalt the blessed Savior. I say again, this is the first
mentioning of people in the Bible singing. And you know, parts
of this sweet song of redemption are found throughout the Old
Testament scriptures. Look once again at verse two. Moses and the children of Israel
sing, the Lord is my strength and song. He has become my salvation. He is my God and I will prepare
him in habitation. My Father's God and I will exalt
him. And there are portions of this
song that are set forth in the rest of the Old Testament. David
in Psalm 118 verse 14 says, the Lord is my strength and song
and has become my salvation. That's singing the word of God.
Isaiah 12, two, behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and
not be afraid for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He
also has become my salvation. And I want you to look at this
and go to the last book in the Bible, Revelation 15. Revelation chapter 15. I took as my text, for those
of you who weren't here or those who are watching, I took as my
text Revelation chapter 14 in verse 13. And I'm not gonna read
that again, but I talked about the revelation of our Lord Jesus
Christ. One revelation. Got out to the
cemetery. And as is proper for the minister
to do, I parked behind the flower van. And then I walked back to
the hearse and I lead the deceased, the one in the casket, Cora,
lead the procession to the grave that's been dug. I stand there
waiting, and a fellow came up to me, said, you know, preacher,
you could have preached from Revelations for three, four hours. And I made it a point in the
message. It's one revelation of a person, didn't I? I made
that clear. And see, people hear, but they
don't hear. But here, Revelation chapter
15. This is a great song of praise
to our God, and it's so great, it's so significant. Now get
this, it is so significant that this is specifically identified
as one of the songs that we're going to sing in eternity. That gets my attention. What
are we gonna sing in eternity? Revelation 15, three and four. and they sing the song of Moses. the servant of God and the song
of the Lamb, saying, great and marvelous are thy works, Lord
God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints,
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. Turn back to chapter
five. Back to chapter five. And before
I read this, let me read you something Mr. Spurgeon said.
I thought it was so good, I put it in my notes. He said, speaking
of that passage I just read, he said, it is God's intent that
from the day of Moses downward, even to the hour when flames
of fire shall lick up the works of men and the heavens themselves
shall be dissolved with fervent heat, that this shall be the
song of the chosen people of God everywhere that is singing
unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. Now look here in chapter five.
This is when the Lamb of God, that One who is the Lion of the
tribe of Judah, the Root of David, He has taken the book of God's
eternal decrees, written on the inside and on the backside. It's
a full book. Everything's filled in because
it's everything God purposed to do during this gospel age. And our Lord Jesus took hold
of that book, and the rest of the book is Him breaking open
the seven seals that this book is sealed with, and He brings
to pass everything that God Almighty purposed to do in old eternity. And the saints of God are there.
Now look at verse 8. And when He had taken the book,
the book of God's eternal purpose, the four beasts, preachers, Four
and twenty elders, all the saints of God, fell down before the
Lamb, every one of them having harps and golden vials full of
odors, which are the prayers of the saints, and they sung
a new song. A new song saying thou art worthy
to take the book and open the seals thereof for thou was slain
and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred
and tongue and people and nation and has made us unto our God
kings and priests and we shall reign on the earth. And here
we are singing, singing in eternity, praising the Lord. Well, let me tell you about this
original song over here. You're familiar with the law
of first mention, aren't you? The law of first mention is very
important in the Bible. Wherever something is first mentioned,
you need to pay attention to it. Because that sets the tone
for when it's mentioned most of the time the rest of the way
through the scriptures. So I wanna give you three things
just real quick. Number one, the time when this
song was sung. Verse one, then. When did they
sing, then? Or what had just happened? I'll tell you what just happened.
They came through the Red Sea and the Egyptians were drowned. And then, then they began to
sing. Yesterday morning, you know,
every Tuesday morning, several of the fellows would go out to
breakfast. We had 10 or so yesterday morning. And three of us out
here met before we were leaving to go over. And I mentioned and
Brady mentioned too that went outside this morning and the
birds were just singing. We talked about that, didn't
we? The birds were singing. They were singing here, and it
was so beautiful. Well, I'll tell you what. The
Israelites began to sing, and it was more beautiful than the
birds singing. They broke open into a joyful,
joyful time of singing. You see, only a redeemed people,
only a people very conscious of where God brought them out
from, only those people who have been delivered by the mighty
arm of God can truly sing God's praise for what He's done. Then
sang Moses, and those of us who were dead in trespasses and sins, When God makes us spiritually
alive and brings us to see how filthy we are and how worthless
we are, then shows us Christ Jesus, the suitable substitute
and savior of sinners and what he did for us. What did He do? He humbled Himself. He came down here. He laid down
His life for us. And when we're made to realize
that by His sacrifice we were saved, our sins were put away,
we were declared by God to be righteous, justified. We're justified in His sight.
When that really overwhelms us, you can't help but break forth
in the singing. You see, Jehovah had redeemed
them with the blood of the Passover lamb. He had brought them out
of Egyptian bondage. He had led them through the Red
Sea. He had destroyed the enemy. and
Jehovah alone would receive the praise for His great salvation. Then, then sang Moses and the
children of Israel this song unto the Lord. And their song
was entirely about what God did for them. There is nothing in this song
about what the people did for the Lord. The word Lord is used
a dozen times in these 19 verses. And then the pronouns, he, him,
thy, thou, and thee are found 33 times in this song. Oh, how significant and searching
this is and how different from modern so-called Christian music. Because modern religious songs,
like modern religion in general, is full of man, it's full of
sentimentality, it's full of emotionalism. And instead of
adoring and exalting and praising the God of all grace, they focus
our thoughts on ourselves. Those kind of songs tell us of
what we've done for the Lord. We sing of what we've done for
the Lord rather than what God's done for us. They announce our love to Jesus
instead of His love to us. They tell of our own experiences
instead of God's sovereign mercies. They set forth human attainment
instead of Christ's atonement. But I'll tell you this first
song, this song of Moses, it's different. It's like in verse two at the
end, I will exalt him. That's what true Christian music
does. I will exalt him. That sums it
all up. Remember what Moses had said
to them back in chapter 14. Look at this, chapter 14, verse
14. Just turn back a page. At least I have turned back a
page. Yours may be closer than that. Maybe across the page, but chapter
14, verse 14. The Lord shall fight for you
and ye shall hold your peace. Say nothing. That'd be hard to
do. Just don't say anything. But
now the Lord has fought for them. It's time to rejoice. It's time
to sing. It's time to lift up your voices
in praise to the God of salvation. Sing praise to the God who chose
Israel. Sing praise to the God who chose
you. And sing praise to the Son of
God who bought you with his blood. Over here in chapter 15, I'm
sure you noticed it when I read, the people which thou hast redeemed,
verse 13. The people that you purchased.
Sing praise to the Holy Spirit by whose power and grace we're
brought to believe the Lamb of God. This was a day of the manifest
presence and power of God. It's the time to sing. And I'll tell you something else,
I like the tone of this song. Let me tell you about the tone
of this song. Number one, it was enthusiastic.
I bet you they sang with all their hearts, don't you? They
come out of the water. Well, the water's on either side. They're dry. They walk through
on dry ground. And here's what? A couple of
million, three million people maybe? And they turn around and
look and they see Egyptian soldiers, dead, washed up on shore. Bodies everywhere. Where is the enemy, Moses? He
says, look what God did to him. And look where we are. We're
on the right side of the Red Sea. They're in the Red Sea. We're on the right side. We're
on the Canaan side of the Red Sea. I'm sure they were enthusiastic. And it was a congregational song.
That's why Miriam, right there toward the end, she told the
rest of the women, let's sing now. And don't be shy. Let's sing. And I'll tell you
something else. Not only was it an enthusiastic
song, and not only was the tone of this song congregational,
but it was very personal. Because it begins, then sang
Moses, He starts singing first. And I would remind you, this
is an inspired song, right? This is an inspired song. Then sang Moses because he knew. Remember all the way back in
Exodus chapter three, when he met the Son of God at the burning
bush. He said, who am I going to tell
them that has sent me? The Lord said, tell them I am
that I am that sent you. And Moses said, I can't talk.
I can't talk. I'm a stutterer. The Lord said,
I'll send Aaron with you. And now he's come from there
to here. And now he's a song leader. He's
been a preacher, a leader, and now he's a song leader. And I'll tell you, it's a confident
song too. He hath triumphed gloriously. I'll tell you, we can sing with
full assurance our sins are gone. drown in the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We can sing like Paul, I know
whom I have believed and am persuaded he's able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. And I'll tell you something
else about the tone of this song. It was a song about what God
had done and would do. Look at verse 17. Thou shalt
bring them in and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance,
in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in,
in the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established."
Now they're singing with confidence of what the Lord's gonna do for
them. And then this is a song about
the wrath of God poured out. Verses 7 through 10 talks about
that. God has overthrown them. A child
of God, oh, let me remind you better than that, may the Spirit
of God remind you, all of your enemies have been conquered.
All of them. Well, I'll tell you what the
devil tempts me. His head has been crushed. He is a lion who goes about seeking
whom he may devour, but as is seen in the pilgrim's progress,
you will find that that is a toothless lion for you. What about my sins, Jim? My sins
are so great, they trouble me. Your sins, which are many, are
all forgiven. and God Almighty in the perfection
of His very being holds nothing against you because your Savior
has paid the fullness of your indebtedness to divine justice. Well, the time when this was
sung was then. And then talk about the very
tone of this song. Here's the last thing, the theme
of this song. And you know, I'll tell you what
I think the theme of the song is, salvation's of the Lord.
Don't you think that's right? It's salvation's of the Lord.
The salvation of the people of God and the death of the enemy. It's the theme of, get this,
God's distinguishing grace. That's what this is. All those folks dead in the waters
of the Red Sea, the wicked, the unrighteous, the non-elect, they
perished in their sins. And here is this great group
of people here, the Israelites, typical of the church of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Those were as sinful as the Egyptians
were. Well, who made the difference?
Lost, saved. Perished, lived. Who made the
difference? God did. Now you know Israel
can't take any credit for that whatsoever. Two groups of people, and I wanna
show you this and I'll quit. Look at verse 19 again. For the horse of Pharaoh went
in. They went in. Chapter 15, verse
19. They went in. And they all went
in. But guess what? They didn't come
out. You see, here's what the Egyptians
and the Israelites had in common. The Israelites went in and then
the Egyptians went in. But that's where the... The similarity
ended because the Israelites, they came out. The Egyptians
stayed in. They went in, they stayed in. And look at verse, oh, Let me
read the rest of that verse. For the horse of Pharaoh went
in with his chariots and 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 ground. They just went on. As the water is crashing back
together behind them and the Egyptians are running for their
lives and screaming at the top of their lungs, run faster, get
out of my way. Israel and I just walked right
on dry grain. And they walked out. And verse 22 says, and Moses
brought Israel from the Red Sea and they went out. They went
out. Let me tell you something, like
all of Adam's race, we all fell into depravity. and we deserve
to perish underneath the wrath of God. I'm telling you, Lord brought
us out. We're going out, we're going
out by one way. And that one way leads all the
way to glory, all the way to God, all the way to heaven. And that one way is somebody. and his sacrifice upon the cross
of Calvary. Well, we're going to sing the
closing song. I want you to sing enthusiastically
now.