Good evening, everyone. It's
good to have you out together to worship the Lord. And these
bodies of flesh need help to worship the Lord in spirit and
in truth. And that's what we want to do
tonight. If anything that I especially would want to do is to glorify
my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. I couldn't think of a better
thing to do, could you, than to glorify Him because He's worthy. He's worthy of all the praise
and honor and blessing and glory that we can give to Him. Tonight,
I'd like for you to turn with me in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter
5. My subject tonight is maybe a
little bit unusual, maybe a little bit expected of someone that
does what I do. My subject tonight is When the
Lord God Sings. When the Lord God Sings. I've put another title to it,
a subtitle, The Perfect Song for a Perfect People. And the
only way that can happen is if God be glorified, the Father
and the Son with Him. Now, in Isaiah chapter five,
there's some interesting words written here. We can talk about
songs, we can talk about singing, we can talk about melodies, we
can talk about poetry that is matched to song. We can do all
these things, but look what God says here in Isaiah chapter five,
beginning with verse one. Now will I sing to my well-beloved
a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. God the Father
is singing. And what's he sing about? He
sings about his well-beloved. Who's his well-beloved? Well,
twice from heaven he spoke when Jesus was here on the earth,
and he said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. At another time he said, in whom
I'm well pleased, hear ye him. The father is speaking or singing
about his son. The father is lifting up and
glorifying his own son. That's what Jesus prayed. Our
Lord Jesus prayed in John chapter 17, Father glorify thou me with
the glory which I once had with thee. And at another time, the
Lord Jesus spoke and said, Father, glorify thy name. And he said,
I've glorified it and I'll glorify it again. And how's he gonna
glorify it again? In his own son, in Jesus Christ
himself. Hold your place there. We're
gonna come back to Isaiah chapter five, but hold your place there
and go to 1 Corinthians chapter one. 1 Corinthians chapter one. The father sings, and you notice
the word to in Isaiah 5. He sings to the well-beloved. He sings to his son. We'll see what he sings about
here in just a little bit. But he's glorifying his son,
and that's what we need to do. In 1 Corinthians 1, verse 26, For ye see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble, are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are
despised. God hath chosen yea, and things
which are not. to bring to naught things that
are, why? That no flesh should glory in
his presence. We don't glory about ourselves.
He did all this, he called us, that no flesh would glory in
his presence, verse 30, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who
of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. He's the only one worthy. He's
the only one that's altogether lovely. He's the only one who's
called the Rose of Sharon. He's the only one who is worthy
of all our praise. And we'll see here as we go on
that that worthiness of praise, excuse me, will go for all eternity. Not just now. Not just when God
spoke in Isaiah chapter five. But for all eternity, we'll be
singing the praises of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now go back to
Isaiah chapter five. Isaiah chapter five, he says,
now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching
his vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard
in a very fruitful hill. The well-beloved has done some
preparation here. Notice what he's done, verse
2. In this field, he's fenced it, he's walled it with the wall
of salvation. He's gathered out the stones
thereof so that his people will not stumble and planted it with
the choicest vine, the choicest vine. Isaiah 42 calls him my
servant, mine elect. Jesus says in John chapter 15,
I am the true vine, ye are the branches. Now what's the vine
for? The vine is prepared to produce
fruit. The Lord says that I'm the vine,
ye are the branches, and we are part and parcel of that vine.
He is the first elect. And then the psalmist said, blessed
is the man whom thou choosest and calls us to approach unto
thee. God made the choice. Here's the
choice vine. And he built a tower in the midst
of it, it goes on to say in verse two, built a tower in the midst
of it, that tower of defense, that tower of strength, and also
made a wine press therein. I find that interesting that
in Isaiah chapter, Yeah, Isaiah chapter 63, that he presses out
the wine press of God's wrath. There's a wine press in there.
There is something that happens. The grapes are crushed, the juice
flows out, and it's captured, and that's the wine, that's the
wine press is done, and Jesus Christ bore our sins on the cross,
God pressing out in him and on him the very wrath of God and
Jesus Christ. Let's look at it here in Isaiah
chapter 63. Hold your place, we're going
to come back again. Isaiah chapter 63. Isaiah 63 verse one, who is this
that cometh from Edom with dyed garments from Basra? This that
is glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength.
I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art
thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth
in the winepath. I have trodden the winepress
alone, and of the people there was none with me. For I tread
them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury, and their blood
shall be sprinkled upon my garments. And I will stain all my raiment,
for the day of vengeance is in mine heart. And then notice these
words. and the year of my redeemed is
come. There's a wine press in the middle
of this garden. Read on now in verse two of Isaiah
five. The last phrase says, and it
brought forth wild grapes. You look down in verse four and
it says, what could I have been done more to my vineyard that
I have not done in it? The preparation, it's all done. The Lord has prepared everything. It's like the great supper that
the man had and called these people to come in. Everything
was prepared. It was all there. It was all
ready. But something happens. This vine,
when the Savior went to look for the fruit, there was wild
grapes. Wild grapes. Sounds something
to me like Genesis chapter 3. God prepared a garden. He placed
man in that beautiful paradise. He gave him just one rule. We've
got two trees in the garden. We've got the tree of life and
we've got the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Don't eat of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve was confronted
by the serpent subtly and Eve took of the fruit. And then she
gave to her husband who took of the fruit. And he took of
the fruit. When he did that, his disobedience
and his rebellion as the first man was the representative of
every man after that. God had prepared something wonderful,
something beautiful. Adam even named all the creatures,
all the animals. Adam was a wise and smart man. But Adam fell. And in Adam, we
all fell. In Adam, we all fell. In Adam, we are all sinners before
a holy God. In Adam, we hide naked or cover
ourselves. We do our own works and try to
appease the Lord. But you know what the Lord did?
The Lord drove them out of the garden. He didn't ask them to
leave. He didn't give them reasons why
they should leave. He just drove them out. I suppose
if you and I were there, we wouldn't have done any better than Adam
or Eve. I suppose that if we had have
been there, we would have had to been driven out too because
look at this beautiful thing that God has prepared. And God
has prepared salvation for His people, a beautiful thing. He's
done everything that's necessary. He has done all the work. There's not a thing that you
and I could ever do. but we produced wild grapes.
So what does the Lord do in Isaiah chapter five? Well, you look
down in verse eight. He says, woe unto them that join
house to house, that lay field to field till there be no place
that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth. Verse
11, woe unto them that rise up early in the morning that they
may follow strong drink that continue until night till wine
inflame them. Look at verse 18. Woe unto them
that draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were
with a cart rope. Verse 20. Woe unto them that
call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and
light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for
bitter. Verse 21, woe unto them that
are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight. Verse 22, woe unto them that
are mighty to drink wine and men of strength. to mingle strong
drink. The Lord pronounces woe on these
wild grapes. He pronounces woe. Now back years
ago, I even hesitate to say it, but
back years ago when I preached in a so-called fundamentalist
Baptist church, I would have said something like this. I would
have said, well here the Lord is saying woe, woe, woe, woe,
woe, woe, six times he says woe and God's throwing the book at
him. But I want you to notice another
woe. Look in chapter six. Chapter
six, verse one. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted
up, and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims,
each one had six wings, with twain He covered His face, with
twain He covered His feet, and with twain He did fly. And one
cried unto another, saying, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts,
the whole earth is full of his glory. And the post of the door
moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled
with smoke. Then said I, woe is me. Boy, the Lord's getting on to
them, and he's really showing them something. And Isaiah says,
I saw the Lord, and the only thing I could say is, woe is
me. The problem with the wild grape
is not with all the others, the problem with the wild grape is
me. Something needs to be done for
me, me in Adam. I am unable to change that status. I can't do anything about it. But someone did. And it was his
vineyard, and it was his vine, and it was all prepared by him.
Someone else did it for me. Outside of myself is the only
hope I have, and the name is Jesus Christ our Lord. He's the only hope that I could
ever have. His is the blood of the eternal
covenant. He is the lamb slain before the
foundation of the world. He is the only one who effectually
and eternally did all the work for us on the cross. Jesus died
for our sin once for all, nothing else. There is no other sacrifice
for sin. but the person of Jesus Christ. So, when the Lord God sings,
He sings about His beloved Son. The Father is satisfied with
Him. According to Peter, as he preached in the book of Acts
chapter 2, he was approved by God. Our Lord is perfect and
sings about perfection. His son is perfect. Perfect. Not one sin, not one spot, not
one blemish, not one thing ever done wrong. As a matter of fact,
everything he did and does and will do is right. He's perfect. He's perfect. His vineyard was perfect. What
could he have done more? What can he do more than what
he's already done? No man can do anything, so somebody
has to do it, and God did it. He's the perfect substitute.
He's the perfect sacrifice. He's the perfect salvation. When he died on that cross, he
cried out, it is finished. It's all done. All complete.
It is finished. It is used in several ways, but
one of them is you make a bill. You make payments on it. And
payment after payment after payment, you and I make that bill. And
finally, we bring the last payment, like a house. We bring that last
house payment. And what do they do? They stamp
it. Paid in full. That's what Jesus Christ did
for us. He paid it in full. He paid for
every sin of every one of his people. He's perfect. He's perfect. Our Lord is perfect
and sings about perfection. You know, He even says, Be ye
perfect. Matthew 5, 28. Be ye perfect
for I am perfect. How good do you have to be to
get to heaven? Perfect. Never any sin. You have to be
perfect. And there's only one who can
make you perfect. And that's Christ Jesus, our
Lord. You see, the problem's not with
the Lord. The problem's not whatever he did. The problem is that we
are the wild grapes. Notice here in Isaiah six, before
we move on, notice here in Isaiah six, he says in verse five, then
said I, woe is me, for I'm undone. I have no ability. because I'm a man of unclean
lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken
with the thongs from off the altar, and he laid it upon my
mouth and said, Lo, this is touched thy lips, now notice, and thine
iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged. Isaiah was no
longer a wild grape. His iniquity was taken away. Our Lord put away the sins of
His people. He came into the world to put
away the sins of His people, and He purged our sin. That sounds a whole lot like
sovereign free grace, doesn't it? The total inability of man
to save himself. Not one thing you can do. The
unconditional election of God for his people. He makes the
choice. He calls and justifies and glorifies. He does, has done the work, and
He, by the Spirit of God, comes and calls with regeneration through
the Word of God to you. That's the limiting atonement
to these chosen people. I have. You've not chosen me.
I've chosen you. Blessed is the man whom thou
choose and causes to approach unto the Lord, unto me, limiting
atonement to his chosen people. He says, I'll atone for their
sins. I'll be the mercy seat. I'll
bear their sins in my body. And the Lord made Him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him, perfect. And that's the only way we'll
ever approach God. Irresistible grace. God sends
his spirit with invincible and irresistible power to someone,
and when God's power is shown, his people remain willing in
that day. And then the perseverance. You
know, I like to think about election. God chose. And if God chose,
and all the work's done, what do we have to worry about? But
if I have to keep up installments, and I have to do this and do
that or the other, then I'm just a lost puppy. I'll never get
anywhere. Not only does the Lord God sing
of His Son touching His vineyard, but I want to show you something
else. The Lord God sings about His people. about those that
he has perfected, and they are perfected in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Turn to Zephaniah, fourth book from the end of the Old Testament. I read this some time ago in
our hearing. Zephaniah, Chapter three, you
have Malachi, Zechariah, Haggai, Zephaniah. Going from the back
toward the front, okay? Zephaniah, chapter three, verse
17. The Lord thy God in the midst
of thee is mighty. Now notice what he's gonna do. He will save. You won't save yourself, not
a work you can do. You can be willing all you want.
Won't work. He will save. He will rejoice over thee with
joy. He will rest in his love. He will joy over thee with singing. When the Lord God sings. He rejoices
over his people with singing. Now, he was saved. He's mighty
to save. Our Lord Jesus said, All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to
me I will know I was cast out. Our Lord Jesus also said in that
same chapter, John chapter 6, that unless the Father draw him,
they'll not come to me. In John chapter 10, our Lord
Jesus said, My sheep hear my voice. His sheep hear His voice. And they hear His voice through
the preaching of the Word of God. Hold your place there in
Zephaniah chapter 3 and turn with me to Luke chapter 15. There's a lot of rejoicing going
on in Zephaniah chapter 3 verse 17. Our Lord was eating with sinners
and the Pharisees made accusation. Why, he's out there, he's received
publicans and sinners. He's eating with sinners. Thank
the Lord that he did. And our Lord gives them a threefold
parable here. Verse two, the Pharisees and
scribes murmured, saying, this man receiveth sinners, needeth
with them. Our Lord spake this parable,
verse four. What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he
lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness
and go after that which is lost until he find it? And when he
hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth
together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with
me, for I have found my sheep, which was lost. And then there's
the lady that had the ten coins. Nine were safe and sound, but
she lost one. So she went through that entire
house, swept every corner, underneath everything, until she found that
coin, verse nine. And when she hath found it, she
calleth her friends and her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with
me, for I have found the peace which I had lost. Likewise, I
say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of
God over one sinner that repenteth. Verse seven, I forgot to read
that one, I'm sorry. I say unto you that likewise
joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than
over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance. You
notice what he's saying? In heaven, there's rejoicing.
Verse 10, In the presence of the angels, there's rejoicing. Well, who would be in the presence
of the angels? Our God himself. And so to stress that point and
show that point, our Lord goes on with this parable, the third
part of the parable, when he talks about the prodigal son
who took off, wasted all of his father's goods. He was a wild
grape. But when he came to himself,
he said, my father hath everything. He's got everything I need. I'll
just go back to dad, and I'll just say, I'll be your servant. Because a servant's faring well,
much better than I. And what happened? Verse 21,
and the son said unto him, father, I have sinned against heaven,
and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Woe is me, for I'm undone. But the father said to his servants,
bring forth the best robe, put it on him, put a ring on his
hand, shoes on his feet, and bring hither the fatted calves
and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. There we go. Let us
eat and be merry, let us rejoice. For this my son was dead and
is alive again. He was lost and is found. And
they began to be merry. Verse 25. Now his elder brother
was in the field, and he came and drew nigh to the house and
heard music and dancing. There was such rejoicing. The
Father with joy over thee was singing over one sinner that
repenteth. And oh, that we would see those
sinners repent. Bow the knee to our Savior and
our God, Jesus Christ. all that he would save such as
should be saved in Crossville, in Harriman, and other cities
round about. He will save. He'll rejoice over
you with joy. He'll rest in his love. He'll rest in his love, his everlasting
love, his complete full love. He'll love you to the end. And
that doesn't mean there's an ending to his love. That just
means that it never ends. It's a complete love. With God
who is eternal, there can never be an ending. And with God's
people who are given eternal life, there can never be an ending. He'll love us with His love. It's not how much you and I love
Him, although we love Him because He loved us first. It's not how
much we love Him. It's His love for His people,
those whom He foreknew, His intimate oneness with His people. Not
only does the Lord God sing of His Son touching His vineyard,
and the Lord God sings about His people, but let's look at
it from our point of view. If God is glorifying His Son
and singing to His Son, and if God is glorifying, and that's
what Jesus prayed in John 17, Lord, glorify them. If God is
glorifying His people, then how should we sing? What should we
do? Psalm 40 verse 3 said, he had
put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. A new song in my mouth. Where'd
that come from? That only comes from the Lord.
That only comes from the salvation that He's given to His people.
You'll not sing a new song to the Lord until the Lord calls,
justifies, and glorifies you. David said it another way, I
will sing of mercy and judgment unto thee, O Lord, will I sing. This is what his people ought
to be doing. Now his perfect people can sing that perfect
song. And the perfect song is all about
our God and Jesus Christ himself. David said it this way, make
a joyful noise unto the Lord. I've heard a lot of people talk
about that. Well, if you can't sing, just make a noise. That
is not what that verse says. It is absolutely not what it
says. If you look it up in the original,
the joyful noise is the song of triumph. The victory has been
won. It's been won by Jesus Christ. It has been given to those of
His people and we can rejoice and sing the joyful triumph for
He has triumphed over sin. He has triumphed over death.
He has triumphed And in where he sits today in his victorious
sitting on the throne beside the Father, he is the victor. So when we say make a joyful
noise unto the Lord, we're saying give glory. to the one who's
victorious. And you know what? When God does
come to someone, they do some rejoicing. Remember when you
were first born again from above? Remember how you felt? Now I'm
not saying we go by emotions, but there's emotion in it. You
remember how you felt? Oh my, all you could do was praise
the Lord for what he's done. And we do that all of our lives. Whether therefore you eat or
drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. We sing his triumph. Our God
has prevailed and his people glorify him for his perfections
in our Psalms. Turn to Ephesians chapter five. We're getting to the close here.
Ephesians chapter five. Just wanna note a couple things
with us. Ephesians chapter five. And verse 18 and 19. Be not drunk with wine where
it is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. And when you're filled
in the Spirit, with the Spirit, look what happens. Speaking to
yourselves in songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
and making melody in your heart, where? To whom? To the Lord. When we sing in the Spirit, We
sing perfectly of His perfections. Who's in the Spirit? Those that
are in Christ Jesus are in the Spirit. And we can sing of His
perfections. And we speak to one another,
singing to the Lord. Not only that, Paul said it very
similarly in Colossians chapter 3. Just a couple books over. Colossians chapter 3 and verse
16. It says, 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. And whatsoever you do in word
or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks
to God and the Father by him. When we sing according to His
Word, we sing perfectly of His perfections. When we sing according
to His Word, as a matter of fact, He magnified His Word above His
name. That's amazing to me. He magnified
His Word. If He said it, that settles it,
whether you believe it or not. Teaching and admonishing one
another in Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs. Singing with grace in
your heart. And where? To whom? To the Lord. To the Lord. That's that new
song. And that's that eternal song.
You see, the melody is not the important part of any song. Although we hear some catchy
tunes and we hear some nice melodies, the melody is not the most important
part of any song. It's what the words say. That's the important part of
the song. God's people will sing of His
perfections with those words. They'll sing of His sovereign
free grace. They'll sing of His victory.
They'll sing, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. They'll sing teaching
His truth, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And they'll
sing admonishing one another. helping one another, loving one
another, sharing with one another, praying for one another, lifting
up one another, all that is in an admonishing. These are true
worship songs. Many of the songs in our hymnal
do not stand to this standard. They do not glorify the Lord,
some of them. Some of them do not speak of
sovereign free grace, but of man's doings and man's will. Some of them don't speak of his
victory, but of what man has done. Some of them don't teach
the truth of the gospel. Those songs, by God's grace,
we will not sing. Some of those songs we'll change
a word or two. We've done it. We'll change a
word or two. Because we want to glorify Him. Sometimes in some of those songs
we leave out a whole stanza or two. Sometimes a chorus. Because
as Isaiah said in Isaiah 42, 12, sing unto the Lord a new
song. God's people are going to sing
the eternal song of perfection. Revelation chapter five, if you
would. And I'll be closing here. Revelation chapter five. God's
people are going to be singing the eternal song of perfection. Be you perfect, for I am perfect. Revelation five, beginning of
verse nine. Look at it. And they sung 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 I beheld, and I heard the voice of the angels round about
the throne, and the beasts, and the elders, and the number of
them was ten thousand times ten thousands and thousands and thousands,
saying with a loud voice, there's that joyful noise, saying with
a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb that was slain. to receive power
and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. He is the only one worthy of
that kind of glory. If you would, let's stand and
be dismissed tonight. I believe it's Psalm number 496,
victory in Jesus.