Alright, this is the Song of
Moses and the Lamb, chapter 15 of Revelation. And John writes
here by inspiration of the Spirit in verse 1, he says, I saw another
sign in heaven, great and marvelous. It may sound redundant because
all true signs from heaven are great and marvelous, but this
vision here, it begins, it actually begins the next section, goes
here through verse, chapter 16, which introduces what we call
the vials or the bowls of the wrath of God upon the earth.
You can see that over in chapter 16 and verse 1. where he talks
about pouring out the vials of the wrath of God. That word vials
can also mean the bowls of the wrath of God. And in this passage,
what he's talking about here, and understand what we're talking
about is what is now going to bring to total completion the
end of the new covenant age, the end of the world actually,
the second coming of Christ. Now nobody knows the day and
the time of Christ's second coming, but we simply live in continual
expectation of his coming and the vindication of his people
who stand in him, washed in his blood, clothed in his righteousness,
which is our assurance of salvation. What hope do you have of salvation? What hope do you have? Think
about the judgment. when the Lord talks about how
death will come and then the judgment. And here we are, sinners. I'm going to bring this out this
coming Wednesday in the message. There's only two types of people
on this earth. There's sinners lost in their
sins and sinners saved by the grace of God. Well, here in Revelation
15, this revelation from heaven talks about the wrath of god
upon sinners who are found at that time without christ those
who stand on their own you see there's nothing there's nothing
more terrible you know i i think about second corinthians five
ten eleven where where paul said that that knowing the terror
of the lord we persuade me there's nothing uh... uh... more terrible
than a sinner standing before a holy and just and righteous
God on his own or on her own. Because if that's the case, then
how are we gonna be judged? Well, the scripture says we'll
be judged by our works, and that means we will be found lacking. We will be judged condemned.
It will be declared then that our works did not measure up
to righteousness. But a sinner standing before
God at that time in Christ has a righteousness that answers
the demands of God's law and justice. And that's the imputed
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's the scene here. And it sets it up here with sort
of an interlude. It talks about, all right, look
at it again. Verse 1 of Revelation 15. I saw another sign. This
is a revelation from God in heaven. In heaven indicates the standing
and position of God's people. It's not talking about geography
here. It's talking about sinners in Christ. And this vision is
huge. It's breathtaking. He says it's
great and marvelous. This is something that man has
never imagined. This is something that hasn't
even entered into the mind or the hearts of men. This is from
God. And he says, seven angels having
the seven last plagues. Now, seven is a number in the
Bible that signifies perfection, the perfection or completion
of a work. So here's the complete work.
Here's the finished work. What he's talking about now is
the wrath of God. This is the finished, final,
complete, perfected wrath of God against all to whom sin is
imputed. Sin is charged. And when I look
at things like that, I always think about King David in Psalm
32 when he said, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth
not iniquity. In other words, a person whom
God does not charge with their sins. Now how is that possible?
Well, Romans chapter 8, who shall lay anything to the charge of
God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. So look
at this as the full, final, completed wrath of God. Seven. Aren't you glad that we have
a seven? That's the finished work of Christ for his people.
But this seven here is not blessing. This seven here is a cursing.
And he says it's the seven last plagues. Now whenever you hear
the word plagues, your mind might go back to the 10 plagues of
Egypt. Remember before God delivered
the Hebrew children out of Egypt, he sent those plagues that are
recorded in the book of Exodus. And the last plague was the plague
of the death of the firstborn, you remember. And you remember,
the only thing that would save you from that death was what? The Passover blood, the Passover
lamb. When God said, when I see the
blood, I'll pass over you. Well, think about this way. These
seven angels having the seven last plagues, what are they?
Verse one, for in them is filled up. Now there's the completion
of them. There's the perfection of them.
There's the finality of it. This is not a mixture of God's
wrath and forbearance. I've heard preachers say that
manifestations of the wrath of God here on earth now are a mixture
of God's indignation, God's judgment, and God's grace. That's not true. There is no mixture of God's
wrath and God's grace. You need to understand that.
And what I mean by that is this. Whenever you see manifestations
of God's wrath here on earth, whether it be a disaster, whether
it be a plague or a sickness, it is mixed. But it's only mixed
with what the Bible calls God's forbearance or longsuffering. But now here it's unmixed. He
says it's filled up. It's full. So when you compare
this Revelation 15 with the other cycles and visions of God's judgment,
this shows as time nears to the second coming of Christ, these
judgments intensify to the point to where they are final and full
and complete. This is it. This is the end. Look at verse two. He said, and
the only way of escape is to flee to Christ. Flee to his blood,
flee to his righteousness. And he says in verse two, and
I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire. And them that
had gotten the victory over the beast, that's the beast that's
serving Satan, we've talked about. And over his image and over his
mark, that's the mark of the beast, that's the false gospels,
the false philosophies, the false ideas of man in whatever situation
he's in, whether he's religious or whether he's irreligious,
any notion of salvation or blessing, or eternal life, that is not
founded upon the word of God in the gospel of his free and
sovereign grace in Christ, again, based on his blood and righteousness
alone, is equivalent to the mark of the beast. And the reason
is it will not reach the perfection of righteousness. You know, that's
666, that's the number of man. And it's written on his forehead.
That's his mind. It's written on his hand. That's
his works. And what he's showing there is
that the thoughts and the works of man will always fall short
of the perfection that God requires, which can only be found in Christ,
who is the seven. That's the perfection. That's
why we call Christ our Sabbath. Hebrews chapter 4. So as long
as we stand in Christ, As long as we're found washed in his
blood and clothed in his righteousness, we're a perfect seven. And we
didn't do the work. You understand? Christ did all
the work. Christ sat down at the right
hand of the father. Why did he sit down? Because
he finished the work. And it's not a work performed
partly by Christ and partly by us. That's what modern religion
teaches, even that comes in the name of Christianity. God's done
his part, now you do yours. Well, let me tell you something.
If you have any part in it as to establishing the ground of
it or maintaining of it, it's going to fail. Now, many people
take that as an insult, but we know it's to be true. And that's
what humbles us and causes us to be submitted to him. So that
beast and his image, we've already talked about that, his mark.
In verse two it says, and over the number of his name, that
number that identifies him and distinguishes him, that's 666.
They stand on the sea of glass, and he said, these who have gotten
victory over this beast, they stand on the sea of glass having
the harps of gold. Now first of all, this sea. Now
you know in the Bible, The sea is an image of terror. It's an image of sorrow and trouble,
darkness, death even. You know, people back then, when
they thought of the sea, they thought of something dangerous.
They didn't think about going out on a cruise on an ocean liner
like we do. So it's an image, all right?
And usually when you, you remember the miracle when Christ calmed
the storm and he walked across, remember how Peter got out of
the boat and then he looked around and he's like, see as long as
he had his eyes on Christ, He was fine, wasn't he? But when
he took his eyes off Christ, boom, down he goes. And that's
why the scripture talks about how, for example, in Hebrews
chapter 12, that true believers are to run the race, walk, conduct
themselves in this life as we run the race of grace, looking
unto Jesus, the author and what? Finisher of our faith. Salvation is not just getting
a jump start from God. Salvation is looking to Christ,
the author and the completer of our faith. But now here the
sea is a sea of glass and it says mingled with fire. Now what
is that mingled with fire? Well, fire represents God's wrath. You know, our God is a consuming
fire. And we've talked about that.
How as God looks at this world, how you're either in Christ or
you're on your own. Now that's the way it is. There's
nothing but wrath and indignation from God outside of Christ. But in Christ, There's the smooth
sea of glass mingled with fire. Well, how can we say that? Well,
Christ took the wrath of God for his people upon himself when
he died on the cross. See, that's what the death, burial,
and resurrection of Christ is all about. It's not just historical
facts. I had a lady tell me one time
when I was preaching on a message where we were really defining
the gospel. in the person and finished work
of Christ. And she said, well, she said,
I always thought that the gospel was just the death, burial, and
resurrection of Christ. Well, that's not so. Now, hear
me out. The gospel is the death, burial,
and resurrection of Christ, but what does that mean? Why did
he die? For whom did he die? Did he really die? Well, he was
buried. Why was he raised the third day? See, all of that was
for the justification of his people. So we stand on a smooth
sea of glass. That's a symbol of the calmness,
the rest, as opposed to the trouble and the sorrow of death that
the sea represents. Here's a sea of glass, and it's
smooth as glass. Why? It's safe. It's sound. It's something we can stand on
because Christ took the wrath in our place. He was made sin. You know, that subject keeps
coming up today, you know, because people want to pervert. How was
Christ made sin? Well, he was made sin by God
charging the sins of his chosen people to Christ. He took our
debt. paid it in full by the shedding
of his blood unto death and in exchange we have his righteousness
the merits of his obedience unto death imputed to us now those
are the ones who've gotten the victory look at verse two again
they've gotten the victory over the beast and over his image
and over his mark they believe the gospel over his name They
stand on a sea of glass having harps of gold. Harps of gold,
that's not saying that when we die or when Christ comes again,
we're going to be sitting on a cloud playing harps. That's
not what that means. All that is is a symbol of worship.
We worship God. We don't worship men. We're not
here to promote men. We're not here to draw attention
to men. We're here to point sinners to Christ and Him alone for all
salvation. And that's what these harps of
gold means. Now, verse three. This is the
title of the lesson, The Song of Moses and the Lamb. It says,
And they sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song
of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are thy works. You
notice whose works are being exalted here? He didn't say,
Great and marvelous are my works. You remember Matthew chapter
7? Refer to that a lot. Verses 21 through 23, how they
stood before Christ at the judgment and they said, Lord, Lord, haven't
we prophesied in your name? Haven't we cast out demons? Haven't
we done many wonderful works? What are they doing? What did
Christ say to them? Depart from me, you that work
iniquity, I never knew you. What was the problem? And I heard
preachers all my life growing up tell me, well, those fellas
were hypocrites. They were not sincere. Well,
number one, how do you know they weren't sincere? It doesn't say
that in the Bible. And secondly, when you stand
before God, what are you going to plead? Your superior sincerity? Is that what you're gonna plead?
Because if it is, you're gonna hear the same thing that these
fellas. I don't care how sincere you are, you can't be sincere
enough for God to declare you righteous. Should we be sincere
in whatever we do? Of course we should. Of course,
should we, think about this, should we preach in his name?
Of course, that's what I hope I'm doing this morning, preaching
in his name, not in my own. I've never cast out demons, I've
never been an exorcist, but that was a gift in the early days.
Are we against the demons? Yes, we're against the devil.
Shouldn't we try to do many wonderful works? Yes, but here's the point.
None of those things will make a sinner righteous before God. There's only one thing that'll
make a sinner righteous before God. And that's the blood of
Jesus Christ. Somebody said, well, I don't
agree with that. Well, don't ever sing this song anymore. What can wash
away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my hope and peace. This is all my righteousness.
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. You see that? Well, that's why
they're singing of the great and marvelous works of God. Lord God Almighty, look at it.
And look at what he says here, just and true are thy ways. God's salvation is a matter of
mercy and grace and love, but it's also a matter of justice
and truth. I'm gonna talk about that this
morning in the main message at 11. Listen, God is a just God. He's a righteous judge. And He
must judge according to truth. Does He save sinners? Yes. Does He forgive sin? Yes. But
He does not save or forgive in any way that would deny, ignore,
or challenge, or oppose His justice. He must be both a just God and
a Savior. Isaiah 45, He says, Look unto
Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. For I am God,
and there is none else. What's the verse before that say? a
just God and a Savior. So what's the question of questions?
It's right here in the Song of Moses and the Lamb. Incidentally,
you can look over in Exodus 15 and that's where you'll find
the whole Song of Moses written out. And what that Song of Moses
is about is it is a song that Moses was inspired by the Holy
Spirit to sing with the whole nation, the Hebrew nation, as
they had crossed the Red Sea. And as they were looking back
on all that God had done for them to deliver them, let me
tell you something, He did it in spite of them. Look at, here
they are on the Egyptian side of the Red
Sea. Look at Exodus 14. Verse 10 of Exodus 14. Now here they are on the danger
side of the Red Sea. It says, and when Pharaoh drew
nigh, you remember what happened? You know, God protected them
with that pillar of fire by night and the pillar of the cloud.
And then that died down, and then Pharaoh's army pursued.
And it says, and when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel
lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them,
and they were sore afraid. They were afraid. Now, how much
had they already seen? Remember the ten plagues? Well,
they'd seen a lot, hadn't they? Somebody said, well, if God would
just do a miracle, I'd believe. No, you wouldn't. You see, those miracles were
not given for that reason. The miracles were given to support
the authority of the Word of God. Remember the rich man Lazarus? Remember the rich man in hell,
he looked up and he said, send Lazarus back, tell my brothers
so they won't end up where I am. Remember he said, if they see
somebody raised from the dead, they'll believe. Remember what
the Lord said, oh no, they won't. He said, though they see one
raised from the dead, they will not believe. You see, man by
nature will not believe. But he said, they have Moses
and the prophets. They have the word of God. My
friend, the word of God's enough. You know, what do you want? And
somebody said, well, what about a little lightning from heaven?
You know, the word of God is more powerful than lightning
from heaven. But think of what all they had
seen in the 10 plagues and their deliverance. And it says, they
were afraid and the children of Israel, verse 10, cried out
unto the Lord. Now listen to what they said,
verse 11. And they said unto Moses, Because there were no
graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?
Moses, they go after God's prophet now. Moses, did you just bring
us out here to die? He says, wherefore, why hast
thou dealt thus with us to carry us forth out of it? They came
out because they wanted to get out. Now they're crying, verse
12, is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying,
let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been
better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the
wilderness. Now that's on this side. Remember,
look what Moses told them in verse 13. And Moses said unto
the people, fear ye not, stand still. That's a different message
than today's false gospel. Today's false gospel says work
hard, get busy. Moses said, settle down, stand
still, and see the salvation of the Lord. That word salvation
there, you know what it is in the Hebrew, it's Yeshua. That's the Old Testament name
for Jesus. And he says, which he will show you today for the
Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall see them again
no more forever. The Lord shall fight for you
and you shall hold your peace. And so God opened the Red Sea
and they crossed over dry shod. That Red Sea, you know what that
Red Sea is a symbol for? The blood of Jesus Christ. That's
what delivers God's elect from the bondage of sin and Satan
and the law in the world. Now, on the other side, chapter
15, verse 1, Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this
song unto the Lord, and spoke, saying, I will sing unto the
Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. Who triumphed? The Lord did. You see, Christ's victory is
the believer's victory. Remember he told his disciples,
he said, in the world you'll have trouble, tribulation, but
be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. The horse
and his rider hath he thrown into the sea, the Lord is my
strength and song, he has become my salvation. He is my God, I
will prepare him in habitation, my Father's God, and I will exalt
him, the Lord is a man of word, the Lord is his name. Now you
go ahead sometime and read that whole song, but go back to Revelation
15. The Song of the Lamb and the
Song of Moses. He says, just and true are thy
ways, thou King of Saints. Some translations say King of
Nations, some translations say King of Ages. Sometimes it can
go either way, but you know what a saint is. A saint is a sinner
saved by grace. If he's talking about the nation,
he's talking about God's elect out of every tribe, kindred,
tongue, and nation. He is king of all. He's king
of kings. If you have your lesson there,
go to the back page there. And I've got a typo in the lesson
that you need to clear up. I know God's purpose for typos. It's to keep us humble. and to
remind us that I'm just a man. I read these lessons, I go over
them, but sometimes one will just slip by me. It's kind of
like the preacher said years ago, he said, I know God has
a purpose for everything he created. He said, I just haven't figured
out what's the purpose of a mosquito. Well, I know the purpose for
typos. And if you look down, it's about
the fourth or fifth line. Yeah, about the fourth line.
The presence of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it says
they sin, S-I-N, not only the Song of Moses. Now, they're not
sinning the Song of Moses. They're singing. Put a G on that
for me, will you? I got a buddy up in Kentucky
who sings in a quartet. I can't remember the name of
their quartet. They did like barbershop stuff. And they were advertising that
this group was going to sing at a particular place and had
their name and it says they will be, should have been singing,
but they had they will be sinning at this place. And I told my
buddy, I said, well, you will be sinning because we're sinners,
you know. But that's not what they meant,
that means singing. So put a G on the end of that sin, because
they weren't sinning the song, they were singing it. And then
down below that, I left out the word Lord. It's the deeds of
the Lord Jesus Christ. So do that for me, and then when
somebody, if somebody gets a whole lesson and they bring it to you
and say, look what this preacher, defend me, if you will, all right.
So, don't have a whole lot of people doing that, but I got
a few doing it. All right. So there it is. There's
the song of Moses. And what this proves too, one
thing that you need to take note of, is this proves what Christ
said in John 5, 39. You remember? In John 5, 39 all
the way to the end of that chapter, He admonished the Pharisees. They were students of the word,
but they didn't see the truth. He says, you do search the scriptures,
for in them you think you have eternal life. They are they which
testify of me. He said, Moses wrote of me. So
the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb is the song of salvation. By the grace of God, through
the blood and righteousness of Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what it is. One more verse, and it says in
verse 4, Who shall not fear thee, O Lord? Now, fear there is worship. It's not a legal fear of punishment. You see, false religion operates
on two motivations. Legal fears of punishment or
loss of reward, or mercenary promises of earned reward. so
that people end up trying to serve God for what they can get
out of him or what they can avoid from him. That's not grace. That's legalism. Did you know
that? That's legalism. Why does a child
of God serve the Lord? Grace, gratitude, and love. There you go. Everything that
we have from God is something we did not earn and do not deserve. Right? So if I have anything,
the next breath I take, I didn't earn that and don't deserve it.
It's a gift. And that especially applies to
salvation and all of its blessings. And so when we fear God, we worship
him. This is the fear of faith. Who
shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? We honor
him for who he is and what he's done. That's his name, which
identifies and distinguishes him from idols. For thou only
art holy. God is unique. God is perfect.
And then he says, for all nations shall come and worship before
thee, for thy judgments are made manifest. God's chosen people
out of every nation will certainly come and worship him, but I believe
this is mainly talking about the fulfillment of what the Apostle
Paul was inspired to write in Philippians 2 when he said, every
knee's gonna bow and every tongue's gonna confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord. He made his footstool. All right.