Well, good evening. It's good
to see you all this evening. If you would open your Bibles
with me to Psalm 118. Psalm 118, we'll read the first
17 verses. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord
for he is good because his mercy endureth forever. Let Israel
now say that his mercy endureth forever. Let the house of Aaron
now say that his mercy endureth forever. Let them now that fear
the Lord say that his mercy endureth forever. I called upon the Lord
in distress, and the Lord answered me and set me in a large place. The Lord is on my side. I will
not fear. What can man do unto me? The
Lord taketh my part with them that help me. Therefore shall
I see my desire upon them that hate me. It is better to trust
in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It's better to trust
in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. All nations compass
me about, but in the name of the Lord will I destroy them.
They compass me about, yea, they compass me about, but in the
name of the Lord, I will destroy them. They compass me about like
bees. They are quenched as the fire
of thorns, for in the name of the Lord, I will destroy them.
Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall, but the Lord helped
me. The Lord is my strength and song
and has become my salvation. The voice of rejoicing and salvation
is in the tabernacles of the righteous. The right hand of
the Lord doeth valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is
exalted. The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. I shall
not die, but live. and declare the works of the
Lord. Thank God for his word. All right,
Sean. OK, if you would, turn in your hymnals to song number
226. Is that the right order? OK. 226, My Savior. I am not skilled to understand
what God hath willed, what God hath planned. I only know that
His right hand is one who is my Savior. I take Him at His
word indeed. Christ died for sinners, this
I read. For in my heart I find a need
of Him to be my Savior. that he should leave his place
on high and come for simple men to die. You count it strange,
though. Once did I, before I knew my
Savior. And, O that he fulfilled, may
see The travel of his soul in me, And with his work contented
be As I with my dear Saviour. Yea, living, dying, let me bring
my strength, my soul, thus from this spring, that he who lives
to be my king wants I to be my Savior. OK, if you would now
turn to song number 268, How Firm a Foundation. of foundation, ye saints of the
Lord. It is laid for your faith in
his excellent Or can He say that to you He
has said, To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled? Fear not, I am with thee, O thee
not dismayed, For I am thy God, I will still give thee aid. I'll strengthen thee, help thee,
and cause thee to stand, upheld by thy gracious, omnipotent hand. When through the deep waters
I call thee to go, the rivers of woe shall not thee overflow. be thy troubles to bless, and
sanctify to be thy deepest distress. When through fiery trials thy
pathway shall lie, my grace, all sufficient shall be thy supply. The flames shall not hurt thee. design, thy draws to consume,
and thy gold to refine. A soul that on Jesus hath leaned
for repose, I will not, I will not deserve to His foes. Let's open our Bibles now to
Genesis chapter 15. Genesis chapter 15. Then sang Moses and the children of
Israel this song unto the Lord. And Spake saying, I will sing
unto the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously. His horse and his
rider hath he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength
and song and he has become my salvation. He is my God. and I'll prepare him an habitation,
my father's God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war. The Lord is his name. Pharaoh's
chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea. His chosen
captains also were drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have
covered them. They sank into the bottom as
a stone. Thy right hand, O Lord, has become glorious in power.
Thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy. And
in the greatness of thine excellency, thou hast overthrown them that
rose up against thee. Thou sentest forth thy wrath,
which consumed them as stubble. And with the blast of thy nostrils,
the waters were gathered together. The flood stood upright as an
heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. The
enemy said, I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide
the spoils. My lust shall be satisfied upon
them. I will draw my sword, and my
hand shall destroy them. Thou didst blow with thy wind,
the sea covered them. They sank as lead in the mighty
waters. Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is
like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Thou stretchest out thy right
hand, the earth swallowed them. Thou and thy mercy has led forth
the people which thou hast redeemed. Thou has guided them in thy strength
and to thy holy habitation. The people shall hear and be
afraid. Sorrow shall take hold on the
inhabitants of Palestine. Then the Dukes of Edom shall
be amazed. The mighty men of Moab trembling
shall take hold upon them. All the inhabitants of Canaan
shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon
them by the greatness of thine arm. They shall be as still as
a stone, till thy people pass over, O Lord, till the people
pass over which thou hast purchased. 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. The Lord
shall reign forever and ever. 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 land in the midst of the sea.
And Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel
in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels
and with dances. And Miriam answered them saying,
sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse
and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. We'll end our reading
there. Let's bow before our Lord together
in prayer. Our Father, it is with grateful
and thankful hearts that we come into thy courts this evening.
Father, we've come together this evening to worship you, to magnify
and extol the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We've come to hear
word from thee. We've come to hear the gospel
of Christ our Savior preached. Lord, it is with great anticipation
that we look forward to looking into this great song of praise. And Father, I pray that you'd
put this praise in each heart here this evening, that we might
be able to leave here truly praising Christ our Savior. Father, we
thank you for him. Without him, we are nothing. Without him, we would have nothing.
Without him, we would have no hope. But in him, we're accepted. In him, we can come into your
courts before your throne of grace with confidence, boldly,
knowing that you always honor your son. You always honor and
accept his perfect obedience. You always honor and accept his
bloody sacrifice. Father, we just can't thank you
enough that you would send your son your only begotten son, the
son of your love, to become a man, to live amongst sinful men and
women, to work out a perfect righteousness for his people,
and then to die as our substitute in our place as a sacrifice for
our sin. Father, how we thank you. Father, I beg of you that you
would forgive us for our much murmuring and complaining. After
all that you've done for us, Father, forgive us for Christ's
sake, I pray. And enable us this evening to
worship you in spirit and in truth, that Christ might get
the glory. For it's in his name and his
sake we pray, amen. All right, I've titled the message
this evening, The Song of Praise. I didn't title it A Song of Praise,
I titled it The Song of Praise. And I use that title, The Song
of Praise, because this is the first song recorded in scripture. Now, I don't have any doubt that
the believers that went before Moses, they sang, they sang songs
of praise, I'm sure of it. But this is the first song that's
recorded in the scripture. This song is also quoted by the
prophets. David, the sweet psalmist of
Israel, quoted this song in Psalm 118 that we read to open the
surface. Isaiah, in the gospel of Isaiah, he quoted this song
in Isaiah chapter 12. Now hold your place there and
look at Revelation chapter 15. And here's the real kicker that
makes this the song of praise. This song of Moses that we're
gonna look at this evening is sung by the saints in heaven.
Look at this song, Revelation 15 verse two. And I saw as it were a sea of
glass mingled with fire, and then 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, having
the harps of God, and they sang 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 should 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, on the banks of the Red
Sea, Moses led over three million people in singing this song of
praise. You know, when this building
gets filled with people, and they're all singing, I mean,
it's something, isn't it? You think of three million people. That's a big congregation. Well,
in heaven, there's a number no man can number on the banks of
that sea of glass, and they're all singing this song. Now, you
think of the sound of that. They're singing this song in
heaven, the Song of Moses, right now. Now, that's some song, isn't
it? And that's what I want us to
look at tonight and see if the Lord might be pleased to teach
us something about praise. Now the first thing I see is
this. The song of praise is sung unto the Lord. Look back in our
text in Exodus chapter 15. Then sang Moses and the children of
Israel this song unto the Lord. Unto the Lord. Now we love congregational
singing and we love to hear specials sung and you know the song service
is such a special part of worship. But you know, those songs are
only a blessing to the heart if they're sung unto the Lord.
You know, if we're singing, trying to impress somebody with how
well we sing or how well we play an instrument or, oh, listen
to this, I've got a new twist on this old song, you know what
we're doing? We're singing unto men. We're singing to impress
men. Now, and men probably will be
impressed by that by our talent or me playing, whatever, they'll
be impressed by it, but the song won't be a blessing to the heart.
But if a song is sung unto the Lord, if it's sung unto the Lord,
it'll be a blessing, even if you can't carry a tune in a bucket,
it really will be a blessing if it's sung unto the Lord. The
blessing that we receive, the blessing from the heart is singing
unto the Lord. Now that must be important. This
matter of singing unto the Lord, or doing whatever it is that
we're doing, unto the Lord. This phrase, sing unto the Lord,
or sing unto his name, or some variation of that, is used 32
times in the Bible. That tells me this is an important
thing. We sing unto the Lord. Our praise is unto the Lord.
Our worship is unto the Lord, and the only people who can truly
sing a song of praise are people who've been given a new heart.
Believers, those people who know the Lord, they're the only ones
that can sing His praises. You can't sing the praise of
somebody you don't know. You can't sing the praise of somebody you
don't believe. But if you believe God and you know Him, you can
sing this song. And this is what I can tell you.
If the Lord's given you a new heart, you will sing this song
of praise. You just won't be able to help
it. Here's the second thing, the song of praise. What is the
song of praise about? Of all the glorious, wonderful
things that God has done, what is the song of praise about?
It's about the redemptive glory of Christ. Look here at verse
one. Then sang Moses and the children
of Israel this song unto the Lord. And Spake saying, I will
sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse
and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. Now, when was it
that Moses led the congregation singing this song? He says, then,
then. After the Lord had saved Israel
at the Red Sea, then they sang this song of praise. Now, you
think about Israel. You know, this is a bunch of
slaves. They have zero military training. They have zero education. You
don't need much education to make bricks and stack them up,
do you? They had nothing. And there they stood, and they
watched the Lord destroy the greatest army on the face of
the earth. That army was solely focused
on coming to get them. And they watched the Lord completely
destroy every last one of them. And the way that the Lord destroyed
Pharaoh and his army at the Red Sea shows us the glory of God's
power. And not just that God has power,
but the glory of it. The Lord made the waters of the
Red Sea to stand up in great walls of water. I mean, that's
just, it defies everything on earth that that would happen.
But the Lord had the power to do that. And that seabed that
had been covered with water for centuries, when that water parted
was suddenly made dry ground. And Israel crossed over on the
seabed through walls of sea or walls of water on dry ground. They did that trusting the Lord. They trusted that the Lord would
hold that water up and enable them to walk across it. Now the
Egyptians, they tried to cross the Red Sea. That's what the
one place in scripture says what they assayed to do. This is what
they decided to do in their own hearts, I'm gonna pursue after.
I will pursue after. I will go get them. That's a
picture of man's works, isn't it? See, they tried to cross
that Red Sea, not by faith, but by their own works. And when
they tried to do that, the Lord made those great walls of water
come crashing back down on them and drowned every last one of
them. Now that's power, that's power. But now what we have here is
a whole lot more than that story. You know, the whole Old Testament,
remember, is written of Christ. This is a picture of the glory
of God and his electing love and mercy and grace. Here's these
two nations, the children of Israel, and then that cloudy
pillar is separating them from the Egyptians. They're all just
alike. They're all just alike. Israel
had forgotten all the ceremonies and all the things that they'd
been taught. They'd assimilated and started doing things the
way the Egyptians did. They thought like them, they
acted like them, they dressed like them. They're just alike.
But the Lord gave the children of Israel faith to go down between
those two great walls of water and walk across that seabed on
dry ground. Now, you know, we all know this
story. We've been told this story since
we could understand language, and it's just old hat to us. But I'm telling you, it took
faith to walk down into that seabed between those great walls
of water. I mean, it just makes no sense
that those walls of water are standing up like that. How can you walk down it? By
faith. It's the only way you can do
it. And God gave that faith to Israel. But he didn't give that
faith to the Egyptians. Israel walked across on dry land,
trusting God. The Egyptians rose up in rebellion
against God and tried to go into the same place to destroy God's
people. And God wiped them out. That's God making a difference
between his people and the Egyptians. It's God making all the difference.
It's God's electing love. Like I said, the Israelites were
not any better than the Egyptians whatsoever, but it was God's
electing love that he set upon the Israelites that made the
difference. And the Lord so completely destroyed
Egypt that they never bothered Israel again. Now, this is a
great picture of the redemption in Christ that God's elect have.
Look at verse four. Pharaoh's chariots and his host
hath he cast into the sea. His chosen captains also are
drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them.
They sank into the bottom as a stone. Thy right hand, O Lord,
is become glorious in thy power. In thy right hand, O Lord, thou
hast dashed in pieces the enemy. Now, how is it that Pharaoh and
his chariots and all of his army was destroyed in the Red Sea?
It's by the right hand of God. Moses says, thy right hand, O
Lord, did all this. Well, at the cross, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is the mighty right hand of the Father, he
defeated every single enemy that God's elect have. He finished
them once and for all. The blood of Christ made the
sin of God's elect to not exist so that it does not exist. All
of the sin that was laid on Christ at Calvary was drowned. It was
covered up by his precious blood so that the sin of God's elect
does not exist anymore. Now, the believer, we see our
sin. At least we see some of it anyway. It's enough to scare
us to death. It's enough to make us angry
at ourselves. We hate it. We ought to hate
our sin. Now we ought to. We ought to
hate our sin. I'm not saying we ought to hate
somebody else's sin. I'm saying I ought to hate my
sin. See what I'm saying? I ought to hate my sin. I ought
to do everything I can do not to sin. It's not gonna work,
but I still ought to try, shouldn't I? I ought to not act sinful
and hateful and ugly towards you. I don't wanna do that. Hate
our sin, but don't fear it. Don't fear it. Enjoy the peace
that Christ has purchased for you with his own precious blood.
He put that sin away. Christ already paid the price
for that sin. He paid the penalty, so you never
will. So hate it. But don't fear it,
because listen, there are no enemies left. There's not one enemy of God's
people left that can harm the souls of God's elect. You know,
at Calvary, Satan bruised our Savior's heel, didn't he? But
he crushed Satan's head. He crushed his head. Satan and
the world, you don't have to worry about them anymore. Now,
they can. They can touch our bodies. They
can touch our minds, they can touch our emotions, but they
can't touch our souls. Our sin that can't damn us, it's
still gonna make these bodies sick, isn't it? It's gonna make
them sick and decay and die, but that sin cannot touch a single
soul for whom Christ died. Because it doesn't exist. Something
that doesn't exist can't touch you, can it? And as soon, I mean,
what is salvation? that the Lord has put away all
of the sin of all of his people. He took away the power of every
enemy to harm the souls of God's people. This is a complete and
utter salvation. And he gives it freely to his
people. Now, as soon as the Lord shows us his great salvation,
you know what we're gonna do? We're gonna sing these songs
of praise to our Savior, because he's the one that deserves it
all. All right, here's the third thing. The song of praise, it
highlights the glory of our Savior, but it also tells us that we're
nothing. Look at verse two. The Lord is my strength and song,
and 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. Now, Israel had just been delivered
from bondage in Egypt. They've been slaves down there
for 400 years. And no power on earth could have
set those people free. Not that mighty, strong nation. There's no power on earth could
have done that. But here they are on the other side of the
Red Sea, and they're free as a bird. Now, how'd that happen? God did that, didn't he? God
did that for them. He had to do it for them, because
they didn't have any strength of their own. Israel didn't help
fight the mightiest army on earth and destroy them in battle. Israel
watched. They watched the mightiest army
on earth be completely destroyed. And they never fired a shot.
They didn't shoot one arrow. They didn't sling one stone.
They didn't throw a single spear. They never one time picked up
a sword. But here's all the Egyptian army laying dead at their feet. Now they knew good and well they
didn't do that. God did that for them. They knew
that. So they sang, God is my strength. I don't have any strength
of my own. So God is my strength. See, they
didn't say, notice this, they didn't say God gave me strength.
They say God is my strength. God does not give me strength
so I can say I have overcome and defeated my enemies. I have
no strength. God is my strength. I am completely
helpless and useless, but God is my strength. And I trust Him
to conquer all of my enemies and put them away. You know, we're awful full of
ourselves, aren't we? I mean, we're so full of ourselves and
all the things we think we can do by the power of our might,
you know, and by our plan and scheming and conniving. But if
the Lord ever shows me how weak and totally dependent on him
that I am, that I have no strength in me whatsoever. I'm gonna sing
this song of praise to him who is my strength. And I will happily
rely on him to do everything for me. Then they said, God has
become my salvation. Now again, notice they didn't
say God saved me. Although that's true, God did
save him. But they said God has become
my salvation. You know, all through the scripture,
from the very beginning, you see this. Salvation is a person. It's not a legal state of being.
Salvation is a person. God is my strength, and God is
my salvation. All of this is a person. Wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, redemption, it's all a person.
It's all the Lord Jesus Christ. All of salvation is a person. It's found in a person, that's
true, but it also only is a person. Only the Son of God who came
in the flesh had the strength to obey God's law for me and
give me a righteousness that God would accept. Only the Son
of God who's in human flesh had the strength to carry all of
my sin away from me. All of the sin of all of God's
elect was laid on Christ. That would have crushed every
single son of Adam, but not our Savior, not the God man. He had the strength to carry
all of my sin away from me into his own body on the tree and
put it away because there's power in his blood. The power of his
blood put it all away. Only the son of God in human
flesh has got the strength to take the sin of his people and
make it so that it doesn't exist anymore. He didn't hide it so
somebody can't see it. He made it so it doesn't exist
anymore. If the Lord ever shows you that he is your salvation,
that salvation is not a thing, but that he is your salvation. He has made you free from sin
and death and hell. He has defeated all of your enemies
for you and that you're accepted in Him, in Him. If He ever shows
you that, that He did all that for you without asking for any
help from you, that He just gave you the victory freely, what
do you reckon you're gonna do? You're gonna sing this song of
praise to Him, aren't you? Then they said, God is my God. That's a statement. I mean, that's
a statement. You know, religious people, false prophets and people out
in religion, they ought to think about what they're saying. But
you know, before I preach and while I'm preaching, I try to
be very careful with the words that I put on my lips. This is
a statement. God. the eternal God. God Almighty is my God. He's mine. God is my God because
He chose me and He made me His. Now that's an act of mercy and
grace. I'm not worthy for God to be my God, but He chose me. He chose me to make me His. He
said, I'll be their God and they'll be my people. Now, if God ever
shows you that he made you his in divine election, that he made
you his, he chose you and made you his, he made you his by redemption,
that he bought you with the blood of his son. If Lord shows you
that he made you his by the new birth, where he birthed you into
his family, you're gonna sing this song of redemption and glorify
the Savior, glorify the God who is your salvation. And then these singers say, I
will prepare an habitation for him. The Lord has made me his
habitation. I'm gonna be prepared for this.
The Lord's gonna make me his habitation. The Lord dwells in
the hearts of his people. Now I wanna show you something
here. 1 Corinthians chapter three. I know this is such an issue with
many. There ain't no sense fussing and fighting about it. Let's
see what God's word has to say about it, and we'll believe that,
all right? It seems like it's impossible. How can I be so sinful
and everything that I do is sinful? Yet I'm the habitation of God,
that Christ dwells in me. I know that it seems not possible,
but let's look and see what the scripture says. 1 Corinthians
3, verse 16. No, you not. that you are the
temple of God. It's not some building over there
in Jerusalem that's the temple of God. You are the temple of
God, and the spirit of God dwelleth in you. Don't you know that? If any man defile the temple
of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy,
which temple you are. God dwells in the hearts of his
people, so you are the temple of God. And what Paul's telling
you, be careful what you do with it. You're the temple of God,
your body's a temple of God. Look at chapter six of 1 Corinthians. Verse 19, what? Know ye not that your body is
the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have
of God and you're not your own? For you're bought with a price.
Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which
are God's. You're bought with the price.
Therefore, sing this song, these songs praise to God. Now, I'm
gonna show you here and say, why did I spend time on this
thing about the habitation, that believers are the habitation
of God, that God dwells in his people? Because it's so important
that we understand that. Look back at Romans chapter eight. Romans eight, verse nine. But you're not in the flesh,
but in the spirit. If so be that the spirit of God
dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the
spirit of Christ, he's none of his. Here's how important this
thing is of the two natures of a believer that the spirit of
God dwells in you so that you're the temple of God. If the spirit
of God does not dwell in you, you don't belong to God. He hadn't
saved you. That's how important this thing
is. And rather than fuss and be all,
you know, say, well, I'm not gonna believe that because I
don't understand it. Yeah, that's silly. Show me a page of this book you
understand. We can't understand God. But I'll tell you what,
we can praise him, can't we? Now, we can praise him. We can
thank him. Almighty God, dwelling in the
hearts of his people is an amazing act of mercy and grace and love
that he would condescend to do that for us. That can't be understood
with human intelligence, but it can be experienced. It can
be believed with God-given faith. One of my favorite statements
of Brother Chris Cunningham This is not exact, but this is pretty
much what he said. He said, I believe a person will
argue about the two natures of the believer until they have
one. Then you're not gonna argue about it anymore. And if Lord
ever makes you experience this, this new birth where he inhabits
your heart, that you dwell in him and he dwells in you, you're
gonna be so amazed, you're gonna sing the song of praise. I promise
you, you will. Then look back in our text. Here's
the fourth thing. The song of praise tells who
the Lord truly is. Verse three says, the Lord is
a man of war. The Lord is his name. Now the
Lord is a man of war. He's a warrior. He's fierce warrior. Well, so much for God loving
everybody and so much that God just, you know, wouldn't want
her to flee. So much that, oh, now God wouldn't destroy his
enemies. A man of war is going to do battle until the enemy
is defeated. There's a man, I knew him. He was killed in action in war. He could have saved himself.
He could have saved himself. Some brethren, some of those
men in his unit were in trouble and it didn't matter to him that
he is putting his life at risk. He went after him. He was outnumbered,
it didn't matter. He went after that enemy fiercely
because he's a man of war. Now that's what a man of war
is. And the Lord destroyed Pharaoh at the Red Sea because he's a
man of war. Verse nine says, the enemy said,
I will pursue and I will overtake. I will divide the spoil. My lust
shall be satisfied upon them. I will draw my sword. My hand
shall destroy them. Pharaoh declared war on God. After God showed him everything
that he gave him, so many signs of who God is, Pharaoh declared
war on God and God destroyed him for it. The man of war destroyed
him for it. And Pharaoh got exactly what
he deserved. No more and no less. God showed
Pharaoh who he is, those 12 plagues. And he would not learn. He hardened
his heart. Pharaoh picked a fight with God
anyway, and the man of war put him down. He put him down so
he never rose again. And I want to tell you something.
It wasn't hard for God to do. Look up at verse eight. With
a blast of thy nostrils, the waters were gathered together.
The flood stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed
in the heart of the sea." Debbie and I, before the service, were
talking about running. You're running, you're trying to, you
know, get your, you're breathing, you're sucking wind, you know,
air, because you're... God didn't even get out of breath
when he destroyed Pharaoh and his army at the Red Sea. He just
used the air of his nostrils. And he didn't even work up a
sweat. He didn't even breathe hard. Look at verse 12. Thou stretchest out thy right
hand and the earth swallowed them up. Moses makes it sound
like God didn't even stretch out his right hand and crush
him. He just stretched out his right hand and the earth swallowed
him up. I mean, there's just no exertion
on the part of God whatsoever. He's a man of war and men and
women who refuse to bow to King Jesus are one day going to be
destroyed. One day they're going to be destroyed.
They picked a fight with God and a man of war is going to
win. He's going to put them down where
they don't bother his creation ever again. And it'll be exactly
what they deserve. No more and no less. Every single
time God sends a sinner to hell, it's absolute justice. But this
God, this God who's a fierce warrior, a man of war, is also
a God who's merciful and who saves his people by his grace.
Verse three says, the Lord's a man of war. That's what he
is. The Lord is his name. The Lord
who is the man of war, who is inflexibly just and mighty and
will destroy every single enemy. is also Jehovah, God my Savior. The God who damns the rebel is
also the God who saves in mercy. Oh, how powerful and just and
mighty God is with his enemies. And how merciful, how gracious,
how tender, how long-suffering he is with his people. It's the
same God. And whether God is damns or whether
he saves, he's just both times. Verse 11 says, who is a God like
unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee? Glorious in holiness, fearful
in praises, doing wonders. And look at verse 13. Thou and
thy mercy has led forth thy people, which thou hast redeemed. Thou
has guided them, in thy strength and to thy holy habitation. God
is glorious in his holiness. This is what they're singing.
These people who have been redeemed, who just watched God destroy
every enemy, they're singing about the glory of God's holiness. You know, everything God does,
everything is right and holy and glorious. Everything about
God is glorious. But the particular thing they're
saying about here is his redemption. That in his redemption, he is
holy. Now that's the most glorious
of all the acts of God. This is the most glorious thing
that God has ever done. He saved a sinful people from
their sin by the sacrifice of his son. See, the thing that
makes God's salvation so glorious is he saved his people in holiness. You know, when God saved his
people, he didn't set his holiness aside. You know, he didn't sweep
the sin of his people under the rug so that their sin is not
punished. No, God would have to compromise
his holiness to do that. God saved his people in holiness. God made it right for him to
be merciful to his people, to save his people from punishment
for their sin because he charged their sin. to his only begotten
beloved son. This is my son in whom I'm well
pleased. The father spoke audibly from
heaven so that people would know how much he loved his son. And
when he transferred the sin of his people to his son, the father
was holy. He slaughtered him in justice. That's the wisdom of God. I stand
amazed. The wisdom of God. He saved his
people in such a way that God's holiness and justice are satisfied
and his mercy and grace are satisfied at the same time. Oh, the wisdom
of God. God made it so that when he saves
his people, he's right to do it. Now there is no other God
like our Savior. Who is a God like unto thee? None. No idol man has ever made
up can ever lay claim to a salvation like this, that's both holy and
merciful, just and gracious, only Jehovah, only Jehovah. And if God ever shows you that
he saved you in holiness by putting his son what his son
went through on the cross, which you and I don't have any idea,
the depths and the agony and the blackness of that. But God
put his son through that to save the likes of you and to make
you holy. I promise you, you're gonna sing
the song of praise to God. If you ever see yourself like
you are and you see that God has made you fit to have this
inheritance with the saints in life, you're gonna sing the praise
of God, aren't you? The song of praise. And then
here's the last thing. The song of praise sings confidently
about the future. Verse 14. Thy people shall hear,
or the people shall hear and be afraid. Sorrow shall take
hold on the inhabitants of Palestina. Then the Dukes of Edom shall
be amazed. The mighty men of Moab trembling shall take hold
upon them. All the inhabitants of Canaan
shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon
them by the greatness of thine arm. They should be as still
as a stone. To thy people pass over, O Lord,
to the people pass over which thou hast purchased. 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. The
Lord shall reign for ever and ever. Now after the Lord delivered
Israel this way at the Red Sea, they saw the enemy laying all
dead around them. They're free, they've been delivered.
Israel was so confident. They are not gonna have one problem
with any other enemy either. They're all gonna be destroyed
just like this one. All those enemies, they said, they're gonna
hear the power and glory of our God, and they're gonna be afraid. They're gonna be so afraid, they're
gonna leave us alone. And if they aren't afraid, and
they don't leave us alone, our God's gonna destroy them too.
They're so completely confident that the Lord's gonna bring them
into the promised land, just like he said he'd do. They are
so confident in the future, because now they don't know about the,
The path that they'll have to travel from here to the promised
land, but this is what they know. They knew how it was going to
end. God's going to put us in the land that he's prepared for
him to dwell in. This is the place he's going
to dwell with his people. I know how it's going to end.
And that's how the believer looks at the future. You know, I look
at the future with no doubt whatsoever. No doubt whatsoever. I know how
this thing's gonna end up. I know men are gonna keep doing
stupid things. And I know the Lord's still gonna
be merciful and gracious and save his people. Keep his people
and glorify them together with Christ. The Lord has defeated
every enemy. He's defeated Satan. He's defeated
death. He's defeated my sin. What do I got to fear? I'm not
afraid of what man's doing to me. That's what David said. And
I'm not saying I'm not going to meet enemies on my way home. I meet them all the time. I carry
one around with me. But I don't have fear of any
of them. Because they can't touch my soul. The Lord's taken care
of me thus far. And He's going to see me safely
through whatever He brings my way next, too. I'm so confident
of that. Aren't you? I mean, I'm as confident
of that as anything. but let a bump in the road come
up. And my faith is going to be just like the faith of the
children of Israel. It's going to waver. Sometimes it's going to seem
non-existent. It makes me ashamed. I'm so ashamed
of that. I'm so ashamed that that's true.
But listen, even our weak faith will not stop our God from keeping
his promise. of mercy and grace to his people,
because salvation depends on the power, on the mercy, and
on the faithfulness of God, and not on me. Then look at verse
21. Now that's a song. I mean, that's
a song of praise, isn't it? And Miriam answered them, or
verse 20, Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel
in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels
and with dances, And Miriam answered them, sing ye to the Lord, for
he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath
he thrown into the sea. Now why'd she do that? She didn't
say anything different Moses said, did she? You know what
she did? She got up and amen Moses. We
had a conference this weekend. We had a man get up and preach
Christ. We took a break and had another man get up. Now, why
did we do that? They said the same thing, didn't they? He got
up and made amending. That's what he did. He got up
and made amending. Many years ago, I had just started even
reading the scripture, you know, publicly in the service. And
Brother Henry told me, now, anytime you're reading the scriptures,
if you want to stop and make a comment, you just feel free. And I looked at him and said,
Henry, There is no way that I'm gonna make a comment on a passage
of scripture you're getting ready to preach on. And he said, that's
okay, go ahead and do it. He said, I'll just come behind
you and amen you. That's what Miriam did, isn't it? Sunday
morning, we're gonna meet here together, and you know what I'm
gonna do? I'm gonna amen myself. I'm gonna say the same thing
all over again, and you're gonna rejoice in the Savior all over
again. See, this song of praise, it
doesn't ever get old, does it? It doesn't ever get old. I pray
the Lord will enable you and me to sing it from the heart.
All right, let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for this song that we've just read, this great song of praise.
It's uplifted our hearts, it's cheered us, it's thrilled us,
it's made us so confident in the Savior, rejoicing in Christ
our Savior. It's thrilled our hearts. Now,
Father, I pray you take that word and plant it deep in our
hearts so that as we go home and we go back out in the world
tomorrow and sooner or later we run into the troubles and
trials and difficulties of this life, that you'll keep this song
of praise in our hearts, that no matter the circumstance, we'll
keep looking to you, trusting in you, and no matter the circumstance,
Father, keep praising you, for you are worthy. Father, enable
us to praise Christ in such a way that others hear of him, and
come and join us in this great chorus, the song of praise to
our Savior. Father, we ask this for Christ's
sake, for his glory, amen. All right, Sean. If you would turn in your hymnals
to song number 334 and stand as we sing Be Thou My Vision.
Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart. Naught be all else to me, save
that Thou art, Thou my best Thought, by day or by night. Waking or sleeping, Thy presence
my light. Be Thou my wisdom and Thou my
true word. Thou in me dwelling, and I with
Thee one. Riches I heed not, nor man's
empty praise, Thou mine inheritance now and always, Thou and Thou
only, first in my heart. High King of heaven, my treasure
Thou art. May I reach heaven's joys, O
bright heaven's sun, Heart of my own heart, whatever befall. All still be my vision, O ruler
of all. of all