Singing is such a blessed part of the worship service. I can tell you there have been
times that I have come here to preach and been down, I mean
down. And just the singing has lifted
me up and made me feel like preaching. Tonight we're going to look at
Exodus Chapter 15. I titled this, but I think I'm
going to change the title. I titled it The First Recorded
Hymn, but I want to change the title to A Hymn About Him. I'm
not really trying to make a play on words there, but this is a
hymn about Him, and we need to follow this hymn. Here's our
example. Here is our example for all the hymns that we sing
to follow. This one right here in chapter
15. Now, singing has its place in
the church. As I said, it is a part of the
worship of God. It does not take the place of
preaching, but it does have its place in the worship of God. It is to be done with understanding.
We are to sing with the understanding. We are to sing unto Him. It is
to be done with fear and trembling, the same as preaching, praying. It is to be done with fear and
trembling. Mike always calls me or emails
me or jumps me when I forget. Sometimes I forget to send him
the text that I'm preaching from. And he lets me know, because
he's going to pick the songs. He's going to pick the songs,
and the songs are to go with the message. And I like that,
and that's the way it should be. And because we are to do
this with fear and trembling... You know, that's one of the things,
Henry, when we first started getting together, you know, one
of the very first things he mentioned to me is, you be careful of the
songs you pick. And you make sure that there
are good songs of the authors and the ones who wrote them and
these things. That was one of the first things,
because we do the singing before we ever do the preaching. And
it's a part of worship. And it's all about hymn. And
you know, this is interesting, I didn't realize this until I
read this hymn and did some studying. You know this hymn is sung in
heaven right now? Turn over to Revelation chapter
15. Now let me read verse 1 here first. Then sang Moses and the
children of Israel this song unto the Lord. Now turn over
to Revelation 15. Revelation chapter 15. And verse
1, And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous,
seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them is
filled up the wrath of God. And I saw, as it were, the sea
of glass mingled with fire. And then they had gotten the
victory over the beast, and over the image, and over his mark,
and over the number of his name, and stand on the sea of glass,
having the hearts of God. And they sing the song of Moses. They're singing this song that
we are going to look at tonight. When you read in the book of
Revelations, when they sing in glory, they are not singing about
the place. They're not singing about mansions.
They're not singing about anything of the place. They're singing
to Him and of Him. And that is to be the example
of our singing that we do here. The singing they do there, we
do here. I thought that was interesting.
They sing the song of Moses, this song right here. That's
what they're singing. Now, the occasion for this hymn has to
do with the deliverance of Israel from the Egyptians, which were
their enemies. And the occasion for our singing
is the deliverance from our enemies, sin, Satan, curse of the law. That's the occasion for our singing
here tonight, to worship Him who has redeemed us from our
sins, who's washed us, cleansed us, saved us from our sins. And then their singing had to
do with a complete deliverance. And there's one thing I want
you to notice as we look down through, I don't know if I get
through all these verses, but as we go down through these, I want
you to notice one thing. Not one time is anything mentioned
of human merit or effort or help in deliverance. It's all of Him. It's all of God. It was a complete
deliverance that they sing about, complete destruction of their
enemies, without Israel having to raise a hand to help. You and I do not have to do one
thing in order to make salvation effective. My faith does not affect salvation. It's not the missing ingredient.
There are no missing ingredients. Faith is a gift of God. It's
a gift of God. It's not something I do, then
all of a sudden it makes it, you know, it's like that missing
ingredient in the cake. No, there are no missing ingredients. He has made a complete salvation
for us by his righteousness, by his death, by his person.
He's done this. And it's been said that Martin
Luther set the church to singing. Really, Moses set the church
to singing. Martin Luther just picked it
back up. But I assure you that Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
all of those men sang praises to God. Now, let's pick up in
verse 1 here. 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. That's the occasion
for this psalm. If you'll look back over in chapter
14, look in verse 28. And the waters returned and covered
the chariots and the horsemen and all the host of Pharaoh that
came into the sea after them. There remained not so much as
one of them. Not one of them swam to the top
and made it back. They drowned every one of them. We can say this. I will sing
unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously over my sins." He
has triumphed gloriously over my archenemy, Satan. He has triumphed gloriously over
me. Oh, that's something to sing
about now. That's something to sing about. And he says here,
the horse and the rider have been thrown into the sea. They're
completely gone. They are gone. Not one of them
is left. I do not have, before God, one sin left. Not one of them is going to float
to the top and get me. Not one. They're gone. Absolutely
gone. Now he says here in verse 2,
the Lord is my strength. That's more than saying The Lord
gives me strength. Now, the Lord gives me strength.
The Lord gives us strength. But this is more than that. He
is my strength. He's the strength of my salvation.
He's the strength of all my righteousness. He's my strength. Think of who God is. Think of who He is, His power,
His glory, His holiness. That's all mine. In Christ, that's
all mine. He's my strength. And listen, He's my song. You know, generally speaking,
people who sing are joyful. We're not singing the blues here.
This is not the blues. This is a song of joy. He's the subject of my singing. Christ is the subject of our
singing. Every time we get together, He's
the subject of it. It's not trying to see how well
we can sing. You know, I saw something the
other, this has been a few weeks ago. You know how they have these
country music awards? They actually had a gospel singing
award. I thought, that is so out of
place. giving awards to people who had the best gospel song,
who's the best gospel group, sold the most records. That's of the world. That's of
the world. God's not in that. He's not in
that. We're not competing. He is my
song. He's the subject of it. He's
the joy of it. He's my song. And He's become
My salvation? Christ has become my salvation. He has saved us, called us, but
now listen, He Himself is my salvation. My salvation is seated
at God's right hand. He is seated at God's right hand. And He's become my salvation?
And how good is this? He is my God. The God of creation,
the God of all power, the God of all glory, the God of providence,
the sovereign God, is my God. You know, he says here, he didn't
just say he's our God, and he is our God. If you believe the
gospel, He's our God. We who believe the gospel. But
now it's also more on a personal level, He's my God. When you
are gone, or when I'm gone, and we go to our homes, and we're
by ourselves, He's my God. I can call upon my God. I can
call upon my God for deliverance. I can call upon my God for help.
I can call upon my God to deliver me. He's my God. And He's the
only God there is. He's the only one there is. He's
my God, and I will prepare Him a habitation. Actually, He prepares
us. But here's the thought when I
read this. He says, I will prepare Him a
habitation. He inhabits us. Christ in you,
the hope of glory. And you are in Him. He inhabits
us, but we're inhabited in Him. There's a union here. There's
a real union between the believer and his God, who is the only
God there is, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he says in verse
3, in this song, this is a song, and this is a good song. The
Lord is a man of war. The Lord is His name. Well, you
don't hear songs like that nowadays, do you? You don't hear that. The
Lord is a man of war. This is a song. This is in a
song of Moses. He is a man of war. Look over in Revelations 19. They talk about Jesus wanting
to save everybody that led Him. They bring Him down on such a
puny level, such a pitiful level, like He's subject to us. You
know, He's so soft. Well, listen here. In Revelation
19, verse 11, And I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse
And he that sat upon him was called faithful and true, and
in righteousness he doth judge and make war." He is at war. Now listen, the Lord Jesus Christ
is at war to all that are opposed to him, all that are opposed
to God, all that are opposed to righteousness, all that are
opposed to holiness. He's going to make war with them. His eyes were as a flame of fire,
and on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that
no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture
dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And
the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses,
clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth
goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nation.
And he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the
winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he
hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of
kings and Lord of lords." The Lord, Jehovah, is a man of war. He will destroy all that oppose
him. He'll do it. Notice his power. He's got the power to do it.
And he demonstrates his power. You know, we see, we honestly
see bits and pieces of God's power, don't we? We've never
seen the awesome, infinite power of God. I mean, the best place
to see it is at Calvary. At Calvary. But we see through
a glass darkly. Everything we see, we see through
a glass darkly. Because this flesh and sin and
this world, that's the way we see. But now notice here, he
says in verse 4, 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. And there's one thing
you will recognize as we go down through here and read this. There
is no apology for his wrath. You know, when He cast the great
horror into hell, when He cast the unbelievers into torment,
do you know what the host of heaven is going to say? Hallelujah. They're going to shout, Hallelujah. And there's no apology here on
Moses' part in this psalm for the wrath of God against those
who oppose Him. He says here that he took Pharaoh's
armies, and he took even his choice captains, and he drowned
them in the Red Sea. And they sank to the bottom.
They're not coming back up. They're not coming back up. Thy right hand, O Lord, has become
glorious in power. Who is that? Who is that? The right hand of God is the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the power of God unto salvation. He's the power of God to damn.
He's the judge of the earth. He's the judge of the quick and
the dead. Thy right hand, O Lord, is glorious in power. No weak
Savior. Jesus Christ is not a weak Savior. He is a powerful Savior. He is
a powerful judge. He is a powerful king. He's a
powerful Lord. Behold what desolations, I believe
it says in Psalm 46, behold what desolations he hath made in the
earth. Talk about mother nature. Mother has a nature of revenge
on this earth. I received some of my mom's nature
from my dad. But when it comes to this world,
you see these volcanoes. You see these hurricanes, this
tornado that went through Missouri? That's God. That is the hand
of God, glorious in power. I tell you what, His real power
is seen in His redemption to overcome sin, to overcome Satan, and to come out of that grave.
and to ascend back to glory. That's glorious in power. And
he said, he said, all power is given to me in heaven and earth.
All power is in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. He raises
up, he brings down. He said, I make alive and I kill. I wound and I heal. I the Lord
do all these things. Glorious in power. You and I
are not glorious in power. What little bit we do have, He
gives to us. He gives to us. Thy right hand,
O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemies, and in the greatness
of thine excellency. Excellency, that's because of
who He is. The Lord Jesus Christ is God. manifest it in the flesh. And in the greatness of thine
excellency, thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee.
Thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them." That's
stubble. No challenge to God's power.
The whole world put together is not a challenge to God's power
in any way, shape, or form. You ever burn stubble? You ever
set a little fire? It burns easy, doesn't it? It
burns easy. Someday, He's going to burn it
all up. He's going to burn it all up. We have His Word on that. And with the blast of thine nostrils,
the water, here's power. Which one of us? You know, you
ever get a little iron and go, pfft? You ever do that? I've seen Vicki do it a time
or two. Just, pfft. The blast of thine nostrils.
He split that Red Sea. It was an act of mercy to Israel
and judgment to Egypt. But just with the blast of his
nostrils, this is power. He split that sea and it stood
wall to wall. I'm sure it was higher than this.
I'm sure it was deep. I have no doubt it was deep.
And they looked way up there to the top of that. And he was
holding it back with the blast of his nostrils. And with the blast of thy nostrils
the waters were gathered together." I love the way he's saying this.
He's not attributing anything to nature. He's not saying, well,
there was a freak windstorm that happened. No. I love the way
Moses is saying it. He said, no, with the blast of
his nostrils. That's right. He had his way
in the whirlwind and in the storm. It's his. I love the way Cole
put it. So simple. I mean, so simple.
We were talking about hurricanes. This has been a year, a year
and a half ago. And we were fishing. This has been a year and a half
ago. Five? We were talking about hurricanes.
He said, is that God doing this with his hand? I said, yes. You said it better than I could.
Wasn't that good? He said, is that God doing this
with his hand? Is he swirling his hand around? I said, you
got it right, buddy. That's the way it is. Too bad they've got to grow up
and learn a bunch of garbage in there. The flood stood upright as a
heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. I think that's pretty deep. It
gives me some idea of how deep. Right in the heart of it. He
didn't try to go find the shallow end. Not any harder for God to split
a foot of water than it is to split a thousand feet of water. And the enemy said, now here's
something interesting. Here's the obstinance of man.
God does this. God splits the sea. He makes
it stand wall to wall. It's hard to tell how wide that
was. Don't think it was a path. You're talking about two, three
million people going. You know, this ain't probably
a mile too wide, you know, for them to get across in any reasonable
amount of time. And then Pharaoh sees that, and he thinks, I got him. I got
him. Boy, how stupid. I got him. Not realizing that the way of
mercy for the children of Israel ended up being a way of judgment
for those who believe not. The enemy said, I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide the spoiled. My lust shall be satisfied upon
them. I will draw my sword, my hand
shall destroy them." Now, did anything in that stand out to
you? I will, I will, I will, my lust,
I will, my hand. Where'd that come from? Who's the father of that? Turn
over to Isaiah 14. Isaiah 14, verse 12, How art
thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou
cut down to the ground which did weaken the nations? For thou
hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt
my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the
mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will
ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most
High." Sounds just like their father. Sounds just like their
father. I will pursue, I will overtake,
I will divide the spoil, I will draw my sword, and God says in
verse 10, no, Moses said that ain't going to happen. Thou didst
blow with thy wind. Oh, I just love the way he attributes
nature to God. Thy wind, the sea covered them,
they sank as lead in the mighty waters. But I'll tell you what I like
here. I can see in this my sins. I can see my sins rising up,
saying, I will, I will. Me, you know, my old nature.
I will, I will. And God's going to destroy that.
God's going to lay that old man in the grave, and he's not going
to rise again. He's not going to rise again.
And like lead, my sins are sunk into the sea. Gone. Gone. He put them away. He destroyed
them. Who is like unto thee, O Lord,
among the gods? Who is like thee? Anybody, is
there anyone, anything, anything comparable to God? Absolutely
nothing. There is nothing that you and
I can come up with to compare to God. He's infinite in every
way. And everything you and I deal
with is finite. So you can't compare finite with
infinite. You can't do it. Glorious and holiness. There's
where you've got to start. If you're going to make a comparison
with something to God, you have to start with His holiness. Holy. His love is holy. His justice
is holy. Everything about Him is holy. And I tell you what, we don't
have anything to compare that to, do we? Fearful in praises, glorious
in holiness, fearful in praises. I tell you what, let our praises
be, like I said, be filled with fear and trembling. You know,
there's a sense, you know, we don't have this slavish fear
of God, but He's our Father. But there's a sense in which
I do have a fear. You know, He can take everything I've got. He can take
my family, my wife, my sons. He can take them. And what can
I do? I think of Job who said, that
which I feared came upon me. That which I feared came upon
me. So there are things, even right
now, things that are going on. I don't know the will of God.
I don't know what He's going to do. I know what He's going
to do is right. But that doesn't mean it won't
hurt. It doesn't mean it won't hurt.
Doesn't mean what he takes won't just rip your heart out. Fearful in praises. Recognize
that the one we're worshiping can take it or give it. The Lord
giveth and the Lord taketh. And you'd never really sing praises
unto him, worship to him, until you come to that realization. He can give it or he can take
it. You know, I've read the book of Job several times, and I've
read that, but I have more feeling about what he's saying at that
time than I've ever had in my life. The Lord can take, or He
can give, or He can show mercy. He can speak a word and clear
it up, or let it get worse. Fearful in prayer. That's who
He is. That's who He is. Someone said to a person one
time, her son had died, and the pastor told her, said, Satan
took him. This is not of God. Not even a bird falls to the
ground without your heavenly Father. He gives life and He
takes life. It's His to give and to take.
Fearful in praises. Doing wonders. I tell you what, the fact that
you and I believe the gospel is a wonder. There's one of the
biggest wonders. That you love God. That you believe
God. What a wonder. The wonder of
His grace. Thou stretchest out thy right
hand, the earth swallows them. That's right, I read today, I
wrote it down somewhere. I thought the earth was on his
side. You know, it says the earth over in 1 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians. Look over here
in 2 Corinthians 5. I think it is. I'll find it later. I get myself in trouble when
I start thinking something where something's at and it's not there. It talks about the earth groaning.
What's that at, Frank? You know? Yeah, prevailing to
the sons of God are manifest. Romans 8. Yeah, see, I told you. I knew that was coming. There
it is. There it is. Let me read verse
8 to see if the children And verse 18, for I reckon that the
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest
expectation of the creature of creation waited for the manifestation
of the sons of God. For the creature of creation
was made subject to vanity, not willingly. The world is thrown
up all the time because of our sinfulness, but by reason of
him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the creature
of creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage
of corruption and to the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation
grows and prevails in pain together until now." I tell you what,
creation's on his side. Creation's on his side. You know,
there's, I was thinking about this today. You know, he talks about the
trees clap their hands. And I've always looked at that
metaphorically, and it probably is so. But you know, I thought
today, you know what? In some strange way, that tree
probably is clapping its hands. It's His creation. It's His creation. What do we know? What do we know? He gave life to the plants and
the animals and the sea. I mean, all that's in the sea. I tell you, there's a lot more
there than what we've ever touched on. Let me get back here and
get back on the subject. Let me see where I'm at. Thou
stretchest out thy right hand, and the earth swallows them.
Thou, in thy mercy, hast led forth thy people, which thou
hast redeemed. That same hand that was leading
them in mercy is the same hand that destroyed their enemy. Same
hand. And it's a redeemed people that
He's leading. You know what that means? That means it's a purchased
people. It says that on down here. Thou hast guided them in
thy strength unto thy holy habitation. Where is that? Christ. Christ. Christ is the holy habitation
of God. Christ is our holy habitation.
We dwell in Him. In Him we live and move and have
our being. The people shall hear and be afraid. Sorrow shall take
hold of the inhabitants of Palestinia. 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. All the hearts of all men and
women are in the hands of our Lord. O Lord, till the people pass
over which thou hast purchased, thou shalt bring them in and
plant them in the mountain, in the mountain of thine inheritance,
in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in,
in the sanctuary." Where's the sanctuary? He's our sanctuary, O Lord, which
thy hands have established. The Lord shall reign forever
and ever." That verse, verse 18, is just simply saying this,
Lord, thou art sovereign, thou art sovereign, thou art the sovereign
over all, 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."
He saved them. He saved them. And Mary, you know what she does? She repeats the song. Sometimes
we sing songs and it will say, repeat. That's what this is. It's just repeat the song. Repeat
the verse. 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, Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath slapped gloriously the
horse, and his rider hath he thrown into the sea." That is
a song worth repeating. If it's good, it's worth repeating. A hymn about hymns. And we ought to make sure that
all our hymns that we sing are about him, for we've not worshiped.