Turn to Exodus chapter 15. Exodus chapter 15. I studied this message a few
weeks ago to bring it home. I titled it, A Hymn About Him. This is a hymn That is about
Him, and it's all about Him. Now, singing, as we have done
here, has its place in the church. It's part of the worship of God,
a strong part of the worship of God. In glory, they sing,
worthy is the Lamb that was slain. And I had not really realized
it until I had studied a few weeks ago this psalm. But they
sing this song in heaven. Turn over to Revelation chapter
15. In verse 1, in Revelation 15, 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, a sea of glass mingled with fire, and them 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 hearts of God, and they sing the song of Moses,
the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and
marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are
thy ways, thou King of saints. But they sing the song of Moses,
In this first verse, then sang Moses and the children of Israel
this song unto the Lord. And they sing this song even
now. Even now. Singing, as I said,
is a very important part of worship.
It is to be done with fear and trembling. And it's always, always
to Him and about Him. I noticed when I was looking
at this this afternoon, in verse 1, then sang Moses and the children
of Israel this song unto the Lord. It doesn't say
they were just singing about the Lord, though they were. They
were singing this song unto Him. Unto Him. Now the occasion for
this hymn has to do with the deliverance of Israel from the
Egyptians. If you look back in chapter 14, look in verse 26,
And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the
sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon
their chariots, and upon their horsemen. And Moses stretched
forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength
when the morning appeared. And the Egyptians fled against
it, and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the
sea. And the waters returned and covered the chariots and
the horsemen and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the
sea after them. And there remained not so much
as one of them, Oh, can't you see the gospel in this? Not so
much as one sin remains upon his people. He has put away every
one of them, cast them into the depths of the sea. Every one of them, not so much
as one of them remained. Not one of those Egyptians was
a good swimmer. I'm telling you the water was
so deep it wouldn't matter how good a swimmer gonna drown before
he gets to the top. And he drowned him and there
remained not so much of as one of them. But the children of
Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea. And the
waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their
left. And I can't even imagine how high that wall was. It's
high, you know, it's not, it's not like as high as this wall.
It's, it's a wall of water. High. And it was on their right hand
and on their left. And thus the Lord saved Israel
that day. And I wrote out by that verse,
Calvary. When our Lord cried, it's finished.
Thus the Lord saved Israel that day. The true Israel of God. Thus the Lord saved Israel that
day out of the hand of the Egyptians. And Israel saw the Egyptians
dead upon the seashore. Conquered! Conquered. And Israel saw that great work
which the Lord did upon the Egyptians. They saw it. When God reveals
the gospel to his children, to a sinner, you see the great work
of redemption. That's when you see it. and not
before. And Israel saw that great work
which the Lord did upon the Egyptians and the people feared the Lord
and believed the Lord and his servant Moses. And then what
did they do? They sang a song, a song of deliverance,
a song of redemption. And I want you to notice, this
is one of the things I noticed after I preached from this a
few weeks ago. I want you to notice how balanced this song
is. It speaks of his power to destroy,
to damn. And it speaks of his power to
save. Notice how balanced, as we go
through this, notice how balanced this song Now they're going to
sing of the deliverance that God gave them. And it was a complete
deliverance. A complete deliverance. They
were all on dry ground. They were all on dry ground.
The sea didn't close and some of them had to swim to shore.
No, they were all on dry ground. Then God destroyed their enemies.
It was a complete deliverance. It was complete destruction of
their enemies. When Christ cried, it's finished,
he made a complete destruction of all our enemies. Satan is
nothing more than a pit bull on a chain. He can do absolutely
nothing without permission, and he can only do what he's permitted
to do. Christ, when He arose from the
grave, He arose above all principalities and powers. It's not Christ on
one side, trying to get you to accept Him. Satan on the other
side, trying to get you to stay in the middle or to stay on his
side. You're already on his side. You know, we're born lost. We're
born children of wrath by nature, even as others. But Satan has
no power to keep God's children. When he calls, They come. When he gives that effectual
call, they believe. They believe. You read the Gospels. You do
not read one time where a demon refused to come out. He says,
come out of him. You don't read where a demon
said, no, I'm not. I don't think I will. They come out immediately. Have you come to torment us before
our time? They know who the Lord is, though
they don't believe Him. It is a complete salvation, it
is a complete deliverance, it is a complete destruction of
the enemy without Israel having to raise one hand to help. I do not do one thing to help
My Lord saved me. Not even my will has anything
to do with it. He said, Thy people shall be
willing when? In the day of His power. Psalm 110. Until then, you're
not willing. Until He demonstrates His power
to save, We are not willing to bow. We are not willing to come.
He said this to the Pharisee, you, you will not come to me
that you might have life. But in the day of his power,
you will. Someone said, I don't know who
it was. I, I heard this said, God saved me against my will
with my full consent. Oh, what a powerful savior. We'll see this in this song.
We'll see this. It has been said that Martin
Luther set the church to singing. Actually, Moses set the church
to singing. Martin Luther just picked it
back up. Now, it says in verse 1, They had sang Moses and the children
of Israel. The whole congregation sang.
It was not a choir singing to the congregation. It was the
whole congregation being led by Moses. He was the song leader.
And they sang this song unto the Lord. And they spake saying,
I will sing, first of all, unto the Lord. Let it be known who
we're singing to. We're not just singing because
it's part of the service. We're singing unto Him. We're
singing praises unto Him. Now listen to the Psalm. For
he hath triumphed gloriously. It says in Psalm, or not Psalm,
but Isaiah 42. My servant shall not fail. He hath triumphed gloriously.
The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. We do
not apologize. for God's judgments. We preach His mercy. We preach
His grace. And we preach His judgments.
And we make no apologies. You'll notice in this song there
are no apologies. There are no apologies. He hath
cast, He said here, He's triumphed gloriously. The horse and his
rider hath He thrown. He threw them into the sea. He
providentially hardened Pharaoh's heart brought him up to the sea,
that arrogant man, and we'll see this down in the song, this
arrogant man, which was raised up by God, thought, I'm gonna
get those Israelites. He said, I don't know why in
the world I let them go. You know, if you read chapter,
I think it's chapter 14, after the Israelites leave, they look
at each other and say, why did we let them go? It's like, what
happened? What were we thinking? God not only controls the heart
of the King, the heart of the King is in the hand of the Lord,
but He controls my heart and your heart and every heart that's
ever been and ever will be. And He providentially brought
Pharaoh and his army, his choice captains, and the horse and his
rider, and He threw them into the sea. Yeah, they thought they was going
to get the job done on Israel, not knowing that God was leading
them to their death. Judgment. Judgment. He says here, the Lord is my
strength. Now, the Lord gives us strength. Paul said, I can
do all things through Christ who strengthens me. But this
is stronger. He is my strength. You know,
Christ has given us life, spiritual life. But this is stronger. He is my life. I am the way,
the truth, and the life. If I have life, I have Christ. That's as simple as that. It's not that He just gives it
to me, I have Him. He is my life. You can't touch
my life. Our life is hid with Christ in
God. The Lord is my strength and He's
my song. He's the joy of my heart. He's
the one I sing about and the one I sing to. He's my song.
It's not just a little ditty. This is a song from the heart
to the Lord. And He is the come. Oh, you know, my salvation is seated
at God's right hand. You know, my security is seated
at God's right hand. My security is not that I accepted
Him, now He's going to keep me saved. My security is Him. He is my security. The security
of the believer is Christ Himself. He's become my salvation. And
in another place, David says, God has become my salvation. When He became a man, walked
on this earth, He did it as my substitute. He did it in my place. Every righteous thing He did,
every righteous act He did, He did it for His people. He didn't
do anything for Himself. He did it for His people. He's
become my salvation. When He died, He died for His
people. We read back in the study there
in Acts, He said to watch over the church of God which He purchased
with His own blood. Call it the blood of God. He's become my salvation and
He is my God, personally. He's not just looking at God
as He's the God of the universe and He's the only God there is. But He's my God. The God of salvation
is my God. The God of glory is my God. The only God there is, is my
God. How much confidence should that
give us? We ought to be able to wake up in the morning and
go to work without falling apart. He's my God. And I will prepare
Him in habitation. Where does God dwell? In you, the church. I'm not the one preparing it,
but He, the church is His habitation. He dwells in you. He dwells in
every believer. And I will exalt Him. The Lord is a man of war. Now
that's going to bust some bubbles. Jesus loves everybody. Wants
to save everybody for letting. But the Word of God... See how
balanced this song is? He says here, the Lord is a man
of war. And He has conquered every one
of His foes. This is a captain that has never
lost a battle. Never lost a battle. And this
is the only captain that's ever fought all the battles by himself,
without us. The battle is what? The Lord's. You know what the Word of God
said? The battle is the Lord's. Redemption, salvation, Righteousness,
that's all on his shoulders. The government's on his shoulders.
It's not given to him and you and I make, you know, we elect
and make decisions for him. No, he's not a president. He's the Lord. He's the king.
He's the potentate. That's who he is. He's a man
of war. The Lord is his name. I want you to look over in Revelations
19. Let's see if I wrote that down somewhere.
19, look in verse 11. Start in 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 what? Make war. You don't want to be
one of those opposing him, because you've already lost. 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 shall smite the nations,
and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. And he tradeth the winepress
of the fierceness and wrath of God. And he hath on his vesture
and on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. That's who Jesus Christ is. That's speaking of him. And now
he's going to give us a demonstration of his power. Pharaoh's chariots and his host
hath he cast into the sea. His chosen captains also are
drowned in the Red Sea. You mean He killed them? He sure
did. He said, I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. I, the Lord,
do all these things. Not a sparrow falls to the ground
without your Heavenly Father. He gives life and no one, no
one can take it but Him. Now He uses means. He uses means. I might die in an accident, but
it will not be an accident that I died. He gives and he takes. Job said
that, and I'm sure we've learned. We've lived long enough to learn
that. Pharaoh's chariots and his host, his cast of the sea,
his choice captains, he's drowned them 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, glorious in power. Who's the right hand? Who is
this? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
the right hand here. To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? Who's that? That's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's become glorious in power. In creation, He said, Let there
be light! And there was light. Glorious
in power. Back in Noah's day, he flooded
the earth, glorious in power. One day he became a man, came
into this world. God became a man. God was manifested in the flesh,
walked on this earth, in this sinful world, in righteousness. Not one time did he think or
do an act of sin, glorious in power. You and I can't. Adam
couldn't do it when he was innocent. He failed. That's how powerful
he was. He lost it. In the wilderness,
40 days, 40 nights, hadn't he? Satan said, make those stones
into bread. Not so. He resisted. You and I wouldn't have the power
to do that. We wouldn't have the power to resist. If we had the
power to turn those stones into bread, we'd have ate that for
the first day. Forty days, forty nights, and he didn't do it. In the garden of Gethsemane,
he's being made sin, and he doesn't crumble. Glorious in power. On the cross, under the wrath
of God, He stood up under the wrath of
God. He gave up his spirit. Into thy
hands I commend my spirit. If he hadn't done that, he wouldn't
have died. Glorious in power. He rose from
the dead by his own power. Glorious in power. And then he
saved a wretch like us. like me and like you. Glorious
in power. Glorious in power. 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, God manifested in the flesh. In every attribute
is God. In every attribute is holy. I got a lot of attributes that's
not too good. But everyone his are excellent.
Excellent. Thou hast overthrown them that
rose up against thee. You'd think people would learn
from history, wouldn't you? Dead men don't learn anything. Thou sentest forth thy wrath,
which consumed them as stubble, and with the blast of thy nostrils.
That's all he had to do. You ever see somebody get mad
and go, with the blast of his nostrils.
And I like the way Moses is directing this song. He didn't say Mother
Nature at all in any of this, did he? Talks about the wind
and the water, but never talks about Mother Nature. He talks
about God. He said, with the blast of your
nostrils, you parted the sea. And with the blast of your nostrils,
you brought it back together and flooded them and killed them.
With the blast of thy Nostrils, the waters were gathered together.
The flood stood upright as a heap. Scientists would give some kind
of freak happening in nature, you know, and no, God did it.
Man, we could save a lot of money in science, in the science world,
if we just believed God. If we just believed the word
of God, billions would be saved. God did it. I told this to the
church a few weeks ago. My grandson, about a year, year
and a half ago, five years old, took him fishing. And I was trying
to use my fly rod, and the wind was blowing. And he's standing
there beside of me, and he said, Papa, he said, when the wind,
and he was talking about trying to talk about a tornado, he said,
when it becomes a tornado, because the wind was blowing, he was
concerned, he said, when the wind, blows and it swirls. He said, is that God doing this? And he took his hand and he went
in a circle. I said, you're right. You're right. The best I've ever
heard. Is that God doing this? A five-year-old. Five-year-old. He hath his way in the whirlwind
and in the storm. The lightning, it says, in the
book of Job, I believe it is, the lightning comes before him,
and the lightning says, here we are. Who do you want us to
strike? Where do you want us to strike?
What do you want us to strike? Here we are. It's His. You see lightning, that's the
act of God. You see a tsunami, you say, well, an earthquake
caused that. God caused it. And He took out everyone He purposed
to take out. Now that's too hard on this generation. That's just too hard. They don't
want a Jesus Christ like that. But that's who He is. That's
who He is. The enemy. Verse 9. Now look at that. Here's the
arrogance of human nature. The enemy said, I will pursue. 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. That's
what old Pharaoh said. Come on, boys. I want to have
my day. I will, I will, I will. Who else said that? Their father,
Satan. He said, I will ascend above
the throne of God. I will be like God. And look in verse 10. Thou didst
blow with thy wind. He just blew with his wind, just
a breath. Just a breath. And the sea covered
them. Well, so much for human will,
isn't it? There's your free will. It's at the bottom of the sea.
That's where it's at. 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? Holy, holy, holy is what they
sang continually. Fearful! and praises. Our praises have an element of
fear in it. Not slavish fear, but a fear
of all respect and recognition. The Lord giveth and the Lord
taketh away. Everything you have, God's given
you and He can take it. It's His royal prerogative. I've got two sons he's given
me. He can take them. I've got two grandchildren. He
can take them. Fearful embraces. Knowing who
it is we praise. Knowing his power, his sovereignty. He's not going to ask me if he
can do this or that. He gives no account for any of
his matters. That's why the human race can't
stand him. Because he won't answer their questions. You go read
through the gospel several times, they asked the Lord a question,
and he answered them not a word. Old Pilate said, I can't, don't
you know I have the power to crucify you? I have the power
to let you go? And you're not saying a word? Our Lord said, you don't have
any power at all. You have no power at all, you little peanut.
You don't have any power. The only power anyone has is
the power God gives them. Other than that, Pharaoh had
no power other than what God gave him. And he gave it to him
for a purpose, served a purpose, and when the purpose was done
and fulfilled, he cut the power off. That's God. That's God. Let me go on through
this. Fearful in praises, doing wonders.
Yeah, you and I are a wonder. Every believer is a wonder. It's
a wonder. Thou stretchest out thy right
hand, and earth swallowed them up. Thou and thy mercy. Now you see,
here's the balance. He speaks of His judgment, His
power, His glory, His holiness. Now He's going to speak of His
mercy, His redemption, and His people. God has a people. I don't care if the people don't
like it or not. It ain't going to change things. You know, truth is truth. You say, well, you tell that,
it's going to offend somebody. Well, you just have to get offended because
God's not going to change. I'd rather somebody tell me the truth
than lie to me and let me find out later when it's too late.
Henry said one time, hell is truth realized too late. So tell me the truth now. Thou
in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed.
Now, he led them the long way around. If you go back into this
story, the shortest way was across the land of the Philistines.
But he said because they'll see war and they'll be afraid and
their hearts will fail them and they'll want to go back to Egypt.
So he led them the long way around. Then he brought them right up
against the Red Sea. Which any general would say,
that was a stupid strategy. Well, if you're not God, it would
be. But if you're God, you can split the sea and prove your
power. Demonstrate your power. He's
not trying to prove power, he's demonstrating it. But thou in mercy, whatever you've gone through,
the things I have gone through and yet to go through and you're
yet to go through, The hand of mercy is leading you through
it. It's the only way to go. It's the only way home. Remember
this, it's part of the journey home. Whatever it is, it's part
of the journey home. Thou hast redeemed, thou hast
guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. The people shall hear He's talking
here about the people that they're going to pass through. He said,
they shall hear and they're going to be afraid. You see, he's controlling
the hearts. And they're going to be afraid
and sorrow is going to 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. Not by the greatness of thy people.
They're just sheep. Dumb sheep. Lost sheep. Wandering sheep. They are going
to be afraid by the greatness of Christ. The arm of the Lord. He's the one who will put fear
in their hearts. You remember when they left,
one time he said, not a dog moved his tongue against them. A dog
couldn't even bark. He controlled the tongue of that
dog. 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. Oh, you are a purchased people.
You belong to Him. You're not your own. Every one
of you who believe, you're not your own. I'm not my own. Been
purchased with a price. Been bought by the blood of the
Son of God. Been set free from Satan, darkness,
and sin to serve Him. Not serve myself. To serve Him. I purchased people. You think
He's going to lose anybody He's purchased? No way. That ain't
going to happen. 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. Where? Where is our sanctuary? It's better probably to put it
this way. Who is our sanctuary? The Lord Jesus Christ. He's going
to plant us in His sanctuary, in His Son. O Lord, Thy hands
have established. The Lord shall reign forever
and ever." This is a statement of His sovereignty. When you
and I are gone from this earth, He'll still be reigning. We worry
about our children, and our parents worry about us, and them, and
them, and so on and so on. But the Lord's on the throne,
and He's still going to save, as I heard my pastor say one
time, all whom He can wisely save. He'll save everyone whom
He's chosen. And He's chosen a multitude of
sinners which no man can number. And I'm a sinner. I fit the bill. Christ died for the ungodly.
I fit that bill. He died for sinners. Do you fit
that bill? There's a whole lot of people
that would be offended at that. They'd say, well, I'm not perfect, but I'm
not ungodly. Most ungodly people on this earth
were the Pharisees. And they were the most outstanding
people in town. He said the homosexuals will
do better in judgment than those Pharisees would. His thoughts are not our thoughts
and his ways are not our ways. You go over and read Matthew,
I believe it's Matthew 11, where his mighty works were done in
Capernaum. He says Sodom and Gomorrah will do better in judgment
than you people will. He said, if I had done the mighty
works in Sodom that I've done here, they would have repented.
They would have repented. Well, why didn't he do it? It
was not his will to do it. And I cannot judge the wisdom
of God. Not this finite brain. He's sovereign. He saves whom
He will. He passes by whom He will. I
remember when I first heard the Gospel. I heard my pastor preaching
on TV. I remember this. Because up until
then, I had people, my brother being one of them, and now he
comes down and sits under the Gospel. He's an Armenian. Trying to talk me into coming
down the aisle, trying to talk me into accepting Jesus as my
personal Savior. And I was resisting and I took
some pride in that. And I was resisting. You know,
you feel kind of good when you think somebody really wants you,
don't you? And I found out that He may save me and He may not.
He may have mercy and He may not. It's up to Him. It's a matter of His will and
purpose. And buddy, when I heard that, when I heard that, for
the first time in my life, I feared God. He does not have to save
me. It's not Him sitting there waiting,
hoping that I'm going to choose Him. Did He choose me? He loved me. He died for me.
I thought, Lord, don't pass me by. You'll never worship God
until you worship Him at a sovereign throne. It says in verse 19, 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,
I want you to notice what she does. She repeats the song. She doesn't add to it. She just
repeats it. And a good song is worth repeating.
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 dance. 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." All she did was repeat. You see these songs that say,
repeat? That song is worth repeating.
Now that is a song of worship. That song, it has balance. It has balance. We speak of God's love in Christ,
His mercy, His grace, but I'm telling you this, outside of
Christ, you're going to perish. You're going to perish. All right, Lindsay.