Exodus 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, the 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 will prepare
him in 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 are
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 in
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 spoil. My lust shall be satisfied upon
them. I will draw my sword, 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 up. Thou and Thy
mercy has led forth the people which Thou hast redeemed. Thou
hast guided them in Thy strength into Thy holy habitation. 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
shall they 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. This is the first song that is
recorded in the scripture. That's not to say that men did
not sing before this, but this is the first song that is recorded
in the word of God. We know early on, we read in
the book of Genesis, there were some people who began to make
musical instruments. We read about them, so I imagine
that people did sing before. But this song is a song of the
redeemed, saved, believing people of God. You know, in the early
part of this book of Exodus, the children of Israel were crying,
and they were groaning, and now we see they are singing. They
had been redeemed by blood and by power. I want you to hold
your places here, but turn with me in your Bibles, if you will,
to Psalm 106. Psalms 106. In this psalm, we have a history
or rehearsal of what took place here. But I want to point these
things out to us from Psalm 106, beginning with verse 9. Psalm 106, verse 9, he, that
is God, rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up. So he led
them through the depths as through the wilderness, and he saved
them from the hand of him that hated them, and redeemed them
from the hand of the enemy. And the waters covered their
enemies. There was not one of them left.
Notice this next verse. Then, then believed they his
words. They sang his praise. I want
to emphasize then, then they believed his words and sang his
praise. It was when they saw If you turn
back, the words that they believed were the Lord's words through
Moses to them when Moses told them, this day thou shalt see
the salvation of the Lord. And then in that last verse of
chapter 14 of Exodus, and Israel saw You see, the psalmist said,
then when they saw, they believed. 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. They were like
Thomas. They were like our Lord's disciple,
Thomas. who at first he was not with
the disciples when the Lord appeared to them after his resurrection.
And you remember he made this statement, I will not believe.
I will not believe lest I see in his hands the print of nails
and put my finger into the print of the nails and thrust my hand
into his side. I will not believe. He said,
I've got to see. I've got to see first. And the
same thing we see about these Israelites. It was only when
they saw all of their enemies destroyed by God Almighty in
the Red Sea, then they believed and they sang his praises. They sang the praises, this song
that we're looking at this evening. But our Lord said this to Thomas,
and we do not know We're not told if Thomas even stretched
forth his hand, his fingers, to put his finger in the nail
prints of the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. I doubt it myself. I seriously doubt it. I believe
that when he saw the Lord Jesus Christ, he fell at his feet and
worshiped him and confessed, my Lord and my God. But our Lord
said this to Thomas. Blessed are those that have not
seen and have believed. That's you. That's me, isn't
it? We haven't seen the Lord. We
haven't seen the prince in his hands or in his feet. We haven't
seen with these physical eyes, the Lord Jesus Christ, his body
that was raised and still had the marks of the nails. We haven't
seen that, but we believe. I believe, don't you? I believe
by the grace of God, God has given us faith to believe. Not
everyone believes. It's sad, but it's true, isn't
it? Not everyone believes because
we know that not everyone has faith. And no man has faith in
and of himself. Faith is a gift of God. Isn't
it wonderful tonight if we believe? We believe, and not only is it
wonderful that we believe, but we have our Lord's blessing. Blessed, he said. Blessed are
they that have not seen and have believed. That's us. That's us. You know, some people are in
a religion that they just desire, above all things, to have a particular
person, a priest or whatever, To bless them. To bless them. When I was in Mexico, I know
I've said this before, but one of the doctors that I was seeing
at that time, he let me know he was the last man to get the
bishop's blessing before he sailed from Yucatan going to Rome. This
was back some time ago. And he died, the bishop died,
never came back to Yucatan. And this doctor, it seemed to
mean so very much to him that that man had blessed him. I'll tell you what, the Lord
Jesus has blessed us. That's the blessing I want. That's
the blessing I desire. Blessed are they that have not
seen and have believed. Well, I have three lessons I
want to bring out to us tonight from this song, from the singing
of this song. First of all, and this is the
bulk of the message tonight, but this song, as we look at
it, this song is an example for the songs of God's redeemed people. In other words, the songs that
we sing, the hymns that we sing, they should be patterned after
this particular song. You notice the last words in
verse two. I will exalt him. I will exalt him. And every song
that we sing, that should be our purpose, that should be the
theme, to exalt Him. And I have six things I want
to point out to us in this song that we see exalts the Lord God
Almighty. First of all, this song exalts
His singularity. Notice, if you will, in verse
11, It's put in the form of a question. Who is like unto thee, O Lord,
among the gods? You know, sometimes that word
gods, you notice it's not capitalized, but sometimes it refers to judges,
the judges that they had at that time. But here, I don't believe
it refers to the judges. It refers to the gods that men
have believed in and did believe in at that time. Again, hold
your places here, but look with me in 1 Corinthians chapter six. Chapter eight, I'm sorry, 1 Corinthians
chapter eight. Notice these words of the apostle
in verse 5. 1 Corinthians chapter 8, verse
5. For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven
or in earth, as there be gods many and lords many, but to us
there is but one God, the Father. of whom are all things, and we
in him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we
by him." There'll be many, as the Apostle Paul tells us here,
that are called gods. We know in Greek mythology there
were many different gods. The Romans had their gods. Every
nation, I suppose, has always had their gods. Remember the
Mayans, they had the rain god, and many had the sun god and
the moon god, and that was just whatever they saw in nature.
And one man pointed this out that since man fell, since Adam
fell in the garden, and we all come into this world inheriting
a sinful nature, that this brain, This brain that God has given
us could well be called a God factory. A God factory. Because man manufactures his
own God. And when man does that, now this
is always the case, when man makes his own God, invents his
own God, he always makes his God like himself. And God said that, didn't he,
in the psalm. Thou thoughtest. That's man's
thinking. Thou thoughtest that I was altogether
such in one as thou art. Men have made their own gods,
and it's always a god that they can manipulate. And a god that
they can, it's kind of like this putty. that the children play
with. It's putty, right? Play-doh,
play-doh. You know, they can take that
play-doh and make it into whatever they want to. And man, his idea
of God, he fashions him like he would have him to be. But
in this song, what do we see? There's no God like our God. There's no God like the true
God, the living God, the singularity of God. Look with me in Isaiah
chapter 40. In Isaiah chapter 40. And verse 12. And this was the thing in these chapters
40 through 45 of Isaiah. He challenges his nation, the
nation of Israel, that were given to idolatry, to prove their gods,
to prove their gods, and to let them tell of something that would
take place in the future and show that they're really gods. And of course, that can't take
place because they're dead idols. But here in chapter 40 and beginning
with verse 12, God asked, who hath measured the waters in the
hollow of his hand? Now that's a pretty big hand. You see what he's saying? The
waters of the Atlantic, the waters of the Pacific, the waters of
the Gulf of America, the waters. Who's got a hand large enough
to hold the waters of his earth? God's showing how great He is,
right? There's no God like Him. Who
has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand and meted
out heaven with a span, measured it out. No one has a ruler that long,
a tape measure that long. and comprehended the dust of
the earth, and measured the dirt of the earth, and weighed the
mountains, and scales, and the hills, and the balance. Who hath
directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counselor, hath
taught him? Has God ever learned anything?
Of course not. He knows all things. He never
learns anything. And remember when God asked a
question in the scriptures, never for information, never for information. With whom took he counsel and
who instructed him and taught him in the path of judgment and
taught him knowledge and showed to him the way of understanding.
Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket. a drop of a bucket, and are counted
as a small dust of the balance. Behold, he taketh up the owls
as a very little thing, and Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, or
the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering." If you
burned all the trees of Lebanon at that time, or just all the
trees in all of God's world, and all the animals as a holocaust,
as a blood sacrifice, a burnt sacrifice, it would not be sufficient. It would not be sufficient to
take away one sin from one person. All nations before him are as
nothing, and they are counted to him, less than nothing in
vanity. To whom then will you liken God? Or with what likeness will you
compare unto him? The first thing that I point
out to us in this song is it exalts God. As the psalmist said,
I will exalt him. And in this song, God's singularity
is exalted. Next, this song exalts God's
holiness. Again, in verse 11, glorious
in holiness. Nothing quite sets God apart
from other so-called deities like his holiness. This has many
times been called his chief attribute, God's chief attribute, his holiness. Our God is a consuming fire,
the scripture says. When Isaiah was privileged to
see that vision of heaven, remember, he saw the Lord high and lifted
up. And what were the seraphims shouting?
They were not shouting, love, love, love. They were not shouting,
mercy, mercy, mercy. What were they shouting one to
the other continuously? Holy, holy, holy. is the Lord our God. A good illustration
of this, I think, is you're all familiar with a wagon wheel.
I'm talking about a wheel like we used to have on wagons, you
know, and they have spokes. And the spokes, all around the
wheel, there's spokes. And think of those spokes as
the various attributes of God, but they all feed into that center
axle part. And his love is holy love. His wrath is holy wrath. His wisdom is holy. His chief
attribute is his holiness. The Lord our God is glorious
in holiness. His love is holy. His patience
is holy. He's holy. He's the holy Lord
God. When our Lord in John chapter
17 prayed to his father there, many times that's called his
great high priestly prayer, the night before he was crucified.
In that prayer, he addressed his father as, oh, holy father,
oh, holy father. This song exalts his holiness,
and we should too, and our singing should too. We sing that hymn
sometimes, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. Okay, third,
this song exalts God's mercy. If you notice in verse 13, thou
and thy mercy has led forth the people which thou hast redeemed. The Israelites that day, They
could, they could have, they didn't, but they could have repeated
the words of Lot. The day that the angels dragged
Lot out of Sodom before the brimstone and fire began to fall, Lot said
this, thou has magnified thy mercy, which thou has showed
unto me and saving my life. Thou hast magnified Thy mercy
unto me, that's what Lot said, in saving my life. Now, these
people, they could have said the same thing, because remember
just the day before, just before the day that the Lord saved them,
bringing them through the Red Sea and overthrowing their enemies,
what had they been doing? Murmuring. Murmuring. Against Moses and against God,
you've brought us out here in the wilderness. Wasn't there
enough burying places in Egypt? They were murmuring. There's
no way anyone could say, well, they deserve this, what God did
for them. No, they were recipients of God's
mercy. And that's true of every saved
person, isn't it? Every saved person. You can't
deserve mercy. You just can't. It's no longer
mercy. You can't deserve mercy. You
can't merit grace. It's free. It's sovereign. It's
God's to give. I will have mercy, he said, upon
whom I will have mercy. They exalted God's mercy. And remember in our Lord's parable
there, I believe it's in Luke chapter 18, the publican and
the Pharisee went up into the temple to pray and the Pharisee
stood, oh boy, he had a lot to brag on, didn't he? I mean, I
tithe and I fast and he just had an old laundry list of things
that he did. And that other man, that publican,
he smote upon his breast. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And the Lord Jesus said, that
man went home to his house justified. That Pharisee, he went home to
his house just like he came, full of himself. God, when God
saves, A sinner, he always brings us down, doesn't he? He always
does. Well, this song, number four,
this song exalts God's faithfulness also. If you notice in verse
17, thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain
of thine inheritance. Now, what does he mean? What
does that mean? God had promised Abraham and
his descendants the land of Canaan. And he's faithful. He's faithful
to his promise. He's faithful to his word. And
they exalt him and praise him and celebrate his faithfulness. Even though it hadn't happened
when they're saying this, but when God says something, It's
going to happen. It's going to take place. And
God's promise was he was going to bring them into the land of
Canaan. He had given that land unto their
forefathers with a covenant. They celebrated God's faithfulness. And fifth, this song exalts God's
sovereignty. In verse 18, the Lord shall reign
forever and ever. Look at that word reign, R-E-I-G-N. Have you ever noticed that that
word is in the word sovereign? That that word makes up the word
sovereign? It does, doesn't it? And that's
what sovereignty means. It means that God reigns. He
reigns over all. He reigns at all times, in all
places, the sovereignty of God. Psalm 97 and verse one, the psalmist
said, the Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice. We rejoice
at God's sovereignty. I hear people sometimes talking
today, what's wrong with this world? What's happening? It just
seems like everything's out of control and no, Everything is
under his control. Under the control of the Lord
Jesus Christ. All power, he said, is given
unto me, both in heaven and in earth. And he is reigning today
over all things. And everything is marching according
to his purpose and his plan. Someone said, I'm not worried,
I've read the end. I've already read the end. You
know, sometimes you might start reading a book and you get interested
and you get so interested you say, well, I've just got to go
to the end, read the end first, see how this is going to turn
out. Well, we know how it's going to turn out. We've read the end. He's in control. And the day
is coming, already marked on his calendar, when this world
is going to be burned. It's going to be burned up and
God's going to bring in a new heaven and a new earth. Wherein
dwelleth righteousness. Wherein dwelleth righteous ones. We look forward to that day.
And then, six, this song exalts God's power. In fact, that maybe
is the attribute that is the most celebrated in this song,
is God's power. In verse six, we read, thy right
hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power. Thy right hand, O Lord,
hath dashed in pieces the enemy. Israel's enemy, of course, was
Pharaoh. But you notice they sing as Pharaoh
was God's enemy. Thy right hand, O Lord, has become
glorious in power. Thy right hand, O Lord, hath
dashed in pieces the enemy. And the enemy is God's enemy. Look in verse nine. The enemy
said, Now, see if this doesn't sound like Satan. This is one
of the reasons I've said, as we've been studying here, that
Pharaoh is a type of Satan. Well, listen to how he spoke. I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide the spoil. I will
draw my sword. I will, I will, I will, I will. Isn't that just like we read
in Isaiah chapter 14? Let me read this word to us. Isaiah chapter 14, which we believe
is symbolic of Satan. Verse 13. 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. Yet thou shall be brought down
to hell to the sides of the pit. So Pharaoh here, he said, I will
pursue, I will overtake, I will divide this world, I will draw
my sword. And what happened to Pharaoh
and all of his army? They sunk like lead, the scripture
here says, to the bottom of the Red Sea. Here's my second point. The singing
of this song is an example of the way God's redeemed people
should express their joy. Matthew Henry said, by this instance,
it appears that the singing of Psalms as an act of religious
worship was used in the Church of Christ before the giving of
the ceremonial law, and therefore was no part of it, nor abolished
with it. Singing is as much the language
of holy joy as praying is of holy desire. And I want you to
note the connection here between strength and song in verse one. I will sing unto the Lord, for
he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath
he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song. There's a verse in the book of
Nehemiah which tells us the joy of the Lord is your strength. And singing is expressive of
joy. And we see here that joy and
strength are joined together. The joy of the Lord is your strength. I have an example. I'm not going
to take the time to read it, but In later years, in the nation
of Judah, they had a king by the name of Jehoshaphat. And
there were three nations that came up against Jerusalem and
Judah. And he was afraid, the scripture
said, he feared. But then he sought the Lord.
And you know what they ended up doing, going out, and he put
singers in front of the army. And they went forth singing.
And when they did, these three nations, they began to fight
each other and destroyed each other. And Judah was delivered. God's people were delivered.
Singing, remember in our services, the singing is
a very important part. of our worship service. I'm thankful
for Bill. I'm thankful for David, those
that lead our music and those who play the instruments. This
is, it expresses our joy, our joy to sing and to worship the
Lord. The last thing, this song is
an example for the way God's redeemed people should sing.
I want you to notice that in verse one. Then sang Moses and
the children of Israel this song unto the Lord. Moses didn't sing to Aaron and
the children of Israel, they didn't sing to Moses. No, they
all sang unto the Lord. And that's the way we should
sing here. In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul wrote, speaking
to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
and making melody in your heart to the Lord. They sang unto the Lord, and
that's the way we should sing, not to one another, but to the
Lord, to worship him. May the Lord bless this word,
us here this evening.