In the sermon 'Singing on the Sea of Glass,' Scott Brown delves into Revelation 15, illustrating the vision of a sea of glass mingled with fire, where victors over the beast celebrate by singing the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb. Brown emphasizes the importance of singing in the Christian life, highlighting that it is a command from God and a unifying act for the church. The sermon underscores the continuity between the Old and New Testaments, asserting that salvation has always been through faith. Brown warns against secular songs that can lead to negative spiritual influences. The sermon outlines how singing can be a powerful tool against spiritual battles, fostering unity, and serving as a cleansing agent for emotions. Brown describes the images in Revelation as pictorial theology, offering comfort and emboldenment to believers facing trials. The sermon concludes by urging believers to focus on God's great works, justice, power, kingship, and holiness, encouraging them to start singing praises now as they will for eternity.

Yes, open your Bibles to Revelation chapter 15. I'll be reading the first four verses in Revelation 15. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, holy, sweeter than honey, Word of God. Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete. And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God.

They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the lamb, saying, great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O King of the Saints. Who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy, for all the nations shall come and worship before you, for your judgments have been manifested. Would you pray with me?

Oh Lord we thank you for these words that are before us to shape us to lead us in the ways in which we should go deep within our hearts and in all of what we sing in the world. Lord, we pray that you would teach us what we need to know here. Convict us, encourage us, save any souls. Lord, we pray that you would come by your Holy Spirit and take these words and implant them deeply in our hearts. Amen.

Please be seated. Well, in our studies of Revelation, I believe this is the 31st message on Revelation. We've come to one of the many songs in the book of Revelation. There are probably 27 or 28 songs that are listed and they're just remarkable. And Most of the words that we're focusing on today are the words of a song.

And verse 3, they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God and of the lamb. Now, this is an old song that's sung in a new place, and it's the song of Moses. So it's such a thrilling thing to be here in this passage. The people of God have songs in their hearts. One of the joys of the Christian life is that there's just so much to sing about.

And we don't sing the songs of the world. I will have to say, though, many times in my life, even recently, even weekly, I regret the songs that I learned when I was young. They come back to me. And I mean, we're talking about 50 years old. 50 years ago, I heard songs and I learned them.

I played them over and over again and I am so sorry I listened to them because they still ring in my ears and I'll find myself humming them and they're defiling and and they're false doctrine and they're their visions of apostasy And I'm so sorry. If you're young, please just let me urge you, don't listen to those songs. They'll come back. They'll continue to come back even in your old age. So it's very important that you understand how important it is to have songs in your heart, the right songs.

And the vision that's before us actually tells us what song they were singing and what instrument was being played and what they were saying about God, because they were saying things about God in the songs. And, you know, when you look back on your life, What will you say about God? Well, I hope you say what these are saying in their songs. And what they're singing about is how God handled them in the earth. They're rejoicing because of it.

Now, singing is something that we always do when we gather as a church. We just can't help it. We're gonna sing, you know? But we sing because God commands His people to sing. There are over 50 direct commands to sing in the Bible.

There are over 400 references of singing in the Bible and we're commanded to praise God. So God takes us out of our pity parties and he brings us into praise. He wants to rescue us from ourselves. It's such a great thing but the scripture Does not only tell us to sing Scripture tells us how to sing we're gonna talk about that today And it also tells us what to sing. And right before us are lyrics of a song, the song of Moses and of the lamb.

Now, the entire book of Psalms is a book of lyrics that we are to sing. And in this chapter, we actually learn something about our own singing in the world from the singers that are really on the sea of glass, mingled with fire. That's where they're singing. It's such a remarkable image. Now, singing is so important for us.

Singing in many ways ushers us into the front lines of battle against the devil. You battle the devil with songs. That's what Luther believed. It's really one of the battle lines of the defense of the church. When you put songs in people's minds and they sing them as the week goes on, you know how that works.

Somebody's humming a song and all of a sudden you are and it spreads like wild music. And, but singing is also so helpful because it's one of the battle lines for the preservation of the unity of the church because we all sing off of one page of music. We all sing the same words. The songs unify us. They bring us together.

They dial us in to what is true together as a people. And it's also such a wonderful cleansing agent for our emotions, because we often come in with such damaged emotions from the thoughts that we've had, and the songs just bring us back. It's so good. So What you find here is people singing and they're looking back on their lives and they're singing about God. So that's what we have here.

You know, someone has called the songs of Revelation the soundtrack of heaven. So let's get the soundtracks of heaven rolling in our minds. Let's stop listening to the ridiculous, profane, silly songs and let's listen to songs that really are a blessing to us for the rest of our lives. Because, by the way, if you if you if you sing wonderful songs in your youth, they will come to your minds while you're walking through the store and driving around in the car and not the ridiculous songs of Led Zeppelin and all these other apostate, satanic priests. So, okay, let's remember the flow of Revelation.

We're in the book of Revelation. And of course, Revelation can be divided into seven visions that we've been going over. The first vision is of the seven churches in chapters one through three. Then you have these rolling out of seven seals and then seven trumpets and then seven bowls of wrath. All of these, I believe, are cycles of history.

All of them end in the second coming. And you see these kinds of things that are happening on the earth throughout the book of Revelation, from the time of the resurrection to the time of the second coming of Christ. In between the seals and the trumpets and the bowls are these what are often called intervals or pauses where there are various pictures of heaven or of trouble in the world. And these also end in the second coming as well. And we find ourselves now in the fifth vision here, and that is of the seven bowls of wrath that are being outpoured.

We've already covered the seals that have been opened. We've already covered the trumpets that have been blown and, you know, the coming of the dragon and his buddies, the beast, the various beasts. And, but now we come to a very gripping section in the bowls of wrath. And all of these are really written for a purpose, to comfort the church, to embolden the church. One of the great things about our studies in Revelation during this season over the last year and a half is that these things have emboldened this church, emboldened this church and encouraged this church.

The Word has done its work. It's hard to find a fearless person around here. And I attribute that to the Word of God being implanted and the words that we have been engaging. Now, when we get to the bold judgments, it seems that they just have, there's such an escalation of intensity and ferocity of the judgments that fall on the earth. And someone has explained the differences in some of these judgments that the seals are broken, the trumpets are blown to worn, but these bowls are poured out.

Are the bowls of judgment here depicting the same season as the seals and the trumpets? Is this another cycle of history? It could be. I'm not sure. I, it's possible that this is a depiction of the end.

I think you can make a case either way on that, but you do see these same kinds of things that we see in chapter 16 happening in the world, in the history of the world. But these seem to be so fierce. It could be the signs of the end, but you can decide about that. Now, it's also very interesting that this picture of singing is right before the out the pouring out of these bowls of wrath. Now God has seen fit to show John many disturbing images along the way.

You've seen them. These are realities. These are the realities of life on earth and the political and the social tumults, the attacks of the devil on cultures. We've seen them. But perhaps this is placed here because God is wanting to give John some sense of relief from the intensity and the pressure.

He's seen so many images of trouble. And perhaps God just wants to take John to show him the beauty again. How many times does that happen? I don't know. There are many in Revelation where there's trouble and then there's this vision of victory and beauty and glory and happiness forevermore.

And I think this is possibly what God is doing here with John here. And, but these verses really give a picture of victory before the outpourings of wrath on the world. John sees these victors over the beast. They had victory over the beast. These are Christians.

These are people that did not capitulate. And so there they are. Now, there are two groups that are pictured here in these four verses. Now, first of all, you see angels, again, angels all over the place in Revelation. And in verse one, they are sent to announce the pouring out of God's wrath against the antichrist and his followers.

But the second element of this is a picture of the true followers of Christ. And what's happening with them? They're happy. They're singing. So let's jump into the text.

We find this announcement of the first seven, or the last seven plagues in verse one. Then I saw another sign in heaven. Oh, there's that word sign. Sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having their last, seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete. So this is a sign in heaven.

We've encountered this before. You know, the Greek dictionary defines a sign as a symbolical representation. And it's the very same word that we encountered right at the beginning of the book, which tells us how to interpret the whole book of Revelation 1.1. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants things which must shortly take place. And he sent and signified it by his angels to his servant John.

So Revelation is a book of signs. It's a book of pictures. Many people have thought that Revelation was the perfect book for children because it's just so full of pictures of doctrine. This is pictorial theology, This is doctrine in pictures, graphic, stunning pictures. And others have explained the way to read Revelation as to think about it as cameras positioned in different places.

And one camera looks at this angle over here and another camera is pointed in another direction there are all kinds of different things happening in the world before the second coming of Christ and there are these just juxtapositions of cameras that actually show them. But what we find in Revelation is that God sends signs, and you have to try to understand the pictures that are here. Like when you have Jesus with a sword coming out of his mouth, it's not what he looks like, it's what he is like. Jesus doesn't have a sword coming out of his mouth, but he's like that. And the pictures are like that.

And here, these signs are great and marvelous. In other words, in this verse, they are tremendously significant and they have to do with these symbolical representations of what is going to happen on the earth. And God is doing this. Why is he doing it? Well, he tells us right here, the wrath of God is being poured out.

This is to show us pictures of the wrath of God. And So whether these things are the kinds of things that continue to happen in the cycles of history before the Second Coming or whether these are actually the signs of the very end I don't know. But the focus of our time this morning, in fact We'll get to that because we actually don't get to the outpouring of these plagues until next week. But in verse two, we find ourselves in what really is at the heart of the text, verses two through four, where you have these saints who are singing on the sea of glass mingled with fire. Just think about that for a minute.

A sea of glass mingled with fire. Well, It's a picture that's designed to stimulate your thinking about what, just how remarkable this is. Verse two, And I saw something like a sea of glass. It's like a sea of glass. It's a representation.

Mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God. So this scene is very, very gripping. Now we've encountered the Sea of Glass before in Chapter 4 and the imagery there, the context really had to do with the temple, But this context is different. The context helps you understand how to interpret anything in the Bible. But this is a vision of victory, and it's very clear that it is, because the vision is a Pharaoh's army being drowned in the sea and then the sea swallowing up the Egyptians and returning to calm like that.

The sea is congealed literally in the text in Exodus 15. It's literally still in a solid state. So this is a, it's a vision, it's a celebration of victory that's happening here on this sea of glass. And in Revelation and in other places in the Bible, the sea is a picture of turmoil and confusion, and fire is a picture of judgment. But here in this passage, the people of God are above the turmoil and above the confusion.

They're above the wrath, they're above the judgment, and all creation is stilled. All is still, all is well. If you're a Christian, this is where you're going. Now you can taste it here, for sure. But here the people of God are above the turmoil and the confusion, They're above the wrath, they're above the judgment.

And it's a little bit of a picture, I think, of Psalm 110, where God has put all his enemies under his feet and he has his foot on them. And there will be no more waves And there will be no more waves. And there will be no more fires. Amen. A day is coming.

A day is coming when you will rejoice over the waves that dashed you against the rock of ages. To take a phrase from Charles Fersen. You'll, the waves will cease. And you'll, you'll understand why. You'll understand what the waves were all about.

I used to sing my kids a song, and the words were, and then we'll know what it was all about. That's what will happen in heaven. But in a day is coming when you'll rejoice and you'll see how God used the fires in your life. And not to burn you, but to warm your heart and to enlighten your eyes, to comfort you in the midst of the trouble, to show you that God is true and that he never left you and he never forsook you. And the fires will go out and you'll be left with the warmth.

And it will be just like as if you're standing on a sea of glass mingled with fire. But the fire doesn't burn you, and the waves don't wash over you anymore." Isn't that amazing? What a picture. Just hang on that for a minute. Joe Beeke described this like this, I'll quote him, they are celebrating God on the sea of glass.

Isn't that good? Well, you know there there are many places like this in the Bible where you have seas being calmed and they're figurative I think of this moment and figurative of what God does in the soul. He calms the raging waves of the soul and the raging fires in the soul. But Jesus Christ was in a boat, and a raging sea was tearing that boat all over and the sea was calmed. Mark 4.39, he arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace, be still.

And the wind ceased and there was great calm. But he said to them, Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? And they feared exceedingly and they said to one another, Who can this be that even the wind and the sea obey him. You know, God is the one who promises to still the waves that come over us.

In Psalm 65 verse 7, David declares, you will still the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the peoples. In Psalm 89.9, you rule the raging sea. When its waves rise, you still them. This is the God that will still all of the way the raging seas all of the burning fires in your life and when you look back you're gonna sing a song like this song of Moses and you're gonna sing it about those waves you're gonna sing it about those fires okay I don't know what kind of fires everybody's going through in this play in this room right now you're going some of you're going through some big fires but let me tell you this you're gonna look back on those fires like these people who are singing on the sea of glass mingled with fire. That's how you're going to look at them.

Well, so you might as well start now. You might as well just start now. Don't wait. You don't have to wait. You know, the Christian sees what others cannot see.

Isaiah talked about this in this dramatic section in Isaiah 43. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel your Savior.

I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place. Since you were precious in my sight, you have been honored and I have loved you. Fear not. I am with you. I think that's the message that's here, like that old song, all my trials Lord soon will be over.

That's the truth. Now, Did you see what they're playing? They're playing harps. Now, this just gives you a sense of how calmed they are in their souls. Just how beautiful the sounds of their hearts that are communicated through the harps and just how comforted they are and how comforting the sound of a harpist is.

And that just gives you a picture of it. And it's this picture, you know, Pharaoh's army is drowned in the sea. And they're swallowed up. And there are the people of God, and they're singing. They have their harps.

They're singing with their harps while there's all this tumult in the world. It's such a beautiful picture. But when you look back on your life, I pray that you will be one of those people who will say the things that these people sing about their God. Now who are they? Well there's some definition of who they are.

Well of course they're believers, but There's more detail given to it. Are you ready? Verse two. Those who have the victory over the beast. Those who have the victory over the beast.

That's who they are. Now, we've already read about the mark of the beast, and we read about the mark of the beast again, and there are two words that are used here, his image and his mark and his number, okay, those three things. And you've heard me say, I don't believe the mark of the beast is 666 appearing on your forehead. I don't think it's... I doubt if it's a computer chip.

I don't know what it is. But it's something having to do with his image. That means it's what he represents. You identify with what he represents. And it has to do with his mark, and that's his work.

You identify with his work. You fall in line with his work. That's his mark. What you do with your life marks you. And it has to do with a number, a symbolic number.

That's his world view. It's the number of man, the number of a man. Saying that man is supreme, God is not supreme. The number of man really is summed up in these words, follow your heart. The people who follow their heart have embraced the mark of the beast.

That's what the mark of the beast is. It's the mark of the world, It's the mark of autonomy rather than loving God and keeping his commandments. The mark of the beast is finding yourself. You are supreme. The mark of the beast is finding your own truth.

Revelation 13, of course we've already covered this, but we learned in verse 5 in chapter 13 that he speaks blasphemies against God and against his name and against his tabernacle, that's his worship, and against those who dwell in heaven, those are his people. In Revelation 13, 18, we learn that this is the number of a man. So the mark of the beast is a man-centered man or woman, a person who is walking in the ways of the world. The mark of the beast is on those who don't love the Lord Jesus. That's the whole idea here.

So the picture here is people who do not have the mark of the beast. They rejected the mark of the beast. They were exposed to the lies, they didn't take the bait. They did not believe him. They did not believe his lifestyle or his propositions about God, about the church, about morality, about anything, they rejected them.

That's who is there. They did not bow down to the gods of this world. They had, instead of the mark of the beast, they had the seal of the spirit, which is also invisible. It's an identification of belonging, and it distinguishes. Gregory Beale speaks of it this way, the beasts worshippers are seen as his property.

The mark is clearly figurative of the ways the state keeps check on whether people submit. So the Mark of the Beast is submission to a worldview, a worldly philosophy, walking in the ways of the world. Now, So that's who these people are. They did not walk in the ways of the beast. And also they're singing.

Well, now we've gotten to the heart of the text, verses three and four, and they're singing the song of Moses and of the lamb. And this is the song that Moses, the servant of God, gave Moses the slave of God. Moses was a Christian. He was God's slave. He was what every true Christian is, a slave.

You know, many years ago, you know the word slave has kind of fallen out of out of favor today. John MacArthur wrote a book called Slave about ten years ago. You should read it. It's a good book. Because Christians are slaves to God.

We don't mind being under God's authority. We want God's authority. That's the difference between a servant of God and a servant of the beast. A servant of the beast wants his own way. And it's the song of the lamb.

Now, I'll just short circuit to the way I understand this. The song of Moses is the song of the lamb. The salvation in the Old Testament is the same as in the New Testament. The Old Testament saints were saved by faith, just like in the faith of Abraham. No New Testament saint is saved without the faith of Abraham and no Old Testament saint was saved except by the faith of Abraham.

And we learn in the New Testament the gospel was preached to Abraham. So what we find here is this this Old Testament type and then the Antitype in the Song of Moses and the song of the lamb. You see the continuity of the new and the Old Testament here right before your eyes. The old and the New Testament do not have different messages. They have the same message about the same God, but with increasing clarity and Revelation.

Now, open your Bibles to Exodus 15, and we're going to read this narrative from which this song comes from. I'm going to read all the way to verse 21, verse 1 to 21, But I want you to just let your eyes hang on the language here. It's so remarkable. And you'll see sort of the connections of why these people are singing, you know, thousands of years later, the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. Exodus 15, one.

Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord and spoke, saying, now remember why they were singing. They were jammed up against the Red Sea. Pharaoh's army is pounding down, pounding down. He's going to obliterate them. The sea opens, they pass through, and Pharaoh's army follows and are swallowed up.

And now they're gonna sing. I will sing to the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and its rider, he has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song. He has become my salvation.

He is my God and I will praise him. 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 army he has cast into the sea.

His chosen captains also are drowned in the sea, in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them. They sank to the bottom like a stone. Your right hand, O Lord, has become glorious in power. Your right hand, O Lord, has dashed the enemy in pieces.

And in the greatness of your excellence, you have overthrown those who rose against you. You sent forth your wrath. It consumed them like stubble. And with the blast of your nostrils, the waters were gathered together. The floods stood upright like a heap, the depths congealed in the heart of the sea.

The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my desire shall be satisfied on them I will draw my sword my hand shall destroy them verse 10 you blew with your wind the sea covered them They sank like lead in the mighty waters. Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? You stretched out your right hand and the earth swallowed them. You in your mercy have led forth the people whom you have redeemed.

You have guided them in your strength to your holy habitation. The people will hear and be afraid. Sorrow will take hold of the inhabitants of Philistia. Then the chiefs of Edom will be dismayed. The mighty men of Moab, trembling, will take hold of them and all the inhabitants of Canaan will melt away.

Fear and dread will fall on them. By the greatness of your arm they will be as still as a stone till your people pass over O Lord till the people pass over whom you have purchased you will bring them in and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance in the place O Lord which you have made for your own dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established. The Lord shall reign forever. For the horses of Pharaoh went with his chariots and his horsemen into the sea. And the Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them.

But the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea. Then Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took the timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out with her with timbrels and with dances, and Miriam answered them, Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and its rider he has thrown into the sea." Well, that's the basis of this whole text. Now, John is in his vision, he summarizes this song, And I want to identify five things that these singers are singing about God in summary of this. And I think this is so, I hope this is helpful.

I hope it's helpful in shaping the culture of your own heart, the way that you think about God. I hope that you think about God like this. And I hope it shapes the culture of this church, that this is how we think about God. This is what moves us. This is the kind of song that we have in our hearts.

When we leave this place today, this is the kind of song we have wherever we go. And the silly and profane and irrelevant songs, the damaging songs go away. And we squeeze them out with the songs of deliverance whenever you're afraid. The songs of God and who God is. Because there's nothing more helpful in the midst of the waves and the fires than to be held together by the rock who is God.

So I'm gonna give you five things that they say about God. Five things that they say about God. When you look back on your life, Is this what you will say about God for your life and all of your trials and waves and fires on this earth? Because that's what's happening here. First, verse three, great and marvelous are your works.

These people are saying, Lord, your works are great. You've given us many, many, many works in number. It's the kind of person who looks around and sees God at work everywhere. Not just in nature, but everywhere and in everything. His marvelous works which he has done.

That's what fathers are supposed to be teaching to their children. His marvelous works which he has done. There are many of them. Teach your children these marvelous works. And when you get to the end of your life and you see all the waves and the fires of your life you know what you want to look back and you want to say oh Lord you are marvelous you look at the hundreds of thousands of things you did for me every day you protected me your angels were there every day you saw me through every day you gave me all the meals I needed, you gave me all the food I needed, you gave me every trial that I needed.

Lord, your works are great. Count them, count the works of God in your life. Right now, count them. There's so many of them, you can't even remember them all. God does so many works in your life and you don't even remember them even in a day.

And maybe you sit down at dinner and try to recount some of the things that God did in the day, but you'll never remember them all because God did a thousand things for you in one day. Great and marvelous are his work, are your works. Second, verse three, Lord God Almighty, Lord God Almighty. Lord, you were powerful, you were Lord, you were God, you were Almighty. Now, interesting, you've seen these patterns of threes and fours and things like this in the book of Revelation.

This is another triplet. Lord God Almighty. You know, in Revelation one, we have grace to you and peace from him who is, who was, and is to come. In the same chapter, He's the faithful witness. He was a faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

You have these cycles of threes and then fours. Somebody's described this one, two, three, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, One, two, three, four. You have these cycles that are repeated throughout Revelation in threes and fours. Lord means ruler. That's his divine name.

God and Almighty, all three together, just speaks of the sovereign Lord that we sang about this morning. The third thing that he'll say, Lord you are just and true, Just and true are your ways. You will say, Lord, you are the God of justice. Everything you did was just. Everything you did was true.

Everything you did in my life was just. I needed your justice. It didn't happen to be my justice. But wow, your justice is so much better than mine. Man's sense of justice is corrupt.

Lot to say about that. We won't camp on it at the moment. But God is the God of justice. And what you will say, what you will sing on that sea of glass mingled with fire, you'll say, Lord, everything you did in the world was just. Everything you did with the wicked was just, everything you did with me was just, everything you did with the economy was just, everything you did with disease, everything you did with wars, everything you did in politics was just.

That will be your testimony. You know, it's so easy to complain about all the works of the marvelous, astounding works of God in the world today. It's easier to complain than it is to say, God, you're doing justice. I don't understand justice, but you do, thank you. Let it go.

Keep going, Lord. You know, there's a beautiful statement about justice in Deuteronomy 32 verse 4. He is the rock. His work is perfect for all his ways are justice. A God of truth and without injustice, righteous and upright is he.

You'll say, Lord, you were just. Fourth, oh, King of saints, you will say, you will sing, you are the great king. You are a great king. Lord, you are such a good king. You know, there's so many bad kings out there, but God is a great king, and he is the ruler over the kings of the earth.

Verse four, we will say, Lord, you were so obviously wonderful. Who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. For all the nations shall come and worship before you. For your judgments have been manifested." You will say, Lord, how did anybody miss it?

How could anybody miss how wonderful you were? Who would not fear you? Look around in the world and see the works of nature and the skies and the trees and the streams and the birds. Who could look at that and not fear you and glorify your name? David repeated these words in Psalm 86, 9 and 10.

And in doing so, he was declaring that because of it, he wanted God to be his teacher. He said, among the gods there is none like you, O Lord, nor are there any works like your works. All nations whom you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things. You alone are God." And then he says, "'Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth.

Unite my heart to fear your name. Who wouldn't fear God? Who wouldn't love him? Who wouldn't want to be taught by him? In Jeremiah chapter 10, Jeremiah was lamenting those who were walking in the ways of the Gentiles and he's lamenting those who are just dull-hearted and they're, they just continue to learn the unprofitable ways of the Gentiles.

And then he uses these the same language in Jeremiah 10 7 who would not fear you Oh King of the nations For this is your rightful do For among all the wise men of the nations and in their kingdoms. There is none like you But they are all together dull-hearted and foolish a wooden idol as a worthless doctrine. For all the nations shall come and worship before you, for your judgments have been manifested." Now, I've just read two Old Testament passages that really are interpretive points for this passage. They use the exact same language. If you want to interpret Revelation, don't go to your newspaper, go to your Bible and see where these things are said in other places.

So this is what they were singing about, these five things. They were wonderful. Now, we will gather, we will continue to gather together and sing in this church. And when we gather to sing, there's lots that we're doing. We're declaring what kind of God we worship.

That's what they're doing right here. When we gather together, we're always declaring what kind of gospel we're proclaiming. And it's right here that God rescues sinners from the abusive Pharaoh of your life. We, when we sing, we're singing about what is the basis of our unity. The basis of our unity is that God created the world and he sent his son to save sinners.

And we sing about that every Sunday. You know, singing is one of the most sacred things that we ever do in this church. When we sing, we're saying what kind of people we want to be together. We're saying what kind of feelings we have toward God. We're singing messages that we're trying to proclaim to one another, because when you sing, you're not just singing to God, you're singing to one another.

And what kind of church we want to be. You know, one of my favorite things about singing together in the church of Jesus is that everybody singing, the youngest and the oldest, and oh, it's so sweet to hear the little voices. You know, that wonderful hymn from Isaac Watts, Jesus Shall Reign. My heart is so thankful whenever I read these, sing these words, people in realms from every tongue dwell on his love with sweetest song and infant voices shall proclaim their early blessings of His name. You know, some of you children are feeling the early blessings of Jesus in your life.

Some of you love Him and your little, I praise the Lord for that. And you sing about your early blessings. You've got early blessings. Praise the Lord. Are you a child here today?

Do you have the early blessings of the Lord? Are you like those people singing on that sea of glass mingled with fire, and you're not rattled by the waves and the fires because you see them for what they really are, and you love Jesus, and you want to follow Jesus, you want to be one of his little lambs. I pray that you do. Are you one of those who are experiencing the early blessings in his name? You know, there's nothing sweeter than that.

You know, my own wife, Deborah, She can never remember a time where she didn't love the Lord. She had the early blessings in His name. It's such a sweet thing when that happens. You know, the singing is so good for us. It teaches us that we're not alone.

You know, in Hebrews chapter 10, we learn that Jesus Christ is singing with his church. And there's this picture and he's saying, here I am, here I am and the ones that you gave me. And he says, I'm not ashamed to call them brethren. And he's singing with his people in Hebrews chapter two, verse 10. The Lord Jesus Christ sings with his people.

It's such a sacred thing. Don't miss the singing. You know, over the years I've seen people, they try to show up at church after the singing is over. That's ridiculous. I don't know if anybody here in this church is like that, but I've seen it before.

And I'm glad I'm not seeing it because I would be talking to you about it. You know, in Zephaniah chapter three, we learn that the Lord sings over his church. There's this command, sing, O daughter of Zion, shout, O Israel, be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. In other words, it's a command to sing, but that's not the end of it. In the next verse, verse 17, he says, the Lord, your God is in your midst.

The mighty one will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you with his love. He will rejoice over you with singing. It's so good to sing.

The Lord Jesus rejoices over his church. Singing, I know it's hard to imagine, but it's true. In Revelation, we already learned that Jesus is walking among the lampstands of the church. But he's not just walking, he's walking and singing among the lampstands of the church throughout this place where true Christians meet. He's like a bridegroom rejoicing over his bride.

You know, bridegrooms are typically pretty smiley. You know what I'm talking about? Well, there's so many ways God wants to grip our hearts in singing. You know, there are many ways. We sing with our Lord, and he sings along with us.

We sing to teach one another the truth. In Colossians 3.16 and Ephesians 5.17 and 18 we learn that when we sing we're teaching one another truth. It's a very powerful thing and sacred thing. We also sing to admonish one another. Some of the songs are really designed where we're actually admonishing one another.

Colossians 3.16 makes that clear. We also sing to God personally. We also sing to the unconverted among us. Romans 15.9 makes that very clear. He says, you know, you oughta belt it out because unbelievers are there, you know, they need to hear the gospel through your singing.

Let it rip, sing out, you know, don't mumble the gospel. Let it blast. Let the unbeliever hear how great it is. No mumbling. No mumbling.

All right, do we have any mummelers here? Hey, by the way, don't let your children be mummelers in singing. Teach them how to sing. We also sing to our own souls. Like in Psalm 103, you know, David says, enter your rest, O my soul.

He sings to his soul. You need to sing to your soul sometimes, because it's in the dumps. You know, get your soul out of the dump and sing. So, you know, the songs that we were singing today were like that. I don't know if you noticed.

We sang, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. We sang about God. We sang about Him. Just like these guys on the sea of glass, mingle of fire. And then we sang, all creatures of our God and King.

We were singing to one another, all creatures of our God and King, lift up your voice with us and sing. That was, we were like singing. Did you know that you were doing that? You were commanding your brothers and sisters to lift up their voices. Stop mumbling, sing.

It was the brethren singing to the brethren. That was that song. We sang to the Lord, Creator God, our sovereign Lord, the heavens tell, the stars have shown, your splendor might and deity, but truth lies in your word alone. We sang to God. Just in the songs that we sang, we were singing to one another about God and to God.

And we also sang, how great thou art. Then sings my soul, my savior God to thee. We were singing personally. How great that Lord, you're great to me, to me. So we sang these various contours even this morning in these songs.

And then when we close the service, I believe we're going to sing to God about ourselves. Wondrous King, all glorious, sovereign Lord, victorious, oh receive our praise with favor. We're singing to God about ourselves. You know, singing is actually kind of a complex thing because it moves in so many directions all at one time. At one moment you're singing to the unbeliever, in another moment you're singing to your brethren, in another you're singing to your soul, in another you're singing to God, in another you're singing about God, And in another you're singing to one another about God.

It's very interesting. The hymns are written that way and this song of the Lamb and of Moses is like that as well. So when all your trials are over you will say these five things that they were saying. You will say, Lord, your works were great and marvelous, more than I could number. And you will say, Lord, you were Lord, God, almighty, all powerful.

You will say everything you did was just. You will say you were such a great king. And you will say you were so obviously wonderful. You were holy. Who would not fear you?

Oh Lord. So when you look back on your life, what will you say about God? Well, you can start today. Start saying that today about God, because that's what you're gonna say for all eternity. You might as well start now.

Don't waste any time. And you'll have a lot more fun. And life will be a lot lighter as you go through it. The waves won't hit so hard and the fires won't be so hot. And those waves will just throw you on the rock of ages and they'll warm your heart because you know that God is in control.

So sing to the Lord an old song on the sea of glass, mingled with fire. And while the rest of the world is being torn up with turmoil, you can just get out your harp and be as cool as a cucumber. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep the things which are written in it. Would you pray with me? Lord, we're just so grateful for the clarity and the beauty of your word.

It's astounding, it's beautiful. It's, Oh Lord, thank you for giving us words to take us through this world, through this wilderness land, until we get to that sea of glass mingled with fire. Let us sing these songs now, every day. Amen.