In the sermon 'Singing Lessons from Heaven - Songs in Revelation,' Scott Brown explores the significant role of singing in the Book of Revelation. He emphasizes that Revelation contains numerous songs sung by various heavenly beings, which are rich in doctrinal truth and serve as a model for earthly worship. These songs, described as the 'soundtrack of heaven,' are characterized by their loud, exuberant, and doctrinally rich nature, often depicting themes of victory, worship, and the triumph of God's authority over evil. Brown argues that the church should emulate this heavenly singing, not only to glorify God but also to unify congregations through shared doctrinal expressions. The sermon highlights the multifaceted nature of singing in the Bible, which includes singing to God, to one another, and to unbelievers, thereby establishing and reaffirming doctrine, unifying believers, and preparing hearts for future challenges. Singing is portrayed as a powerful, communal act that transcends personal emotions, focusing instead on the truth and majesty of God.

Please open your Bibles to Revelation chapter five, Revelation chapter five and find verse eight. Revelation five, eight. Five, eight. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter than honey word of God, Revelation 5.8. Now when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

And they sang a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood, out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God. And we shall reign on the earth. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the songs that are scattered all throughout the Bible to teach us of your greatness, to teach us to sing in the shadow of your wings, to show us how to sing in this world where singing can die in the heart. Don't let it die here Lord.

Stir it up, fan the flame, make it loud, make it beautiful, make it come arising out of our hearts of love and gratitude toward you. Teach us now, amen. Please be seated. So Revelation is saturated with singing. We're coming to the end of our series on the book of Revelation, but not quite at the very end.

And we're gonna focus this morning on the songs, particular selected songs in the book of Revelation. Singing Lessons from Heaven is what I've entitled This Sermon, Songs in Revelation. And it's 22 chapters, there are 28 songs, at least some say more, some say less. One author explains it like this, music plays a larger role in the Book of Revelation than in any other New Testament book. Few books have spawned more hymns sung in Christian worship today.

So these are the songs sung in heaven. That's what you find in Revelation. They're sung by men, by angels, and other intelligent beings. I liked it when I read Bob Coughlin who talked about the songs in Revelation. He called it the soundtrack of heaven.

I think that's absolutely right. Play it here on earth. It's the soundtrack of heaven. Now what I'd like to do this morning is read the lyrics of 10 songs that are in Revelation, and the lessons that we learn about singing as individuals, particularly though as a singing church. God has ordained his church to be a singing body of people, a singing family.

Gregory Beale, one of the great commentators on Revelation, I've quoted him many times over the last three years since we started Revelation. He suggests that we should model our singing in the church after the pattern of heaven. I think he's right about that, and of course that is consistent with what we've been saying so much in this whole series on Revelation. We're seeing pictures of heaven. We've just spent 20 weeks on pictures of heaven, chapter 21, 22.

And what's very clear is the things that are in heaven are meant to be brought to earth. And so perhaps you know the Lord would have this church get some further shepherding on singing. We've talked about singing at different times in this church but Jesus taught us to pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven so now we're gonna go to heaven again in the songs that are in heaven let me just fly over some of the characteristics of these songs before we dive into them these these are songs of victory They're war songs for the victory over the devil. They're doctrinally rich. They are full of truth.

They are masculine songs. You don't find feminized kind of songs. Some of the songs are actually violent and they speak of violent things that happen to the devil because God is going to be violent to the devil at the very end. He's already crushed the head of the serpent. And These are songs for a persecuted church.

They really are designed to help a persecuted Church to sing in the shadow of his wings. I hope that is true for all of you who love the Lord. I want to talk just briefly about singing in the Bible. You know, we've talked about this before. The Bible actually teaches the church to sing, and it's kind of a complex thing.

It's a multifaceted thing that we do here. First, we sing to God, But we don't just sing to God the Bible teaches us to sing to one another We don't just sing to one of the we sing about God The Bible tells us to teach to sing to the unbeliever to let it roll Let let the sounds of heaven roar in the ears of the believers so that they can see the greatness of God. We sing praises, we lament in our songs, We confess our sins in our songs. We sing doctrinal truth in our songs. That's really how the Bible teaches us to sing.

And so, you know, I've encouraged us to recognize the voice of the song. Is it to God? Is it about God? Is it to one another? Who is this song written for?

Some songs have all those in them, all those different categories. Moses taught the children of Israel to sing a song on the last day of his life. David taught all of us to sing through the Psalms. The priests taught the choirs to sing. Paul taught local churches to sing in Colossians 3 and Ephesians 5.

And therefore all the other churches, the Apostle Paul was a singing teacher for the church. Singing really is one of the great battle lines for the defense of the true church. It is, it's a battle for the preservation of the unity of the church because when we sing together, we sing off the same page, we sing the same thing. Singing actually unifies a congregation doctrinally and emotionally and in so many ways. Singing is one of the cleansing agents for our emotions.

Singing is confession and we shout out the things that we believe to one another. Singing is how we establish the doctrine. It's how we reaffirm the doctrine. It's how we take joy in the doctrine that we believe. Singing is how we proclaim what we believe about ourselves, what we believe about the world, what we believe about our trials, what we believe about one another.

Singing is so rich and whenever we come and sing together all of these things are happening. It's so remarkable. You know The people who think when you come and worship God in the church, you're singing to an audience of one. That's ridiculous. The Bible doesn't let you do that.

It's a very rich and diverse kind of experience where you engage your body, your mind, your heart, and all the people around you, and you're blasting the voices of God into the world. It's just such a remarkable thing. You know, when we sing, we often look back on our lives because certain songs take you back. They take you somewhere, don't they? And you remember when that song just touched you and moved your heart.

It might be five, 10, 20, 30. I have songs that I have heard 60 years ago and it takes me back to that place. Singing is wonderful, it's such a gift to the church. Singing is how you prepare for the future as well, it sets your heart to sing God's praise. Like was said earlier, tune your heart.

It tunes your heart for the things that are ahead. Martin Luther, he said, he who sings, prays twice. I think that's great. So today we're gonna be looking over the contours of the songs of Revelation, and see how the beings of heaven are singing so that we might also bring heaven down. It's very interesting, you know, music is so powerful.

You know, the devil has given us so many trivial songs to sideline us from nourishing things. Why does the devil give us so many corrupt songs to corrupt us and irrelevant songs to make us irrelevant. But God doesn't do that. He gives us songs with depth and truth, not for our trivialization as the worldly songs, not for our destruction as the immoral songs, but God gives us songs of deliverance. That's what David said you always fill my heart with songs of deliverance Whenever I'm afraid those are the kind of songs you should teach your children and you know I would say cut down the list of the silly ones and sing the great ones that will actually sustain them for the rest of their lives.

The silly ones don't do that. You know it's interesting, Christianity Today published an article just recently about the top songs that are sung in churches today, the top 25 songs, they come from four groups, most of them are heretical groups from Hillsong, from Bethel, from Elevation. You know, the most popular songs actually come from heretical outlets, And that's what the church is singing today. And it's a tragedy. The devil uses music, and it's so critical that we understand that we are singing the songs of heaven.

So these songs, you have your outline here, I've listed 10 of them, we'll just see how far we get because they're just so rich and I'm not able to say much of what ought to be said about them, but I at least want to capture some of the contours of these songs. There's an interpretive guideline that I think we should pay attention to in the songs of Revelation. How do we know these are songs? Each song is introduced with the word saying, saying. And these hymns are consistently marked by the word saying and saying and singing are synonymous in this in these passages.

Look at the third song in verse in chapter five verse nine. Chapter five verse nine. And they sang a new song, saying, you are worthy to take the scroll. Singing and saying are the same there. The tenth hymn, the tenth song in 19 verse 3.

19 verse 3. They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the lamb saying, singing and saying are set off against one another. It's a word that the Apostle John uses, saying, that introduces each hymn, And the word used in this context is to say something in a song. The early church, The way that most everybody understands this didn't sing songs the way we do today with musical notations. They chanted the songs.

They said the songs. That's why it was so easy for them to sing all the Psalms verbatim because they said the Psalms in that sense. And as time has developed, singing has developed into these beautiful forms that we have today. But it's quite likely that the word chant is a more appropriate word here. So singing and saying is to repeat the things that are being said in heaven.

I'll give you a quick Old Testament example of the exact same thing. You don't have to go there. I'll read it to you. It's in 2 Samuel 22 verse one. Just listen to this.

Then David spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day when the Lord had delivered him from the hand of his enemies and from the hand of Saul and he said and now comes the song the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer so I do I do believe and there's there's broad agreement among Bible commentators, that this word saying is the same as singing. So you'll find that as a marker in every single one of these hymns here. Okay, so let's jump into the first one, the first song. Chapter one, I'm sorry, chapter four, verse eight. Chapter four, verse eight.

Go to Revelation four, eight. Just one verse. These are songs and probably as well fragments of songs. It's likely that these aren't the full song, but they're at least at minimum extracts from them. The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within, and they do not rest day or night saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.

So there you have it, that's the song. Holy, holy, holy. They're singing about his purity, about his separateness, about his beauty. Lord, God, Almighty, they're here now declaring the doctrine of God's power. He is the Lord, the God, and he is the Almighty.

Three words, just very dense doctrinal truth about God. Who was and is and is to come. This declares his everlasting presence. He's got everything covered. Who was, who is, and is to come.

He's got, he had you covered before and now and forever. He's got you covered. He was, who is, and he is to come. Now, why are they singing? The context tells us In verse 1 we learned there before the throne of God.

There's a door standing open in heaven in verse 3 you see God in all of his beauty he was like jasper and a sardius stone in appearance and there was a rainbow around the throne in appearance like an emerald. And then you have the representatives of God around the throne in verse 4, the 20, there are 24 thrones and there are 24 elders. And then in verse 5, there's lightning and thundering and voices and fire. And then there are, they are, there's this undisturbed sea of glass. Well, that's why they're singing.

They're singing because of what they're seeing in heaven, what they're experiencing in space and time in heaven. Here's the point, why are they singing? This is responsive singing. They are responding to what they are seeing in heaven. Worship is responding to God.

We see and we respond. We see something stunning And we respond with praise, with confession, with consecration, that's what we find here. So worship begins when you see his beauty. And then you declare, you declare that beauty. I'm so thankful for these words, It tells me that my life is held in everlasting arms.

He spans all of history. He spans your birth. He spans your middle age. He spans your old age. He spans your death and everything that takes place after that.

All of this to say, when the church sings, she's looking outside of herself. She's not obsessing about herself. She's glorying in God and who he is. Hymn number two, song number two. Chapter four, verses 10 and 11.

Again, you have this same language of saying here. We'll begin in verse nine and read through verse 11. And here what we find is a church that's recounting and they are delighting. Well, we're being taught how to sing, to recount when we sing, and to delight when we sing. Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever.

The 24 elders fall down before him, who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne. And there's your word again, saying, saying, and saying is singing you are worthy oh Lord to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they exist and were created." This is the enjoyment and the delight that really is the reason for our praise. In verse 11, you are worthy, O Lord. In other words, they're giving weight to God. He is not the weightless God, as David Well said of the evangelical church.

He's the weighty God of heaven to receive glory. In other words, high esteem and honor, in other words, exalted value and power, in other words, a recognition of his capacity. When we sing, we're recognizing the capacity of God to do all things well in our lives. It's so important that we sing and sing with all of our hearts. This is really a picture of consecration.

They're falling down before God. They're so thrilled with God, they just wanna fall down before Him and enjoy. Everything created is under God's command. This is not a man-centered world, it's a God-centered world. Stop thinking about yourself, think about God, think about this one who is worthy to receive glory and honor, who created everything and respond to him that way.

When you get to heaven, you're gonna look back on your life and you're gonna say Lord you did everything perfectly you created all things you sustained all things my life was executed perfectly you took me exactly where I needed to go You remember my dad when his body was failing and you would ask him how he was doing, he would always say, perfect. Praise the Lord. Someday that will be true for all of us. Everything that transpired in the world according to God's plan is according to a perfect plan. He created all things and he's executing everything for his own glory.

Hymn number three, Number three, this is in chapter five, verses eight through 10. Here they're falling down before the lamb. You have living creatures and you have elders. You know, in these songs, you have various different kinds of creatures that God created that are spoken of. You have remarkable creatures, funny looking creatures, kinda like the ones that are on the earth.

You have angels, you have elders, and you have millions. You have all kinds of categories of people. Well, let's read it, verse eight. Now, when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song saying, you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals.

For you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation and have made us kings and priests to our God and we shall reign on the earth. Here, this is, you might look at this and say, what is this? This is a violent song. You have someone who is slain, people who were redeemed, they were captured off of a slave block, they were made kings. This is radical change and activity that God has enacted for his people.

And you have those who were once enslaved In verse 10, and now they're reigning. They were slaves and now they're reigning. There's this violent extraction from the world in this song here. What a blessing it is that God is violent toward the works of the devil in our lives and he snatches us out of the waters that were too strong for us and he saves our souls and he turns our hearts from stone to flesh. This is a violent act but he did it through violence where he was killed and he was buried and then he rose again.

It was an act of violence that bought our salvation. This is not a feminized song by any stretch of the imagination. This is not sung with breath, you know, in a breathy tone at all. It's sung with power and might. And what you find here in this song, And you find this in all the songs, these creatures are indescribably thankful.

And the Lamb of God is opening the scroll, meaning it's the Lamb of God that's opening up everything that ever happened in history. He's the only one to execute the historical trajectory and they're thrilled with God. And by the way, they are redeemed, not just helped, not just counseled, not just improved, but redeemed. That's very different. God doesn't just simply save his children to make give them happier lives.

He redeems them from the top of their head to the bottom. He purchases them. He buys them. That's salvation. Number four.

Well, we could talk about the harps. People think about heaven and harps. Well, I think that they're beautiful instruments, but it's interesting, these harps are singing about violent things. Harps are so beautiful. I love to hear them here as well as so many other stringed instruments.

Hymn number four, chapter five, verse 11. Here what you find are these loud praises here. And again, you have angels and living creatures and elders and the lamb, and all the creatures are singing, verse 11 in chapter five. Then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was 10, 000 times 10, 000 and thousands and thousands. In other words, millions and millions and hundreds of millions of people around the throne saying with a loud voice worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing." He's praised for seven different things, seven distinctive things that he does for his people.

Notice the word loud, the loud voice. This is the exuberance of the singing in heaven that ought to be brought down onto the earth. You know, we were at Men's Bible study last Tuesday, And I said, brothers, do you think that there's enough exuberance in the singing in our church? And there was this resounding no! Amen.

To be exuberant is to be dialed in to the message. Bob Coughlin explains it like this. The example of heaven challenges the assumption that congregational worship should be reserved and subdued. Sila. He goes on, he says, when we sing together, our strength comes not from aiming to feel and emote, but to see and to hear.

We want to see God reigning on his throne with absolute justice, wisdom and power over every terrorist, over every virus, dictator and manifestation of evil in our day. We want to hear and join in the cries of jubilation that are already ascending to the God who can do all things and whose purposes cannot be thwarted. By the way, the People in heaven know a lot more about life on earth than we do. So follow them. They're seeing it all.

The fifth hymn, chapter five verse 13. Here we find this celebration of the wonderfulness of God. Celebration of the wonderfulness of God. Well, that's what we do when we gather on the Lord's Day to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We're just celebrating how wonderful God is.

Verse 13 in chapter five. And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying, blessing and honor and glory and power be to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb forever and ever. Then the four living creatures said, Amen, and the 24 elders fell down and worshiped him who lives forever and ever. They're just acknowledging what is true about God. They're in agreement.

All of them in unison are united in the song. All of them have united their will to the truth of God. They're not debating, they're not dialoguing, they're not questioning, they're not objecting, they're aligning with God. That's what singing does. It aligns us with the will of God and the name of God.

And often, so often, we need to get adjusted. We need to get our thinking adjusted. Singing is coming in for an adjustment, if you've ever done that. And then what, and this ends with amen, amen. And amen doesn't mean we're done it's time to eat amen means yes lord amen is saying you are right I agree I affirm it I am with you that's why in when the church prays the prayers should always end with an amen, a loud amen.

We've encouraged this congregation when we pray that everybody says amen, why? Because when we pray and when we sing, we're uniting ourselves together. When we come to pray, you should come to pray because you're coming to unite and say amen with your brothers and sisters. You don't come to say, oh, I think, well, what am I going to get out of prayer? No, you come to say Amen to the prayers that arise out of the saints.

You come to be unified with your brothers and sisters. Same thing with singing. Hymn number six, chapter seven, verse nine. Nine and 10. Here now you have millions again thrilled with God.

A great multitude, verse nine, chapter seven. After these things I looked and behold a great multitude which no one could number of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice saying, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb. So much to say about this. They are clothed. They are clothed in the robes of righteousness.

In the Bible, you know, Christians are marked by their clothing as they are in heaven. Clothing is a double meaning. Clothing adorns the gospel. And here, even in heaven, the saints are clothed, well they're clothed in white linen. And you have salvation, that's rescue, the dynamic act of God where he delivers someone from the power of sin and he breaks the power of sin in their life and they're never the same again.

And again, you have this loud voice here in this passage. You know, the word loud shows up all over the place in the songs that you find in the Bible. One of the things that I so delight in when children go through a particular age phase, they sing really loud and it's not in tune and I love it. They're singing loud and you know it's like that song Jesus Shall Reign. Infant voices shall proclaim their early blessings in his name.

Well, people say, well, I don't sing. I hate to sing because I just can't carry a tune, so I don't sing. Let me give you another way to think about that. Well, first of all, you've been commanded to sing, and you've been commanded to sing loud, so you must be part of the harmony of the church. You have young voices and old voices, you have sopranos and altos and baritones, you have all kinds of different voices, and perhaps consider this in this world of the idolatry of perfection of music that actually the person who can't sing out of tune maybe is needed to sing out of tune in a church to mix with all the other voices.

Because even singing in harmony just acknowledges that there are different voices. So don't worry about it. Belt it out, sing it, don't be embarrassed. We're part of a family with a lot of different people, with a lot of different capabilities. And if you just hate it so much, then go take singing lessons.

And you children keep bringing it out. It's such a blessing. Tune my heart to sing thy praise. Okay, hymn number seven, hymn number seven, chapter seven, verse 11 and 12. I'm just gonna call this the sevenfold doxology, sevenfold doxology.

There's so much doctrine in these songs. We sing the truth of God. The truth is what you need, and that shapes everything. It shapes your thinking, and it shapes your feeling, and it shapes your walking. It's the truth that sets you free.

Now people today, when they come in to sing, they, they typically have it all backwards. They're looking for an emotional jag. They should become, they should come for a truth infusion so that their emotions can be set right, so that they can get the right kind of adjustment from heaven. But here in chapter seven, verse 11, you have angels singing and you have blessing, verse 11, and the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures and fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God saying amen blessing and glory and wisdom thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. This is just piling up doctrine, piling up truth about God to pull you out of your own self and out of your own funk, to be brought up to heaven, brought up to God, where he is and what he's like and to rest all of your hope on him.

This is the seven-fold doxology. The definite article appears before all of them. The blessing, the glory, the wisdom, the thanksgiving, the honor, the power, the might be to our God forever and ever. You know, is that your testimony? Is that what you believe about God?

Hymn number eight, chapter 11, verse 15 through 18. Chapter 11, verse 15 through 18. Here is a picture of beings who are thankful for God's authority. They love God's authority. They are so delighted to submit to him.

Then the seventh angel sounded and there were loud voices in heaven saying, The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God saying, we give you thanks, oh Lord God Almighty, the one who is and who was and who is to come. Because you have taken your great power and reigned. He reigns. The nations were angry, obviously, at the reign of God.

And your wrath has come. And the time of the dead, that they should be judged, that you should reward your servants, the prophets and the saints. And those who fear your name, small and great, and should destroy those who destroy the earth. This is the announcement that the devil's domain has been everlastingly plundered. He breaks the power of sin and death.

He crushes the head of the serpent. This is the rule of God. That's what he does in the Christian's life. You know, one day at a time, he does business with your sin and you continue to put distance from your sin and you remove various other sinful practices and thoughts that you have and that's sanctification. He purifies his church over time and then finally in heaven and what this what this song is about is about the neutralization of the demonic powers and principalities.

The secular state in this passage is nullified and the rule of Jesus Christ is exalted. God here in this one is he's ending the rebellion and he's throw overthrowing all of his opposition all of man's antagonism toward God is thwarted and his authority rules and reigns, silencing the works of the devil. He comes and he interrupts the licentiousness of man and he fills the world with his holiness and the kingdoms of his son become the kingdoms of the world. You know, I was reading in the Gospel of Luke this week and I came across the parable of the 10 minas, which is about three months salary, 10 minas are given, but the one who gave the money was seeking a gain from it, but some did not gain. They just kept the money for themselves.

And Jesus in the parable says, you know, do business till I come, but many didn't do business. They didn't do business with God. And this line just grabbed me. But bring here those enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them. Who did not want me to reign over them.

Do you want him to reign over you? That's the call of the gospel. Come and have a king, have a new king. Stop being your own king, stop making this world your king. Let him reign over you, come to do his will.

He says, bring those who do not want to reign over me and slay them before me. This is what will happen if you don't love the reign and rule of Jesus Christ. He's given you rope now, you're still alive, you haven't been slain yet. But if you don't turn to him, you will be slain because you didn't want his rule, you didn't want his authority. You were so enamored with your own and you lost everything as a result.

The ninth hymn, singing on the sea of glass. Chapter 15, verses two through four. I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire. You know, it's like a sea of glass. It's a figure, it's a metaphor.

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, there you have it again, The song is saying, great and marvelous are your works, oh Lord God Almighty, just and true are your ways, oh King of Saints, who shall not fear you, oh 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. This is just a vision of victory, painted first of all in Pharaoh's army being drowned in the sea. And now they're singing on the sea of glass, undisturbed ocean, the sea of God. And then they say five things about God.

Again, so many of them we've seen already. They're speaking of his marvelous works, that he's Lord God Almighty, that he's just and true, that he's the King of the saints. Unbroken praise. And then finally the tenth, the tenth hymn. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, that's the theme of the tenth hymn.

That's the key word in this entire chapter in Revelation 19. It's the word, Alleluia. And they are identifying five historical realities in this drama of the rescue of the bride of Jesus Christ. After these things I heard a loud voice and a great multitude in heaven saying, Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God.

For true and righteous are his judgments because he has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth and her fornication. And he has avenged on her the blood of his servants shed by her. And again they said, Alleluia, her smoke rises up forever and ever. And the four elders, the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne saying amen. Alleluia, Then a voice came from the throne saying, praise our God all you his servants and those who fear him both great and small.

And I heard as it were a voice of a great multitude the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory, for the marriage of the lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready and to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen clean and bright for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. They're saying, Alleluia. And it is loud and they are blasting it out because of God's goodness. Because he takes away the wrath for sinners.

He bears our sins. He puts our sins as far as the east is from the west. In Isaiah 38, he throws our sins behind his back. He washes them white as snow in Psalm 51. This is praise to God for what he's done for sinners, to save them and to forgive them.

So there it is, singing. Singing lessons from heaven, the songs of Revelation. There are many more we could go through, but God has given us many signposts for singing in the world. And one of them is when we gather, we are going to sing when we gather. When Christians gather, they sing.

And it's such a delight to do that. And I was so struck yesterday at family camp, I got up and I walked outside and I hear what I always hear whenever I walk outside, birds singing. And they were so beautiful. You know, and I started thinking about birds and studying birds as I have somewhat over the years. You know, some birds can sing two notes at the same time.

That's what we do when we gather here. We can sing a song of praise and a song of lament out of each side of our mouth because of God's goodness. Most species of birds sing to establish their territorial boundaries, and that's what we do too. We're establishing the boundaries of the rulership of Jesus Christ. When we all come together and with one voice, we proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord.

We're the ones that proclaim that Jesus is Lord. And we're really establishing the boundaries of the kingdom of God that exists among us. They also sing to sound a warning. Birds warn in two ways. First of all, they warn predators.

They warn of predators. But mourning doves don't sing because they're sad. They sing because they are a warning to predators. When they sing, they're saying, if you come near here, we will attack you. That's why morning doves sing.

That there will be a response. Birds sing and expend enormous energy. Some say that they spend more energy singing than they do flying and they sing to proclaim that they're strong. They're using their energy to sing because they want predators to know that they are strong and they're and they have energy to sing. Some birds who are out of their natural environment, they learn the songs of the city and they mimic the songs of the city, the mimic thrush and the northern mockingbird.

They will mimic songs, sounds of cell phones and chainsaws and police sirens and camera shutters and children playing and laughing. And they also sing to attract a mate. So y'all singles ought to be singing pretty loud, don't you think? Okay, these songs in Revelation help us to know how to sing in the church. When we gather, we're singing what we believe, what we declare, what we want to feel, what kind of gospel we're proclaiming.

It's a source of unity. And it engages all of us together, the youngest and the oldest, and the ones who think they can't sing in tune and those who think they can. All of us together, the Bible makes singing a sacred event. People and realms from every tongue dwell on his love with sweetest song and infant voices shall proclaim their early blessings of his name. Let's just take a moment before we finally pray and take a just a moment of meditation about these things and then we'll proceed.