Oh, Listen To The Music

Take your Bibles this morning and turn to Revelation chapter 15. Revelation 15. Please follow along as I read this chapter. Revelation 15 verse 1. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God, the Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations.

Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed. after this I looked in the sanctuary the tent of witness in heaven was opened and out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues clothed in pure bright linen with gold and sashes around their chests and one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.

Father, open our eyes now to what your word has to say. Give us ears to hear. Give us a mind, a heart that is willing to submit to the revelation that you have given us in your word that we might live lives that please you and that shine forth the glories of Christ Deliver us from speculations in this passage and help us to understand the message that you have given us that we might live victoriously in this age now.

Thank you for your Son, whose revelation we now read. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. The Doobie Brothers got it right when they sang this song. Don't you feel it growing day by day? Now, I'm not going to sing it to you.

You know, I've got the melody going through my head. Some of you from my generation can hear it too. Yes, I'm talking about the Doobie Brothers. Let's get that out of the way right now. All right? Don't you feel it growing day by day?

People getting ready for the news. Some are happy. Some are sad. Oh, we got to let the music play. What the people need is a way to make them smile. It ain't so hard to do if you know how.

Got to get a message, get it on through. Oh, no, Mama, don't you ask me why. And then the refrain. You want to sing it to me? Oh, oh, oh, listen to the music. Oh, oh, oh, listen to the music.

Oh, oh, oh, listen to the music. All the time. Doobie Brothers, biblical and prophetic. what they say there is listen to the music and that's what God tells us to do in this text to listen to the music of this song that we find in verses 2 through 4 listen to the music now remember the apocalypse the book of Revelation was written to seven churches and by extension written to us as well.

It was written to churches tempted to compromise with the luxurious, sensuous, prosperous culture around it. It was written to churches tempted to surrender rather than face ridicule, suffering, persecution, and even death. And you recall that in the message to those seven churches, that Jesus called each one of them to conquer. That was the message given to each one.

And to the one who conquers, I promise. And then there were several promises listed. And you remember that this book is written to teach us how to conquer That the thrust of this book This is about the triumph of the land and if we want to share in that triumph, then we must conquer. How do we conquer? As we've gone through this book, we've seen such things as this.

We conquer by getting heaven's perspective on the battle that's raging on earth today. By seeing such things like the events of this age are really the judgments of the lamb poured out. By seeing that the church, although persecuted and tried, is really a sealed and protected fighting force. That the judgment of Babylon and God's enemies is as real as the harvest.

Those are the things that we've been taught that we can conquer. And now, he says, you can conquer by listening to the music. music motivates us and so he gives us this this music to listen to so that we will conquer now before we learn how to conquer from listening to this new song that's given to us in chapter 15 verses 2 through 4 we have to deal with a strange phenomenon here in the text and we have to do this or or we'll get distracted unless we understand what's going on here you will notice that the last vision, the seventh vision of this section that began in chapter 12 and now goes through chapter 15, verse four, you will notice that that vision, there's an interruption of these seven angels with the seven bulls in chapter 15, verse one, and that we don't pick up with them again till verse five. And then in chapter 16, then, we see those seven bowls poured out.

What's going on here? Why do we have this seventh vision interrupted for a moment with this view of the seven angels with the seven bowls? And then we come back to that seventh vision. Always think of this this way. The book of Revelation is like an interlocking puzzle. The pieces interlock like you do with puzzles.

Now, I know that because I've seen it. I can't stand to put jigsaw puzzles together, but I have seen it. And they lock together. Those pieces lock together. And that's what happens here. It interlocks by concluding what precedes and introducing what comes later.

Verses 2 through 4 is the last vision of seven visions that began in chapter 12 but it interlocks with what follows in this way It looks back by celebrating the justice of God in the judgment of unbelievers. In fact, what we see in 15.2-4 is the song that the 144,000 are singing on Mount Zion at the beginning of chapter 14. You remember chapter 14, verses 1-5.

Well, this is the same people, only then now here we hear the music. We hear the song that they're singing. So it looks back by celebrating the justice of God and the judgment of believers. But it also looks forward to the plagues that God unleashes on the world with the seven bowls. As we read through, as we continue to read, you see that those bowls are seven plagues that are unleashed on the earth. and then you notice as you look at those plagues what do you notice that he says about this song he calls it what the song of moses the song of moses reminding you of the victorious song that moses composed exodus 15 after god had judged the enemies of the people of god by drowning the Egyptian army in the Red Sea?

And where are the victorious saints standing as they sing this song? They're standing next to what? A glassy sea, which ought to remind us of Israel standing next to the Red Sea, which is now calm after the Egyptians have been wiped out. And so the interlocking pieces of the puzzle are this. This little song is concluding the judgment of God from what we've just seen before, and it's introducing us to these plagues.

What you have happening here is a new exodus. A new and a greater exodus has occurred. And so there's this singing of this song. So let's turn our attention then to the song this morning. Chapter 15, verses 2 through 4. And I saw what appeared to be to be a sea of glass mingled with fire and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands.

And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God and the song of the lamb saying, great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord. God the Almighty, just and true are your ways, O King of the Nations. Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed. All right?

You're moved to conquer by listening to the music. That's why it's here. We're moved to step out in conquest as we listen to the music. And God moves you to conquest by showing you first the scene of singers in concert. Conquer, first of all, by seeing the singers in verse 2. See the singers in verse 2.

Now, these are not glammed up rock and roll stars. What these are, are warriors gathered for a victory song. These are conquerors. These are those who have conquered. Now notice what it tells us about them. They have conquered the beast by refusing to give him the allegiance and loyalty that belongs to God alone.

They have conquered the beast by refusing to give him the allegiance and loyalty that belong to God alone. These are those who never uttered the words, Caesar is Lord. These are the ones who refused to obey the edicts of Stalin and abandoned the worship of Christ and his father. These are those who witness to the gospel of Jesus, even though it means starving to death in the concentration camps of Kim Il-Jong.

These are the ones that are singing this song. These are the ones who have conquered the beast and they conquered through their faithful obedience to Christ. From Earth's perspective, they have been conquered from Earth's perspective. They have been defeated. But in reality, they have overcome by the blood of the lamb and they held fast to their testimony.

Notice this. They've conquered the image of the beast by resisting deception and remaining faithful to the gospel. rather than bow before the idols of the emperors they suffered rather than accept popular notions of morality they proclaim the gospel of God and are excluded from positions of power and influence They conquered through their faithful obedience to Christ From earth's perspective, they look defeated. No influence, no positions of power.

But they conquered by the blood of the Lamb and they remain faithful to the testimony to that Lamb. They've conquered the number of the beast by refusing the prosperity that stems from identification with the beast and accepting the poverty that inevitably comes by wearing the mark of the lamb. Rather than gaining the certificate that declared that Caesar was Lord and they were okay, they worshipped Jesus and lost their jobs.

Rather than committing themselves to the ideology of communism, They suffered the deprivation of Siberian prison camps. From earth's perspective, they look like they've been defeated. From heaven's perspective, they have conquered by the blood of the Lamb, holding fast to their testimony. Do you see how that motivates you to conquer? Listen, we defeat the beast, we defeat the image, we defeat the number by our most powerful weapon.

You know what that weapon is? You know what that weapon is? It's the gospel with all of its promises. It's the gospel that says to you, I am the resurrection and the life. Even though a man dies, yet shall he live. You hold fast to your testimony and you die.

Why? Because the gospel promises life. That's why. The promise that those who are his will never be lost, but be raised on the last day. And we see that fulfillment right here. Here they are, raised from the dead and singing.

Those are the conquerors. And we conquer because we have the gospel and its promises. Don't ever forget that. Don't ever forget that it's not your inner strength that's going to keep you from falling. Don't think that you're going to stand against persecution and ridicule. Don't think that you won't be seduced. without the gospel.

It is the gospel and its promises that will motivate us and strengthen us and get us through The gospel is the most powerful weapon And that is how they conquered Notice that the conquerors have harps. They've laid down their weapons. They're warriors without weapons. They're warriors with harps. Remember what harps are, okay? You know what we always have?

We have these wrong views of heaven. That we're going to sit on clouds with these little harps and strum them. And people say, what a boring existence. I don't want to do that. And you know what? I would agree with you.

I don't want to do that either. But what you have to see is harps are good time instruments. Remember we saw that at the beginning of chapter 14? They're the electric guitars. Okay? They're the mandolins.

They're the banjos. Whatever is your good time instrument, that's what you ought to be thinking here. These are party instruments is the idea. You know? Let's get down with what we like. That's what he's saying here.

This is a victory party. And the instruments they're using are not these little things, you know, these angels sitting there strumming. That is boring. But that's not what he's saying. They've got a party going on. They're singing of their victory.

And they've got the instruments that adequately express that. So whatever adequately expresses good times to you, think that right here. All right? And then there's the venue of the concert, a sea of glass mingled with fire. Now that's saying something to us. Well, you know what?

In 1965, the Beatles played in Shea Stadium. Now, 55,000 people were there to hear them play. Of course, the crowd was so loud the Beatles couldn't even hear themselves play. That ended up being a big joke. But the point is, what does that venue say about the Beatles in 1965? It says that they were the most popular band in the entire world.

That's what that venue said. What does this venue say? What does this venue tell us? See, that's the point. They're singing next to this glassy sea mingled with fire. That's got to tell us something.

That venue communicates something. Well, we've seen this sea before. We've seen this sea before. First it the chaotic confusing dangerous tumultuous evil sea of humanity that we saw in chapter 13 verse 1 The sea where the dragon monster lives and the sea out of which came the beast All right But it also the same sea that we saw in chapter 4 verse 6 Turn back there to chapter 4 verse 6.

Do you remember? We've seen this sea before. It's been a while since we've been in chapter 4. But remember it says this, And before the throne, that is the throne of God, there was, as it were, a sea of glass like crystal. This evil, tumultuous, dangerous, confusing sea before the throne of God is calm, expressing the sovereignty of God over all of human history.

It's also supposed to ring bells in your mind about the calm of the Red Sea after God had drowned the evil opponents of God's people. It has been calmed now by the victory of Jesus in his death and resurrection. That's why it's calm. That's why it's a sea of glass now. The battle is done. We have won.

And we have won, remember chapter 12, verse 11, we have conquered by the blood of the Lamb. When you look at the cross, all right, when you look at the cross, this is the point of Jesus' greatest humiliation, and yet it's the point of his greatest victory. Always remember that. you know what on good friday we tend to all weep and cry about poor pitiful jesus at least that's what most churches do at the lowest point of jesus earthly existence he achieved the greatest victory of all he conquered sin and in his resurrection he conquers death and that is the reason for a tumultuous sea.

But because of the victory of Jesus at the cross and in his resurrection, the sea now is glass. It's calm. He won the victory. But there's something else going on here. There's a fire. There's fire flickering in this glass sea.

Can you see it in your minds? He says, you see fire mixed in with the glass. What's that? Well, fire is used 23 times in this book, and with only one exception, only one exception, it refers to the judgment of God. The sea is the place where the Lamb has judged the beast and the dragon. Judgment has occurred in the sea.

It's calm now, but judgment has been there. And the beast and the dragon, both beasts and the dragon, have been defeated. The venue of this concert speaks of peace. they're standing in a place of peace peace won by the sovereignty of the Father through the victory won by the Lamb you will conquer in this world you will conquer as you carry a vision of the singers in your head and if you look closely at those singers what are you going to see? you're going to see you there if you're in Christ Look at these singers here.

That's you. If you have surrendered your will and you surrendered your life to the lordship of Jesus Christ, you have entrusted yourself to him because of what he has done. That's you singing. I don't know about you, but that ought to motivate you to conquer, shouldn't it? Hey, there's a party and I'm going to be there. In fact, I see myself singing there, so I'm going to go out and conquer today.

You will conquer as you carry the vision of these conquering singers in your head. Conquer by hearing the song. Verses 3 and 4. Just like the Israelites praised God by the sea for defeating Pharaoh, so the church, standing by the glassy sea, praises God for defeating the beast on their behalf. And like the people of old, God's new covenant people sing the song of Moses.

Now what's true about that song? The song of Moses sings of God's perfections. As we listen to the song of Moses from Exodus 15, over and over you hear of the perfections of the character of God. You hear over and over what he's like. and like the song of Moses, it sings of God deliverance So the song of Moses sings about God perfections in his character and it sings about God deliverance of his people But notice this and you don miss this but it also the song of the lamb It's been taken, if you will, the song of Moses has been taken into another key.

It's been elevated now because it's not just the song of Moses that sings of God's perfections and sings of God's deliverance. now it's taken up into another key where it involves the Lamb of God. You see God's perfections most clearly in the redemptive work of Jesus. Do you not? Do you not see the harmony of God's perfections in what Jesus accomplished?

And you see God's deliverance most powerfully in the redemptive work of the Lamb. And so we hear here about, we hear then about the perfections and the deliverance of God in what Jesus has done. It's the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. A new exodus has occurred. A new exodus that is much more powerful than the one that happened at the Red Sea. We tend to look at the Red Sea and say, wow, if God could work so powerfully and split the sea and we could walk through on dry land, man, that would be great.

Something greater has happened. You know what it is? a human heart has been changed and regenerated. That's a much greater miracle than the splitting of the Red Sea. Look at your own heart. Would you be here today if the Holy Spirit hadn't enlightened your eyes? Or would you still be going down that path to destruction?

You know what? You can split the Red Sea like God did and still end up with a rebellious people who stiffened their neck and never responded to God. Or you can have God regenerating a heart so every one of his people love and obey him. You tell me what's the greatest miracle. This is a greater exodus that's occurred. That's why it's the song not just of Moses, but of the Lamb.

It's greater because God can deliver you from the raging beast. Notice the parallelisms that happen here. Great and amazing are your deeds, the Lord God, the Almighty, just and true are your ways, O King of the nations. You see the parallelism? First we look and we see great and amazing deeds just and true ways God got great and amazing deeds They are marvelous expressions of power They're not just, and they're not just raw expressions of power.

Alright? They're not just raw expressions of power like God saying, You know I can wipe out that city? Here. He wipes it out. It's not just raw expressions of power, as if God's sitting in heaven saying, you want to see how great I am? Watch this.

No, they are great and marvelous deeds that are what? Just and true in every way. These are not merely raw expressions of power. They are the expressions of God's moral character. When God destroyed the Egyptians in the Red Sea, why did He do that? Because they had been oppressive slave masters of his people and he delivered them and brought justice into their horizon.

And he does this through Christ who is the supreme expression of his justice. What did we read in chapter 12? You remember? What does the dragon do? He's always making accusations, isn't he? He's making war against the saints by standing in the courtroom of God and making accusations against the people of God and saying, you see him?

He's one of yours, isn't he? Yeah. Look at what he's doing now. Right. And what do we learn in chapter 12? That Jesus delivers us from the accusations of the adversary that what?

God says, get out of here. That's taken care of by my son. He died for that sin. He got no basis to accuse him. So just leave the courtroom, you're done. Right?

That's the supreme expression of the justice of God that he can remain holy and still accept you in his son. Realize that God never overlooks any sin. This afternoon, you're going to sin. Just count on it. All right? You're going to have an evil thought.

Something's going to happen. You're going to sin. You're going to be mad when the giants win tonight I don know All right But you going to sin in some way You going to sin in some way And God can overlook that sin He can't overlook that sin. Well then how is He going to accept you? Because He's punished it in His Son. That's why.

And so He remains holy and just, not overlooking your sin, but He's punished it in His Son who took that sin on himself. That is the supreme expression of the justice of God. And God's justice is seen when Jesus, as we saw last week, returns with the sickle of judgment to reap the harvest of judgment. So you see, this is the song of the Lamb and the justice of God.

He can do it, notice, because he is God the Almighty and the King of the nations. He can do it because he is powerful. He's Lord God the Almighty and because he is sovereign, King of the nations. He can do anything he wants. Listen to me. I hope you're not under the illusion here that you can keep God at bay.

I hope you're not under the illusion that God only does something so far, but when my will intervenes, then he stops. Don't you think about, don't even harbor that thought. He is Lord God the Almighty. Whatever God wants to do, he's going to do it. And you can't stop him. He's going to do it.

Saved you, didn't he? You didn't want that. You did, finally. But why? Because his power overcame your stubborn, depraved, blind, dark, rebellious will. God will do what he wants.

There are no limits to his power and he will accomplish whatever he desires. And he can do it because he is sovereign. He is the king of the nations. No matter what nation his people come into contact with, he's lord of it. And all of this finds expression in Jesus. What did we see in chapter 1 verse 5?

What did we see in chapter 1 verse 5? Of Jesus Christ the faithful witness. The firstborn of the dead. And the ruler of kings on earth. You see Jesus is the sovereign. Jesus is the sovereign.

Over all rulers of this age. over all the satanic forces behind them. Why? Because he died and was raised again. That's why. Do you ever connect these dots? Matthew 28, All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me, therefore go into all the world and make disciples.

How can you go into all the world and make disciples? How can you go to every nation and make disciples? Because all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Jesus. That's why. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 22 and he sits on a throne and everything is subject to him for the benefit of the church you see he has assumed the throne because he has conquered by his death and his resurrection listen to the music listen to the music and hear of the powerful sovereign savior who saves you from the enemy this is a greater exodus because not only can God deliver, but God will be worshipped.

That's the next stanza of the song. Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed. Because of that greater exodus, God will be worshipped. Who will not fear and glorify God?

That's a rhetorical question. It's not asking for an answer. I remember one time. See, this is rhetorical. You know what a rhetorical question is? It's when you ought to know the answer.

I remember a long time ago, I was very angry at my son, Jans. And I did the rhetorical question thing. I said, Jans, right, can you see it? How many times have I told you not to do that? And he went, five? Okay.

No, that's not the right answer. Right. That's what he's saying here. Who will not glorify? Don't come up with names of people who won't glorify God. They're all going to glorify him.

All right. Who will not glorify and worship you? Who will not fear you? All will. All will most certainly worship God. Why?

Because he is holy. Now, he's not talking here about God's moral purity. Holiness has the idea of separated from. All right. Holiness means, first of all, that God is other. God is not like his creation. search all of creation you will never find a being like God he is if you will if we can use this term totally other He is not like anything in creation in the sense of he not a created being He's an eternally existent, self-existent being, not true of anything in the universe except for him.

He is totally other. No one and nothing can be compared to him. We see this in Psalm 86. Turn there and it's going to sound familiar. because that's what he's quoting here. Psalm 86. By the way, just a footnote.

I didn't include this in my notes, so I'm just going to tell you right now. All of these phrases in this hymn are taken from the Old Testament. And they're all taken from passages that are talking about the Exodus. Thus is called the Song of Moses. They're not taken from the Song of Moses. us are taken from passages like Psalm 86 that talk about the Exodus and gives us more information about the Exodus.

And John has taken these and put this into this new hymn. So here's one. Jeremiah 10 is one. Psalm 86 is one. There's another I can't remember off the top of my head. Here we go.

Psalm 86, verse 8. There's none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall I'll glorify your name for you are great and do wondrous things. You alone are God. Now here it talks about the holiness of God in the sense of you alone are God. There is none like you, nothing compared to you.

To whom will you compare God? Is there anyone like him who can deliver his people from the powerful forces of the dragon? To whom will you compare his son, the one who by his humiliating death and victorious resurrection accomplished the deliverance of God's people? To whom will you compare him? He is holy. Who will not fear you?

And because of that, because of that incomparable greatness, all the nations will worship him. Not as in everyone in the inhabitant world, inhabited, not everyone who is inhabited in the world, but the whole world will be represented in that group that worships. You know, when you're watching the Olympics and the opening ceremony, and all the nations are marching in with their flags and everything, And the commentator says, wow, the whole world is here tonight.

Does he mean that all six billion people are in that stadium? No he saying the whole world is represented here And that what the Apostle John is saying The Son at the command of His Father purchased His people The whole world will be there worshiping this One Why? Because His righteous acts have been revealed. He will come in judgment and in righteousness and will act.

It will be manifested. God's righteousness, when Jesus returns, will be on full display. there will be no one arguing with God at that point. When Jesus returns, the full righteousness of God in his judgment will be undisplayed. Justice will be served. How many of you are sitting here today thinking, when will justice be served? The older I get, the more wicked the world looks, the more unjust it looks.

Not just in the wide, wide world, but even in this little town of LaRue, is I've gone maybe to some meetings or something, and I say, this is not just. I don't know about you, but I get tired of injustice. And yet I have great hope, because when Jesus returns, the righteousness of God will be on full display. Justice will be served. There will be no, there will be nothing.

Listen to me. From the smallest sin to the greatest genocide, nothing will escape the justice of God. He is going to set everything straight. That can be a horrifying thought. And it can be a thought of great hope. But they will worship because his righteous acts have been, will be revealed.

And when he comes, justice arrives. if you would conquer in the battle then listen to the song of Moses and the Lamb echoing back to you from the future hear the song, listen to the music that's what God says as you look around at the world today what do you see? especially in terms of God's people Do you get low sometimes because as you look around it seems like of all people we are the most defeated? Of all people it seems like we don get anywhere right We don have positions of power and influence do we We not running the gears of government We're not the shakers and the movers, are we? In fact, it seems like we're repressed.

It seems, as you look at us, that we're defeated. At least that's the way it looks, doesn't it? You see suffering at the hands of ungodly powers. And you see this incredible, almost irresistible, seductive power of the culture around us. And maybe you observe what appears to be the defeat and conquest of the church. Guess what?

God calls us to conquest. He calls us to conquer. but we conquer not by getting the gears and the engines of government we don't conquer by having great power and influence in this world how do we conquer? by faithful suffering and faithful purity and you will do it if you listen to the music you will do it if you listen to the music Father what a delight what a delight to hear this hymn from the future echoing back to us in the present you have called us to conquest and Lord we've so misunderstood that we think conquest means that Christians are going to be the the driving force of culture. We're going to have everything.

And yet, this book has shown us over and over that we conquer just by remaining faithful to Jesus. Help us to conquer that way. And help us to do it by listening to the music of the choir that is yet to sing. Help us to see those conquering warriors singing a song of praise to you, singing the song of Moses and of the Lamb. Lord God, give us the power to conquer in the way that you've defined. that you have given us.

Help us. In the name of our glorious King, our conqueror Jesus. Amen.