Very nice to be with you this evening. Please turn in your Bibles, if you would, to the book of Revelation, the 15th chapter. And I'll just read a very few verses from Revelation 15, verses 2, 3 and 4. Revelation 15, verses 2, 3 and 4, and I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and the number of his name standing on the sea of glass holding harps of God. And they sang the song of Moses, the bondservant of God, and the song of the Lamb sang. Great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God the Almighty. Righteous and true are your ways, King of the nations. Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy, for all the nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed. Let's pray. Father, thank you again for your Word. Thank you that you have been pleased to give it to us for our instruction. Thank you that we have the privilege of singing your Word. And we pray, Father, that as we look at this text this evening, just for a short period of time, that you'll be pleased to bless us with a better understanding of what we are to do in our singing of your Word. Bless us to this end in the good name of Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen. A professor of a college in a nearby community wrote a paper that has circulated at our seminary. The paper has to do with psalmody. The professor concludes the paper with a statement something like this, Exclusive psalmody is not only not necessary, but it is positively sinful. Well, that puts the likes of us in a rather bad light, to say the very least. And our professor friend suggests that we look at the songs in the book of Revelation to get a better idea of how we ought to conduct ourselves in the public worship of God and what we ought to sing. And so my proposal this evening is for us to look at this one song in the book of Revelation chapter 15 following our esteemed professor's advice and to see what the outcome actually is when we look at this particular song in Revelation chapter 15. So I'm going to ask you to work with me as we look at this song and hopefully we'll all come out at the same place. The song is a song sung by the saints of God in heaven. And I won't go into it in detail, but we see this in verse 2. And I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire and those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and the number of his name standing on the sea of glass holding harps of God. These are the saints of God, and they are singing. Verse 3 indicates that this is the case very plainly. And they sang the song of Moses, the bondservant of God, and the song of the Lamb. Now, we notice right away that John puts together the song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb. These are not two songs. They are not two separate songs, but they are one song. And we would gather this from the fact that what follows is one song, not two songs. But how is it that the same song can be both the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb? Well, let's go back to Exodus chapter 15. and look briefly at a couple of pieces of the song of Moses recorded for us there. Turn with me, if you would, to Exodus chapter 15. This is a song sung by the people of God as they came out of the land of Egypt and had God's redemption. And they walked on dry land through the Red Sea. Verse 1 says, then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the Lord. And then if you drop down to verse 13, it says, In your lovingkindness you have led the people whom you have redeemed. This is the Lord who had redeemed his people and led them out of Egypt and out of bondage. And it was on the basis of his lovingkindness, that is, his covenant love, the covenant which he had made with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Remembering that covenant, he brought the people out of Egypt. And then this verse goes on to say, in your strength you have guided them to your holy habitation. Not only did God bring them out of Egypt, But God had a plan and a purpose and a place for them to reside. And the song here calls it the holy habitation of God. And then look down to verse 17 in Exodus chapter 15. You will bring them, you will bring them and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance. The psalm does not stop with the redemption of God, but goes on to speak about the people being brought into the promised land, and not only brought into the promised land, but being brought up to the very mountain which God designated for His very dwelling place. Verse 17 once again. and you will bring them and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance, the place, O Lord, which you have made for your dwelling, the sanctuary, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established." This is a reference to the future sanctuary that Solomon would build on Mount Zion. This is a song that looks forward almost 500 years into the future with regard to that which God would do for His people when He would bring them to that mountain, Mount Zion, and Solomon would build that temple, and God would come down in His glory and dwell in the midst of His people. And of course, all of this, all of this, friends, was a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us. God was dwelling and he promised to dwell among his people in that temple and in that sanctuary. But ultimately, God with us was Jesus Christ. You may remember the little confrontation that Jesus had with the Jewish leaders when he spoke about his resurrection. And the Jewish leaders, confounded, said, how is it that this man will destroy this temple and build it again in three days? And John indicates to us in that place that Jesus was speaking about the temple of his body. And so we have a foreshadowing in this song of Moses, a foreshadowing of the coming of Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, dwelling among His people, God with us. And now as you go back then to Revelation chapter 15, the two 15s here, when you go back to Revelation 15, You see then that the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb are one song because they speak about none other than Jesus Christ, who is the Lord and the Savior of all. Now with this in mind, let's look at the song itself. What does it have to say? Great and marvelous are your works. O Lord God, the Almighty, righteous and true are your ways, King of the nations. Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy, for all the nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed. Do you catch the accent on the sovereignty of God and the Lordship of Christ? O Lord God, The Almighty. And then also in verse 3, righteous and true are your ways. King of the nations. Surely this is a song about Jesus Christ and His Lordship over all things. And I submit to you that this is a gospel song. This is a song of the truth of God, of the good news concerning Jesus Christ. To get this, I'd like you to turn to another text, if you would, this time in Isaiah chapter 52. Isaiah chapter 52 and verse 7. This is quite a familiar text, and it's a text that the Apostle Paul quotes in Romans chapter 10 with regard to the gospel and to the preaching of the gospel. Isaiah 52 and verse 7. How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace, who brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation and says to Zion, your God reigns. Here is the messenger who comes, perhaps from the battle line, perhaps from the battle line where the combat has been fierce. And the message is, friends, even in the depth of battle and of combat, your God reigns. God is supreme. God is the one who sits on the throne, and He disposes all things in accordance with His will. And this happens to be, I think, the Old Testament counterpart to what Paul has to say in Romans chapter 10, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. This is the Old Testament counterpart of it. This is the good news. This is the gospel. Your God reigns. And do you remember what Peter had to say on the day of Pentecost with regard to Jesus Christ? This One whom you crucify, God has made both Lord and Christ. He ascended into heaven and sat at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, and He is Lord of all. And is it not also significant that if you go back to Exodus chapter 15 and look at the very last words of the song in Exodus 15, what do you find? It's Exodus 15 and verse 18. The song ends with these telling words. The Lord shall reign forever and ever. This is gospel news. This is good news, friends, that we all need to take to heart. And this good news Peter in another place in his epistle tells us is the answer to fear that might come upon us. Do not fear, he says, and do not pay attention to the intimidation of others, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your heart, you see. The answer to all of our fears is a proper understanding of the Lordship of Jesus Christ, who is the King of all. Let's go back now to Revelation chapter 15. Here is the central message. which I submit to you is a gospel message. Therefore, the song in Revelation chapter 15 is a gospel song. But let me point out a couple of other things to you with regard to this song in Revelation chapter 15. Let me just read it to you once again. And I have the New American Standard version. Unfortunately, in the new international version and some of the other versions, the layout of the song is not quite as evident. But listen to it as I read it to you. Great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God, the Almighty. Righteous and true are your ways, King of the nations. Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. For all the nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed. The form of the psalm is that of a psalm. It is given to us in the form of Hebrew poetry. It is given to us in the form of a psalm. If any of you have studied Hebrew poetry, there is actually an alternating parallelism in the song. Listen to it again. Great and marvelous are your works, line one. O Lord the Almighty, line two. Righteous and true are your ways, line three. King of the nations, There is this pattern of alternating parallelism. It is a song, friends, that is in the form of a psalm. And lo and behold, it points us back to the Psalter in this regard. And not only so, but in this song, there is also the quotation of a psalm. It comes to us in the fourth verse. Who will not fear, O Lord, and glory and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. for all the nations will come and worship before you." This is a quotation from Psalm 86.9, and if you care to look with me just briefly at Psalm 86, you'll notice that this psalm is a song that David sings. Seeking the Lord. Verse 1. Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me. Verse 3. Be gracious to me, O Lord. Verse 4. Make glad the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. Verse 6. Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer." Verse 8, there is no one like you among the gods, O Lord. And verse 9, all the nations whom you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and they shall glorify your name. This is the text. which our song in Revelation chapter 15 picks up in verse 4. Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy, for all the nations will come and worship you. This song in Revelation 15 is not only in the form of a psalm, But it also quotes one of the Psalms, and I would submit to you that it is a gospel song, as we've already said, that carries the message of the Psalms. And this is a very profound and significant message. I'd like you to look at your Psalter just briefly in this regard, if you would. And turn with me to, first of all, 10B. Look at 10B. Notice the message of the psalm. The third stanza and the third line. The Lord is King through all eternity. Here is the message of the psalm. And then turn with me, if you would, to Psalm 29. Some of you will find this a little bit more familiar. Psalm 29 and the very last stanza of that psalm. Psalm 29 and the sixth stanza. The Lord on His throne sat above the great deluge. The Lord on His throne sits as King without cease. The Lord is King. And then Psalm 93, selection A. How many times have you sung this particular selection? Jehovah reigns. He's clothed with majesty most bright. There it is again, that same message. Psalm 96, which we sang at the beginning of the service, gives us an exhortation with regard to this same message. In beautiful and holy robes bring worship to the Lord. All earth before Him stand in awe. Proclaim the Lord is King. And so we have that message once again. Psalm 97. Psalm 97 begins with this same refrain. I'm looking at selection C. Jehovah reigns. Let all the earth be joyful. And so we find it in the Psalter. And then finally, 99 C. 99 C. The Lord is king indeed. What therefore are these songs, friends? They are gospel songs. They are songs that relate to you and me, the lordship of Jesus Christ. And I submit to you As you look back at Revelation 15 and this song in Revelation 15, this song that is in the form of a psalm, this song that quotes from the Psalter, this song that has embedded in it this message that the Lord is King, a message that permeates the psalms, this song in Revelation 15 does what? It directs our attention back to the Psalms of the Old Testament. This is what it does. And when I hear, when I hear at least, the words of our professor friend saying, exclusive psalmody is not only not necessary, but positively sinful, I draw back, and when he says, look at the songs in the book of Revelation for guidance, and I do so, and I find in this song, in this particular song in the book of Revelation, A song that is composed like a psalm, a song that quotes from the psalms, a song that has the message of the psalms. I find a song in the book of Revelation that points back to the songs of the Old Testament, to the Old Testament Psalter. And I say to you, friends, sing the Psalms, because they are the gospel songs of the Bible. Do you hear that message? And it comes. Lo and behold, it comes out of the book of Revelation. Sing the Psalms of the Bible because they are the gospel songs of God which have been given to you and to me for this purpose. Let's do so, shall we? And what is the song? Was it 99C? The Lord is King indeed. Let peoples quail in fear. He sits above the cherubim. Let earth be moved. Let's sing the Psalms of the Old Testament because they are the gospel songs of the Bible. Let's stand and sing.