Mark 14, look at verse 26. We touched on it at the end of last Lord's Day as we concluded the sermon there. After the Lord's Supper, the institution of a new ordinance for a new covenant, verse 26 says, And when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives. There was a lot I wanted to say about that last week, but really knew I didn't have enough time. So I determined to just spend the time I had this morning on this subject. And it's probably a subject maybe you've never heard a preaching or teaching on. And this is more of a meditation. I wouldn't say this is a sermon. This is a meditation because that's what this this was born out of. my meditations on this subject, singing with Jesus, singing with Jesus. Brethren, this is just another aspect. I mean, the Lord Jesus is like the most beautiful diamond, and that's a very limited analogy. He's the most beautiful diamond that you can imagine, and there are so many facets to the Lord Jesus. In fact, this is another aspect of the one who is altogether lovely. You can look at the Lord Jesus. You can look at Him at any angle, any way you can. Examine Him top to bottom, side to side, every way possible, and He is altogether beautiful and lovely. And brethren, those of us who believe, He represents you. He makes you altogether lovely. Because none of us are. You don't have to look very long at me or be around me very long to see I've got some problems. There's things about me that aren't yet perfect. And that's the way it is with all of us. But He represents you. And that's what I saw very clearly when I thought about Jesus singing or us singing with Him. So, have you ever considered Jesus singing? Have you ever thought about it? I hadn't. But the Lord started putting it on my heart this week. Jesus singing. I guess the first question we ask is, did Jesus sing? Well, I think we have at least one verse here and Matthew records it and Luke also. Jesus did sing after they finished the Lord's Supper, it says they sang a hymn and went out into the Mount of Olives. So we know he sang, and Matthew and Mark record this same event. They had just celebrated the Passover, and at the end of the Passover meal, before the disciples went out to the Garden of Gethsemane, they joined with Jesus in singing to one another psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. We know in John's gospel, he records for us at the end of the Lord's Supper, that great high priestly prayer that Jesus prayed at the end of the Passover meal that we find recorded in John 17. But Mark seems to be struck with something else. Mark is struck with the fact that at the end of the Passover meal, Jesus led the singing of praises to God with his disciples. Brethren, the Lord Jesus is a singing Savior. Now, you don't hear singing. I've never been in a Muslim mosque, but through what I've read and seen and heard, you don't hear singing in a Muslim mosque. They don't have hymn books. And even though the Koran does not forbid singing, other Islamic writings do forbid Muslims to sing. And that makes a joyless religion even more hopeless than it already is. Did Buddha sing? No. But brethren, the Lord Jesus went to God singing. The Lord Jesus entered his temple of suffering singing. We often refer to preach and teach about the words Jesus said on the cross, on the way to the cross, but we often forget, beloved, that he sang on the way to the cross. The words that he sang at the end of the Passover are just as important as the words he uttered on the cross. I suspect we've never thought about that. So what can we consider in these few minutes about Jesus singing? A few things. First of all, it was not unusual for Jesus to sing. The Passover meal consisted not only of eating the Passover lamb, bitter herbs, drinking the wine, but it consisted of singing as well. And we referred to this last week. They sang the Hallel and Hallel is simply a shortened way to say hallelujahs. You can pull that word Hallel out of the word Hallelujah. They sang hallelujahs, particularly Psalms 113 through Psalm 118. Psalm 113 through Psalm 113 and Psalm 114 were sung before the second cup, Psalm 113, 15, 16, 17, 18 after the second cup. Or in other words, at the end of the Passover, they sang the last four Hallel Psalms. So think about the Lord Jesus. He was about 30 years old when he began to when he was baptized, anointed by the Spirit, went out into his public ministry. And so for about 30 years, here is the Lord Jesus, the son of Mary. He had been a participant in singing the Hallel with his family at their annual celebration. Imagine him singing first as a little boy. Those of you who still have little children have your family devotions and you sing sometimes and you can just hear the voice of your children, how they sing. And when you teach them to sing at first, they're just mimicking you. They're singing what they hear you say. They don't really have any understanding. And so most likely that was the Lord Jesus as a little boy, hearing Mary and Joseph sing and he imitating them and singing those phrases that he heard them sing and say. And then later, as he grew up, he had sister brothers and we know he had brothers. And they're all sitting and singing these psalms of praise together. Imagine him as he got older, his voice got deeper. As some of you young men, you're now getting a little older, your voice is changing. The same thing happened with the Lord Jesus. His voice got deeper and so did his understanding of what he was singing. It got deeper. Imagine the Lord Jesus about 12 years old. We know He went and He was there in the temple at Passover time. With the elders listening to the teaching and preaching, just maybe he asked those teachers, those elders, what do these words mean? Teach me, tell me. Jesus grew up with the Psalms. And then he grew with the Psalms and into the Psalms. And we know he grew in favor with God. And no doubt, as the Lord Jesus grew, he began to understand that these Psalms were saying things about him, about himself. And he even took this up as his job description, if you will. We know there in Psalm 40, verse 7 and 8, it says, Then said I, Lo, in the volume of the book, it's written of me. I delight to do thy will, O God, yea, thy law is within my heart. He began to come into this understanding, hey, these things I've been singing all my life, this is me. This is about me. And we know through his life he vindicated the Psalms by doing what the Psalms said. And I think Jesus consciously made these Psalms come true. And all those Psalms we know were written hundreds of years before Christ They also record the highs and the lows of David. They record the struggles and the joys of the man after God's own heart. They are, in truth, the words of the Son of God. So it was when Jesus read some of the Messianic Psalms, they were right up to date as he read them, recording just what he was going through and what he was about to go through. Again, he said, these Psalms are about me. He said in the volume of the book, it's written of me. The Psalms are about Christ, beloved. They describe, for example, the servant of the Lord crying out, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? That's Psalm 22 and verse 1. So we see how Christ fulfills these Psalms. He makes them come true. He sings them. And then he doesn't run away from the judgments that they predict in his life. As a matter of fact, he walks right out, as we see here in our verse 26 of Mark 14, he walks right out into the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane, to pray in anguish and to be betrayed. He accepts this awful humiliation before his glorious exaltation. And it has to be in that order. The book has said it to be so. He has sung it to be so. And at the end of each psalm, he's writing his signature saying, yes and amen. It's all true. And it's all of me. I'm going out and I'm going to prove what I've just read and sang to be true. Now, most of you are very familiar with Psalms 113 through Psalm 118. We read them often. We sing hymns written from them together. But think of this, beloved, no one ever sang them like the Lord Jesus did. When Jesus began to sing Psalm 115, something entirely new was heard in creation when he sang it. It was a new song when he sang that that night that he was betrayed in the very shadow of Calvary. I thought about this. There are portions of Scripture that you and I read, most likely, that when you read it, it brings to mind a certain event. Maybe your own conversion. I mean, every time I read Matthew 6, 33, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. That takes me right back to the time of my conversion. Psalm 37 and 4, Delight yourself also in the Lord, and he shall give you the desires of your heart. Romans 2, 4 is very precious in my life and in my sanctification. Don't you know that the goodness of God led you to repentance? Those verses, when I read them, man, things just, they come very fresh in my mind. I can never read or hear Psalm 103 without thinking of my father and his funeral. That's what we read at his funeral. Bless the Lord, O my soul, all that's within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. So those things happen to us. It happens to all of you who know the Lord. But we ought never to read these four Psalms, particularly Psalm 115 through 118, without remembering what was on the mind of Jesus on that night. that he laid down his life for us. There was something unique in his singing of these psalms at the end of the last Passover, something the world had never heard before and which can never be repeated again. But the second thing to consider, this was special, Jesus singing these psalms because he was singing his own composition. What was special about Jesus' singing was not that His voice was the greatest voice ever. Most likely it was not. I'm sure Jesus had a very distinctive voice, as every one of you do. But there was nothing in His physical or outward appearance that made Him stand out from any other man. I'm sure if we had been there seeing Jesus and the twelve apostles walking down the road We would not, had we not known any of them, we would not be able to pick him out. Oh, yeah, he's the one with a halo over his head. No, he looked just like any ordinary man. And we have scripture that says that Isaiah 53, too, says he hath no form nor comeliness. And when we shall see him, there is no beauty. That we should desire him, in other words, there was nothing really attractive physically about him. that would make us attach ourselves to him, and that would include his voice. Nothing special. We know he looked and sounded just like any common man. So what was special about Jesus singing was not his voice, but that he was the very author of number 115, 116 and 117 and 118 in this altar. He was singing his own composition. It's one thing to see a conductor conduct an orchestra and a choir doing Handel's Messiah. Wouldn't it be a whole other thing to hear and see Handel himself directing his own composition? My wife loves Monet. It's something to go to a museum in Paris and look at original Monets. But wouldn't it have been something else to sit there and watch Monet himself paint this marvelous piece of art? So it was with the Lord Jesus singing these psalms, his own composition. We know Peter was there that night. Peter's the one who later wrote in his first epistle, chapter one, verse 11, that the spirit of Christ was in the prophets when they testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. That's why the Lord Jesus is the rich content of the book of Psalms because he was the author of it. The Spirit of Christ was in David. The Spirit of Christ was in Moses. The Spirit of Christ was in Isaiah, Jeremiah, all the prophets when they wrote of the sufferings of Christ and also the glory that was to follow. He's the Creator. He's the One who walks on the waves of the sea to deliver His own. He's the Lord Jehovah of all the Psalms. He's the Suffering Servant. He's the One seated at God's right hand. He's the Shepherd who supplies every need, Psalm 23. He's in all the Psalms, the Great Prophet, the Great High Priest, and the King of Glory to whom the gates and the everlasting doors are opened. He is all of this. Because He's the one who inspired it by His Spirit who was in them. In other words, when we read the 23rd Psalm, we should remember that Jehovah Jesus wrote this by His Spirit. These are the Savior's own inspired words spoken through David. The Lord Jehovah is my shepherd. I shall not want. So, on this night, in the upper room at the Passover in Jerusalem, when these four Psalms were being sung in every street, in every house in Jerusalem by tens of thousands of people, if you can imagine, there wasn't one person who could sing them like Jesus sang them. They were His words. His own composition. You know, the best storyteller is the author of the story himself. The author can convey the proper emotions of the story. I'm not a poet. I never have really appreciated poetry like some of you do and like probably I should. But a poet is the one who reads his poem the best. because he knows exactly what was in his mind when he penned it. And he can read it with just the right emphasis, just the right inflection of voice. And when we think about the Lord Jesus, he spoke every truth perfectly. Whether he was scorning the Pharisees, pronouncing woes upon them, as he did sternly, and it might have sounded angry to those listening, Or whether he was comforting Mary and Martha at the death of their brother Lazarus. Or whether he was inviting all the weary and heavy laden to come unto him and find rest. How Christ addressed people was perfectly expressive of what he was trying to say to them. Perfect. He was the message and he was the messenger. And both the medium and the message were perfect when Christ spoke. We know never a man spoke like Christ spoke. And never a man sang like he sang. His form was perfectly suited for the requirement of each moment. And I couldn't help but think about me and us and comparing us to the Lord Jesus, how he spoke, how he sang. There was no ugly ego, spoiling what he said or saying, no insincerity, no theatrics. He didn't do anything with his body as he sang. In other words, all the words that came from his mouth perfectly reflected his true affections. And they were Incredibly rich and pure emotions that came from Christ. Now, we don't need to think that Jesus was always calm. Because he wasn't. There was a time when Peter. The Lord Jesus had just told him, I'm going up to Jerusalem, I'm going to be betrayed, I'm going to suffer and I'm going to be crucified. And Peter said, Lord, it will never be. And I don't think Jesus was real kind when he turned around and said, get thee behind me, Satan. But I can say this, Jesus was always composed. How do we measure up to that? Why? He was full of the Spirit. And if you look at Galatians 5 and 22, the fruit of the Spirit is self-control. He was full. He was always under control. His emotions never disturbed this deep peace that he had in his heart. His heart was always stayed on his God. So when he sang these psalms, these Hallel songs, his singing perfectly reflected the joys and even the lamentations that are in these Psalms. He is there singing as one without sin, surrounded by sinners. We've never experienced that, or have we? Here these disciples, they had heard everything, Brethren, they really couldn't hear anything. They saw him singing, but I don't think they really could see. Yet the Lord just sang on. The angels heard him. God himself heard him. Can you imagine God saying, this is my beloved son and whom I'm well pleased. Singing to me, singing to the angels, singing to the world. And here Jesus goes to the Word of God and He sings from the Word of God. If you're wondering, what are we saying? What should we sing? What hymn should we sing? What scripture song should we sing? Well, that's the key. What did Jesus do? He went to the Word of God and He sang hymns, songs and spiritual songs that were born right out of God's Word. Where God and Christ and salvation and redemption All these things are the heart of what he's saying, not man centered. Consider how humble the Lord Jesus is in singing. You know, true hymn singing is is a humbling experience. Because we're singing about the works of someone else. We're praising someone else. So it's a humbling experience. It's hard to stand and sing hymns and be cool. And I've seen it, I'm getting older now, I've seen it all my life and I was one of those at one point as a teenager, you know, unconverted teenagers often they don't want to sing because it's not cool. It's humbling. Jesus was humble. Here, Jesus saying among sinners. Jesus saying, and you're not going to sing. Jesus shared a hymn book right alongside Peter. Knowing that just in an hour or two, Peter would swear and curse that he never even knew him. And yet he was not ashamed to sing right alongside of him. I mentioned earlier Psalm 22, which begins, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? It is a psalm of Christ, of his passion, of his suffering. But later on in that psalm, he says these words in verse 22, I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the church or the congregation. I will praise thee. Jesus, right there in the upper room, has declared God's name to His brethren. You go back and read John chapter 13, 14, 15, and 16, and even the high priestly prayer in John 17. He has fully and clearly declared God's Word and God's name to His brethren. And now He sings God's praise with them all. And that verse so strikes the author of the epistle to the Hebrews that the author of Hebrews quotes that verse in chapter 2 verse 11 through 13 he says for which cause he Jesus is not ashamed to call them brethren saying I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation I will sing praise unto thee and again I will put my trust in him and again behold I and the children which God hath given me The eternal Son of God is not ashamed to sing alongside these sinful men because they're his brothers. They are the sons of God with him. They are joint heirs with Christ. And this is what the Lord Jesus does here in our congregation every Lord's Day. You know, Ephesians 5 verses 18 and 19 commands you, Christian, not suggest, but it commands us to be filled, not to be drunk with wine, where is an excess, but to be filled with the Spirit. Does anybody want to know what the next verse is? speaking to yourselves in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. You want to begin to know what it looks like to be filled with the Spirit? Singing. Making melody in your hearts. Joy to the Lord. And in the parallel in Colossians 3.16, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Singing psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, making melody in your heart to the Lord. And this is what the Lord Jesus does here in our congregation every Lord's Day. He joins in singing hymns with us because His Spirit is in us. As we're filled with the Spirit of Christ, we're singing with Christ. The Spirit of Christ enables us to sing and sings with us. We glorify God for His mercy, and Jesus joins in our praises, and even the angels are listening in, marveling at what God is doing in His church. Well, the last few minutes here, what were these hymns that Jesus sang with his disciples? Let's look briefly. Go back to the Psalms. And we're going to look at the last four briefly, because these are the ones that were saying after the second cup, at the end of the Passover, Psalm 115. As we look at these, let me remind you, I want you to consider Jesus singing this because that's what he did. Jesus sang this. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory. The beloved Christ was consumed by that. He is the only man in history who has literally fulfilled his chief end, and that is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever, to fully enjoy Him in his life. So whatever happened on the next day, because he's seeing this the day before he's going to be crucified, whatever happens on the next day, his arrest, his trial, his crucifixion, death and burial, His overwhelming concern here is that the name of Jehovah would be glorified. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory. And then there in verse 2, Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? When the heathen said, Where is your God? Remember on the cross? Save yourself. Where is your God? Your God is going to let you die this horrible death? Some Father He is to you. He's a weak, do-nothing God who can't deliver His own Son. Can you hear the voice of the Son of God singing out? Verse 3, But our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. Christ was always full of trust. in God His Father. Even that night He was betrayed. Let's read the rest of it. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. Again, Christ singing this. They have mouths, but they speak not. Eyes have they, but they see not. They have ears, but they hear not. Noses have they, but they smell not. They have hands, but they handle not. Feet have they, but they walk not, neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are likened to them. So is everyone that trusteth in them. O Israel, trust thou in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. The Lord hath been mindful of us. He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great. The Lord shall increase you more and more, you and your children. You are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth. Even the heavens are the Lord's, but the earth hath He given to the children of men. The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence. But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord. This he sang on the eve of his crucifixion. The next Psalm, Psalm 116. I've often thought the mark of a great hymn or a memorable hymn that we just remember is the first line. You just remember the first line. And Psalm 16 begins in such a way, I love the Lord. It's hard to forget that psalm, how it begins. But think of Christ singing this. Jehovah is about to give the Lord such a terrible cup to drink. It's a bitter cup that's full of wrath, that's full of damnation. But Jesus is going to drink it lovingly. He speaks in this spiritual song to others, to Peter. to Andrew, to James, to John, and all the others. He wants them never to forget that He loves His Father. Think of the Lord Jesus seen as these words and expressing His love and His trust in His Father. I love the Lord because He hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because He hath inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gathered hold upon me. I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I, upon the name of the Lord, O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord, and righteous, yea, our God is merciful. The Lord preserveth the low, the simple. I was brought low, and he helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believed, therefore have I spoken. I was greatly afflicted. I said in my haste, all men are liars. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation." Brethren, that cup for him is a different cup than it is for you. No one could take the cup of wrath that he took. The cup that we take is a cup of salvation, but salvation for us is different than salvation for him. It cost him everything. He says, I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Oh Lord, truly I am thy servant. I am thy servant and the son of thine handmaid. Thou hast loosed my bonds. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord. Psalm 117, we know is the shortest of all the Psalms. And it summons all the nations to praise Jehovah. By His great work on the cross, Jesus knew that these words would be fulfilled. People from every tongue, tribe, kindred, and nation were going to be praising Him, even here we are 2,000 years later, still singing praises to Jehovah. Oh, praise the Lord, all you nations. Praise Him, all you people. For His merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord. Well, that brings us to the last of the Hillel Psalms. It's Psalm 118. We won't read all of it. We'll read portions of it. This is the very last psalm that they sung in the upper room before walking together to Gethsemane. They'd had the Last Supper together. He had taught them incredible truths. He had comforted them. He had encouraged them and prayed for them so powerfully. Then they closed by singing this psalm together. And it opens with a doxology. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, because His mercy endureth forever. Now, think what Jesus is saying here. He's surrounded by these eleven at this point, Judas has already departed. And he's saying, boys, whatever happens in the days to come. In everything, give thanks. Because God is good. No matter what happens, that that's the heart of Jesus, that he's communicating to his disciples, and that's the heart of Jesus, that he's communicating to you as he sings in the upper room. Men and women, boys and girls, no matter what happens, give thanks in everything because God is good. Don't doubt the goodness of God. However bad men are, however bad your culture is, however bad your political leaders are, your children are, your family is, your friends are, no matter what, don't doubt the goodness and the merciful kindness of God. because it endures forever. Have you ever thought of Christ singing these words the night before he was betrayed, even on the eve of Golgotha? Look at verse 5. I called upon the Lord in distress. The Lord Jehovah answered me and set me in a large place. The Lord is on my side. I will not fear what man can do unto me. The Lord taketh my part with them that help me. Therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. Boy, no one knew that more than the Lord did. Here are His most trusted men, and they all forsook Him. It's better to put confidence, to put trust in the Lord than confidence in man. It's better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. Didn't do him much good to put confidence in Pilate, who could find no fault in him. All nations come past me about. And that's exactly what happened. There were people from all nations gathered together, Jews, Greeks, Romans, all gathered together and they all condemned him to death. They can pass me about, yea, they can pass me about, but in the name of the Lord, I will destroy them. They can pass me about like bees. They are quenched as the fire of thorns, for in the name of the Lord, I will destroy them. And that he did. He killed me. I'm crucified with Christ. I'm dead to sin and alive to Christ. And so are you. And so were many there. You're going to be destroyed one way or the other. He's going to destroy the old you or he's going to destroy the old you that will not repent one way or the other. 13, Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall, but the Lord help me. The Lord is my strength and song and has become my salvation. The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous. The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is exalted. The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. I shall not die, but live. and declare the works of the Lord. Wow. You ever saw that as Jesus' prophecy of His resurrection and His ministry to His church by His Spirit? The Lord hath chastened me sore, but He hath not given me over to death. Open to me the gates of righteousness. I will go into them, and I will praise Jehovah. That confidence of Christ and the merciful, loving kindness of God, that is all our support and our salvation. When we come to God, we say, Father, look on your son and pardon me. Father, look on him hanging on the cross of Calvary. Look on him reigning on the throne for me. Look on him singing for me and have mercy on me. Lord, I don't sing very well. My mind wanders. My heart's cold. I don't feel like singing. Lord, don't look at my singing. Look on Jesus' righteousness. Look on His singing for me and save me for His sake. Brethren, we don't even realize how deep How deep the substitution of Christ goes. It goes all the way. There's nothing you and I can do to recommend ourselves to God. There's nothing we can do as a saint of God that's absolutely pleasing to God outside the person and work of Christ. Even something as simple and glorious as us gathering together and opening our mouths and singing praise to God, there is iniquity in our singing because we don't have a true heart. We don't have a perfect heart yet. But don't be cast down, look to Christ again and realize He represents you even in singing. Jesus sings vicariously. Jesus sings alone, but we were in him when he sang. That's our salvation. Think about that. To conclude here. We need to sing in harmony with the Lord Jesus, and so I don't have very good voice. That's not what I mean. We need to sing in harmony with the Lord Jesus. We can't sing as He sang, but we can sing, can't we? We can sing by His Spirit. We can sing by His strength. We can sing of His righteousness, of His faithfulness, of His beauty. We can sing of our desire to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. We can sing of our desire to trust the Lord and our desire that all nations, Psalm 117, trust Him and praise Him. We can sing of our great salvation by the grace of God. I think of Judas. Judas heard a portion of the Hillel before he departed. How often Judas heard Jesus' voice. How often the Pharisees heard His voice. They even heard Him say, Lazarus, come forth. And He came out of the grave and lived. But the Pharisees still didn't believe. Judas didn't believe. And so, brethren, to hear the voice of Jesus is a matter of faith. Jesus said, My sheep hear My voice. And I know them. And they follow Me. When we sing, I heard the voice of Jesus say, Come unto me and rest. How could we have believed in the one whom we had not heard? We, brethren, need to cry out continually, Lord, speak to me. Speak to us. Reveal yourself to us. Lord, meet with us Sunday after Sunday. Sing, O Lord, in our midst. that we might hear. So what does singing with Jesus mean? Let me summarize and I'll be done. Singing with Christ means singing words that will lead to a greater vision of His glory. It's just like Isaiah's sight that he saw in Isaiah six of he who was high and lifted up in his throne, his train filled the temple. Singing with Christ means singing words that give us a humbler view of our own life and our own achievements. Singing with Christ means singing songs and words that will encourage me and you to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him. Singing with Christ means singing the kind of music which will help deliver us from love of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. And singing with Christ means singing the kind of music that we can imagine singing before God Almighty. Because that indeed is what we do every time we sing. Can you imagine the Lord Christ in our midst, in bodily form, and we're going to sing a hymn about Him And we open our hymn book and we're just singing half the words with a frown on our face, with no zeal, no joy. Can you imagine that? You can imagine it for a lost person. You can't imagine it for one who's been redeemed by his precious blood. You'd be singing before him with all your might. With all heart and affection. In reality, beloved, we're singing before Christ, and He's singing with us, just as He sang with Peter, who was full of sin and doubt and weakness. Sing right there with Him. Let me close with this verse. You all probably know it, but maybe you don't. Out of the little prophet Zephaniah. Don't turn, just listen. Zephaniah 3.17 says, Jehovah, your God is in the midst of thee, and He is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice over thee with joy. He will rest in His love. He will joy over thee with singing." Jesus rejoices over His church with singing. And we won't rejoice with Him in our singing. So, Jesus sings vicariously. He sings through us. He sings with us. He sings about us. He sings for us. Jesus sings. Let us sing as well. He brought me up. out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay. He set my feet upon a rock and established my goings, and he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. Many shall see it and fear and shall trust in the Lord. Is his song our song? Well, it is by faith. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for the Lord Jesus, for the truth that he is all to us. He is completely sufficient for all of our sin, all of our shortcomings, all of our weaknesses. He's altogether lovely. We bless you and thank you that Jesus sings. That in that upper room, as he sang these psalms, Lord, he was singing our salvation by his shed blood, his broken body, and his resurrection again. We thank you, O Father, as he reigns and rules on high, that by his Spirit we sing with him. Lord, forgive us. Forgive us for such weak effort on our part to sing our God's praises. Lord, it's not about being loud. Lord, it's about being full of love and devotion and sincerity and understanding who Christ is and what He's done. Lord, help us to honor and glorify You. And most of all, help us, O Lord, to love you with all our heart for who you are and what you've done. In Jesus' name, amen.