All right, let's take our scriptures and go to Revelation. Revelation 15, going to read the second half of verse 2 and 3 and 4, Revelation 15. I'll give you an advance one, another place I'm going to read because it's one we don't turn to too much and you may need a moment. Second Chronicles 20, it's not a small book, but it's probably one where your Bible doesn't open automatically unless you just are so in love with the historical books of the nation of Israel that you spend a lot of time there, many do because of the life of David and Saul and the different other kings that they find very intriguing so that may be a place that you read. The second Chronicles 20 will be a reading not immediately followed this, but of the sinner. Looking then at the scripture, let's hear from God's Word, speaking now of the number of its names, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands and they sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb saying, great and amazing are your deeds. Oh Lord God, they all mighty, just and true are your ways, O King of the nations, who will not fear O Lord and glorify your name. For you alone or holy, all nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed. May the Lord bless this reading of his Word. This is a song that we have before us, it's a song that will be sung in heaven. I have grown up, I think my whole life hearing the question, what are you going to do when you get to heaven? People say, oh, we'll just be singing and worshiping and I keep thinking, boy, what are we going to sing? We've got the Trinity hymn, and we do know that that was given by directive on Revelation, of course, but besides that, I mean what do we sing, what's the content, what's the criterion, how do we know what we'll sing, is there anything that we have in scripture that helps us understand the anatomy of a song, what makes a good godly song, and we have it right here, we have it here and we have it in the Psalms, those give us an anatomy for music that is very god-word in its construction. Should we be singing at all, well, James 5, says, is there anyone among you suffering, let him pray, is anyone cheerful, let him sing praise? So yes, the disposition of a Christian is one of song, and this is not speaking about the formal service of worship when it's speaking here about song, is saying if there's any of you that's cheerful, and Christians should be full of cheer and full of hope, then let him sing praise. So I believe, and I think that as we read through, we'll see this too, that when we are walking the streets of heaven as it were in the new creation, which will be the world of God's creation now lifted up and repaired, when we are walking those streets, we will hear music, and it won't be the top 40 like we hear today, it will be hymns praise to God, people who will be walking along will break out in song, and it will be the song of God that they sing. Because that will be our entire focus, we won't be so scattered and divided in our thinking into so many different directions, we'll have one focus, and that is of God, and so there will be singing in that day. Well, let's then turn to second Chronicles 20, and we'll see if Pratt will use song, second Chronicles 20. You'll join me in the scripture there, I'm going to read starting at verse 21, just through 25, and what you have here is Jehosephat, who is outnumbered and surrounded by his enemies, destruction is sure, and as he's got his armed men and his trained men ready for battle, although it is dire circumstances, but they're ready for battle, and so what does Jehosephat bring out as his front line of defense against his enemy, but let's look together and let's read and see what is revealed regarding what he brings out. And when he is taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the Lord and praise him and holy attire, as they went before the army and say, get thanks to the Lord for a steadfast love endures forever, and when they began to sing and praise the Lord said an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seer, who had come against Judah so that they were routed, for the men of Ammon and Moab rose against the inhabitants of Mount Seer, devoting them to destruction, and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seer, they all helped to destroy one another. So the first line of defense is the choir. He brings out the Levitical Choir, those that were dressed in groves, these little ones who performed in the Levitical Ceremonies, when we say the choirs, we have to understand that these were associated with a particular feast. They had a very official function. They didn't just go in and sing the pick of the day, they sang a particular feast. This was a very official part of that worship, and so after he had consulted, he decided that being outnumbered and being surrounded and sure of his doom, that what he would do would have the choir go out and sing. So here you have the enemies, right against them, and they see these men come out in white robes, and they begin singing this song of praise, give thanks to the Lord for his steadfast love and dures forever, and they're singing this song, and the Lord calls as an influence to come over the enemy such that two go against one, and then the rest of the survivors of that go against each other. And so the enemy destroyed themselves as they were arrayed against God's people. So the lesson was, right and true praise, worthy worship, causes the enemies of God to melt away, and it becomes its own defense. So we can see this song having its effect. So what about the song in heaven? What is it called? Look at verse 3, we're back in Revelation 15, look at verse 3, the title of the song is there, as you look through it says, they sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, the song of Moses and the Lamb, that's the song that we sing. If we had a hymn book, I would be saying turn to the only page in your hymn book, it's hymn number one, the song of Moses and the Lamb, and that would be the song that we would be singing, the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. Why is it called that? Well, think of Moses and think of the Lamb, and so this song is meant to connect us with something you had to do with them and with their ministry, something in the song is connecting there, and rolling it forward into Revelation. What is it that we see? First of all, with Moses, think about the Passover, think about the Passover, we have in the Passover the Lamb is slain, its blood is painted on the door, and then the angel of death is to come through to punish the oppressors of God's people. That's what this angel of death does, the first born of Egypt, and there's a lot of significance in first born other than the obvious tragedy, the first born of everything in Egypt, the ones who would receive the birthright, the ones who received the blessing, the first born is utterly destroyed because they are not protected and covered by the blood of the Lamb. And so when we take a look at the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb, and we consider the Lord's Supper and its relation to Passover, we remember the passage from 1 Corinthians 5 7 that says Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. So when we hear the song of Moses, we hear the song of the Passover liberation of the Exodus when we hear the song of salvation by the blood of the Lamb, the song of Moses and the Lamb, these things being connected Passover, brings us to understand Christ who is our Passover. So the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb is the song of blood, which delivered us from death, and then the song of the Lamb, which was sacrificed and slain so that we might live. So connecting us with the Mount of Transfiguration, a Lamb with Moses and Moses appearing at the Mount of Transfiguration with Christ, a week before Passion, Elijah and Moses had come and they ministered to Jesus on this mountain, were they ministering to him about, again, connecting with the song of Moses and the Lamb. All three, Moses, Elijah and Jesus spoke about the Exodus that he would accomplish at Jerusalem, the Exodus that he would accomplish at Jerusalem. Exodus is a concept that we understand associated with Moses, and during that time of the Exodus there was, we'll call it a many Exodus, as he took a particular people through the Red Sea and into the Promised Land, and now Jesus will complete the larger Exodus, where he takes all who are redeemed of every age, everyone who has ever hoped it takes them into paradise. And so it depends upon the Lamb's Passover to bring an Exodus to the people so that they can leave the bondage of this world and be liberated into the Sabbath of Christ, which is celebrated here when it talks about moving into heaven. So the song of heaven, the song of God is reminding us of the promises of God, the blood of the Lamb that liberates the blood of the Lamb that brings life, and then the blood of the Lamb that also is key to the Exodus of God's people from across every age so that they might enter into paradise. The Red Sea Exodus was just the foreshadow of the salvation of all the saints that were depending on the Exodus of Jesus. So what's in this song, or the content is about God from beginning to end, it's about God from beginning to end. So if you ever wondered, what would be a good criterion to use as we try to understand the anatomy of a good Christian song? It's about God from beginning to end. God is focal point, God is the direction of every word and every lyric and every sentence of the of the of the of the of the hymn. Now that could be God in its three persons, could be God's father, it could be the Christ and it could be the Holy Spirit, but God is the object of every word. That's the perfect end because that's what we'll be singing in heaven and that we did this when we looked at the seven churches, the letters to the seven churches too. If you want to know what we all to be doing now, look at it when it's perfected and see what it's supposed to look like when we're really good at it. And if we're headed in a different direction, then we'll be getting good at something that's not what we're going to be doing then. We need to look at what the scriptures show us as the perfection of what we ought to be and then walk that road. So if we want to say, well, what is a good song? This has nothing to do with beat and tone or anything like that. We're just talking about what's the construct of good good music that is God word and it is from about God from beginning to end and only his glory is appropriate. It's about what he's done. It's about his words. You look through the words. It says, great and amazing are your deeds. Oh, Lord God Almighty. It's about his work. It's about the things that he has accomplished. What is he accomplished? This worthy of song he created. He is a God who has initiated covenants of redemption. The incarnation was a work of God. Revelation is a work of God. Redemption is a work of God. All of these are worthy and meritorious of our song. These are the works of God. So the first thing that we see in this is great and amazing are your deeds, pointing us to the works of God. That's what God's people should be reminded of, that all creation sings of his glory. Secondly, Justin True or his ways, it says that straight out. Justin True or your ways, O King of the Nations, according to provenance, even evil serves God's purpose. There is nothing that is outside of God's sovereign hand. And his ways, his purposes are just and true. And so it is good and it is proper as Christians. When we offer our praise and our song, which is God's centered, from beginning to end, saturated about God, we're singing about God's work, we're singing about God's just ways and his righteousness. That no matter what happens in life, that God's hand is upon that and he directs it and he uses it for his good, for his glory, for our good, for his glory. Even the works of evil, that is either plotted against us or that we commit, just as Joseph said to his brothers, well you intended for evil, God has used for good, with confidence. Imagine the confidence that can be instilled if these were the songs that automatically come across our lives. If we sing of these things all the time, that we know that God's hand works good for his people. And these were the tunes, these were the songs and these were the lyrics that were coming out of us all the time. And then finally, we say we're going to finish up in time enough to wear all my overtime in the past, we'll calculate this quarterly. And so if we finish up early for a night, that backs off my time that's accumulated, and this should put me about five minutes early for the whole Sunday series. So we're in good shape. That he is the king of nations, super power nations come and they've gone. It's been wished apparently by many, even now in our government that we just weren't a super power. I've never dreamed that I would see a time where people would live for weakness or would would clamor for weakness and load strength, but they do. You hear it all the time. There is a, and it's hard to give up. It's hard for us not to be the world's superpower. We're having to work very hard to not be the world's superpower and have influence. So we are seeing a shift and a change as other nations begin to step up to fill the void that is being intentionally left by this country. Now do we have to be the superpower? No, of course not. We won't always be even if we tried and we haven't always been. We've only done the superpower for a very short time. It used to be England. It used to be France. It used to be Spain. Russia wanted to be the superpower of the world. They were a superpower that they collapsed under their own weight. China would love to be the next superpower so that they can have all of us do whatever they would like for us to do. So that's what a superpower would do to the world. It'd be a dominating influence of power over the world. So we know that superpowers come and superpowers go. But one thing remains constant and that is that our Lord is king over all of them because his reign has transcended all of these. His reign has transcended and his hand has directed all of these. It says in the scriptures that a king's heart is like channels of water in his hand. He directs it where he would have it to go. God rules over them all. So what is it that we are at the end of these two verses where it's just showing us the song of those saints in heaven who are standing by the glassy sea with hearts in hand and they are singing praises to God. What is it that we walk away from here? Not only the very practical lessons about how we might analyze a song and consider what it is that Christian should be singing not only as a matter of religious practice but in our lives. What is it that we ought to have on our minds? What is it that we'll be doing? Because this is what we'll be doing in eternity. So therefore this is what we ought to be practicing doing now. We also know that there will be a day when we will all sing God's praise and that will be the song that he sings at all time. So as we're walking down the road and you pass by a shop, I doubt there'll be pharmacies at that time because sickness will be gone. So as you're walking by the shops and you're walking through the districts of whatever the new creation looks like without sin, you will hear people breaking out with praise and so on. You'll hear them giving praise to God. You'll hear them talking about his creative works. You'll hear them talking about his righteousness. You hear them talking about his hand and you'll hear him talking about how he is Lord and he is King of all his people because at that point there will be one King of him. He'll be Lord and Master of all. These will be the songs that you hear of singing. All creatures of our God and King, whatever the hymns are that sing of that. Maybe those will survive because they will be the songs of God's people that song. I don't know but I do know that we have here a wonderful example of the good ingredients that belong to a Christian's expression of faith and devotion and love of God because this is what he tells us. They're singing in heaven right now. He calls us to join our voices with them and sing with them in praise. So in Revelation we're now hearing the song of victory. We're in this final push now is removing through Revelation. We have had the churches letters on earth. We've had the struggle with the we've had the struggle with the evil one coming against the people of God. We've had the victory. We've had now seen the the intense fight against the church on earth and now we're hearing about the promise of glory and the coming kingdom that encourages us to continue to press on or even give it into details of what songs are being sung in heaven. If you think about it in the scope of the book it's amazing that we're even being given the hymns selection. You can ask our pianists, getting hymns selections while you're just right here is tough. Here we have the hymns selections for eternity already accomplished already done so we can be practicing them now. We ought to be really good. Other time we get there. It's really quite a remarkable part of Revelation. Let's close and pray. Heavenly Father we do thank you for your revelation to us and we thank you Father for the words of praise that are offered. We pray to your Lord that you might bless us as we lift our voices and song as we seek to glorify your name and bring honor to you by our expression of praise as meager as they are as errant as they are. We know Father that even our best songs are still bathed in the sinfulness of man and yet we ask that you would sanctify them Father and that you Father will lift them up bring our voices into the heavens to join with the saints who are there by the glassy sea that they also would be singing with us together for your glory. Stolen and and expounding upon the work that you have done that should be an encouragement to us as we think of the hand of our God upon ourselves and upon the world. We lift up these prayers always in the faithful name of Jesus Christ.