Singing a New Song

Let's ask for the Lord's help as we come to His word. What a joyous and hopeful song we have just sung. When the race is complete, still my lips shall repeat, yet not I, but through Christ in me. And so, Father, we look to Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, that He might speak to us, that we might hear His voice as the sound of many rushing waters, and that You would call each of us to faith in repentance. You would renew our strength. You would save us on this day that we might be gathered in the heavenly places as a holy army to sing Your praise now and for evermore. We ask in Jesus, Amen. Our text this morning comes from Revelation chapter 14, Revelation 14, we'll be looking at just the first paragraph, verses 1 through 5 of Revelation 14. Then I looked and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with Him 144,000 who had His name and His Father's name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for God and the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless. For the better part of two chapters, John has been given visions of diabolical creatures and predators. Chapter 12, a great red dragon. Now we actually don't see it, John sees it, and then he describes it to us. But in your mind's eye you think, a great red dragon, grotesque looking with seven heads and ten horns and a mighty tail strong enough to swipe away the stars out of the sky, a great red dragon, and then he sees a beast out of the sea with ten horns and seven heads. It looks like a leopard, but it has feet like a bear and it has a mouth like a lion. And then a second beast from the earth with two horns and a voice like the dragon. Chapter 13, we were introduced to these two beasts, or the beast and his false prophet. They were representations of a rogue government and of a false religion. So we've seen the first beast which is given power from the dragon to persecute the church, and then we saw the second beast who had words given from the dragon to deceive the inhabitants of the earth. And after these striking visions we might be left wondering, how will God's people endure? Remember that was the call after the first beast, endurance, or we might be left wondering how can they be discerning because that was the call after the second beast. And even bigger than that we might wonder, well what hope really is there for God's people among this unholy trinity, dragon, beast, beast, and perhaps you can easily reach that same conclusion with the sin in your own heart, with the headlines around our country or the world or just pain or betrayal in your own midst, confusion, and you know all too well. It seems like who gets all of the billing, all of the top heading, it's the dragon and his beast, and you wonder what is the answer to this unholy trinity in these diabolical visions. Then we come to chapter 14 and it gives us the answer as simple as it is striking and profound. Then I looked and I saw a lamb. I looked and I saw a great red dragon, I looked and I saw a beast coming from the sea, I looked and I saw a beast from the earth, and now in sharp contrast to those visions, the ultimate answer to the problem, the perversion of the state, the perversion of religion, this dragon at work in the world, this beast of the government, this beast of false religion. If that's all you can see, if that's what it looks like, all you can witness in the world, then you are not seeing the world as God sees it. And yes there's a need for hard work and plans and strategy and how to change a culture, how to make a difference in the world, all of that is good, but don't miss the starting place because we easily, we skip that, we see dragon beast beast, we say, all right, let's huddle up, what are we going to do, how are we going to fix it, God wants us to fix this. Dragon beast beast, if that's what you see, if that's all you can see, if you go through week after week, feeling this palpable sense of fear and gloom and despondency and discouragement, then you're not seeing the world as God sees it, then I looked and there was a lamb, now you wouldn't normally think that a sheep would be a match for a dragon and two devilish beasts. I saw on my Twitter feed this week somebody just put and they said, you just need some encouragement today, here's a 10 second clip of a sheep walking in the woods with a hat on, and that's what it was because that's what the internet provides us. That is kind of, that is maybe the best thing I've seen, that is pretty cute, a little sheep with a hat walking in the woods, that's what we think of, but this is no ordinary Sean the sheep, that was for you kids, this is the messianic sheep, this is the Lamb of God's slain, but now he is standing, the last time we saw the lamb he was opening the scrolls and the seals, and now he appears in victory to reassure John and to reassure each of us the beast from the sea, the beast of the earth, this diabolical government, this false religion all infused with the power of the dragon, they are no match for the sheep that stands in heaven and remember this is the true lamb, if you look back in chapter 13 verse 11, remember the second beast rising out of the earth had two horns like a lamb, he's not grotesque like the first beast was with a leopard and a bear and all the rest, but he looks like a lamb, why? Because it's representative of false religion, he's a counterfeit, he looks something like a Christ, in fact he looks like one who had been given a mortal wound and yet now lives, this is a counterfeit Christ, a false religion, well now we have the real Christ, the real thing and he appears in victory no matter what the dragon and his two beastly friends may try to do on the earth, they are no match, this is not a fair fight, yes the devil is powerful, yes we live in a fallen world, it's easy to see much darkness and corruption all around us, do not think for a moment that this is sort of two basic equals and yeah God's going to slug it out in the end, this passage chapter 14, surely was written with Psalm 2 in mind, why do the nations rage, the people's plot in vain, you might say why did the beasts assail themselves against the Lord, the kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his anointed, everyone marshaling their forces, the beast of the the false government and the beast of the false religion and they think as they lead remember what we saw in chapter 13 many people, they have millions multitude of followers and they have signs and wonders and it seems like the whole world is going after them, but you remember what Psalm 2 says in the face of this diabolical, princely opposition, the one enthroned in heaven laughs, the Lord scoffs at them, then he rebukes them in his anger, terrifies them in his wrath, saying I have installed my king on Zion, my holy hill, you see what I said chapter 14 was absolutely written with Psalm 2 in mind because now we see the literal insolent of the messianic king, the lamb slain before the foundation of the world, standing here on Mount Zion even as the dragon and the two beasts come together seemingly invincible, but God's anointed, stay hands. And notice verse 1, with him on the mount are 144,000, now let's remember how numbers work in the book of Revelation, there's lots of numbers and they have a basic reference, seven from seven days of the week, a number of completion and as I argued at the end of chapter 13 the name of the beast, the number is 666 man's number because it's one short of perfection, it's not a secret code, it's just not 777, it's 666, 40 in the Bible is a long period of time, 10 is a multiplier perfection, 12 is a number four of the tribes and for the apostles, so let's remember how numbers work, let's not be manipulating the numbers to find secret codes, I came across over the weekend these sports commentators, I can't take credit for any of this or blame for any of this but this is what they came up with, why the chiefs are going to win tonight, whether you like that or not, they said why the chiefs are going to win tonight, well they have Taylor Swift, we all know, and Taylor Swift's favorite number is 13, that's what I'm told, I sort of lost track after the shake it off song, whatever that was, so that's her favorite number, it's in her songs I guess, she just had her 13th album, she won her 13th Grammy, this is Super Bowl 58, 5 plus 8, 13, the chiefs are playing the 49ers, 4 plus 9, yep 13, today is February 11, 2 11, 2 plus 11, now you're starting to wonder really, she has been, I'm told so far, to 12 NFL games, this will be her, her 13th, the 49ers were the number one seed, the chiefs were the number three seed, now she is flying, I hear from Tokyo, which is a 13 hour flight, so you could just keep on going, so that's not, that's not the way revelation, that there's just, you just mix and match, you can always find a code to say something and it means somebody else, there's just a general way in which in apocalyptic literature these numbers have a kind of valence or resonance, and so as we saw in chapter 7, 144,000, 12 times 12 times a thousand, 12 tribes, 12 apostles, so this is the totality of the number of God's people, it's a representative number for God's people, in chapter 7 there's a picture of the church, triumphant, standing, remember chapter 6, the wrath of the lamb is revealed, who can stand while the 144,000 can stand here, a picture of the church that has stood firm, it's really a continuation of chapter 7, the wrath of the lamb who can stand the 144,000, now we get a picture in heaven with the lamb and his 144,000, and this number, here's, this is important for understanding the rest of this passage, and we saw this in chapter 7, it's depicted as a holy army, remember in chapter 7 it may even do good to just turn back there and just keep your finger in 14, look at chapter 7, remember 12,000 from the tribe of Judah, 12,000 from the tribe of Ruben, it's a stylized list of the tribes, 12,000 from each, it's a census, well the census is in the old testament, we're for military purposes, that's why you count the people, it's for a military reckoning, well the 144,000 and chapter 7 are given as a divine census, a kind of holy army, so here in chapter 14 in the face of the dragon, in the two beasts, now are to picture the lamb standing victorious and there with him is his holy army, and notice where they're standing on Mount Zion, more about that in a moment, they're standing on the literal high ground, this is the place of conquest, it's as if the lamb has won his victory, and there on the high ground looking down upon the spoils of victory, upon all his conquered foes, the dragon was no match, the beast was no match, the false prophet was no match, and there he is with his conquering army, this conquest however, is not one by spilling the blood of our opponents, it was one by the shed blood of the lamb and by the willingness of the holy army to be faithful even to the point of death, you get that? This victory, this spiritual victory is not one, it's not to say that there's not a place in God's ordering of governments, there is such thing as just war, but this warfare, this spiritual warfare, this conquering of Christ's kingdom does not come by the shedding of our enemies blood, it comes by the shedding of Christ's blood and by our willingness to say even to the point of death, I will follow the lamb, so there he is on Mount Zion, you see in verse one, this is not the literal Mount Zion, there are some schools of interpretation, as they know this is on the temple mount in Jerusalem, these are maybe 144,000 evangelists who are going to win the world to Christ during the time of the millennial reign or leading up to the millennial reign during the tribulation, but the only other New Testament example of Mount Zion, the only other time this is in the New Testament, is in Hebrews 1222, which we read earlier in the service, where it says you have come to Mount Zion into the city of the living God to the heavenly Jerusalem, in other words Mount Zion, city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, those are all synonyms for talking about the heavenly realities, so this is not Jesus standing on a literal temple mount in Jerusalem, but rather it's a scene of Christ and the church spiritually triumphant in heaven, again we know it's a heavenly scene because we have later thrones, in everywhere where we have thrones in the book of Revelation, we're in some kind of heavenly scene, Revelation wants to show us this scene which is not meant to be tell you what's happening on the newspaper or the internet, it's to tell you what you can't see by the newspaper and the internet, what your own eyeballs won't see, what your own heart with all of our fears won't show you, this is the vision that God wants to give us, if you have the eyes of faith that even as all looks lost and so much looks to be in turmoil and utter despondency yet there is this vision, this heavenly vision of Christ and his triumphant people in glory, so remember again the council we were given after each of the beasts, look again chapter 13 verse 10, so we have the first beast and this is the government persecuting Christians and verse 10 says here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saint, what do you do when the government is implacably turned against you, well again here in the Roman Empire they don't have the chance to you know have representative government and elections and they don't have all the things that we have so it's not the only word for us but it is a word endure and then after the second beast remember that's false religion deceiving that's why verse 18 says this calls for wisdom so false state this calls for endurance false religion this calls for wisdom so how does this vision in chapter 14 connect to those two exhortations in chapter 13 well because the answer for endurance and the answer for discernment it's the same how do you endure we look at the lamb who was slain and yet he lives how do you discern false religion from true you look at the lamb and at Christ if you want to be an expert and counterfeit currency well it's true you do need to know what counterfeit currency looks like but the the first thing you need to do is you need to absolutely know what the true currency looks like and that's true in our own day if you want to be discerning as a Christian you might say well I need to be an expert in the cults and all the world religions and I need to know what all the false teachers are saying out there well there is some value in understanding that but only if you first have an absolutely crystal clear picture of the real thing to just know what a lot of false currency looks like without being able to measure it against the true currency will just make you very confused and not discerning endurance discernment the answer to both look upon the lamb would you see a picture in heaven that you cannot see with your own eyeballs here on earth do you remember this story in second king six maybe some of you have heard it before israel is that war with the arameans who are some of their enemies at the time and there's an army of horses and chariots surrounding the city and gods people seemed destined for utter destruction they're just looking around and they can just see on the horizon enemy enemy enemy all the way around we're completely surrounded we're cut off our supplies are cut off our reinforcements are cut off our escape is cut off and do you do you remember what happens the prophet allysia prays that the lord would open his servant's eyes that he may see and then allysia says those who are with us are more than those who are with them and remember the man looked again and now instead of seeing his enemies all around he saw the mountains were full of angelic horses and chariots of fire it was to show him there is a spiritual army on our side if only we have the eyes of faith to see it not an exact parallel but arrogant comes back after he's gotten all of the you know the kings who were under their their curse and had to avenge themselves and so they they come out with this sort of spiritual army that overruns the place and just when it seemed as if all hope was lost and you just have you know arrogant and just a couple of his friends then this spiritual army on the side of the righteous and so here in revelation 14 we are given a vision of what we should have eyes to see the kingdom of christ may appear at times to be a lost cause we may be saddened by opposition we may be scared to share our faith we may be grieved by wayward children we may be so tired of suffering from cancer and debilitating illness but look look look the lamb stands and his holy army with him do you see what revelation is doing it's it's depicting to us these two warring camps which one are you in are you a follower of the beast deceived oppress remember they thought the beast was their salvation but the beast was their repression that's the way sin works you think sin is your freedom it's not it's your diabolical tyrannical master you have followers of the beast or you have the followers of the lamb and the reason we know that the mark on the forehead for the the followers of the beast is not you know your social security number or microchip is well here it says the followers of the lamb have the name well we take that to be a spiritual identity both of them are thinking of a spiritual identity I want you to notice the characteristics of the followers of the lamb one says that they are virgins now that seems strange verse four these who have not defiled themselves with women for they are virgins this is not advocating sexual asceticism there's a verse in first Timothy four two that says some people have come and forbidden marriage in Paul says there that's the doctrine of demons so that that's actually a demonic doctrine that says you any kind of sexual intercourse is bad and you shouldn't get married so why does it say here defiling themselves that's makes it sound like sex here is something really bad and if you're truly spiritual you'll be a virgin but remember this 144,000 is depicted as a holy army that's why it's given with reference to men so we're not this isn't literal 144,000 only men but rather it's depicted as a holy army which in the Old Testament would have been an army only of men and one of the requirements for the Israelites soldier when they were engaged in holy wars that they would abstain themselves from sex. Deuteronomy 239 when you are encamped against your enemy keep away from everything impure because the man's discharge would render him ritually unclean in 1 Samuel 21 David is hiding out at a place called knob the priest of Himalek is there David's men are hungry but the only food is the consecrated bread the priest says are your men pure have they kept themselves from women David says of course we we always keep ourselves from women when we're out in battle so this this was commonplace this was what was commanded when you are the holy army out in holy battle you abstain yourself part of it was ritual impurity perhaps part of it was just free from distraction part of it was probably just the simplicity of let's not have groups of women or wives trailing with us out in the battle we are absolutely focused this also helps you remember the story of David and Bathsheba remember after David sins with Bathsheba and then she's pregnant and David wants to try to cover it up and he wants Bathsheba to have sex with her husband Yeraya he brings Yeraya back that the two would sleep together but you remember Yeraya refuses to do it but I think well you're home on furlough of course but he still considers himself in battle his men are out at the field and so it's not fitting to have sex when you're the holy army engaged in holy battle that's what this is about sexual purity is not the issue so much as it is here a referent for spiritual chastity the holy army of God is not defiled by harlotry with the world or the beast will come to it in several weeks revelation chapter 17 there'll be a woman riding a beast she is this prostitute Babylon Babylon is depicted as a whore as a prostitute so the way of the world is one of spiritual adultery the way of Christ is the one of spiritual chastity just like second Corinthians 112 Paul says my aim is to present you as a pure virgin to Christ and he didn't mean there that all the Corinthians had to be virgins and they couldn't get married but he means that collectively as a people they are to have the spiritual purity and chastity as a virgin so when it says they are virgins is because he's thinking of a holy army that has kept themselves pure and unstained from the world to notice they follow the lamb wherever it goes verse 4 it is these who follow the lamb wherever he goes isn't that a great phrase you could do worse than this than what does it mean to be a Christian here it is in one sentence what does a Christian do what is my life about I follow the lamb wherever he goes of course here it's thinking about in a military sense that the lamb is the captain and we're good soldiers and we go off and when our commanding officer tells us to charge we charge when he tells us to stay we stay when he gives us an order we salute and we say yes sir that's what it means he follows us wherever he goes it's not just follow follow follow follow follow I mean it's not just you know on a fun trip down the yellow brick road this is a military yes sir what you tell me to do I will go some of us could use a little soldierly toughness I know it can be pushed to an extreme stiff upper lip you know real men don't cry don't think about what hurts just stuff it all down you know that was that was maybe the danger of some previous generations but let's be honest younger generations are pushed way to the other extreme so much so that even a number of secular thinkers are now calling people are don't have any sort of Christian you know worldview that they're calling young people to be anti fragile anti fragile that is yeah there's a sense in which we want to be sensitive and we want to help people understand what's going on and yet you can do that to such a degree that people are constantly wondering something's probably wrong you ever had it when somebody says I'll have this once in a while you're feeling just fine and somebody says are you doing all right you don't look so good I mean do you think wow I I didn't think of that until ever right now but now that you say it I what do I look like I'm I might be feeling bad this is kind of we could use some some anti fragile some soldierly toughness at times that everything is not the end of the world everything does not need a timeout everything does not need another safe space parents parents you you understand this it takes discernment you know you can tell there's a cry that your kids have and you can tell while that's something really bad happened there's a broken bone somebody fell out of a building there's there's lots of blood little blood okay there's a lot this this is a blood this is really bad and you know your parental spidey sense rushes in and says you know swoops up and are you okay and hug you know you take care of it you fix it you bring them into all of that you also know there is a type of cry and I'm not saying they're faking it they actually it's something but you know that there's another kind of cry where the best thing you do is you don't show that you've really noticed you what do you say you'll be okay it takes a little bit it's a little hard sometimes because they did stub something they did fall they did skin their knee but but they're they're almost looking at you like this hurts and mom dad your reaction is going to tell me how I should respond how bad is the scrape on my knee right now it's actually not great parenting to give them the response to every scrape knee woo woo and you know nine one one and everybody swoops in sometimes the wise response is to say you're gonna be okay there's a certain soldierly toughness which I think we've lost in many parts of the church we're too easily upset too easily offended sometimes you need to say captain Jesus Christ you tell me where to go and I'll go and I will follow after all we follow a lamb who was slain and we too will be considered sheep as to be slaughtered remember this war is not like other wars the war is not won by killing but by dying by dying to self by dying to the lamb by our willingness to go wherever he leads we go wherever he goes three first fruits you see that these have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits from God you see that in verse four this is obvious old testament imagery you would come in and you would bring the beginning of the harvest here's the first fruits it's to tell you that a larger harvest is to be accomplished look at the heading above verse 14 the harvest of the earth yeah there's the harvest of the earth these dead in Christ triumphant raining are a kind of first fruits of the harvest that is to come for no lie is found in their mouth that is in contrast to the two lying beasts God's followers are truthful zephanie 3 13 the remnant of Israel will do no wrong they will speak no lies nor will deceit be found in their mouths remember the the ultimate lie the most fundamental lie is to worship a false god or like the Israelites in the golden calf to think you're worshipping the true god and to do it in a false way so most fundamentally there's no lie in their mouth why because they follow the real lamb not the counterfeit we're not deceived we bear faithful witness first John 22 who is the liar it is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ such a man is the anti Christ so it stands for reason if a mark of the anti Christ or the spirit of anti Christ is to deceive to lie to deny Jesus and his his total humanity and deity and salvation for sin and to be a follower of the lamb is to bear the truth Isaiah 53 nine says no deceit was found in his mouth and then you see at the end of verse five a summarizing statement they are blameless now don't get caught up there blameless in the bible doesn't usually mean sinless perfection they're blameless and you panic and you think oh so to be among God's people I need to never do anything wrong but rather it means that they are faithful followers acceptable sacrifices it means they bear a striking resemblance to the lamb that they serve think about it this army is pure like Christ is pure willing to die as he died first fruits of a larger in gathering just as his resurrection was the first fruits they bear no false witness just like our Savior Christ Jesus bore no false witness so it comes to this familiar adage you've probably heard before we become what we behold or we are what we worship one of the reasons for limiting your intake and my intake I'm in the same boat of entertainment and and screens it's not because it's all bad some of it's helpful some of it's just entertaining funny it's fine one of the reasons is we become what we behold and if this is this is your only time you can hour in 10 15 20 minutes on a Sunday of beholding Christ it's hard to compete with the rest of your week in beholding either filth or just fluff we become we behold the the holy army looks like Christ because they've been looking on Christ I say this to my own shame how many days I get done I think what a what a waste of of that scrolling motion not because it's all bad or most of it hopefully isn't but what am I beholding and what am I becoming blameless now here's what I want you to notice in closing one last characteristic so their virgins they follow the lamb their first fruits no lie is in their mouth they're blameless one other thing one final characteristic of the land lambs army they sing they sing with loud voices verse two I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters like the sound of loud thunder the voice was like the sound of harp is playing on their harps it's actually the same Greek word three times you could translate the sound of harp is harping on their harps I mean Nathan is good really good two harps wow this guy plans ahead now the the harp was actually something probably think halfway between a harp like that and the guitar like Nathan was playing actually the Greek word for harp is Kitara you can hear we get our English word guitar from the word that's translated harp it was a liar L-Y-R-E a seven stringed liar maybe like this big you can go look it up people have recreated what these ancient instruments looked like and kind of what they sound like and they do sort of sound kind of halfway between that kind of big harp and this kind of strumming guitar they often had a loud sound box for reverberation and so they could make a very loud noise the harp or the guitara was often used in public performances it was typically a professional musicians instrument it could be used in competitions in concerts because it had the the ability to fill up a large space so if you if you love harps you can think of harps if you like guitars you can think of guitars if you don't like harps and guitars think of some other stringed instruments but it's a loud noise of harpists on their harps and they sing look at no one could learn the song except the one hundred and forty for that this is the song for God's people now we're going to get to this in in Revelation 18 but you need to see it here remember I said the contrast this is the holy army God's pure chased people they have not committed adultery with the world the opposite of God's pure bride holy chased army is Babylon Babylon is likened unto a whore a prostitute the very definition of immorality now look for a moment chapter 18 verse 22 the fall of Babylon want you to notice one of the judgements that befalls Babylon 18 will start the middle of 21 so we'll battle on the great city the this whore of Babylon be thrown down with violence and will be found no more and the sound of harpists and musicians of flute players and trumpeters will be heard in you no more one of the judgements in Revelation to befall Babylon no music no harps no flutes no trumpets no singing now almost everyone does love some kind of music but even if you didn't you can understand what this is about if you come home husbands and your wife has Alexa playing a song and the kids are there and they're singing along and they're putting something on for dinner what what what is it immediately do to your senses some some people are singing there's music if you walk into a stadium and everyone's chanting or singing their fight song or some there there's something good happening if you walk into a bar I don't walk into too many bars but if they're all you know where somebody knows your name and they're singing a song that's the most I ever learned about bars why happy people are together there's there's something to celebrate something to sing about when Babylon's judged no more songs no more music this this song in heaven only the 104 here is a gift that gods people and only gods people will have for all eternity as they get to sing as is often the case Martin Luther put it very well I have no use for cranks who despise music because it is a gift of god music drives away the devil and makes people happy they forget thereby all wrath unchastity arrogance and the like next after theology I give to music the highest place and the greatest honor all throughout scripture the response of gods people to some great act of deliverance is to sing joke 38 seven the morning stars sing together in the angel shouted for joy that's what they did and and Lewis depicts it so well there at the beginning of Narnia and you know as the stars are made they jopes as they sing out what a joyful thing that god has done to call us into being Exodus 15 Moses in the Israelites sing after crossing the red sea I will sing to the Lord for he is highly exalted when the Israelites dug a well in numbers 21 and they found water they sing spring up a well when god gave his people victory over Cicero in the Canaanites Deborah and Barack sing to the Lord in the days of Hezekiah when the Passover is reinstated they sing in Nehemiah's day when the wall is dedicated they sing in Ezra's day when the foundation of the temple is laid they sing he is good his love endures forever they sing the scene in chapter 13 and chapter 14 is one of war you want to do culture war you want to be a culture warrior come to church worship sing sometimes you both talk even well meaning Christians talk as if well all this time on Sundays sort of just a refueling station to get out and do the real work that happens outside these doors people almost make you feel guilty well you shouldn't like this so much the the real stuff is out there well what if it is the real stuff is in here it's trying to get the rest the world acclimated to what happens here and now because this in Revelation is a scene of war you have two beasts mounting their war and then you have a holy army with its war and what do they do in their holy warfare they worship music singing because there's something and someone to celebrate friends we have something to sing about every lord's day as we celebrate the resurrection and the victory of the lamb slain and yet risen our captain our king our savior the lord Jesus Christ coming again to judge the living in the dead we as a glorified army of living sacrifices get to sing now and in heaven to celebrate God's final act of redemption so we sing a song this new song we have yet to learn but one day we will know it as they know it now in heaven and we will sing it with unceasing praise for endless days to give God glory and glory and when all of Babylon is silent in all of hell echoes throughout eternity without a note of music we will forever be singing and celebrating to Christ our captain let's pray father in heaven we give thanks for this joyful noise and so we sing crown him with many crowns in Jesus we pray amen