Song of Victory

[0:00] Well, thank you. What a wonderful opportunity to lift our voices to the Lord. Well, we heard the Scriptures read earlier, this song of Moses and the people after seeing the great power and salvation of Yahweh at the sea. Exodus chapter 15, a turning point in the narrative.

[0:25] Let me give some of the highlights again of the song. Just the highlights. I will sing to Yahweh, for He has triumphed gloriously. Yahweh is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise Him. Yahweh is a warrior, and Yahweh is His name. Your right hand, O Yahweh, glorious in power, shatters the enemy.

[0:53] In the greatness of Your majesty, You overthrow Your adversaries. Who is like You, O Yahweh? Among the gods. Who is like You, O Yahweh? Majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders. You have led in Your steadfast love the people whom You have redeemed, the people You have purchased. You will bring them in and plant them on Your mountain, the place, O Yahweh, which You have made for Your abode, the sanctuary which Your hands have established.

[1:25] Yahweh will reign forever and ever. Amen. Well, if ever there was a moment to sing in Exodus, this is the moment. This is the right moment to sing.

[1:39] It is absolutely the right response to all that God has just done. And it's perhaps the first real song of praise that this people have ever sung.

[1:52] Think about that. They went into Egypt as twelve sons of Jacob, and now they have come out as twelve tribes of Israel. They went into Egypt just as seventy people, and they have come out as a nation.

[2:06] When they first went into Egypt, they were just a big family. Jacob was with them. Jacob, the grandson of Abraham. That's how close they were to the beginning of all this.

[2:19] In Genesis 46, God said to Jacob, Don't be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again.

[2:31] That's what God said to Jacob. Not only did Jacob have the promises to his dad, Isaac, and the promises to his granddad, Abraham, but God gave Jacob the same promises as he went into Egypt.

[2:45] And Joseph reminded his brothers that God would visit them and bring them up out of Egypt to the land that he promised. Yet, up to this point, the power and character of Yahweh hadn't really been revealed to them yet.

[3:02] It hadn't been revealed in the way that it was revealed through the Exodus. And so, think about that. This is the first song in the Bible, and it's perhaps the first song that this nation have ever sung together.

[3:18] And what an appropriate moment. What an appropriate song. Absolutely the right response to all that God has done. This is Israel's national anthem at this point of the birth of a new nation.

[3:34] This is their national anthem. This anthem will go ahead of them and put fear and terror into the nations that they will take hold of when they go into Canaan.

[3:45] And so, just think about the content of this song. I don't know if you like me, and sometimes you listen to songs and you like the tune, but you don't quite know what the words are.

[3:58] But think about the content of this song. And singing, singing is a great way to put words in our memory, to remember things. And so, the things that they've just witnessed, things that they had no idea about their God, all the time they were trapped in Egypt until now.

[4:18] Four hundred years they were slaves, but now they are free. All their history they had heard about God, but now they know Yahweh.

[4:30] They know Him by name. And previously they had a voice in which they groaned, but now they have a reason to sing.

[4:41] Hallelujah. Oh, praise Him. Folks, we have all been given a gift. We've been given a gift of our lives and our voice. What do you do with it?

[4:54] Do you accept this gift? How do you use this gift of your voice? What is your response to all that God has done? I remember when I was working in care work, there was a boy that I supported with autism, and his family were die-hard Rangers fans.

[5:13] And they told me this story, and this is the moment that I remember. The moment that I remember that I wasn't very good at receiving gifts from people. I don't know if you can think of when someone gives you a gift.

[5:26] I wasn't very good at receiving them. I wasn't ungrateful, but I was kind of like, oh, you shouldn't have bothered. And I remember this family, die-hard Rangers fans, telling me this story with excitement.

[5:39] They love to tell this story of the taxi driver that used to take this boy to school, and the taxi driver was a Celtic fan. And so I think it was his birthday or something like that, and this die-hard Rangers family got him a personalized Celtic mug and wrapped it up and gave it to him.

[5:57] And they love telling this story for this reason, because when he opened that gift, he was like, oh, wow, this is amazing, thank you so much. And he was just so overjoyed at this gift that it really made true that saying, it's more blessed to give than it is to receive.

[6:16] And it was when they were telling me this story, I thought, oh, I've been terrible at receiving gifts. So bad. And the point is, what is your response? And so I've made it my mission from now on that if somebody's given me a gift, to try and be enthusiastic about it, not to be, oh, you shouldn't have bothered.

[6:36] They already have bothered. So accept it, you know. Take it in the way that they would want to see you. If you could think back just now to the, not to the best gift you've ever received, if you could think back to the best gift that you've ever given, it would, uh, give, is that a word?

[6:53] Given that you've ever given. Edit that out later, Steve. Think back to the best gift you've ever given. And it'll probably relate to some sort of excited response of the person that received it.

[7:09] You know, when you thought, I've hit the nail on the head. I got it right. How do you respond? What is your response? You see, in the book of Exodus, at this point in time, are the people of Israel, are they going to grumble?

[7:25] Are they going to complain like they've been used to? Or are they going to praise Yahweh? What about us? What are we going to do? Are we going to grumble?

[7:37] Are we going to complain? Or are we going to give praise to God? Because He has already acted in the world. So do you have a reason to sing, whoever you are? Do you have a reason to praise?

[7:50] Do we have a reason to praise? Don't just count your blessings, but speak of your blessings. Give thanks for your blessings. Tell other people about how good and gracious God is.

[8:00] How powerful He is to save you and transform you. How do you use your voice? Israel respond rightly at this point in time. But many times before this, and many times after this, they will grumble and complain.

[8:15] It doesn't take some people very long to find something to complain about. And we're all capable of it. We're all prone to it. But how do we respond?

[8:28] James, in the New Testament, the brother of the Lord, James chapter 3, verse 7, says that every animal, bird, beast, reptile, sea creature, every animal can and has been tamed, but no human can tame the tongue.

[8:42] From the same mouth comes blessings and curses. What do you use your voice for? Well, a few things the Bible tells us.

[8:53] Colossians chapter 3 and Ephesians 4 and 5 tell us what a redeemed voice should be used for. Let your mouth be used for truth instead of lies, kindness instead of slander, building up instead of corrupting, forgiveness instead of anger, thanksgiving instead of complaining, the word of Christ instead of foolish talk, and praise instead of idolatry or pride.

[9:22] God changes the way we speak because God changes our hearts. And out of the heart, the mouth speaks. What if you lost your voice? I can imagine there's probably a good bunch of folks in here who have gone through that at some point in time.

[9:41] Luke chapter 1, verse 20, tells us that Zechariah lost his voice because of his unbelief. But then in verse 64, it says, His mouth was opened, and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God.

[9:59] When you get your voice back, that's the right thing to do. When you find your voice, that's the right thing to do. And see what comes out of his mouth. The prophecy.

[10:09] Praise to God. Listen to the content of his prophecy and how it uses Exodus themes. Listen to this in Zechariah's prophecy and map it onto what we've been going through in Exodus.

[10:22] Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us, that we should be saved from our enemies.

[10:35] Sounds like Moses should be saying this. To show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him.

[10:52] Without fear. In holiness and righteousness before him all our days. I mean, that could have been Moses writing that when he came out of Egypt. But it was Zechariah speaking about the Exodus in Jesus.

[11:10] Now, there was some research done by an organization called Music Industry How To, who analyzed over 2.2 million songs and song titles to see what is the most sung about name.

[11:26] Can you guess what it is? Have a guess. It's not Jesus, because they probably wouldn't think to search the hymns.

[11:38] It's John, funnily enough, from Zechariah. John's a common name. But John was mentioned in 2,040 titles, song titles.

[11:51] And for females, Mary was the most popular name in song titles, with 1,803 mentions. But, as you'll guess, the sample size is limited.

[12:04] The criteria are not quite extensive. So, for instance, we all know hymn writers, Charles Wesley. He alone wrote around 6,500 hymns.

[12:18] And it was estimated that Fanny Crosby wrote somewhere in the region of 9,000 hymns. Then you've got Isaac Watts, you've got John Newton, Anne Steele, William Cowper, and many, many more.

[12:33] And this is just in the last few centuries. Not to mention the vast amount of modern artists across the world. In this list of the greatest hymn writers, I did find the name Chris Tomlin and Stuart Townend, the Gettys.

[12:49] And then what about the many, many, many more centuries prior to what we know as hymns? There's too many, too many songs that we could possibly count written about Jesus Christ.

[13:04] A Roman governor called Pliny the Younger wrote to Emperor Trajan. And he was trying to get Christians to denounce their faith, to denounce Christ, and he was trying to get them to worship an image of the emperor.

[13:19] And so he interrogated Christians and they got lists, they got anonymous lists, and they had informants, and they got Christians. And in the letter, by the way, he said, true Christians, you can't convince them otherwise.

[13:34] They're just stubborn. But some did denounce Christ for fear of execution because that's what was in store for them. And in these interrogations, he describes to the emperor what a typical church service was like.

[13:51] And he says this, they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn. Thankfully, we don't do that anymore. And they sing responsively to Christ as to a God.

[14:05] Responsively, they sing to Christ as to a God. So in respect to that music research, John is most certainly not the most sung about name. And throughout the Exodus event, one of the repeated statements in Exodus that we see that God makes is that they would know that I am Yahweh.

[14:24] The title of our sermon series in Exodus is that all the world may know his name. And so Exodus 15, verse 3, in this song of Moses, verse 3, it says, Yahweh is his name.

[14:39] Who is like him? No one. And so later on in the prophets, we hear someone like Joel saying this, everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh will be saved.

[14:52] That's in the prophets. Already there are people doing this. There's a mixed multitude, remember, that have come out of Egypt, a mixed multitude with the Israelites. Some Egyptians have turned to Yahweh and crossed the sea with them.

[15:06] And because of this event, others will too. Others will turn to Yahweh as well. Yahweh has his name. There's no other name that will save. No other God like him.

[15:17] And everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh will be saved, says Joel 2.32. However, in the New Testament, Peter in Acts chapter 2 and Paul in Romans 10 both quote Joel 2.32 and they say that the name that saves is actually Jesus Christ.

[15:37] Now, does that mean there are now two names that you can call upon? There are now two names that save? No, in Acts chapter 4, Peter gets really clear about what he means and he says, there is salvation in no one else.

[15:51] For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. And so, according to Peter, there's no other name.

[16:02] There's only one name and that is Jesus Christ. And it's not just Peter that says this. Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit. So it is God's own Spirit testifying that there's no other name but Jesus.

[16:16] And likewise, Paul in Philippians 2 says that Jesus' name is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

[16:33] So it's not like there's two names to call on or two names to save. But that doesn't mean either that the name of Jesus has knocked off the name of Yahweh from the top spot.

[16:43] That's not what they're saying. And this is the reason. Because Jesus is the incarnate Yahweh. C.S. Lewis, the great writer in the Narnia series, he once received a letter from a mother who was concerned that her son loved Aslan more than he loved Jesus.

[17:04] And even the boy feared this too. But Lewis wrote back saying the boy cannot possibly love Aslan more than he can love Jesus because Aslan is Jesus.

[17:16] The boy's love for the things that Aslan said and did is really his love for the things that Jesus said and did. They are one and the same. And so Yahweh is Jesus.

[17:30] And Jesus is Yahweh incarnate. This is the great scandal of the New Testament, the great scandal of the things that Jesus said and his disciples said.

[17:45] There is only one God worth singing about. And there's only one name that can save. And we are just on a different part of the timeline of Revelation than those who were in the Exodus.

[17:59] Moses could say, Yahweh is his name. And now, in our point in Revelation history, in the incarnation, we can say, we know that his name is Jesus.

[18:11] And so in respect to that music research, again, no one holds a candle to Jesus and who is the most sung about name and music. There's too many songs to count.

[18:22] Not enough books on the earth could contain the things written and sung and praised about Jesus. And Jesus said at the Palm Sunday that if the people wouldn't sing, the rocks would.

[18:37] So, if the Israelites now have a reason to sing in response to Yahweh, how much more do we have a reason to sing in response to Jesus? You see, because history testifies in the innumerable songs of praise of Jesus that there is reason to sing.

[18:55] And not only history, if you have faith in Jesus, then your very life testifies to that fact. What did you sing about before? What did you praise before you met Jesus?

[19:07] How did you use your voice before you knew about the things that Jesus did for you? Let's see, then, how this song of Moses maps onto the Exodus in Christ.

[19:21] Just a few things to run through. Who has triumphed greatly, says Moses. Who has triumphed greatly. So, who has triumphed greatly?

[19:33] Colossians 2 says this, you who were once dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made a life together with him, having forgiven all our trespasses by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

[19:49] This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.

[20:00] Who has triumphed greatly? But Jesus Christ. Who is your strength? Philippians 4, 12, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Who is our salvation?

[20:12] Hebrews 2, 10 says, For it was fitting that he, from whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, that should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.

[20:25] He is the author of our salvation. Who is our God? John 20, verse 28, Thomas, in response to seeing Jesus risen, says, My Lord and my God.

[20:38] And Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. And what is his name? Matthew 1, 21 says, And you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

[20:57] Who is like him? Who is like Jesus? Who else is the Christ? Show me your hand. Who else fulfilled the law? Where are you, person? Who else has no sin?

[21:09] Who else reveals God? Who else acts like him and speaks like him? To which of the angels did God ever say, You are my Son? Who else, show me your hand, is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature?

[21:25] Who else, on earth or in heavens or anywhere in all of creation or all of existence? Who else upholds the universe by the word of his power? What other person can bear our sins upon the cross?

[21:40] Who else can ransom our life and redeem us from the pit? Who else ascended to the right hand of God? No one else. Who else is the same yesterday, today, and forever?

[21:53] And who else is worthy of all praise? Revelation 5 says, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.

[22:05] Worthy is the Lamb. How do you respond to Jesus? How will we respond to Jesus? There's no other God worth singing about. No other God or person in all of history worth singing about.

[22:21] Not even John or Mary or whoever. And so, is he your strength and song? Is he your salvation? Can you say, this is my God and I will praise him and his name is Jesus?

[22:37] Moses concludes his song by saying, Yahweh will reign forever and ever. And we can be confident that the Scriptures are talking about the same person when it says in Luke chapter 1, you shall call his name Jesus.

[22:52] He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever.

[23:03] And of his kingdom there will be no end. Now, I know that not every song will be an anthem. Not every moment a celebration.

[23:15] Not every style our preference. But we are united by something far greater than our preferences or our race or our ability to sing.

[23:26] But we are united by the blood of Christ who broke down in his flesh the dividing wall and made us into one new man. That is what we are united in. We are all saved by grace alone and Christ alone by faith alone.

[23:41] He fought for us and we only had to be silent and see the salvation that he worked while we were still yet sinners. How do you respond now now that we have seen and even more so if we have believed?

[24:00] Folks, we shouldn't resist. We should resist being so reserved as we are in this country. Like me receiving gifts. we should resist being reserved lest anyone think that we would prefer to say to Christ no, no, you shouldn't have.

[24:19] How could we ever say that to Christ? Does our response to Christ look like a polite refusal of a gift? How do we respond? We certainly shouldn't blush at the cost of the gift.

[24:33] We should be moved to tears of gratitude and moved in our affections toward him. Jonathan Edwards says that singing praises to God seems to be appointed holy to excite and express religious affection.

[24:50] Or what about this, what John Wesley wrote? Probably giving a plug to his brother's hymns. John Wesley said, Beware of singing as if you were half dead.

[25:02] Beware of singing as if you were half dead or as if you were half asleep. But lift up your voice with strength. Be no more afraid of your voice now, no more ashamed of it being heard than when you sung the songs of Satan.

[25:19] That's what John Wesley said. Now, I was thinking to myself, this must just be a result of being British. But that isn't entirely true. It isn't entirely true.

[25:31] Now, albeit I think personally, and this is just my own personal opinion, that we sing Happy Birthday, the way that we sing Happy Birthday has got to be one of the most reserved and depressing songs I've ever heard.

[25:44] It's just a drone, isn't it? I like the other one. Happy Birthday to... That's a better one. Bit of expression in there.

[25:57] But it isn't entirely true that it's just being British that we're reserved. because there are many times and occasions when we know how to be excited and move to joyous noise and celebration.

[26:09] And so I want to illustrate one way. I was almost going to get a clip of this, but I want to illustrate one way, and if you've never experienced this, speak to me and I'll show you later. Right? But if you've ever been to a wedding, right, in recent times, there is a thing that they tend to do, not at every wedding, a thing they tend to do at the end of the night.

[26:28] There's a song they play where everyone gets their hands crossed over like that, and the bride and groom are in the middle, and they rush towards them, singing the song of Loch Lomond.

[26:39] I believe you guys were there the other day. Loch Lomond by Runrig. And they sing this song, and they go in and out, but then there's a bit in the song where they just start jumping, jumping and going riot and celebrating.

[26:53] And it's been seen not just at weddings, but at football games, and I'm sure many other places. Folks, we know how to celebrate. We know how to respond. We know how to have our emotions stirred when we hear about things of Scotland or wherever you're from.

[27:10] A bit of national pride. How much more should we be enthusiastic about the kingdom of God? Yeah. We need to be reminded how good the bread of life is.

[27:23] The people of Israel rejoiced at the bread from heaven for a little while. And then they complained about the manna that God sent from heaven. It's scandalous. They complained about it and spoke about cucumbers in Egypt.

[27:37] Crazy. Let us never treat Christ like he is some sort of stale bread. We need to be reminded, like John Newton said in Amazing Grace, of how precious did that grace appear the hour we first believed.

[27:53] Do you remember that hour? I remember it. Sometimes I need to be reminded of the joy of that hour. The song of Moses was the anthem of the Exodus.

[28:05] And think of the mixed emotions going on. Overwhelming fear. Fear and awe at the tremendous power of God. And yet, at the same time, overwhelming relief and joy at the salvation of God and his love for us.

[28:20] Think about that. Think about who God is and what he has done. And should that not produce fear and awe in you, but yet also relief and joy at his love toward you.

[28:31] And then, think of this. Lastly, my last point, how strange it is to the world that our anthem is about the crucifixion of the one we praise.

[28:45] How strange. But then, to them, again, it's like the chess move that they just don't understand. They cannot understand what God is doing in the cross.

[29:00] And yet, to us, while the world still thinks he's in the tomb, we sing that he is risen and that he is reigning forevermore. How strange to the world to hear that.

[29:10] But it's our anthem. And so, if the Ephesian mob in Acts chapter 19 can chant for two hours, great is Artemis of the Ephesians for two hours chanting that, though she did very little for them, if they can do that, then surely we can muster ourselves and give ourselves the liberty to praise the Son of the living God who gave his life for us on the cross.

[29:38] This is our anthem. This is our exodus. And he is our God. His name is Jesus. And we will praise him.

[29:48] And even then, when he appears, oh, it will be like nothing the world has ever heard before. And so, let us now, let us now respond to our mighty Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for there is no other God worth singing about.

[30:06] Let us sing. O Lord our God, please give us strength of our voice and our body, strength of our spirit, that we may bless you and that we may praise you in the name of Jesus Christ, the only Lord and Savior.

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