Thank you, Forrest. You can be seated. I hope you don't get tired of hearing it, because I don't get tired of asking you to turn in your copy of the Scriptures to the text we're considering today, Exodus chapter 14, the last verse of 14, and the first 21 verses of Exodus chapter 15. If you're using the Pew Bible in front of you, you'll find this on page 57. The people of Israel were in a foreign land, suffering under the sentence of death and captivity, but they took refuge under the blood of a lamb and through the work of their mediator they crossed over. to a new land. Their rescue from slavery was decisive, and it wasn't just a change of address or a change of circumstances. They crossed over to a new status, from slavery to freedom, from people of no God to being the people of the living God, from a nation that belonged to Egypt's king, to now a nation belonging to Heaven's King. They're crossing over, as we have seen, with the work of God alone. And when the Israelites saw His great power to deliver, this last verse in Exodus 14 says they were compelled to respond in two different ways. There are two verbs here, two action words that describe their response to their liberating Savior. Here's the first. The people feared the Lord. Not the kind of fear that makes you want to run away and hide, but the kind of fear that makes you afraid to run away. and hide. The kind of fear that I think John Newton was writing about when he said, "'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear." Think about that the next time you sing it. Grace and fear in the same sentence. God's grace in salvation compelled the people to fear the consequences of disobeying Him. To fear being disloyal to Him. And they feared, and then verse 31 says, they also, here's the second verb, they believed in the Lord. So for the moment anyway, the disbelief that caused them to not even to want to listen to the word of the Lord in Exodus chapter 6 verse 9, the kind of disbelief that made them start bellyaching in chapter 14, verse 10. For the moment, that disbelief has dried up and gone away. The great I Am, Yahweh, the one true God, has revealed Himself to the people of Israel, and they believe in Him. A people that didn't even know God, Now do, and they're trusting in Him, and they're trusting in the mediator that He's provided. But there's one more verb, one more action word that describes the response of the Israelites, and that's in the first verse of chapter 15. You see it there? Then Moses and the people of Israel sang. Just as they were compelled by seeing this deliverance, just as they were compelled to fear God and to believe God, now they're compelled to sing to Him. They can't help themselves. They have to sing. God's deliverance constrained His people to adoration because delivered people sing. by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Moses, as he's writing the book of Exodus, years later, pauses right here in chapter 15. He stops simply relating facts and telling the story, and he inserts a beautiful piece of poetry. For 21 verses in Exodus chapter 15, the fast-moving story comes to a halt, and so we should, too, stop and drink in this work of art, this song here. We need to pause and we need to have our hearts and voices moved to praise by the people of Israel's praise. I think I've mentioned before that one of my former responsibilities in ministry was directing the high school choir at a Christian school. It seems like a whole other life ago. But I know a lot of kids took choir because they thought it would be an easy A. That would never happen to any students in here, I'm pretty sure, and those of you who were in high school choir never would do that. I did give out a lot of A's in choir, but I was determined that that A would mean something. So I had tests. Singing tests okay, so on test day. I'd bring up my four section leaders soprano alto tenor bass and the students in the choir would come down two at a time to their section leader and we'd sing through the song and however many times it took to get all the people down by twos. And what I wanted the section leaders to do was to listen to these two people singing, and what did they learn here as I've been teaching them this song? Do they know the words? Do they know the harmony part? Or as basses like to do, were they just singing the soprano part three octaves lower or whatever? Did they have the right entrances? Did they get the rhythms right? And I wanted to see what they were doing. This was a singing test. In a way, the Song of Moses, as it's called in Exodus 15, is a singing test. But it's not a test about what they've learned about notes and rhythms or melodies. Rather, it's a test of what the people know and what they've learned about God. Right? The people of Israel, we've insisted, knew very little about God, who He is, and how He works, and they probably didn't even know what His name was. So when they begin to sing here, kind of spontaneously, what comes out? What have they learned about Yahweh? So looking at Exodus 15 this way, this song instructs. This song instructs, and it instructs us in the sense that we can see what the people of Israel have come to know and what they've come to believe about Yahweh. And interestingly, what they've come to know and believe aligns very closely with what we've been learning and seeing in the Scriptures over the past six weeks in our studies in the book of Exodus. So in Exodus chapter 2, Pastor Dan highlighted the fact that God hears the cries, and He sees the plight, and He remembers His covenant, and He knows the situation of His people. And in light of that, that He knows, and sees, and remembers, consider this first verse in chapter 15, Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song, To the Lord. Now why would they sing to Him? Why would they sing to the Lord? They sing to the Lord because He has heard, and He has seen, and He has remembered, and then He acted to redeem them. And then these first words of this song reveal something else that we've been seeing. Look at the second half of verse 1, So one of the most important truths that we learned in chapter 1 of Exodus that God is faithful to His promises. God is going to do what He says He's going to do. And so, in chapter 6, later on, in this little section that we call the I Will section, where God lays out this, here's how I'm going to save you. I will, I will, I will. God makes these promises to them, and God assures them. One of the things He says, I will take you to be My people, and I will be your God and this is indeed what happens God possesses them as his unique people and they Possess him as their God the language here in verse 2 is so intimate. It's so personal it speaks to this the Lord is my strength and my song and he has become my salvation this is My God and so what God promised he would do in chapter 6 it happens Verse 3, the Lord is a man of war. The Lord is His name. Yahweh is His name. Remember we talked about the capital L-O-R-D. I Am is His name. In Exodus chapter 3, God reveals Himself to Moses as the God of the name. I am who I am. And the people who wondered who this God even was, who didn't even appear to know His name, now they know it! And they sing it! Yahweh is His name! And then they sing about God's right hand of power in verse 6. Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power. Remember, Yahweh steals one of Pharaoh's titles. He's the guy with the strong right arm. God steals it and shows Pharaoh what a wimp he really is. Like, you think you got guns? My right hand is glorious. in power. Then look down at verse 10 and 12. One of the main truths that we learned last week about the actual crossing of the Red Sea is that God delivers His people. That's the emphasis. God delivers His people. God is the one who initiates and who acts and who saves. The people play no part in their salvation. And they understand this because verse 10 says, you blew with Your wind, the sea, covered them. They're speaking to Yahweh here. Verse 12, You stretched out Your right hand. So Moses' outstretched arm wasn't magical or anything like that. That was just a stand-in for God's right arm. God acts unilaterally to destroy His enemies and to save His people. And then we took, if you remember, an entire Sunday to consider the tenth plague, the death of the firstborn. We concluded that God is the God who is merciful. His provision of an atoning substitute, a Passover lamb, was an act of mercy and love. Otherwise, the Israelite firstborn would have been destroyed just along with the Egyptian firstborn. But in His love and His mercy, God provides a substitute, a lamb slain, a people delivered because God had set His love on His people. And that love is seen in verse 13 specifically. This phrase, steadfast love, we sang it in the first song. Forever God is faithful, it's forever. Those two words, death, fast, love, translates the one Hebrew word hesed, H-E-S-E-D. It's a word that speaks of God's covenant, faithful, undying, unchanging love for his people. And as we're going to see in just a moment, This word is a really important word in the Old Testament. But my friend and my pastor, Matthew St. John, has created a helpful acrostic to help remember the depth of the meaning of this word Chesed. And it's a sentence, actually, that's an acrostic. It starts with each of these letters, H-E-S-E-D. Write this down. It's really helpful as you see this, as you're reading your Bible. Chesed means He, that is God, that's the H, He extends to sinners everlasting devotion. H-E-S-E-D. He extends to sinners everlasting devotion, chesed. His love is eternal. It won't run out. His love for his children is a faithful love, chesed, right here in Exodus 15, 13. Now, the fact that that word appears right here at this point in biblical history is really, really significant. Let me explain what I mean. So if you start reading the Bible, starting with Genesis 1, and you read all the way through to Exodus chapter 15, you would only... encounter this word hesed, the steadfast love of God as it refers to Him, you would only encounter that word three times before you get to Exodus chapter 15. In the thousands of years of history that Genesis records, the Hebrew word hesed is only used three times to describe God, and three times only in one chapter, one of the most beautiful love stories in all of history, the story of Isaac and Rebekah. It happens in Genesis 24 that God is seen as Chesed, but actually just two of those three times are like a guy praying and he's not sure if God is a God of steadfast love or not. He's not positive that his prayer is going to be answered by this God. But after then Exodus 15, so three times before that, after Exodus 15, Katie barred the door because this happens all over. The floodgates fly open and from this point in Old Testament history, the word has said is used to refer to God's love nearly 200 times in all the rest of the Old Testament. Just three times before this and then a flood. 200 times after this, after God delivers His people from slavery, Yahweh will forever now be seen and worshipped, listen, as a loving Redeemer. Yes, He's the Creator God. Yes, He's glorious in power. Yes, He's a man of war, bringing justice for His people. But the defining moment of Israel's history forever defines God as the God of steadfast love, the God who is merciful, from now on he'll be known as that. And then verses 14 through 16 fulfill the prophetic word of God that his people, and his people being freed from slavery, that that's going to be known throughout all the whole earth because the song then records these nations, the names of the nations, Philistia, Edom, Moab, Canaan, they're going to hear about the greatness of God. And this is actually the order that the people of Israel are going to encounter these nations as they journey from here. And these nations are going to be very afraid because the land that God is going to give to His people is the land that these nations occupy. Like, you guys are done living here. I think I'd be trembling with terror and dread as well. Like, you're not going to get to live in your house anymore. And then, at the very close, verse 18 is this brief but powerful recap of the theme and the theology of this whole song. We sang it earlier. The Lord will reign forever. and ever. He is, as the Israelites have discovered now, and as we discovered in our fourth week, this is the God who is sovereign. He is sovereign over kings, and ayatollahs, and sheikhs, and imams, and He's sovereign over every airspace, over every nation, Whatever it is, God is sovereign over salvation, and God is sovereign over every so-called God. God is sovereign. He reigns. So this song instructs us. It teaches us what these people have learned about God, and it tells us what the people of Israel have come to believe about Yahweh who delivers them. And secondly, this song enlightens. What I mean by that is that the inclusion of this song in the Scripture enlightens us about what it is to worship God. This is an example of biblical praise and it sheds light on how we're to praise this Same God. And so from this song, right from here, here are three ways that God shines His light, enlightens us, in regard to what true worship is. Here's the first thing. First, praise is response and overflow. It's response and overflow. And I get this from one word that occurs twice in this passage. So after they've walked through on dry land, the people of Israel are standing by the sea, and bloated Egyptian bodies. Their enemies that wanted to kill them are washing ashore. They've experienced a miraculous rescue. Now what? Verse 1, Then, like next, in response to God's power, then they sing. Of course that's what you do when you've been delivered. That's what you do next. You sing. Verses 19 and 20, the exact same thing. There's this restatement of God's victory in verse 19. And what's the first word of verse 20? Then, next, then Miriam sang to them the obvious and the expected response, the next thing they must do is sing and dance and play tambourines, of course. This song in Exodus 15, this praise session is their response to God's revelation of Himself. And here at Cedar Heights Baptist we attempt to come in line with that. You'll notice at the beginning or towards the beginning of all of our worship gatherings we hear something from the Word of the Lord. God speaks. God reveals something to us and what do we do? Then we respond. God reveals Himself and we respond to Him. But it's not just a response here. This is overflow. What they've learned about this redeeming God overflows. Not just in mental ascent or they're going to talk about it. Their understanding in their minds overflows in joyful and loud phrase. I had a phrase that I used to tell my choir members and singers when I thought that they were bored. Here it is. If your heart has found the message, please notify your face. Let me tweak that a little bit for our context. If your mind has comprehended the greatness of God, please notify your voice. Sing! Because the goal of theology, the study about God, the goal of theology is doxology. The goal is praise. When we grasp and apprehend more of God's power and more of God's mercy, it overflows. It ought to overflow in Singing. So response and overflow. Here's the second category of enlightenment. Praise envelops both attributes and actions. That is, the people are singing about both the attributes of God and they're singing about the actions of God. So the people declare in some sections who God is. his attributes, and then they move really effortlessly to what God has done. They sing directly to God, and then they sing presumably to one another about what God has done. Did you see the horse and rider cast into the sea? This is an event that they're telling about because both of these are in the category of praising Him and exalting Him. They're both part of worship and praise because God's attributes are reflected in His actions, and His actions reflect His attributes, who He is. Both are vital and right for us to sing about. We praise Him both for who He is and for what He has done. Attributes and actions, and here's the third category, joy and affections. and affections. Verse 20 makes it clear that this is an exuberant worship service. Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing. If these women were here today, we'd look askance at them, like, tambourines? Really? Full disclosure, I have played a tambourine in a worship gathering before. But what's this? Dancing? Like actually moving your body a little bit? Not just your eyebrows? What's going on here? That's allowed? Now obviously, there are some cultural things present in Exodus chapter 15 that may or may not transfer to a Baptist church in eastern Iowa. But the point is, the use of tambourines and dancing in their praise are spontaneous expressions of great joy. These are a free and happy release of affections for the God who has saved them, and we would do well, brothers and sisters, to have our worship enlightened and informed by their joy and their exuberance and by their affections for the God who has saved them. So the song instructs and the song enlightens and lastly, the song unleashes. The song unleashes. Follow me here and my choice of words here will hopefully become clear. This song unleashes. So here's another insight from chronology here. If you read the Bible from the beginning, Genesis 1, you'll see that music in general is mentioned for the first time in Genesis chapter 4. A guy by the name of Jubal was the first rock star ever. He became the father of people who played musical instruments. And curiously, in that same chapter, there's a reference to poetry. There's a little poem. that this guy writes and says. But, if you keep reading through these thousands of years of history, Exodus chapter 15 verse 1 is the first time, hear me? The very first time that the Bible says anyone sang. And for sure the first time that they ever sang to the Lord. Now, I'm positive that people were singing about that. So, there are references in the book of Job, which Bible scholars believe happened before Exodus chapter 15, quite a bit before actually. There's references in the book of Job to people singing. But in the biblical order, just starting from the beginning and reading through, this is the first time that people are said to sing and the first time that people sing to the Lord. And I want to ask, why right here? Why not earlier? Why this first time after their redemption and their rescue because, listen, delivered people sing. Delivered people sing. And this singing in response to deliverance becomes a distinctive of those who belong to God. Singing is unleashed in the rest of the scriptural story. In Judges chapter 4, Deborah If this judge, Deborah, is used of God to deliver the people from an oppressive Canaanite king, God gave her the victory and the very next thing in Judges chapter 5 says, And the whole of Judges chapter 5 is a song of deliverance because delivered people sing. Psalm 18 has a heading that explains why David wrote this particular song. On the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, David said, And then he recounts this. He starts in, recalling how God has triumphed and delivered him from all of his enemies. And you know what David says at the end of this song? Forty-eight verses of telling this whole story of deliverance, David says, for this, that is, for this deliverance, I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations and Sing to your name for this, because you've rescued me, I sing." Because, do you know it yet? Delivered people sing. The prophet Isaiah wrote down words of instruction and encouragement for the people of Judah during their, what would have been a future captivity in Babylon, 150 years before they were captive. He told them what to think and do and what was going to happen, and He predicts their release and their return to the land of Judah. He prophesies a second exodus, actually, from Babylon back to the Promised Land. And in chapter 51 of Isaiah, verse 11, the prophet announces, The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with what? With... Singing, those redeemed and released by the hand of the Lord return to the land with joyful, glad singing. Why? Because delivered people sing. Then if we keep going through the grand story of God's saving work, we come to Jesus in the New Testament. And there are so many things that I've already said this morning that could be repeated word for word by those who have been delivered from sin. and those delivered from sin's consequences through Jesus Christ, and if you said it, you'd be right, you'd be telling the truth. I don't expect you to remember my first two sentences. I barely do, but I wrote them down, and so I can tell you. Here, I'll just tweak them a little bit. Here's my first two sentences. We were in a foreign land, suffering under the sentence of death and captivity, but we took refuge under the blood of a lamb. And through the work of our Mediator, we've crossed over to a new land. Isn't that right? Isn't that true of us? The crossing over in Exodus 14-15 is a metaphor for our crossing over. Jesus Himself said in John 5, verse 24, listen to this, Whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has crossed over. Are you kidding me? Has crossed over from death to life. And so what of those who have crossed over from serving sin to serving the risen Christ? Do those delivered people sing? Yes, yes they do. In fact, singing was evidently such a normal part of the early church that when Paul and Silas find themselves in a filthy prison cell in Acts chapter 17 in the city of Philippi, their default response, what do we do here? What comes naturally to them is to sing. Now you might say, gotcha preacher, they weren't really delivered yet. Right? They're still in prison. But the truth is, they've already been delivered with the deliverance that really matters. Even though their feet are in stocks, they have the best kind of deliverance. They've already been delivered from sin and death and hell and judgment because of their faith in Jesus. So no matter what their circumstances are, they're free. They've already been delivered. And guess what? Delivered people sing. And through the centuries, Christians have been a singing people. The great revivals of the Reformation and in Wales have ushered in a resurgence of singing. The Hoti people in the Venezuelan Amazon. had no musical expression in their culture, no songs, no instruments. They didn't know what it meant to sing. Steve Sanford with Ethnos 360, a friend of our own, Lucas Hewitt, ministered there. They preached the good news of Jesus Christ and deliverance from sin. They believed it and they embraced it. And for some reason they wanted them to sing, but they didn't have any music. And so Steve created some little choruses that they could learn. And you know what? The Hoti people were terrible at it. They had no concept at all. No, your voice goes up here and down there. Nothing like that. They didn't even get that. No, we should say these words like together at the same time. No concept of that, but they kept trying. Finally, they kind of gave it up. They got tired with these little choruses and they started singing together in their gatherings, just a chapter of the Bible. I have no idea what it sounded like, what the melody was. It was probably everybody had their own, but they would just sing through a chapter of the Bible until they got, it didn't work out so good. And so you know what? They started composing and singing their own songs because delivered people sing. One of my favorite moments at Cedar Heights Baptist Church here. I've had some stunning musical expressions here, powerful music, beautiful, well done, God-centered, Christ-exalting, Spirit-anointed. But one of my favorite things that I heard was when I was sitting right back here one Sunday, and a young man from another country that we'd been praying for, that he would come to embrace Jesus as his Savior, that would believe in Jesus. I heard Him singing right behind me and that was evidence to me He's delivered. He's saved now. His singing, His joyful praise, His evidence of His faith in Jesus because delivered people sing. So no wonder the last book of the Bible, the book that unpacks the glories of eternal life in the new heaven and the new earth, no wonder that it overflows with singing song after song after song as believers in Jesus experience ultimate, eternal, final deliverance. They sing! And as John Piper says, we will sing bloody songs forever. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. We will sing bloody songs forever.