FBC Morning Light – December 19, 2022

Well, a good Monday morning to you, and here we are in the final week before Christmas, looking forward to the celebration of our Savior's birth on this coming Lord's Day, Christmas Day, and I hope your preparations are well underway and you are looking forward to that day of celebration and worshiping of the newborn King.

Revelation 15 and the Song of Moses and the Lamb

Well, today we want to look at another place where the King is worshiped, but it's in Revelation chapter 15. Getting down to the final chapters in our Bible reading plan, we've been working on this for a couple of years, and today we're in Revelation 15 and Psalm 143, it's our second time through the Psalms, and tomorrow we'll be in one of the final chapters in the Old Testament, and it's going to be through it before we know it.

And then we get to start all over again, and next year we're encouraging people to read through the Bible in a year and kind of step it up a little bit, see how we do with that. Well, anyway, we're in Revelation 15, verses 3 and 4 have recorded for us the song sung by the saints who have escaped the power of the beast.

We read of that in verse 2. They have had victory over the beast and over his image and over the mark and over the number of his name. They're standing on the sea of glass and they've got harps in their hands and they're singing.

And what are they singing? They're singing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. A couple of different hymns in this worship service. The song of Moses, of course, is recorded for us back in the book of Exodus, chapter 15.

It was a song that Moses wrote just after God delivered the people of Israel from Egypt, brought them through the Red Sea, and that incredibly miraculous deliverance through the Red Sea culminated with Moses writing this song.

Here also, in this worship service, these who have had victory over the beast are not only singing the song of Moses, but the song of the Lamb. What is the song of the Lamb? That's what's recorded for us here.

Here's what they sang. Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty. Let's pause there in the first line of this opening stanza. Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty. What are the great and marvelous works of the triune God, the Lord God Almighty, that he has done?

Certainly we can look at the works of creation, we can look at the works of providence, but I think the focus here, because it is the song of the Lamb, are the great and marvelous works of redemption.

The Great and Marvelous Works of Redemption

The Son of God, whose birth into this world we celebrate this coming Lord's Day, God became flesh and dwelt among us. What a great and marvelous work. He lived an absolutely perfect, sinless life as a human being, as the God-man on this planet.

That's a great and marvelous work. Then, of course, the great and marvelous work of redemption on the cross, that he could bear all of our guilt and sin in his own body on that tree, and then he was buried, but then he rose again the third day.

This resurrection is a great and marvelous work of our God, and our Lord Jesus is to be extolled and to be praised and worshiped for his great and marvelous works. But also, he's to be praised for his almighty power and authority.

He is the Lord God Almighty. He has almighty power, and all authority is his. He is to be praised for that. This is just and true are your ways. This Lord God Almighty is one who is marked by absolute truthfulness and absolute justice.

You cannot accuse him of any untruth. You can't accuse him of any injustice. What a refreshing thing that is, when we think about our world and our political leaders and so forth. Isn't it a sad, sad reality that you know when politicians are on the campaign trail, they're going to lie to you?

You just know it. You just expect it. Isn't that a cynical place to come to? How many times have we heard things coming from the press briefings and so forth in our government that are half truths, they are spins, they are distortions of the truth, anything but clear, unequivocal truth.

Oh, but that is not the way it is with our God. True and just are his ways. The Lord Jesus, the Lamb, is the King of the saints or of the nations. It depends. The New King James translates that the King of the saints, the ESV and some of the other translations, I believe the New American Standard as well, translates as he is the King of the nations.

He is the King of the nations. He is. He is. He is not recognized as such, that's coming, but he is the King of the nations. He rules over all, and he uses the nations and the leaders of those nations as he sees fit to accomplish his divine purposes.

Then it asks this question, who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name? He is due universal fear and universal honor. The glory due his name is indeed due his name, and all creation would rightly bow before him and extol him for the glory of his name.

Then it says, all nations shall come before you and worship you. All nations will do that. Are they doing that right now? Absolutely not. There is not a nation on this planet that is doing that right now.

It's just a, comparatively speaking, small minority of people on the planet who are coming and worshiping before him. The time is coming when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

All nations will do so. Why? Because he alone is holy. He alone is holy. We're called to be holy as our Father in heaven is holy. Do we measure up? Rhetorical question, isn't it? No, he alone is absolutely, perfectly holy.

Finally, the song ends saying, your judgments have been manifested. The judgments of our God have been manifested on the cross. The judgments of our God have been manifested upon his creation, and they shall be even more yet to come.

This is the song of the Lamb. He is our Redeemer. He is our Savior. He is our King. He is the ruler of all the earth. He is the judge who shall indeed do right. Let's worship and extol him. Father in heaven, we thank you today for the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, takes away the sin of all who will put their trust in him.

We thank you for his glorious redemption. Thank you for who he is. Thank you for all he's done, for his great and marvelous works, for his impeccable character. We thank you for the Lamb. We pray you'd bless these thoughts to our hearts today, and we ask it in Jesus' name.

I hope your week gets off to a great start, and may the Lord bless you on this Monday.