Rev 15:2-4, And I saw, as it were, a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had come off victorious from the beast and from his image and from the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, holding harps of God. And they sang the song of Moses the bond-servant of God and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and marvelous are Thy works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Thy ways, Thou King of the nations. "Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? For Thou alone art holy; For all the nations will come and worship before Thee, For Thy righteous acts have been revealed." 
	We began our readings of this Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ with regard to His Church and the effects that should be evidenced within the Body of Believers as we see Jesus Christ ever more clearly revealed in our hearts and minds and lives. We began with looking at our prayers as His Church. We reflected on what effective prayer entails within the Church giving herself wholly to the will of God, no matter what. We also spent time with the worship that we are to bring before God. We considered that our worship should be more and more perfectly aligned unto His praise and adoration, joining our hearts to the worship of the angelic hosts. This then leads us to the value of worship evidenced in this morning’s passage. And they sang the song of Moses the bond-servant of God and the song of the Lamb…
	Let us spend a few moments with an aspect of our praise which we may often take for granted. There is a Biblical basis for the manner in which we lift our voices together in harmonious prayer, praise, and adoration unto the Lord. There is a melody of heart which should evidence itself in our united declaration of the goodness and the power and the triumph and the graciousness of Our Lord God Almighty. There should be a song of joy and of victory that flows from our hearts to be melded into a symphony of honor and adulation to the One in Whom we have eternal life. The Church should be filled with songs of God, choruses that emanate from His heart, returning full circle with the rejoicing of His people in gladness and in highest esteem and love. 
	 The people of God should be filled with song as we stand in His victory. The song of His triumph should echo forth unto the entire world in the proclamation of His strength and power and might. 2 Chron 20:20-22, And they rose early in the morning and went out to the wilderness of Tekoa; and when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, "Listen to me, O Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, put your trust in the Lord your God, and you will be established. Put your trust in His prophets and succeed." And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who sang to the Lord and those who praised Him in holy attire, as they went out before the army and said, "Give thanks to the Lord, for His lovingkindness is everlasting." And when they began singing and praising, the Lord set ambushes against the sons of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; so they were routed. Note that the Lord responded to the chorus of the singers in going before them and setting the ambushes against the enemies of His people.
	Song not only moves God’s heart unto victory over the adversaries of His people, but it is a great part of the honor of celebration offered up in remembrance of His past deliverances. In 2 Chron 35:13-18, we have the great celebration of the Passover when Josiah found the book of the Law and sought to once again honor God as He was due. In this tremendous celebration, consider the place and service rendered unto the singers because they were so vital to the entire feast of commemoration. So they roasted the Passover animals on the fire according to the ordinance, and they boiled the holy things in pots, in kettles, in pans, and carried them speedily to all the lay people. And afterwards they prepared for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the sons of Aaron, were offering the burnt offerings and the fat until night; therefore the Levites prepared for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron. The singers, the sons of Asaph, were also at their stations according to the command of David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the king's seer; and the gatekeepers at each gate did not have to depart from their service, because the Levites their brethren prepared for them. So all the service of the Lord was prepared on that day to celebrate the Passover, and to offer burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord according to the command of King Josiah. Thus the sons of Israel who were present celebrated the Passover at that time, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days. And there had not been celebrated a Passover like it in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet; nor had any of the kings of Israel celebrated such a Passover as Josiah did with the priests, the Levites, all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The honor due to God required that the singers were at their stations of worship to place before God the sacrifice of their songs of praise and adoration unto Him.
	We see this again as we read about the reconstruction of the wall of Jerusalem. Those who offered their worship unto God in song had a vital role in the entire dedication, not because they could sing so wonderfully, but because they offered God whole-hearted worship for the entire population of His people. Neh 12:27-43 (omitting some of the names), Now at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought out the Levites from all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem so that they might celebrate the dedication with gladness, with hymns of thanksgiving and with songs to the accompaniment of cymbals, harps, and lyres. So the sons of the singers were assembled from the district around Jerusalem, and from the villages…for the singers had built themselves villages around Jerusalem. And the priests and the Levites purified themselves; they also purified the people, the gates, and the wall. Then I had the leaders of Judah come up on top of the wall, and I appointed two great choirs, the first proceeding to the right on top of the wall toward the Refuse Gate...And Ezra the scribe went before them…The second choir proceeded to the left, while I followed them with half of the people on the wall…Then the two choirs took their stand in the house of God. So did I and half of the officials with me; and the priests…And the singers sang, with Jezrahiah their leader, and on that day they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced because God had given them great joy, even the women and children rejoiced, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard from afar. Please notice the result of the two choirs’ service of worship unto God. There was rejoicing and great joy throughout the people.
Songs of worship and praise, celebrating the goodness of the Lord, the joyful declaration of His righteousness and His holiness and His acts of love and of deliverance have an effect on us. We were created with the ability to be moved by music. God instilled this in us to be intensely alert to God and to rejoice in Him. Music refocuses our attention and our attitude to that which causes us to be thankful and to want to bless our God because of Who He is. 
Admittedly, I am giving this the positive aspect of how God created us to respond to Him in chorus and in song and in the joyful noise of worship. Music has obviously been denigrated by this realm into being used for far less noble causes. But we are looking at God’s wonderful design for us, His Church. He made us able to respond fully to the every avenue of rejoicing in Him. Songs of worship and praise are fully in line with that which honors Him, as He is the focal point and His glory is at the heart of every song of praise and adoration. 
We see this in the song of Moses as recorded in Ex 15:1-21. Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the Lord, and said, "I will sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted; The horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea. "The Lord is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; This is my God, and I will praise Him; My father's God, and I will extol Him. "The Lord is a warrior; The Lord is His name. "Pharaoh's chariots and his army He has cast into the sea; And the choicest of his officers are drowned in the Red Sea. "The deeps cover them; They went down into the depths like a stone. "Thy right hand, O Lord, is majestic in power, Thy right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy. "And in the greatness of Thine excellence Thou dost overthrow those who rise up against Thee; Thou dost send forth Thy burning anger, and it consumes them as chaff. "And at the blast of Thy nostrils the waters were piled up, The flowing waters stood up like a heap; The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea. "The enemy said, 'I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; My desire shall be gratified against them; I will draw out my sword, my hand shall destroy them.' "Thou didst blow with Thy wind, the sea covered them; They sank like lead in the mighty waters. "Who is like Thee among the gods, O Lord? Who is like Thee, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders? "Thou didst stretch out Thy right hand, The earth swallowed them. "In Thy lovingkindness Thou hast led the people whom Thou hast redeemed; In Thy strength Thou hast guided them to Thy holy habitation. "The peoples have heard, they tremble; Anguish has gripped the inhabitants of Philistia. "Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed; The leaders of Moab, trembling grips them; All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away. "Terror and dread fall upon them; By the greatness of Thine arm they are motionless as stone; Until Thy people pass over, O Lord, Until the people pass over whom Thou hast purchased. "Thou wilt bring them and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance, The place, O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thy dwelling, The sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established. "The Lord shall reign forever and ever." For the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, and the Lord brought back the waters of the sea on them; but the sons of Israel walked on dry land through the midst of the sea. And Miriam the prophetess, Aaron's sister, took the timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dancing. And Miriam answered them, "Sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted; The horse and his rider He has hurled into the sea." Amen.
	Observe the commonality in this recorded Song of Moses and in our morning’s text. "Great and marvelous are Thy works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Thy ways, Thou King of the nations. "Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? For Thou alone art holy; For all the nations will come and worship before Thee, For Thy righteous acts have been revealed." 
	The center of attention is completely on the Lord. It is not a song filled with sentimentality. It is nothing else but a view of the characteristic attribute and work of God. They have the focal point of how this earth and all its inhabitants will see the victory and the glory and the power and the righteousness of God. There is a given chorus of the worthiness of God to receive all glory and all honor and all praise because of the revelation of Himself to the entirety of creation. Because He is Who He is, all the earth will come before Him and will marvel at everything He has done throughout the time period that He put into place. 
This is the song that we are to sing as we come before Him in our time of worship and praise. We are to set aside any consideration of our needs and our wants and our concerns in this world, and do nothing else than offer Him our whole heart in songs that proclaim His rightful place of adoration above all else! We need to cast aside our emotions and our sentimentality and fill this whole earth with songs of the Glory of God! 
	This is a key we need to learn in order to more and more honor Him in perfect praise. He is not to be classified with any facet of how we are feeling, or affected by the things around us, or planning to accomplish. When we come before Him and bring any element of this earth with us into worship, including ourselves and our thoughts of what is going on around us, we not only dishonor Him, but we besmirch the whole Church’s chorus of adoration unto Him. 
To sing …the song of Moses the bond-servant of God and the song of the Lamb… is to sing with all our hearts in the victory of Jesus Christ to the complete glory of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit! It is to allow no other intrusion of thought, self-consciousness, motive, plan or purpose of us into our corporate and our private time before Him. To truly sing unto Him is to lose ourselves in Him! 
	When we return to this Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, in three weeks, Lord willing, we will continue with this reality that our songs of praise and worship mean something tremendous in the heart of God. They are not just something that we do to quiet down our hearts for the message. They are not just a means of showing off our vocal astuteness or talent. This is not just a time for our children to let off a little of their energy. Our songs are to be a living expression of the heart of worship that indwells us. They are to cause us to bring forth an ever purer offering of honor and adoration to the Lord God Almighty, Our Creator and Our Savior. To His glory Alone, so be it!
And I saw, as it were, a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had come off victorious from the beast and from his image and from the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, holding harps of God. And they sang the song of Moses the bond-servant of God and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and marvelous are Thy works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Thy ways, Thou King of the nations. "Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? For Thou alone art holy; For all the nations will come and worship before Thee, For Thy righteous acts have been revealed." Amen.

			
	This morning’s benediction is Ps 66:1-4. Shout joyfully to God, all the earth; Sing the glory of His name; Make His praise glorious. Say to God, "How awesome are Thy works! Because of the greatness of Thy power Thine enemies will give feigned obedience to Thee. "All the earth will worship Thee, And will sing praises to Thee; They will sing praises to Thy name." Selah. Amen.