There are two universal languages in the world,
it has been said, athletics and music. Both languages
can be used with profit to gain the attention
of our world and its citizens so that they might
hear the message that we have to deliver. Some
of the Christian Olympians in the recent 24th
Olympiad had a large hearing. because of their
achievements in the Olympics, Carl Lewis being
one of them. But this morning I want to speak
about the other universal language and that is
music. God created music. He created music to
glorify himself and to enrich our human experience.
And God created man with a nature for music.
He gives to us the ability to conceive it, to
create it. He gives us the ability to hear it,
to sing it, and to respond to it. God created
us with a nature for music. Music has a potential
of reaching more people, perhaps, than any other
vehicle of communication that we have. The text
that we are looking at today, Exodus 15, includes
the first song lyrics recorded in scripture.
It is a song of redemption. Redemption that was
by purchase and redemption that was by power.
The purchase being the shed blood of the Passover
lamb that was offered that last night in Egypt.
The power being the power of God demonstrated
when the Red Sea was parted for the deliverance
of the people of Israel. After that glorious
deliverance, the people of Israel rejoiced with
the song that is recorded for us here, said to
be sung to the Lord by Moses and the sons of
Israel. Now while music is universal to all people,
It seems to me that only the redeemed of the
Lord have this tune to sing. That is the song
of redemption. What is the tune that is playing
in your life this morning? As we look at our
text, the entire chapter, we're going to see
that there are really two tunes in the chapter,
each different in nature, each distinctive. The
first tune is actually a hymn. It's a hymn of
worship. And let there be no question as to the
direction of the hymn. It is directed toward
God Himself. The words the Lord or my God are
used in this hymn, these 21 verses or so, some
15 times. In addition to that, personal pronouns
referring to God, number 35. So you have at least
50 references to God in these brief verses. This
is a hymn of worship to God. There are three
stanzas to the hymn. The first stanza is verses
1 through 6. Please keep in mind that Hebrew
poetry is not written like our poetry. The Hebrew
mind looked at poetry differently than we do.
The repetition of thoughts was important to them.
Often in our poems we are progressive, we're
logical. We start here and we work through a
sequence of thoughts and we come to this point.
In Oriental poetry, the thought is often circular.
In other words, there is a Follow through on
one thought, and then there is a follow through
on the same thought again and again and again
and again. So there's not necessarily progression
in their poetry, but there is depth and emphasis
to one particular truth. And we see that in these
three stanzas. Stanza one, verses one through
six, I've entitled, What God Did. And we see
here his power to destroy his enemies. 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 is 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."
The end of the first verse seems to be signaled
by the repetition of that word and that phrase
rather, thy right hand, O Lord, in verse 6. We
notice in this first stanza that God's name is
said to be Warrior. We don't often consider that
an appropriate title for God, do we? There seems
to be an emphasis in our day on a God who is
benign, a God who is peaceful, an image of gentleness
and quietness. And that certainly is true about
God, but there's more to be said about God than
just that. God is also the Lord of hosts, the
Lord of the armies. Unfortunately, this hymn
that names him as a warrior would not be allowed
in some denominational hymnals these days, for
even onward Christian soldiers have been removed
because of its military -like language. Here
God is said to be a warrior. That is, God fights
on behalf of his people. In fact, there will
be no true peace in the world, will there, until
our Lord Jesus Christ returns as a warrior, as
depicted in the 19th chapter of the book of Revelation,
and He destroys the armies of the world. And
then when He has destroyed them, as the Lord
of hosts, He will reign upon His righteous throne
throughout the millennial period, the thousand
years, and there will be peace on the earth.
But there is no peace today, nor can there be
among men because of sin and unrighteousness.
Satan is still free to roam the earth and causes
lack of peace. Here we see God as a warrior acting
on behalf of his people. That's what he did.
He destroyed the armies of the Egyptians. Now
verses 7 through 11, and notice again in verse
11 how we'll see a repetition of phrases. And
the greatness of thine excellence, 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."
You get a picture here of those armies of Egypt
coming and the swords are just twirling in the
air. They can't wait to get up with the Israelites.
Notice what God does. Don't you love that? That
poetic expression, thou dost blow with thy wind.
Just the breath of God took care of the enemy.
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, and working wonders? And
so here we see a description of God's mighty
power. In the language of a poet, of course.
The third stanza, verses 12 through 16, the result
of what God did. Thou didst stretch out thy right
hand, the earth swallowed them. The first result,
death to the army. As though the earth just opened
up and they disappeared into its depths. Verse
13, in thy loving kindness thou hast led the
people. whom thou hast redeemed. In thy strength
thou hast guided them to thy holy habitation."
The second result of what God did is safety for
his own. Death to the army, safety for God's
own, the Israelites. Then beginning in verse
14, we see a third result, and it's warning to
the nations. 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. They're just frozen
with fright because of what happened at the Red
Sea. Until thy people pass over, O Lord, until
the people pass over whom thou hast purchased.
Notice there again the repetition of the end
of verse 3 in this hymn. And then there is a
coda, verses 17 and 18, where it speaks of the
promise, the assurance that belongs to God's
people. 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. And so
we see a word here that God will eventually bring
his people to Canaan and to Mount Zion, as it's
called later, to the city of Jerusalem, his habitation,
and there he will reign over his people. Now
verse 21 seems to have been a response that the
women of Israel may have given between each of
these stanzas. Miriam led them. Sing to the Lord.
For he is highly exalted, the horse and his rider
he has hurled into the sea." And as they were
singing this, they were dancing around with their
instruments, rejoicing in this worship service
beside the Red Sea because of what God had done
for them. My friend, music is the worship, the
expression of praise within a redeemed soul.
One who has not been redeemed by the blood and
by the power of the resurrection cannot enter
into words like these. Praise to God. For worship,
a hymn of praise is the expression of one who
has been saved, who is redeemed. And it comes
naturally. We may not all be able to write the
words. But when we sing them, we feel them, we
enter into them because we understand the meaning.
When our missionaries, the Lanettis, arrived
back on their station in Indonesia in January,
before they could get out of the airplane, right
there at the end of that landing strip in the
jungle, the Taliabu people surrounded the plane.
You recall that they had preached the gospel
to them the previous July, and many of them had
responded by faith in Christ. And during the
months of their absence, others had come to faith
in Christ. They were being built up through the
teaching of another missionary couple there.
Before they would allow them to get out of the
plane, they had to sing to them a hymn that they
had written. Not one that had been translated
from our language into theirs, but one that they
had written out of their own hearts and in the
midst of their own culture. I can't possibly
reproduce for you the singing because I don't
know what the tune was like or what the sounds
were like. But I can give you the words as translated
into the English. Here's what they sang. We give
our respect to the Father. Our shelter is in
the Father. Our hope is in the Father. We comfort
the news bearers, the missionaries. We console
the news bearers. Because of the Father, life
was brought to us. Because of the Father, light
was brought to us. We are truly joyful. I love
this last sentence. We are happy from our insides
out. Isn't that great? We are happy from our
insides out. That's what a hymn of praise is
all about. Is there music like that in your life
today? Name the tune in your life. Is that what's
playing? Around what is your life dancing today?
Is it your salvation? A believer whose mind is
in the Word of God and who is living under the
lordship of Jesus Christ cannot help but sing
according to Colossians 3 .16 and Ephesians 5
.19. It is impossible not to enjoy music and
to be musical to some degree, though we have
a spectrum of appreciation. When one is filled
with the Holy Spirit, music is the expression
of worship. That's not only true of us individually,
but it's vital It's important, it's true of us
as a church as well. Music ministry in a church
is absolutely essential and vital. But it's not
an easy one for a couple of reasons. In the first
place, there is high expectation of a music ministry
in the day in which we live. And that's because
nearly everyone has records that are professionally
produced. Many of us have at least one Christian
radio station that we can tune into every day
of the week. And when we come to church, we just
naturally expect to hear the same quality of
music that we hear professionally produced. And
that's not always possible. I believe that every
church should do the best it can. I thank God
for the talented musicians in our church. A larger
church has that potential to draw from, a smaller
church doesn't. When I go home to Kansas and
visit a worship service there, I rejoice in the
fellowship of those people. But when the 11 or
12 people get up to sing, I have to work at it
to enjoy it. I do, because I know them. But it's
not exactly like listening to the Hawaiians,
believe me. Maybe the Hawaiians at a slower speed
or something like that, I don't know. We have
high expectations of music. We need to do the
best we can with our music. I don't believe that
everybody who gets up here and sings has to be
professional. I don't mean that, but I do mean
this, that there is no particular blessing in
God's Word for mediocrity either. We ought to
present to the Lord our very best in music. There's
a second reason that the ministry of music is
not easy and that's because of the variety of
tastes that exist among the Lord's people. Not
everybody has an appreciation for good music
like I do. Not everybody likes bluegrass. My
wife and I go round and round about that. She
was born in the land of bluegrass. How she can
possibly not like the sound of it is beyond me,
but I accept that because I love her. Boy, when
I hear some good bluegrass music, it just gets
to me. I love it. I was down at the fair, that
pavilion beside the DNR area. Just at the right
time, one afternoon, I had a whole half hour
of some really good bluegrass music. I enjoyed
that. And I enjoy the old country music, not
this modern music, but the old stuff, the old
country music that you hear occasionally, like
on the Grand Ole Opry. But not everybody has
that taste, and I understand that. There are
those who prefer Bach and Beethoven. No, I really
do know how to pronounce it. And I enjoy some
of that, too, frankly. I really do. But we have
to acknowledge the fact that among us there is
a broad variety of tastes, and it's difficult
in any church to please everybody all the time.
And not only is it difficult, it's impossible.
One thing we have to keep in mind about taste
in music is that our taste is often heavily influenced
by the world. which is Satan's order. I guess
my feeling is that church music ought to sound
more like heaven than the other place. It ought
to sound more like God's domain than the domain
of Satan. Now I recognize that that can be interpreted
variously, but that's just kind of a general
thought concerning taste in music, I guess. It's
interesting that in ancient Israel, There was
a real emphasis on music and public worship Music
musicians rather were set apart even by their
birth and They were trained To give their whole
lifetime to the pursuit of music and to performance
of music in public worship You can read about
that at first Chronicles 25 for example in fact
when David established the order of the musicians.
There were over 4 ,000 of them who were supported
by the tithes, the taxes of the nation, so that
they could use their music gifts within the worship
of the people of Israel as they came to the tabernacle
and to the temple later. There was emphasis too
there upon skill and upon the training. of its
leaders. In fact, there were 288, if I recall
correctly, who seemed to have been teachers in
the established schools of music there in the
temple, so that they'd be training musicians
constantly for the public worship of the church.
First Baptist Church in Atlanta has a school
of music within its ministry. They're not only
training musicians for their own church, but
through that they're training musicians for other
churches throughout the Atlanta area. It's a
great idea. Sometimes I get a little weary with
the attitudes of some people toward the music
ministry of a church. We ought never to begrudge
money that is budgeted and invested toward worship.
I recognize that a lot of us have different priorities.
Some have missions as the priority. Others have
children's ministry as a priority. Some have
local evangelism. Some have paying off building
debt. Others have other priorities. The fact
is, though, that worship is one of those. We
ought never to begrudge or cheat on the money
that we invest in the worship ministry of our
church. You look at the emphasis on that in the
Old Testament, and you cannot come away with
any impression except that it is a high priority
to God that what we do in worship be quality
and that it be pleasing to Him to be done with
the right heart and motive. Music is as vital
to our worship of God as, well, peanuts are the
peanut butter. Whereas the alphabet is to a newspaper.
It's just worship is a part Music, rather, is
a part of our worship. And by the way, we are
commanded in the Bible to sing. We read that
this morning. Did you know that? To fail to participate
in singing in a worship service is to sin against
God. I recognize occasionally we have sore throats
or there are other reasons that we may not sing
a particular verse or hymn. But to habitually
and persistently refuse to sing indicates a heart
that is somehow out of touch with God. Furthermore,
to be careless about what we say as we sing is
to flirt with hypocrisy and to be in danger of
making vows that we don't intend to keep. If
you look at some of the words that we sing, and
what they mean, it would cause all of us to be
sobered. We ought never to enter into a service
and just to sing because we know the words. But
we ought to sing with the words coming fresh
to our minds. What am I saying? What am I singing
to God? It is sinful to do less than that. It
is sinful. And I want to emphasize again this
week, and I recognize this is the second Sunday
in a row I've said something about it. One, two.
I can count that far. It's important to be in
the service on time. Please do not stand in the
hallways and talk when the service is beginning.
I urge you who are in small church in the 815
hour to get out on time to be here by 930. Because
the worship of God begins at that hour with us
as a congregation. The first hymn is not the
processional. I recognize that there are reasons
for people to be late into a service. We can't
be legalistic about that, but the point is too
many of us come in late. We need to be in our
places and with our hearts prepared. We need
to have that hymnal open or be reading that scripture
so that we're ready to enter into that service
because we are here in the presence of God. to
worship Him. And then that worship that we experience
together is really little more than the outflow,
the overflow of our hearts from our worship all
week long. If somehow we have been out of touch
with God all week and we have not been worshiping
Him through the week, we can almost be guaranteed
a dry worship service that Sunday. We'll not
get much out of it. Because, you see, when we
come together corporately, it's the overflow
of what we do privately and individually. Here
we see the people of Israel dancing and singing
with joy and praise to God because of their deliverance,
a hymn of worship. Then they went on. God led
them on to a place called Merah. The second tune
that we see in our text today is the blues. of
complaint. Not a hymn of worship. We come now
to what Bernard McGee calls the desert blues.
Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went
out into the wilderness of Shur. I think what
happened was he said, are you ready to go? And
they said, sure. So they went on out. And they
went three days into the wilderness and found
no water. And when they came to Marah, they could
not drink the waters of Marah, for they were
bitter. Therefore it was named Marah. So the
people grumbled at Moses, saying, what shall
we drink? This was really a double trial to test
the people of Israel. In the first place, there
was no water for three days. And when they got
to the oasis in the desert, the water was brackish.
It was bitter. They were not able to drink it.
God put them through this double trial that He
might expose their hearts. God wanted to know
whether the worship three days earlier had been
genuine. Did they really believe what they said
in the songs? Or were they just caught up in
the emotion of the moment? They had been delivered
from slavery in Egypt, but we see here that they
had not been delivered from the spirit of Egypt.
For the corruption and the unbelief of their
hearts was manifested in this trial. Beloved
God leads us to tests as well, doesn't he? To
the wilderness? To bitter experiences? You see,
you mean God leads us there? That's right. David
said, the righteous God tries the hearts and
minds. God led the people of Israel through three
days without water and then to water that could
not be drunk. God leads us to test that He might
expose the true content of our hearts. Do we
really believe what we say we believe? Well,
the answer to that is usually found in the midst
of a test. What is it that causes a redeemed
person to lose his tune of praise and adopt the
blues? Well, someone says, it's just human nature,
isn't it, to complain? Well, of course, that's
true. It is just human nature to grumble, to
murmur, and to complain about things. But the
question we have to ask is this, is the human
nature to rule over the divine nature? If we
are saved, we are made partakers of the divine
nature. We who are partakers of God's nature,
should we excuse our complaining and our grumbling
with such a cheap and sinful response as saying
it's only human? Had the people here forgotten
the good purpose of God or God's promises? Did
they think that God had forgotten to be gracious
to them? Have we at times forgotten that? In
the meras of our life? In the deserts that we
go through? Rather, when those tests come, we
ought to say, as did Job even before the day
of Moses, the Lord has given, now the Lord has
taken away. But blessed be the name of the Lord.
God leads us to Merah as well so that we can
there learn the power of His grace to sweeten
our lives in the midst of bitterness. Moses cried
out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree,
and he threw it into the waters, and the waters
became sweet. There he, God, made for them a
statute and regulation, and there he tested them.
And he said, If you will give earnest heed to
the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is
right in his sight, and give ear to his commandments,
and keep all his statutes. I will put none of
the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians,
for I am Jehovah -Rapha. I am the Lord your healer."
When our experiences become bitter, God can make
them sweet as He does here for the people of
Israel. We too should take the issue to God in
prayer. not be complaining or grumbling or murmuring
but to pray and then to be sure that God's provision
is near and our need really is only for God to
open our eyes that we might see his provision
for with the bitter water God will always give
the healing tree close at hand and then does
not this healing tree remind us of Jesus Christ
who himself was cut down, was slain for the sake
of sinners. His sacrifice on the cross for us
sweetens the bitterness of our lives because
of sin, and we are saved from that. It is worthy
to note here perhaps that the grumbling was directed
against Moses. Isn't that interesting? As Spurgeon
pointed out in one of his messages, how like
us to be angry with God and to deny it by doubling
our complaint at Moses. We are like the dog who
is beaten by its master but bites at the stick.
Whatever the instrument may be that the sovereign
God has used to bring us low, to our place of
testing. What we need to do is be honest to admit
that God is bigger than whatever instrument he
has employed and that if there is anger or complaint
or murmuring or bitterness, it's really against
God and not the instrument he has used. We need
to learn from these people. to be done with a
complaining tongue, to discipline the murmuring,
gossiping attitude and spirit, and to recognize
those words for what they are, sin. And we need
often to recognize the root is that of unbelief,
as is the case here, for they did not believe
that God was able to deliver them from these
circumstances. Remember, these are the same people
that were praising God beside the Red Sea three
days before. But before we jump on them with
too much harshness, we have to consider our own
tendencies, don't we? Here, we all look into
the mirror that God polishes for us in His Word
at Merah. And having seen the human tendency.
Let's not deceive ourselves and just go away,
having looked into the mirror, to forget what
we have observed. In fact, we can say blessed
are those who experience meras in life, who go
through the afflictions, sorrows, disappointments,
and heartaches that life entails. You say, what
do you mean blessed are they that have merahs?
Rather blessed are they that avoid them. Had
there been no merah, how would they have learned
God's grace to bring healing to bitter waters?
To have no merahs is to miss the personal, experiential
knowledge of God's marvelous grace. To have no
meras is to be without sympathy for the fellow
pilgrim who faces his. To have no meras is to
have no ability to encourage another who suffers
and who is laid low in the trial of God. Yes,
rather, count it all joy when you fall into various
kinds of meras. God wants to bring blessing to
our lives. That is the attitude, the loving attitude
of God for all of us. Sometimes God brings blessing
to us by a miracle at the Red Sea, and sometimes
God brings blessing to us by taking us through
a dry desert to a bitter spring. Whichever way
God designs to bring the blessing, the principle
is the same, that obedience brings blessing.
And disobedience brings discipline. That's what
he says basically in verse 26. But isn't God
good? Even when you and I come to our trials,
to our meres, and we fail, He is there to graciously
provide anyway. That's what He did for the people
of Israel. And it may be that you are passing
through one of those wilderness experiences this
morning or that you have come to a bitter, nasty,
brackish, distasteful experience in your life.
I want you to know that the Lord is near and
that if you will simply pray to Him, He will
open your eyes that you might see His provision
near at hand. Which, if you will appropriate
it, will sweeten those waters that you cannot
now possibly drink, so you think. God's provision
is near you this morning. Open your eyes to see
it. Indeed, open your eyes to see Him who on
the tree, the cross, bore our sins and our sorrows.
That cross of Jesus Christ is available today
to sweeten the waters of your present experience.
But what you need to do, as it were, is to cut
it down and throw it into the waters. You need
to apply it to yourself. Will you do that? Name
the tune that's in your life today. Is it a hymn
of worship? Or is it the blues of complaint?
Or is it some other tune? Whatever the tune is,
my prayer is that we're playing from God's music.
Let's bow together. Listen real close. to the
tune that's in your life this morning. Is that
a tune that is honoring God? Is it a tune of
joyful worship and praise? Or is it a tune of
compromise and disobedience? Or is it a tune
of complaints and bitterness? Will you bring
that tune to the Lord? Will you allow Him to
restore you to Himself by an honest confession
of your sin? By an appropriation of the cross
of Jesus Christ, if you're a child of God, to
bring to Him those experiences that have caused
you to be angry or hurt, and to sacrifice them
at the cross for Jesus' sake. There is no sorrow
like His that He bore for you. He's able to identify
with all you're passing through at this time.
Bring them to Him today. If you're not a Christian,
your need is to bring the song of sin. with all
of its discord and disharmony, to Him, to Christ,
to recognize that He died for you and rose again,
that He might save you and be the Lord of your
life and bring a new song to you, the song of
redemption. Will you do that? Sing with me this
chorus, will you? everybody sing praise to the
Lord everybody sing praise to the Lord everybody
sing praise to He's wonderful at Merah as much
as at the Red Sea. Open your eyes, friend, see
Him today. Sing with me again. reach up and touch
Him, and say, Will you open your eyes today and
see him as that tree that God has provided right
there at your mirror? Won't you give that experience
to him and let him sweeten it in your life? Father
I pray today whatever the tune may be that it's
music you've written That we're not playing the
world's tunes that we're not in the devil's chorus,
but that our song is one of praise and worship
and gratitude to you for whatever circumstances
we're in today. Help us to appreciate the tests
that you take us through. And thank you for your
grace so that when we do fail them, you're there
to pick us up and to give us a new beginning
to take us on. Some of us are at that place today.
Thank you for your faithfulness to take us on
in our journey with you. Thank you for this time
of worship this morning. We love you and we want
our lives to be a melody of thanksgiving and
praise every day to your worthy name. Amen.