BY DAMIEN JOHNSON

The following was presented originally as a sermon at the Seabrook Seventh-day Adventist Church in Seabrook, Maryland. We retain many of the elements of oral delivery. -Editors.

"And they sang a new song before the throne" (Rev. 14:3, NIV).

N CONTRAST TO A WORLD WHERE EVERYbody can sing, John hears a song that only a select group can sing. There's a divine copyright on this song. It's imitation-proof. Fake-proof. You can't sing this song if you're not real. In Revelation 14 there's no longer a dichotomy between song and life. The copyright stipulates that everyone who sings this song is singing what they live and living what they sing.

No more singing "When we all get to heaven" while you're hating your brother! No more singing "Turn your eyes upon Jesus" while your eyes are fixed on your neighbor's wife! No more singing "I love the Lord" while you love everything else more than God! The song is divinely copyrighted, patented, imitation-proof. John says that only a select group is able to sing this song in the Holy City. I can sing all I want now. But if I'm not singing up there, all this singing down here doesn't matter.

The song is unique. Exclusive. And there are three other things about it:

1. It's Got to be Learned. It says in verse 3: "No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth." Two things here: (a) they had to learn the song, and (b) those who learn it are the folks from the earth.

As John is observing the saints singing on Mount Zion, he notices that they did not come there with the instant ability to sing and perform the piece. They had to learn it. And what makes this group capable of learning the song is their experience on the earth. Part of what qualifies them and makes them able to learn the song is what they went through here, right now, on this planet. Sister White says that in The Great Controversy several times--that their singing comes from their experience. So although this song is new, its composition begins right here.

What am I doing today? How is my life today? Where is my mind today? What experience am I having on the earth today? Revelation 7:14 says: "They . . . come out of . . . great tribulation" (NIV). And it's that experience in tribulation that makes them capable of learning this new song. The song doesn't instantly materialize in your mind once you get to glory. If you haven't been marching to Zion here, consistently and faithfully, you cannot learn the song. If you have not been trusting and obeying God here, you cannot learn the song.

What are we doing today? This is where the composition begins. This is where your rehearsal begins, choir [addressing members of the choir]. You didn't get to this point just because you came up here today and started singing. You didn't just throw this together today, did you, my brother [addressing the choir director]? It took some rehearsing. It took some practice. It took coming into this house and singing when nobody's in the pew. It took going over it, over and over. Come on, say amen, choir! [Applause.]

Life today is a rehearsal. We are right now rehearsing for this song. When you go to work, my brother and sister, and the boss is getting on your nerves, it's a rehearsal! Hold your peace. Hold your tongue. You're rehearsing right now. When the people are talking about you in the next cubicle, hold your peace. It's a rehearsal, my brother, my sister. When you're hurting inside, when somebody hurts your feelings, don't strike back! It's a rehearsal. Practice getting ready now, tuning up, to sing that new song. Somebody's sick, somebody's hurting; don't get mad! It's rehearsing for the song, the new song.

We were planning to buy a digital piano for the youth chapel at my home church. And I was going to meet our pianist at a music store out there in Alexandria (Virginia) so he could point out the particular piano. I got there before him, noticed the piano he'd pointed out in the magazine, and decided I would go over and test it out, see how it sounds. I'm not a musician, but I went over and started touching the keys, and it just didn't sound anything extraordinary to me. The pianist had some high recommendations for the instrument; it's talked up in the magazine. But I wasn't getting a whole lot from this.

As I'm standing there hitting some of the notes, the pianist comes in. He comes over and just casually touches the keys. Immediately the sound changed! I said, "Man! That's a good product! That's a good piano!" What made the difference was the masterful hands of the musician.

See, I didn't practice for years. I didn't sit in front of a piano and just play with the keys for hours. I didn't sit in practice after practice and lesson after lesson. I didn't learn how to play! But this man has been playing for years! He'd taken the lessons. He'd done the practice. He was prepared. He didn't just walk up that day and start playing.

My brother and my sister, if you can't have family worship for 15, 20 minutes a day, how you going to sing "Holy, holy, holy" before the throne of God all day long? It doesn't work! If I can't forgive my brother today, if I can't let go of some grudges, if I can't bury some hatchet today, how am I gonna sing that song? Because this song is going to be sung with people who hurt you in this life. When you sing this song, you're gonna be harmonizing with folk who did you wrong, who disrespected you. How are you gonna do that if you can't let go of some stuff today? If you're not walking with God now, how you gonna spend eternity with Him? If you can't pray for five minutes when you get up, how are you gonna commune with God for an eternity?

The composition of that song starts here in the earth. When we get up there, it's just the culmination of all the old songs, the grand culmination of what we learned here and where God has taken us in this land.

2. It's Inspired by God's Great Salvation. David talks about "a new song." And he mentions it several times in the Psalms, so that means it was on his mind. Go to Psalm 40:3. What I want you to see in these references in the Psalms is that every time David talks about this new song, he tells us what inspired it.

Listen to this: "He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord" (NIV). But in verses 1 and 2 he tells us what inspired the new song: "I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand" (NIV). That's what inspired the new song.

Look at Psalm 98:1: "Sing to the Lord a new song." Why? Listen: "for he has done marvelous things" (NIV). Are you listening? Verse 2: "The Lord has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations" (NIV). So again he tells us, "I'm gonna sing a new song" and he tells us why. He tells us what inspired it, what motivated it.

We find this pattern repeated over and over in David's writings. Every time he talks about a new song he gives the inspiration for it, and the inspiration is always the salvation of God.

When we hit the gates of heaven, it's God's salvation that will inspire us to sing this new song. And you know what? That's what makes this song unique. Because for the first time we will fully realize what we've been saved from. We think we know now what God saved us from. "God delivered me from this, God delivered me from that." My brother, my sister, you have no idea what God has saved you from! You have no idea the depth to which you could have sunk in this world if God hadn't intervened and brought you out. You don't understand what God has delivered you from. And you won't know until you get to that grand and glorious city in the sky; until God fully reveals where you might have been; until God shows you why He kept you sick at home that night when you wanted to go out; until He shows you where you were gonna wind up. Only then will you understand what God took you from. Then you will understand, then you will fully recognize, and then you will be inspired to sing. Are you listening to me, my brothers and sisters?

You can't sing this song here, because you don't fully know what God has done for your life. I can thank God for saving me in the church. I can thank God that I'm here in the house of God. I can thank God that I'm up here preaching the word. But my brother, my sister, when God pulls the curtain off in glory and shows me where I might have been--oh, man! Somebody's gonna learn to shout! Somebody's gonna learn to sing in this house, because they will understand what God saved them from!

You know, people can't praise, because they don't know how God has saved them. If you haven't been redeemed from anything, what you got to praise for? What you got to open your mouth for? Why must you say "Hallelujah" and "Praise the Lord" and "Amen"? Why must you?

Oh, but when you get up there, it'll be almost involuntary. When you see where God has brought you. You don't even know, but God lifted you! God brought you out of stuff you never imagined! When you look at CNN and see some of these horrific crimes and some of these hideous folk on the TV, some of the evil and brutal stuff that they have committed, and you get to glory, and God shows you that you had the same inclination, the same bent! But He caught you before you got there! He caught you, pulled you up! The psalmist said, "He lifted me up out of the mud, out of the mire, out of the muck!"

And that's why John saw them singing. When they realize what God has saved them from.

3. It's New Because the Singers are New. The song is new, not just because the lyrics are new, but because the people who sing are new.

Somebody ought to be rejoicing in here. Because I know my life, I know my faults, I know my weaknesses. I know what troubles my soul each day. Some of you may be in touch with that. My brothers and sisters, the Bible says that we are gonna be new. There's gonna be a new Damien Johnson singing a new song!

It's like a king who leaves his throne, goes down into the city, into the slums, and walks through the alley. And he sees an old bum playing an old, beat-up trumpet, playing the same old song over and over. Sounds terrible. Same old busted-up song, busted-up notes, over and over. And the king says, "I want to buy that trumpet. I'm gonna pay enough for it to put you in a mansion. I want that trumpet."

"You mean this trumpet? This beat-up, rusty old thing, dents all in it, pieces missing, can't get one good note out--this trumpet?"

"Yes, that trumpet. I'll give you a whole lot of money for it." And he buys that trumpet, takes it home, and gives it to his son. The master craftsman gives it to his son. He says, "I want you to fix this trumpet up for me."

So the son takes it into his workroom. He's working on brass now, and he starts fixing that trumpet up. Puts a new mouthpiece on it. Starts working out the dents. Starts putting some new valves in it. Starts scrubbing it, putting some wax on it. Then he starts buffing it, polishing the trumpet. Don't you understand, the Bible says that God will take you like gold and polish you and refine you. The craftsman now is working on the trumpet! Polishing that trumpet, cleaning that trumpet, getting the dents out. He's rounding the mouth of that trumpet. He's getting it together now!

And then finally the day comes: the trumpet is ready. The son takes that shiny brass trumpet and brings it to the father, with the father's name inscribed on it.

I'm talking about your life today! You didn't know that! I'm talking about my life!

He takes that trumpet to the father and says, "Father, here's your trumpet."

I can see God: "Ah, yes! Looks good, Son. I can't wait to blow it." Huh? On that day, God takes that trumpet--nice and shiny now--puts it to His mouth (you know what I'm talkin' about, brother), puts it to His mouth, and this time when He blows, it's not the same ol' song. It's not the same old busted-up melody. It's not the same old thing that the devil had you doing over and over and over in this world. There's a new song coming out of that trumpet! A melodious song! A grand song! Are you listening to me?

Listen to me right now. Your heart is rusted with selfishness and pride. Your life today, my brother and sister, might be corroded with lust and envy. Your life's bent up, dented up, riddled with bends and dents and marks from perversity. But the Master Craftsman, right now, has got you in His shop.

Don't fret, my brother and sister. You're going to leave here, and the devil's gonna get on your nerves. You're going back to work during the week, and you know it's gonna be trouble waiting for you. But the Master Craftsman--mmm! Working on you right now. And when He gets done, you gonna sing a new song!

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Damien E. Johnson is an associate pastor of the Seventh-day Adventist Community Praise Center in Alexandria, Virginia.