When the angel Gabriel told Mary that she would have a son, he said, speaking of Jesus, he shall be great and shall be called the Son of the highest. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever.
And of his kingdom there shall be no end. You know, the world has had its great empires. Some have boasted dazzling wealth, others have conquered with leopard like speed.
And still others have crushed out all competitors to rule for centuries. Yet all of these have ultimately come to their end. How is it then that we can be sure God's kingdom will last literally for all eternity? Can this really be true? Our hymn for today, Crown him with Many Crowns, answers these questions from the Bible.
Stay with me to discover how its heavenly harmonies can keep you near to the heart of God. Today we are looking at part three of our series called Historical Foundations of Present Truth. And before we get into looking at our hymn for today, I want to consider a little more closely why this history is so important.
And so let's have a look at Revelation 14 and verse 6, the first verse of the summary message that is to prepare God's people for the return of Christ. Revelation, chapter 14 and verse 6. And I'm going to remind you as we look at this verse of another verse, Isaiah, chapter one and verse 18, which says, Come now and let us reason together.
So when we study the Bible, we need to dig deeply to find the greatest, its greatest spiritual treasures. So I wonder if you can hear the history in this verse. Let's consider it Revelation chapter 14 and verse 6, which says, and I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth.
Now it's in that section. Did you hear the history part? Well, it's found in the word everlasting, the everlasting Gospel. And so you know, just how old is the gospel, which is the good news of God's plan to save people, planet and the universe from the devastating effects of sin? Well, the Bible leaves us in no doubt as to this.
Titus, chapter one and verse two speaks of the hope that we have of eternal life, which it says, the Apostle Paul speaking in that verse, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. It goes back. The gospel goes back.
The plan of the gospel goes back before our world began. First Peter 1:20 says that Jesus, who died for us as we'll be exploring today, he says that he verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world. That's speaking about the death of Christ there.
Revelation 13, verse 8 speaks of Jesus as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. So the gospel is as old as God himself, because as Romans 1, 16 and 17 says, the gospel reveals the righteousness, or in other words, the character of God. And actually Romans chapter 16 speaks about how it is the unfolding of the mystery which has been kept silent through ages eternal.
And so God has always had this plan in mind to save human beings if they should choose to forsake him, to rebel against him, choose to sin and thus ruin themselves. God has always had this plan, this amazing plan of the Gospel. And so.
So it's really important for us to understand these historical foundations of present truth, because they contain vital lessons for us living at the end of time. And so that's why God has seen fit to record these things for us in his holy word. So let's review what we have discovered in our two programmes in this season so far, and then we're going to see how our hymn for today builds on this.
So really, I would just remind you that this season, really, the whole. All of the episodes from Heavenly Harmonies, they all relate to each other. And, you know, in this season, we're tracing through these historical foundations of present truth.
So I have put these programmes together into a particular order so that you can get the most out of these hymns and be tracing through this gospel story, this gospel narrative, which is the theme of the whole Bible. So, reviewing what we've looked at so far, do you remember if you've watched the first episode in this season, do you remember the first hymn? It is Lead on, O King Eternal. And we discovered that living on planet Earth, we are centre stage in the great cosmic battle between good and evil.
In order to be victorious in this battle, we need to be clothed with the spiritual armour that's described in Ephesians 6, 10, 18. And we saw in that programme that every part of that armour is connected to the word of God. And so this brings us to the key purpose of Heavenly Harmonies.
That's why we had this programme right at the beginning of the season, because the programme is not primarily about music. In fact, in Heavenly Harmonies, music is merely an avenue to access the word of God. And so this programme is designed to help you realise the promise of Colossians 3, verse 16 in your life when it says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
And we do that through sacred song. And so the good news about this is that you do not need musical training to gain blessings from Sacred Song and from this programme. This is not just a programme for musicians, this is a programme for everyone.
And no matter what your background, what your opportunities have been, you can still make music a part of your Christian experience. And what I hope to do as well, in this season and in future seasons is to bring out more the unique features of hymns that can help you to. That can help to bring the word of God, the scriptural gems that these hymns contain help to bring those things to your mind.
And so actually, in hymns, there are a number of devices that help to make hymns easier to remember. And, you know, the older we get, the worse our memory tends to get. And I'm discovering that.
So there are actually specific features in hymns that can help us to remember the words of the hymns which memorialise for us the word of God and the scriptural truths that they contain and can help us to remember those things more easily. So one thing in hymns is that there is rhyme. So these are.
So hymns are actually poems set to music, as we've said, and the rhyming scheme actually helps you to. Can help you to remember the words and hymns more easily. Also, many hymns contain repetition and there's actually repetition in our hymn today.
I hope that you will hear that repetition and that that might help you to remember the words of the hymn and thus remember the words of scripture better. So listen really carefully when I speak the words of the hymn shortly, and as we listen to it, at the end of the programme, we will be listening to Fountain View saying, crown him with many crowns. See if you can listen out for that repetition, it can help you to remember the words of the hymns.
So that's another thing. Another thing about hymns is that they do have a metre and so they have quite a regular rhythm and a regular, I guess, beat, you could say. And so the words come sort of like at a regular time.
And that is something else that helps us to remember. Remember the words. And I personally find as well that the music, you know, it's much easier for me to remember a tune of music than it is to remember actual words.
And so the music itself, actually the tune of them, you know, the tunes of the music that these hymns are set to, that the poems are set to, they help us to remember the words as well. So that's four different things. Rhyme, metre or rhythm, repetition, and the music itself, all those things can help us to remember hymns more easily than just scriptural texts.
And so that can bring the word of God to our mind at just the time when we need It. And I have personally discovered this in times when I've been struggling. Actually, the programmes that I've done on Heavenly Harmonies, the previous ones that I've done, the words of those hymns come back to my mind because I've, you know, researched so thoroughly into them and sung them so many times, I mean, throughout the years of my life, but especially as I was thinking about these programmes.
And so I've been actually so blessed myself from this programme. So I hope that I'm passing on those blessings to you and that you're able to gain these blessings as well. So I want to encourage you, you know, the scriptural truths that I'm sharing with you in this programme, you know, that's.
You know, we have such a short timeframe in this programme, I would encourage you to go and study these things more deeply for yourself and you gain a richer and still richer blessing the more closely you study them. So that was our first episode. Lead on, O King Eternal.
And, yeah, so it's our battle song. Sacred Song is our battle song and it can help us to be victorious as Jehoshaphat's army. You might recall from that programme, Jehoshaphat's army was victorious.
They didn't even need to fight in the battle because the singers went out in front. So let's use Sacred Song and that's the way, for sure to win spiritual victories. And now in our second episode, we learn more about the hope that has lighted the future for God's people through all ages since the entrance of sin to our world.
What was that song? That song, of course, was face to face. It reminds us of the hope of the Second Coming. Of course, that's the hope, the longing that we all look forward to.
As we read earlier in Luke chapter one, in verse 33, when Christ finally establishes his kingdom on glory here on this earth made new, that kingdom will have no end. But how can this be? Well, our hymn for today tells us more, so let's go through its words now, and then we will study these in more detail. So crown him with many crowns Crown him with many crowns the Lamb upon his throne Hark, how the heavenly anthem Drowns all music but its own Awake my soul and sing of him who died for thee and hail him as thy matchless king throughout eternity Crown him the Lord of love Behold his hands and side those wounds yet visible above in beauty glorified no angel in the sky can fully bear that sight but downward bends his wondering eye at mysteries so great Crown him the Lord of Peace Whose hand A sceptre sways from pole to pole that wars may cease and all be prayer and praise his reign shall know no end and round his pierced feet Fair flowers of paradise Extend their fragrance ever sweet Crown him, the Lord of years, the Potentate of time Creator of the rolling spheres Ineffably sublime All hail Redeemer.
Hail. For Thou hast died for me. Thy praise shall never, never fail throughout eternity.
What a glorious hymn that is. I hope you heard the repetition right there at the beginning of every verse. Speaks about crown him, crown him with something.
So crown him with many crowns. And so that opening line brings us actually to the first point that we want to draw out of this hymn. We've only got time to look at just a few key points in this hymn.
So the first one is based on this, that very first phrase there. Crown him with many crowns. Let's have a look at where that comes from in Scripture.
So let's have a look. Turn with me, if you have your Bible, to Revelation, chapter 19. And we're going to be looking at verses 11 and 12.
Revelation, chapter 19 and verses 11 and 12. Now this is a description of the Second Coming. And in this description there are a number of symbols, but there's also some literal language that refers to this idea of crowning with many crowns.
That's what we're going to look at and what we're going to focus on today. So verse 11 says, and I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse. And he that sat upon him was called faithful and true.
And in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that no man knew but He Himself.
Now notice there that it says in verse 12 that on the head of this being, the one who's called faithful and true, who would that be apart from Jesus? This is a symbolic depiction of Jesus, but we see that it describes that on his head were many crowns. And so that's the part that's really significant to this song. And it's also good that it points us to the Second coming, because that's the hope that we're looking forward to and that's what we are actually preparing for as living at this time in Earth's history.
That's we know that that is present truth. And so we see in these verses that there is this glorious multi tiered crown which we understand that Jesus will wear as a literal crown when he comes again. Now our.
And so that's what our hymn's saying when it says, crown Jesus with many crowns and now. But what I also love about this hymn is how it uses this idea of many crowns. It sort of uses each of the crowns as a symbol of some different aspect of Christ's character.
And so sort of draws attention to that through this idea of the many crowns. And Jesus is to be crowned. In verse 2, it says, Crown him the Lord of love.
Verse 3 says, Crown him, the Lord of peace. And verse 4 says, Crown him, the Lord of Years, the potentate of time. Yes, because God is the creator of all things.
And so, yeah, he created time as well as things that are visible. It says in Colossians that he created invisible things, too, which is time. And so he is worthy to be crowned as our king for all of these reasons.
Now, I hope that as well, you heard in that hymn that there are three different references to the amount of time that this kingdom that Christ is coming to set up will last. And so verse one says, hail him as thy matchless king through all eternity. And verse three says, his reign shall know no end.
Verse four, right at the end of the song, says, thy praise, speaking directly to God. Thy praise shall never, never fail throughout eternity. Now, these we already read, Luke, chapter 1, verses 32 to 33, where the angel Gabriel said to Mary that the kingdom of Christ would have no end.
Now, that's actually a quote from the book of Daniel that's really significant because Gabriel was actually the one that brought messages to Daniel. But So Daniel, chapter two, verse 44, Gabriel's not actually mentioning this chapter, but he's mentioning later chapters. Daniel, chapter 2.
And verse 44 speaks about God's kingdom. And it says that the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in peace and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. And there's other verses, Daniel, Chapter 7, and other places as well in the Bible where it talks about how God's kingdom will be eternal.
And so that's kind of like the second point that I want to highlight. So the first point is that this song is. It reminds us of the second coming and of that glorious day when we will see Christ our King.
He is the King of kings and Lord of Lords. And he will be clothed or, you know, crowned. He'll be clothed with, yeah, a beautiful white mantle, we understand.
And, yeah, he would just, you know, rather than the light, but he will have on his head this beautiful, beautiful crown. So that's the first point points us to the second coming. The second point that I wanted to bring out is the eternal nature of Christ's kingdom.
But the third point I want to focus on is really, why is this? Why is it that God's kingdom will last forever? Well, I guess the kind of like the first answer to that would be, well, God's eternal. And so only he can set up a kingdom that's actually eternal. Only he can be like an eternal king.
But it's not only because God is eternal that his kingdom lasts forever, but it's also because of his character. And I think this is brought out most fully in verse two. So we're going to spend the rest of the short time that we have to discuss this looking at verse two, which says, crown him, that is Jesus, the Lord of love.
And, you know, God's love is revealed all through the Bible, is revealed all through the Gospel story, but it is most fully revealed at Calvary. And there are many references to the sufferings of Christ on Calvary and the glory that result from those in this hymn. And so continuing on with that second verse, crown him, the Lord of love.
Behold his hands and side. So, you know that, like, I'm sure many people, even if they're not Christians, would have seen pictures of Christ hanging up on the cross. So Christ was crucified on a cross.
Now, it does not tell us actually in the Gospels that when he was. When he was crucified that they actually nailed him to the cross. But it says In Psalm chapter 22 and verse 16, this is a prophetic psalm.
It's pointing forward to Christ and his crucifixion. And it says, there they pierced my hands and my feet. And we also know from a story in the Gospel of John and recorded in chapter 20 there, that Thomas was not with the other disciples, the other 12 disciples, the other 10, it would be as Judas had committed suicide when they first saw Christ after his resurrection.
And so Thomas, you know, they were all telling Thomas, you know, we've seen Christ, he's been raised from the dead. But Thomas said, oh, I'm not going to believe it unless I can, you know, actually put my finger into the prints in Christ's hand or in his forearm. And unless I can touch him in his side.
And so then when Christ did appear to the rest of the disciples and Thomas a week later, Christ showed Thomas his hands and his side where he had scars from the nails and from a spear when the soldier thrust him through with a spear. So I hope that you've got time to look up these verses. We're running out of time.
But so we see from that that Christ was, we understand, pierced through his hands. And we also understand that he was pierced through his feet. And the soldier thrust the spear into his side and that those wounds are still visible.
That's what our song says. Those wounds yet visible above in beauty glorified. And so these marks of Christ's humiliation will actually be his greatest honour throughout eternity.
So look, there's so many other things that refer to the crucifixion of Christ. There's many other pictures in this song that refer to the crucifixion of Christ. I'll have to leave you to find those by yourself because we now need to pause and listen to Fountain View as they sing for us.
There's a beautiful song, so I hope that this will remind you of Christ. He is indeed the Lord of love. And it's because of his love shown especially on Calvary, that his kingdom will last forever.
Because we will never again want to disown Christ. So let's now listen to Fountain View as they sing. Crown him with many crowns, Round him with many vows Ro music and in the thy dash crown in the Lord of peace who send a sceptre SW from all to all that his rage shall know nowhere and round his Fierce Ever sweet.
First John 4, verse 19 says, we love him because he first loved us. Christ's kingdom will be eternal because he is truly the Lord of love. Let's thank him for his love now.
Dear God, we're so grateful for the love that you have shown to us, especially for the love of Christ shown on the cross of Calvary. Please help us, dear Lord, to return that love. In praise and adoration I pray, in Jesus name.
Amen. Thank you so much for joining me today on Heavenly Harmonies. Remember, you can find past episodes on our website.
3abnaustralia.org.au Click the Listen button, select Heavenly Harmonies from the list of programmes and we'd love to hear from you. Remember to email us at
[email protected].
I'd love for you to join me again next time when we continue our saga, Historical Foundations of Present Truth. But until then, may your soul be filled with heavenly harmonies that will hold you near to the heart of God.
