Hello, I'm Dr. Kylie Fisher. Welcome to Heavenly Harmonies, a series designed to help you draw nearer to the heart of God through the music of hymns.
The Bible presents God as the source of life, of wisdom, and of joy. When we look at the wonderful and beautiful things of nature, we catch glimpses of what this earth was like when God first made it. This beauty is celebrated in the magnificent hymn joy to the world.
Stay with me as we explore its message today. The hymn joy to the world is one of the most popular carols sung at Christmas time. But when the great Isaac Watts wrote this hymn, he intended it to speak of the second coming of Christ and the establishment of God's eternal kingdom.
However, there are many aspects to this song that do apply also to the first advent of Christ, when Jesus was born as a baby in Bethlehem. Many people do not realize that there are actually two aspects to the kingdom of God. The Bible does indeed speak of a time when there will be no more pain, suffering, and death.
That is a day we all look forward to. In the Bible, this is called the Kingdom of Glory. I hope to speak more about that in upcoming programs.
The Kingdom of Glory is still future, but when Jesus came to earth the first time, mark chapter one and verse 14 and 15 says, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying, the kingdom of God is at hand. So here Jesus was saying that the kingdom of God is at hand the first time that he came to earth. What does this mean? Well, in many of Jesus'parables he said, the kingdom of God is like such and such.
It's like a mustard seed. It's like treasure hidden in a field. It's like leaven, etc.
And so in these parables, the phrase the kingdom of God refers to God's work of grace in our hearts. We could call it the kingdom of grace. And in order to enter the kingdom of Glory, there's actually a work of preparation that needs to go on in our hearts.
And so that's the work of the kingdom of grace. That's the work that happens here on earth in this liFe. And so let's find out what this magnificent hymn, joy to the world, has to say about the coming of Christ to the earth the first time, his first advent, and how he works in our hearts.
So let's have a look at this hymn. And also this hymn speaks to us and tells us about the, I think that it kind of tells us about, well, God's first creation, what the world was first like when God made it. But it also tells us about the tragedy of sin.
It explains that which we sort of alluded to in our last program, but we didn't really talk about it very much. We just kind of brushed over it. So let's have a look at this magnificent hymn.
So joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let earth receive her king. Let every heart prepare him room.
And heaven and nature sing. And heaven and nature sing. And heaven and heaven and nature sing.
So this hymn starts out with joy. And here we see that joy is associated with God. Now, that might seem rather unusual and in fact, the opposite to what we often hear, because we often hear that sin is a lot of fun and that the devil wants us to have fun and God's way is boring.
But is that the only way to look at it? Is that actually true? Let's have a look in God's word, the Bible, and see what it has to say about this. So, Psalm, chapter 16 and verse eleven. This is a wonderful verse.
Psalm 16 and verse eleven. It says, thou wilt show me the path of life. In thy presence is fullness of joy.
At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. Now, the Bible also says, romans 323, that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So we've all done wrong things.
And so I certainly would be the first to confess that I've done wrong things in my life. And sometimes when we do wrong things, it can seem like fun at first, and we might sort of feel a sense in a bit of an adrenaline rush and like we're really independent and so forth. But what I like about this verse is that it says that at God's hand, God's right hand, there are pleasures forevermore.
And when we do wrong things, we might sort of feel that initial excitement. But then that kind of wears off and you start to feel emptiness inside. You start to realize the pain that your wrongs are causing other people.
And all of a sudden, those things that seem like fun are not really so much fun anymore. But here we see that when we walk in God's way, that there are pleasures forever more. And it's not just that fleeting pleasure that you have, that's not even really pleasure in sin, but it's a true, lasting joy.
So what we find from our experience is that we find out from our experience that these truths that are expressed in the Bible. And we might wonder, well, how does God know that? How does he know that these things are always going to bring us joy? And we can see an answer to that in this song because the song goes, joy to the world. The Lord is come, let earth receive her king.
So God is spoken about here as the Lord and the king. And those are very appropriate titles because God is the creator of our world. And there's many, many Bible verses that speak about God as creator.
And right from the beginning of the Bible, in the very first verse we have there in Genesis one, verse one. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. There's many, many other verses.
So God is the creator of our world. He created human beings, and he designed all of the things in nature to all work together and to all experience joy. And in fact, this song, as I mentioned in the introduction, it has references to creation, really throughout the song.
In verse one talks about heaven and nature sing. And so let's think about what was the world like when God first created it? Because in our last program, we were talking about the issue of evil and why is there evil in the world if God is good? And we're going to find out a bit more of an answer to that today. So let's just have a look.
What was the world like when God first made it? And we read in Genesis, chapter one and verse 31, Genesis one, verse 31, God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was Very good. So EVERyTHINg that God had made WAS VeRy good. In fact, there was no thorns and thistles and things like this.
Those things didn't come in until sin came into the world. But anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself there in that story. So what I'm going to do now is actually to read from this beautiful book, the desire of ages.
NoW, THIS IS OuR FREE GiFT OFFER. So if you're living in Australia, you can write into us if you do not have a copy of the desire of Ages, and you can request free copy of this book. And at this stage, the offer is limited to the first 100 people to write in.
So we do ask for those that might already have a copy. Please leave the copy for somebody else. But don't delay to write in.
If you would like to request a copy and you don't have a copy of the desire of Ages, remember, you can write to us at
[email protected] au that's
[email protected] au Unfortunately, that free offer is only for those living in Australia.
And so I'm going to read from this beautiful book, the desire of Ages, about what the earth was like at the beginning. THIS IS on page 20. It says in the beginning, God was revealed in all the works of creation.
It was Christ that spread the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. It was his hand that hung the worlds in space and fashioned the flowers of the field. His strength, status fast, the mountains, the sea is his, and he made it.
It was he that filled the earth with beauty and the air with song. ANd upon all things in earth and air and sky, he wrote the MESsage of the FAthER's Love. And actually last week as well, in our program last week about it came upon the midnight clear.
We spoke a lot about angels, but one thing that I didn't mention last week, I was saving it for this program is the Angel's response to the Earth when it was first created. And we find that actually in job, chapter 38 and verse seven. And it says there that the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.
So the angels rejoiced to see the fair new Earth as it came from the creator's hand. And so, as we've been reading there, in the desire of Ages and also in the Bible, nature actually testifies of her Creator. And this is expanded in verse two of our hymn for today, Joy to the world.
This says, joy to the earth, the Savior reigns. Let men their songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains repeat the sounding joy. Let's just think about how is it that nature testifies of her creator? What do all these things in nature do? And this is expanded further in the desire of ages.
And this is just such a beautiful passage. I'm going to read quite a lot today from the desire of ages. So continuing on, on page 20 says, now, sin has marred God's perfect work, yet that handwriting remains even now.
All created things declare the glory of His Excellence. There is nothing save the selfish heart of man that lives unto itself, no bird that clears the air, no animal that moves upon the ground but ministers to some other life. There is no leaf of the forest or lowly blade of grass, but has its ministry.
Every tree and shrub and leaf porths forth that element of life without which neither man nor animal could live. And man and animal in turn minister to the life of tree and shrub and leaf. The flowers breathe fragrance and unfold their beauty in blessing to the world.
The sun sheds its light to gladden a thousand worlds. The ocean itself, the source of all our springs and fountains, receives the streams from every land, but takes to give the mists ascending from its bosom, fall in showers to water the earth that it may bring forth and bud. And so we see here that everything in nature gives, which is kind of opposite to what we sometimes hear.
We sometimes hear that these things in nature are all in competition with each other, but I would say that they're actually cooperating well, that there is a sense of cooperation. We will be talking shortly about that there is evil. We do see evil today in this world.
But originally, as God designed it, there was complete harmony amongst everything. And even today, as it said, there, sin has marred God's perfect work. Yet that handwriting remains.
And so still we see things working for the good of others. And so that's the things in nature, but also angels. The angels of glory find their joy in giving, giving love, and tireless watch care to souls that are fallen.
And unholy. Heavenly beings Woo the hearts of men. They bring to this dark world light from the courts above.
By gentle and patient ministry, they move upon the human spirit to bring the lost into a fellowship with Christ, which is even closer than they themselves can know. And this book then goes on to talk about Christ and how he represents the Father's love. Turning from all lesser representations, we behold God in Jesus.
So the book continues on like that. And so all of these things are reflections of the love of God and the love of Christ also. So it's wonderful to think about how all of these things are, all things in nature are cooperating.
They're giving to each other. But we have mentioned that sin has marred that handiwork. And verse three of our song for today brings this into the picture.
It says, no more let sin and sorrow grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found. So how did sin enter this perfect and beautiful world? Well, we spoke last, in our last program a lot about angels, and we spoke about how the angels, as a General rule, obey God.
But sadly, there was one angel, though, even though he was created perfect, chose to rebel against God, and he led many other angels, actually one third of the angels, into rebellion also. And so let's just have a look at how this happened. So we've been talking about the law of Love, and this law of Love is really the law by which the universe lives.
And so when we look at God, Christ said of himself, I do nothing of myself. The living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father. I seek not my own glory, but the glory of him that sent me.
In these words is set forth the great principle which is the law of life for the universe. All things Christ received from God, but he took to give, and so that's the law of love. That's the law of love taking to give.
And so actually in heaven itself, this law was broken. Sin originated in self seeking. Lucifer, the covering cherub, desired to be first in heaven.
He sought to gain control of heavenly beings, to draw them away from their Creator and to win their homage to himself. Therefore, he misrepresented God, attributing to him the desire for self exhortation. With his own evil characteristics, he sought to invest the loving Creator.
Thus he deceived angels. Thus he deceived men. He led them to doubt the word of God and to distrust his goodness.
Because God is a God of justice and terrible majesty. Satan caused them to look upon him as severe and unforgiving. Thus he drew men to join him in rebellion against God.
And the night of woe settled down upon the world. The earth was dark. Through misapprehension of God, we can read about how sin entered the world.
You can read about that in Genesis chapter three. And that was the start of things like thorns and thistles growing. And really, that's what this third verse is talking about.
It says, no more let sin and sorrow grow, nor thorns infest the ground. So even when we're doing ordinary things, like doing weeding and caring for our gardens and things like this, we're working to help the earth. We're working to make others happy.
We're working to show what God's character is truly like. He doesn't really want these things to be there. And if Christ is really working in our hearts, then we will be glad to be doing those things.
We will be glad to be caring for the beautiful world that he's made. And we'll be looking forward to the time when, well, what it speaks about in the fourth verse of this song. So let's have a look at this fourth and final verse of this song, which says he rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and wonders of his love.
And so let's just look at a couple of Bible verses about this. And we were speaking in our last program, actually, I quoted this Bible verse as well, Psalm 103 and verse 19. And last week we looked at the beginning of this verse.
We said, the Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens and his kingdom ruleth over all. And so even today, even despite the fact that there is sin in this world, we can see from Bible prophecy that God is ultimately its ruler. And let's just have a look at Daniel chapter two and verse 21.
Because Daniel is wonderful book, and it has a real message for us living today. The whole Bible does. But this book and the Book of Revelation in particular are end time books.
And here, well, let's pick it up. In verse 20, Daniel answered and said, blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are his. And he changeth the times and the seasons.
He removeth kings and setteth up kings. He giveth wisdom unto the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding. So God as king is still ruling over all.
Even though there's bad things that happen, somehow in God's sovereign wisdom, he is able to bring those things about for good. Maybe you've heard the Bible verse that says, all things work together for good to them that love God and that are called according to his purpose. And so even though there are bad things that happen, God somehow turns these things about for good.
But the Bible also promises that there is a better world to come. And that's also spoken about actually in this first chapter of the desire of ages and page 26. Through Christ's redeeming work, the government of God stands justified.
The Omnipotent one is made known as the God of Love. Satan's charges are refuted and his character unveiled. So we will see the truth.
We are now seeing the truth about sin that doesn't bring us happiness and joy. It has that momentary adrenaline rush. But really, God is the author of True and of Lasting Joy, and the work of redemption will be complete.
In the place where sin abounded, God's grace much more abounds. The earth itself, the very field that Satan claims is his, is to be not only ransomed, but exalted. Our little world under the curse of sin, the one dark blot in his glorious creation, will be honored above all other worlds in the universe of God.
And you can read actually in Revelation, Chapter One, chapter 21 and 22 about the New world that God will make. John says that he saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven, the first earth, had passed away.
So that's a wonderful, wonderful time for us to look forward to. And even today, despite the terrible things that are happening on this earth, we can take comfort and hope in the fact that God is still the ruler and that we can trust him with our lives. So let's just quickly recap before you listen to this wonderful hymn, we're going to listen once again to classic carols singing the hymn joy to the world.
But just before we do that, let's consider how we might musically express these ideas and just sort of a quick summary of these different verses that we've looked at. So we've got four verses that we've discussed. And in verse one, joy to the world the Lord is come let earth receive her king.
Now. So this verse, I think, is really because I was trying to think about verse one and verse two. There's quite a lot of similarity, actually between those verses and when you are presenting musical pieces, obviously, also, this is what we call a straphic song, which basically means that the tune for each of the verses is the same.
Sometimes you can have what's called a through composed song where the tune changes as you go through the verses. But particularly in these trophic songs where you're singing the same tune four times, you cannot sing it the same way every time. And so the way to vary it is by thinking about the words.
So when I was thinking about this first verse, I realized that the first verse is really an invitation. Let Earth receive her king let every heart prepare him room. So that vErse, I would say, is focused more on invitation, whereas the second verse is more the realization of that joy to the earth the savior reigns let men their songs employ.
So it's kind of a realization of that. Now, the third verse is speaking about sin no more Let sin and sorrow grow. I feel it here.
This is a kind of. I feel a real sense of nobility in this third verse because it's that time when you're standing up, standing up for the one that's oppressed no more Let sin and sorrow grow and then in the final verse, he rules the world with truth and grace. Very triumphant.
So let's listen now to this beautiful hymn sung by classic carols, and then we'll have our concluding remarks. And prayer has come. Let everything Let every heart be and heaven and nature, nature Joy to the world Stay your son I can forest the Christmas song forever Christy sound forever die and one day I just want to know and what a wonderful message.
Joy to the world and God can bring joy into our hearts. And that's a joy that we can share with others. Let's just close with a brief prayer.
Dear Lord, we're so grateful for your word that tells us the truth, that you bring lasting joy in your presence is fullness of joy. And I just pray for each person listening to this broadcast and for myself, dear Lord, that we may experience this true joy that you offer and that we may be able to share that with others. Thank you so much, dear God, for this amazing privilege.
In Jesus name, amen. Thank you so much for joining me today on heavenly harmonies. You can write to us at radio at three abnostralia.org
au Remember, you can request your free copy of the desire of Ages. If you are in Australia, or if you have a comment, a question, or you've got a story about how hymns have touched your life, feel free to write into us. Or if you would just like to say hello.
And so join me again for our next episode when we discuss another beautiful hymn, O come, O come Emmanuel. But until then, goodbye and God bless.
