Episode Transcript
Hello. I am Doctor Kylie Fisher. Welcome to heavenly harmonies.
Ecclesiastes, chapter three, verses one and the end of verse eight. Say to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven. Verse eight, a time of war and a time of peace.
You know, there are apparent paradoxes in the message of the gospel. How does a God of truth deal with falsehood? How is it that the prince of peace occasions strife? Learn more in our hymn for today. Sound the battle cry.
Stay with me to discover how this song can draw you nearer to the heart of God. In this season, we are looking at the gospel and how it reveals to us the character of God. And yet we see that the gospel, the beautiful message of peace, of salvation, of hope, is going forward against fierce opposition.
And we have looked at in our first episode this season how this conflict between good and evil first arose, how a beautiful, perfect angelic being rebelled against his creator. He deceived a third of the angels. They fell from heaven, and then he then deceived Adam and Eve, the parents of the human race.
And so as a, you know, I guess not as an inevitable result, but as a result of their own choices, every human being on earth has sinned. And so we find ourselves caught up in this battle between good and evil. And our earth is the central theatre, the centre stage of this great battle between good and evil.
The forces of good and evil are battling it out on our earth. And we saw that our saviour came personally to this earth. You know, he was the one that the devil hurled his deadly weapons at, but he could not defeat Christ.
Christ gained the victory at every point, and those victories were gained for us. And we saw that the early church. We saw in last episode that the early church was a pure church.
You know, it's represented in revelation chapter six, as that white horse with the rider having a crown on a crown of victory, and he's going forth, conquering and to conquer. And so that early church was a pure church. It had the pure and beautiful love of Christ.
And when God's church was in that state, it was a power to be contended with. And, you know, there were those, sadly, who did not like the truths that were being presented by the early christians. They rejected the love of Christ, that matchless love of Christ.
And so they persecuted the christians. And yet the christian church continued to grow. And so let's just actually have a quick look at a verse about this.
Matthew, chapter ten and verse 34. Matthew, chapter ten and verse 34. This is Jesus speaking when he was here on earth, speaking to his disciples.
And he was saying to them that when they went out to preach the truths of the gospel, that they were not to expect that these would go forward without opposition. So Jesus in Matthew chapter 1034 says, think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword.
And now, what does that mean? Jesus is the prince of peace. You know, why did he come to bring a sword? What in the world does that mean? Does it mean that we should take physical weapons and fight? No. We've been answering this question.
No, weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are spiritual. But, you know, once we start standing for truth and righteousness, all of a sudden the forces of evil oppose that. And that's where this strife comes in.
The gospel itself is a message of peace. If it's received and practised, it brings peace, but if it's rejected, it leads to war. And so this was the experience in the early christian church.
And so we're going to look once again at the book of revelation because it will help us to understand our song for today, which is sound the battle cry. So let's have a look at the first verse of this song and let's see what this has to say to us and understand it in the context of. Of the Bible truth, and particularly in terms of the time period from about the year 100 AD up to about 538 AD.
So that's the time period that we're particularly looking at, and that I think that this song very aptly applies to, although it applies to our day as well, and all of these time periods, in fact, apply to us today. Let's just have a quick look before we actually do get into our song. Let's just have a quick look at a verse about this.
So, first Corinthians, chapter ten. First Corinthians, chapter ten. Very significant verse here.
First Corinthians, chapter ten. Now, this is talking about. This is the apostle Paul writing, and he's speaking about things that were recorded in the Bible, things that were recorded in the Old Testament, the events that happened to Israel.
He has some specific examples of those. But, you know, these words do apply in a more general sense to the things that particularly were written in the Old Testament. And it says, first Corinthians, chapter ten.
And verse eleven says, now, all these things happen unto them for examples or in the margin it says, for types, and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. So the things that are recorded in the Bible, apart from, you know, like the parables that Jesus spoke, but, you know, the events that are recorded in the Old Testament, the wars and the battles and things like that, they were actual literal events that did happen. But it says here in verse eleven, one corinthians 1011, that the things were recorded that have significance to us living in these last days, and they have symbolic significance.
So even though they're actual literal events that happened, they teach us spiritual truths. They do both things, they teach us spiritual truths and they are actually historical events that happen. I do just actually want to underline that they were historical events that happened.
Now, we don't. This is not a programme about archaeology. We don't have time to go into all the archaeological evidence.
There's just so much archaeological evidence today that shows that, you know, David was a real person and the Hittites were actually a real nation that lived and things like this, you know, it has been, it was thought, you know, back in the sort of 19 hundreds and so forth. And I know that there's a lot of people today, I've spoken to many of them, that don't consider the Bible to be actually historically reliable, but there are many people today that study archaeology, and they. Not all of them, but many of them recognise the historical validity of the Bible.
So, yeah, the events that were recorded in the Old Testament times, they were actual literal events that happened, but they do teach us spiritual lessons as well. So it's both of those things. It's very important to understand that they are historically accurate.
So let's come on then to our song for today, which is sound the battle cry and see if we can understand it as we look at revelation and other things in the Bible. So the first verse of this song says, sound the battle cry. See the foe is nigh raise the standard high for the Lord gird your armour on stand firm everyone rest your cause upon his holy word rouse then soldiers rally round the banner ready, steady pass the word along onward, forward shout aloud Hosanna.
Christ is captain of the mighty throng. So, once again, as we were saying last week, we have a picture here of the church, and here it is symbolised as an army. But we found out in our two previous episodes that it's not an army that takes physical weapons, but actually the word of God is our weapon.
And we have the breastplate of righteousness, our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. But let's have a look at the. At another verse, actually, about the sword.
Hebrews, chapter four, and verse twelve. Hebrews chapter four and verse twelve. Now, this is the weapon that we should take.
Hebrews 412. The offensive weapon that we should take, because some of the armour is defensive, you know, it protects you like a breastplate and so on. But the sword is the offensive one.
Hebrews 412 says the word of God is quick and powerful. Quick means living quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow. And is a discerner of the thoughts and intentions.
You know, and it's not, it's not always easy, even when you are a follower of Christ. You know, none of us really likes to have our wrongs revealed. But, wow, the Bible has amazing power to just really divide that soul and spirit and to just.
And it's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. You know, the Bible just goes right to our heart and it just shows us how that without Christ, you know, our hearts are so depraved. Without Christ, none of us has any hope.
But through Christ, we do have hope. And so that's the weapon, that's the offensive weapon that we are to take in this battle with evil. And so this song says to us, sound the battle cry.
See, the foe is nigh. And I want to speak particularly seeing that we are going through historical events and that I've made such a long speech about the significance of actual historical events. Because the things in the Bible to me, is so important that the events that, do you know, the historical events that are recorded in the Bible are actual events.
Because, you know, if it's just a made up story, then how do I know whether I can actually overcome sin in my life? But when they're actual true stories, then it gives me assurance and confidence that it's not just a fairy tale, but that it's actually truth, historical truth. The Bible, when it has Bible prophecies, those prophecies are history in advance. They're actually history.
They're actually events that happen. So even the symbols in revelation, you know, they're symbols, but they represent actual historical events. That's so important for us to understand.
So revelation, chapters two and three. And I guess beginning in chapter one, it has a symbol, or it uses a symbol of seven golden candlesticks. And John is told directly in Revelation chapter one, verse 20, that these candlesticks represent the seven churches.
And so basically this is a depiction, a symbolic depiction of God's church through pretty much the 2000 years since, you know, Jesus lived on earth and returned to heaven. So this is a symbolic depiction of the church through different time periods. And so the first church, which is the first candlestick, which is described as being in Ephesus, again, you know, symbolic.
Well, these are, you know, Ephesus, Smyrna and these churches where they are, I mean, they were actual places in Asia Minor, but each of the places had particular characteristics that were familiar to the readers in the apostle John's day. And, you know, we can look back at history, we can find out the different characteristics of these different cities, and we can see that this actually really accurately traces the history of God's church. Now that we can look back over this prophecy, we can see that this very accurately traces the history of God's church for 2000 years.
And that the different cities, actually the characteristics of those cities, the things that those cities were well known for, even the location of them, and even the water systems and things like that in those cities, so accurately represent the spiritual condition of God's people at these particular times as pinpointed in prophecy. So last week we were looking at the early church up to from about, I guess, 30 ad, up to about 100 ad. And during that time, that church was pure or relatively pure.
It was represented by the white horse. But then after that, something was going to happen to this church. And so beginning in revelation, chapter two and verse eight, says there to the angel of the church in Smyrna, write these things, save the first and the last, which was dead and is alive.
I know thy works and tribulation and poverty, but thou art rich. And I know the blasphemy of them, which say they are jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer.
Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. So, yeah, and then there's a wonderful promise in verse eleven which says, he that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
So this describes a church that is being persecuted. And when it says there that they would have tribulation ten days, that is referring to a particularly intense time of persecution under the emperor Diocletian from 303 to 313 AD. And during that time, just so many christians were slaughtered.
You know, they were thrown to lions. They were just. Yeah, just indescribable tortures were enacted, carried out on christians because of their faith in Christ.
And so, you know, those christians were offered that they could escape all of these tortures if they would only deny Christ, you know, if they would only just bow down to an image or just, you know, say some small, blasphemous thing against Christ. But those Christians chose to die rather than to deny Christ rather than to deny their lord. And I'd like to read a paragraph from this about a book that, you know, if you're wanting to study more deeply into this history, this is just an amazing book, the great controversy.
It is certainly the book for our day. So this book says on. In the chapter persecution in the first centuries, it says that to secure peace and unity, they.
That is, the Christians. They were ready to make any concession consistent with fidelity to God, but they felt that even peace would be too dearly purchased at the sacrifice of principle. If unity could be secured only by the compromise of truth and righteousness, then let there be difference and even war.
So, yeah, as we've been saying, Christ is the prince of peace. And yet when he is rejected, this leads to just the most intense, the most unbelievable persecution. And so it says in this song, sound the battle cry.
You know, that's obviously referring to these christians being determined to stand up for truth and for righteousness, no matter what the consequences. And then the next little phrase says, see, the foe is nigh. And so those early Christians, as we've been reading about in that time period from.
I mean, it started even earlier than 100 ad, but, you know, from about 100 ad through to about 313 AD, terrible, terrible persecutions of christians that occurred during that time. But let's then see what revelation predicts would happen after that time period. So for the next couple of centuries.
So verse twelve says, to the angel of the church in Pergamos, right? This is the next time period, as we've been saying. So it's, you know, when it says to the angel, the church in Pergamos, like, you know, it's a symbol for the whole of the christian church. It's not just people living in that area.
Remember, it's symbolic. Prophecy says these things, saith he, which has the sharp sword with two edges. It says here, I know thy works and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is now.
So this. This song says, see, the foe is nigh. So at first, the christian church, that pure church, you know, that the purity, the love of the early christians, awakened the animosity of the forces of evil.
They were severely persecuted, as we've been reading in the message to the church in Smyrna, right? That is the persecuted church. But here we see in the church of Pergamos the next time period, we see that the church is dwelling even where Satan's seat is. And so what, you know, Satan the devil, the great deceiver, realised after about 200 years of this really intense persecution, was that even though he was persecuting the christians, the church was actually still growing.
People were still joining the church because they could see, as they saw these martyrs dying, you know, there was no pulpit like the martyrs pile. They could see that these christian martyrs were dying with pets, peace on their face and they were looking for, you know, that peace and joy that they were trying vainly through various, you know, systems of philosophy themselves to obtain. And so, yeah, Satan the devil realised that he was losing his subjects.
And so rather than attacking the church openly, he then planted his banner, sought to plant his banner or his standard, as it speaks about in this song within the christian church. So let's go on to the next part of this verse because it says there, raise the standard high for the Lord. Now, what's that talking about? Well, today, you know, we often talk about, like, moral standards and that is, you know, what this song is talking about.
But there is actually also physical reality from which this stems. So there's actually a number of verses in the Bible about this. Many of them are actually in the book that is called numbers.
So let's just have a look at first one's in numbers one. Numbers, chapter one, verse 52. It says, the children of Israel shall pitch their tents, every man by his own camp and every man by his own standard throughout their hosts.
And so the standard was kind of like a banner. It was a flag that, you know, symbolised a particular group of people. And it symbolised that where that standard, where that banner was planted, that was the territory that was owned by that group.
And so that's what this is saying. Raise the standard high for the Lord. So we want to.
When we're soldiers in Christ's army, our hearts belong to Christ. That's where we want to have his standard in our hearts. Gird your armour on, stand firm, everyone rest your cause upon his holy word.
And as we were saying before the sword of the spirit, that's the word of God. So, yeah, good your armour on. That's obviously talking about this spiritual armour that we've been talking about, Ephesians, chapter six, that's described there.
So then, going on to verse two, it says, strong to meet the foe marching on we go while our cause we know must prevail shield and banner bright gleaming in the light battling for the right we ne'er can fail. You know, those Christians, they died Amata's death, but they had that glorious promise that we read before that. Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life.
So what a wonderful promise that was for them to cling to. Then the final stanza says, o thou God of all hear us when we call help us one and all by thy grace when the battle's done and the victory won may we wear the crown before thy face. This is an amazing, stirring hymn that can help us in times when we're feeling down.
So let's now listen to fountain view sing this wonderful hymn sound of battle cry see the raise up standing high for the Lord turn your armour on stand everyone rest your cause upon his holy word soldiers, rally round the banner ready, steady pass the word along one word forward shout aloud Christ is captain of the mighty cross strong to meet the foe marching on we go while our cause we know must prevail chilled and batter bright leaning in the light badly for the right we ne'er can fill thousand soldiers rally round the banner ready, steady the word along onward, forward shout a level dana brightest captain of the mighty throne hold out the rise when we call help us one in all by thy grace when the battles are may we went round before thy face round and soldiers rally round the banner ready, steady pass the word along onward, forward shout out Hosanna. Christ is captain of the mighty throne Christ is captain of the mighty second Timothy four, seven, eight. The apostle Paul, writing at the end of his life said, I have fought a good fight.
I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day.
And not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. You know, we are in a spiritual battle, but there is a real reward. And we don't do these things just only, you know, to have the crown and to wear the beautiful robe.
But we do these things because we love the truth and yet there is an actual reward. So it's such a wonderful privilege that we have that Christ came to give us this hope, to give us the hope of a. A real eternal life in real beautiful world made new.
So let's say a prayer that we might be amongst that group that remains faithful to God no matter what. Dear Lord, we are so grateful for the wonderful love of Christ and for the amazing future that he offers to us. A future in an world that's indescribably beautiful, but that's kept beautiful through the power of love.
And so, dear Lord, may we be amongst the group that is saved. I do pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
So thank you once again for joining me today on heavenly harmonies. Please do join me again when we will look at another wonderful hymn. But until then, goodbye.
And may you remain close to the heart of God through song.
You have been listening to a production of 3ABN Australia radio.
