Episode Transcript
Hello, I'm Dr. Kylie Fisher. Welcome to Heavenly Harmonies.
Revelation, chapter 12, verses 1 and 13 say. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of 12 stars. Now, picking up the story a little later in verse 13, we read, when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.
So who is this beautiful woman that looketh forth as the morning, clear as the sun, fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners? And why is she being persecuted by fierce and horrible dragon? Our hymn for today, the church has one foundation is set with scriptural gems that answer these vital questions. Stay with me to discover how its heavenly harmonies can keep you near to the heart of God. The Bible contains the most amazing love story, the love of Christ for a world that despised and rejected him.
And that is a topic that we explored in our last episode, crown him with many crowns. Now, there are many figures or symbols used in the Bible to which God's matchless love is likened, but perhaps none is more beautiful than that of the sacred marriage relation. And so let's look at a verse about this.
Now, there's many verses that we could look at. I hope that you might take the time to explore these verses more deeply. The more you can do that, the richer the understanding that you will have of our hymn for today.
Because the purpose of looking at these hymns is to understand these scriptural truths and to have those hymns in our mind, to bring the scriptural truths to our mind when we need them. But we are going to look at Ephesians chapter 5 and we're going to read verse 25. Now, there's multiple verses actually on this, but we're going to read verse 25 and see what that says.
It says their husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. And so we see here in this description, we see actually God's ideal for marriage, and that that is actually marriage is designed to be a beautiful symbol of the love of Christ, the love of God for his church, for his bride. And so God here is likened to a husband who love, loves his wife so much that he sacrifices his life for her.
And, you know, I'm so devastated when I hear stories of people, men abusing their wives, you know, many times too often, even once would be too often, you know, in the name of the Bible, the name of scripture, that is not the picture that Scripture upholds for us. God is seen as a husband who loves his wife so much that he is willing to, and actually does sacrifice his life for her. In fact, Psalm 120 says that God cares for his church, his people, without sleeping or even slumbering.
It says there, behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. So God has waited with infinite patience for thousands of years, gradually revealing more and more of his love to the world until his people, his church, are purified and made ready for his second coming, which is, of course, the day we are all waiting for. Now, this picture of the Church as the bride of Christ runs like a golden thread through our hymn for today.
And as I speak the words of this hymn, I hope that you will listen really closely and that you can find the allusions of this to the Church as the bride of Christ. So the church has one foundation. Tis Jesus Christ her Lord.
She is his new creation. By water and the Word from heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride. With his own blood he brought her, and for her life he died.
Elect from every nation yet one or all the earth her charter of salvation. One Lord, one faith, one birth One holy name she blesses, partakes one holy food and to one hope she presses with every grace endued Though with a scornful wonder Men see her sore oppressed Though foes would rend asunder the rock where she doth rest yet saints their faith are keeping Their cry goes up how long and soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song Mid toil and tribulation and tumult of her wars she waits the consummation of peace forevermore Till with the vision glorious, her longing eyes are blessed and the great church victorious shall be the church at rest. Such a wonderful hymn.
I remember actually, when I was growing up, this is one of the hymns that I remember being sung as I was a little girl growing up. I loved it. I loved the melody of this song.
And, yes, it's always sort of like being one of my favourite hymns. And so did you hear the references to the church as the bride of Christ? And I think that the clearest lines that bring out these ideas are the last half of verse one which says. It's those lines that say, from heaven he that is Christ came and sought her the Church to be his holy bride.
With his own blood he bought her, and for her life he died. And so throughout the song we find, you know, the pronoun she used with reference to the church. And so that really extends the picture of the Church as the bride of Christ throughout the song.
Now, we saw in our episode last week, Christ is truly the Lord of love that was demonstrated most fully on the cross of Calvary. And so that amazing love, the love that Christ has demonstrated for his church, binds her heart to his in ties that can never be broken. And so we saw in our previous episode that the kingdom of Christ will be an eternal kingdom.
It will have absolutely no end. Now. So, you know, it makes sense at the beginning of this hymn that we have the line that we do.
The church has one foundation. And, you know, sometimes we hear that Peter or Paul is the foundation of the church. But does the Bible really support this? I hope you have your Bible there.
Let's have a look and see what the Bible does have to say. Let's read some verses about this. Let's have a look and see also how our song tells us the scriptural truth about this question.
So Matthew, chapter 16, Matthew, chapter 16 and verses 13 to 18. And I'm not going to read all these verses, but I'm going to be speaking about them and reading some parts from them and speaking to them. So Jesus one time when he was with his disciples, as he was getting along in his ministry, he said, whom do men? Or in other words, people say that I, the Son of man, am? The disciples said, well, some.
Some say you're John the Baptist. Some say you're Elijah. Some say you're Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
Jesus then said to them, but whom say ye that I am? And then verse 16, Peter answered and he expressed the faith of the disciples. So verse 16, Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Now notice what Jesus says to Peter in verse 17.
And so Jesus answered and said unto him, blessed art thou, Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven. So what Peter spoke was truth, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus was indeed the promised Messiah.
And we've had a number of episodes about that in previous seasons. So, but now we come to verse 18. And this is the one that, you know, if we have just a quick read through this, a surface read through this, it might sound like Peter is the foundation of the church, but when we actually look at Scripture, we find that that's not the case.
Verse 18, Jesus still speaking. He says, I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And so yes, okay, at first glance, it prob.
Does sound like in the English that Jesus is saying that Peter is the foundation of the church. Actually, in the original language in Greek, it's really clear that that's not what Jesus is saying. But look, you might not be.
I'm not someone like, I can sort of read the Greek Alphabet, the ancient Greek Alphabet and pick out a few words here and there. But I'm not a Bible scholar. I'm a music teacher.
And so, yeah, like, I'm not super proficient with the Greek, so I'm going to speak to the English. And it's really clear from the Bible, from the Bible, the English translation of the Bible, that that is not what Jesus was saying. So let's consider, you know, Jesus said this to Peter.
Did Peter himself consider himself to be the foundation of the church? Well, it's really clear that he didn't. Let's have a look at First Peter, chapter two, First Peter chapter two. And we're going to look at some verses in this First Peter, chapter two.
And he is speaking here. Verse three gives us the context. First Peter, chapter two.
And verse three says, if so be you've tasted that the Lord is gracious. He's speaking about the Lord. He is speaking about Christ here.
And verse four says, to whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious, ye also as lively stones or living stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Now then, verse seven says unto you, therefore, which believe he is precious, that is Christ, but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner. And verse six, Peter actually quotes from Isaiah.
He says, wherefore also it's contained in the Scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone elect precious. He that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
See, Peter is not encouraging people to believe on himself. He's not encouraging people to look to him, Peter, he is encouraging people to look to Jesus. He says Jesus is the chief cornerstone.
You know, the cornerstone of a building. You know, back in those olden days, buildings were made out of stone. If the cornerstone was not stable, the whole building would collapse.
And Christ is described here as the chief cornerstone. He's described in that way by Peter himself. You know, Peter was not saying, look to me.
I mean, the first verse that we read in Matthew, chapter 16 and verse 18, Jesus said, on this rock, I'LL build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Well, you know, the gates of evil, you know, the evil forces. Well, you know, sadly, there were many times when the forces of evil did prevail against Peter, like when he denied Christ with cursing and swearing.
So, you know, it's clear that that verse, that concept, the idea of Peter as the rock, as the foundation of the church, that's not what the Bible teaches. And what about Paul? What did Paul have to say about this? So let's have a quick look at some verses written by Paul himself, written by the apostle Paul. First Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 13.
Paul here is speaking. There were divisions in the Corinthian Church. They were arguing about, you know, who was their leader, Was it Christ? Was it Paul who had baptised some of them? Or was it Apollos? And So Paul says, First Corinthians 1, verse 13.
Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptised in the name of Paul? Then notice what Paul says in First Corinthians 3, verse 11. He says, Other foundation can no man lay than. Than that is laid, which is not Peter, which is Jesus Christ.
And Ephesians, chapter two, verse 20, it's another place where Paul is writing Ephesians chapter two and verse 20. And Paul says that the church, this is another depiction of the church. This is in the Bible.
There are many symbols used of the church and one is a building and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. So Paul says the same thing there. So really going back to our verses in Matthew chapter 16, Matthew chapter 16 and verses 13 to 18, you know, when Jesus said, on this rock I will build my church is on the declaration that's made by Peter when he said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
That's the rock. Christ is the rock on which the church is built. And so that's what our song says.
The church has one foundation. Tis Jesus Christ, her Lord. And Christ is worthy of our love and adoration forever, because he's the Lord of love that died for us on Calvary.
And if we think back to the description that we started with Revelation chapter 12, so I hope that you, you've realised by now that this beautiful woman is actually a symbolic depiction of the church. And so we see here that, you know, this idea of Christ as the foundation of the church is what's actually pictured there. Because the woman In Revelation chapter 12 and verse 1, it says, that she's clothed with the sun.
And so, you know, which matches the words of Jesus In John chapter 8, when he said, I am the light of the world. And Malachi, chapter four, calls Jesus the Son of righteousness. And so this woman is clothed with the righteousness of Christ.
What a beautiful, beautiful picture. Now, when we consider further, the picture that we have of the Church, we see that she also is wearing a crown of 12 stars. Now, both the number 12 and the fact that this is a crown, so in other words, it's on the head.
These, you know, both of those things are symbols that refer to leadership. And so in the Old Testament we have the 12 tribes of Israel. In the New Testament we have the 12 apostles.
And in the new Jerusalem, where we are going in the future, there are the 12 gates and there are the 12 foundations. And so this, that's, you know, more evidence that this beautiful woman is God's church through the ages. You know, the church is not limited to a single time period, but it extends throughout earth's history and on into eternity.
And so that brings us to a vital theme of this song, which is really what the second verse is focusing on, you know, and that's the oneness, the unity of God's people and the links that bind them together over thousands of years of time. So says elect from every nation, yet one or all the earth. So as we said in previous programmes, John 3, 16, most famous verse in the Bible, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, Christ came for the whole world.
And so no matter what country, no matter what nationality you are, Christ came for you. And so, even though God's church is scattered all over the world, she is one through Christ, her charter of salvation. One Lord, one faith, one birth.
That's quote straight from Ephesians, chapter 4. You can look at more that it says In Ephesians, chapter 4, in verses 4 to 6, one holy name she blesses, partakes one holy food, and to one hope she presses with every grace endued. What is that hope? We know it's the blessed hope, as it says in Titus, that's the hope of the Second Coming.
Now, verse three, it says, so the Church, you know, through all the ages, it is united by these amazing truths, the truths of God's word. Verse 3, however, speaks about the persecution suffered by this church. And, you know, God's church suffered unprecedented persecution after the death and resurrection of Christ and his return to heaven.
And so that was what we read about very early on in the Introduction to our PROGRAMME when the dragon, that is the devil or Satan, saw that he was cast unto the earth, that was what happened at the death of Christ, the character of Satan was exposed as it had never been before. And so when he saw that he was cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. As the woman describes how she had to flee into the wilderness, she had to flee there for it says, 12, 60 days, or in other words, which a day stands for a year in Bible prophecy.
And so that was a terrible, terrible time of persecution, began in A.D. 538 and it ended in 1798. Yes, 1798.
The church was sore oppressed during that time. And you know, foes, it says in our song, foes would rend asunder the rock where she doth rest. Now, during this time, not only was God's church persecuted, but many false teachings, you know, and the true church had flee into the wilderness was no longer even really visible to the world.
It was the church in the wilderness that maintained the pure faith, the pure faith of the Bible. But in the actual visible church there were many false teachings across crept into the church and people accepted these for, you know, in order to not give up their worldly wealth, basically they sacrificed, you know, the purity of their faith for worldly position, for worldly honours, you know, and those that truly loved Christ, they sacrificed even life itself on many, many occasions. So, and it speaks about this in Daniel chapter eight, how the place of Christ's sanctuary was cast down and was replaced by a false system.
And so in our song we learned about, you know, how there was one Lord, one faith, one birth. All of these scripture, you know, refer to scripture texts. And so this holy name that the church blesses, instead of blessing Christ, the church, the visible church now began to praise a man as the head of the church rather than Christ.
And you know, instead of partaking of that one holy food, the Lord's Supper was repentance replaced with a ritual in which it was declared that the priest, a human being, had power to create the actual body and blood of Christ, the creator of all things, still more, the bread of life. The words of Christ as recorded in the Bible were replaced with the traditions of man. The new birth, the miracle of the new heart.
And its symbol, the symbol that is used for that to immerse the believer completely under the water was replaced with infant sprinkling. And all of these other truths that the Bible teaches in essential to our salvation. These things were all hidden from the people at large.
And yet during this time, as our song says, saints, their faith were keeping and their cry went up. How long, O Lord? And but as our song says, soon the night of weeping will be the morn of song. And soon our eyes will be greeted with that vision glorious.
And the church victorious will be the church at rest. And so there are so many scriptural truths in this song. I hope that you can think about these as we listen now to Fountain View singing this beautiful song.
The church has one foundation. The church has one foundation. By water and the word from heaven he came and saw her to be his holy bride with his own bloody border and for her life he from every nation yet one more.
All the earth the shadow of salvation One more. One faith won birth. One holy name she blesses, partakes one holy food and to though with a scornful wonder men see her sore oppressed.
Though foes would rend asunder the rock where she doth rest. Yet saints, their faith are keeping Their cry goes on how long? And soon the night of weeping shall be the morning till with the vision glorious, the longing eyes are blessed and the gracious victorious shall be the church at rest. Amen.
Amen. Would you like to make the commitment now to be ready for that day as we pray? Thank you so much, dear God, for the hope of the second Coming. May we be ready for that day, we ask in the name of Jesus.
Amen. Thank you so much for joining me today on Heavenly Harmonies. I would 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.
