Episode Transcript
Hello, I'm Doctor Kylie Fisher. Welcome to Heavenly Harmonies. All Christians believe in the Christ of history who died on the cross.
Millions today believe in the christ of the future, who is coming in glory on the clouds of heaven. But what about the christ of today? Where is Christ today, and what is he doing? I believe the answer to this question lies in one of the most confusing, one of the most crushing, even one of the most humiliating events in the history of the christian church. Our hymn for today, the solid rock, captures in an amazingly insightful way the essence of that event and of the experience of God's people during that event.
Stay with me to discover how this song can keep you near to the heart of God. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus name on Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand all other ground is sinking sand when darkness seems to veil his face I rest on his unchanging grace in every high and stormy gale my anchor holds within the veil on Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand all other ground is sinking sand his oath, his covenant and blood support me in the whelming flood when all around my soul gives way he then is all my hope and stay on Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand all other ground is sinking sand when he shall come with trumpet sound o may I then in him be found clad in his righteousness alone faultless to stand before the throne on Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand all other ground is sinking sand on Christ the solid rock I stand such a powerful hymn. And let's look, first of all at the key passage from which this hymn is taken.
So turn with me in your bibles to Matthew, chapter seven, verses 24 to 27. I'll just grab my bible. Matthew, chapter seven, verses 24 to 27.
So this is a well known. The passage is a well known parable told by Jesus. And, in fact, there's a song that I used to sing when I was growing up, a children's song about this parable.
So let's read it through. Matthew, chapter seven, verses 24 to 27. And I want to warn you that in what we're looking at today, there's way more than what I have got time to cover in this brief session.
So I hope that you will study these texts that I'm bringing out and that you will see the significance of these texts to your life and also to this song. So that as you're thinking about the words of this song, maybe singing it in church, maybe singing it for a special item, or maybe singing it, you know, around the house to encourage yourself. I hope that it will remind you of these vital truths from God's word.
That's the purpose of sacred song. So let's read this passage. Matthew, chapter seven, verses 24 to 27.
Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand.
And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. This is a very sobering passage about a time of crisis in a person's life. And we can see that this contrast between these two houses, the one that was built upon the rock and the one that was built upon the sand, is brought out in this hymn that we're looking at today, the solid rock.
So if we think about the chorus of this. Well, I mean, yeah, if we think about the chorus, it says, on Christ, the solid rock, I stand. And so that's the rock part.
That's those who build on the rock. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.
So that is the part about building on the sand. And so, yeah, so we cannot afford to have a false foundation during a time of crisis. You know, it's often been said that character is not developed during a crisis.
It is revealed, although I guess there's also a sense in which character is further developed. But, you know, we need to be having an experience and understanding every day, having that experience of making Christmas our rock, our dependence, every single day. And that's how we will be prepared to stand in the time of storm.
There are storms coming. We will be talking about that more in two episodes time, but we are talking about it today. We're talking about a very stormy experience in the history of God's people.
And we're, in fact, looking today at the experience of God's people during the year 1844. This was a tremendously significant year, and I would say, actually, up until this time, apart from the life, death and resurrection of Christ and his ascension back to earth, this is, in fact, probably the biggest event yeah, since that time, the biggest event, I guess, for God's people on earth because of what happened in heaven and what began in heaven during that time. So we're going to look at this event and we're going to see how that's reflected in our hymn for today.
So we have traced the history of God's church through long ages of persecution. We have looked at the two witnesses, the scriptures of the Old and New Testament, as they prophesied, clothed in sackcloth. And this was 1260 years when the Bible was hidden from the people.
It was locked up in unknown languages. Very few people had a Bible. And so during this time, Satan worked so much of his will and false teachings, many false teachings crept into the church.
Now, I do want to emphasise this. Many false teachings crept into the church. And God's true church, his true people, symbolised in revelation, chapter twelve by a pure woman, fled into the wilderness.
That was the only place and the only way in which God's word and his people who preserved that word, could be sheltered during this time. And so God's truth was preserved by people like the waldenses. But through the Reformation, the Bible was restored to the people and its truths began to be rediscovered.
So we have the morning star of the Reformation, Wycliffe. He taught the sufficiency of scripture. He taught God's free gift of salvation.
And though God's gift of salvation is free to us who are receiving it, this gift came at great cost to God himself. And these truths were later championed by Luther, Tyndale, the Wesleys and others. Which brings us to the year 1798, another very significant year.
And this was the year in which a deadly wound was given to this persecuting power, this power that was persecuting God's people. And this year ushered in what's called in the Bible and specifically in the book of Daniel, the time of the end. And this is the time when we can really begin to actually look for and expect that the second coming of Christ is very, very near.
And so, as we said, the second coming of Christ has been the hope of God's people all through the ages. But today, and from the year 1798, this has been the message of present truth. This is what we as God's people need to be preparing for.
And that day, in fact, is a great and awesome day. It's a glorious day. It's the day, as we've said, on which the hopes, the final hopes of all God's people have been fixed for thousands of years.
But there is need of great preparation for that day. Let's have a look at revelation chapter six and verses 15 to 17. Now, these are only a few of many, many texts that we could read about the vital need of preparation for this day.
But I hope that you can grasp the need of this from these few texts and speaking about this day, actually, let's begin with revelation 614. And so John the revelator there says that he saw the heaven departed as a sword scroll when it's rolled together, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And so we know from other texts in scripture that this is actually the second coming.
It is the event of the second coming. Now, let's notice in verse 15 what is the response of one class of people to this beginning in verse 15 of revelation, chapter six, it says, and the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men, and the chief captains and the mighty men, and every Bondman and every free man, did they welcome Christ? No. They hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the.
From the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb. Verse 17 says, for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand? Who indeed? That's a really serious question that we will be answering, starting to answer, hopefully, in this episode and in coming episodes up to the end of this series. And so there is need of tremendous preparation for this event, because the Bible clearly shows that there will be a group of people that will not be ready for this event.
And it's only through the grace of Christ that we can be prepared for this event. And so revelation chapter twelve, verse twelve describes for us, gives us an insight into the activity of Satan at this time in earth's history. And we see at the end of this verse, it says, warns us, and says, woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea.
The devil is come down unto you having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. So, friend, as Satan's time on this earth grows ever shorter, his wrath grows ever greater. And he works with ever increasing energy to ensnare not only and maybe even not so much the world, because he knows that he's got the people that aren't even wanting to follow God and aren't interested in following God, but Satan's greatest efforts are made against the people of God.
And so as we think back to the early 18 hundreds and coming through 1810s, 1820s, up to the 1830s and 1840s, what was the state of God's people during this time? They should have been watching for the signs of Christ's coming. That was what Christ had told them to do. He said, you know, when you see these things begin to come to pass, look up, lift up your heads.
Your redemption draweth night. They should have been the first to recognise these signs. The leaders in the church should have been the first to recognise the signs of the second advent.
But as it was in the time of Christ's first advent, when, sadly, the leaders were not prepared to welcome the king of kings. So at the time of his second advent, as this time drew near, sadly the leaders of God's church were not watching. They were not heeding the words of Christ.
And let's have a quick look at revelation, chapter three, and looking at some words from verses one and two that describe the state of God's people at this time. This is Jesus himself speaking. And Jesus himself says to the church of God at that time, I know thy works, that thou hast a name, that thou livest and art dead.
Thou hast a name, that thou livest and art dead. And so the church of Christ at this time is not just asleep, it is described as being spiritually dead. What a terrible time in earth for God's people to be not just spiritually asleep, but actually dead.
And so God realised that he needed a startling message to awaken his people to the nearness of Christ's coming, which the, you know, prominent theologians of the day were putting far off into the future. They were saying that there would be a thousand years of peace, all the world would be converted, and that Christ will come after the thousand years of peace. So they were saying, you know, it's far in the future.
We can just, you know, live a life of relative luxury. You know, we don't need to change our lives. They put the coming of Christ far off into the future.
So God's people at this time, they needed to be woken up. And in revelation, chapter 14 and verses six to twelve, we find a comprehensive summary of the message that's needed to fully arouse God's people and to prepare them for that day. And if you look at this message, you will see that this message is proclaimed in a loud voice.
And so this is such important messages. But notice, friends, this is a brief summary of the message. In order to really understand this message, there are other important truths revealed in the Bible that we need to fully understand now.
We are so much running out of time. So. But let's just turn, and I hope that maybe you can mark this place in your Bible to read it yourself in your own time.
If you are not familiar with these words, let's notice how Satan had brought into the church a deception that was calculated to destroy the faith of God's people during this time, to lead them to such great discouragement that they would actually give up their faith in God and in his word. And if you look at Daniel chapter eight and verses eleven to 14, you will notice. Well, maybe let's just read verse eleven, which says that the persecuting power that we've spoken about, that was to have power for 1260 years.
It says something about that persecuting power. It says there he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him, the daily sacrifice was taken away and the place of his sanctuary was cast. Now, notice that this persecuting power casts down the place of God's sanctuary.
And then in the next verse, it says that he cast truth down to the ground and it practised and prospered. And so this persecuting power cast down the truth about the sanctuary and the heavenly sanctuary to the ground. Why did he do that? Because in this heavenly sanctuary is revealed God's plan of salvation.
And so this persecuting power cast that down. And many false ideas came into the church over a time period of many years about what constituted this sanctuary. But notice that in verse 14, an understanding of the sanctuary truth and a key event that was actually to occur in the sanctuary was to be rediscovered.
And not only were the truths about the sanctuary to be rediscovered, but new truths that had never, ever been known before, not even known by prophet Daniel, who wrote these visions down. These new truths were to be discovered. And God placed a certain time when attention would be drawn, particularly to the sanctuary.
And so Daniel chapter eight and verse 14 says, he said unto me unto 2300 days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. So this time period points to key event that was to happen in the sanctuary at that time. And it also points to the start, you know, the like.
Well, actually, the sanctuary truth had been gradually being recovered, but this was the start of real, earnest, systematic searching into what is the sanctuary. This was the start of that time period. And so such, such importance.
But, you know, Satan worked, and the time that this actually points to, the very date that this actually points to is it was finally realised October 22, 1844. But, you know, these were truths that had to be recovered, discovered, recovered and discovered by God's people. And, you know, God works with us as human beings.
He does not necessarily just give, you know, revelations, which he could. He could just give, you know, visions and dreams and just explain it all to us in plain language. But that's not the way that God works.
He has hidden these truths, these absolute treasures of truth in his word. And so we have to search God's word to actually understand these truths. And so let's have a look at proverbs chapter four and verse 18.
And let's notice something. Proverbs, chapter four and verse 18, which says, the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. And so all through the history of the reformation and through the history of God's people, gradually truth after truth had been uncovering.
And this was the time, as it drew close to the year 1844, this was the time when God's people needed to be awakened to their need to study the sanctuary. So at this time, God moved on the hearts of people all over the world. His faithful children, very few of them church leaders, but mainly the laypeople, were the ones who, through earnest Bible study and prayer, discovered the truth of the second coming of Christ.
And they noticed that this 2300 day period seemed to have something to do with the second coming of Christ, and indeed, it had to do with the need of preparation for that time. However, they didn't realise that and they thought that it was the actual second coming itself. And so as they thought about those who truly love Christ, as they thought about the second coming of Christ, they realised their need of preparation for that great day.
And the Holy Spirit moved upon their hearts to search for Christ, you know, to make their experience one where they could say on Christ, the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, and where they could say, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. And particularly was this so in the churches in North America, where the leader of this movement was William Miller, an amazing, amazing man, don't have time to go into talking about his life and the things that he discovered today. But Miller drew attention to the second coming of Christ and he emphasised that this coming was imminent, the need of preparation for it.
Now, Miller at first calculated that these 2300 days, which is 2300 years in Bible prophecy, he at first calculated that this was to end sometime during the jewish year 1843. That was what he understood. So March 21, 1843, because it's the jewish year, to March 21, 1844, he understood that this was to occur sometime during that time period.
However, we're still living here today on earth. So clearly that time came and went. It's so God's people, they suffered a disappointment.
Where was Christ? They couldn't really explain it, but, you know, as they wondered what to do. The second verse of our hymn for today really describes their experience. Those who truly trusted in God during this test of faith, they rested.
You know, they were able to rest on Christ's unchanging grace. And in every high and stormy gale, their anchor held within the veil, they trusted that God would reveal the truth to them in time. And in August of that year, it was discovered that the very day that this prophecy would end, as I said before, was October 22, 1844.
And so God's people hoped and expected that Christ would come on that day, but sadly, they were disappointed and it was a very bitter experience to them. But that which is depicted in the third verse of our song, you know, it was the whelming flood. It just absolutely overwhelmed them.
But through that experience, God's people were to learn significant lessons. That's explained in the fourth verse of our song. When he shall come with trumpet sound oh, may I then in him be found.
Lots of people realised they needed an even closer walk with God in order to be prepared for that great day. We'll look more at this in future episodes, but let's now listen to fountainview singing my hope is built on nothing less. I hope that you can see the experience of God's people during this time in this song.
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus Jesus name on Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand all other ground is sinking sand when darkness seems to fill his face I rest on his unbelief changing rain in every high and stormy gale my anchor holds within the veil all other ground is sinking sand when he shall come when trumpet sound o they are dead in hindi town glad in his righteousness alone falling stand before the throne all Christ has fallen from his hand all other ground is sinking sand all other ground is seeking sand all on the ground is he king son. Let's pray that we might be prepared for that day. Dear Lord, I just pray that on that great and glorious day when Christ shall come, may we in him be found clad in his righteousness alone faultless to stand before the throne this is our prayer.
In Jesus name, amen. Thank you so much for joining me today on heavenly harmonies. Remember, you can listen to our past episodes if you go onto our website, and I do encourage you to join me again to learn more about the experience of God's people at this time.
But until then, goodbye and God bless.
