Welcome to a firm foundation presented by Princeton ministries with Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

The purpose of preaching is to point a congregation’s mind and their hearts to Jesus Christ. There are many ways to accomplish that task, but always to point to Christ. The Book of Ephesians, chapter five, verse 19, gives us an interesting way that we can point our hearts and minds to Jesus Christ. And at this Christmas season, I would like to point your attention to Ephesians 519 that tells us as Christians that we are to speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. I would like to underline spiritual songs. When was the last time that someone within the church said, I want to talk to you with a spiritual song? Why? We might look at him as a strange communicator. What do you mean, talk to me with a spiritual song?

And yet, I would remind you that through the history of the church, there has been a great deal of effective communication within the body of Christ through spiritual songs. Now, what is a spiritual song? A spiritual song is simply any composition that brings together the truth of God’s word and places it to music. And that is why the christian church is always seen as a joyful, singing group of people. Song has always been part of the christian church. Hymns and carols and spiritual songs. So today I would like to talk with you, encourage you through a spiritual song, and pray that God will use this song to encourage your heart in the truths of God’s word. It is not incidental that Christmas has associated around it special music. We call them carols.

And so when we gather at Christmas, it is only appropriate that the church communicate with one another by the singing of Christmas carols. But I’m afraid so often our carols are lost in some sentimental gaze, and we forget the words of the carols. We forget those who wrote the carols. And all that we remember is some nice feeling that we have when we sing silent night, or hark, the herald angels sing. Actually, next to the Bible, there are many who believe that the second book that every Christian ought to be very familiar with is the hymn book. For, you see, the Bible teaches us biblical truths, and a good hymn will teach us biblical truths put to music as we focus our attention. Today, I would like the spiritual song.

Where our gaze would focus would be upon the hymn, hark, the herald angels sing. And it is my prayer that the truth of God’s word will be communicated to us through this spiritual song. Well, if you look at this hymn, you will find that it is written by Charles Wesley. Charles Wesley attended Oxford University. He started a group that was referred to as the Holy Club. And what was the purpose of the Holy Club for this young Charles? The purpose? To study the Bible and to pray. Now, Charles Wesley began the holy Club, and a short time later, his brother John Wesley, perhaps more famous in history for many people than his lesser known brother Charles. For it was John Wesley who one day would found the Methodist church and be responsible for great awakening in America.

Well, his brother John joined the holy Club at Oxford. And there was a third member of that holy Club, a young man by the name of George Whitfield, who later would be used by God along with John Wesley and along with Charles Wesley, who would take the truths of God’s word. As Wesley and Whitfield would go from field and town to tell and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, it was Charles Wesley who would take the principles of God’s word and place them in musical form. Well, at Oxford, even though they were devoted for holy purposes, neither John Wesley or his brother Charles knew anything about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Some five years would pass before either of them would personally come to understand Jesus Christ.

You mean to say they could study the Bible and pray and have a club called the holy Club and still not understand new birth in Christ? That’s right. As a matter of fact, so holy was this club that both John and Charles decided that they would go to that forsaken new world and that they would go to Georgia and there convert the Indians. And so for some three years, they labored amongst the Indians of Georgia. And what was the conclusion of that labor and ministry? The conclusion, John Wesley writes in his journal as he leaves Georgia, my God, I went to convert the Indians, but who will convert me? John Wesley knew nothing of new birth in Christ. And it would not be John, the more famous, but rather Charles, who would first taste of the new life in Jesus Christ.

For, you see, it happened this way. Charles Wesley was studying the commentary written by Martin Luther to the Book of Galatians. And as he read this, his heart was strangely turned towards a personal understanding in Jesus Christ. And on May the 21st, 1738, Charles Wesley committed his life to Jesus Christ. Three days later, his brother John, at Alder gate street in London, received also the gift of new life in Jesus Christ. Preceded by three days his brother Charles. Now, Charles Wesley wrote some 6000 hymns. In the first year of his hymn writing ministry, he composed four a thousand tongues to sing. He also wrote Christ the Lord is risen today. The hymn that captures the truth of Easter. But one year, on the anniversary of his conversion to Jesus Christ, he also wrote the hymn where our attention is today. Hark, the herald angels sing.

And within this hymn are to be found some of the greatest truths of the Bible. First we see verse one, which reads. And we are all very familiar with the opening words of this hymn. Hark, how all the Welkin rings sound familiar? Probably your hymn book doesn’t read that way, but that’s the way it was originally written. And it stayed in that form for some 14 years, until George Whitfield, looking on the words of this hymn, said Welkin. Who knows what Welkin means? Well, Charles Wesley knew. He knew that it meant the vault of heaven, but no one else knew that. And so George Whitfield changed the words to the first verse. Hark, the herald angels sing glory to the newborn king. Now, why should this hymn open with the words of angels?

Because the scripture teaches that God is encompassed by a host of angelic voices. And as a choir, they sing to him who is infinite and holy. They sing, holy, holy. We read in the book of Luke, chapter two, that it was angels who sang to the shepherds, and they sang, glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, goodwill towards men. You see, it was assigned two angels in the scripture to announce to Mary that she would be the mother of the son of God. It was assigned to angels to announce to shepherds about the newborn king. It was the assignment, amazingly, given to angels to come and to roll away the stone that stood in front of that seplica that held the body of Jesus Christ.

Angels have a very important role in the teaching of scripture, and so it is only fitting that we should be reminded that it was angels who harked on that first morning. But also we read that God and sinner were reconciled through this newborn king. Reconciliation is the biblical word that talks about how a person who is an enemy of God can become a friend of God. The scripture teaches that all of us are at enmity with God until we put our trust in Jesus Christ. And when we put our trust in Christ, we are in fact reconciled, that God has paid the price for our sin and that it is only through Jesus Christ that reconciliation can occur.

The Book of Colossians, chapter one, verse 19 and 20 tells us it pleased the Father that in Jesus Christ all the fullness should dwell, and by Jesus Christ to reconcile all things to himself by Christ, whether things that are on earth or things that are in heaven. Actually, the longing of all of mankind is to be reconciled to God. And man tries his best to be reconciled. And if you go to some primitive society, you will find those who cut their bodies before this God, thinking that might bring reconciliation. If you go to India, you will find those sects that believe, if they cast their firstborn child into the waters of the ganges, that will bring reconciliation to God.

If you go to New guinea, you will find tribes that believe, if they take that firstborn child and present it as a peace offering to God and have it executed, that this will bring reconciliation to God. But if you come to more civilized communities, you will find those who are equally foolish in their attempts to reconcile themselves to God. You will find those who believe that I will be reconciled to God by being good enough. And so, in all of our foolishness, we try to be good, thinking. In some way we’re pleasing this God. But every time that we fall, every time that we sin, we are reminded that we have reneged on our part of the agreement. Or those who think that by going to church, being catechized, singing the hymns, dressing the part there, I will reconcile myself to Jesus Christ.

But in all of their formality, have not been reconciled, for they have never taken that first step of trusting in Jesus Christ alone. And the hymn reminds us, God and sinner are reconciled through the birth of this newborn king. But the second verse goes on to tell us, Christ by highest heaven adored Christ, the everlasting Lord. Late in time behold him come, offspring of the virgin’s womb, veiled in flesh, the Godhead, sea veiled, incarnate deity, pleased as man with men to dwell. Jesus our Emmanuel. What is it that Wesley wants us to understand? He wants us to know that the babe who was born in the manger was not a moral example for better living. He was not the world’s best man. He was God in the flesh.

He was in the form of that little babe, the same God who declared, let there be light, and there was light. It was the same God who said, I will make man in my form. It is the same God who says, we must all appear before his judgment seat. And the teaching of scripture is that babe who was born in a stable was not an example of how to live better. But he was, in fact, the living God, the creator, who was offering himself as a sacrifice for the sins of men and women. Napoleon, in his closing years, reflected much about Jesus Christ. He compared his kingdom to the kingdom of Christ. Napoleon wrote this, I die before my time. My body will be given back to the earth to be done with as men please and to become food for worms.

Such will be the fate of him who is referred to as the great Napoleon. What an abyss said Napoleon. Between my deep misery and the eternal kingdom of Christ, which is proclaimed, loved and adored and is extending over the whole earth. And so the conclusion of Napoleon, the so called great, was that all of his world conquest did not bring the satisfaction that he saw in the lives of those who trusted and loved and adored Jesus Christ. No man can be so adored, so loved, if it were not for the fact, as Wesley points out to us, that he was not only a man, but he was God incarnate. We read in verse three, hail the heaven born prince of peace.

Hail the son of righteousness, light and life to all he brings risen with healing in his wings mild he lays his glory by born that man no more may die born to raise the sons of earth born to give them second birth. Hark, the herald angels sing glory to the newborn king. There are two words that Wesley uses to describe this son of righteousness. He says that he is light and that he is life. The words which Jesus declared himself, I am the light of the world. The words which Jesus declared, I am the way, the truth, the life. And this son of righteousness brings light and life into a world that is dark. It’s interesting that the scriptures in Malachi refer to Jesus as the son S-U-N of righteousness. Have you ever thought about the sun?

Probably it hasn’t occurred to you this week to give thanks to God for the sun. But you realize that if the sun stopped shining for just a day, a season, that all would begin to turn brown, that the lovely petals of a flower would fade quickly. They would blacken and decay. That life as we know it would be unknown if it were not for that constant warmth of light and life that we receive from the sun. The same is true in the spiritual world. The sun S-O-N of righteousness, Jesus Christ offers light and life. And how do we receive that? Well, Wesley tells us that he was born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth. There is a truth of scripture and that is you must be born again. That our lives must be handed over to Jesus Christ.

We have seen that Charles Wesley penned most of the words. We have seen that George Whitfield changed the first line of the first verse. Whitfield, who himself preached over 3000 sermons saying, you must be born again. But for nearly a century this hymn was virtually unknown and unsung. Why? Because the tune wasn’t quite right. Until a man who was the son of a Jewish banker, who at the age of nine, gave his first public appearance, who at the age of ten, wrote a public piece of music to be played and to be acclaimed across Europe. And by the age of 13, Felix Mendelsohn was known throughout the continent as one of the greatest writers, one of the greatest composers of the day.

Felix Mendelsohn was a Jew, and at the age of 20, discovered the writings of Bach which had not been performed since Bach’s death. And as he began to study the writings of Bach, he came across the passion, according to St. Matthew. And Felix Mendelsohn, child wonder was converted to Jesus Christ, and from that day forward dedicated his music to God’s glory. Felix Mendelssohn found the words that Charles Wesley had penned some hundred years before and thought of the tune that we sing today. And so as God, through a hundred years of men faithful, God took his word and his principles. And today we sing hark, the herald angel, sing glory to the newborn king.

I hope at this Christmas that the same Christ who was born in the heart of Charles Wesley, who was born in the heart of George Whitfield, who touched the life of Felix Mendelssohn, will touch your life, that you too will be able to sing hark, as those Herald angels sang glory to the newborn king. For we ask this in Jesus’s name. Amen.

Thank you for listening to a firm foundation presented by Princeton Ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listener. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org, or send your donation to Princeton Ministries, post office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. That’s Princeton Ministries, post office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. The Lord bless you, and Dr. Smith looks forward to hearing from you. We would like to thank Rone’s web development company for making this webcast possible. You can find their link at the bottom of our website, princetonministries.org.