We Three King’s of Orient - King’s Heralds Mary’s Lullaby - Bob Edwards and Wayne Hooper Lo, How a Rose - King’s Heralds; Birthday of a King - Del Delker It Came Upon the Midnight Clear - King’s Heralds

We Three King’s of Orient - King’s Heralds Mary’s Lullaby - Bob Edwards and Wayne Hooper Lo, How a Rose - King’s Heralds; Birthday of a King - Del Delker It Came Upon the Midnight Clear - King’s Heralds

Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.

Voice Of Prophecy

H.M.S. Richards

The Bethlehem Manger


Lift up the trumpet and loud let it ring, Jesus is coming again. Cheer up you pilgrims, be joyful and sing, Jesus is coming again. This is the voice of prophecy, a voice crying in the wilderness of these modern days. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Coming again, coming again, Jesus is coming again.

From our Voice of Prophecy studios in Los Angeles, California, This is Orville Iverson to welcome you to this half hour of inspiration. You'll hear the music of the King's Heroes, Del Delker and Brad Braley. The Voice of Prophecy's speaker is H.M.S. Richards. ♪ La la la la, la la la la as Richards.

Of Orient are, bearing gifts we traverse the far. Field and fountain, moor and mountain, following yonder star. Oh, star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright, westward leading, still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light. La, la, la, la. Born a king on Bethlehem's plain, gold I bring to crown him again, king forever, ceasing never over us all to reign.

Oh, star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright, Westward leading, still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light. Ah, glorious now, behold him arise ♪ ♪ King and God, and sacrifice, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Sun through the earth and skies ♪ ♪ Oh, star of wonder, star of night, Star with royal beauty bright, Westward leading, still proceeding, Guide us to thy perfect light. Next we hear a gentle cradle song, Mary's Lullaby to the Infant King, set to the music of an old German carol, sung by Bob Edwards and Wayne Hooper. Lullaby, lullaby, my dearest 1, Lullaby and sweetly sleep. And sweetly sleep.

Lullaby, lullaby, my fairest 1, close thine eyes in slumber deep. The stars in heaven brightly shine, their light above thy face divine. Divine. Lullaby, lullaby, my dearest 1, lullaby and sweetly sleep. Thy mother watches by thy bed in the stable dark and drear.

Thy father kneels close by thy head to guard his child so dear. Peace on the earth, angels sing, while he sleeps, the new-born King, Lullaby, lullaby, my dearest 1, Lullaby and sweetly sleep. Lullaby, lullaby, my fairest 1, Close thine eyes in slumber deep. Our Father which art in heaven, we thank thee for Jesus, born in Bethlehem. We thank thee, O Lord, for the wonderful gift which brought our salvation.

O Lord we pray that in this program today we may have Thy blessing and Thy presence in Christ's name. There is a place of quiet rest near to the heart of God, a place where sin cannot molest near to the heart of God. O Jesus, blessed Redeemer, Sent from the heart of God, hold us who wait before Thee, near to the heart of God. Amen. Oh, how a rose e'er blooming From tender stem hath sprung, tender stem hath sprung, of Jesse's lineage coming, as men of old have sung.

It came a flowered bright amid the cold of winter when half spent was the night. When half-spent was the night, Isaiah t'was foretold it, the rose I had in mind. With Mary we behold it, the virgin mother kind. To show God's love aright. She bore to men a Savior when half spent was the night.

Born in a stable lowly, our Savior Lord and King, Our Savior, Lord and King. To Jesus' child so holy, His praises all we sing. The night was cold and long, yet bright the glowing starlight within our hearts a song. Within our hearts a song. Miss Del Delker's song for this joyous season is a salute to the birthday of a king.

♪ In the little village of Bethlehem there lay a child 1 day and the sky was bright with a holy light for light, o'er the place where Jesus lay. Alleluia, oh how the angels sang, Alleluia, how it rang. Sang, Alleluia, how it rang. And the sky was bright with a holy light. T'was the birthday of a king.

It was a humble birthplace, but oh, how much God gave to us that day. From the manger bed, What a path has led, what a perfect holy way. Alleluia, oh how the angels sang, Alleluia! How it rang, and the sky was bright with the Holy Light. With the holy light, t'was the birthday of a king.

Here now is HMS Richards, a Seventh-day Adventist minister. His subject? The Bethlehem manger. Same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not, For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." Then suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. But that wasn't all.

And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said 1 to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.' And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child." What a day that was! Everybody busy and so many people in the hotel. There was no room for the 2 travelers from Nazareth. No room in the inn.

Where did the royal birth take place? In a shed connected with the inn, in a rude shelter for animals, part cave, part building? We're not told. But we do know that there was no cradle for him. The young mother had to lay her babe in a manger.

There was no room anywhere else. A writer in the War Cry, the Salvation Army paper, tells us that a professor of psychology in 1 of our great universities gave a word suggestion test to a class of 40 students. The professor told them to write down the word Christmas and then follow it immediately with the very first thought that flies through their minds regarding that day. When the papers were turned in, he found such answers as tree, holly, mistletoe, presents, turkey, holiday, carols, and Santa Claus. Not 1 had written, Birthday of Jesus.

Far too often in these hectic days people take Christ out of Christmas. They make a bedlam out of Bethlehem. Strange how men took such a beautiful word as Bethlehem and changed it into a synonym for confusion and disorder. The Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem was founded in England in 1247.

3 centuries later it was turned into a hospital for the insane and the noise and confusion of that place became known throughout the country. So through the years the name Bethlehem has been corrupted and contracted to Bedlam. Finally the word stood for confusion and disorder. The Christmas season has become not a time for quiet thought and meditation and spiritual joy, but for many a time for worldly greed, noise, and last-minute buying, for the terrible carousing of Christmas Eve, and the intemperate eating and drinking of Christmas Day. We're reminded that the word Christmas is not found in the Bible, that heathen celebrations were held on December 25, and that nobody knows the exact date when Christ was born.

All these things are facts, well known to anyone who takes the trouble to look into them. McLintock and Strong's encyclopedia says, the observance of Christmas is not of divine appointment. The day of Christ's birth cannot be determined from the New Testament or indeed from any other source. All true enough, yet this time of the year people think about the fact of Christ's birth and it is good. All around the world, once a year, people are reminded that divinity was united with humanity.

And that's good. Jesus came in the fulfillment of prophecy. When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son. Galatians 4, verse 4. To his mother.

As he told of the shepherds and the angels of the Lord and the heavenly glory that shone round about them, and the fright of the shepherds, he said, the shepherds are very much afraid. But the angel said to them, don't be afraid, shepherds, they're only lighting up. And so they were lighting up this world of ours with a new light, a light that will never be extinguished to the end of time. It will shine on with even greater glory in the world to come. Bethlehem was full of visitors that night.

They filled the inn, But the star didn't shine for them, these crowds in the inn, only for some shepherds and a baby whose mother was pressed into using a manger for a cradle. Sooner or later, all the world must go to Bethlehem, just as the humble poor went long ago, or the wise men who followed the star from far-off lands, or the soldiers who came with shining swords and killed little children. All the world must go to Bethlehem, even if some go but to slay the world's best hope. But others will find the world's best wisdom there and its only hope. Let us now go even unto Bethlehem.

What a far cry from Merry Christmas, the yule log, the boar's head of our ancestors, The trees and dinners and pageants of our own day. For that glad vision of the opening heavens, let us read John 114. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same is in the beginning with God.

Man was selfish, So the Creator himself volunteered to come to this world and tread a human path with a terrible cross casting its shadow before him. The very first promise made to Eve, our First Mother, contains words that have filled the hearts of countless men and women with hope. In Genesis 3.15, I will put enmity between thee and the woman. "'Between thy seed and her seed, and it shall bruise thy head, ' God said to Satan, "'and thou shalt bruise his heel.'" This promise of the Redeemer was the hope of every woman hereafter. When Eve bore her first son, she thought he would be the world's Redeemer, so she named him Cain or Begotten.

I have gotten a man from the Lord. The expectation of a coming Redeemer filled every family with sweet hope. Over 2000 years after creation, Abraham was born and he was seventy-five years old. God revealed to him that the Promised 1 would descend through his family, and yet he had no son. Later on, his wife, Sarah, laughed at the idea that a child could be born to them in their old age.

Genesis 18. The Holy Angel asked the question, Is anything too hard for the Lord? God kept his word in the Son of Promise. A miracle child was born. Isaac was really a prophecy of the coming Redeemer.

Every descendant of Abraham should have foreseen this. But terrible days and dark days came. It seemed all hope was gone. Then the delightful book of Ruth was added with the story of the kinsman Redeemer. According to the law of property found in Leviticus 25, someone must redeem who was a kinsman who was related.

The coming Redeemer, the Messiah, must be a kinsman too. He must be man. He must belong to our human race. He must also be God, for only God can forgive sin and redeem and bring salvation. All this is fully met in the divine virgin birth of Christ.

He too was a child of promise. He was a man, for his mother was a woman. He was divine for his father was God. There could have been no possibility of a plan of salvation without the virgin birth and Bethlehem's manger. In Galatians 4, verse 4, we read the simple and majestic words, God sent forth his Son made of a woman.

So Jesus can speak of himself equally as the Son of Man, Luke 19.10, and the Son of God, John 19.7. The virgin birth of Jesus, therefore, is to me not only acceptable but inescapable. It must be. It is a divine and human necessity. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.

Do you desire soul peace? Are you dissatisfied with your life as it is, unchanged, unconverted? Do you desire a new birth, a new life? Then look to the cross where Jesus died and live. There could have been no cross outside the walls of Jerusalem had there been no Bethlehem manger.

And, no, babe, it was both God and man. His holy birth is for every day, for us as much as for the shepherds long ago. Never forget, unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. It was God manifest in the flesh who came. There was no room for him in the inn, no room in Herod's palace.

Soldiers hunted him, synagogues were close to him, the officials frowned upon him, the religionists were afraid of him, he had no place to lay his head. He who had created the world, he came unto his own and his own received him not. When he was born, he was laid in a borrowed cradle. He lived in a borrowed home in Bethany. He borrowed money from a fish's mouth.

He was buried in a borrowed grave. He became poor that we might be rich. He was treated as we deserve that we might be treated as he deserved. The Christ of the Bethlehem manger is the Christ of Galilee and the Christ of the cross. He who was worshipped by the angels of heaven before he came to this world will be accompanied by all the angels of God when he comes in glory, loved, worshipped, and adored as God over all and blessed forevermore.

It came upon the midnight clear, that glorious song of old, from angels bending near the From angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold. Peace on the earth, goodwill to men from hands of gracious King. To men from Hem's all-gracious King. The world in solemn stillness lay to hear the angels sing. Still through the cloven skies they come with peaceful wings unfurled.

And still their heavenly music floats o'er all the weary world. Above its sad and lowly plains they bend on hovering wing, Next week, Join us for another broadcast brought to you by the Voice of Prophecy. And remember, Go Forward in Faith. Have faith in God and help in all danger. Have faith in God and that heavenly stranger.

Have faith in God for that Bethlehem manger. Have faith, dear friend, in God. The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace.

♪♪ you

Back to Menu

The Bethlehem Manger

Description

Sponsor

Sound Doctrine