H.M.S. Richards

Voice Of Prophecy

There Is A Judgment

O hail the power of Jesus' name, let angels prostrate fall.

Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown him Lord of all.

Ye chosen seed of Israel's race, Ye ransomed of the fall, ye ransomed of the fall, hail him who saves you by his grace, and crown him, crown him, Lord of all.

The service today is 1 that we hope will bring encouragement and strength to you and your family.

The Bible has a lot to say about Judgment Day, and my father, HMS Richards, now is presenting the subject, there is a judgment.

A certain lawyer had a caged starling in his office.

This bird had learned to answer when he was called.

1 morning, just as a boy named Charlie came into the office, the lawyer was called out for a few minutes.

When he came back, the door of the birdcage was open, the bird was gone.

"'But that bird is in the cage and I left.

Where is he gone?' Charlie repeated that he didn't know.

Possibly the door had come open and the bird just flew away.

Then the lawyer called, Starling, where are you?

Here I am, came the answer, and the voice came from the boy's pocket.

He had stolen the bird, hidden it in his pocket.

Then to hide his guilt, he had lied twice.

Now this voice from his pocket betrayed him and he could deny or evade no longer.

There was the Starling, a living witness to his theft and falsehood.

So it will be with the world guilty of sinners in God's judgment.

They have tried to hide their sins from God.

They have committed 1 sin to cover up another, told 1 lie to give semblance of truth to another.

Now they are before God's judgment bar, where every mouth will be stopped and they will be found guilty before God.

In Revelation 20, verse 4, we read that during the thousand years between the first and second resurrections, the righteous will sit upon thrones of judgment.

God will take His people with Him in this work of judgment.

Motives as well as deeds will be considered.

All will see that the judgment of God is just and right.

In Ecclesiastes 3.17 we are told that God shall judge the righteous and the wicked.

But there is a third class brought to view.

First Corinthians 6.2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?

The answer is found in 2 New Testament texts.

The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

These are the fallen angels who were cast out from heaven with Satan.

They had been invested with great authority in God's government, but they were expelled from heaven because of sin.

The Apostle Peter speaks of them in 2 Peter 2.4.

God spared not the angels that sinned, cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment.

But before God's people can act as judges, they themselves must be judged.

They receive their reward at the resurrection of the righteous.

They must be judged before they receive their reward.

But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead.

Notice, they are accounted or judged worthy before they are raised from the dead.

We might call this a judgment of investigation or the investigative judgment.

Note the language used, They are resurrected from the dead, literally, out from among the dead ones, showing that the wicked remain silent in the tomb after the resurrection of the righteous.

The wicked do not live again for a thousand years as we read in Revelation 20, verse 5.

Our Savior as Holy Mediator upon the Throne of Grace, pronounces us free from guilt and justifies all who repent and are converted.

Then He will declare, He that is unjust, let him be unjust still.

He which is filthy, let him be filthy still, and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still.

And he that is holy, let him be holy still.

And behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

This scripture shows clearly that the destiny of every 1 of us will be forever settled when Jesus comes.

The whole trend of events in the world today shows that a mighty change is imminent.

The signs of the times declare Christ's advent near.

When he comes, it will be too late for any of us to change our attitude toward God.

In view of the day in which we live, how can anyone neglect his great salvation?

In Time magazine, December 15, 1952, a report appeared of the teenage thief who snatched a purse from Mrs.

Gardner received an envelope by mail enclosing $9, 780 in an odd note which said, I never expected to get so much.

How will those people feel who have esteemed the things of this world as more important than Christ and the promised riches of God's heaven?

Someday they will come to the conclusion that, had they known the awful judgment facing them, they would not have made such a choice.

But worst of all, they will not be able to salve their conscience by mailing something back.

This investigative judgment is pictured, we believe, in Revelation 14, 6 and 7.

Here we read of a worldwide message that goes to the nations declaring that the hour of God's judgment has come.

This is not the day of judgment when the wicked are sentenced, but it is more like a grand jury of the universe.

Suppose 5 men have been accused of robbing a village bank.

Well, they're summoned before the grand jury.

This jury doesn't sentence them, it investigates them.

1 of the men proves that he was out of town the entire night of the robbery.

Another proves he was taking care of a sick man from sunset that night until sunrise the next morning.

The remaining 3 had been seen together and, on arrest, some of the stolen money was found on their persons.

These men are bound over to the district court for trial.

This illustrates the investigation of all those who are candidates for eternal life.

All have sinned and all are summoned to appear before the Heavenly Bar.

In the investigative judgment, the hour of God's judgment, those who have been received into the imputed righteousness of Christ by grace through faith, are pronounced free from guilt and are subject to the first resurrection or to translation at the second coming of the Lord.

The rest of the dead do not live again until a thousand years are completed.

Then they come up in the resurrection of judgment.

In the meantime, their cases have been considered by the Saints who sit on thrones of judgment in heaven above.

The records of men's lives are kept in the books of heaven.

We read in Revelation 20, verse 12, And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.

And the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life.

And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works.

Books is plural, at least 2, and another, the Book of Life.

Other Bible writers speak of these books of records.

Anil Kanda

Ceres SDA Church

Headless Turkeys

I'm really excited because I see God doing so many wonderful things in our church.

And if you haven't experienced that, now is the time like never before.

This next year, we're going to place a very heavy emphasis upon 3 things in the direction of Syriza Church.

By the way, the Malachi message of Malachi chapter 4 message is that the Elijah message will be 1 to restore the hearts of their fathers to their sons and the hearts of their sons to their father.

There's a restoration of family according to God's model.

The second push will be an emphasis on evangelism, the work of saving souls.

And the third thing will be leadership training.

God does not call us to be self-centered and self-focused.

He calls us to expand and to branch out, and this requires to develop leaders.

And I believe God is wanting to do some awesome things this next coming year.

The theme will be, for such a time as this.

Can't think of any better time than now, amen?

I was talking to Chris Nelson, and he saw the title of the sermon, and the title of the sermon is called Headless Turkeys.

And he said that somebody came up to him and heard last week's sermon about the women and thought to themselves, this week's sermon must be about the men.

Well, folks, you know, here's the thing, and I mean this.

It's okay that you're struggling with God.

It's okay that you're struggling and you don't meet the mark.

God wants to do great things in your life and you come to Him just as you are and even if you don't meet the mark we want you here at Ceres, amen?

Even if you aren't a virtuous wife but a vicious knife we want you here at Ceres, amen?

Even if you don't meet the qualifications of a godly mother this is the place where you learn how to be, amen?

Ceres, God's arm is open to every person.

Well, why don't we start with the word of prayer, then we're going to jump into this message rapid fire.

And if you plan on complaining about how fast I talk, I just want to let you know there are always audio recordings.

Father in heaven, we thank you so much for your goodness and for your kindness.

Thank you, Lord, that we can come and worship you just as we are, God, sinful, helpless, and needy.

But Lord, we praise you that you not only make our names beautiful in heaven, but God, you make our characters beautiful on earth.

And Jesus, thank you You don't leave us where we're at, but you pick us up and you deliver us from the ruin of sin and you set us on the right path again.

And Father, we have all fallen so short this week of your goodness, of your glory.

But God, we thank you for the blood that restores us and creates in us a clean heart.

We pray, Lord, with this sermon that it would be fruitful, God, and that we would walk away tremendously blessed because we know we have been in the presence with Jesus.

Thank you God, in your holy name we pray, amen.

We're going to be looking at a very interesting story.

This is going to be a very interesting sermon.

I believe that God has some special things he wants to communicate to you.

But we're going to the very first story found in Luke chapter 17.

You know, growing up, Thanksgiving was very interesting for me.

I come from a Hindu background, and in the Indian culture, it's not really a holiday we really recognize.

But I was always surrounded by a lot of friends who did recognize this holiday.

The 1 thing I would know about Thanksgiving was this, that it was just a day where people ate a lot and got sick the next day.

And that's all I knew about Thanksgiving growing up.

As I began to take classes in school, I would learn about the pilgrims and the Indians.

Somebody came up to me earlier this week and they said, I know you should dress up like an Indian this week.

Well, anyways, I, you know, this is the way a lot of us have a sort of an understanding of Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving actually is in line with what the Bible teaches.

Did you know that throughout the Old Testament, God actually instructed the Israelites to have days of Thanksgiving?

Not just 1 part of the year, but throughout the entire year, they were to have various feast days.

And at these feast days, they were to come together and have a very certain type of meal and recall the goodness of God.

She says, well, would it be good for our churches to have more days of Thanksgiving?

Days that God's people come together and over a delicious meal fellowship.

Now, the end goal of Thanksgiving is not turkey.

The end goal of Thanksgiving is not to have a stuffed stomach.

Now, 1 of the reasons why God allowed food into the feast days, or put food into the feast days, is because food is comforting.

And with the fellowship and with the food, it was designed to communicate a time of praise and happiness.

You know, sometimes during Thanksgiving, we're running around with, like, turkeys with our head cut off.

You know, it's so busy, and we're just running around.

We're trying to get things ready, and it's like when the parents are trying to take pictures and they're saying, all right children, I want you to be happy, we're a happy family, take a picture, and they take a picture and everyone's trying to smile at a moment when it's not really happy.

Folks, the 1 thing we don't want to forget about this season, about this time, is the time for us to call forth the praises of God.

We have more to be thankful for than we do to complain.

A very interesting encounter in the life of Christ.

Now it happened as he went through Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.

Restoration 2014: Rest for the Restless

God's Love Stories (Noon Meetings)

Restoration Ministry

11. Part 1 - Q & A with Jashkie (Josh & Jackie)

How many of you were at the concert Saturday night?

Well, for those of you who weren't able to be there, Josh and I are gonna be sharing our testimony today of how God has led us individually and as well as together.

But I just wanna begin again with a word of prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you Lord that you restore us and you deliver us and you want nothing but the best for our lives.

We thank you Lord for your love and for your mercy and may you be lifted up in all things today.

Well, my name is Jackie Cunningham, and I come from the very cool town of Fresno.

I was raised in a loving Filipino family and I was a typical good Christian Filipino kid with my sister and brother.

We were homeschooled at first And we traveled all around California because my parents owned a nursing registry.

But we traveled all around California also singing together.

My mom started me at the age of 3 and a half to play the piano.

And it was pretty cool, but it was funny because sometimes we'd be referred to as like the Filipino sound of music.

You know, you'd see us all brown little kids up there with our instruments and singing and acting and doing whatever it was in church just to bring people closer to Jesus.

You know, when I was younger, I was just very innocent and just very accepting of everything around me and always smiling.

I had always a smile on my face, but it was interesting because Satan knew that I had this heart that was full of love to give to people.

But he also knew that I had this deep insecurity as well.

When I was younger, at the age of 6, my innocence was stolen from me and also at the age of 17.

And as a result of that, those traumatic experiences, I started making decisions that were really detrimental to my future.

You know, society and the world tells you that you have to look this way or you have to do things this way or you have to conform to whatever it is that you're in so that you'll be loved and accepted.

You know, women, we have this thing where, I don't know, I can't speak for all women, but for me, I used to feel validated by if a guy told me I was pretty or if a guy told me that they loved me or whatever.

Where you just feel validation from superficial things that are not grounded in Christ?

And I remember just going through all these experiences and thinking, man, this is not the way.

And I was still serving in church, you know.

I was still going through the motions of being involved in music, in being a youth leader, doing all these things, but it was just a facade, because inside, I didn't know what my deepest, truest identity was in Christ.

And I think that's very important for all of us here, especially, you know, we've been talking about relationships.

Pastor Anil has been sharing from the word of God those principles, and I was confused in my head, and I was starting to buy into those lies, you know.

Since my innocence was stolen from me, I thought, what else do I have to give?

What else do I have to give, like, to my husband?

That God restores us and that Jesus, Jesus can relate to all those feelings of abandonment, feeling forsaken, feeling rejected, feeling physically violated by those that he created.

And not to discount our own stories, but it's hopeful to see that Jesus went through all those things and that he can relate with us, amen?

He could relate with us and he came down, love came down to bring restoration.

Death for 1 man, life for all, love came down.

And this song is entitled Love Came Down and it was inspired by my journey through life and as well as, I don't know if you guys keep up with the news, I know you're busy with school, but there were some 3 young ladies back east that were kidnapped for 10 years, Amanda Berry, I don't know if you guys remember the story, and I was just relating with them, you know, their innocence and time was lost, but God said that he will restore the years that the locusts have eaten, amen?

And there's always hope, there's always hope in Jesus.

Well, just for those of you who weren't at the concert the other night, just briefly, my background was that I was raised in a Christian home, a Seventh-day Adventist Christian home, and I never really had a strong connection with God as a child.

And Jackie was just talking about gaining your identity from various things that the world tells you is going to give you purpose and meaning and identity.

And for me, once I got to My teenage years, music became that thing.

I started playing in bands, in bars and pubs and places around my hometown where I wasn't legally old enough to be in those places, but I was up on stage playing guitar.

You can imagine for a teenage kid that's a pretty cool thing to do and a lot of my friends thought that was cool.

So that was where I got my meaning and my purpose, my identity, my whole self-image from.

And you can imagine that if that's the basis of those things for a person, then your choices with relationships are going to be pretty dysfunctional and pretty broken as well.

I got in a band that became popular and successful And I just drifted away from God.

As I said, music became my God and became everything for me.

And during those years, I had several relationships, some long term and some rather brief as well.

And I guess I would have really appreciated having a bit of a foundation in some of the things that we've been learning that Anil's been sharing with us this past week or 2 weeks.

And so I was kind of making bad choices, just as Jackie has described in her experience as well.

And through this time, my parents were praying for me because they had raised me to love the Lord, but for whatever reason, I just didn't have that connection.

And so they were praying that God would send people into my path to witness to me, and that's exactly what happened.

I was having these random encounters with people, 1 after the other, over the course of a couple years.

And eventually I got, well, the kind of, the final 1 of these chance encounters was with a young lady who was a very fine Christian girl, and she witnessed to me in a very intentional way.

And it was just the powerful nature of that experience that made me realize God was trying to reach out to me and draw me into a relationship with Him.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the only relationship that I was drawn into as a result of that chance encounter.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

There Is A Judgment

15m

Headless Turkeys

54m

11. Part 1 - Q & A with Jashkie (Josh & Jackie)

28m

Woe Is Me

52m

The Two Kingdoms

16m

How Plato Missed the Mark

30m

The Return of Eve

1h

16. It’s Your Call

56m

15. The Second Coming & The End of the World

45m

14. America in Prophecy

49m

13. Sealed or Marked- Part 2

43m

12. Sealed or Marked- Part 1

54m

Sound Doctrine