H.M.S. Richards

Voice Of Prophecy

The Rest That Remains

Lord, make me more holy, Lord, make me more holy, Lord, make me holy, holy, until we meet again.

Lord, make me more joyful until we meet again.

Joyful, Joyful, joyful, until we meet again.

Lord, make us more faithful, Lord, make us more faithful, until we meet again.

Faithful, faithful, faithful, until we meet again.

We're happy to be with you for this worship service, and the subject that my father, HMS Richards, is presenting is entitled, The Rest That remains.

Someone has said that modern life can be summed up in 3 words, hurry, worry, bury.

This leads us to think of the senator who, as he rushed along breathlessly, was asked by a news reporter, what do you think of the world crisis?

He replied, don't bother me now, I'm in a hurry to make a radio address and a crisis like this is no time to think.

The Lord Jesus was 1 of the busiest men who ever lived.

As no other man could, he knew the terrible tensions and needs of a lost world.

He said to his disciples, come ye yourselves apart and rest a while.

It is probably true that what the most people want, and want the most, is rest.

Millions look forward to what they call retirement, feeling that then in some way, mysteriously, miraculously, life's worries and problems will all fall away and they will have rest for the rest of their lives.

Had man never fallen, his rest would have been eternal.

But since the privilege of that eternal rest was lost, our Heavenly Father, in His mercy, designs to restore the enjoyment of it in full, all satisfying measure.

Every true believer in Christ longs for a higher, holier experience than this earth can give.

When David's heart was sorrowful and weak within him, and fear shattered his nerves, he said, Oh, that I had wings like a dove, for then I would fly away and be at rest.

That's what we all want down deep in our hearts, isn't it?

When the Lord gave the land of Canaan to the children of Israel, it was only a temporary possession.

It was a type, a symbol, a picture of their final inheritance in the earth made new, renewed as it was in the days of Eden.

Had they remained faithful, the city of Jerusalem would have stood forever.

And the throne of David would have been occupied by righteous kings until the Savior Himself came as the seed of David.

His reign then would have been established upon that very throne, and Israel would have been a mighty nation in righteousness, encircling the world.

So the rest which they might have received when Joshua led them into the land of promise, they failed to get.

But man's failure does not mean God's failure.

He ordains that the rest for which his people earnestly long may be secured through Jesus Christ.

Spiritually, it may be ours here and now in this world.

There are some Christians who are so busy in God's work that they never do much of the work of God.

At least they never spiritually find rest.

The story is told of an exploring party in deepest Africa that employed a group of native carriers and were pushing them hard to reach their destination.

For several days they went on relentlessly at top speed.

When asked what was the matter, the superstitious ones replied, We are waiting for our souls to catch up with our bodies.

There are a lot of Christians today who really run away from God in their hurry and rush, not merely for worldly things but sometimes for good things.

They need to stop once in a while and catch up spiritually.

Writing to the Hebrew brethren, the Apostle Paul speaks of the rest which Israel did not receive because of their unbelief.

The rest that remaineth to the children of God, it's called in Hebrews 4 and 9, and which may be regained through Christ.

He says, and I'm reading Hebrews 3, 15 and onward, Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation that was in the wilderness.

For some, when they had heard, did provoke.

However not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.

Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?

And to whom swore he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believe not.

So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

It was unbelief in the word of God and promises of God which prevented those people who left the land of Egypt from entering into God's rest in the land of Canaan.

Yet there were some faithful ones who entered into God's rest spiritually in spite of the failure of all the rest.

The Apostle continues, Let us Therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should come short of it, or seem to come short of it.

For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them.

You see, this had to do with the preaching of the gospel.

But the word preached did not profit them.

Listen, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

Now friends, we can hear the gospel preached, but if there is no faith in our hearts, it will do us no good and we will not receive the spiritual rest we want.

If we do not believe God's Word, it will do us no good.

We may hear it preached, but there certainly must be faith on our part in order to receive it.

We must really trust God's Word or we shall never find spiritual rest.

To celebrate an old gentleman's 75th birthday, a young man who owned a private plane offered to take him up for a ride over the little West Virginia town where he had lived all his life.

When he was back on the ground after about 20 minutes, his friend said, Were you scared, Uncle Dudley?

No, he hesitated, but I never did put my full weight down.

You may smile at that remark, but isn't that a picture of some who call themselves believers.

They have been offered Christ's salvation and have received it.

They profess to believe in God and His promises, but they never really put their full weight down on them.

Of course, Christ has been carrying them all the time.

His mercies have protected them, guided them, helped them, still they have never fully trusted Him.

They do not know the joy that comes from complete rest in the promises of God.

As those ancient people of God failed of entering his rest because of their unbelief.

The Lord limited a certain day, saying in David, that is, in the writings of David, Today, after so long a time, as it is said, Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

For if Joshua had given them rest, that is, when he took them into the promised land, then would he, that is God, not afterward have spoken of another day.

There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

Joshua did not give that rest to them when they entered the land of promise because of their unbelief.

But through Jesus, God still offers rest to all who believe.

The last king who ruled over the chosen nation was Zedekiah.

He was carried into captivity in Babylon.

Because of the apostasy and unbelief of the people and the kings disobeying the commandments of God, the scepter and the throne were entirely removed from them and passed into the hands of the king of Babylon, a mighty Gentile nation.

Since that time, God's people have never constituted a literal kingdom on this earth.

Through the prophet Ezekiel the Lord had declared of Zedekiah that such would be the case.

Here are the inspired words in Ezekiel 21.

And thou, profane, wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end, Thus saith the Lord God, Remove the diadem, take off the crown.

Anil Kanda

Ceres SDA Church

Paranormal Activity

A day of rejoicing, a day of appreciating the gifts that God has given us.

A day to come together and fellowship in the presence of the Lord, amen?

So as we jump into this message we're gonna be needing to pray and ask that God's angels would be here in a very special way.

The name of the sermon is called Paranormal Activity, and this is not about women.

I know a couple weeks ago I preached about godly men, and there was a huge demand to preach about women.

And so if you thought that when you saw this sign, he must be talking about women.

We're going to be talking about something else.

Perhaps in the future, we're going to address this issue, what the Bible says about godly women.

And folks, we need to know what God's will is, especially for these times.

In writing this sermon, I was thinking about Halloween.

Now, if you mention that word in some Adventist circles, you could be stoned.

I just want to give you a bit of advice when it comes to Halloween.

There's multiple ways in which you can deal with Halloween.

The first is do what some people do, and that is, They decide to take a trip to Lake Tahoe during that day.

And so they need to show that they don't participate in Halloween.

And so by not answering the door and letting everybody know you're not home, you're a witness for Christ.

Is that you, when little kids come to your door, dressed like little vampires and little demons, you can decide at that very moment whether or not you're going to be a Christian.

You know how you can decide whether or not you're going to be a Christian?

So, this is my recommendation for those who are going to stay at home.

Go to the local, the nearest Trader Joe's and buy the healthiest candy that you can buy.

Fine, you buy it, You pay the extra 3 dollars and you buy the most healthiest candy you can find.

This is going to take probably a couple hours to prepare.

And that when little kids come to your door and say, trick or treat, you say, well, I'm so glad that you're here, and just drop off that piece of candy there.

If you're somebody who is very bent on taking your kids trick-or-treating, I want to recommend that you do something productive.

You don't dress up your kids like a ghoulish monster or a vampire or a ghost.

You dress them up like you can be a shepherd or a little sheep or John the Baptist or something like that.

And you go out, and instead of collecting candy, collect cans for the needy.

A few years ago, we took the kids out, and we did that.

We couldn't find any costumes, so we went into the youth room, or the children's room, we found these shepherd's clothes, and so I dressed up like a shepherd, I carried this giant fuzzy sheep, and my friend Godfrey, the pastor of the Modesto Central at that time, he dressed as a shepherd, and some of the kids dressed in robes, and we went door to door and we were asking people when they said, all right, ready for some candy?

We said, no, actually we're here to collect some cans.

And then they walk away and come back with a can of peas.

And then you know what's really interesting?

And we tell them, well, we're collecting cans because we believe Jesus wants us to help out the needy.

You can completely ignore the situations around us, or you can try to make a good thing come out of something bad.

You know, I'm sure somebody will send me an email later today.

So why don't we begin with the word of prayer and let's ask Jesus to be here in a very special way.

I'll tell you this, what we're gonna be talking about this morning is going to be something that we're really going to need the angels of God.

You know Ellen White says, unless the angels of God come and push Satan back, this message cannot come out with power.

Obviously we're going to be talking about spiritualism here, but it's very important that our hearts and minds are in tune with what the Spirit is trying to communicate to us.

So let's bow our heads, I'm going to give you a word of silence, And I want you to pray and say, Jesus, we want your angels to be here.

We know that your angels are already with us, and Lord, we pray you would send more.

God, we know that unless Satan is pushed back, We cannot understand what you're trying to communicate to us about the future and why this message is extremely important, especially around these times.

Jesus, we pray and ask for wisdom, clarity, understanding.

Lord, especially do we pray for the Holy Spirit.

We want to lay aside all our offenses, lay aside all the things that bug us and annoy us, and Jesus, right now we want to pray for the sweet Spirit of God.

The name of the sermon is called Paranormal Activity.

And the name of this scary story is called the Fox Sisters.

The name of the scary story is called the Fox Sisters.

There was a city by the name of Hyderville located in New York.

But around the 1800s, there was this family, the Fox family.

And these 3 daughters, they lived in 1 room while the parents lived in another room.

They lived out in a nice country shack that was located into the country.

And so you can imagine these 3 girls were oftentimes playmates of each other.

And so while the father was away at work, these girls would begin to be curious with all sorts of things.

And they began to do all sorts of unusual things.

They started to hear a weird sound and it was coming from underneath the house and it sounded like this.

Well, they got up and they raced over to their mom and their dad, and they said, hey, something's up.

So we're hearing this strange, unusual sound.

Beer, Bullets, Bellies

I just want to tell you right off the bat that this is going to be a very uncomfortable sermon, and I just want to let you know that right off from the very beginning, because some of you guys will be hurt from this sermon, which is normal.

The Word of God is a sword, it is a knife, but there is a difference between a butcher's knife and a surgeon's knife.

And so what we're going to be talking about today is going to affect a lot of people, and everybody in this congregation is involved when it comes to this subject.

However, I will be speaking directly to a certain group of individuals in this church.

So let's start with a word of prayer and ask God to prepare our heart.

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

Lord, as we jump into this message, Father, we need to humble ourselves first, and ask that you would prepare our heart.

God, we need you to speak directly to us.

We don't want a soft sermon, a fluffy sermon, God.

We want a direct message of God that will shake us, that will wake us up out of the slumber.

And we pray, Jesus, that we'd walk away from this message with our hearts stirred, and that every person would know that you have been in this place.

God, oftentimes this world clings to us and draws us into its darkness.

But, Jesus, we pray that you would unsheath your sword, the Word of God, like never before, and that the Holy Spirit would convict us like never before.

And Jesus, we pray that you would show us our duty like never before.

For this we pray in the name of Jesus, amen.

The name of this sermon is called, Beers, Bullets, and Bellies.

No, this is not a sermon about the health message.

This sermon is going to be about something else.

And I think you'll begin to pick up on it very quickly.

I was reading an article online, and it got my heart stirred.

And just this intensity of emotion began to come upon me as I was reading this article.

And I want to read you a part of this article.

And this is what the Bible, this is what this article says about men in the United States, right here.

It's talking about the response of men, or the responsibilities of men, to their families, to society.

Today, 18 to 34 year olds spend more time playing video games a day than 12 to 17 year olds.

While women are graduating college and finding good jobs, too many men are not going to work, not getting married, and not raising families.

Women are beginning to take the place of men in many ways.

This has led some to ask, do we even need men?

Increasingly, the messages to boys about what it means to be a man are confusing.

The machismo of the street gang calls out with the swagger.

Video games, television, and music offer dubious lessons to boys who have been abandoned by their fathers.

Some coaches and drill sergeants bark, what kind of man are you?

Movies are filled with stories of men who refuse to grow up and refuse to take responsibility in relationships.

Men, some obsessed with sex, treat women as toys to be discarded when things get complicated.

Through all these different and conflicting signals, our boys must decipher what it means to be a man, and for many of them, it is harder to figure out.

For boys to become men they needed to be guided through advice, habit, instruction, example and correction.

Someone once characterized the 2 essential questions Plato posed asked, who teaches the children and what do we teach them?

Each generation of men and women have an obligation to teach the younger males, and females of course, coming behind them.

William Wordsworth said, what we have loved, others will love, and we will teach them how.

When they fail in that obligation, trouble surely follows.

We need to respond to this culture that sends confusing signals to young men, a culture that is agnostic about what it wants men to be with a clear and achievable notion of manhood.

The founding fathers believed and the evidence still shows that industrialists, marriage, and religion are important basis for male empowerment and achievement.

We need to say to a number of our 20-something men, get off the video games 5 hours a day, get yourself together, get a challenging job, and get married.

Folks, I want you to understand something and I think you kind of know where we're going with this sermon.

Society is telling us 1 direction, this is what it means to be a man.

Media is telling us the same direction, this is what it means to be a man.

And all these views about what it means to a man are completely contrary to what the Bible teaches.

And God is calling for some people to wake up in this congregation and say, no, this is not what it means to be a man.

In fact we're gonna look at somebody who made the same admonition to his son.

Take your Bible go to 1st Kings chapter 2 verses 1 through 2 and if you're there go ahead and say Amen.

This is the story as David is coming to the end of his life.

He's been an old king, he has seen many things.

He's experienced so much in the world, and now he knows his son is about to take over his kingdom.

And so he wants to say the perfect words to his son, things that will wake his son up and help him to realize that there is a responsibility that God has upon him.

Now the days of David drew near that he should die and he charged Solomon his son saying I go the way of all the earth.

Be strong, therefore, and prove yourself a what?

In some translations, it says, show yourself to be a man.

He knew he had to remind Solomon of a great responsibility that was resting upon him.

Because all of society was saying, this is what it takes to be a man, this is what it means to be a man.

However, God had a different view of what a man is.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

The Rest That Remains

20m

Paranormal Activity

43m

Beer, Bullets, Bellies

52m

Lost Truths In World Religion

54m

Struggle

50m

Myths and Legends

57m

How to Solve Problems- Part 9

39m

How to Solve Problems- Part 8

41m

How to Solve Problems- Part 6

32m

How to Solve Problems- Part 5

38m

How to Solve Problems- Part 4

35m

How to Solve Problems- Part 3

36m

Sound Doctrine