H.M.S. Richards

Voice Of Prophecy

Chariots Out of the North

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.

We welcome you to this half hour of inspiration and music with the King's Heralds, Del Delker, Brad Braley, and the Voice of Prophecy speaker, H.M.S.

Richards, a Seventh-day Adventist minister.

We open this broadcast with a stirring hymn ascribing honor to the undying faith of our fathers.

Our fathers living still, in spite of dungeon, fire, and sword.

Oh, how our hearts beat high with joy, whene'er we hear that glorious word.

Faith of our fathers, holy faith, We will be true to thee till death.

Faith of our fathers we will love, both friend and foe in all our strife, and preach thee to as love knows how, by kindly words and virtuous life.

Faith of our fathers, holy faith, we will be true to thee till death.

Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the privilege of broadcasting Thy Word today.

Around the world, we pray, Thou wilt send Thy blessed Spirit into the hearts of those who hear, and bring peace and comfort from thy word.

♪ 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 bow before Thee, near to the heart of God.

There is a name to me so dear Like sweetest music to my ear, for when my heart is troubled, filled with fear, Jesus whispers peace.

My soul weighed down with heavy care, And I am sorely tempted to despair.

Oh, that the world might hear him speak the word of comfort that men seek.

To all the lowly and unto the meek, Jesus whispers peace.

There's a wideness in God's mercy Like the wideness of the sea There's a kindness in his justice, which is more than liberty.

For the love of God is broader than the measure of man's mind, and the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind.

If our love were but more simple, we should take him at his word, and our lives would our lives would be all sunshine in the sweetness of our Lord.

Here now is HMS Richards, the voice of prophecy speaker.

Not long ago, 1 of my best friends described an experience which came to him as a young man.

During a severe attack of malaria, he became greatly depressed.

He seemed to lose faith in everything and everybody.

In spite of himself, he was drifting into infidelity, doubt, even atheism.

Then he began to think about some of the simple, plain evidences of God, of the inspiration of the Scriptures.

He said that the direct fulfillment of Bible prophecies as he studied them, had more effect than anything else in bringing him back to a sound unshakable faith in the Word of God, in God Himself and in His providence.

You remember the words of the Apostle in 2nd Peter 119, We have also a more sure word of prophecy, where unto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts." It was the actual historical fulfillment of Bible prophecies which proved to him that another statement by the same apostle was absolutely true.

For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of men, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

My friend mentioned 3 specific prophecies that had a powerful influence upon him and the rebuilding of his faith.

These prophecies concerned the overthrow of the great seaport city of Tyre, the overthrow of Babylon, the first of the world empires of prophecy, and the overthrow of Jerusalem, the city of God's chosen people.

Now the prophecy concerning Tyre is found in Ezekiel, the 26th chapter.

Just remember it was the great seaport city of the age, and to speak of it in those days was like speaking of London or New York today.

This prophecy of Ezekiel was given about 586 years before Christ was born.

In fact the very year in which the city of Jerusalem was captured by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.

The people of Tyre expressed their joy at Jerusalem's downfall.

They thought all the commerce now would come their way.

And here is the astounding and startling prophecy, beginning with the third verse.

Through his prophet, God said that Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, would come with chariots out of the north, would destroy the walls of Tyre, break down her towers, scrape the dust from her, make her like the top of a rock, a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea, as verse 5 puts it.

Now Tyre was a double city, really 2 cities, 1 on the mainland and the other half a mile out from shore on a 140 acre island.

The prophecy continued that the walls of the city would shake at the sound of the wheels of the chariots, that dust would cover the city from the horses hoofs.

They shall break down thy walls, destroy thy pleasant houses.

They shall lay thy stones, and thy timber, and thy dust in the midst of the water.

It shall be built no more, " verse 14 says, and verse 20, it should not be inhabited again.

This all took place literally and can be authenticated by a survey of the city right now in this very year.

These chariots out of the north did come.

Nebuchadnezzar did lay siege to the city for 13 years.

Finally he captured the city on the mainland and destroyed it.

Then the people took refuge in their sea town and could not be dislodged.

Later, they made a treaty with Nebuchadnezzar to become his subjects.

Still the prophecy was not completely fulfilled.

200 years went by and Alexander the Great came and used his Navy to finish the fulfillment of the prophecy.

He could not bring his army against the wall so he took all the ruins of the mainland city, actually scraping up not only the rocks but the dust itself, and built a causeway or mole out to the island city.

Even then he had to use his navy to keep the fleet of Tyre from stopping his work.

Today the location on the mainland is absolutely uninhabited.

There's no sign that there ever was a city there.

And out on the great rock in the midst of the sea, there are only a few inhabitants of what was a mighty seaport city in the height of its glory when the Prophet wrote.

But why does the prophecy speak of Nebuchadnezzar's coming with chariots out of the north when Babylon is distinctly east of Tyre and Jerusalem?

Between Jerusalem and Babylon lies the great Syrian desert.

Hundreds and hundreds of miles of blazing sand impassable for armies in ancient times, difficult now.

Those of us who have traversed it by plane know what an inhospitable and deadly region it is.

In ancient times, armies from Babel always marched northwest up the Euphrates River until near Antioch and then came down into Palestine and Egypt.

So the invading armies from the east really came from the north.

Nebuchadnezzar's mechanized divisions were 8 squadrons of chariots, so he really came with chariots out of the north and scourged the nations of antiquity.

His people were carried into captivity to Babylon.

The prophet Daniel was 1 of these captives.

Turning to the second chapter of the book of Daniel, we have the story of the divine dream which came from God to this mighty pagan dictator.

A great metallic image, head of gold, breast and arms of silver, sides of brass, legs of iron, feet part of iron and part of clay or porcelain.

In this prophetic dream, God rolls back the curtain of history shows us the time when He will unite the nations, when chariots out of the north will cease to roll and mighty air fleets will be used in the interest of progress and peace and not of war and destruction.

That time is coming and this Bible prophecy of Daniel, the second chapter, foretells the events which lead up to it.

Daniel declared, Daniel the prophet, that the head of the world image represented Babylon itself, often called the Golden Kingdom.

And that Golden Kingdom itself was to go down and be overthrown and become like Sodom and Gomorrah, never to be inhabited except by owls and wild beasts.

Those who visit Babylon today may see thousands of bricks dug out of the ruins, each 1 bearing the name and title of Nebuchadnezzar the King.

In fact, not long ago a brick was found on this it was written, for the astonishment of men I have built this house.

These portals for the astonishment of multitudes of people with beauty I adorned.

Thus I completely made strong the defenses of Babylon.

May it last forever, words of the King Nebuchadnezzar.

Then the next empire, Medo-Persia, represented by the breast and arms of silver, came on the scene of action about 539 before Christ.

The Book of James

Chris Buttery

Sacramento Central SDA Church

The Book of James: Love & the Law

Well, just an exciting study, the book of James, isn't it?

We've had a great time together and we're going to continue looking at the lesson.

The memory text here for this week, on Sabbath afternoon's lesson, is found in James chapter 2 and verse 13, and it says, for judgment will be merciless to 1 who has shown no mercy.

So, there it is, and we'll talk a little bit more about that.

You want to probably open your Bibles to James because we're going to be there and we're going to be in chapter 2 and continuing the train of thought that James is presenting to us here.

James chapter 2 and we're going to be right here in verse 1.

Motivated by thoughts of serving self, individuals are also led to prejudiced thinking and seeing others less than they are.

And that's where our lesson centres here in the book of James, Chapter 2.

I don't know if you've noticed that, it seems so natural to think, for example, that 1 culture may be superior than another, or a person that perhaps is well-dressed deserves more attention or more favours than someone who may not be as well-dressed or have money.

And James will talk about this, and we'll look at this here in just a little bit, in James chapter 2.

So we often find ourselves, and this is a reality often trapped by thoughts that we know are out of harmony with the principles of the gospel, that tells us to treat 1 another kindly and impartially with genuineness, genuine biblical love.

I think we find ourselves and our minds drifting at times.

I read the story, he actually last night, about an individual wife walking through a park, and they were in Miami, Florida, and they were just strolling through.

They noticed a family, and this family apparently was from Cuba.

And they were there having a picnic and they were surrounded by raccoons who were begging for some food.

And the father, the husband, was in his native tongue, in Spanish, calling for the raccoon to come over and get something to eat.

And the gentleman and his wife walked on and he ended up later confiding to his wife and saying, you know, it was a silly thought, but the first thing that popped into my head is how silly it is to talk to a raccoon in Spanish.

And so, you know, it could be the other way around.

Could have been a Cuban family walking through the park and someone speaking English.

And sometimes we have these thoughts that run through our mind or there's this thing that is within our minds that perhaps pits us better than others that we maybe don't understand or cannot relate to, per se.

And certainly, that would not be the attitude that Christ is wanting to develop in His people.

No matter what psychologists or sociobiologists or sociologists say, our problem can be best summarized in the words of Jeremiah in chapter 17 and verse 9, and you know it well, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?

But thank God that He offers to us to create in us a clean heart and to renew a right spirit or a right attitude in each 1 of us.

God wants to train us to truly love from a pure heart that doesn't have skewed motives and this change is truly a miracle from God that occurs with full cooperation with those that love Him and serve Him.

And so, with that little preamble, let's go to Sunday's lesson.

The man in gold, Sunday's lesson, the man in gold.

And we're in James chapter 2 verses 1 through 4.

James highlights this problem of partiality or respecting certain individuals to the detriment of others, and this is what we're basically going to be discussing here this morning.

James chapter 2 and James chapter 2 verse 1, notice the problem as is expressed, my brethren do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of glory with what?

If you have a King James Version it says, respective persons, New King James, partiality, partiality.

And I would suggest and submit here this morning that partiality has weakened the church, the influence of the church, and corrupted its witness in the world because Christ is not represented in such behavior.

Prejudice, which leads to discrimination and segregation.

Prejudice is prejudgment or forming an opinion before becoming aware of the relevant facts of a case.

The word is often used to refer to preconceived, usually unfavorable judgment toward people or persons of gender, of social class, of age, disability, religion, race, ethnicity, language, nationality, or any other personal characteristic.

You may have heard this little cute story about the 2 apples that were looking down on the world.

The first apple said, look at all those people down there fighting, robbing, rioting.

No 1 seems willing to get along with this fellow man and someday we apples will be the only 1 left and we will rule the world replied the second apple which of us the reds or the greens it's a it's a trait a human trait to to esteem ourselves better than others or to view our circumstances perhaps better than somebody else or our culture or our language or our status in society, our religion even.

And yet this is contrary to the spirit of the gospel.

Favoritism, prejudice, racism, tribalism, whatever a person wishes to call it, was a problem of the Jews in the days of Christ.

You remember, they had built up a lot of barriers and walls to protect them from the influence of the world around them.

And so they became prejudiced against the Gentiles, those who were not Jews.

And so we have that example here in the Scriptures.

If over in Acts chapter 10, you've got the story of Peter.

What was Peter's problem, do you remember?

Yeah, he was, actually, Peter was a racist and God had to send him a vision and a dream to get his attention and encourage him to shake it off, so to speak.

So, when we consider the early Jews, early the Jews in the days of Jesus, we know there was a major problem.

And in their attempt to preserve their spirituality and their religion, they ended up becoming prejudiced, biased against those who were not Jews.

And is there a chance or is there a risk for Christians to do the same thing?

Seventh-day Adventist Christians to do the same thing?

Our faith is far more superior than others.

We are the remnant, after all, and surely God favours us more than others.

Is that potentially some person's thinking here today?

So, we've got the issue with the Jews in the days of Jesus, we've got the issue with Peter who was also a racist, and we'll come back to his story in just a little bit.

Then in James chapter 2 verses 2 through 4, notice James bluntly, how he bluntly portrays the situation that some Christians were riddled with here, challenged with here in his day.

James chapter 2 verses 2 through 4, it says, "...for if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes and you pay attention to the 1 wearing the fine clothes and say to him, hey you sit here in a good place and say to the poor man, hey you stand over there or sit on my footstool, you have not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

Yes, we've become partial and we've become judges.

We've placed ourselves up in positions that we ought not place ourselves up in and have looked down on somebody because of the way they were dressed or the way they carried themselves or whatever it is.

You know we're talking about, I've been talking about prejudice and race and so on And this thinking is pervasive in many areas of life.

Right here in James Chapter 2, James is talking about the attitude of respecting other persons to the detriment of others, partiality, with regard to how a person carries themselves and how a person dresses and how they look.

And certainly, he's not encouraging that type of behavior here.

This attitude naturally goes against the teachings of Jesus.

We have several Bible verses we're gonna look at here.

I want you to notice some of the scriptures that talk against this idea of being partial in the treatment of other individuals.

Someone also has Acts chapter 10, verse 28, 34, and 35.

Acts chapter 10 verses 34, rather Acts chapter 10 verses 28, 34, and 35.

We're going to come to you here in just a second.

Exodus Chapter 23, verses 3 and 6, I want you to notice what God said here to His people, He said, you shall not show partiality to a poor man in his dispute, brought before the judge, dealing with an issue, and you shouldn't show partiality just because he's a poor man.

You shall not pervert the judgment of your poor in his dispute.

So don't treat someone who's poor, someone who's considered on the lower rung of social order, considered not that they are but considered, don't treat them differently.

Leviticus chapter 19 verse 15, you shall not do injustice in judgment.

You shall not be partial to the poor nor honor the person of the mighty.

In righteousness you shall judge your neighbor." And so don't be treating someone poorly because they are poor and don't give undue deference to someone who might be considered important or powerful in society.

Then Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 17, God says, you shall not show partiality in judgment, you shall hear the small as well as the wide.

Great, you treat everyone the same, you shall not be afraid in any man's presence, for the judgment is God's.

The case that is too hard for you, bring to me and I will hear it.

All right now we're coming to Acts chapter 10 verses 28, 34 and 35.

The Book of James: Being & Doing

We're going to be delving in again and looking at lesson number 4, being and doing.

We want to welcome all of those who are also tuning in, whether you're viewing live stream or wherever you're tuning in from.

And we're just so glad that you're here with us and enjoying these classes together as well.

We also want to remind you that you can call in and receive your offer, free offer, CD or DVD of these presentations.

And you want to call in to 916-457-6511, or you want to write in to csh at sac central dot o-r-g and this is offer number 21443 that's 21443 so please be sure you you write in or call in and receive your copy of today's study and class time.

And also you can visit our website and you can tune into these programs.

They're up ahead of time prior to each lesson.

And so you can tune in and watch there as well at sacccentral.org and so they're all there for us.

We also want to remind anyone that is here in our local congregation if you have any questions you'd like to ask during the lesson time, or you have a comment that you'd like to contribute during the class.

Just go ahead and send that request or that comment or question to csh at saccentral.org and we'll make sure that we're ready to go with that when we come to study our class and lesson together.

And those that are viewing us, you're welcome to send in a question pertaining to the lesson, that particular week's lesson as well.

And again, just go to csh.saccentral.org and there you can connect with us.

And if you have any suggestions or just we'd love to hear from you as well tell us how you're enjoying the programs and the studies we love to hear from from you so here we are getting ready to delve into God's Word and we're talking about this morning being and doing and we're in James chapter 1.

I want to invite you to turn there with me James chapter 1 and verse 22 is the memory text and it simply says but be ye doers of the Word, and not here is only deceiving yourselves.

That's very interesting, and we'll talk a little bit more about that as we go along here.

This study reminds me, the class, the lesson we're studying here reminds me of a story that I read about a man who, it was really a story he told, where he told on himself and his younger brother.

And they, well he confessed every now and then that he wasn't always a good boy.

And sometimes when he got into trouble, his parents would send him to his room.

And he and his brother, apparently they both got in trouble at the same time.

And so they went up to their room, but the punishment didn't work that well.

It just so happened that the boys had an escape out the window.

Their bedroom was situated just above, on the second floor, above the back porch.

And outside that back porch was an old fruit tree that had grown there, and it was sturdy and strong.

And so they would be sent to their rooms, and there they would pretend that they were in their rooms, but they'd slowly crack open that window, and they'd climb out that old fruit tree and they'd go down that fruit tree into their backyard, they go through their backyard, over the fence and into the field and there they'd play ball and do various different things that their parents didn't know they were doing.

Any case, 1 day they heard, overheard their dad say to their mum, Mary, I think it's time that old fruit tree came down.

And so needless to say, the boys, they were undone.

And like young boys like to do, they came up with a plan.

So that night, they went to bed somewhat earlier, supposedly went to bed, only to get up a short time later.

They gathered all the money they'd saved together, and they went out the window, they went down the tree, went across their backyard, over the fence, into the field, into the city.

And they ran around trying to find what they could.

They found some, all the apples they could find, and some black string.

And they came back from town, across the field, over the fence, into their backyard, to that old fruit tree, and they took the black string and the apples and they just hung them all up over the trees.

The next day when dad woke up, he went outside to chop down the old fruit tree and he came back in excitedly saying to Mary, you can't believe it, the most incredible thing that has ever happened, this old tree that hasn't borne fruit in years is covered with all types of apples.

I mean, you've never seen something like this.

This tree hasn't produced, is covered with apples, big red apples.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

Chariots Out of the North

26m

The Book of James: Love & the Law

58m

The Book of James: Being & Doing

58m

Madison College—Remembering the Former Days

32m

It Is Written

21m

Be Opened

35m

In Every Tongue

33m

The Book of Revelation - Introduction

58m

The Heart Mouth Connection

34m

Give Me Your Cell Phone!

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Questions Answered

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The Book of James: Enduring Temptation

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Sound Doctrine