Redeemed! How I Love to Proclaim It - King’s Heralds Beyond the Sunset - Bob Seamount and Del Delker My Shepherd - King’s Heralds Washed White As Snow - King’s Heralds

Redeemed! How I Love to Proclaim It - King’s Heralds Beyond the Sunset - Bob Seamount and Del Delker My Shepherd - King’s Heralds Washed White As Snow - King’s Heralds

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Voice Of Prophecy

H.M.S. Richards

The Dying Angel


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, HMS Richards, a Seventh-day Adventist minister. The quartet offers first a gospel song that tells how the Christian feels about the miracle of salvation, I love to proclaim it, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, redeemed through His infinite mercy, His child and forever I am. Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed, His child and forever I am. I know I shall see in His beauty the King in whose law I delight, who lovingly guardeth my footsteps and giveth me songs in the night.

Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed, His child and forever I am. Our Our Father which art in heaven, We thank thee today for the mercies of heaven which come to us through Jesus Christ. Bless this broadcast to every hearer and us to thy service. In Christ's name.

[♪ music playing ♪♪ ♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪� 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. Amen. A strong faith in the future and a bright hope for tomorrow is the theme of this favorite song as we hear now from Del Delker and Bob Seamount, Beyond the Sunset.

Beyond the sunset, O blissful morning, When with our Savior heaven is begun, of your heaven is begun. Earth's toiling end, end, O glorious dawning, beyond the sunset Beyond the sunset when day is done. Beyond the sunset, no clouds will gather, no storms will threaten, no fears annoy. No fears annoyed. O day of gladness, O day unending, Beyond the sunset, eternal joy.

Beyond the sunset, a hand will guide me to God the Father, whom I adore. Whom I adore. His glorious presence, his words of welcome, will be my portion Will be my portion on the fair shore. Oh Shepherd divine I know mine thy search in the night was for me The equal is cold, but warm is thy fold, my shepherd, I follow thee. Thy beautiful lamp shineth bright on my way, Thy glorious light unto thy perfect day.

Through pastures serene, through valleys of green, my Shepherd, I follow Thee. My shepherd, I follow thee. O shepherd divine, I know thou art mine. Thy great heart was broken for me. Thy grace and thy law I picture in awe, they kissed upon Calvary.

A life that was given to ransom my soul, a heart that was broken to make sinners whole. The world is but loss in view of thy cross. My shepherd, I follow thee. O shepherd, I follow thee. Oh, shepherd divine, I know thou art mine.

I know thou art mine. I hear thee say, follow thou me. Thy message today illumines my way by the spirit of prophecy. I thrill at thy marvelous love to thy ship, the way thou dost lead to the still waters deep. Still waters deep.

1 staff and 1 rod, 1 fold and 1 God, Here now is HMS Richards, the voice of prophecy speaker. His subject, the dying angel. We may expect unusual things written in letters to angels. In the great prophecies of the book of Revelation in the Holy Bible, we have 7 letters to 7 angels. In this case they represent the messages or the ministry of the Christian Church in 7 different ages, beginning when Jesus was here on earth and continuing until he returns according to his promise.

Here is the letter. The Lord's Prayer. Unto the angel of the church in Sardis write, These things saith he that hath the 7 spirits of God, and the 7 stars. I know thy works, that thou hast a name, that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die.

For I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He that overcometh the same shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels." This letter, quite long in this case, is found in Revelation the third chapter.

The city of ancient Sardis was built upon a high cliff supposed to be impregnable. However, it was captured by Cyrus in 549 before Christ because the people were overconfident. King Croesus looked upon as the richest man in the world, thought there was no danger even when the enemy was camped below his city. 1 Persian soldier climbed up the supposedly unclimbable cliffs, opened the gates, and the city was given over to their enemies. It was captured again in almost the same way 330 years later.

In AD 17, Sardis was practically destroyed by an earthquake. The Emperor of Rome gave a lot of money to rebuild it. But in 1402, Tamerlane with his Mongols from China destroyed the city and it has never been rebuilt. Today it's practically a city of death. The message of the angel of the Church of Sardis is certainly appropriate, to be watchful, to strengthen the things which remain, and if not watchful, the danger that the master will come as a thief and will not know the hour.

In the days of World War II, Winston Churchill warned the citizens of the British Empire, saying, I must drop 1 word of caution, for next to cowardice and treachery, overconfidence, leading to neglect, is the worst of crimes. So it is in the Christian life. We must be watchful as well as repentant. The word sardis means those escaping or that which remains. It applies no doubt to the Church of the Reformation days, covering the period of the 16th, 17th, part of the 18th century.

Christ presents himself here as the 1 who possesses the 7 spirits of God and the 7 stars. 7, of course, meaning completion, and represents the Holy Spirit in all his fullness. To a church that had started out with great promise and great power under the mighty reformers, what a change came. Finally it seemed to be nearly dead. Jesus represents himself as having the fullness of spiritual power, the gifts of the spirit.

The 7 stars represent the human guides, the leaders of the church. It is the Holy Spirit that gives light and power to Christian ministers. Otherwise they become wandering stars as we read in Jude the 13th verse. The church of Sardis with its ministry has a name and reputation of life, but in reality is spiritually dead. 1 who calls himself a Christian, but is dead spiritually is living a lie, isn't he?

Samson, a man of old, did mighty works for God, had the power of God upon him. But because of sin, a change came in his life. The Scripture says, he wist not, that is, he didn't know that the Lord was departed from him. Judges 16, 20. It was into this state of lifeless formalism that such men as John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, the Puritans, the Pietists and others came and with earnestness and the power of the Spirit of God brought a revival so that the great missionary movement pictured by the next church period was born.

How many Christians today have the name of life spiritually but the fact of death? They need to change their name or change their experience. We fear that multitudes of Christians who look back to the leaders of the Reformation as their spiritual fathers are almost ignorant of the great truth of justification by faith, of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, of the work of sanctification in the heart. Many professed Christians today lack practically all knowledge of the scriptures and live in conformity to the world and in weakness and defeat. There's no protest against evil in their lives, little proclamation of scriptural truth.

Too often the reputation of the modern Church is built upon activity, doing things. It measures success by campaigns, anniversaries, rallies, assemblies, conferences, collections, appropriations, magnifying of office, and accomplishment. It is possible to do all these things and have merely the appearance of spiritual life, a sort of galvanic simulation of life as a dead muscle is flexed by an electric current. What's the exhortation to the angel of the Church of Sardis? Listen to the words of Christ.

Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent. We are to think of God's blessings in the past, his mighty power to save and to serve. We are to hold fast the truth we have. We are to repent of our sins, both of commission and omission. The Reformation slowed down in some ways, seemed to retreat in some places.

Rationalism came in, denied the early faith of the reformers. We need a further reformation, a holding fast to the truths revealed in the days of Luther, Melanchthon, Knox and others. We need to repent of our sins, our spiritual death. Remember, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. First Corinthians 10, 12.

Self-deception is 1 of the greatest dangers. God is now calling everyone who is in the sardis condition to watch and make personal preparation for the coming of Christ. The Apostle Paul says, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. Ephesians 5, 14. We indeed need to return to the faith of our fathers to study the work and the teachings not only of Luther and his fellow Reformers but of the Wesley's, Knox, Finney, Spurgeon, Moody and those who today are holding up the standard of scriptural truth before the world.

Now note the final words. There were a few in Sardis who had not defiled their garments. Jesus said, They will walk with me in white, and he promises to the overcomer, the white raiment, that his name will not be blotted out of the book of life, and that he shall be confessed before God. God has living souls even in the midst of a dead church, and the garment soiled with sin may be cleansed by the blood of Christ and become white as snow." Isaiah 118. The Lord always has his remnant, even in Sardis.

They shall walk with him in white, he says, for they are worthy. How are they worthy? Only on the basis of grace through faith. It was John Knox who lived right during this very period, who in his last hours awoke from a slumber with deep concern. He told his friends who were watching his bedside that he had just been tempted to believe that he had merited heaven by the faithful discharge of his ministry.

But, he said, blessed be God who has enabled me to beat down and quench the fiery dart with such scriptures as these. What hast thou that thou didst not receive? First Corinthians 4.7. By the grace of God, I am what I am. 1 Corinthians 15.10.

And that's true of all of us. The white robes are the robes of Christ's righteousness, not ours. During a Roman triumph, all the citizens were dressed in white, and Rome itself was called the White City. The victorious generals returning from the wars wore white togas and rode in chariots drawn by white horses. On the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus appeared to his disciples in shining garments of glorious white.

Some day in the glory land when the gates of pearl swing ajar upon their glittering hinges, the saints of God will be so clothed. Last of all, the promise to the overcomer, his name in the Book of Life, his name confessed before God. The names of those who are spiritually dead cannot be retained upon the Book of Life. The time is coming when only those who are spiritually alive and are victorious, who are clothed in the white garments of Christ's own righteousness, will be retained in God's family record book above. And those who are merely hypocrites, or who have turned away from the holy work and word and life of Christ, will have their names erased from the divine records.

When the judgment is over, either the sinner's name will be blotted out of the Book of Life, or his sins will be erased from the Book of Record. The Holy Apostle said, Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Acts 3, 19. Only the names of those who confess Christ here will be confessed by him before his Father and the Holy Angels. Do we confess our Lord here?

Dr. George Pentecost tells of a little girl who came to him and said, Please pray for me in the meeting but do not mention my name. When every head was bowed in silence he prayed, O Lord, there's a little girl here who needs help. Thou dost know her, save her I pray. There was silence for a moment.

Then away back in the congregation, a little girl said, Please, it's me, Jesus, it's me. She wanted no doubt about it. She wanted to be saved and she was not ashamed to say, Jesus it's me, I need help. And we can say the same, grammar or no grammar. The letter to the angel of Sardis is a letter to us.

And so let us confess our Savior before all men, and let us do it here and now. Though my sins were once like crimson red, To the healing stream my feet were led ♪ ♪ In the precious blood my Savior shed ♪ ♪ He washed me white as snow ♪ ♪ O my joyful song henceforth shall be, tis the blood of Jesus cleanseth me. Me. Cleanseth, cleanseth, oh yes it cleanseth me. I will sing his power from death to save.

I will sing his triumph for the grave. I will sing beyond death's chilling wave he washed me white as snow O my joyful song henceforth shall be, Tis the blood of Jesus cleanseth me, Cleanseth, cleanseth, cleanseth, cleanseth, oh yes it cleanseth me. You need the Bible whoever you are, wherever you are. You need it today. With that light, let us keep pace with the march of prophecy.

Now this is Orville Iverson of the Voice of Prophecy saying, As we keep looking up, let us go forward in faith. Have faith in God, be watchful for thy gain. Have faith in God, in him no spot or stain. Have faith in God, for life that doth remain. Have faith, dear friend, in God.

A special announcement to all of our listeners is this. The Voice of Prophecy sponsors a worldwide prayer circle. You pray for us and we pray for you, and for all who listen to the broadcast, and especially for those in need, who are sick or in trouble of any kind. Every Thursday morning we meet here together at headquarters and pray. Will you pray where you are?

We trust that you've enjoyed our broadcast today And we invite you to be with us again next week for another broadcast brought to you by the Voice of Prophecy. And so we say to all, 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. Amen. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪

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The Dying Angel

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