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Preached in Coragarry Free Presbyterian Church, Co. Monaghan, the Irish republic, by Rev Ivan Foster, Lord’s Day 6th August 2023.

“Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh,” James 5:8.

This morning I wish to turn your attention, if I may, to a subject that I have felt more and more burdened to deal with, either in the pulpit or with my pen, as I near the end of my being able to so minister.

I refer to that great Bible truth:

THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THIS EARTH IN POWER AND GLORY.

If it seems to some that I am preoccupied with this subject, may I quote some verses from the Acts of the Apostles. “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; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began,” Acts 3:19-21. These are the words of Peter. He says that all God’s ‘holy prophets’ spoke of the return of Christ at the time of the “restitution of all things”.

So far from being fixated with this wonderful subject, it would appear that I am in step with ‘all’ of God’s servants of old! The words of our text were written some 2000 years ago. This does not mean that believers back then were expecting the Lord any time soon. No, they would been instructed in what Paul taught the Thessalonians. “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition,” 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3. There I s to be a great falling away before the return of Christ. The phrase ‘a falling away’ is a translation of the Greek word from which we get ‘apostasy’.

The Saviour’s return is drawing nearer and nearer. We are commanded to watch for the sign of that event amongst the affairs of men and events in the physical world. Were Christians and men generally to ever keep this wonderful event before them, the passage shows the impact for good it would have on the rich, the greedy and those suffering under persecution. As for Christians, our text indicates that ‘patience’ and ‘stability and stedfastness’ would be the result.

One of the signs is given us in Luke 21:26. “Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.” We are witnessing strange times of late and certainly men are alarmed and postulating all sorts of reasons for the lawlessness in society and the environmental events taking place world-wide. I wish to quickly set before you the most prominent signs Scripture says will indicate the near approach of the ‘Coming of the Lord’.

I. NOTE THE FIRST SIGN PAUL MENTIONS

1. That day shall not come, except there come a falling away first. There is a be a most notable ‘apostasy’ amongst professing Christians. Paul refers to this time again in 2 Timothy 3:1. “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.” A time spoken of in Revelation 12:12. “Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.”

2. It reminds me of the devil’s ‘last fling’ in the gospels. Mark 9:17-26. He rages before before departing from the child. In like manner, the great apostasy, culminating in the appearance of the Antichrist, is the devil’s ‘last fling’ before the return of Christ.

3. Today, the devil is seeking to destroy the gospel witness. He has succeeded in many places. We have but to consider our own United Kingdom, and closer to home, our own province of Ulster. It was once the home of gospel blessing and that not long ago. Some of us can remember times of real Holy Ghost stirrings, some 50-60 years ago. However today, there is a great resemblance to the lad in Mark 9:17. “he was as one dead’! Deadness prevails throughout our land. Apostasy rules and reigns in the vast majority of churches where once the gospel was preached. (more…)

Sinn Fein supports the full spectrum of evil!

Sinn Fein has called for new legislation for Northern Ireland to make puberty blockers available to young trans teens as part of normal healthcare.

Every defiance of God springs from a common source — the depraved heart of man. This the Saviour affirmed very clearly. “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: these are the things which defile a man,” Matthew 15:19-20.

The very first evidence of man’s depravity that the Saviour mentions is ‘evil thoughts’. The word ‘thoughts’ refers to that ‘evil reasoning and disputing’ against God and His truth that has its source in the human heart, prompted and aided by the devil.

That is what lies behind the ‘thinking’ of Sinn Fein and its latest call for a defiance of God and His ordained order amongst mankind, as reported in today’s (3.8.23) ‘Belfast Newsletter’.

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Never was there clearer evidence of Sinn Fein’s party’s God-defying mindset than this call by Emma Sheerin. This party would have it established here that the deviant demands for medical aid to hinder and oppose that natural transition that takes place in the human body as it grows and develops from adolescence to adulthood.

Sinn Fein’s MLA for Mid Ulster, Emma Sheerin, made her demand at the ‘Belfast Pride Talks Back’ radio event last week. Host William Crawley asked a political panel if their parties support access to puberty blockers for young trans teenagers in Northern Ireland. Emma Sheerin responded with this demand that such an abnormal procedure be ’normalised’ and become available on the National Health Service. According to press reports, Sinn Fein appears to have affirmed that this is the party position on this subject.

Apart from anything else, the NHS is so overstretched that with such an additional procedure becoming standard, it would mean that the treatment of common and legitimate ailments would suffer.

Shall such a scheme come about? In truth, I will be surprised (and delighted) if it doesn’t! Only Jim Allister’s TUV party has come out and publicly spoken against the issue of ‘transgenderism’. The party issued a statement and it is reported in the ’Belfast Newsletter’. I see no real opposition within the other Unionist parties regarding this perversion and of course, we cannot expect the Government in Westmister to oppose that which it has so much to promote! (more…)

“‭Even as‭ Sodom‭ and‭ Gomorrha‭, and‭ the cities‭ about‭ them‭ in like‭‭ manner‭, giving themselves over to fornication‭‭, and‭ going‭‭ after‭ strange‭ flesh‭, are set forth for‭‭ an example‭, suffering‭‭ the vengeance‭ of eternal‭ fire‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Jude 1:7.

Following the display of depravity by those who have adopted a life of moral perversion and defiance of God in Belfast, on Saturday, July 29th, there has been much in the press about one protest mounted against that exhibition of the latest example of the fast growing rebelliousness of mankind and the tragic acceptance of it by thousands of men, women and parents with their children.

I am referring to the open-air protest mounted by Mr Ryan Williamson. There followed quite a stir amongst the supporters of the sodomite parade at what he said during his open-air meeting. I will not repeat what was reported in the press as being his words of condemnation, for he has claimed that he was taken out of context though he did not dispute his use of the word ‘rape’. The matter is under consideration by the police who took videos of what was said by Mr Williamson. We await the outcome of that investigation.

I might offer my support to Mr Williamson in his protest. I do not know him. I have never met him or heard him nor do I know much about his theological views, though I do accept his profession of being a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I have been a preacher in the open-air and in pulpits since I first feebly opened my mouth to proclaim Christ in an open-air conducted by Mr Noel Stephenson, back in April 1964, some thirteen days after God saved me out of darkness, ignorance and sin on 5th April of that year.

I have been engaged in preaching and in protest ever since, both in pulpits, open-air meetings and by the use of the pen. Some might even suggest that I have been a ‘mite’ controversial in my witnessing! Be that as it may, I have been led to follow a simple rule when denouncing the wickedness of this age. I recall hearing old Pastor Willie Mullan, as he related his response to criticism of something he had said: “Your argument is not with me, but with God for I have only quoted what He said in the Bible!”

Providentially, that simple precept was implanted in me from that time and almost unconsciously I have been constrained to abide within the parameters of that rule.

The Bible gives an abundance of clear and proper denunciations we may employ when dealing with men’s sinfulness. Indeed, we cannot come up with words more damning than those God employs. The Saviour’s censuring of His critics, His enemies, in Matthew 23, sets down an abundance of proper terms to employ against God’s enemies.

When criticised for employing the Saviour’s terms of rebuke against those who break His Law, we may respond with a ‘Thus said the Lord’! Such criticism should not in the least embarrass Christians nor, above all, bring any measure of reproach upon the cause of God.

These are evil times and whatever a Christian may seek to do to uphold the honour and truth of the Lord Jesus will be opposed and misconstrued by those who have no compunction about employing lies against the child of God. Remember it was so in the case of our Saviour Himself! (more…)