December 2020

Audio sermons

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KICS assembly talks. Current series: “Bright and shining lights in the Bible”

  • Part 40, Part 41, Part 42
  • See all the talks in this series here.
  • Download a zip file of all the recent studies in the Parables here.
  • See all the KICS assembly talks listed here.

Featured sermon series: The unsearchable riches of Christ.
Studies in the Epistle to the Ephesians

Part 89: Soldiering in the Spirit #1;  Part 90: Soldiering in the Spirit #2;  Part 91: Soldiering in the Spirit #3;  Part 92: Spiritual warfare Pt1;  Part 93: Spiritual warfare Pt2;  Part 94: Spiritual warfare Pt3;  Part 95: Spiritual warfare, pt 4;  Part 96: Spiritual warfare pt 5;  Part 97: Spiritual warfare pt 6;  Part 98: Spiritual warfare pt 7;  Part 99: Spiritual warfare Pt 8;  Part 100: Spiritual warfare Pt 9

See all messages in this series here.


Recently Preached Sermons

Mary rejoices in God her Savior
preached by Colin Maxwell on Sun Dec 20, 2020

Jesus made poor for us
preached by Colin Maxwell on Sun Dec 20, 2020

CHRISTMAS Pt 2 - why we should distance ourselves from the celebrations
preached by Rev. Ivan Foster on Thu Dec 17, 2020

View all recently preached sermons


Older Sermons Recently Added

The closing words of John's Gospel
preached by Rev. Ivan Foster on Mon Feb 27, 2006

A question for Peter, a command, and some solemn information
preached by Rev. Ivan Foster on Mon Feb 20, 2006

A miraculous catch of fish
preached by Rev. Ivan Foster on Mon Feb 13, 2006

View all recently added sermons


Watch Kilskeery Free Presbyterian services live online here

 

KILSKEERY FREE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Sabbath Day January 3rd, 2021 (DV)

Service times: 11.30 am & 7.00 pm

Preacher: Rev Ivan Foster.

Subject: “Where are we in God’s Calendar?”

Part 1 – Morning Service.

Part 2 – Evening Service

All are welcome to attend or visit via video here


Nuns in German children’s home rented boys to abusers

We have ever felt it to be our duty to highlight the utter corruption and wickedness of the ‘Church of Rome’!

Here is but another example of that, the report of which has just been sent to me. I just do not understand how Roman Catholics can ignore such crimes and continue within this system!

What a mercy to be a redeemed Protestant, delivered from the darkness of this Satanic organisation.

This report was sent to me and I wish to distribute it out to our BB readers. Read more


An article worth considering

I hardly need say that I am not a ‘fan’ of the general run of Mr Alex Kane’s articles. Mr Kane is an atheist. Nevertheless there is an awful lot of common sense in what he says in the article which follows. It is from today’s ‘Belfast Newsletter’.

I am not a ‘fan’ of Balaam the false prophet but I wholehearted agree with him when he is reported by the Holy Ghost as saying:

“How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom the LORD hath not defied? For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!” Numbers 23:8-10.

I am surely not wrong in finding common ground on this matter with Balaam. Read more


Answer to letter in today’s ‘Belfast Newsletter’ (Dec 21, 2020)

The week has got underway with another attack upon us.
This letter appears in the ‘Belfast Newsletter’ of today. A friend sent me the screenshot of it. Here is my reply.

Dear Editor,

I thank Mr Maxwell of Bleary for his kind words regarding my former witness. I wish to assure him that I strive to maintain that ‘faithfulness’ of which he speaks. Read more


Christ takes precautions!

I read my prescribed chapters this morning (I follow Murray McCheyne’s Bible reading calendar which I commend to you) and I noticed the first verse of John chapter 7.

I could not but share with you a few thoughts on this verse. “After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him.” Read more

My response to a deluded detractor

Below is my response to a detractor’s attempted rebuttal to my earlier comments on John 7:1.

The following is the substance of what I had to send to one who, upon receiving my email containing my comments on John 7:1, sent out this morning, replied in a most vexing manner. That person indicated what they thought of me and my attempts to serve the Lord. The email opened with the words: “Rev Foster, you are not applying the Scripture correctly…again!”

I replied as follows to the writer:

“You are the perfect example of the little axiom: ‘There is none so blind as he who will not see!’ Read more


Letter in reply to L Barker

I want to share this hasty response to the rather lengthy rebuke, just discovered, addressed to me by Mr Luke Barker in today’s ‘Belfast Newsletter’.

Dear Editor,

Mr Luke Barker’s letter in today’s ‘News letter’ is long in verbiage but not correspondingly overflowing with logic or indeed with Biblical exegesis!

In the past I have supported him in protests he has mounted but now I find that I am the target of his vociferous rebukes!

His is too long a letter to answer line by line but perhaps I could blow a hole or two in this apparently formidable edifice and thus show it is not quite as impressive as it might at first appear but rather is somewhat ‘full of sound and fury’ and to a large degree, ‘signifying nothing’ other than a few ‘woof, woofs! Read more


An important truth to be considered by those hoping for revival

“The word of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah. I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD. I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumblingblocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD. I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem,” Zephaniah 1:1-4.

As the year progresses from season to season we may inform ourselves as to the weather we are likely to encounter by simply looking back to what the same season brought in former years. There is a vital lesson there for the Christian. It is a truth found in the Bible. “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun,” Ecclesiastes 1:9. Read more


Letter to Belfast Newsletter

Dear Sir,

I really should not be amazed at the failure of people to read what one writes before taking up their pen to ‘profoundly disagree’ with what they imagine your views to be.

Mr Stephen Richards of Ballymena says in a letter printed today: “Mr Foster is entitled to believe that video link church services are an adequate substitute for physical gatherings, but most of us know that he’s wrong about this. As for meeting in the open air, I don’t think that would have been such a good idea on that freezing day.”

I don’t think that is what I said but I would certainly believe that video links or standing in the freezing cold may well be a ’substitute’ for gathering in a building when the medical guides to whose directives we submit  for our general health from day to day, inform us that such a gathering is likely to spread infections that could very well kill many, and indeed, have.

I can well imagine that countless thousands of persecuted believers throughout the past centuries or even those today in many lands would be glad if they were able to gather so and count such a gathering as adequate.
How welcome would have been a video link to our Covenanting forefathers in Scotland! They would have welcomed such ‘inadequacies’ at times!

My reason for replying to Pastor Patterson’s article was that I and the majority of Bible-believing Christians in Northern Ireland, including the majority of Baptists it would appear, were being accused of cowardly submission to an ungodly decree issued by the Stormont executive.
Pastor Patterson said in his defence of his actions: “Church leaders were quick to close the doors of the meeting house, without any Scriptural warrant, and thereby preventing God’s people from gathering to worship Him as He has commanded.”
Such an accusation had to be replied to, especially in the light that it would appear Tandragee Baptists readily and to my knowledge, uncomplainingly, complied with the restrictions placed upon church building opening earlier this year!

I would direct readers to my webpage (ivanfoster.org) where they will see all that I have said on the issue as I do not intend replying to any more misrepresentations of my views.

Sincerely, Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd), Kilskeery.


My answer to Pastor Patterson’s rather pathetic response to my public comments on his defying of the anti-covidvirus regulations and his opening of his church for worship

Below is my answer to Pastor Patterson’s response to my comments on his stance on the Covid -19 virus which were published in the ‘Belfast Newsletter’ some days ago.

He mounted his response on his own church webpage without ever informing me – a strange way indeed to ‘earnestly contend for the faith’!

The whole thrust of the pastor and his supporters’ argument seems to be that the virus is of no real significance and that those who take precautions are a lot of fools and weaklings!

I cannot imagine that this attitude engenders much comfort to the hundreds of families who have lost loved ones to the virus. I just hope that he does not have to explain just where his notions were wrong, should there be an outbreak of infections in Tandragee! Read more


Wise words from 100 years ago

Rev Stephen Hamiliton sent me the link and the quote from the sermon reproduced below. I am most grateful to brother Stephen for finding this ‘treasure’!

I am not familiar with all that Rev Grimke may have said or written so I cannot endorse him without reservation but on this topic he spoke the truth and it is good to have his witness from over 100 years ago.

Please read the sermon and see that things have not changed to any great degree, especially the foolish ‘grumblings’ of some!

Another thing that has impressed me, in connection with this epidemic, is the fact that conditions may arise in a community which justify the extraordinary exercise of powers that would not be tolerated under ordinary circumstances. This extraordinary exercise of power was resorted to by the Commissioners in closing up the theaters, schools, and churches, in forbidding all gatherings of any considerable number of people indoors and outdoors, and in restricting the numbers who should be present even at funerals. The ground of the exercise of this extraordinary power was found in the imperative duty of the officials to safeguard, as far as possible, the health of the community by preventing the spread of the disease from which we were suffering. There has been considerable grumbling, I know, on the part of some, particularly in regard to the closing of the churches. It seems to me, however, in a matter like this it is always wise to submit to such restrictions for the time being. If, as a matter of fact, it was dangerous to meet in theaters and in the schools, it certainly was no less dangerous to meet in churches…” Read more


Were Tandragee Baptists right to defy the anti-virus regulations and assemble together on the Sabbath Day past?

Much has been made by a few evangelicals of the issue of closing churches in an effort to avoid further spreading the covid virus. They would say that to do so is a contravention of God’s command to worship Him.

Tandragee Baptists have featured in that protest by refusing to obey the directive and opened their premises for worship on the Lord’s Day past. I do not know if they have maintained that position throughout the earlier periods of lockdown that began back in March or whether this is a newly discovered ‘conviction’!

However, I believe that they are wrong and this article sets forth my reasons.

I write this because I know there are Christians troubled about the matter and I am anxious to set forth what I believe is the Word of God. I trust that all find the article helpful. Read more


Some facts about Covid-19 vaccines and foetal tissue

A dear member of our family sent me the following article having found it very helpful in the present controversy

The short article is produced by a ‘Pro-Life, anti-abortion’ organisation called: NI Voiceless. They say of themselves: ‘we are people of all religious convictions and none.’

I share it with you for I know that Christians are most anxious to obtain facts about the manufacture and make-up of the ‘vaccines’ that will soon be offered to them.  I think that this article may be a help. I found one particular paragraph of great interest:

“Foetal cell lines can be used in two ways in bringing vaccines to market. They can be used in the production of the vaccine or it can be produced in a different kind of cell line but then tested on foetal cell lines after production. Of the eight vaccines ordered by the EU and UK, five were either developed in foetal cell lines or tested using them, including the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine that has been approved by the UK. The table that follows, based on data collected by the Charlotte Lozier Institute, summarises the facts about foetal cell line use for these eight vaccines. It also demonstrates that it is possible to make vaccinations against this awful virus without using cell lines. That is what CureVac, GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur, and Valneva have done. We congratulate their approach.”

I am gratified that it appears that there are companies which do not use foetal tissue in the manufacture of a vaccine.  On the basis of this information, a Christian may insist that they will only accept a vaccine from one of the above named companies which do not use foetal tissue in the manufacture of their vaccine.  I trust that the whole article is a benefit and guide to you all. Read more


IRA still armed and active!

If there was one ounce, indeed a fraction of an ounce, of decency and integrity within the ranks of the DUP it would immediately break all links with Sinn Fein and bring the unutterably shameful Stormont Executive down in ignominy.

The following report, taken from the Belfast Newsletter of 2nd December 2020, gives cause enough to DUP members to act so!

Of course, we have been here before! Decency and integrity were mutilated and cast aside in 2007 by the DUP when it went into partnership with Sinn Fein/IRA and that for mere party and personal political and monetary gain. Read more


The covid vaccine – To have or not to have??

“Thou shalt not kill,” Exodus 20:13.

“Coronavirus: First NI vaccinations ‘to happen next week’ ” – so ran the headline on a news site this morning. But in the light of this, what is the Christian’s attitude to the vaccine to be?

The word ‘kill’ in the 6th Commandment is equivalent to ‘murder’. The Hebrew word is translated in Numbers 35:16 as ‘murderer’ twice. There are instances when it is quite proper and legitimate to kill but it is never right to murder. Cain was a murderer and suffers even now as a result (1 John 3:12) whereas Samuel killed Agag the Amalekite king quite properly, 1 Samuel 15:33.

I believe it must be seen as an especially heinous crime to kill a child and how much more to slaughter an unborn child in the womb! Read more


Pat Finucane was in the IRA

Yesterday, Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Brandon Lewis, told the House of Commons that there would not be at this time, a public inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane, the Belfast Republican lawyer shot by Loyalist paramilitaries back in 1989.

Immediately after yesterday’s announcement, Pat Finucane’s son John, the Sinn Féin MP for North Belfast, said he and his family would continue to campaign for an inquiry and that he may look for support from United States President-elect Joe Biden. “When he was then Senator Biden, as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he supported our calls for an inquiry,” Mr Finucane said on the BBC’s Good Morning Ulster programme. “But President-elect Biden has already shown a clear interest in Irish affairs, he has history in supporting our campaign and I think that America has always had a significant role to play in our peace process, certainly in our campaign.”

Irish Americans like Biden have ever shown sympathy for the cause of Irish Republicanism while turning a blind eye to the murderous campaign of the IRA. The year Finucane was murdered, twenty-six soldiers and nine policemen were murdered by the IRA. There has been no public inquiry for them or their families!!!

Here, republicans and their bedfellows gave vent to the usual howls at the announcement by the Secretary of State. The BBC reported: “Sinn Féin, the SDLP, Alliance and the Green Party have shown their support for the family’s calls for a public inquiry in a letter to Mr Lewis. In the letter, sent to the NI secretary on Tuesday evening, party representatives described Mr Lewis’ position as ‘neither credible nor tenable’, and said it was an “insult” to the Finucane family.”

I am republishing an article from “The Burning Bush“ of May 2003 which contains statements from a former prominent IRA man, Sean O’Callaghan, who has publicly stated that Pat Finucane was a prominent IRA member and not the ‘peace campaigner’ he is made out to be!

I for one fervently look forward to that day when “ . . . . all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death,” Revelation 21:8. Read more