Here are some thoughts which arose from the reading my Psalm for today, Psalm 12.
May you find profit for your soul in the article.
Sincerely in Christ’s name,
Ivan Foster
A PART OF THE HIGH PRICE ULSTER IS PAYING FOR THE DUP’S POWER-SHARING AGREEMENT WITH SINN FEIN/IRA
“The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.” Psalm 12:8.
Christians look on the violating of our streets by those who flaunt and rejoice in their perverted iniquity with grief and heartache. The vexing of Lot was slight in comparison to that which a lover of God and Truth experience as they view the parading of the evils of Sodom throughout the world in these latter days.
As we have often said, the Lord Jesus indicated that that which precipitated the fiery destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:28-2; Jude 1:7), would mark the final days of this age as mankind in its rebellion against the Lord would repudiate all that is revealed in God’s Word and plunge back into the swamp of immorality, from which nations were wondrously delivered to a great measure during the gospel era.
“Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed,” Luke 17:28-30. That evil night has begun to descend upon the nations, our own being no exception.
Such developments can be traced to the activities of the devil for he is the agent of deception amongst nations. His deceptions will cease for a time when the Saviour returns. “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season,” Revelation 20:1-3.
That ‘little season’ will end with his eternal damnation in the lake of fire.
“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever,” Revelation 20:7-10.
The devil cannot accomplish his evil purpose without the utilisation of men and women. We see this in the betrayal of the Lord Jesus by Judas. “And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him,” John 13:2.
Sadly he is able also to use those who are truly saved when they in folly yield to ambition, greed or pride. It happened to great David. “And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel,” 1 Chronicles 21:1.
This act by David brought God’s judgment upon the nation. “And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel,” 1 Chronicles 21:7. The whole nation came under judgment for it foolishly became involved with David’s folly.
It has to said in David’s favour, that he repented of his folly and took responsibility for the wrong which troubled the nation. “And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing: but now, I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly. . . . And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man. So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men,” 1 Chronicles 21:8, 13-14.
I would urge you read the record of the whole incident.
The text at the beginning of this article (part of my daily reading this morning) links the wicked walking on ‘every side’ with the exalting of the vilest of men. The exalting of such in Ulster took place in a most significant manner in 2007, when the DUP, in order to obtain for themselves, a place of power, were prepared to share with Sinn Fein/IRA a position of equal status with themselves. Dr Ian Paisley shared the office of First Minister with self-confessed terrorist, Martin McGuinness, with the full support of the DUP membership, minus those, who in subjection to their conscience, withdrew in protest at the sellout of all the DUP had previously professed and promised their constituents.
Without a shadow of doubt the present tragic decline in the well-being of Unionism and its hopes, along with the state of utter helpless humiliation into which the DUP has sunk, may be traced back to that shameful, unprincipled and asinine decision. It brought a sad and shameful conclusion to the life of one who in his earlier years saw the blessing of God upon his labours. It also has brought the Province and the future of the Protestant people under God’s judgment for the DUP’s decision encouraged an alignment by the Protestant people with the ecumenical churches which hailed, extolled and applauded the DUP betrayal.
Despite the sadly abundant proof of the DUP’s folly, there is not the merest iota of the repentance which David manifested when he was confronted with his wrong-doing, as is seen in the passage in 1 Chronicles 21, which we have already mentioned. Instead of repentance, we have had examples of the continuing defence by DUP stooges of that costly error, even of late in the BBC programme, ‘The House of Paisley’.
The embracing of Ecumenism by Unionists, with its objectives of the rejection of the Bible and the holy principles of the Protestant Reformation, accelerated Ulster’s downward path and to a great degree, negated the Free Presbyterian witness to this generation that they should forsake the camp of apostasy in obedience to God.
The evidence of the judgment of God upon the Province is seen in the ever enlarging influence and prestige of the unclean and utterly unnatural lifestyle of the sodomite collective and its allies — those who ludicrously espouse the insanity of transgenderism — in the affairs of the land. There is a kowtowing to the obscene movement by churches, politicians, educationalists, merchants and the general public in a manner and to a degree that surely must have us recognise that such support comes about by the deception of the devil.
That being the case and the Word of God, the only source of true and eternal wisdom, supports such a conclusion, then we should recognise that the Saviour’s return is not too far in the distance.
“The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light,” Romans 13:12.
This is the challenge for every true believer in these evil times.
Rev Ivan Foster
7th April 2023