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“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek,” Romans 1:16.

This is a text that I am sure every true gospel preacher has preached from at least once. Most will have visited it many times in their ministry. It is a wonderful compendium of gospel truth!

The apostle Paul was truly a great man though he never attained to the realms by which worldly men today measure ‘greatness’!

Those whose faces and names frequently, if not ‘ad nauseam’, appear in news reports, will undoubtedly be forgotten, long before 2000 days are passed, never mind 2000 years!

It is believed that it was around AD 68 that the great man was put to death by the Roman Caesar, Nero. It is believed that he was converted to Christ (Acts 9:1-18) around about the early AD 30s. That means that he lived as a Christian and fervently served the Lord for some 35 years.

In those years, he left an indelible mark upon human history. He is still a guide, an inspiration, a pattern (1 Timothy 1:16)  and an example to the countless millions of Christians who have sought to obey the gospel Paul preached and follow Christ.

In our verse Paul speaks of being unashamed of the gospel. Without doubt there were many things regarding himself that Paul was ashamed of. He said of himself, “I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God,” 1 Corinthians 15:9. Paul never forgot his shameful pre-conversion days. His heart burned with a hatred for Christ, His Word and His people. His spirit is displayed to us in Acts 9:1. “And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord,” Acts 9:1. He was ‘dragon-like’ in his fury against God and His people!

I recall, while a ministerial student (1965-68), Dr John Douglas, in our English Bible studies, saying it was likely that the memory of his former fury against the Lord that motivated him in his gospel labours and spurred him on so that he could later rightly claim, with due acknowledgement of God’s grace in it all: “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me,” 1 Corinthians 15:10.

He not only surpassed the labours of his fellow apostles, but I believe that he suffered for Christ more than they all. Of this he was warned on the day of his conversion. The Lord sent Ananias, a disciple in Damascus, to help Paul (or Saul as he was then known). “But the Lord said unto him (Ananias), Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: for I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake,” Acts 9:15-16.

And suffer he did as he later testified. “In labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?” 2 Corinthians 11:23-29.

These words tell us of his zeal for the Lord, his indifference to what he had to endure to spread the gospel, his courage and his patient endurance. He is indeed an example for every Christian today.

Please come to the famous verse 16. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek and note:

I. WHATEVER PAUL HAD TO BE ASHAMED OF IT WAS NOT THE GOSPEL!

He tells us why he was not ashamed of the gospel. (more…)

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…)