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“Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it,” Luke 13:18-19.

I will never forget brother Jordan Khan preaching on the above brief parable in Lisbellaw Free Presbyterian Church back in 1970. Brother Khan was a visitor to Ulster from India and preached in various congregations of our denomination. He “was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.” I recall his telling us that his father was a prayer partner to ‘Praying Hyde’, John Nelson Hyde (November 9, 1865 – February 17, 1912) an American missionary who preached in the Punjab state in India.

Jordan Khan’s exposition was an early warning of what, some 30-40 years later began to take place within the Free Presbyterian Church.

Please note from this parable:

I. THE TRUE WORK OF GOD HAS VERY SMALL AND HUMBLE BEGINNINGS!

“Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard seed.”

1. The greatest period of blessing and expansion in this New Testament age began with a small group of men and women meeting in prayer. “And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren,” Acts 1:13-14. We are told that earlier when they gathered in this same room: “Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews,” John 20:19.

The early days of the apostolic church were indeed days of humble and trembling beginnings.

They were days of clinging to the Lord for mercy and help in the face of the opposition of men stirred up by the devil.

2. Some are still alive within the ranks of the Free Presbyterian Church who will recall the early days in the 1950s when the opposition of our ecumenical opponents was most vicious. I wonder how many know that a godly founding member of Ballymoney Free Presbyterian Church was assaulted and beaten by an ecumenical Presbyterian minister and some of his henchmen?

This spirit was still very much alive in the 1960s. My late wife, Ann, a graduate from Queen’s University, Belfast, was unable to obtain a teaching position because she was a Free Presbyterian. Often times, once it was known that she was a Free Presbyterian, the interview was abruptly ended. (more…)

“They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly,” Amos 5:10.

I was not long converted when I heard an endearing word about Amos the prophet. Dr Paisley quoted from his book in response to criticism that was being heaped upon his head by ecumenical ministers, whose folly and defiance of God’s Word he had condemned. The verses he quoted are found in Amos 7:14-15.

“Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit: And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.”

I instantly learned that the Lord was pleased to call into His service those whom some might consider as being utterly unsuitable!

I later learned that the Lord had earlier displayed the same mercy and sovereign grace in the calling of that great prophet Elisha, anointed to that holy office by his great predecessor, Elijah.

“So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him. And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again: for what have I done to thee? And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him,” 1 Kings 19:19-21.

I can say as did Amos, but even more unquestionably: “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son” but the Lord called me into His service, and in a faint likeness, I ministered to an ‘Elijah’. For shortly after I began my studies as student  for the ministry in January 1965, Dr Paisley took me to live with his family for about six months and in a small way I ministered unto him, driving him around the province to gatherings and to gospel meetings and all the time gaining a knowledge of what it was to preach.

In our text, you have the prophet’s observation regarding the attitude of those intent on following their own devices and who detested the rebukes that the prophet addressed to them.

I. THIS IS AN ALL TOO COMMON ATTITUDE TODAY

This is a day of backsliding. Even the most unobservant Christian knows that this so. Worldly attitudes and notions have invaded the ‘church’! Sadly, many fail to recognise them for what they are. Ministers know at least something of what is happening BUT, sadly, are reluctant to address the issues because of the response that may be forthcoming. Amos encountered ‘hate’ and ‘abhorrence’!

1. There was defiance outburst against authority in the prophet’s day. “They hate him that rebuketh in the gate”. This is a reference to those who hold a God-appointed position of authority. ‘The Gate’ is where the judges sat and administered justice. (more…)

“In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God,” Amos 9:11-15.

What a happy future prospect for his fellow Israelites Amos, a contemporary of Isaiah and Hosea, is inspired to predict as his final words. His book begins with judgment pronounced upon nations surrounding Israel and on Israel itself.

“Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes,” Amos 2:6.

Dark times

The days during which he prophesied were dark times indeed. Isaiah, his fellow prophet, reveals that to us.

“The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers,” Isaiah 1:1-7.

Yet despite the dreadfulness of the days in which he lived, Amos could look forward to a future day of blessing for his nation!

There are those who would believe that the blessings referred to in our text are blessings that will fall upon the ‘Church of Christ’ and not upon the nation of Israel. They believe that because it is their view that God has finished with Israel as a nation and they have been cast away by Him forever and that being so, these blessings belong to those, ‘spiritually’ referred to as ‘Israel’, to whom the Lord turned when He rejected Israel following the crucifixion of the Saviour by Israel. In other words Gentile believers!

I do not believe that to be so, and that for a number of simple reasons. (more…)