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Kilskeery Conference – Morning Meeting, September 15th 2024

Preacher: Rev. Ivan Foster

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 15:58.

This chapter begins with a glorious definition and exposition of the heart of the gospel message, verses 1-4. It ends with an exhortation to us all how it is we ought to live out our days because of the victory given us by Christ and revealed in the gospel. The word “therefore”, which begins the verse, links what is said to the verse 57.

This exhortation is all the more applicable to us today for, as a generation, we are living nearer the return of Christ and all that will mean for believers, than has any other generation! If time was ‘short’ in Paul’s day (1 Cors 7:29), it is much shorter today! The word ‘short’ carries the meaning of ‘winding up’! I recall from my days in Ulster television that the studio floor manager, if he wished an interview to come to an end as the time for the programme was nearly up, he could use one of two gestures. He could draw his finger across his throat meaning ‘cut the interview off’ or a winding motion with his hand meaning, ‘wind the interview up, bring it to a close.’

The latter is basically what Paul was indicating. The word translated ‘short’ appears in only one other place. “And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him,” Acts 5:6. Here it is linked with the end of the life of Ananias.

The Lord is ‘winding up His purpose’ amongst men in this age!

We surely understand therefore what Paul was indicating. The last days of this age were approaching back then, nearly 2000 years ago! How much closer the end is today.

In the light of the ever nearing return of Christ our duty is set down here.

I. A SETTLED ADHERENCE TO THE TRUTHS OF THE GOSPEL IS EXPECTED OF US

1. The words “stedfast, unmoveable” tell us what is expected of us. The essence of the meaning of the words may be seen in one of the other places where the word translated “stedfast” appears. “If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister,” Colossians 1:23. There is what is meant by being “stedfast”. We are to be “grounded” and not “moving away from the hope of the gospel”! (more…)

Jeremiah conducts a spiritual post-mortem on the ‘Ways of Zion’!

“The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy. And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer” Lamentations 1:4-6.

Such shop windows signs are often seen when recession hits  the economy and depression sets in.

Such may take place as a result of incompetence on the part of a nation’s political leaders, though I believe that there is always an element of God’s judgement against the sins of His people involved in such downturns!

I read on the day I wrote this, in the book of Ezekiel, the following: “The word of the LORD came again to me, saying, Son of man, when the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it: Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord GOD,” Ezekiel 14:12-14.

But God’s judgment against a people who desert His Word and embrace error, despite the repeated warnings the Lord sends them via His prophets, can be more extensive than economic hardship.

Our study verses speak of:

(1) The dreadful decline of true worship and the despair that such caused.

(2) The dominance of the enemy.

(3) The ‘beauty of holiness’ has departed from Zion.

These features still mark a people under God’s judgment and I say that they may be seen here in Ulster today. (more…)