Sunday Services

Scripture: Mark 2:3-4.

A message preached in Kilskeery Free Presbyterian Church,

Lord’s Day 18th February, 2018 by Rev Ivan Foster (Rtr)

Stream or download The difficulty of bringing sinners to Christ

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The name ‘Capernaum’ means “Village of Comfort” and it proved that to this unnamed man whose friends were so faithful and diligent in getting him to Christ for His blessing.

When the Lord Jesus comes to a place it cannot remain a secret. His presence will be known. “And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them,” Mark 2:2.

Christ can stir up in the hearts of men a glorious interest in Himself!

We are told here of 4 men who saw an opportunity to do good to their friend. “And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four,” verse 3.

Palsy was a form of paralysis often accompanied with tremors and convulsions. It resulted in a state of helplessness. It took 4 men to help him as he could not help himself at all. This was no partial paralysis but rather a general utter disability.

This man is a picture of a sinner in his natural state, who is insensible of his condition, of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, of his danger and misery to which he is exposed, of his lost and undone condition, of his necessity of the new birth, and of his need of salvation by Jesus Christ.
He has no power to come to Christ for life and salvation and as his friends took him, and brought him to Christ, so it becomes the friends, relations and neighbours of unregenerate persons to be concerned for them and to bring them under the means of grace. There they may be brought to a sense of their sins and a view of the free and full forgiveness of them through the mercy and power of the Lord Jesus.

We may learn from the actions of these men.

I. THESE MEN WERE INFORMED ABOUT THE LOCATION OF CHRIST

1. They were not indifferent or uninterested in the affairs of Christ! All too many Christians are more interested in the business activities than they are in the affairs of the Kingdom of God. Hag 1:3-6, John 6:27.

2. Their ears were tuned to reports of Christ’s movements. “It was noised that he was in the house.” They heard that “noise”!

3. They immediately saw the opportunity presented to help their friend. His need was uppermost in their hearts. These men used their time and strength to bring this man to Christ. Oh to be alive to the needs of others and the danger their souls are in! Hell opens at their feet and they are helpless to escape! “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ,” Gals 6:2; Rom 15:1; John 13:14.

4. Note the word ‘straightway’. They acted immediately!

II. THEIRS WAS A CONCERTED EFFORT

1. They would have received no help from their paralysed friend. In this he pictures the unconverted sinner. John 5:40. Refusal of  Naaman!

2. They acted jointly and energetically. They must have been amongst the first to react to the news of Christ’s presence. What good can be done by such a holy partnership! Christian, seek out the company and friendship of such!
“A threefold cord is not quickly broken,” Ecclesiastes 4:12.

3. They immediately ran into difficulties. No good can be done in this world without opposition. How often the crowd present a difficulty! The difficulty of getting their friend to the house, not any negligence on their part, slowed them up so that others were there before them.

4. Their determination is seen in how they overcame the formidable problem. The crowd can hinder. “They uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay,” 4.

5. The cooperation of the owner and cost to the 4 friends should be noted. The roof was seriously damaged and would have to be repaired.

Nothing is more important than the salvation of a soul!

III. NOTE WHAT IT WAS CHRIST OBSERVED.

1. Jesus saw their faith. Verse 5. “I will shew thee my faith by my works,” James 2:18. The faith of the 4 men not of the sick man. Everything they did, the carrying of the man, the removal of the roof and all that entailed, spoke of their faith to Christ.

2. Christ also saw the chief need of the man. “Jesus  . . . .said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.” The palsy was bad but unpardoned sins are immeasurably worse!

3. Forgiveness of sin is neither earned nor deserved. Rather it is bestowed by the grace of Christ. The man did nothing, not even speaking a word!

4. Please notice that the forgiveness of sins was not all that Christ bestowed upon the man. That is a most wonderful blessing but there was more. Our lifetime and our eternity will be filled with the more that follows!
Christ’s healing of the man was in order to demonstrate His power and authority to forgive sins! He demonstrated that He was God.
It is with God we have to do if we are to have forgiveness of sin! Not Mary or the saints or the church or our works! The scribes were correct when they said: “Who can forgive sins but God only?” Verse 7. But they were blind to the fact that Christ was God!
It is to Him, the God-man, sinners must go for salvation.

5. The happy outcome. The 5 friends would have walked home together, after they had repaired the man’s roof!

“Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff,” Joshua 7:11.

Preached in Kilskeery Free Presbyterian Church, At the morning service, 7th January 2018,
By Rev Ivan Foster (Retired)

Stream or download Sin in the camp

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Before the Lord informed Joshua of the presence of sin amongst the people of Israel, that sin had announced itself. The presence of sin was manifested by the terrible fruits which follow it!

1. Pride and carelessness. “And they returned to Joshua, and said unto him, Let not all the people go up; but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai; and make not all the people to labour thither; for they are but few,” verse 3.

2. Failure to consult the Lord. The plan to attack Ai was not the Lord’s plan!

3. Cowardice and retreat. “So there went up thither of the people about three thousand men: and they fled before the men of Ai,  . . . . Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you,” verses 4, 12.

4. Complaining and accusing God. “And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord GOD, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan!” verse 7.
These things betrayed the presence of sin before the Lord revealed it to Joshua. Joshua and Israel should have recognised immediately the cause of their trouble. “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren,” James 1:14-16.

It was but a repeat of events in the garden of Eden. So it ever will be!!

I. SIN IS EVER THE PROBLEM.

Sin robs us of God’s blessing and power and is ever the cause of distress, decline and spiritual death amongst God’s people. Nothing else is to blame! Many things are blamed for the trouble, even the Lord, but it is always sin!

1. Cain’s trouble. “And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door,” Gen 4:6-7.

2. Peter’s Trouble. “Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly.” Matt 26:74-75.

3. Ananias and Sapphira’s trouble. Acts 7:1-11.

4. Ephesian Church’s trouble. Rev 2:4-5.

II. THE SIN SEEMED A SMALL MATTER.

1. Its occurrence went virtually unnoticed. The whole nation had been searched by the Lord before the culprit was found. I do not say none had seen Achan steal but I suggest that any who did, did not think it could possible the “sin” that had so offended God!

2. The items stolen were not of vast monetary value. “When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it,” Joshua 7:21. He didn’t profit by his theft. He could never wear the garment and he could hardly spend the money without betraying his theft. Hence he hid it.
There is no profit in sin!

3. He apparently harmed none! And yet he brought down God’s wrath upon the nation and cost the lives of “about thirty and six men,” Joshua 7:5.

4. He stole from the Lord in direct defiance of His command, yielding to carnal desires. Joshua 6:18-19. He “coveted them,” Joshua 7:21. Sin is a robbing of God and will ever put us in conflict with Him!

III. SMALL AS IT MAY HAVE APPEARED, HIS ACTIONS HAD DIRE CONSEQUENCES.

1. For the enemies of Israel. The events at Ai gave them the impression that Israel and its religion and her God were fakes! So does sin amongst God’s people! “So they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side: and they smote them, so that they let none of them remain or escape,” Joshua 8:22.
Your sin amongst God’s people will create the impression among the ungodly that there is nothing to be feared in the words of God.

2. For Israel. The loss of life, 7:5. The utter consternation and fear, 7:6. The trauma of the trial, 7:13-15.

3. For Achan. He brought judgment on himself and his family as well as trouble upon Israel, 7:24-26. His name is a byword!

IV. WE SEE THAT SIN MUST BE ADDRESSED IF WE ARE TO ENJOY AGAIN THE BLESSING OF GOD.

1. Great searchings of heart took place. 7:13.

2. Unhesitating obedience to God’s commands. 7:14-15. Neither family loyalties or compassion of heart was to hinder God’s justice. 7:15.

3. A full confession by the guilty. “And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, ” Joshua 7:20.

4. A heightened fear of the Lord in the nation.  7:14-15. Here is seen the fear of the Lord amongst the people. They carried out the sentence against Achan and his family. Many baulk at disciplining of sin but it is the evidence of a fear of the Lord. Deut 13:6-11.

“The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: To whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month,” Jeremiah 1:1-3.

Part two of the message begun in Kilskeery FPC on Lord’s Day evening, 7th Jan, 2018.
Preached at the Monday evening prayer meeting, 8th Jan 2018, By Rev Ivan Foster (Retired)

Stream or download Jeremiah: A message we should heed today, Pt 2

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Sermon notes

II. HIS MINISTRY WAS ONE OF PROTEST.

1. The message he was given to preach was God’s protest! “For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice,” 11:7. God is a “PROTESTER”! So must we be!

2. His witness was stoutly resisted by the nation at large. Jer 7:23-25; 25:4; 35:15.

3. He suffered for his faithfulness. Jer 32:1-3. 33:1.

4. He remained tender in his love for Judah. 2 Chron 35:25. His tears are legendary and his book of Lamentations illustrates that.

5. But he was preserved. He was not taken captive.

III. JEREMIAH’S MINISTRY FORESHADOWED THE LAST DAYS AND THE RETURN OF CHRIST.

Jeremiah, in the midst of all the darkness and discouragement was caused to see and speak often of the return of Christ and the glorious days which would follow for Israel. 2600 years ago he was, as it were, shouting out “Behold the Bridegroom cometh.” See Jer 3:14-18. This was virtually Jeremiah’s first sermon!

Please read these passages: 23:6-8, 20; 30:1-24; 31:35-40; 32:36-44; 33:7-9, 14-16; 50:1-20.

This topic was dealt with by Jeremiah:

1. So that we might learn that the coming again of Christ is ever the hope of the people of God. “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ,” Titus 2:13.

2. His witness foreshadows the witness called for in these last days. A crying out against the sins of the age and a bold declaring of the hope of Christ’s return.

3. He was joined in his stand by the great Daniel. Daniel benefitted from Jeremiah’s prophecy. “In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem,” Dan 9:2.