June 2020

Audio sermons


KICS assembly talks.

  • A word about the coronavirus
  • Bright and shining lights in the Bible: No new messages currently being added due to school closure. See all the talks in this series here.
  • Download a zip file of all the recent studies in the Parables here.
  • See all the KICS assembly talks listed here

Other sermons

An Intervention from GodMessage by Rev. Brian McClung on the 20th anniversary of his ministry in Newtownabbey FPC.


Featured series on the Book of Ephesians: The Unsearchable Riches of Christ

Part 32- Benefits of reconciliation Pt1 Part 33- Benefits of reconciliation Pt2 Part 34- Benefits of reconciliation Pt3 Part 35- A portrait of Paul Part 36- Paul's mission to the Gentiles Pt1 Part 37- Paul's mission to the Gentiles Pt2 Part 38- Paul's mission to the Gentiles Pt3 Part 39- Paul's prayer for the Ephesians Pt1 Part 40- Paul's prayer for the Ephesians Pt2 Part 41- Paul's prayer for the Ephesians Pt3

(See all the messages in the series here)

 

Starting back!!

Below is an article I have just written on the changes the ‘Coronavirus’ has brought to our land. Just as I was finishing it, an email came in from a friend highlighting a recent report on the local BBC news site which I reproduce first as an introduction.

Coronavirus: Clarity sought on public transport masks move.

“Last Thursday, the executive announced a series of additional indicative dates for the easing of the lockdown, with hairdressers able to reopen from 6 July.
The first minister attended a service at St Macartin’s Cathedral in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, on Monday.

She said it was “very important” that people continue “to observe social distancing and make sure that we keep people safe” but that it was also important “that people are able to come together and to witness”.

“It has been incredibly difficult, particularly for those who have been mourning,” she added. Read more


Remember Lot’s wife

A number of Christians emailed me this morning with regards this sermon preached yesterday by Rev Stephen Miller in Portglenone FPC.

He was preaching upon the text: “Remember Lot’s wife,” Luke 17:32. He faithfully declared the gospel warning to sinners who showed the same foolish desires after this world’s pleasures as was displayed by Lot’s wife. He rightly and boldly denounced the wickedness of sodomy and its related perversions as well as the sad and cowardly compromise shown by all too many Christians with regards sodomy.
He highlighted how that to say that one is against this wickedness and yet accommodate its acceptance amongst one’s political associates is highly hypocritical and wrong.  He specifically names the DUP and the Christians within its ranks and graciously shows them their error.
May the Lord bless this message and His messenger and preserve his witness against the inevitable criticism which will follow his faithful stand for God’s truth.

The funeral of terrorist thug much beloved of Stormont’s Deputy First Minister

Today the funeral takes place of Bobby Storey, the IRA terrorist and beloved icon of Michelle O’Neill, the DUP’s partner in the Stormont ‘Power-Sharing’ farce! Doubtless, thousands of adoring Sinn Fein supporters will line the funeral route, proving to any Protestants with an ounce of wit that the so-called change of heart amongst the Republicans who backed enthusiastically the IRA’s terrorist campaign in which thousands of innocent Protestants and Roman Catholics were done to death by the compatriots of Storey, and doubtlessly with his help, is a sham and a deceit only possible by a people inculcated with the philosophy and theology of Romanism!

The mainstay of Rome’s ideology is the writings of Alphonsus Liguori, born: September 27, 1696, died August 1, 1787.

His ‘theology’ is one of the most corrupt and deceitful productions from the pen of a human being! Never has the truth of God been so undermined and falsified as it has by this devil-inspired, so-called ‘saint’! His teaching has undoubtedly deceived, misdirected and damned millions. Yet he is adored and worshipped today by Romanists.

  • He was the leading promoter of ‘Mary Worship’. In his book, The Glories of Mary, Liguori, calls Mary ‘our Life, our Help, our Advocate, our Guardian, our Mediatress, our Salvation, and the Hope of Sinners’. Chapter 5 says: “Mary’s intercession is necessary for our salvation.” This book was tested 20 times by the rules of Pope Urban VIII and Pope Benedict XIV and was said to contain not “one word worthy of censure.” It was pronounced to be without error by Pope Pius VII and by Pope Leo XII. Pope John Paul II acknowledged Liguori’s influence in his own idolatrous affection for Mary. Liguori’s book continues to be published today with the imprimatur [Latin meaning “let it be printed”] of various Catholic authorities.
  • He developed and promoted the deceit that it is quite acceptable to tell a lie, while holding a ‘mental reservation’ as the lie is told. Morally such a position is taught by Popery! What an aid that has been to Romanists such as Storey and his fellow gangsters as they have engaged in robbery and murder and terrorism and concealed the same and denied any such activity.
  • He taught that stealing was acceptable. “If anyone steals small sums at different times, either from the same person or from different persons, not having the intention of stealing large sums, nor of causing great damage, his sin is not mortal; particularly if the thief is poor, if he has the intention to give back what he has stolen.”
    I can imagine Storey and his fellow thieves finding comfort in these words as they planned the 2004 £26.5 million Northern Bank robbery for the furtherance of the IRA’s terrorist campaign!

You can see more of Liguori’s wicked blasphemies quoted from ‘FiftyYears in the Church of Rome’ by Charles Chinquy.

See: ‘Turning terrorist hard men into heroes rubs salt into our wounds

Also Bobby Storey: A violent thug who played role in collapse of Sormont on three occasions


Hated England but run there when sick !!!!

This line appeared in an “Irish News” article on June 25th.

“Arrangements for the funeral of senior republican Bobby Storey have still not been finalised after a delay in returning his remains to his family.The former Sinn Féin chairman died in hospital in England on Sunday from complications following a double lung transplant.”

He waged terrorism against everything connected with England, yet, as with all of his ilk, was happy to seek the free aid to be found there!!!

What evil hypocrisy abides in the heart of the Irish Republican!!


Voice raised in Australia against the endorsement of sin and the persecution of the godly

I was sent this picture of a letter which was published in the “The West Australian”, June 25th of this year. (Click on the thumbnail to read). The writer is a retired Federal Member of Parliament, Mr, Peter Abetz. As it will be seen at the end of the letter, he is Western Australia’s State Director of the ‘Australian Christian Lobby’.

I do not know a great deal about that organisation but I certainly am in sympathy with the sentiments of Mr Abetz’s letter. I have no doubt that his is not the only voice in the land ‘down under’!

The battle against worldwide perversion and the wicked persecution of Christians and their Biblical lifestyle is on and deserving of the prayers of all believers.


Abortion really is MURDER!!

Below is a news report, taken from the ‘Daily Mail’ of June 23rd that really needs no introduction. It merely needs a new title.

This story illustrates the great mercy of God toward undeserving sinners, and such are we all! I trust that those who feature in the story are deeply aware of that fact.

Abortion survivor’s mother reveals she thought she was being told a ‘cruel joke’ when she discovered her daughter was still alive three DECADES later after being rescued from a medical waste bin – but now they are best friends

In 1977, Melissa Ohden, 42, from Missouri, was fighting for her life in a hospital in Iowa after being born at 2Ib 14oz and discarded as toxic waste
Her mother, who has now been revealed as Ruth, had been forced to have an abortion by her mother, a nurse at the hospital. Read more


Verbal and visible statues that ought to be pulled down but are not!!

There are times when immediate measures are required to avoid ‘blowing up’!!!! This article is just such a measure for me.

I have just listened to the teatime news on the local BBC channel and its treatment of the news of the death of IRA man, Bobby Storey was very difficult to have to listen to! The sombre earnestness displayed by the BBC, as the news of this murderer’s demise was announced, is frankly, hard to stomach!

Here is my response.

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20.
“He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD,” Proverbs 17:15.
“And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God,” Luke 16:15. Read more


There is only one rule by which we should judge the actions of either the past or the present!!

Here are a few thoughts on a matter which has been referred to in recent days with all the furore surrounding the statues etc., connected to those who made fortunes out of the slave trade in bygone days, but who won a measure of admiration in their days for the charitable contributions they made from the fortunes accrued from an evil trade.
Many have referred to ‘the standards of today’ and ‘the standards of yesteryear!’ I immediately felt I would like to press home the truth that, while man’s standards may change, God’s do not!

I trust that we have managed to highlight the immutability of God and His Law. This is an eternal truth much under attack today. Denominations without number have cast this truth aside and altered at will the unchangeable law of God to suit and satisfy the whims and fancies and appetites of today’s ungodly society!
How dreadful that day when multitudes men and women learn how arrogantly wrong they were and that they now face eternal damnation as a result!

What a mercy to be brought to Christ in repentance and faith! Read more


MPs approve abortion guidelines for Northern Ireland

ITV news story. There were those who rejoiced at the decision. What an indication of the morality of this day when there are those, including women, who rejoice at the introduction of a law that makes legal and widens extensively the parameters governing the murder of unborn children. Such tratment of children brought down God’s wrath upon Israel when they embraced the cruel practices of the heathen toward children. God’s law states: “And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD,” Leviticus 18:21. Sadly, Israel defied and desecrated this law.

“But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works. And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood. Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions. Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance. And he gave them into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them ruled over them. Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their hand,” Psalm 106:35-42.

Nations and individuals that embrace abortion will pay a similar price for their evil folly.

Many voices in Northern Ireland expressed sorrow at such a decision. Sadly, regarding those within some political circles who voiced grief, their complaints are mired in hypocrisy. There is a quote in the article from Carla Lochart, the Democratic Unionist MP. In an earlier debate in the House of Lords, Lord Morrow, Lord McCrea and Lord Hay, all belonging to the DUP, are listed amongst the opponents of the bill, which ends the limits that were placed upon abortion in Northern Ireland.
Doubtless, what these parliamentarians said was correct, but to say it as a member of a party which is in political union with such pro-abortion political parties as Sinn Fein, the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and the Alliance Party, rings rather hollow.

No Christian can be in ignorance of the offensiveness to God of one of those who profess faith in Christ, as does Carla Lochart, speaking against sin while in union and fellowship with those flagrantly guilty and supportive of the sin they condemn!
Jeremiah the prophet said: “Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? Jeremiah 7:8-10.

Now it may be said that Christians in the DUP do not engage in the sin of those whom they are in political alliance, namely pro-abortionists. However, in God’s eyes, to keep company with the wicked makes you guilty by association and endorsement of their sins.

I will quote a very well known portion of God’s Word which makes very clear that what I say is correct. “And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues,” Revelation 18:1-4.

Remaining in the company of the wicked, irrespectively of how we may protest against their sins, will make us guilty with them and, furthermore, will bring judgment upon us!

Thus, I say again, protests by those who remain in company with those who are guilty of the sins they complain of, are mired in hypocrisy!

May the Lord awaken His people to the wicked carelessness which abounds amongst our ranks!


Doctors differ, Patients Die!!

The following article is copied from the “Irish Times” website of Saturday, 13th June and relates specifically to the Irish Republic though, I am sure, there are lessons for all who presently are under threat from the Coronavirus.

I send it out for your consideration.

‘The virus will be back’: Preparing for the second wave of Covid-19. Where are the dangers, and how can a new wave be turned into a ripple, not a tsunami?
Epidemics of infectious diseases can be unpredictable but they often come in waves. History has left hard lessons showing that a virus can quickly return – and with deadlier force.

Just over a century ago, the three-wave Spanish flu pandemic that claimed at least 50 million lives, killed more people in the more virulent second wave in the autumn of 1918 than in the first that spring, including in Ireland.


A Romanist Priest speaks & The Dark Side of Darwinism

I am sending out two articles for your consideration.

1. I have little or nothing in common with the thoughts and words of Roman Catholics priests. However, I have ever been an observer of what they have to say!
There appeared in the ‘Belfast Newsletter’ of the 15th of June, a letter from a priest in Coalisland, Co. Tyrone, one ‘Father’ (a title forbidden to be used by men by the Lord Jesus) John McCallion.

His comments on the pro-abortion stance of the ‘Nationalist’ parties, traditionally loyal Romanists, is an eye-opening insight into the state of Irish Roman Catholicism. The abuse of children by its clerics has reaped a harvest indeed! Sadly, that harvest has the people embracing, if anything, something more wicked than that which they had cast away!

2. The second article was written, it is very apparent, by an admirer of Charles Darwin, while it is equally apparent that he was aware of his RACISM.

I send it out without any endorsement of its contents but simply to illustrate that RACISM and EVOLUTION appear to go hand in hand. I also do so, wondering just when the BLM movement will turn against Charles Darwin? That would mean a radically overhauling of the text books in all schools as well as the theology in the majority of Bible Colleges and Seminaries, as well as the burning of countless books and articles which extol Darwinism as the ‘be all and end all’ of intelligent thought!!

I leave you to peruse the articles. Read more


Justice Minister Naomi Long silent over Black Lives Matter call to defund police and founders’ praise for wanted terror figure

The article I have copied below appeared in today’s “Belfast Newsletter” and it is worth a read.

It highlights the bias and the political cowardice of many politicians who know the sinister character of many behind the ‘BLM’ but because it might cost them some political support and might jeopardise their ‘street cred’, they blandly ignore these facts !!

That, doubtless, is Naomi Long’s problem. This article highlights the chicanery and the hypocritical and opportunistic ‘knee-bending’ that is taking place throughout the political and ‘showbiz’ world by those who care nothing for what happened to George Floyd, but who see the furore surrounding his death as an opportunity to get their names and pictures before the public. What a rotten world we live in!!! Read more


Man’s inhumanity to man

A Biblical Perspective of the World-Wide “Black Lives Matter” Protests

I have been burdened to write this article because of the ever increasing news media clamour, surrounding the protests purporting to be in response to the death of George Floyd in the USA.

It think it has alarmed some Christians that amongst that clamour have been heard increasingly what might be termed ‘ill-conceived anti-white mantras’, shouted out mostly by the young and immature! Though they can be heard coming from the ‘old and immature’!

That the white nations have sinned against black nations surely none will deny. Yet, just as Solomon said that “there is no man that sinneth not,” 1Kings 8:46, even so may it be said that “there is no nation or tribe that sinneth not.”

Indeed, the protests embody the sad trends of evil wrought by one nation against another throughout the ages. Those that protest against the evil wrought against George Floyd do so by inflicting many very great wrongs on many against whom they protest. Read more


Controversial activist Candace Owens in which she says ‘the fact that George Floyd is held up as a martyr sickens me’

A report in the Daily Mail contains the following extract from a video made by a young black woman who voices her criticism of the present ‘George Floyd’ protests. Here is what is reported as having been said by this woman, black conservative activist Candace Owens.

‘I don’t care WHAT George Floyd did. The officer should have never treated him like that and killed him! But we still must ask: Is he a HERO?’

Earlier this week, Owens made similar statements in a video she shared to Facebook Live.  ‘We [black Americans] are unique in that we are the only people that fight and scream and demand support and justice for the people in our community who are up to no good,’ she stated.  She said that no Jewish person, or Hispanic person, or white person would embrace someone who had done ‘five stints in prison.’ ‘George Floyd was not an amazing person,’ she told viewers.  ‘George Floyd, at the time of his arrest, was high on fentanyl and methamphetamine,’ she stated.  She said her criticism was in no way defending what the lead officer Derek Chauvin did, by kneeing Floyd in the neck, until he was unresponsive.

Owens went on to reference the fact that Floyd had served five stints in jail – including one for aggravated assault stemming from a robbery in which he entered a pregnant woman’s home, pointed a gun at her stomach and searched the premises for drugs and money. ‘Was he really going to turn things around? It’s just not true’ Owens said of Floyd, who was a 46-year-old father-of-five. In the interview, Owens repeatedly referred to the pregnant woman who was assaulted by Floyd.  ‘This woman now has to watch him be help up as a hero. I can’t even think about the trauma!’

There is, it would appear, another side to this story!!!!


A work which only the elderly can do!

“Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come,” Psalm 71:18.

This state of affairs comes on most of humanity who live out their allotted span as stated in Psalm 90. “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away,” verse 10.

Lovers and readers of the Bible are very familiar with David’s life story. They have followed, and that repeatedly, his pilgrimage from his days as a teenage shepherd looking after his father’s sheep until his death bed as recorded in 1 Kings 2.

“Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die; and he charged Solomon his son, saying…So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David,” verses 1 and 10.

David’s story covered 70 years of one the most tumultuous periods of Israel’s history. He left his kingdom secure and greatly enriched and it was taken on by his son Solomon to even greater heights until Solomon, wise man and all that he was made to be by the Lord, turned from the Lord and His truth and embraced great folly due to the evil influence of his many wives. What a sad episode that makes! It is nevertheless, a solemn lesson for all of God’s people throughout the ages. Despite the warning, there have been many occasions when ‘Solomons’ have had their hearts turned away from the Lord and not always by carnal lusts. Money, earthly glory and political power have played a part in the downfall of many of God’s favoured servants down through the years! Read more


Abortion: Assembly rejects recent changes to NI laws

By Jayne McCormack BBC News NI Political Reporter. 2nd June 2020.

The NI Assembly has voted to pass a motion to reject recent changes to abortion laws in Northern Ireland.

New abortion regulations drawn up by Westminster came into force in March after a vote in 2019.

The motion, brought by the DUP, passed by 46 votes to 40.

The vote has no effect on the laws but the DUP said it would send a message to Westminster that the regulations are not supported by Stormont.

A Sinn Féin amendment, which sought to alter the motion to only restrict access to abortions in cases of severe fetal impairments, such as Down’s syndrome, was voted down. Read more


Legal experts sharply criticise the Supreme Court ruling on Gerry Adams

I would have you read the news report with this headline as a follow-on to my recent highlighting of events that indicate that in public life God’s Truth is turned upside down!

It is encouraging to read that there are those who are strenuously protesting against the decision that quashed convictions against infamous Irish republican, Gerry Adams.

The former Sinn Féin leader claimed his two 1975 convictions were unsafe because his detention during ‘Internment’ was not “personally considered” by the then-secretary of state for Northern Ireland Willie Whitelaw.

This decision by the Supreme Court is strongly criticised by some leading legal experts in the UK as reported in today’s ‘Belfast Newsletter’.

Email exchange with Edwin Poots, DUP agriculture minister

On the Sabbath evening, May 31st 2020, I received an email from Mr Edwin Poots who is the Agriculture Minister in the power-sharing regime in Stormont.

His late parents had a long standing friendship with Dr Paisley from the days of revival blessing in the late 1960’s. In those days I also counted them amongst my friends and fellow separatists and contenders for the truth of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in the face of the ecumenical apostasy which then was fast taking over the main churches

The family was well acquainted with the early stand of the Free Presbyterian Church and the great mercy visited upon it in those days of its faithfulness, being foundation members of Hillsborough Free Presbyterian Church. Read more


Seven days of shocked silence

“Then I came to them of the captivity at Telabib, that dwelt by the river of Chebar, and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days,” Ezekiel 3:15.

Our text marks the beginning of the ministry of Ezekiel. We are told at the very beginning of the book that Ezekiel, a Levitical priest, “saw visions of God,” Ezekiel 1:1.

That was the beginning of his being instructed by the Lord, in preparation for his ministry amongst the ‘captives’ of Judah in Chaldea or Babylonia.

John the Apostle was the writer of the Book of the Revelation, which may well be called the New Testament parallel to this book of Ezekiel. John was exiled and that on an island in the Mediterranean Sea. Ezekiel likewise was an exile and that by the river of Chebar when God was pleased to begin His purpose in the life of this man, revealing to him “things which must shortly come to pass.”

That which was revealed to Ezekiel was a progressively more detailed instruction about the Person, Power and Purpose of God amongst men. I am not going to attempt an exposition of the visions of chapter 1 and 2 of this book, but I would urge upon readers to listen to the series on the book of Ezekiel, the link to which I have supplied above, for in these messages you will find that the visions are not nearly so mystifying as many have made out. Read more


God’s Truth turned upside down!

I highlight the following two news items in order to illustrate the swiftly advancing tide of abandoning of the ONLY true basis of righteousness and truth – The Word of God!

As a preacher, retired yes but still burdened with the need to set forth God’s TRUTH for these days!
Whenever I see such reports as these, I know that many Christians see them and also are grieved at them BUT do we all recognise the ’signs of the times’? (Matthew 16:2-3.)

Sadly, it is very common for us to miss the significance of events taking place around us. Distractions by the flesh and its desires, the devil and his minions all serve to divert our attention from that which we should be noticing.

I think of the parable of the wheat and the tares and what it says of distraction and the terrible consequences. “But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way,” Matthew 13:25. That same thought is given us in the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. “While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept,” Matthew 25:5.

It is little wonder Paul often called for a shaking off of sleepiness! “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed,” Romans 13:11. Read more