September 2015

Future developments in Iraq

The substance of a message preached in Kilskeery Free Presbyterian Church, Lord’s Day evening, 10th March, 1991 by Rev Ivan Foster.

There are basically two schools of thought regarding what the Bible has to say about the future of the ancient city of Babylon.

There has been a city of Babylon from the very earliest times. “And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.” Genesis 10:10
“So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.” Genesis 11:8-9.

It became a city of great prominence in the time of Nebuchadnezzar. It, rather than Nineveh, became the city of Assyria. The city is now in ruins.

Read more…

Back to the top

Suicide – a despairing leap into the dark.

Two things have prompted me to mount these notes which are the substance of a sermon I preached in Kilskeery Free Presbyterian Church on March 16th, 2008.

First of all, there have been those in recent years who were known to me who, in the midst of a depressive darkness, yielded to the taking of their own lives.

I never had and still do not have the slightest grounds for doubting that they were the Lord’s children, truly converted and washed in the blood of the Lamb. I joined with others at their funerals and mourned over the despair they had wrestled with and which, in the end, prompted them to take the action they did.

We may and must deem the act as wrong but never lose a sense of compassion for them in the largely unknown struggle in which they were engaged, in some instances, for many, many years.

Nevertheless, it must never be thought that such compassion and such asserting that we believe them to have been truly saved in anyway exonerates suicide as a sin.

My second reason is a very recent email exchange I had with a brother who took me to task for a statement he read in my introduction to this sermon on SermonAudio. The statement he objected to was : “I say for most because suicide does not result in the damnation of the Christian who yields to that temptation.” You can read the statement and its context below.

Read more…

Back to the top

Standing firm in the midst of a sinking world

“Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come,” Acts 26:22.

(A message preached in Kilskeery Free Presbyterian Church by Rev Ivan Foster on 21st August 2004 and in Walsham Le Willows Congregational Church, 30th August 2015.)

This world has ever been sinking down morally since the entrance of sin. It is not a process that is limited to the closing years of this age as some might think. It is true that the moral decline will accelerate in the days of the rise of the Antichrist. This is stated clearly in such places as 2 Timothy 3:1. “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.”

But moral and spiritual decline has been an ongoing feature of every age. Its rate of decline may have varied throughout the ages but its inexorable continuance is undeniable.

Read more…

Back to the top

“ALL CHRISTIANS TO ACTION STATIONS!! ”

An outline study of Jude – an important little book for today, by Rev Ivan Foster.

Part 8: The believer, a vivid contrast in a day of apostasy

“But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference: and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh,” Jude 1:20-23.

The believer is ever to be a contrast to the worldling, but that contrast is never more obvious than in a day of darkness and apostasy. The stars are always shining in the heavens, but it is only when the sun sets that their presence becomes obvious!

So far in this epistle, Jude has stressed the character and nature of the enemy about whom he would warn us, the “certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ,” verse 4. In the four verses we wish to consider in this study, verses 20-23, the emphasis is upon the response of the believer to this wicked invasion.

Read more…

Back to the top

Latest news stories

Back to the top

More news

Back to the top