Just one verse of Scripture I'll read to you.
It's the opening verse of the Psalm 115.
Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name.
Give glory for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake.
And it's our desire tonight and all that's said and done to to
give the glory to the Lord alone.
I think Mr McLaughlin used the right word when he said that
this is like a reunion. As we look round the
congregation tonight and see so many friends that have been such
a help and support and encouragement to us right down
through our lives, there's many memories that come flooding into
our mind even as we came here tonight and especially as we see
many of you in the meeting here this evening.
We were over in Ballymagurney this afternoon.
They had three new elders ordained in a very encouraging
meeting. Special time for them.
Certainly very significant to see those three men added to the
the Kirk session there. We were out in Africa.
We were out in Uganda from Wednesday a week ago, the 11th
up until Thursday. We were to be home on Thursday
morning into Dublin at 6:00, but we were delayed coming back.
The flight that was to leave in Tebbie, the plane was to come
down from Doha. It hadn't left Doha whenever we
arrived at the airport, so we missed the connection.
We were 4 1/2 hours late leaving in Tebbie and we missed the
connection in Doha, so the next flight wasn't until 14 hours
later. So we, we were held up just a
little getting back. We were to been to Dublin at
6:00 on Thursday morning, but we didn't get in until 8:00 on
Thursday night. But it was a very profitable
visit. We were there particularly for
the, the constitution of the, the congregation of the Emanuel
Mission Station. So that's the constitution of
the First Free Presbyterian Church in the land of Uganda.
And we we prayed to be the first of many.
We were glad to have the moderator with us, the Clerk of
Presbytery to conduct that constitution.
The Reverend Anderson from the Oakena Cloyd Church, the
chairman of the Missionary Council was also with us, and Mr
Jonathan Macaulay from the Ballymoney Church.
Jonathan is the secretary of the Ugandan subcommittee.
They made-up the delegation and their brother, Derek Graham from
Sandown came along with us in a private capacity as well.
So we packed a lot in. If there's time later, I'll
maybe mention just some of those details.
We take the opportunity just to sympathise with Mrs McLaughlin
on her recent bereavement, the death of her brother Kenneth.
We were greatly saddened by that.
We want to assure Mrs McLaughlin, the Reverend
McLaughlin and the family we have been thinking of them and
they've been much in our thoughts and prayers and trust
that they will know the Lord's presence and the Lord's comfort
in a very special way. Many of you here tonight have
known me really from I was a child.
I was born in Newtownards in the old Adair maternity ward in the
hospital there on the 18th of November 1965.
So just to help you work that out, that means last November I
turned 60. I got the three score years up.
You can hardly believe it. Well, if you can hardly believe
it, you think of the shock that it was to me.
I'm thankful. As you know, my father died at
58 years of age. So it is a mercy.
I think it was Mark Twain said that we shouldn't complain about
growing old because it's a privilege that is denied to
many. So I've told you very briefly
about the physical birth. Let me tell you about how I
experienced the second birth. When I give them a testimony and
tell people where I grew up between Carried Off and
Sainfield on the Ockley Hill, in most places where I tell that
they haven't a clue about where I'm talking about.
They've never heard about the Ockley Hill.
But that's not so in this congregation tonight here in
Carried Off in the Killeen your area.
We grew up on the other side of the Ockley Hill.
The Crawfords live on this side. We were just a little over the
other side looking out towards County Down on Strangford Loch
and on a clear day you could see out as far as the coast of
Scotland as well. We grew up in the Presbyterian
Church, it was First Saintfield Presbyterian Church.
Our family was greatly involved in all the activities that of
that church. In fact, I think it would be
true to say that there was hardly an activity in that
congregation that a member of our family wasn't a member of or
involved in. The sad thing was we weren't
saved. I wasn't saved growing up in
that church and I never remember a time that I heard the gospel,
never remember a time that I was ever told that I needed to be
saved to put my trust in Christ as my saviour.
The killing your school house that that used to stand just
outside here. It has played out quite a
significant part or place in our family life.
It was not killing your schoolhouse that my mother
received her education, killing your public elementary school as
it was then, but in the Providence of God.
It was to be in that little schoolhouse that I was to
experience God's salvation. Mr Robert Lowe, who was so
influential in my life, known to many of you here tonight.
Mr Lowe had a vision to have a gospel witness in this community
and he thought of that little schoolhouse.
It was closed up. You had meetings in the carried
off primary school. I would very much like to have
been at one of those meetings. I went to carried off primary
school. It wasn't long opened when I
went to the to the school there, but the the the killing your
school had been closed up and boarded up.
It was just like a a derelict building here on the side of the
the killing your road. And Mr Low had a vision to see
it opened for the preaching of the Gospel.
One Sunday brought Doctor Paisley out from the martyrs and
they had dinner together in in the farmhouse and then he walked
them across the fields to the schoolhouse.
There was one of the windows at the back where there was a a
hole. It seems strange, but they were
able to get through that. You can just imagine Mr Paisley
climbing through that back window.
And they took a little look around the schoolhouse and Mr
Lowe set out his vision and Mr Paisley gave his support to it
and it became a an extension work of the Martyrs Church.
They spoke to the trustees of that, that little schoolhouse,
and got permission to renovate it and open it for the preaching
of the gospel. There was a mission way back
then, all those 50 years ago. Mr Paisley was the preacher most
nights at that, and I say most nights because we came three
nights, I believe it was to that mission.
But Doctor Paisley wasn't there any of the nights that we came
along. He was involved in other
meetings or at other engagements, but the significant
thing was men and women. Perhaps for the first time I
heard the gospel in those meetings.
The challenge of the gospel came to my heart.
There was a Sunday school that was opened in the schoolhouse.
Mr Low went all around the community.
Remember he was a busy farmer, a large farm, but he took the time
to go round this community, visit pretty much every home.
I can still see him standing at our back door speaking to Mummy,
urging her to send us along to the to the Sunday School here
and we started to come to that Sunday school every Sabbath
afternoon. I have to admit these folk will
be able to testify to the fact I didn't behave very well in those
Sunday schools. The first thing I did when I
came in was knock the hats off. The girls were sitting in the
room in front of me and in fact I was so active that there's
times Wealthy almost had to settle me to keep me in my seat.
I don't tell you about that bad behaviour, the glory in it, but
I tell you to encourage you. If you're involved in Sunday
school work or children's work and there's a fella there or a
girl, there's a wee tearaway and you despair of them, remember,
you just don't know what the Lord might do.
You don't know what change the Lord might make in their life.
If you'd asked the people that I went to school with, look round
the class, who here is going to be a minister one day?
Who in this class is going to be a Free Presbyterian minister?
I would have been the last person that they would have
thought of. So let me encourage you.
You keep persisting and teaching and speaking and praying for
those children, even the unruly children, and pray that God will
make that same transformation in in their life.
One Sunday afternoon at the beginning of 1979, the
announcement was made at the end of the Sunday school at.
Mr Paisley was going to preach at the evening meeting in the
schoolhouse. It was a meeting in those days,
what was known as an After meeting.
Some folk went to their church and then they came to the
schoolhouse after the meeting started at at 8:15.
And generally Mr Paisley had come out from the opening every
Sunday night on that same Sabbath evening.
So we went home, spoke to Daddy, told him about the meeting.
We were very keen to hear Mr Paisley speaking.
That's why we went to the mission.
We'd heard a lot about him, seen him on the news, keen to see him
in person, hear him preach, and we were disappointed not to hear
him at the opening mission. So Daddy agreed to bring us down
to the meeting that night, and the Lord spoke to my heart.
At the close of that meeting. I went out into the little room
and it was just a little room, maybe 7 feet square or
thereabouts. So we were in that little room.
My elder brother John was with my doctor Paisley and Mr Lowe.
We knelt down together. In those days he wore dark
R.E.M. glasses with just a half glass.
He held his Bible in his hand and looked over the glasses and
he led me down the Roman Rd. We knelt beside him that night
and came to Christ, came to know the Lord.
So that little schoolhouse, that little room for me was
redemption ground. Anytime over the years that I
was visiting in the schoolhouse, I, I would open the door just
and look in just to remember. That's the place where I knelt
to receive Jesus Christ as my saviour.
I was saved young in life. I was just a teenager, just
turned 13 the previous November. That night that I was converted
was the the 7th of January 1979. So 47 years passed just at the
beginning of last month. I often think of that little
chorus. What matters wherein on earth we
dwell, on mountaintop or in the Dale, in cottage or in mansion
fair, but where? Jesus is tis heaven there.
And Christ was in that schoolhouse that night.
I rejoice in that. The little building was packed
to capacity, folks standing out in the hallway too.
But Christ himself was there and I met him and I received them
that night as my Saviour. Before we left the schoolhouse
that evening, Mr Lowe gave me a a very important piece of
advice. He said as a young Christian
it's vital that you confess the Saviour.
If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved. So he said you need to tell
others what has taken place here tonight and I encourage you to
do that too. Be good for you to tell others
of their need of Christ as as their Saviour.
Pray that the Lord would guide you every day to some soul and
need. So we went home that night and
we told mummy what had happened. The great challenge of course
was the next day when we went to school, met their friends.
But the Lord gave us grace and we thank the Lord that among
those young people, there were some that knew the Lord came
from a good Christian background and were a help and an
encouragement to me at that time.
I came to the Sunday night meeting.
Those after meetings that I told you about in the schoolhouse
came every Sunday night for for quite some time.
It was just a a mile from where we lived up there on the Oakley
Hill. And I would often walk down from
our home to the schoolhouse, attend the meeting, and then
some of the, the very good kind folk here would have taken me
back up the Road home again after the service.
Those, those meetings were a great blessing to me.
They were a great help to me as a young Christian.
The, the teaching of the word of God, the fellowship, the
encouragement of the Lord's people, many of whom are in this
service tonight. And I thank you for the help and
the support that you gave to me as a new born babe in Christ.
At at that time I heard some of the, the preachers, some of the
missionaries from the Free Church was introduced to them,
introduced to that style of preaching.
And I could see a a great difference in the preaching in
the church that I was going to 1st Saintfield on a Sunday
morning and the ministry that we were receiving here in the
schoolhouse on the Sabbath evenings.
I became a member of the Martyrs Church.
That was at the end of October 1983.
I was almost 18 years of age. I felt the Lord speaking to me
about that. And I emphasise to you tonight
as well the importance of membership.
The Bible says of Saul that he say to join himself onto the
disciples. So the very word is there in the
in the passage. He wanted to join not just the
congregation, but the disciples, those who were really paying the
price, going through with the Lord.
So Saul wanted to become a member of the church at
Jerusalem. And I want to encourage you.
It's right for every Christian to be a member of the local
church, the local congregation, and and under the oversight of
the minister and the elders of of that church.
I went in to see Mr Paisley. That's what he did in those
days. Many of you remember he did a
lot of pastoral work on a Sunday night after the service was
over, he would sit in the minister's room.
He would sit in the Kirk's session room and wait your turn
to go in to see him. And I went in with my membership
card filled out. I knew that my family wasn't
altogether happy about me thinking of joining the Free
Church. So I thought I'll become a
congregational member, not a communicant member.
And when I went in to see Mr Paisley, he took a look at the
card. He said, young man, you don't
want to be a congregational member, you want to become a
communicant member. So he scored out where I'd he'd
ticked the other box. So that's how I became a
communicant member of the Free Presbyterian Church.
I can see the hand of the Lord in it because I wanted then not
long after that to be to start training for the ministry.
And you had to be in communicant membership then for at least a
year for that application to be accepted.
I felt the Lord was speaking to me about separating from the
Presbyterian Church. I emphasise to you the
difference in those services. I knew for my own spiritual
good, if I was going to grow, if I was going to go on with God, I
was going to have to take that step, however difficult it was.
Come out from among them, the Bible says, and be separate.
And maybe the Lord's challenging you as well.
You're exercised about that. It's the command of the Lord and
it's the right thing to do for your spiritual good, your
spiritual welfare, maybe the spiritual good and the welfare
of your whole family as well. So I, I left the Presbyterian
Church. Martyrs became my spiritual
home. I got involved in the life of
the church. Doctor Paisley made an appeal
for Sunday school teachers. They had two Sunday schools at
that time. There was a Sunday school that
was held in the afternoon in the old church building down at the
bottom of the Raven Hill Rd and then a Sunday morning Sunday
school as well. So I became a teacher in the
afternoon, taught a class there for three years or a little over
it just before I went to the Whitfield College of the Bible.
It was good training, good experience.
Lord blessed our efforts. Some came to know Christ, some
of those children, and we rejoice in that.
Martyrs as well at that time were two youth fellowships.
One on the Friday night, it met in the old Raven Hill building
as well. And they had a Sunday night
fellowship also that met every Sunday night after the evening
service. So I was the secretary.
They had a committee for both of those youth fellowships and I
was the secretary of the the Sunday night youth committee for
a little while as well. And what a blessing.
There's a group of young people and we have great memories of
the times we had, the meetings that we went to, the places that
we visited. We tried to encourage one
another in the in the things of the Lord.
I was brought up on the farm just up there on the Oakley hill
as growing up, I really had nothing else in my mind.
I never expected to be anything else other than a farm, a
farmer. I loved the farming.
I didn't really see it as work. In fact, it was only the call of
God that took me away from a life on the farm.
I went to Locker Agricultural College in Cookstown and I did
the, the college certificate in agriculture, the national
certificate in agriculture. That was a good year.
During that year I went to the Cookstown church.
I I met a young fellow, some of you here tonight know know when
he was a young fellow then like myself, Basil Cuddy.
His mother and father, William and Annie, a very godly couple.
And they were concerned, as you would appreciate, about Basil
going to college, the company that he would get into, the
influences that that company would have upon them.
And they prayed very earnestly about that matter and they
prayed that the Lord would bring good Christian friends across
Basil's path to be a help and an encouragement to him.
And they believed that I was the answer to their prayers.
We became good friends. We, we spent a lot of time
together. We went along to meetings
together. I started to attend the prayer
meeting in the Cookstown church on a Wednesday afternoon.
We had no classes at Lochry. We generally went out to the
Cuddlies, went to the prayer meeting and then went back to,
to College in the evenings, late in the evening.
Mr. Stewart, the Reverend Stewart who was ministering
there then was going through the Book of Colossians.
I can remember some of those messages yet.
And it was in those prayer meetings in Cookstown that I
first prayed publicly in a, in a church prayer meeting.
I struggled with it for a few weeks, wanted to pray, but just
couldn't get my mouth open. So I encourage you, I, I, I can
understand the difficulty, the challenges.
Remember that there are two things that kill prayer
meetings, long prayers and long pauses.
So you don't need to pray a long prayer, just somebody that's on
your heart or petition you briefly want to present before
the Lord. And what a blessing that would
be to you and to the church as well.
I grew up on a farm. I trained to be a farmer.
I intended to be a farmer. We had planned to farm up at
home. I wanted to go into the milk,
have a little dairy herd, a division of that from the time
that I was a child. But the Lord closed the door on
that, closed it very definitely. We we had started to do a little
work on some of the buildings, preparing them for a dairy and a
milking parlour. But that was the time that they
brought in the milk quota and we didn't have any quota.
You could appeal to a tribunal at Dundonald House and we did
that. We went along to that tribunal
and pleaded our case, but they said that we hadn't gone far
enough on the project. We hadn't spent enough money.
We'd spent a wee bit more money. They would have been more
sympathetic to us. You can appreciate I was very
disappointed. But you know, today I can see
the hand of God very clearly in that.
The Lord closed that door for He had a another path and another
work for me to do, and I rejoice today.
You think of if the family had spent all of that money, made
all of that investment for my benefit, it would have been very
hard to have turned my back on that and walked away from it
whenever the Lord had spoke to me and called me into the
ministry. Let me tell you how that call
came about, that group of young people that I mentioned to you
that we fellowship together and ran about together in the
martyrs. We went one night to a meeting
in the Mount Marian Church. Not long after I came home from
agricultural college. Doctor Alan Kearns, who grew up
in Mount Marian, was home from the United States and where he
was ministering in Greenville. Then they brought him home for a
special week of meetings, and in the the message that he preached
that night, that we were there, he took a few minutes to tell of
how God called him into the gospel ministry.
And I knew that night in that meeting, God was speaking to me.
I struggled with that, struggled with it greatly.
I had my heart set on the farm, the cows, all of those things.
And the thought of a life of study, the thought of devoting
my life to the work of the ministry.
So for nearly two years I battled with that.
And one Sunday afternoon after dinner, I was up in my bedroom
reading the scriptures that those verses at the end of Luke
chapter 1 regarding John the Baptist And thy child shall be
called the prophet of the highest.
And I knew again the Lord had spoken to me that day.
So I knelt down at the side of the bed and I just surrendered,
surrendered everything, surrendered my all to the Lord.
And I can assure you I've had no regrets of that whatsoever.
There's little chorus that says let the Lord have His way in
your life every day. There'll be no rest and there'll
be no peace until the Lord has His way.
I had left school in that big a hurry that I didn't do any O
levels in those days. You could leave school at the
end of 4th year and you could go to the tech and you could do a
course there in your final year. So I had this thought on my
mind. The foreman and the tech
actually had a City and Guilds course in agriculture.
You you can maybe hardly imagine that when you think of City and
Guilds you think of subjects like English and music and so
on. Well, they had a very good
course in agriculture and I did it down at Downpatrick Technical
College. Really enjoyed it, made a few
friends, did a lot of farm visits, profited greatly from
it. Was good preparation for going
to Lochry, but it meant I had no O levels and you needed at least
three to get into the to the Whitfield College of the Bible.
So I started to attend night classes to get those three O
levels down in Castlereagh College.
I needed English language, English literature and history.
I never was very good at English.
Whenever I was at carried off primary school and we were doing
a little bit of English, I couldn't distinguish between the
line and the sentence. I thought that a sentence
started at that side of the page and it finished at that side of
the page. So whenever I handed in a an
essay or a wee bit of prose or written work there was a row of
dots write down this side of the page.
Monday afternoon they had hymn practise.
Some Mondays I wasn't allowed to go to hymn practise.
Very disappointed about that. Enjoyed the singing.
I was kept back to get some private instruction in English
and been asked to write this this bit of prose again.
But they got it back the same way with the row of darts down
this side of the page. I was just a slow learner, took
a wee while. I failed that English O level,
the English language O level twice.
Sometimes you know, the Lord tests your call.
I thought I wasn't going to get the qualifications, but the Lord
undertook and we did pass Doctor Douglas, The late Doctor John
Douglas was a great help to us as far as the English language
was concerned. The lessons that he taught us in
the college. He and Doctor Cook would have
stopped this mid sentence if we got the 10 strong, if we said
done instead of did or whatever, stop this mid sentence and just
corrected us. Mr Douglas could have turned you
to verses in the Bible just to show you the correct spelling of
there and there, where and where and all of those things.
He put great importance. The servant of the Lord should
have good English, the best of of English.
Strange. You know, when you think of all
of that, that the Lord has been pleased to give me a little
writing ministry. I've been writing for newspapers
and now for maybe 20-5 years and more started in Wales in the
Caernethleigh Star. That's maybe now the most of 30
years ago, whenever I was down in Newry, they gave me a little
column in the Newry Democrat. They called it Weekly Wisdom,
put a picture of me at the top of the column.
There's maybe 8000 copies of that paper went out every week
all across that nationalist area.
I wrote as well for a while for the Cross Mcglenn Examiner.
When you drive up to Cross Mcglenn, it's it's really
challenging to think there's not a gospel witness insight.
And I was given an opportunity to write for that newspaper.
The the editor said I'll not put your name on it.
He was afraid of that. I'll not put your denomination
on it, but we'll print the messages.
Well, I said that's OK on one condition that you don't edit
them, you don't change the messages in any way. 11 message
I wrote encouraging people to read the Bible and I said at the
bottom, if you'd like a copy of the Scriptures.
I phoned this number and four people got in touch with me.
I made a point of visiting all of those people personally to
deliver the Bibles and heard some very interesting stories,
gave them gospel literature as well.
I've been writing for the Belfast newsletter now for
almost 19 years. I saw Billy, Billy Kennedy from
Bessbrook at a funeral on Friday afternoon.
It was through Billy. We got to know the Kennedys when
we were in Mall of Glass and Billy has been very good, very
encouraging. He thought it was just five or
six years. When I was talking to him on
Friday I said Billy, you know, it's almost 19 years back in
2007, so now it's down to every five weeks.
The rota. It's amazing the feedback.
There's a potential readership there every Saturday of 100,000
people. The circulation of the
newsletter, double S on the salary because of the The
Farming Life, the farmers and then they put them all online
though as well. So it's amazing.
It's unbelievable really the potential readership.
Paul gave me an opportunity for a number of years to write for
The Farming Life as well, and we got feedback from all of those
messages over the years and that's why we started to print
the paper pulpit booklets. People wanted the messages to
give to others, to have for themselves that they could refer
back to them. People were photocopying them
and giving them out to someone that they thought was very
suitable. And they've been been used all
over the world. Doctor Trbolsi in the Lebanon is
using them in his magazine. He's having them translated into
Arabic and published both on their Facebook page and on a a
message that they publish. So for a fella that couldn't
pass his first English language O level for the first two
attempts, isn't it amazing? So I say to you tonight, I
challenge you, you, you think I could never do that?
You step back, you hold yourself back.
You just never know what the Lord can do with you.
You never know the opportunities that the Lord can give to you.
So just ask the Lord to guide you and open up the
opportunities and be willing to do whatever the Lord presents to
you. You know, in the Old Testament,
the Levites, they laboured between 30 and 51 of the lessons
of that is they retired at 50 does not sound very nice
retiring at 50. But one of the lessons is they
gave the best years of their life to the Lord.
And as I look back now, he's coming almost 38 years in the
work of God from we went to the the Whitfield College of the
Bible. I thank the Lord that he has
allowed me to give the best years of my life to him and in
his service. I started the Whitfield College
of the Bible in September of 1987, started at the same time
as the Reverend McLaughlin. We went through together.
So we've known your minister now for some 38 years.
We have appreciated his fellowship, he and his wife and
their family, and we appreciate the opportunity just to renew
fellowship all with you tonight. Not long after I went to the
college, we had some family deaths.
The following year, 1988, Uncle John died at the end of
February, just 59. Daddy died on the 26th of June
that year, he was just 58. And then my brother Gordon died
that November, the 2nd of November, and he was just 17.
Remember, he was born with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
At that stage, she didn't live beyond your 18th birthday.
They've developed some medication, some drugs now that
they call muscle juice, that really gives help to people with
Duchenne muscular dystrophy and has enabled them to live quite a
few years longer. That was a challenging year.
I was going through my first summer exams when Daddy died.
Had to go back in the summer to finish those exams.
We were just coming up to the Greek exam whenever my brother
Gordon died. So I had to go to the Reverend
Ferguson's house, the the man stoning Kalka at that time, he
was teaching his Greek and do that sitting in his his dining
room. But you know, I learned a great
lesson through those deaths. Some folk suggested to me that
I'd made a mistake, that I needed to come home and look
after the farm. But I knew that if I was ever
going to do a work for God, I needed to do it then.
The Lord was emphasising to me the brevity of life, the
shortness of life, the shortness of the opportunity.
That was one of the greatest lessons of those college days
that wasn't taught in the classroom itself.
I met Roberta in the Whitfield College.
She had been the deputy matron for a time.
She felt the call then to go in and do the studies.
She had started the year ahead of me.
I did a wee bit of chasing to catch her or to persuade her
that I was the man for her and there was 3 couples that were
engaged around the same time. It was quite an experience to
get engaged. You have the right to the press
but really get permission to marry.
You had to have a wee chat with Mr Douglas.
He would have taken you into the board room and you would have
been there for maybe 45 minutes or an hour while he emphasised
you the importance of your studies and the need to devote
yourself to these studies. So one of the witty fellows
wrote on a piece of A4 paper and put it up on the office door.
Whitfield Bridal College Mr Douglas maybe wasn't just lad
enamoured about that, but we were married between my second
and third year. After a honeymoon we toured bed
and breakfast round the South for a couple of weeks and then
we went to Wales for the rest of that summer.
The Reverend Hill is Fleming, who was then in Liverpool.
Mr Fleming was one of the folk that I heard preach here in the
schoolhouse. He was in Mount Merion at the
time. I remember going out of the
schoolhouse one Sunday night. Those of you who remember Mr
Fleming, he never drove a good car.
They were generally a wreck of a car and I remember we pushed
them down the hill last night to get the car started so that he
could he could make his way home.
But we had got to know Mr Fleming, particularly the year
before. The Reverend McLaughlin will
remember that at the end of our first year we all went to
Tavistock. Well, in fact, we started off on
Old and Broad. There's maybe 35 of us went
across on one of the Portadown buses.
The matron went with us. Some of the wives went as well.
And we went across to Alton Broad and did some meetings and
then we drove all the way down to Tavistock.
And it was at that mission that was held.
The Reverend Fleming, the Reverend Park preached at that
mission. And that was the commencement of
the Tavistock work. And we did all the outreach
right throughout the community. I could tell you some great
stories about the accommodation and, and where we stayed.
And that's the time that Roberta and I started to go out
together. So with many memories of those
years, the years of preparation in the Whitfield College of the
Bible, in Doctor Cook's class, the late Doctor Cook, the
homiletics class, the first time that I preached, I didn't really
get on that well. The thing was I hadn't the wit
to know that I hadn't got on very well.
He always liked to ask you the question, how do you think you
get on today? It was just to test your
attitude a wee bit. And I said, well, I think I got
on powerful well, Mr. Cook, Well, he left me no doubt that
day before I went home, but I had still a long way to go if I
could put it to you like that. So the second time I preached in
the class, he gave me the text, the widow was Arafat and the
failing barrel of meal. And he asked the same question.
How do you think you get on today, David?
Well, I wasn't going to same make the same mistake twice.
I said, I don't really think I got on that very well, Mr. Cook.
So the wee smile, wee glint on his eye, he said, well I suppose
we could say then that you were scraping the bottom of the
barrel. So some of the fellows like to
call me the barrel scraper for a little while after that.
But it was through Mr Fleming that we we went to to Wales, we
went that summer after we were married and we spent maybe 7
weeks there, got to know that little congregation whenever our
time in college was finished and seeking the Lord for for his
will. The Lord brought that verse to
our mind. Deuteronomy 11 and 11 four
different times. The land, whether thy goest to
possess it as a as a land of hills and valleys.
So with no doubt that that's where the Lord was leading us.
I was ordained for that work. After two years there, Mr
Paisley came to visit us to open the little building in Bury
Port. He stayed for a week.
What a time of blessing that was, the meetings that were
held, the souls that were saved. He came back and recommended to
the presbytery that I should be ordained for that work.
They brought us home for that. Martyrs was building the hall at
that time. They couldn't host the meeting
as my home church. So the meeting was held in Tan
Regay, Roberta's home church in the old building.
And Mr Paisley preached that night on John the Baptist.
Remember, I was called to the gospel ministry.
The final word the Lord spoke to me about the ministry of John
the Baptist. So we were there for just over 9
years. Then we were in Molaglas.
We're just a little over 9 years and I'm now into my 16th year in
Armagh. I've got the 15 up at the end of
October of last year. Very needy city.
The ancient ecclesiastical capital of Ireland.
Very religious. Many people sincerely religious.
And yet sincerely wrong. So it's a study that that needs
the move of God. I'll mention to you briefly just
a little about my illness. It's a story of the Lord's
faithfulness and the Lord's providential care.
The day that I took on well was the 23rd of April 2018, Saint
George's Day. So almost eight years ago, I
hadn't been feeling well for a few weeks.
I went to see the doctor, so a young locum Dr that saw me that
day, she was very nervous, told her I was going to East Africa.
She really said to me you decide whether you want to go.
She really should have told me not to go anywhere till we get
that. That sorted out.
That Monday morning as we were setting off, I asked the Lord if
if I wasn't to go on that trip that he would step in and
prevent me from going. I didn't just think he might
step in as drastically as as he did.
My good friend Alistair Hamilton and I were travelling together.
We'd arrived at Dublin Airport, parked a car, made our way
across in the bus. I was pulling 2 very heavy
cases, a heavy rock sack on my back.
We were just through the door. When we came through Dublin
Airport on Thursday night, I called the couple of the
brethren over and I said that's the spot, that's the place there
where I went down that day. So every time we pass through
the airport we still see it. So I was just through the door
and Alistair was just a little in front of me.
The last thing I remember him saying we need to go this way.
And everything started to go out of focus and down I went.
In fact, I went down that quick. I don't remember hitting the
ground. The Lord was gracious in in what
happened after that. There's so many provinces that
took place. There was a nurse came and
helped Alistair start to do CPR. He had been trained in it.
When he was 19, came back to him.
He carried on that CPR. One of the guard officers came
with a a portable defibrillator that he'd taken off the wall.
At that time there was 50 defibrillators in Dublin
Airport, 300 members of staff that were trained in first aid
in the use of defibrillators. Some years before that, a man
had died in the airport and the chief fire officer, Jerry Qu,
vowed that that would never happen again while he was there
and he'd started that defibrillator programme.
You know, the figures in the UK is that about 8%, just 8% of the
people that have a cardiac arrest outside of hospital
actually survive that cardiac arrest attack.
So that gives you some idea of the mercy of God that I
experienced that day. There was paramedics that came.
They came in an ambulance. Alistair was surprised they came
so quick. Turns out the airport had its
own ambulance. They had a bigger defibrillator.
Brendan Conway was the main paramedic.
In essence he was the man that saved my life that day.
I think I was the 26th life that was saved by that defibrillator
programme in Dublin Airport, the Labour, William Whiteside, he
was in charge of Hillsborough at the time.
He was telling the people about what had happened in Dublin that
day. But the help that I had received
and he said, you know, the Dublin paramilitaries came and
saved our brother. So the congregation laughed, he
said. I know I've said something
wrong, but I'm just not sure actually what it was.
They thought at first they could sort out the problem with a
couple of stents, but when they got me to the Mater hospital
they realised that they couldn't do that.
The blockage was on a bend. My main left ascending artery,
the one they called the Widowmaker, was 95% blocked.
The blockage was on a bend. They can't put stents around the
corner, so they had to do a double heart bypass.
I collapsed just after 4:00 in the afternoon and they had me in
the operating table by 8:00 that night.
I said to the cardiologist, you can appreciate there's a lot
happened here in a very short space of time.
I'd like a wee bit of time to think about this.
He says. I don't want to rush you and I
don't want to put you under any pressure, but there's there's
some things you need to consider.
You can take another one of these very quickly, no guarantee
that you'll come out of the next one as well as you come out of
the first one. He said the theatre's free at
the moment. I couldn't guarantee it'll be
free in 10 minutes time. Another emergency could be
wheeled in and he said the top heart surgeon in this hospital
is here, He's going on his holidays tonight.
If you give him permission, he has agreed to stay and do the
operation. His name was McGuinness.
Mr Jonathan McGuinness, I've never met him.
The way things worked out, He did the operation, came out of
theatre maybe at 1:20. He went off on his holidays and
all the other doctors in the hospital looked after me during
that time. When I went for my review, I was
to see Mr McGuinness. But that morning he was, he was
called to emergency surgery. Roberta and the family met him
after the operation that night and we were very impressed with
how measured, how capable a man he was.
But I thank God for all of those canned upon that the Lord gave
me a word a few days after. That operation.
Joshua 14. Verse 10 The words of the.
Of Caleb at 85. The Lord hath kept me alive, and
that's really my testimony. Men and women.
As far as that whole incident went, the Lord has kept me
alive. I rejoice there's still a
little. Work for me to do.
I thank you for your prayers. I know that many of you were
faithful in remembering me in prayer At At that time King
Hezekiah could say he had been to the gates of the grave.
Well, I think I've. Been pretty close.
To the gates of the grave as well rejoice in the recovery
that have made the Lord has been good the health and strength
that we enjoy. But it's a warning, men and
women, warning to you tonight as well.
You don't know what a day will bring forth.
You know not what shall be on the Morrow.
When I left home that morning, I never imagined that before the
day was out, I. Would be in the operating.
Theatre receiving a double heart bypass operation.
Andrew Bonner. I encourage you to read Bonner's
diary. Written by his daughter, put
together, taken. From his diary, she went through
it and took the extracts several times.
As you read through that diary, you'll find these words Why am I
spared and others taken? Many of his family died young,
even his dear wife. He was a good friend of the
godly Robert Murray McShane. Remember, he died before he
reached his 30th birthday. So, so often, he wrote those
words, Why am I spared and others taken?
So it's good for you to think of that tonight.
Why am I spared? Why?
Are you still here? Others of your family, your
friends, your neighbours taken You know there's only two
answers. To that.
If you're not saved, you're spared because God and mercy has
given you another opportunity to get saved, to get right with.
Him and. If you are saved and you know
the Lord, you're spared because your work's not yet done.
You've still have work to do for God, and you must work the works
of him that sent you. Why did this day?
For the night cometh when no man can work?
I'll finish my testimony with us.
I know in the programme Mr McLaughlin has me down to do a
message. I can do a very brief message if
he still wants that. But I'll finish with the words
of Newton's hymn. Through many dangers, toils and
snares I have already come. Tis grace has brought me safe
thus far and His Grace will lead me home.
Thank you, Mr McLaughlin. Psalm 23.
Just verse one. The Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want a verse with a a very good agricultural, rural
farming background. There's a lovely story.
I mentioned the paper pulpits, the messages for the paper.
One of the stories that I wrote in the early years, a very
famous story about a a very well known actor.
Some say it was Richard Burton, some say it was Sir Charles
Laughton. Which acted was really doesn't
matter, but the story is this quite a number of years ago in a
in a large the house in England large country house, there's a
great gathering of people from all of that community from.
Different walks of life. Some of them very famous, like
the actor that I've mentioned. They had some food together and
at the close of the evening, after the food, they wanted the
actor to recite for them. He was very well known
particularly for his voice and for all the training that he had
received for his voice. So they requested that he would
recite something. You know the situation when that
happens. Nobody could think of anything.
He asked them, can you suggest, can anybody mention something
you'd like me to recite? Nobody could think of anything.
There was silence. There's no minister of the
Gospel there. He spoke up and he said, what
about the 23rd Psalm? When the actor was taken back a
little, he had gone to church. He'd been brought up going to
church, going to meetings. He had been taught the word of
God from a child and he knew the 23rd Psalm.
In fact, he could recite it from memory of by heart.
So he stood up and he said I will recite the 23rd Psalm on
one condition, and that is that this.
This old minister. Recites it after me.
Well, the the minister was a little bit surprised, but he
agreed to do that. So the actor went first, recited
the the Psalm word perfect, using all his training, all his
ability, using his voice, putting the emphasis, the tones
and so on, all in the right place.
Whenever he'd finished reciting the Psalm, everybody
spontaneously just burst into applause.
They really appreciated the recitation that they'd received.
And then the old minister stood up.
He was an old man, and he was. Frail, and his voice was.
Broken he was, he was well past his best.
He recited it, of course. Remember, he knew it.
Really. Well, when he had finished
quoting the Psalm that night, they didn't clap.
In fact, many of the people that were gathered cried, wept.
The tears were running down their face.
The actor stood up again and this is what he said.
This is how he summed up the situation.
He said I touched your heads, but he touched your hearts.
And the difference is this. I knew the Sam, but he knew the.
Shepherd. He knows the Shepherd.
Of the Sam, I venture to say, men and women, that all of you
here tonight, you know the Sam like that actor.
You've known it from your childhood, went to Sunday school
children's meetings, maybe one of the very first passages of
scripture that you ever taught, you could probably recite it
from. Memory too.
You've often sang it in church services and particularly at
funerals. You know the Psalm, but what
about the shepherd? It's an entirely different
thing. Do you know the shepherd of the
Psalm? Remember, the shepherd is none
other than the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's a good thing when you study the Bible to compare one passage
with another. The Bible's its own best.
Interpreter one. Passage of the Bible throws
light upon another know the great I am statements of the New
Testament Scriptures. The Saviour said I am the Good
Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth us life
for the sheep. So remember when you read those
opening words, the Lord is my shepherd that's speaking about
Christ. That's a Psalm that's all about
the Saviour. He said search the Scriptures.
The Scriptures there was the Old Testament for they are they
which testify of me. So Psalm 23, always remember
that it's a Psalm about Christ, Jehovah Jesus.
He knew the shepherd of the Psalm.
The old man was able to say, the Lord is my shepherd.
He's not just our Shepherd, He's mine.
I know him. I've.
Received him personally as my saviour and that's the challenge
men and women. At the close of the meeting
tonight. It's good to know the
scriptures. Good to know the Psalm.
Good to know the word of God, but the all important.
Thing in life is to know the shepherd.
To know Christ, we sing the words, Dear Saviour, thou art
mine. Can you say that tonight?
Is that your testimony? If you can say the Lord is my
shepherd, then you're able to say I shall.
Not want in. Life, the Lord is my shepherd.
I shall. Not want You may never be rich,
may never be a millionaire, but you'll have all that you ever
need. The Lord will supply all your
need according to his riches and glory.
Many of the great Jehovah titles are found in that Psalm, and
Jehovah jar is there in the first verse.
The Lord who sees, the Lord who provides, you'll never want in
life, not just the material, but the spiritual, the emotional,
all of the needs that we have in life.
You'll not fear in death. It's not one of the greatest
fears. That people have, they get.
Into bondage, Paul said to the Hebrews.
They spoke of those who, through fear of death, were all their
lifetimes. Subject to.
Bondage. They do all sorts of things
because they're afraid of dying, afraid of going to funerals,
afraid of the thought of death. Bible says it's wise.
To think about death. Oh, that they were.
Wise that they understood this, that they would consider their
latter end. If you can say the Lord is my
shepherd, you'll not fear in death.
Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I
will fear no evil. Why?
Because the Lord is with me. You'll know his presence because
he has saved you. And you know where you're going
when you depart from this scene of time.
Not want and life, not fear and death.
And if the Lord is your shepherd, you'll not be lost in
eternity. Goodness and mercy shall follow
me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the House of the
Lord forever. So just think of that prospect.
Remember that eternities real men and women, more real than
the things that we. See around us.
The things that are seen are temple.
One day, they'll pass away. Heaven and earth will pass.
Away the things that are on the scene, they're the things that
are eternal. So eternity is more real than
time. We're all heading towards
eternity and the great question is where will you be?
Where will you spend eternity when your life.
Is over when you've gone the. Last mile of the way.
So we sang little, and you go out into eternity.
Where are you going? The Saviour said his disciples.
None of you ask us. Me asketh me, Whither goest
thou? That was when he was.
Going to the. Cross going to die So whether
goest thy Where are you going in eternity?
Dr Duncan Doctor John Duncan. He was a missionary to the Jews
in Budapest and Hungary. They brought him home to teach
Hebrew in the New College in Edinburgh.
He was known affectionately as Rabbi Duncan.
New Year's Day he met some of his students, the very plate.
They took off their hats and said a happy New year, Sir.
He immediately took his. Hat off and returned.
And said, a happy eternity, gentlemen, it's not infinitely
more important. Are you going to have a happy
eternity? You're going to dwell in the
House of the Lord forever. Remember that can only be so.
If you know the shepherd. If you're able to say the Lord
is my shepherd, may that be so before you go from the service
tonight.