From Clocker Valley in County Tyrone we present Let the Bible Speak. It's good to have you join us as Gospel Minister the Reverend Peter McIntyre is here to let the Bible speak and preach Christ in all his fullness. I want to wish you a happy Patrick's Day tomorrow. Patrick's Day marks in many ways the beginning of spring for us. It's a time when we can enjoy some moments with the family, a day of work, day of school, day of college. We turn on the news, we see the politicians making their annual visit across the Atlantic to the United States and Ireland North and South in many ways captures some worldwide attention at that time. And then for some as a time of revelry, sadly some of it gets very out of hand and there's all the drinking, which I don't agree with at all. And all of this really has very little to do with St. Patrick. So perhaps it's a good time to think about who Patrick really was because there is a legacy. The fact that we have this holiday would tell us that he has left a legacy and he has left a mark upon this island. And why did he leave a mark upon this island? And this is what we're going to think about today. And it's important that we do because he is a unifying character. Protestants and Catholics remember Patrick. Presbyterians and Anglicans remember Patrick too, but yet we may all have our own different agendas. The Roman Catholic assumption is he is one of them. The Anglicans say he's definitely one of us, and Presbyterians have tried to say he's actually one of ours. It's probably unfair to say that Patrick was a Roman Catholic or a Protestant. Because those kinds of terminologies do not exist. The term Roman Catholic didn't come into being until the Protestant Reformation. The term Protestant didn't come into being until the Protestant Reformation. Before the Reformation, all Christians called themselves Catholic, because Catholic defined the great universal church. So Patrick was Catholic, as we all are, except some are Roman Catholic, and some resist the term Roman Catholic. And the reason why I don't call myself a Roman Catholic, why I believe in what has become known as Protestantism, is because I do not believe the Church is under the authority of the Pope who's based in Rome. And neither is there any evidence that Patrick was under the Pope based in Rome either. Because in Patrick's day, the Bishop of Rome didn't take on worldwide ascendancy over the entire church, and that's a historic fact, but that's a discussion for another day. So it's important that we explode some of the myths and strip back the legend, find the real Patrick, because the real Patrick is ever so much to teach us. Six key words which show us who Patrick is. Patrick was a son. He was brought up in a family, a Christian family. His father was a minister. He is known as a priest. They probably lived in Scotland, although some say he came from Wales. Scotland is the place that most scholars believe is most probable for where he came from. But when he was a young man, a very young man, 16 years of age, he was taken by bandits. He was brought to Ireland and Ireland became in his own words the land of his captivity and he was forced to work as a slave tending sheep at Mount Sliemash in County Antrim. But Patrick said he was a sinner. That's the second key word. He was a son who was raised in a Christian environment but he was a sinner. He didn't know God. Patrick believed in sinfulness. He believed that we are all sinners. He believed that you didn't become a Christian by being baptised. He had been baptised. A person had to renounce their sin, repent of their sin, and have that moment of conversion. And whether it was meeting Christians in Ireland, which is very possible, because Christianity predated Patrick's arrival in Ireland, probably by at least 200 years. or whether it was the memory of what his father and mother had taught him, which also is very likely, and there was probably a combination of factors at play. But in this devastated position, being robbed of home and family, he thought of the things he had been taught, and so he said he was converted with his whole heart unto God, and so Patrick became saved. That's the second key word. He was a son, He was a sinner and he was saved. He was saved here in Ireland and God used this incredibly difficult situation where he was brought as a slave to this island. He used it for good that he came to faith. And this is one of Patrick's great legacies. And this is what he teaches us about. You see, in Patrick's century, there was a heresy being adopted by a man called Pelagius that had swept over Europe and had been really influential. And this heresy said that we're all good, whereas the Bible says none of us are good. And Pelagius said we can all work our way to heaven. But a man called Augustine said, and he came from Africa, no, that's not right. We're sinners, we need God's grace. Patrick believed in the grace of God. He was skilled in the great controversies of the age. He knew doctrine. He knew truth. He knew the importance of being saved. And if he were here today, teaching you, teaching me, he would be saying, are you saved? For by grace are we saved through faith. Not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast. Padraig was a son, he was a sinner and he was saved and then he became a soul winner. He escaped from his captors, he made his way back home, he was reunited with his family but sometime later he had a dream because he had this love that had been born in his heart for the land of his sceptivity, for Ireland. And in this dream, a man called Victorious came to him, presenting him the voice of the Irish, where he heard this appeal, come holy youth and walk amongst us. And so Patrick left his family again and he came to Ireland and he spent the rest of his life travelling from north to south, bringing the communities in Ireland the gospel. He taught the gospel to the kings and to the nobles and to the ordinary people. The number of places in Ireland named after Patrick bear witness to the extent of his travels Croke Patrick, Down Patrick, Temple Patrick. Many places with Patrick's name, many places that don't have his name have these local traditions that he came into the area. In the Clocker Valley where I live there is a tradition that he came to a townland called Findermore and there he taught the word of God for three days. In Colrain, where I come from, up on the north coast, there is the tradition. He gave Colrain his name, Culrathain, Latin, the name among the ferns. Patrick was a Roman. He came from Roman Britain. He came from Caledonia. His name was Patricius. It is only because of Patrick that this Roman named Patricius has become an Irish name. Patrick was a Roman, and he knew Latin, but he also could come and speak to the people in their Irish language. and he won many people to the Lord. He said many people were born again through his ministry. He established many churches and many Christian communities throughout this island. While Christianity predated Patrick of this we are sure, yet Ireland was still dominated by the druids, by witchcraft, by paganism. Many of these pagan practices were obliterated, destroyed because of Patrick's teachings. He was a soul winner. Patrick was a scholar. These people were not ignorant. These people were well taught. They were well schooled. They were people of writing. They were people of literature. Patrick was one such man. He left behind a church which believed in teaching. For example, in Clonard there was the monastery and the school of Finian and Finian it is said had 3,000 students under him. We have the ministry of Columba who followed Patrick who established hundreds of more churches in Ireland and then crossed over to be a missionary in Scotland. We have Aidan who followed him who was a missionary into England based at Lindisfarne on the east coast of England. Patrick left behind a legacy of a church that believed in teaching and scholarship. This was an age when the old Roman Empire was breaking down, when the old order of things was dissolving away. It was an uncertain age. People didn't know what the future was. The Anglo-Saxons were moving in from Europe into England. The old Celtic way of life was under attack and in the midst of all of that, Ireland became the land of saints and scholars where people would come from England and other places to be educated in the schools of Ireland. And at the heart of this civilisation was the Gospel because the Gospel is the greatest force for civilisation and for humanity that the world has ever seen. And Patrick was very much part of that. But he was a saint. We talk about Saint Patrick's Day but why was he a saint? Is there a special category of people who are saints? A hierarchy of Christians? Some Christians closer to God than others? Some Christians who are God's favourites? That's not right. The Bible says we are all saints. All of God's people are the adopted children of God. The important thing is to know that you're a child of God, that you belong to the Lord. This was Patrick's message. Have you asked the Lord into your life today? Patrick's Day is a good time for you to think about your life, think about your history, think about your past, think about the past on this island. Ireland has become so secular and so godless and it's offering us nothing but straw That's what secularism does. Take God out of the equation. We're empty. We have no soul. We have no future. We have no purpose. Patrick, with his message, gave the people of this island a purpose. And only the gospel can give you real purpose today. Something to live for. Something to die for. When Patrick died, and we can't be absolutely sure of when he died, the records of Patrick's life date back to a book that is dated 400 years after he died. So we can't be absolutely sure. But there is this strong tradition that he died in the year 461 on the 17th of March, hence this tradition of St Patrick's Day. But when he died, regardless of what day it was or what year it was, there's one thing we do know, he left behind a reservoir. It was a reservoir of truth. It was a reservoir of scripture learning. The ancient monks who succeeded him and who followed after him, they would carefully transcribe the scriptures. And we have the marvellous Book of Kells with the beautiful and intricate writing which highlights the care that they gave over the word. And the monks at Lindisfarne did the very same thing with their famous and wonderful Lindisfarne Gospels. And what is not important so much is all of the decoration and artwork that accompanied it. but the fact that they had the word, they loved the word, they cherished the word, a reservoir of truth. We live in a world where we doubt truth. We can't believe what we see. We can hardly believe what we read. We live in a world where trust is at an all-time low. That's the world we live in. But you can go back to the Bible and there's a bedrock of truth. There's the foundation. If you build your life on the Bible, you'll have a foundation that will last you for time and for eternity. And the winds of suffering and economic catastrophe and war may come, but the house will stand. Are you standing on that rock today? Have you that reservoir of truth? Trust Christ and you shall live. you've been listening to Let the Bible Speak. If we can be of any further spiritual help, or if you would like to receive some free gospel literature, we invite you to write to us. Our mailing address is Let the Bible Speak, Rev. Peter McIntyre, 13 Willand Crescent, 5 Mile Town, County Tyrone, BT75OQL. That's Let the Bible Speak, Rev. Peter McIntyre, Thirteen, Willand, Crescent, Five Mile Town, County Tyrone, BT75, OQL. You may hear Mr. McIntyre preach each Lord's Day here in Clocker Valley Free Presbyterian Church at 11.30am and 7pm. For further information you may phone us at 028 8952 1611. 028 8952 1611. We assure you of a very warm welcome at all the services and look forward to having you visit with us. Thank you for listening today. May the Lord richly bless you, and don't forget to tune in on this same station at the same time next week, when once again we turn to the Scriptures and let the Bible speak.