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Nanosermon Script:
The late James Lord Callaghan was Prime Minster of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979. A humble man, he described his greatest achievement not as becoming prime minister, meeting other heads of state, but as extending the use of cats’ eyes down the middle of roads when he was Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport in the late nineteen forties. It was a measure which saved lives and that was important to him.
Well, twenty years later, when he was Home Secretary, lives were being lost from sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. Mr Callaghan was desparate for reconciliation between the two sides.
Children of God, or Wrath?
Years later, he told a story about meeting the Reverend Ian Paisley during this time.
“Come, Dr Paisley, we are all the children of God,” pleaded Jim Callaghan. “No, Home Secretary,” the big man replied, “we are the children of WRATH!”
So who was right? Well, that depends. The expression Dr Paisley used is found in Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus, where, in chapter two, the Apostle reminded them of their past.
Eph 2:1 And you, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. (KJV)
So those who are unregenerate, walking in the flesh, caring nothing for the ways of God, are the children of disobedience and the children of wrath. If you are among them, you are on a fast-track to hell.
It depends on who are the ‘We’
But in his letter to the Christians in Galatia, in chapter three and verse twenty-six, he wrote:
Gal 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
So by the grace of God the children of wrath can become the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. So there we are. Depending on who the ‘we’ are, both Lord Callaghan and Dr Paisley were right.
If Jim Callaghan was referring to everyone, then perhaps he had let his compassion run away with him. But if he was talking about Christians, those who follow and serve the Lord Jesus, then indeed we are children of God – and citizens of heaven.
Become a child of God!
Ian Paisley, who is now with the Lord, longed to see people saved and expressed his compassion by preaching the Gospel. He rejected any idea of universalism, where everyone is thought to be a child of God. He knew the overwhelming majority of those involved in the troubles were unsaved. Looking at his community, and including himself in it as the Prophet Isaiah did before him, he saw that ‘we’ are indeed the children of wrath.
(Isa 6:5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.)
Dr Paisley was grieved by seeing so many out of fellowship with God, bound, as I said earlier, for hell. If you are one of them, know this: You are made in the image of God, but you will only become a child of God when you turn your back on doing wrong and ask the Lord Jesus to forgive you, save you and let you live his risen life.
Until you do that, you’ll remain among the children of wrath.
SCRIPT ENDS
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