“This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles,” Psalm 34:6.

Read Galatians 1:1-9.

* Today, I planned to commence our study of Psalm 15. But early this morning I felt led of the Lord to say something about Patrick.

An email arrived with me yesterday asking me if Patrick really existed. That person said that as a child many years ago, St Patrick was never mentioned in Protestant churches anywhere close to them and schools taught that it was a “legend”.

* It is true that few Protestant churches or schools mentioned the truth concerning him because his name had been ‘taken over’ by the Roman Catholic Church and it had become associated with all sorts of nonsensical myths and notions and ‘St Patrick’s Day’ was given over to silly parades and sinful excesses!

* Sadly, Protestant Churches did not love the truth of God as they ought, otherwise they would have rebuked such excesses, repudiated the lies and fictions attached to Patrick’s name and reiterated the truth concerning the man.

* The Gospel of Christ came to Ireland over 1500 years ago, in the mid-5th century. Despite many attempts by Satan and his agents God has been pleased to maintain His truth in this land. Following its first planting by Patrick, the Gospel was carried by men whose hearts the Lord had touched into many neighbouring countries: Scotland, England, Wales, France, Germany, Switzerland and further.

* There exist today two of his writings accepted by all scholars. One is his Confession or Testimony. In it we are told that his father was a deacon, the son of Potitus, a gospel minister. We are not sure where he was born. He tells us that he came from a village called Bonavem Taberniae. It is most likely this was somewhere in Roman Britain; possibly he came from a place now called Kilpatrick, that is, the 'Church of Patrick', near Dumbarton in the Firth of Clyde, in Scotland.

He tells us that at the age of sixteen he was taken captive by Irish raiders and sold as a slave in Ireland. Slemish mountain in Co. Antrim, here in Northern Ireland, was where he tended the flocks of sheep of the one who became his master.

* Wherever he was born there is one thing we can be sure of and that is he was ‘born again’ in Ireland. The testimony he has left us reads just like any testimony we may have heard in church today. The gospel witness in Patrick’s day, though tainted by some errors, had not become as corrupted as it would in later years.

* He escaped captivity and returned home but heard the call of God to return to this island as a preacher of the gospel. He had great success in the preaching of the Gospel. Many churches were started and many thousands were won to Christ. His preaching career covered a period of time in the mid-fifth century. He is believed to be buried in Downpatrick a small town in Co. Down, Northern Ireland.

* Sadly, the truth concerning him has been buried beneath layers of lies and deceit, created by men moved to do so by the devil, who hates the truth of God and the success it has enjoyed. What happened to the story of Patrick has happened to the Bible’s witness generally and the record of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus in particular. Men mark his birth with the most wicked and unholy of activities, utterly in opposition to all that the Saviour stood for. Likewise, His death and resurrection are surrounded by silly traditions and folly.

* The truth of God as recorded in the Bible is ever under attack by the devil and he would have men embrace lies in its place. Poor sinful men are more than ready to do this for they have ever “loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil,” John 3:19.

It is our task to keep alive the real story of Christ and the labours of His faithful servants and for that reason today we are endeavouring to tell the truth about Patrick, a man who by the grace of God, left his mark upon this land.