Pastors John Sherwood and Peter Simpson were preaching the gospel in High Wycombe on August 26th, supported by members of the congregation at Penn.
As Pastor Simpson was preaching about the Lord Jesus Christ dying for the sins of the world, a young man passing by shouted out, “Jesus died for His own sins”. A teenage girl watching the preaching nearby then clapped so as to applaud this blasphemous comment concerning the spotless Lamb of God who knew no sin. One suspects that these young people would not have dared publicly to abuse the person and character of Mohammed.
A passing woman also responded negatively to the preaching by telling Pastor Simpson to shut up. The minister replied to her that her comment did not constitute any valid objection to the truth of the Christian revelation. She sadly refused to take a tract, which would have explained to her the way to receive forgiveness and the gift of everlasting life.
Pastor Sherwood entered into conversation with a man who declared in response to the gospel, “I believe in the lottery”. The North London minister quoted to him 1 Timothy 6:10, “For the love of money is the root of all evil”, and explained that whist we all need and use money, it must never be made into an idol. The man stated that he had no time for ‘religion’ and suggested that Pastor Sherwood was just ‘following a script’. The preacher told him in response that he was not following a script but One who had transformed his life and saved him from his sins.
A middle-aged man using foul language tried to stop the preaching at one point by launching a verbal assault on Pastor Sherwood, who simply ignored him and carried on on preaching on the grounds that the aggressive mode of address was simply not worthy of any response. Mrs Hammond, one of the ladies helping the witness, went and stood near to the man and started praying, making it clear that she was praying concerning him and his verbal assault. She too received a mouthful of unpleasantness directed against her, but thankfully, the man eventually moved on.
The two ministers towards the end of the witness entered into conversation with four teenage girls, who were strongly supportive of all things LGBT and who were not remotely respectful of the Christian message. It was really hard to make them focus on the seriousness of the judgement of God. They thought that it was acceptable to tell young children in schools that two men can get married or that they can change their gender. One of the girls stated that ‘religion’ had no role in any discussion about homosexuality or transgenderism. All that mattered, she declared, was how people ‘felt’. Pastor Simpson suggested to her that she was guilty of making her feelings her god and that the reason that she was so pro-LGBT was because it was fashionable to be so.
One of the four young women was sporting a T-shirt with a picture on it of the rock group AC/DC and the words, ‘Highway to Hell’. The picture included one of the group’s singers trying to look like the Devil with two horns coming out of his head. A video of the iconic rock song, ‘Highway to Hell’ has been viewed nearly 200 million times on Youtube. This illustrates the depths to which popular culture has sunk in the western world. The song’s lyrics include the words,
“Hey, Satan, payin’ my dues,
Playing in a rocking band,
Hey, Mama, Look at me,
I’m on my way to the Promised Land,
Woo, I’m on the highway to hell”.
Pastor Simpson suggested to the girl that by wearing the T-shirt she was rejoicing in evil. She responded that she liked evil. How tragic that the wickedness of much rock culture has blighted the minds of so many young people. One of the girls said that she was looking forward to being in hell. They were warned by the two pastors of the serious danger that they were in and how the reality of hell was no laughing matter.
May the Lord be pleased to open their eyes to the dangerous folly of their lighthearted dismissal of Biblical teaching. Indeed, may the eyes of many others also be opened who heard a word of gospel truth in High Wycombe upon this day.
