Pastors Peter Simpson and John Sherwood were proclaiming Jesus Christ and him crucified in the centre of Uxbridge on August 19th.
A woman went by and made a very dismissive comment about the preaching on the grounds that she was a lesbian. Pastor Simpson told her that we have to submit to the wisdom of God who made us and challenged the woman to consider that in her stance she was trying to make herself wiser than God. She affirmed in response that she was indeed wiser than the Almighty in her embracing of the lesbian lifestyle. May the Lord open her eyes.
A man came up to Pastor Simpson with what sounded like some well pre-prepared atheistic arguments attempting to refute Christian truth. He asked if God can do all things, why does He not heal amputees and children with with terminal illnesses?
The minister responded that all of us will die from disease at some point. If a young child dies before reaching the age of discretion, he or she will immediately go to be in the Lord’s heavenly presence, which is far better than any earthly life. Having said that, we have to realise that we live in a world where sickness and death do ultimately prevail, and the root cause of this is the sin of man in his rebellion against God.
Furthermore, no man should dare to bargain with God saying that he will only believe in Him if there is no suffering in the world. It is not for sinful man to lay down the terms on which he would deem to believe. To do so is foolish arrogance. Such an attitude is in fact the unbeliever’s attempt to shift the blame for the world’s problems away from himself and to lay it instead upon God. The atheist needs putting in his place, and he needs to realise that it is he who is on trial, not Almighty God.
Another man came to Pastor Simpson while he was preaching and argued that there is no solid evidence for the existence of Jesus Christ as an historical figure, and he also claimed that all religions have important truths to teach us, and that it is the therefore wrong to say that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour.
The preacher responded that Jesus Christ openly declared himself to be the only way to God , and He went on to prove the truth of his words by his resurrection from the dead. Pastor Simpson tried to challenge the man about his own standing before the Lord. He asked him if he was a good person, and he said that he thought that he was. He also felt that he was not guilty of sinning.
The minister then asked him if he had ever watched pornography and he replied that of course he had done so, but that there was nothing wrong with that – everyone does it! It was therefore explained to him that he was guilty of the sin of fornication before the holy God, whose word tells us in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 that “fornicators … shall not inherit the kingdom of God”.
May the Holy Spirit bring this man under much conviction and may he see his need to flee to the Saviour. Indeed, may this be the case for many others who heard the gospel proclaimed in Uxbridge upon this day.
