Pastor Peter Simpson was preaching the gospel in the centre of High Wycombe on December 1st helped by a number of faithful lady workers from the church.
The minister began his preaching by referring to John 5:25,
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live”.
Who are the dead? All who have not been born again by the power of God’s Spirit. All such are spiritually dead, alienated from God and devoid of any spiritual life, until they come to the Lord Jesus Christ in repentance and faith. What is more, all non-believers are heading for the ‘second death’, which is the eternal condemnation of hell, because all have sinned.
The preacher then asked the question, ‘Why did Jesus come into the world? It was to save sinners, not to establish world peace or to create social equality’. Pastor Simpson then asked a further question, But who are the sinners? A man walking by put his hand up and smiling about it. The minister responded, ‘Thank you for your honesty, but what are you going to do about your sin? Sin is a deadly serious matter because it leads to the everlasting condemnation of the holy God who cannot look upon sin without a perfect repulsion.
One of the helpers, Mrs Jenefer Campbell, had an interesting conversation with a Muslim lady and endeavoured to explain to her that the line of God’s true people and the world’s Saviour is not from Ishmael, from whom Muslims believe that Mohammed descended, but through Isaac, who was born, not according to the flesh (because Sarah was past the age of child-bearing), but through Isaac. Isaac, though born by means of natural procreation, was nevertheless born by the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit acting upon Sarah’s womb.
The birth of Isaac is an important picture for us today. The true people of God are not so because of anything that they are by nature, but only because they are born again of God’s Spirt as they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Abraham believed God’s promise that he would have an heir, and that his true descendants would be reckoned though the line of Isaac, the child of promise, and not through Ishmael, the child of the flesh. God’s true people today, the true sons of Abraham, are the children of the promise, those who believe in the promise of the Messiah though the line of Isaac. Such, having repented of sin, are born again in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Another of the helpers, Mrs Pilkington, had a good conversation with a young woman who knew very little about the Lord Jesus, and even less about sin and the gospel.
So it was back to basics. Have you ever done anything wrong? asked Mrs Pilkington, to which the woman freely replied, ‘Plenty’! This provided a useful opening for the witnessing sister to explain the gospel to her. May the Lord open her eyes and bring much conviction of sin.
Indeed, may this be the case with many others who heard in High Wycombe upon this day.
