Pastor Peter Simpson was proclaiming with urgency the gospel message in the centre of High Wycombe on September 21st, helped by four faithful ladies, Saw Bee Ang, Lesley Pilkington, Lis Outten and Jenefer Campbell. The witness was sadly curtailed by rain, but a good number of tracts was handed out.
As Pastor Simpson was preaching, one lady walking by and angrily shouted at the preacher. It was difficult to hear exactly what she was saying, and so the Minister called our to her to come and debate, if she had an issue with the message.
She sadly declined the offer, but the gist of her comments, as far as it was possible to discern, seemed to be that there are many dysfunctional people in society and the last thing that they need to help them with their problems is being told about their sin.
However, this analysis fails to recognise that all problems in a fallen world can ultimately be traced to the sin and rebellion in the heart of man towards God. This does not of course mean that we do not show compassion and give every possible practical help to needy people, but society’s problems can never be solved by social work alone. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can change people’s hearts, and so society will only improve when this is actually happening, when people are abandoning their sin and unbelief and being transformed by the new life of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Pastor Simpson began his preaching by quoting 1 Corinthians 6:9. “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?” He asked the question, Who are the unrighteous?, and then gave the answer : Every single one of us. All men have sinful natures. Therefore all need a new heart. All need to come to Christ for cleansing. All need to flee from the wrath to come because of sin.
The pastor then referred to the wholesale tuning against the one truth faith of Christ in modern Britain, and the resulting pride whereby many people think that they are wiser than all the generations which have gone before. Sin, however, is as old as the hills. Being progressive, modern, liberal and tuned into the fashionable philosophies of our day will save no one on the Day of Judgement.
May many who heard the gospel in High Wycombe come to realise these vital truths.