Pastors Peter Simpson. and John Sherwood, Mr Graham Parkhouse from Epsom and Mr Simon Bell from Northern Ireland were setting forth the gospel of Jesus Christ crucified and risen again in the centre of Slough on July 2nd.
As Pastor Sherwood was preaching a man came up to him, by God’s grace, who was feeling extremely depressed about the state of his life and not really knowing how to deal with the situation. The preacher explained the gospel to him and told him that to follow the Lord Jesus Christ is the means of finding true purpose for our human existence. The man did appear to be genuinely interested in what he was being told. He was encouraged to read the Scriptures, and may the Lord speak powerfully to his heart.
Pastor Simpson took as his opening text Acts 17:30-31 : “God … now commandeth all men every where to repent, because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained”. He went on to explain how the Lord Jesus Christ is a Judge, as well as a Saviour. He is the Holy God appearing on the earth in human form, and this holy God can have no fellowship with sin. If He just overlooked sin and refused to punish the unrepentant, He would not be the just and holy God.
The Lord Jesus is not just a prophet, as the Muslims constantly tell us, but the eternal Son of God and the Creator of the universe. He received worship, forgave sins and commanded the wind and the waves, which are uniquely divine attributes. The Bible also tells us that “every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12), and that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:10). So Christ is the Judge before whom all must give an account of their lives.
So whether one is a Buddhist, a Sikh, a Hindu, a Muslim or a Jew, an atheist or an agnostic, all are going to have to stand before the Lord Jesus as their Judge. Therefore, all need to prepare for that time when He returns “in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 1:8).
Pastor Simpson continued to explain how all need to prepare to meet the God who is their judge. He declared, “We say this courteously, but Allah is not our God. There is only one true God and He is the Trinitarian God who manifests himself to the world through Jesus Christ. He dwells in the hearts of the believer by the power of the Holy Spirit. If you want to know God, you must come to Jesus Christ. There is no other way of knowing God, because there is only “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5).
May many who heard these truths proclaimed in Slough flee to the Saviour who is also their Judge, before it is too late.