Pastors John Sherwood and Peter Simpson were preaching the gospel in the centre of Uxbridge on September 27th.
Both ministers at one point entered into a conversation with a young man who had stopped simply to read carefully the various portions of the word of God which were on display. This was in itself encouraging. He has recently started study at nearby Brunel University and had only very recently started thinking seriously about Christian matters, and was really interested. He was directed to two local churches to further help him to come into a clearer understanding, on which path of seeking and finding he appeared to have genuinely started walking.
A middle-aged woman came up to Pastor Simpson as he was handing out tracts complaining about the public proclamation of the gospel. You should keep it all to yourself, she exclaimed. Pastor Simpson replied that it is an urgent message, which all need top hear. The lady then rather angrily declared that there is no God, and so the minister asked her if she believed Jesus Christ actually existed as an historical figure. She even disputed this, and so was told about the plain documentary evidence for His life comparable to that of many other historical figures, the existence of whom no one for a moment doubts.
Pastor Simpson then asked the woman if she was a good person. She said she thought so, and so was told that the Bible says that all people are sinners. She then directly asked about ‘being gay”, and so it was explained to her how the Bible teaches plainly that homosexuality is sinful. At this she became really irate, and said to the Minister – most shockingly – that he was probably “a dirty paedophile”. How tragic that a thought like this could pass through someone’s mind when talking to a Christian minister. How also deeply regrettable that the woman chose to resort to this nasty insult, rather than than engage in a reasonable debate. Pastor Simpson decided at this point to walk away, but she carried on shouting angrily back at him. May the Holy Spirit come to her in much convicting power.
Pastor Simpson emphasised in his preaching the fact that God reads the hearts and minds of all men, knowing all their thoughts. The preacher quoted Jeremiah 17:10,
“I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings”. He told the passers-by that the Judge of all the earth, the Lord Jesus Christ, is watching all men, and all are answerable to Him for what they do with their lives. None can escape – by means of their unbelief – from His all-seeing eye. None can argue that they are their own masters, but all are are answerable to the Trinitarian God who gave to each one life in the first place.
May many who heard the preaching in Uxbridge realise quickly that there is coming a “day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ” (Romans 2:16).