The Minister was preaching the gospel in High Wycombe on Thursday, October 3rd, with a good number of helpers from the congregation, along with Mrs Pilkington, in vital support.
Mrs Pilkington had an encouraging contact with an older man who had recently left prison. He spoke of his difficult childhood and his drinking problem. He was only in HW for 3 days, before moving to accommodation elsewhere. He was willing to listen to the gospel.
The witnessing sister explained how there was no difference between her and him in respect of standing before the before the Holy God in that all are equally hopeless sinners. He was told that he, like the one speaking to him now did, could, however, know the peace of sins forgiven, if he repented and trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ. He appeared to be genuinely moved by this, and took some literature. He said that he would seek out some Christians whom he knew at the new location to which he was moving. May this be the start of a process of genuine seeking and finding.
Mrs Pilkington also spoke to a young man who was homeless and in a very poor mental and emotional condition. He, like the previous gentleman, spoke of a difficult childhood, but sadly showed no interest in the gospel message at all. May the Lord open his heart.
Pastor Simpson began his preaching by asking whether the general rejection of the one true God by so many people was actually making the world a better place. He declared that we live in a world which is full of trouble. There is suffering. There is war. Here we are in the 21st century, and yet man has still not discovered how to avoid war. You would think if we were evolving into something better, that we would have dealt with the problem of war by now, but we have not. We might equally ask, why is there still crime? The reason is that Man by his very nature is sinful. All people come into the world with a corrupted heart and have an inward inclination to sin, not to holiness.
And so the Christian Gospel declares that all need a new heart. All people need to come to Jesus Christ for a new heart. All need radical heart surgery. All need to come to the great physician, who alone can give to sinners a new heart. And so all must understand their obligation to come to Jesus Christ for “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” (Act 17:30-31). Jesus Christ is the Judge of all men. Whether you are an atheist, an agnostic, a Jewish person, a Hindu, a Sikh, a Buddhist or a Muslim, you will be made to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ as your Judge. No one is exempt, and the problem is, as the Bible tells us, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
May many who heard this message in High Wycombe realise the urgency of fleeing to the only Saviour, before it is too late.