The second day of the lectures at Davao began with a few more in attendance than we had yesterday. Though several brethren had to go back to their places, an even larger number of denominational people came to hear. Several of the new ones today are preachers in denominational churches. In fact, there were twelve denominational supervisors among the attendees.
The day started with my lesson on “Repentance” noting that it is essential for anyone to be forgiven of sins. Ron followed with another part of his material on “Establishing Authority” dealing with the events of the Reformation and Restoration as they searched to come back towards the Scripture. The audience was very attentive to the lesson which went to the lunch break.
After lunch, I preached on “Identifying the New Testament Church.” The lesson dealt with correctly understanding the term “church” as referring to saved people, whether in the relational or functional sense. The audience was very receptive, nodding agreement even when we got to specific application showing modern denominations are not the church we read about in the New Testament. Ron followed with the remainder of the material on the “Authority of Christ” showing how we avoid apostasy today by depending entirely upon the instruction Christ has given in the gospel. The final lesson for the series was “The Plan of Salvation” which I taught to make the simple steps of obeying the gospel clear and serve as a basis for making an invitation for those who desired to obey that gospel.
After the last lecture, we had another question and answer session with inquires on various subjects. Ron and I both answered numerous questions which seemed to be honestly searching for the truth. Juanito Balbin made an appeal for all who would seek to obey the Lord and put Him on in baptism. Three responded to the invitation of Christ and were baptized for the remission of sins. However, by the time they were ready to go to the place where they could be immersed, two other decided to make the commitment and be baptized as well. So, five precious souls were baptized into Christ this evening. We praise God for the clarity of His truth and the honest hearts willing to receive it!
