Jonathan Carino’s flight from Cebu arrived
yesterday so he could join us in the work here on Negros. We met in the hotel
restaurant this morning and ate our breakfast together before going on to the
lectures. I always enjoy the time with Jonathan when we are traveling as he
always helps me to think more on spiritual things.
The venue for today was the Mayfair Plaza. It has
various rooms and spaces in the concourse on all three levels. We were in a
function room on the second floor. It was supposed to be air conditioned, but
less than half way through the morning session, the air conditioning gave out.
It became unbelievably hot inside as 81 people were attending in a room that
was very small. My guess is that the temperature was in the upper 90’s as it
felt like an oven. Fortunately, they fixed the air conditioner over the lunch
break, so the temperature was much better in the afternoon. It never got to
what I would think was cool or even comfortable, but it was not outrageously
hot!
We started with me preaching on “Salvation and
God’s Word, the Seed” from 1 Peter 1:22-25. It was a basic, introductory lesson
on the need to depend solely on the Word of God as it instructs in salvation.
Jonathan followed that lesson with one on “The True Church” that gave further
instruction of “the seed principle” that each seed bears fruit after its own
kind. He then applied that as to how one may identify the church that Jesus
built. I was next to preach on “By What Authority” from Matthew 21, making
application to the religious practices found in the denominational world and
examining whether they are authorized by God’s Word.
In the twenty minutes that remained before the
lunch, we had a question-and-answer period. There were a couple of good
questions and then two young men tried to take over the period to advance the
denominational doctrine of salvation by faith only. They denied that water
baptism was essential for salvation, so I asked them to deal with passages like
Acts 2:38, 1 Peter 3:21, Acts 22:16 and Mark 16:16. Though I gave direct
answers to their questions and the Scriptures to evidence those answers, they
were extremely evasive and wanting to appeal to things other than the
Scriptures to sustain their views. At the close of the afternoon session, they
tried to do the same thing and were caught in their own evasiveness and
contradictions. It turned out to be a great blessing that they manifested such
as it caused some who had not obeyed the gospel to see the difference in their
teaching and what the Scriptures clearly show.
After lunch, I began with a lesson on “Salvation
and Saul” showing without a doubt that Saul (later Paul) was saved at the point
of being baptized into Christ and His death (blood) for the remission of sins.
Jonathan then taught a lesson on the “Two Covenants” showing that we are not
under the Law of Moses, but the gospel of Christ today. I then presented two
short lessons in succession: “Repentance and Its Works” and “Almost Persuaded.”
At the conclusion of the second lesson, three came forward to confess Christ
and be baptized for the remission of their sins.
Thank you again for your help in every way as we
try to do all we can make this effort a success by preaching the truth of our
Lord and bringing the glory to His name! The Lord willing, tomorrow will be
spent at a denominational venue with a gathering of denominational preachers.
Please continue to pray for us and the efforts being made. God bless!
