Prepare to meet God

Years ago my family had a family doctor.

When this man met us he said, “My name is Amos, like the prophet.”

Dr. Amos may have had the same name, but I’m not sure he was a lot like the prophet.

AMOS STOOD IN THE MIDST OF THE NATION OF Israel AND SAID TO THE PEOPLE, “PREPARE TO MEET THY God.”

By presenting this message Amos implied something.

He indicated Israel would indeed meet God.

If there were no meeting (evaluation) by God, preparation was useless.

Because preparation was ordered, Israel would face divine judgment.

We are not the nation of Israel, but the words of Amos are still relevant.

For our Scripture reading we heard Heb. 3:15.

We will one day meet God.

Paul said this in 2 Cor. 5:10; all will appear before Him.

Jesus said “all the nations” will be gathered before Him, Mt. 25:31-32.

Peter said Jesus is the judge of the living and the dead, Acts 10:42.

Again and again we are reminded about a coming judgment.

Even when talking about matters of judgment Paul said in Rom. 14:10:

“All will stand before the judgment seat of Christ.”

Because this day is coming, each person has a need to be prepared.

Certainly Israel was supposed to be prepared.

In Amos 5:4, the prophet said “seek God and live.”

This is still the right course of action.

Seeking God means finding and obeying heaven’s will.

Heaven’s will consists of faith in heaven’s message.

We must believe that God is real. Without faith we cannot please God, Heb. 11:6.

We must believe that a future judgment is real.

We can only do this if we have faith in the Scriptures.

At the present time a lot of religious people devalue the Bible.

Without a divinely inspired message, religion is basically hopeless and useless.

Faith means a strong conviction in what God’s word says.

In addition to believing in a future judgment, we believe in the basis for this judgment.

Sin will be the basis for judging and sentencing people to condemnation.

We must have faith in the existence of sin, the penalty of sin, and the remedy for sin.

Any teaching done on preparing to meet God must begin with seeking God in faith.

WHILE THIS IS WHERE WE BEGIN, IT IS NOT WHERE WE END.

In the time of Amos, people were evil.

They did not want God’s prophets to preach, Amos 2:12.

God’s people had sought out idolatry, Amos 5:6.

Sin upon sin existed, just like today.

God required His people to turn from their evil ways.

Many years have passed, but this part of God’s plan has not been altered.

If it is our hope to be prepared to meet God, we must turn from our ways and the ways of this world.

Jesus said “repent or perish,” Lk. 13:3.

Before Jesus John the Baptist preached a similar message, Mt. 3:2.

Jesus said “repentance and remission of sins were to be preached in His name,” Lk. 24:47.

Acts 3:19 tells us the early Christians told people to “repent.”

We must be born of the “Spirit” (the teachings in the Bible).

One of these teachings is repentance.

Jesus forgave a woman in Jn. 8:11 and said, “go and sin no more.”

What did the Lord mean? Repent.

Paul said he preached repentance, Acts 26:20.

Repentance was preached, but not all did it, Rev. 16:9.

Man has made his life (paths) crooked; God says “straighten them.”

Man is unholy; God says “become holy.”

WITH BELIEF AND REPENTANCE, WE ARE ON THE ROAD TO PLEASING GOD. WE MAKE OUR ENTRANCE INTO CHRIST’S KINGDOM BY RECOGNIZING WHO Jesus IS (THE Lord WE MUST SUBMIT TO), AND WE ACTUALLY ENTER INTO His BODY.

Not long ago there was a man who made contact with us via the Internet.

He said, “why do you teach baptism for the forgiveness of sins.”

I sent a reply which he apparently did not study.

He found some information off the Internet and sent that to me.

Then he sent me more and more.

He never answered what I sent; he always got information from someone else.

Finally this man copied from somewhere information about most passages on baptism.

He thought he had explained away every single verse that says baptism is essential.

He said, “Preacher, give me just one verse that says baptism is essential.”

In a very nice way I submitted the following for his consideration.

2 Tim. 2:10 says salvation is “in Christ.”

If salvation is in Christ, it cannot be out of Christ.

How does one enter “into Christ” and access this salvation?

Gal. 3:27 says we are “baptized into Christ.”

Lest he try to say this is Holy Spirit baptism, I showed that Gal. 3 is not spirit baptism.

I do not know if this man looked on the Internet for a response or not.

I do know that he stopped writing me.

Salvation is in Christ, and we enter into Christ by baptism.

That baptism is water baptism.

Jesus said we are born of “water and spirit,” Jn. 3:5.

There is the “washing of water with the word,” Eph. 5:26.

If we are going to be prepared to meet God, we need to be washed with water & have the word.

GOD HAS GIVEN US THE PLAN AND THE MEANS TO CARRY IT OUT, BUT MANY TELL US THEY ARE SIMPLY TOO BUSY.

Some day they will prepare, but that day is not today.

Time must be devoted to work.

More time must be devoted to relaxation and pleasure.

We must be prepared for many things, but not really worry about preparing to meet God.

I had a preacher’s meeting last Tuesday.

One of the men who was there has been preaching for a long time.

In fact, he is in his retirement years.

He said what I have heard other people say in their later years:

“The older you get, the more you think about being prepared to meet God.”

Sometimes people are allowed to reach an advanced age and have extra time to prepare.

Other times preparation time is limited to just a few years.

We have people die at the age of 40. Not everyone makes it to the age of 30.

People in the 20’s perish. We also have teenagers dying.

We have no guarantee that we will complete school or retire from a job.

2 Cor. 6:2 says “now is the acceptable time” to prepare to meet God.

We can say this all day long, but still many will not listen.

Not long ago in the adult class we read about a very wealthy man in Lk. 12.

There is no indication this man was evil or corrupt.

There is, however, indication of his wanting the American dream.

He wanted plenty of wealth so he could retire in ease.

A time came when it looked like everything was perfect.

It appeared he could eat, drink and relax day after day.

Jesus said two things.

First, He called this man a “fool.”

A man failed in his preparation to meet God and Jesus said he made the worst mistake of his life.

Then Jesus said, “this night is thy soul required.”

We may not prepare to meet God.

Whether we prepare or not has no bearing on our appearing before God.

Preparation does, however, have bearing on how God receives us.

God can require the eternal part of our being to be punished or bring it into eternity with Him.

Are we prepared to meet God?