Today for our Bible study, I
would encourage and invite you to turn to the book of Amos.
The book of Amos, chapter 4, and I'll read verse 12. Therefore
thus will I do unto thee, O Israel, because I will do this unto thee,
prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. Now here's the text I want you
to listen to, and I pray God would burn this in your heart,
in your conscience, Not only give you ears to hear it, but
may it penetrate your heart. Prepare to meet thy God. Prepare to meet God. Now evidently some years ago,
someone had a campaign around the countryside of posting signs
along the road which read, which had this text, Prepare to meet
thy God. Now, my friend, because God is
almighty and God is sovereign and eternal, all men are answerable,
responsible, and accountable before God Almighty. God has
appointed a day in which He will judge this world and judge you,
my friend, by the standard of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
why He gives us this warning, prepare to meet Almighty God. Now, let me ask you this question.
I want you to seriously consider this morning, this text, Prepare
to Meet God. Now, here's my question. How
can a sinner, that's what we are by nature, by birth, we're
sinful, born in sin, shaping in iniquity. How can this guilty
sinner prepare to meet a holy, almighty, and eternal God? Sobering question, isn't it?
How can this sinner prepare to meet God Almighty in His holiness? I know this. We certainly cannot
meet God in a justifying way upon the ground of my native
goodness because I have no goodness. All the righteousness I can muster
up and all the righteousness that any of us have individually
or collectively God said it's filthy rags. He declares in the
word of God, there is none good, no, not one. There's none righteous. So I cannot stand upon the ground
of my merit or upon the ground of my righteousness and prepare
to meet a holy God. I'll hear him say, depart from
me, you workers of iniquity. I never, never knew you. So certainly
not upon the ground of my goodness, nor upon the ground of my strength,
my ability to contend and argue with God. Now only a fool would
argue with God. I certainly cannot prepare to
meet God upon my ability, my strength to stand before God. Our Lord said, that no man can
come to me. That is, we don't have the ability
to argue, to contend with God, except it's given. No man can
come to me except the Father which sent me. Draw him. So, here's what I'm saying. Can we defend ourselves and prepare
our own case and plead our own cause and case to any avail before
God Almighty? Well, the only answer is no.
No, I can't. Nor can you, nor can any sinner,
prepare to meet God on the basis of my goodness, my merit, my
righteousness. I have none. Well then, here's
the question. How then can we prepare to meet
God? How can you? I want you to consider. How can you? Guilty as you are,
guilty as all men are, how then can you prepare to meet God?
Well, thank God. The blessed promise we have in
Scripture is there is an advocate. We have a proper representative
and mediator. He's called in Scripture a mediator,
an intercessor, an advocate. There is someone who can undertake
my cause, undertake my case, and plead and argue before God
with a powerful, persuasible, acceptable argument. There is
an advocate. Jesus Christ, the righteous.
Now, that's what John said, and that was John's plea. That was
John's argument. He said, my little children,
these things I write unto you that you sin not, but when you
do, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the
righteous. Let us sin for this intercessor,
this mediator. We read in the Word of God, there
is One God and one Mediator between God and men, who is the Man,
Christ Jesus. This God-Man Mediator, Son of
God. He is able to save to the uttermost
all that come to God by Him. So how can we prepare to meet
God? Here's the only answer, and it's a simple answer. Only
in my substitute, my advocate, my intercessor, the representative
man, the Lord Jesus Christ." Now, consider this. Will He undertake
my case? Will He undertake for me? Yes. If you're guilty, the Lord Jesus
Christ said, I didn't come to call the righteous but sinners
to repentance. He said that He died for the
ungodly. He'll undertake your case if
you're guilty. The problem is most people in
our day confess they're not guilty. He'll undertake your case if
you're in need of an intercessor, if you're in need of a righteousness. What would the Lord Jesus Christ,
our advocate, instruct us to do before the throne of God to
prepare to meet Him? Well, three things. Number one,
plead guilty. Plead guilty. Guilty as charged. God says, let all the world,
every mouth be stopped and all the world become guilty before
God. Our advocate would instruct us to plead before the court
of almighty God, guilty as charged. Secondly, he would advise us
to make a full confession. We read in scripture, if we confess
our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and the
blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. So I'm going
to plead guilty on the advice of my attorney, on the advice
of my advocate. Plead guilty. I'm going to make
a full confession. I've come short of the glory
of God. I've sinned against God. The wages of my sin, I'm deserving
of death. Thirdly, on the advice of my
attorney, I'm going to beg for mercy. God delights to show mercy. Like that mercy beggar in Scripture,
Lord God, be merciful to me, the sinner. That's how I'm going
to plea on the advice of my advocate, my mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, how would our representative
and our counselor, our advocate, plea and argue for us before
God so as to remove all guilt, to remove all punishment, and
to honor God's holy justice and satisfy God's law on our behalf? Here's his argument for us as
our representative. as our Mediator. Argument number
one is, he will say, I stood in their stead as the surety
of the covenant, as the Mediator of the covenant of God's grace.
I stood in their stead of all that the Father had given me.
Christ stood as the surety in eternity, as the Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. And in time, the Lord Jesus Christ
came and stood in our room and in our stead. In the fullness
of time, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the
law to redeem them that were under the law. As our substitute,
as our mediator, He suffered in our room and in our stead,
being made sin for us. He bare our sin in His own body
on the tree. He redeemed us from the curse
of the law, being made a curse for us. That's His argument.
I'm their surety. I paid their sin debt. Thirdly,
I satisfied the broken law. Our Lord said, as our substitute,
our mediator, He said, I didn't come to dishonor the law. I came to fulfill the law. And
He did that. So much so that God said, this
is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. God is well pleased
with the righteousness of Christ on our behalf. He pleased for
us as our substitute. He was wounded for us, bruised
for us. And with his stripes we are healed.
He pleads for us as a surety of the covenant, as the great
shepherd of the sheep, who through the blood of the everlasting
covenant secured our salvation. He pleads that I am their justifying
righteousness, who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect. All that the Lord Jesus Christ
has accomplished, his plea is this, all I have accomplished
I have given to them freely. being justified freely by His
grace. You see his argument? That's
the only way that this sinner or any other can prepare to meet
God only on the basis of the merit, person, work, advocacy
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our case in His hands, in the
hands of the blessed Advocate before the throne of glory, always
prevails to our justification. There is therefore now no condemnation
to those who were in the Lord Jesus Christ. See the blessedness
of those prepared in Christ Jesus and accepted in the Beloved,
robed in the righteousness of Christ to stand before God's
throne, faultless, without blame, before Him in love, prepared
to meet God, how? In Christ. Happy delight given
to every believer to meet thy God, being reconciled in Christ
Jesus, being redeemed and washed, justified by the blood of Christ. Glorious promise. Prepare to
meet thy God. How? In Christ Jesus. The second
thing I want to talk to you about is this. Words of warning to
those who continue in unbelief, who continue in rebellion against
the only remedy, the only way. Prepare to meet thy God. It's
appointed unto men once to die, and after that, judgment. Our God, who is almighty, is
a God with whom we have to do. The promise and warning of Scripture,
the promises of Scriptures given to us, he that believeth on the
Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son,
the wrath of God abides upon him. Now think who it is, you
who are unbelievers. You who think you can stand before
God on your own, in your own strength, your own wisdom, your
own merit, your own goodness, think just for a moment who it
is that you must meet. God Almighty, whose holy law
you have broken. You've sinned and come short
of the glory of God. To be examined by infinite omniscience,
your thoughts, your motives, your deeds. God says, I know
your thoughts are far off. whose gospel you trampled underfoot,
whose gospel truth of salvation by grace you have rejected. This
is a God with whom you have to do. This is a God with whom you
must prepare to meet. And if you're an unbeliever,
if you're an unbeliever, that will be not a blessed day. It'll
be a horrible day of wrath and judgment. Think of those unbelievers
whose redeeming blood you have counted, the blood atonement
of the Lord Jesus Christ as an unnecessary thing, His sacrifice
as an unnecessary thing. To you who are perishing, you
see no need of Jesus Christ crucified. You see the warning here? This
is a God with whom you have to do. whose gospel truth you have
refused to believe, whose redeeming blood you have counted as an
unnecessary sacrifice, whose righteousness you thought to
be worthless. You are going about being ignorant of God and ignorant
of the righteousness provided. You are going about to establish
your own righteousness rather than submitting unto Him who
is the Lord our Righteousness. Remember who it is you must meet,
Almighty God. This may be. the final message
and the final warning you'll ever hear before someone to meet
Almighty God and weighed in the balance of God's justice and
found wanting. And my prayer for you and for
me is this, and for all who hear this broadcast, may God give
us grace to call upon Him now, to sue for mercy in the Lord
Jesus Christ now, to prepare us now to meet God Almighty,
then in grace and not wrath. And may we hear Him saying that
day, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you before the foundation of the world, instead of depart
from me ye cursed into everlasting fire. Something to consider this
morning, isn't it? Now I pray the Lord will use
His Word and this message To cause you to think about these
things, prepare to meet thy God. Now, if you would like a copy
of this message, you call or write to me. I'll send it to
you absolutely free. Call me at 631-9053, or you can
write to me at Zebulon Baptist Church, 6088 Zebulon Highway.
That's 6088 Zebulon Highway, Pikeville, Kentucky.