Are You Ready to Meet God?

By:
YES, meet God you must. A thousand reasons crowd upon you why you should dread it; a thousand sins cry out for His wrath. A life of long neglect, of selfish unbelief, of Christian profession, perhaps; yet meet God you must.
Reader, unsaved reader, you are unhappy. You live from day to day in a false show of indifference, thrown over and around you by the father of lies; but when you suffer the reality of meeting God to confront you, you are miserable. You know that He can see underneath all outward appearance, down into the depth of a heart that would, if it could, shut Him out. Even now its secret, sinful desires and lusts are under His eye, and the thought of this is insufferable torment to you. What will you do in a coming day, when all will be dragged into the light: thoughts of sin, words of sin, acts of sin, to be dealt with in unsullied light? You shrink, you recoil, you are afraid of it. Men may think well of you; in their eyes you are, maybe, all that could be desired, but it is with GOD you have to do. “Prepare to meet thy God” (Amos 4:1212Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. (Amos 4:12)).
Will the flimsy covering of a Christless religion shelter you? Will the garb of a Christless morality fit you for the presence of God? NEVER. The pitiless storm of His judgment will rend your gaily colored “rags” (Isa. 64:66But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6)), and leave you in a plight from which there can be no recovery. “And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair” (Jer. 4:3030And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life. (Jeremiah 4:30)). Does the thought of it harass your soul? Is the need of a Saviour pressed upon you? Listen. God has sent His Son into this World. Himself sinless, He has wrapped around Him all the guilt of the sinner’s condition. The storm of God’s judgment has discharged itself upon Him on the cross, when Jesus in deepest love and pity sustained the believing sinner’s guilt, removed his transgressions as far as the east is from the west, to be remembered no more; closed his sinful condition in death, and made an end of his sins before God forever. God, therefore, can righteously come out now, and clothe the needy soul who believes on Jesus, in a robe of divine righteousness.
In all your need, therefore, trust in Christ, now raised from the dead, and this very moment God will regard you, a trusting soul, as wrapped round with all the perfection of Him who undertook for you. Thus, and thus only, can you be fitted for the presence of God. “Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us... righteousness” (1 Cor. 1:3030But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: (1 Corinthians 1:30)).
And then you can give “thanks unto the Father, who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col. 1:1212Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: (Colossians 1:12)). You will be ready to meet God in the unstained light and the unfading glory of His presence.
“Death and the curse were in the cup―
O Christ! twas, full for Thee;
But Thou hast drained the last dark drop―
‘Tis empty now for me.
That bitter cup―love drank it up;
Now blessing’s draft for me.”
W. H. W.