Do you say, “How can I prepare to meet God? How can I be ready to stand before a holy God? I am a sinner; you cannot know how many sins I have committed; I dare not think of God. He is holy, and I am guilty, lost, and undone. How can I prepare to meet Him?” Well, sinner, the voice from the word of God says to you, “Prepare to meet thy God.” Let us look a little at the preparation needed.
The Psalmist says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.” God will accept from you, my reader, the sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart. Tell God, in His presence now, that you are sorry for your sins; own before Him that you are a sinner. Have no reserves with God. Tell out the story of your sins to Him at once. Will He listen, do you say? Yes. fie says, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Lay on the altar the sacrifice of a broken and a contrite heart.
How did the leper prepare to meet Jesus? He owned his condition, and acknowledged the power of Christ to cleanse him. You with the leprosy of sin upon you, own it before God; prepare to meet Him with the truth of your condition upon your heart, and believe in His willingness to bless. How did Bartimaaus come to Jesus? He did not try to make the best of his blindness, but cried, “Jesus, Thou. Son of David, have mercy on me.” He knew all the truth about his condition, and the Son of God blessed him as he was. And you, if you feel that you are blind to happiness and peace, ask the Lord to open your blind eyes, and to give you to see Himself your Saviour. Christ says to Bartimaeus, after he had cried to Him, “What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?” The blind man knew his want, and asked to see, and Christ gave him sight. And it is true that Jesus says to one and all, “What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?” If you are anxious to be saved, tell Him so, and He will save you now. Prepare to meet Him, with the want upon your heart, and the faith there, so that He can give you all you need. How did the man in the temple prepare to meet God? Not by works of human righteousness. No. He smote upon his breast and cried in shame and agony before his God, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” How then can you prepare to meet a holy God? By coming as a sinner. This is your only plea, “To take the guilty sinner’s name, the guilty sinner’s Saviour claim.” Will you do this now? God accepted that man’s sacrifice, and he went home justified. And if you offer the sacrifice of a broken and a contrite heart, you will be accepted also. Are you going to say, “God be merciful to me a sinner?” Will you? Do you feel that between you and a holy God there is sin? Then ask God to be merciful to you. Do it now; do not wait longer. Heaven stoops to listen to your cry. The eyes of God are on you; the ears of God are open; the heart of God beats for the sinner; the arms of God are stretched towards you; and the voice of God says, ‘Come.” What will you do? What is that trembling on your lips? The cry of penitence? What is that shining in your eyes? The tear of anxiety on account of sin? Oh! my unsaved reader, “Prepare to meet thy God; prepare to meet thy God.”
Once more, how did the thief prepare to meet his God? That man was face to face with death and eternity. He had been a guilty sinner all his days, and he was going to meet a holy God. Thoughts like these may have passed through his mind, as he hangs there to die: “I shall soon be in eternity; what shall I do; how can I meet my God?” And then he turns to the Son of God, who was hanging on a cross beside him, and he cries, and the cry came from an earnest, eager heart, “Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.” He lays the wants of his broken and contrite heart upon the altar of his need, and Jesus says, as He accepts the sacrifice, “Today, shalt thou be with me in Paradise.” What a thrill of joy must have passed through his heart as he listened to those words!” Today! Yes, this day, I go from this shameful cross to the Paradise of God; from the darkness of death, which is passing before my eyes, I am going to the glories of heaven; from this scene of awful sin and shame, I shall rise to the companionship of the redeemed, and of angels who have never sinned.” Yes, he was prepared to meet his God, and faith in Christ had made him ready, and his Saviour’s word was his passport to all the joys of an eternity of happiness.
Methinks I hear my reader say, “And what can I bring to God; what will He accept from me?” He will accept your repentance, and your faith, and He will accept that now, this moment. Look at the Old Testament for a moment. How did Abel prepare to meet God? He brought the blood of a slain lamb, and God accepted the sacrifice. You plead the blood of Christ, shed for sinners, and God. will accept that. Tell God you are a vile and lost sinner, that you cannot save yourself, but you do trust in the precious blood shed on Calvary for sinners. Tell God that He has said when He sees the blood He will pass over you, and that you do seek the shelter of that atoning blood. Yes, “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin,” and it will avail for you the very instant you put your trust in it. The blood of Jesus cleanseth me the moment I believe.
Reader! I bid you prepare to meet your God. By the terrors of death I bid you prepare. By the terrors of the Great White Throne I bid you prepare. Prepare, prepare to meet thy God. I was talking to a dear Christian in London one day last week, and he told me the words that first made him think about his soul. They were these, “I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.” These solemn and weighty words went home to his heart. He felt he was not prepared to meet his God. Are you?