When you get ready to graduate from high school, you plan and prepare for your future. You decide if you are going to work or go to college. If you plan on going right to work, you start thinking about what kind of work you want to do. You check into it. You see if you are qualified to start in that field right away or if you have to go through some kind of training.
For example, you might decide that you want to become an over the road truck driver. You have to be 21 years old to drive a big rig and many companies require that you are 23 or 25 years old before you can work for them. Some truck driving schools will let you learn at age 19. So you would have to plan all of that out and also figure out where you are going to work between graduating high school and actually being old enough to get a job in that field.
We plan for a lot of things in life. We plan for our education, for our careers, marriage, having children and so forth. We make a lot of plans. In fact it would be foolish to go through life and not plan anything. Planning is a good thing. It helps you to have goals and then plan steps to reach those goals. Many of us do make plans and the more important the decision is before us, the more we typically plan. We take longer to plan our careers or who we are going to marry than where we are going to eat dinner and what are we going to order once we get there.
This makes sense. But do you know what really doesn’t make any sense at all? So many people foolishly wander through life without a clue of the most important decision in life. Most people are clueless when it comes to planning the all time most important thing. Here it is – Are you prepared to meet your Maker? Are you ready to meet the great God of Heaven and earth? Are you prepared to meet the great Creator? Are you prepared?
Amos 4:12 says, Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel: and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel. Prepare to meet your Maker! Prepare to meet your God! Are you ready? Are you prepared? What will you say to Him? Will you have a defense for your actions during your lifetime? Will you have an excuse for the things that you’ve said and done? Will you have a good reason for hurting the people that you’ve hurt? Will you have a valid reason for living your life the way that you are currently living it?
Are you prepared? If not, you should be. And as it is appointed to men once to die, but after this the judgment (Hebrews 9:27). It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31). Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14). Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord (Romans 12:19).
Matthew 12:34-36 states, O generation of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
Judgment Day is coming. God’s wrath will be poured out on unrepentant sinners. Why will you suffer the wrath of God on that great and terrible day? You will suffer God’s wrath over your sins, if you die in your sins. If you die without Jesus Christ being your Lord and Savior. We are all sinners and we all deserve eternal damnation. We have all earned the wages of death because of our actions in this life. None of us are righteous. None of us are blameless. None of us are innocent. We are all guilty sinners and we deserve to receive the wrath of Almighty God. We all deserve it. We are all sinners. All of us have broken God’s Law – the 10 Commandments. We are all guilty. Not a single one of us have kept all of the commandments for our whole lives. In fact, I doubt that any of us have truly kept them with all of our heart, soul and mind for a whole day. Not even for a single day, let alone for a whole life time.
But God’s Holiness, His righteousness demands total and utter perfection. None of us have met this lofty standard. Only God Himself can meet that standard and that is exactly what He did. Jesus was born of the virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit a little over 2,000 years ago. Jesus walked this earth; He was fully God and fully man. He perfectly kept the 10 Commandments. He always honored and obeyed God the Father with all of His heart, soul, mind and strength. The perfect, sinless Son of God, who knew no sin, became sin on our behalf. He was tortured, then nailed to the cross where He hung for six long hours. The whole time bearing God’s wrath, God’s anger over sinful men and women like you and me. Jesus died on that cross, was buried and rose from the grave three days later.
Jesus defeated sin, death, Hell and Satan. God offers everlasting life; life eternal to each and every person who admits that they are a sinner; who admits that they need to be saved and who cry out to God to save them. He saves those who repent and who put their faith in Jesus Christ. God saves those who recognize that that they are lost and that they need to be saved.
But God resists the proud. He gives grace to the humble. Are you prepared to humbly come before the Lord tonight? Are you prepared to swallow your pride and admit that you have mocked God, that you have despised the Holy One who has shown you mercy your whole life? You say that He hasn’t shown you mercy? You are still alive. He hasn’t snuffed your life out…yet! That is mercy. Are you prepared to surrender your life to Jesus Christ tonight? Are you prepared to say, Your will be done Lord, not mine? Are you ready to look to the cross of Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you prepared to meet your Maker?
Have you been there and done that religious thing in the past? Are you spiritually cruising along on auto pilot? How do you know that you are headed in the right direction? Oh, you’ve punched in the GPS where you want to go? Could you be wrong tonight? You think that you are headed in a certain direction, but could you be wrong? In January of this year a Southwest Airlines plane landed at the wrong airport in Branson. Instead of landing at the Branson Airport, the plane landed at the much smaller Taney County Airport. This was a Boeing 737 that was being flown by veteran pilots and they landed at the wrong airport. They were wrong. Are you spiritually headed in the wrong direction tonight?
Are you spiritually prepared for life everlasting or are you are you unprepared and headed for eternal damnation? If you are not prepared and you harden your heart and continue down the broad road to destruction, it will not end well for you. You will go to Hell the second that you die. You will be weeping and gnashing your teeth over the torment of your new, permanent residence. You will beg for God to have mercy on you, but it will be too late. You will desperately look for a way of escape, but you will not find one.
You will realize that you were wrong! You will recognize that you should have repented and put your trust in Jesus, but it will be too late. The chance for salvation will have passed. You will regret it for every second of your miserable existence in Hell; that goes on and on and on…forever. That must be the maddening part. Maybe even worse than the unbelievable pain and agony that you will suffer; will be the knowledge that you will never get a reprieve. The torture will continue day and night without any kind of break.
It’s appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. What will you say to the perfect One on that day? What will be your defense? Absolutely nothing. You will be found guilty, guilty, guilty and you will hang your head in shame. You will be without excuse. Your mouth will be stopped.
Romans 3:16-20 says, Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things soever the law says it says to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
You will foolishly stand before our righteous God, unprepared, if you die in your sins. You will be unprepared for the single most important moment that you will ever have. You will not be prepared to meet your Maker. You will have a most miserable, intolerable existence for all of eternity.
But tonight it’s not too late. It’s not too late to flee from the broad road to destruction that you are currently barreling down. You can fling yourself onto the narrow road. You can lay all of your sins at the feet of Jesus. You can cry out to Him tonight. You can ask Him to forgive you for your sins. You can submit your life fully and completely to Him tonight. You can turn away from your sins and put your faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.
You can be prepared to spend eternity with the Lord in Heaven. You can be filled with the peace that passes all understanding. You can receive joy unspeakable and full of glory. You can enjoy the abundant life now. The abundant life is not health, wealth and prosperity. The abundant life starts the day you submit your life to the Savior and continues from that day forward and forever with Jesus the Christ, when you are truly saved. That is the abundant life. You can walk in newness of life; you can be born again, you can be saved tonight. Be saved tonight. Repent from your sins and come to Jesus. Then you truly will be prepared to meet your God.
(This message was proclaimed in the open-air on the square in downtown Springfield, MO on June 13, 2014).