Prepare To Meet Thy God (Part 2)
  1. INTRODUCTION:
    1. SCRIPTURE READING: (Philippians 2:9-13).
    2. THE NEED OF PREPARATION IS VERY CLEAR:
  2. DISCUSSION:
    1. MAN’S DISOBEDIENCE IS REPUGNANT TO GOD:
      1. The sin of Adam and Eve led to their being put out of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:23-24).
      2. Sin is disobedience or transgression of God’s will:
        1. The Greek word in the New Testament (HARMARTIA) means "A missing of the Mark". (VINE’S EXPOSITORY DICTIONARY OF NEW TESTAMENT WORDS, W. E, Vine, page 1055).
        2. The mark is that which God has set for us to live up to and when we fail to live up to that standard we have sinned, gone contrary to His will.
      3. The sinfulness of man was so great that just before the flood we are told, God was ready to destroy man in, Genesis 6:5-7 = "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air: for it repenteth me that I have made them."
      4. Jesus in speaking to the Pharisees in the temple, after they had brought before him a woman taken in adultery, said, John 8:21 = "Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come." (John 7:34) Christ said, "Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come."
      5. NOTE: The reason they could not come where He was is due to their rejection of Him as God’s Son, the Savior of man, they would die in their sins and therefore could not go to be with Him in heaven.
      6. Sin separate man from God. Isaiah 59:1-2 = "Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear."
    2. GOD MAKES RECONCILIATION POSSIBLE THROUGH CHRIST.
      1. Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and in earth (Matthew 28:18).
      2. The text tells us "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. Of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth" ( Philippians 2:10).
      3. Jesus was sent into the world for the salvation of man. John 3:16 = "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
        1. "In the beginning was the Word (Jesus Christ, JHB), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" = John 1:1.
        2. "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth" = John 1:14.
        3. The message of this Word (presented by both teaching and example) was delivered to special selected men to deliver to the world by Christ. Christ said in His prayer to the Father, John chapter 17:
          1. "I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do" (John 17:4).
          2. He said these have "Kept thy word" (John 17:6).
          3. "For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, …" (John 17:8).
          4. "I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world" (John 17:14).
      4. God’s final message was delivered by His Son and that alone contains God’s message of salvation.
        1. No longer will God speak through prophets: Hebrews 1:1-2 = "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds."
        2. The responsibility of obedience to this word is ours: Hebrews 2:1-4 = "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?"
        3. This final message of God which was proclaimed by Christ, Paul said "…is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek"
          (Romans 1:16).
      5. Jesus is our only approach to His Heavenly Father:
        1. Jesus is the only way. John 14:6 = "Jesus saith unto him (Peter, JHB), I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."
        2. God seals his love for man with the death of His Son. Romans 5:8-11 = "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement."

        NOTE: The Greek word translated (commendeth) means: God has approved that which was done and made it to stand firm.

      6. If Jesus and the message he brought from God are not heeded and followed by any man, that man will be rejected (John 12:48-50), and the words of Jesus in John 7:34 will be as spoken.
        1. Christ said (John 12:48-50) = "He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak."
        2. These words of John 7:34, will be so very true to those that have rejected the Lord and the message from God. "… And whither I am, thither ye cannot come."
  3. CONCLUSION:
    1. THE JUDGMENT IS APPROACHING:
      1. God has fulfilled His part: He has shown us the way out of sin by the Word spoken by Christ and paid the redemptive price for our sins with the death of his Son.
      2. The responsibility of heeding the message is up to us, (See Hebrews 2:1-4).
        1. This responsibility is something we must work at:
          1. In the words of verses Philippians 2:12-13 = Paul said: "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."
          2. It is before the Lord the text said in verse Philippians 2:10 =, "…every knee should bow,…"
          3. And it is the Lord who said Matthew 7:21 = "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven."
        2. Each one of us will be judged based on what we have done. II Corinthians 5:10 = "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ: that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."

      I Peter 1:17 = "And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear."

    2. PREPARATION SHOULD NOT BE PUT OFF.
      1. The day of the master’s coming is known only by Him and we should be watching for the return:
        Mark 13:35-3        7 = "Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, watch." Matthew 24:36 = "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only."
      2. Furthermore our life is brief . James 4:14 = "Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away."
    3. ARE YOU PREPARED? (Invitation)

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