My God and My Country

Prepare To Meet Thy God

by Robert G. Lee (1886-1978)

Edited by Doktor Riktor Von Zhades

Therefore 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

"Therefore be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye

think not the Son of man cometh." Matt. 24:44

I am going to speak to you on some thoughts that have come to me by thinking around a v e r se which I heard as a little country lad years ago when the people were coming to hear a man of God speak God's word. And it is a very simple text; it says, "Prepare to meet thy God." Of course you will understand that this is addressed to a nation, to the people of Israel, and yet it has a very definite personal application, just like the Bible, which is regenerative in power and which is inspired in totality, is personal in its application. "Prepare to meet thy God."

Now even though Jesus Christ came into this world to die for sinners, His death will have availed nothing for your salvation unless you accept it. No medicine will do anything to restore your good health unless that medicine is taken. No bread will give any strength to your body unless that bread is eaten and digested. You can stand in the presence of a crystal fountain and die of thirst unless you drink. And all the provisions that God has made through the death of Jesus Christ who was crucified for our offenses and raised for our justification will avail nothing for your salvation unless these provisions are met by penitent faith, taking them. No matter how great God's love is, no matter how deep His grace is, no matter how marvelous are the provisions made for the salvation of sinners it will avail nothing for you if you reject it, if you say "No," if you say "I will not have that which God Almighty offers to me," when the offer is made.

And so brethren we come to the truth this morning which this text puts upon our hearts. It is a very simple verse and a very simple statement, "Prepare to meet thy God." Now that is something everybody has to do. You may be rich, but your money cannot keep you from meeting God. You may be cultured, but culture will avail you nothing if you stand before God as one who has trampled under your feet the blood of Jesus Christ. You may have political power, you may have social prestige, you may have fame, you may have broad estates, you may drive around in big cars, you may have servants at your every beck and call, but that does not mean that you will not have to meet God. "It is appointed unto man once to die"; and whether you meet Him by death or whether you meet Him as He returns to this earth as He is going to do literally and visibly and tangibly some day, you have to meet God! You don't have to listen to me; you can turn off your radio if you want to; you don't have to come to this Opera House; you don't have to come to the Baptist church where I am preaching each night. You don't have to do that. You can die first! You don't have to open your Bible and read it. You will meet Him to whom the midnight is as the noon-day. You will meet One who has counted your footsteps since you learned to toddle at mother's knee. You will meet One who knows every word in our mouths, and there isn't a word in our mouths that he doesn't know. He's One who understands our thoughts afar off. He is One that you cannot joke with, One you cannot deceive. He is One that will riot let you escape through some technicality of law or through some eloquent plea of some lawyer, or loop-hole. You have to stand face to face with God. When you stand there you can't hide things from Him.

You need to get ready. Prepare to meet thy God! And for a Christian to meet God, it must be a wonderful, thrilling thing, a sweet experience, to come face to face with One who died for you, and face to face with One in whom you have trusted. But, oh to meet God, having rejected Jesus Christ, there to stand face to face with God saying, "Yes, Lord, I trampled under my feet the shed blood of Jesus Christ." How terrible a thing that must be. It is a terrible meeting that people have, that is a meeting with God if they have not put their trust in the Christ who died for them. Any man listening to me in this world today who stands face to face with Christ and says, "Yes, I knew he died for me. The preacher told me about it, the Bible recorded it, but I said no, and I trampled under my dirty feet His holy blood." God will say to you "Depart from me, you worker of iniquity, into the hell-fire prepared for the devil and his angels." God help people. God help men and women to prepare to meet God.

I now bring this question that I want to ask and answer for you. Somebody says, "Well, when should I get ready to meet God?" You know when. When should you get ready? You know when. You don't know when you are going to have to meet Him, but you know this— you know when you should get ready to meet Him. Right now. Every thing in God's Book, everything in the wooing of the Holy Spirit, everything that pertains to common sense, everything of human experience, everything that we know anything about that is worth remembering about God and humanity, says N-O-W! NOW! NOW! NOW! Today is the wise man's day; tomorrow is the fool's day.

I think of young men and women who may be listening to me today. I think of business men, rich men, poor men, I think of many kinds of people who may be listening to me at this time, and I am saying to you, don't you be slow in accepting the Lord Jesus Christ. If you say, "Well, I'll put it off, I'll wait until some more convenient season," I am saying to you that you are too slow. The devils in hell, if they talked to you and told you the truth, would say that if you are delaying for one hour you are being too slow. And if you are delaying for one day the angels of heaven would say, "You are being too slow." Loved ones over there in the Glory looking for you and waiting for you, if you are still putting this thing off are saying to you, "You are too slow." And this Book says that you are too slow if you are putting it off and waiting; the Holy Spirit says that you are too slow. Oh, be not too slow! Let this be the day when you say "I can, I will, I do believe, today; here today by my radio, here today in my car, here today in my kitchen, here today in my business office, here today, I bow the knee, I lift my hand to high heaven and say;

"My life my love I give to thee, Oh, Lamb of God who died for me. All to Jesus I surrender, all to Thee I surrender, my self, my sin, my all,"

He will take your sins away, and He will save your soul. If you are a backslider, come back to Him today. And if you have been wandering far, come back, and He will no more turn you away than your mother would if she were living and you were starving for bread. Let Him have His way with you. Prepare to meet Him!