Are You Prepared?

During the spring of every year—and sometimes during the winter—hundreds of thousands of young men and women—and some not so young—receive their high school diplomas or their college degrees. Those young people, their parents and others may wonder if the graduates are prepared for whatever they have in mind to do with their lives. As a former university professor, I know that many of the college freshmen are not ready for higher education. Some of them have difficulty spelling their own names. Tragically, four years in the college classroom does not always prepare young men and women to make a living at their chosen professions or occupations. In fact, some of them are not really sure what their chosen professions or occupations should be. Many of them are functionally illiterate.

It is not unusual for parents to spend $100,000 on four years of college for their child. Do parents have a right to ask their child: "Are you prepared to be a computer operator or a teacher or a graduate student?" While I am concerned about the -academic standing of our young people—whether in high school or in college or in graduate school—that is not my chief concern in our lesson today. I am addressing every person in my audience with the question: "Are you prepared?" I am also addressing that question to myself.

The word of God lays great stress on preparation. Obviously, I cannot deal with all the passages that mention preparation, but I shall refer to some of them as time allows. The following verse may be the best-known biblical passage using the word "prepare." "Therefore thus I will do unto you, O Israel: and because I will do this unto you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel" (Amos 4:12). Preachers sometimes use this verse to encourage men and women to prepare to meet almighty God in the final judgment. We certainly are obligated to urge men to get ready for the final judgment. But that is not the thrust of the passage in Amos. The fearless prophet delivered the Lord's word against some of the nations surrounding Israel—Damascus, the Philistines, Tyre, Edom, Ammon and Moab (Amos 1:2-2:3). He then directed his attention to the disobedience of Judah—the two tribes in the south. He wrote: "Thus says the Lord; for three transgressions of Judah, and for four; I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have despised the law of the Lord, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after which their fathers walked. I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem" (Amos 2:4-5). Finally, Amos delivered the Lord's word against Israel—the ten tribes in the south. "For three transgressions of Israel, and for four: I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes; that pant after the dust of the earth, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my name: and they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their God" (Amos 2:6-8).

God had disciplined the Israelites by withholding rain when there were only three months until harvest. He had also smitten their crops with blasting and mildew and sent pestilence among the people. He had overthrown some of the Israelites like he overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. He then pled with the northern tribes: "Therefore thus will I do unto you, O Israel: and because I will do this unto you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel" (Amos 4:7-12). The preparation the Israelites were to make involved getting ready to meet God in worship and in communion—not in the final judgment. But if they failed to prepare to meet God in worship and in the work he required of them, they certainly would not want to meet him in the final judgment.

The Israelites often departed from the Lord's commandments. The prophet "Samuel spoke unto all the house of Israel, saying, If you do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines" (1 Sam. 7:3). Ezekiel charged the Israelites: "Be prepared, and prepare yourself, you, and all the company that are assembled unto you, and be a guard to them" (Ezek. 38:7). The Bible says concerning Ezra, a priest of the Babylonian exile: "Ezra prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and commandments" (Ezra 7:10). These passages on preparation will have to suffice for today.

I have four questions I will ask and answer as time permits. Have you prepared for your heavenly home by obeying the initial commands of the gospel? Are you preparing yourself by walking daily with the Lord? Are you prepared to teach others the way of life? Are you prepared to defend your faith in the Lord, in his word, in the New Testament church and in the moral values the Bible outlines? If you are not prepared, please listen to this lesson today and use your time and effort to get prepared. You will never regret—either in this life or in the life to come—that you prepared yourselves to meet the Lord. Heaven is prepared for those who are prepared to go there.

The Bible tells us that all men are sinners (Rom. 3:23) in need of being forgiven and being added to the Lord's church—the family of God. How are alien sinners— that is, those outside of the family of God—forgiven of their sins? We are not forgiven just because God loves us. If that were the case, every human being who has ever lived or will ever live will be saved. But God has prepared a place called hell for those who are not prepared to go to heaven. Paul explains: "For this you know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God" (Eph. 5:5).

The spectacular events on the day of Pentecost provide wonderful insight into what alien sinners must do to be saved. The apostle Peter convinced the Jews that they had with wicked hands crucified and slain their own Messiah (Acts 2:23). He assured them that Christ could not remain in the grave. He quoted from king David to prove that Christ's body would not see corruption. Both he and all the other apostles were witnesses of Christ's resurrection (Acts 2:25-32). The believing Jews asked Peter and the other apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" If men are saved by faith alone, there was nothing they had to do. But Peter did not accept the doctrine of salvation by grace alone through faith alone. He commanded the Jews: "Repent, and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Three thousand believing Jews obeyed their Lord in baptism (Acts 2:38, 41). I have some questions for you to consider. When the three thousand Jews repented of their sins and were baptized, were they saved? If they were not saved, what else did they have to do to be saved? If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, repent of your sins and are baptized into Christ, will you be saved? Is that not the Lord's promise?

As absolutely as vital as belief, repentance, confession and baptism are to our being forgiven and added to the Lord's church, is that all there is to our preparation to meet God? If that were all we had to do, why did Christ and the apostles constantly urge men to continue to do God's will? Jesus asked his disciples, "Why call me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say unto you" (Lk. 6:46)? After Christ has washed his disciples' feet, he asked them if they knew what he had done. He then informed them: "For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done unto you....If you know these things, happy are you if you do them" (John 13:15-17). The tense of the verb "do" demands that we keep on doing them. Christ never even hints that men are saved by faith alone. If our faith does not lead us to work in the Lord's vineyard, our faith is vain. It is a dead faith (Jas. 2:17, 26). The author of Hebrews says concerning our Lord: "Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of salvation unto all them who obey him" (Heb. 5:8-9).

Every New Testament book demands that we do what God requires. I do not have time to examine every New Testament book. I shall read a few inspiring and challenging passages from 1 John. Please take careful note of the actions these verses bind on Christians. "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). "And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments" (1 John 2:3). "The world passes away, and the lust thereof: but he who does the will of God abides forever. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does righteousness is born of him" (1 John 2:17, 29). "Little children, let no man deceive you: he who does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever does not do righteousness is not of God, neither he who does no love his brother. But whoso has this world's goods, and sees his brother have need, and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him" (1 John 3:7, 10, 17)? If you listened with an open heart to these passages, can you argue that Christians are not required to do the will of God to be saved eternally? Did I take any of these verses out of context?

Preparing ourselves to inherit the place Jesus has gone to prepare for us means we are dedicated to worshipping God according to the pattern revealed in the New Testament. The author of Hebrews expressed concern that some Christians in the first century were neglecting meeting on the Lord's day to worship God. He pled: "Let us consider one another to provoke to love and good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as you see the day approaching" (Heb. 10:24-25). That the Christians met on the Lord's day and not on Saturday can hardly be doubted, if one believes the divine record (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:1-2). Worshiping on the sabbath and seeking to keep it holy would be a return to the Mosaic covenant.

The early church by direct command met on the Lord's day to sing (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16), to take the Lord's supper (1 Cor. 11:23ff.), to pray (Acts 2:42), the give of their means to support the cause of Christ (Phil. 4:15) and to listen to a message from God (Acts 2:42). They were not authorized to play on mechanical instruments of music. There is no record of their having done so. And using harps in heaven to try to justify the use of mechanical instruments of music in the worship of the church simply cannot be sustained. Why do some people try to make harps literal and so many other ideas in the book of Revelation figurative?

I must ask you to think seriously of another question I raised a few minutes ago. Are you prepared to teach others the gospel plan of salvation? It is my considered opinion that the average church member would find it almost impossible to tell anyone what to do to be saved. I am wondering if it is because of what they hear on radio and on television and from their pulpits. If you listen to Trinity Broadcasting Network, the Inspiration Channel and other programs, you almost never hear the speakers refer to the conversions in the book of Acts, and yet most preachers of all religious groups refer to the book of Acts as "the book of conversions." If it is the book of conversions, should not preachers constantly emphasize the great conversions in that book?

Have you ever had anyone to approach you with the question, "What must I do to be saved?" Were you able to turn to the book of Acts and review one or more of the conversions recorded in that book? In my judgment, the record of the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch is by far the simplest story of conversion in the book of Acts. Please listen to a brief summary of what occurred. Philip the evangelist had been preaching the gospel in Samaria. When the Samaritans believed Philip's preaching concerning the kingdom and the name of Christ, they were baptized (Acts 8:5-12). An angel of the Lord commanded Philip to "arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, which is desert." The preacher met an Ethiopian who was treasurer under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. The man was returning from worship in Jerusalem. He was sitting in his chariot reading from the prophet Isaiah. The preacher asked him if he understood what he was reading. The eunuch asked, "How can I (understand) except some man guide me?" He asked Philip to join him in the chariot. "The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so he opened not his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? For his life was taken from the earth." The eunuch had no idea whom the prophet had in mind. He asked Philip: "Of whom speaks the prophet this? Of himself, or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture (Isa. 53:7-8) and preached unto him Jesus" (Acts 8:26-35).

Can you think of an Old Testament passage that would be better or more profound to use as a text on a sermon about Jesus than Isaiah 53? When Philip's teaching was complete, the eunuch said to him, "See, here is water, what hinders me from being baptized" (Acts 8:36)? Where did the eunuch learn about baptism? He did not learn it from Isaiah 53. When Philip preached Jesus to the eunuch, did that not include baptism? Philip must have included teaching about baptism when he preached Christ to the Samaritans (Acts 8:5). "And when they (the Samaritans) believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Christ, they were baptized, both men and women" (Acts 8:12).

Philip asked the eunuch if he believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. Upon the eunuch's confession, the preacher and the alien sinner both went down into the water and the preacher baptized the eunuch. Was it necessary that the eunuch be baptized to have his sins forgiven? Did not our Lord tell his disciples as he sent them forth to preach the soul-saving gospel: "He who believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he who does not believe shall be condemned" (Mk. 16:16)? Had Philip said something to the eunuch that convinced him he ought to be baptized? Is there anyway to preach the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and not tell alien sinners they must be baptized?

My final question today is: "Are you prepared to defend your beliefs? The apostle Peter urged his readers and all other Christians: "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man who asks you are reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear" (1 Pet. 3:15). Are you prepared to tell people what you believe and why you believe it? Could the fact that great numbers of people who claim to be Christians have not prepared themselves to explain their faith account for the failure of many churches to fulfill their mission? For example, what if a preacher on radio or on television urges you to repeat the so-called "sinner's prayer," could you show from the book of Acts and from other biblical passages why such teaching contradicts the truth of the Bible? Could you demonstrate the truth about becoming a Christian?

As I am sure you know, the Lord's supper is a fundamental part of New Testament Christianity. The Bible demands that we observe this beautiful memorial every Lord's day. Could you turn to those passages that teach the truth about the Lord's supper? Could you refute the false position that the Lord's supper is the Eucharist? Can you prove that mechanical instruments of music have no place in the worship of the Lord's church? These and dozens of other questions arise when we discuss what the Bible teaches about the work and worship of the church. Christians must be prepared to teach our neighbors and family members the true gospel of Christ.

When I was a boy growing up in Middle Tennessee, my home congregation often sang as an invitation song, "Prepare to Meet Thy God." I shall close with the words of this beautiful hymn. "Careless soul, why will you linger, wandering from the fold of God? Hear you not the invitation? O prepare to meet thy God. Why so thoughtless are you standing, while the fleeting years go by, and your life is spent in folly? O prepare to meet thy God. Hear you not the earnest pleadings, of your friends who wish you well? And perhaps before tomorrow, you'll be called to meet your God. If you spurn the invitation, till the Spirit shall depart, then you'll see your sad condition, unprepared to meet thy God." The chorus reads: "Careless soul, O heed the warning, for you life will soon be gone; O how sad to face the judgment, unprepared to meet thy God."

Winford Claiborne

The International Gospel Hour

P.O. Box 118

Fayetteville, TN 37334