Saved - Then What? — Bill McLeod

I have a text from the Old Testament and one from the New this morning. The one in the Old Testament is from Amos 4 .12, part of the verse. It says, prepare to meet your God. Prepare to meet your God.

Somebody on the Alaska Highway picked up on that and they put up a sign on a bad curve and hill that said, be prepared to meet your God. That's not exactly what it says. Amos says, prepare to meet your God and that's a little different.

The sign says, be prepared. In other words, you might break your neck or go over the side and die. That's different. That's not what the text is saying. And then in the New Testament, Hebrews 9 .27, it's a very important verse.

It speaks about Jesus dying for our sins. But first it says this, it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this, the judgment. Now these are very powerful verses, I think, and they sort of belong together.

Preparing to Meet God and Give an Account

Only the New Testament one should come first and the Old Testament one should come after that again. The whole concept is that we have to prepare because someday we're going to have to stand, rather kneel, before God and give an account for the kind of life we live down here.

And Paul doesn't say that's just for sinners. He says we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things he did while he was living in his body. According to that, he has done whether it be good or bad.

And he goes on to say in the next verse, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. We persuade men. Paul said he warned everyone night and day with tears because he knew what the future held.

And we have to prepare. Not everybody, not even every professing Christian will be ready. When the call comes, you may be called away any time before this meeting ends even. I would hope not, but we don't know.

None of us know. We have three score years and ten, maybe more, maybe less. We just don't know when God will call us away. We surely don't know when Christ will come back. He said at such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man comes.

And many of the parables he told were illustrating, demonstrating that we must be ready always because we don't know when. And even if we die before Christ comes, when we die, we have to meet with God.

Romans 14, Paul said, so then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. We Christians have to give an account of the life we lived after we became a Christian. It doesn't affect our salvation.

That is eternal. But at the same time, the way we live as a Christian is extremely important. What Christ told about a parable in Matthew 25, parable of the ten virgins waiting for the bridegroom. Five were wise, five were foolish.

The Ten Virgins and Readiness for Christ's Return

The wise ones had oil for their lamps, and oil in the Bible is a symbol of the Holy Spirit of God. The unwise did not have oil for their lamps, and then the call came. The bridegroom was coming. They all arose and trimmed their lamps, but the foolish did not have oil in their lamp.

In other words, they never had the Holy Spirit of God. In Romans chapter 8, there's a verse that says, If any man have not the Spirit of God, he is none of his. If God's Holy Spirit is not living in your life and heart, you don't have God.

You don't know God. You're not saved. You can't go to heaven when you die. I say it again. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. So how do we get that? Well, the Bible says, Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your heart.

And how to become sons? By receiving Christ. As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believed on His name who were born of God. Born again is the phrase Jesus used in John's Gospel, chapter 3, three times.

Born of God, born from above. We have to be, to be prepared, to be ready for what's coming. So it says in that parable in Matthew 25, that the bridegroom came and those that were ready went in with him to the marriage and the door was shut.

Afterwards the other virgins came and they beat on the door saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. And his answer was, I never knew you. You're not one of my children or you would have had oil in your lamp. Then in Matthew chapter 7, Jesus Christ said, Not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

And then He said, Many will say to me in that day. That's that coming day when we have to stand before God. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, haven't we prophesied in your name and in your name have cast out demons and in your name done many wonderful works?

And now profess unto them, I never knew you. You're not my children either. You did a lot of things, but you were not connected by faith to me. You were not really born again. And so it's obvious, dear people, we have to make positive sure that we're a child of God.

You're not a Christian because you're a Canadian. That has nothing to do with it. So how do we become a Christian? You know, Jesus sent the twelve out on a preaching mission and it says in the Gospel of Mark, And they preached that men should repent.

That's what they preached. That's what it says. That men should repent. John the Baptist preached it. Old Testament prophets preached it. Jesus Christ preached it. Peter preached it. He said, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, he said.

Repentance, Faith, and the Gift of the Holy Spirit

And we noted before, we have to have that gift, the gift of the Holy Spirit, which comes when we repent and we follow Christ. We receive Him into our hearts. Mark 16 is the verse that says, He that believes and is baptized shall be saved.

He that believes not shall be damned, separated from God for eternity. So our text says, prepare to meet your God. It's not a joke. It's not a light thing. It's not a trifling thing. It's a very powerful and important thing.

To make positive sure that you're ready. You can be baptized by immersion and join a church and still be lost if you've never received Christ, never repented, turned away from your sins. Repentance is explained in different places in the Bible.

Isaiah 55, 6, let the wicked forsake his way. And the unrighteous man, well, first of all it says, draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, your sins, and purify your hearts, you double minded.

Now that's in James. But it's taken, I think, partly at least from Isaiah 55. So let the wicked forsake his way. And the unrighteous man, his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.

That is, God will richly, abundantly pardon no matter what we've done. Christ said, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto man. All manner of sin. All manner of blasphemy. If you repent and turn to Christ, you'll be forgiven.

And you'll be saved. And you'll become a child of God. And you won't have to worry about the coming judgment day. Because you know, things are right between you and God. It says in John's Gospel, chapter 1, Jesus Christ was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world did not know Him.

Creation, Evolution, and the Consequences of Leaving God Out

Whatever you do, don't believe in that fairy tale called evolution. It's a preposterous lie forced on men. It's been called a fairy tale for adults, and that's about what it is. It is not true. It has never been true.

There is no evidence. Geologists have to admit that. As a matter of fact, in a court case in Arkansas, where they were debating whether the state should be allowed to teach evolution and creation in the classroom, the Christians lost the case.

They're no longer allowed to teach creation, and they have to teach evolution. But the Christians did a wise thing, because the reason they lost the case was because the judge was a committed evolutionist, and they knew from the very beginning, when they found this out, they never had a chance of winning the case.

But they had two evolutionists testify on their behalf, the Christians did, and one of these evolutionists said, I'm an evolutionist, but if I was to be absolutely honest, I would have to admit there's far more evidence for creation than there is for evolution.

And the judge got furiously angry and cried, Strike that from the record! Anyway, they lost. But an evolutionist, at least, was honest. Anyway, God did it. God created us. Even Darwin admitted, he said, When I consider the human eye, I have some doubts about evolution.

I'd have some doubts about it too. Just thinking of the eye, or the ear, or your hands or your feet, or flowers, or birds or fish. They're trying to tell us all this. Millions of species and whatnot, they all came from some cell somewhere.

It takes a bigger leap of faith to believe evolution than to believe in creation by far. Anyway, God did it. He made the earth, it says. He created man upon it. The heavens, it says in the Bible, the heavens, even the heaven of heavens, are the Lord's.

But the earth, He has given to the children of man and people. That's why it's all fussed up today. Because we have it. And we're trying to run it without God. You can't do that. You know the United Nations, when they first built the United Nations building down in New York, I guess, they had a room designed as a prayer room.

It's never been used. So you know what they did? They made a storeroom out of it. And that's why we have the mess we have around the world. I mean, it's not just one or two places. It seems to be all around the world.

Terrorism. Bombings. Shootings. And all the rest of it because we've left God out of the picture. And you know, the same thing happens in our personal life. If I leave God out of my life, how do I ever expect to go to heaven when I die?

You can't do that. Christ said, if you're not with me, you're against me. He also said, if anyone takes the name of the Lord in vain, and many people do that, Jesus Christ and God, they use their names constantly.

I hear men and women and children doing that. The Bible says in Psalm 139 that if you do that, then you are an enemy of God. I told some men that one time. They didn't get very happy about it. I couldn't help it.

Their language is so filthy. And every second word was Jesus Christ or God. And I told them, you guys are enemies of God. It says so in the Bible. Well, they shut up. You know, they didn't say any more while I was around.

I don't think it cured them, but at least it gave them something to, you know, twinge their conscience a little bit. So, if I'm not a Christian, if you're not a Christian this morning, become one today.

You can. At the end of the meeting, we're going to sing a song. If you need to accept Christ, you can come forward and stand here. We'll go to a room at the back and we'll counsel together for a few moments.

We can show you easily how to become a Christian, even this morning. But supposing we're a Christian and God is talking to us also. Because, you know, sometimes like in 1 Corinthians 3, Paul said, the foundation has been laid.

Building Faithfully on Christ's Foundation

The foundation is Christ. Other foundations can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Then he talks about us as Christians building on that foundation. He says some people, they use gold or silver or precious stones, and other people are building with wood, hay or stubble.

Now, he's talking about Christians in both cases. Only he's not talking about money and he's not talking about literal wood, hay and stubble. He's just saying that some Christians are living a useless, worthless life and other Christians are all out for God.

Among missionaries, they have a saying, when they hear about some other worker, they'll ask this question, is he out? No. Or is he O and O? O and O means out and out. Is he out and out for God? That was the question.

And that's the question I'm asking this morning. Are you out and out for God? Or just partly so? You're on God's team, but you want all the other people to do the work. You don't want to get involved.

You don't want to tithe. You don't want to give a tenth of your money when Christ gave everything on the cross. And so we skate along. But Paul said, let every man take heed how he builds thereon. I read something the other day that kind of got to me.

It was just a little thing. Some people have so little in the bank of heaven that they don't have enough money to make a down payment on a harp. Let every man take heed how he builds. Are you building for eternity?

Building for God? Christ said, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. That is, put God's business first and yours second. That's a hard thing to do. Not many Christians do it. Every Christian ought to do it.

In times of revival, people do it. This is not a particular time of revival. We hope that will come. It will come by the grace of God eventually. But now, if God is speaking to your heart... Christians, you know, when Paul wrote to the church in Rome in chapter 1, he said about that church in Rome, your faith is spoken out throughout the whole world.

They were a powerful church back then. Back then they were. But to the same church he wrote and said in chapter 12, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable or spiritual...

Now, the spiritual thing to do is the thought there. The right thing to do. To present your body a living sacrifice to God. Have you ever done that? Ever presented yourself to God and said, God, here am I.

Take me. Use me any way you want. That's what God needs. That's what God needs from us. That's what we need to do to present ourselves to God. You know, Isaiah, the prophet in the Old Testament 700 years before Christ, he heard God the Father and Christ the Son speaking and it went like this, Whom shall I send?

Who will go for us? Not who will go for me, but who will go for us? And Isaiah cried, Lord, here am I. Send me. He volunteered himself to God and God used him because the book of Isaiah has sometimes, as you may know, has sometimes been called the fifth gospel because there's so much in that book by way of prophecy concerning Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 53, one of the most powerful prophetic portions in the whole of the Word of God. Jews don't read it. You know, rabbis never read that in the synagogues because every time they do, if they do and they don't do it anymore, somebody comes and says, Who is the prophet speaking about?

And if they read it off a piece of paper and don't know where it's from, they always think, Jews always think, it's about Jesus of Nazareth. I've heard them say that when they didn't know it came from Isaiah 53.

It's so clear, you see. So he volunteered. He presented himself to God and said, Lord, I'm willing. Take me. Use me. God doesn't want all of us in full-time service in that sense. But He certainly wants us to be a full-time Christian whoever we are, wherever we are.

And let your life shine for God. Get involved. Share the love of God with other people. Talk to people about Christ. You know, God's in business. He's answering prayer. And many of us are seeing that.

Crucifying Self and Living by Faith in Christ

And sometimes in significant, startling ways, God is at work among men. You can be part of that as a Christian believer by dealing with a sin problem and a deeper problem called self. Galatians 5 .24 says, and this is for Christians, they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with a passion and lust.

You've got to put that old self thing to death and stop feeding it. Don't feed it. Crucify it, the Bible says. Then you'll be free. You won't be free until then. You won't feel free. You won't sense you're free until self is crucified.

That's why Paul said, I am literally, I have been crucified with Christ. He never saw Christ on the cross. He wasn't around when Christ died. This was years later. But Paul understood his spiritual truth and he said, I have been crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. So we have to see ourselves that way.

And so in Romans 6, it says, knowing this, that our old man or lower self, as some translations put it, is crucified with Christ. That self thing from which all sin comes, that has to be crucified so we can be free, truly free, totally free to serve our God.

Christ lives within us, but He's not free to work through us until self dies. And we let Christ have His way. We sing it, King of my life, I crown Thee now. Thine shall the glory be. Have you ever done that?

Ever crowned Christ King of your life as a Christian believer? Have you ever done that? For many, the answer would have to be, no, I suppose. I can't speak for you. But if you've never presented your body to God and said, Lord, take me, all there is.

You know, there's a verse in Proverbs, God said, My son, are you listening carefully? My son, God said, give me your heart. Give me your heart. I don't want your pocketbook or your car or your home. I want your heart.

Give me your heart. He's saying that to Christians as well as to sinners. Give me your heart. So in Lamentations chapter 3, it says, Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. There's a line in one song that says, Here's my heart.

Oh, take and seal it. Seal it for your courts above. Ever done that? We need to do that. Prepare to meet your God. It's appointed unto men once to die. Job called that the house of God appointed to all men.

The Final Appeal: Prepare to Meet Your God

That has been. Whether we like it or not, we're going to die someday. We should be thinking about that now and preparing for that. Prepare to meet your God. Non-Christian dear friend, if you're here this morning, you're not saved.

You have no assurance that your soul is saved. Why don't you come forward and we'll sing this invitation song in a moment or two. Pass me not, O gentle Savior. We'll stand here at the front and we'll go to a room at the back.

Lord willing. But feel free to come whether you're from this congregation or not. We're glad you're here. God bless you. But Christian believers, we have to make a move too. We've got to do something.

We've got to get our life straightened out. Many times as Christians we live, you know, in a kind of a limbo. Nobody knows where we're at. We don't want anybody to know where we're at because we aren't getting anywhere.

God can't use us because we haven't surrendered ourselves to Him.