PREPARATION
J.T.Brown
Amos 4: 12 (last clause); Luke 12: 16-21; 8: 43-48; Acts 7: 54-60
"Prepare to meet thy God!" There is no greater challenge in the universe tonight than these words. They come from the lips of God Himself, challenging every man and woman and boy and girl without exception and striking at the very core of our beings, our consciences, our affections and our hearts. Essential issues are stirred; moral issues are raised which have a bearing not only on our natural lives but on our eternal destiny. It is a meeting which no-one can shirk, from which no man or woman or boy or girl can be excused. In the gospels they said, "I pray thee hold me for excused", Luke 14: 18. But there will be a day of reckoning and no power in the universe will be sufficient to prevent that meeting between God and the godless. Men will have to meet their Maker. They will have to meet their Creator. When God utters these words, it is a cry of warning, but rooted in mercy. It is a cry of urgency, but it is steeped in grace.
Preparation is a matter about which God is greatly concerned. The universe was created with punctilious care. Proverbs 8: 27 says that "He prepared the heavens" and Job tells us that "by His Spirit the heavens are adorned". In the gospel the Lord Jesus says, "Consider the lilies how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I say unto you, Not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed as one of these", Luke 12: 27. Even the lily of the field, these little flowers, so exquisite, so delicate, so sensitive, have the touch of the Master's hand, reflecting God's work in creation. Then there are the stars! He counts the number of the stars. Not only that, He gives names to them all, Psalm 147: 4. Think of every star in the universe! Consider the Milky Way, as it is called, and the thousands upon thousands of stars it contains. Then there are the galaxies beyond. Yet every star is counted, every star is named, such was the care with which the creation was made.
But there was something else that was prepared and it was prepared that the way of redemption might be opened up for men. Hebrews says in relation to the Lord Jesus: "... thou hast prepared me a body", chap 10: 5. How wonderful to think of divine workmanship entering into the body which Jesus took in manhood on earth. It says, "Wherefore coming into the world he says, Sacrifice and offering thou willedst not; but thou hast prepared me a body." There could be nothing more distinctive than the body God prepared for His son. The gospels tell us of the birth of Jesus. Luke tells us that the power of the Highest overshadowed Mary: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and power of the Highest overshadow thee, wherefore the holy thing also which shall be born shall be called Son of God", chap. 1: 35. Psalm 139: 15,16 give some indication of the care with which we are formed : "curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth ... in thy book all my members were written; during many days were they fashioned...". Nothing is haphazard or left to chance in respect of any one of us. But supremely, sublimely in Jesus there was divine perfection in manhood. Luke gives us the early days of the Lord Jesus. He grew up "in favour with God and men", chap 1: 52. "And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and God's grace was upon him", v 40. Contemplate Him year by year as He grew up under the divine eye, not a step, not a movement contrary to the divine will. In relation to the oblation the expression "prepared in the cauldron" is used, Leviticus 2: 7. Then later, it is "prepared in the pan with oil: saturated with oil..." (6: 21). There was capacity in the humanity of Jesus to bear the intensest pressure.
The wonder of the glad tidings is that, before guilty sinners could be relieved of their guilt, that precious body had to be laid down in death. In that body, divinely prepared, our sins were borne at Calvary: ''who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree", 1 Pet 2: 24. Think of God, speaking reverently, preparing the body of the Lord Jesus for such a transaction, a body that would bear our sins. He was my Substitute at Calvary. He bore my sins there. I wonder if everyone here can say that. He bore the awful wrath of God against sin that I might escape the penalty of sin. In chapter 53 of Isaiah, it says, "Yet it pleased Jehovah to bruise him; he hath subjected him to suffering", v 10. Oh, what the Lord Jesus bore, dear friends, at the hands of His God that the way of redemption might be prepared for you and for me, the road into blessing opened up for the guiltiest, vilest sinner. I wonder if you know this precious Saviour. Does He have a place in your heart? He shed His precious blood at Calvary that sinners might go free, "not by corruptible things, as silver or gold ... but by precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot", 1 Pet 1: 18,19.
Well, God has prepared the way for men and women to come into His presence, not as guilty sinners, but as forgiven. How can He do it? Because Jesus has suffered and died, borne the whole incubus of sin, that guilty sinners as coming to Him and confessing their sins in His presence might be free and free for ever.
I read in Luke 12 for here was a man who was not prepared. He was obsessed with the things of this world. He was not prepared to meet His God and that typifies men today, trusting in riches, consumed with ambition, indulging in idle pursuits which of themselves produce no lasting satisfaction or gain. In Ecclesiastes there was a man who says, "I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards; I made me gardens and parks, and I planted trees in them of every kind of fruit; I made me ponds of water...", chap 2: 4-6. There is a whole catalogue of things he did but then it ends up, "Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that it had cost me to do them; and behold, all was vanity and pursuit of the wind, and there was no profit under the sun", v 11. Remarkable words these, "under the sun", as if he was peering here and looking there, just to see if the sun would illuminate something that was even a little bit profitable. But He is driven to the inescapable conclusion that: "all was vanity and pursuit of the wind."
So this man sought to build his welfare and his security in riches. He says, "This will I do: I will take away my granaries and build greater, and there I will lay up all my produce and my good things; and I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much good things laid by for many years..." Presumptuous words! Ecclesiastes says, "There is no man who hath control over the spirit to retain the spirit ... and there is no discharge in that war", chap 8: 8. God, dear friends, holds the spirits of men in His hand. He decides on the duration of our lives and it is His decision alone. The poet says,
"In all my wanderings through this world of care
In all my griefs, and God has given my share,
I still had hopes my latest hours to crown
Amidst these humble bowers to lay me down
To husband out life's taper at the close
And keep the flame from wasting by repose
And as a hare whom hounds and horn pursue
Pants to the place from whence at first she flew
I still had hopes my long vexations past
Here to return to home to die at last."
Alas! Alas! His cherished hopes were dashed.
Events conspired to thwart his ambition of returning home in old age to the haunts of his childhood. Man has no control over his destiny in this world. His little life is as a candle flickering, stuttering, then in just one breath, snuffed out. And what then? "If thou hast run with footmen, and they have wearied thee, how wilt thou then contend with horses? And if in a land of peace thou thinkest thyself in security, how wilt thou then do in the swelling of the Jordan?" Jer 12: 5. The awful moment comes: "Fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee." So, in grace, God poses the challenge: "prepare to meet thy God" in order that we may be ready.
I wonder if everyone here is prepared to meet their God, prepared to meet their Creator, the One who holds our lives in His palm, can terminate our life forthwith, or can extend it at His will. God gets to the very kernel of things: "Soul!" "For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul?" Mark 8: 36. The Psalmist says there are those who "depend upon their wealth, and boast themselves in the abundance of their riches", but then he goes on to say, "None can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him, (For the redemption of their soul is costly, and must be given up for ever)", Ps. 49: 6-8. "For the redemption of their soul is costly". Oh, what a cost, dear friends: the price was precious blood. "None can by any means redeem his brother": if you had the whole world on one side of the scale and one man's soul on the other, it could never suffice. All the riches, all the grandeur, all the majesty of this world could never serve to pay the price of redemption, meet the ransom, to bring a soul without sin into the presence of God. There was only one remedy, only one ransom, and it was the precious blood of Jesus, the One "who gave himself a ransom for all", 1 Tim 2: 6. He was the ransom. He laid down His life. He bore the penalty of sin that guilty sinners might go free and be relieved forever of sin's awful burden. I wonder if we are all ready to be called into the divine presence. There is a day coming when persons will be required to stand before their God. Revelation speaks about "the dead, great and small, standing before the throne", chap 20: 12. What a sight! Men and women, their souls required of them, standing in the ultimate court of judgement. The books are brought out "and the dead were judged ... according to their works". The book of life is opened "and if any one was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire", v 15. Oh, how solemn and compelling these words become: "prepare to meet thy God". It is absolutely essential that you are prepared. Is there a heart here unprepared? We would appeal to you with all the affection and emotion we can muster as God would appeal to you. His hands are out stretched to bless. He appeals to men tonight, calls to sinners, deep-dyed in sin in all their degradation, in all their hopeless plight. The message is that to them divine grace and mercy are reaching out.
"But when the kindness and love to man of our Saviour God appeared, not on the principle of works which have been done in righteousness which we had done, but according to his own mercy...", Tit 3: 4,5. God's own mercy - none other's would do - is reaching out to guilty sinners tonight, to bless them, to flood their souls with the joy of forgiveness, to have them experience the joy of salvation, to have them know the blessed experience of a link with the Man in the glory, with the One who died to save them.
''The sinner who believes is free,
Can say, The Saviour died for me;
Can point to the atoning blood
And say, This made my peace with God." (Hymn 357)
Have you peace with God, dear friends? I appeal to you: examine your heart, examine your conscience. The opportunity is available tonight to make your peace with God, to put your trust in Jesus, to confess yours in is in His presence, and to place your faith in His finished work. Nothing can equal the experience and the joy of feeling your sins just dissipating and being removed, by virtue of what He has done. God says in our Scripture, "And whose shall be what thou hast prepared?" Hebrews tells us “there is not a creature unapparent before him; but all things are naked and laid bare to his eyes, with whom we have to do", chap. 4: 13. You cannot hide behind what you have prepared in a material sense. You cannot shelter behind the facade of riches, personality or whatever. God gets right down to your soul. The gospel would strike at your conscience and at the very core and essence of your being, impressing on you the urgency of the moment. The awfulness of a lost eternity is unimaginable; Christ-rejectors or just Christ-ignorers will be there; and maybe even persons who, with indifference and apathy, have heard the Gospel week in and week out. Sad climax to a lifetime of lost opportunities, conveyed in the Divine indictment "Fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee". There will be no court of appeal, no message of mercy, no comforting word of grace. All is finished; all is hopeless. Ah! but the Saviour waits tonight, friend, waits to bless with a heart as appealing, a heart as loving and as full of affection, as when He suffered and died at Calvary and rose again. His precious blood is as efficacious now as when it was shed at Calvary and is able to cleanse the vilest. Put your trust in Him! If there is someone with an aching void in their hearts, Jesus can fill it. Simply turn to Him! You will find an answer in Him to your every need.
In chapter 8 the circumstances are different. Instead of a man who did not understand he needed to be prepared for eternity, there is here a woman who realised she had a need but was preparing in the wrong way. Some of us are like that perhaps. We understand something needs to be done but we go about it in the wrong way. We try to find a remedy at our own hands and we cast here and search there to seek a solution. This woman "had had a flux of blood since twelve years, who, having spent all her living on physicians, could not be cured by any one". She had tried every medicine but none could effect a cure. Whatever the world can offer, it will never cure the effects of sin. Rather the supposed relief it tantalisingly promises will make the situation worse. Jeremiah says "There is none to plead thy cause, to bind up thy wound; thou hast no healing medicines", chap 30: 13. I tell you, friend, there is no free health service in Satan's realm, no free prescriptions in Satan's world. The cost is awful. It will end in death and in your eternal loss. You can picture this woman getting more and more desperate, knowing that she needed a cure, realising that her strength was ebbing away, recognising that her end was at hand. She was in a terrible plight; she was at an extremity and all hope had virtually been extinguished.
But then she comes into touch with the precious Saviour . Hope is revived ! "Coming up behind" she touched the hem of his garment" . Could anything be easier ? She simply touches the hem of His garment. Reach out your hand tonight, friend, and touch the hem of His garment! How accessible He is! "The word is near thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart: that is the word of faith, which we preach: that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from among the dead, thou shalt be saves", Rom 10: 8,9. "The word is near thee", within touching range, speaking reverently. The poet speaks of:
"The feeble hands and helpless
Groping blindly in the darkness
Touch God's right hand in that darkness
And are lifted up and strengthened."
Oh, just reach out and touch the precious Saviour! You will find relief; you will find joy; you will find satisfaction. It says in that chapter in Jeremiah so beautifully, "For I will apply a bandage unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds", chap 30: 17. It is not just a temporary remedy but complete healing. It is like justification: not only are you saved from your sins, but you are exonerated. God welcomes you into His presence as declared completely free of blame or charge. Justification is one of the great blessings of the gospel. Forgiveness is grand; but the sense of being justified by God Himself is glorious. He is the God "who justifies the ungodly", Rom 4: 5, one of the grandest statements in the whole canon of scripture. Our sins are cast away into the depths of the sea, as Micah speaks about it, chap 7: 19, never to be revived, never to be recalled, never to be brought against us because it is God who justifies. So the Lord Jesus says to the woman "Be of good courage, daughter; thy faith has healed thee; go in peace". May every heart here have this sense of peace, and the blessed assurance that Jesus has accomplished the whole work of redemption. Ours is simply to believe and to put our trust in that precious One and in His finished work.
I read in Acts for here was a man who was prepared. In chapter 12 of Luke the man was unprepared and made no pretence of preparation; in Luke 8 the woman sought to prepare in the wrong way, but divine grace led her eventually into contact with the precious Saviour. But in Stephen we see a man who was prepared. Prepared for what? Prepared for glory! Romans speaks about it: "that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he had before prepared for glory", Rom. 9: 23. Stephen had his eye on the One who had accomplished everything for him. It says, "he saw the glory of God, and the Jesus standing at the right hand of God". Here was a scene of bitter opposition and enmity. As Stephen brought before his accusers the awfulness of what they had done to the Lord Jesus they became so enraged that they stoned him. But Stephen was prepared to live and to die for the Saviour who had given Himself that he might be saved from his sins. What did he say? "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit". These were the words of one who was prepared for glory. He was resting securely on His Saviour's finished work. Nothing could come between him and Jesus. His eyes were fixed on Jesus and he was prepared to enter His presence, a vessel of mercy, prepared for glory.
Every believer in Jesus can take that place, as a vessel of mercy, undeserved, unwarranted, and unmerited, but to whom divine grace and divine mercy have reached out in all our need, picked us up and placed us on the pinnacles of blessing. "As the dew of Hermon that descendeth on the mountains of Zion; for there hath Jehovah commanded the blessing, life for evermore", Ps 133: 3. He brings us up from the lowest point and gives us a place on the summits of Zion's mountains. Joying in God’s sovereign mercy and enjoying eternal life, our distance from God removed through the death of His Son in the glory of reconciliation. Who can enjoy these things? Those who have had a transaction with the precious Saviour, and who have the Holy Spirit, the wonderful gift in the glad tidings, to empower us to go through this scene of contrariety and to enable us to enter into the grandest and the most glorious blessings of God. Colossians 1: 12 tells us that the Father "has made us fit for sharing the portion of the saints in light." He has prepared us for that. How has He done it? He has given us the best robe, a ring on our fingers, and sandals on our feet so that we might be equipped and prepared for the divine presence and enjoy the Father’s house in the liberty of sonship. Stephen in this hostile scene was one blessedly prepared for the highest things. He could rise above his circumstances. Some of us are pulled down by the weight of our circumstances. Stephen rose above them. Why? Because he had his eyes on the Man in the glory.
I wake in the morning with thoughts of His love
Who is living for me in the glory above
Each moment expecting He'll call me away
And that keeps me bright for the rest of the day.
May our eyes be more fixed on the Man in the glory, preparing and prepared fort hat glorious day when we shall be with Him for ever. For that is the glad prospect of every love of Jesus - to be with Him eternally.
The thought of preparation comes in much to scripture: "Things which eye has not seen, and ear not heard, and which have not come into man's heart, which God has prepared for them that love him', 1 Cor 2: 9. What blessed things are available to us for our enjoyment now. Then, in that final day, the holy city will come down "prepared as a bride adorned for her husband", Rev 21: 2. Then the preparation which has gone on through the generations, down through the dispensation, will come out in glorious display, and the universe will see the grand culmination of the preparatory work, which has taken place in every blood-bought saint who will form part of that glorious assembly, which will answer eternally to the longings of the Lord Jesus Himself. May our hearts be freshly stirred towards this glorious One. I end with the appeal: "prepare to meet thy God”! May everyone here be able to say from the bottom of their hearts that they are prepared, and that they have the blessed assurance of a link with the precious Saviour, which nothing can sever and which will stand us in good stead, not only for the rest of our life, but for the whole of eternity. For His Name's sake.
KIRKCALDY
26 February 1995