This is a question we all need to ask ourselves.
Truth be told, many of us are nowhere ready for His return, that includes baptised members of His body the church. As for those who do not know Him, they need to hear the gospel and start believing God’s inspired word and to repent by turning away from their sinful lifestyles and to look to Jesus confessing that He will be their Lord and Saviour as they prepare to be baptised into His name.
Matthew 7:13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.
We already know that the majority will be lost through unbelief or worse still, who never heard the gospel preached. Likewise there will be members of the church who have turned away and disobeyed the instructions given to us and the responsibility that He has been given to every member of the church. We already know that only a very small minority worldwide have obeyed the gospel and who have put on Christ in baptism will be saved if they continue being faithful and obedient. How do we know? Because the Bible tells us so.
Here’s a fact:
Did you know that there is just over 8,000,000,000 Billion souls living in the world today according the latest records, and there are only around 2,000,000 million recorded souls who are members of the church today…?
Recently, my wife took her English ‘O’ Level exam, but before she did, she had to learn about what was required in order to prepare for her exam and as she got closer to the taking her exam, she had to sit a mock test to find out where she was and what things she still needed to study before her final exam in order to be ready when the day arrived to sit her English exam.
I wish we could sit a mock exam to see how well we will perform on Judgement day to give us some idea as to how well we are doing. But the truth of the matter, we should exam ourselves by using the scriptures to see if we are passing the test and if our lives are not in line with the scriptures, then we should be prepared to make the necessary changes.
So, coming back to the original question… Are we ready for His return? Will we be ready when we hear the trumpet call when this earth will be burnt up and we face the judgement having to stand before Jesus and give our account of all the things we have said and done. How will we fair…? Did we read and study our Bibles everyday…? More importantly, did we apply God’s word to our lives…? Did we pray without ceasing…? Did we thank God for His blessings…? Did we honestly contend for the faith…? Did we always attend the assembly every first day of the week…? Did we help those in need…? How much time did we devote to our Lord and Saviour…? Did we sing praises with all heart to the Lord…? These are just a small number of the questions we need to ask ourselves. I’m sure there are thousands of questions we could ask, but these our just a few to start with.
1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
You see how important this question is, because if we aren’t ready then we could be on a fast track to hell itself with no escaping our punishment for not doing the things He has asked us to do as His brethren. The last thing we want to hear on judgement day is, depart from me, you who practise lawlessness, I never knew you. Yes brethren, we can fall from grace and be eternally lost.
Matthew 7:21-24 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:
Think about all the people we know and who we have known in the past that are no longer alive, but have passed away. Did we speak to them about Jesus, did we sit down with them to talk about how they could be saved? I speak from a personal aspect having lost my youngest brother in 1997 through a fatal car accident. At least I can say, I tried to speak to him about the truth even though he threatened to kill me, but there has been many others who I did not speak to who passed away… dear family and friends who now know the truth but there’s no opportunity left because they are deceased. I’m sure they now realise that they should of believed and I should of done my best to share the message on how they could be saved. I know that I will have to give an answer to the Lord on judgement day, when He asks me, Why didn’t you tell them about Me…? My answer can only be, I was to sacred on how they would react, I was afraid of their reactions.
2 Thessalonians 1:7-10 to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.
Fortunately, we can go to Jesus and ask Him to forgive us, and He is faithful and just to forgive us of everything we have done wrong in times past, and to begin with a fresh start being determined to do a lot better by having the courage and reassurance to speak the truth in love, in the hope we find those who are prepared to sit down with an open Bible to study with them and on so doing, finding those who truly believe and want to repent of their former way of life, confessing that they believe Jesus is Lord, so that they can be saved through the waters of baptism, having the remission of sins being forgiven and beginning their new journey towards their heavenly goal as babes in Christ. We can then teach them everything we know that we must do in order to receive our reward which is laid up in heaven for all of us who remain faithful and obedient right up until we pass from this life into eternity.
Remember this brethren, there is no other way to heaven but through Jesus and there is only one church, the church that Christ said he would build and who continues to build until that day when God will say it’s finished and then we will hear the loud trumpet sound and time will be no more.
1 Corinthians 15:52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
I appreciate that I could of added many more scripture references, but hopefully this lesson will encourage you to pick up your Bibles and study more in Book, Chapter and Verse.
So in Conclusion:
Are we ready for His return or do we need to make some important changes to the way we are currently living…? Are we taking every opportunity to teach the lost with those we come in contact daily…? If not, why not…? When we assemble, are we giving our best to the Lord…? Are our minds focussed on worship and remembering the day He was crucified and rose on the First day of the week…? We must study God’s Word daily to make sure we are walking in the light. By doing this God will draw closer to us and bless us more abundantly.
This message was delivered by: Bro. Robert H Brown
