How to Meet God

He speaks again in Proverbs 2:1-5,

“My son, if you will receive my sayings, and treasure my commandments within you, make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding; For if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding; If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will discern the fear of the LORD, and discover the knowledge of God.”

Now in Matthew 7:7-8,

“Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened.”

And again in James 4:8,

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

And finally, in Revelation 3:20, God turns the tables around and now He is pursuing you. These are the words of Jesus,

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me. ”

The door that Jesus is referring to is the door of your heart. How do you open the door of your heart? In Matt. 4:17, the Bible says,

“From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”

What you believe is a matter of the heart as much as the mind. Repent means to change your mind (and your heart), turn around and go the other way. It means stop ignoring God and living as if He did not exist. Stop your unbelief. Will you exalt yourself above the throne of God? It is the ultimate insult and rejection of His power, His glory, and His love. How would you feel if someone you deeply loved denied you even existed?

God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (Isa. 57:15, Isa. 66:2, Matt. 5:3, James 4:6).

What you choose to believe is just that–your choice. In reality, there is only one right choice. Romans 1:20 says in essence that no man will stand before God with any excuse for ignoring or denying Him. How can that be possible?

• Because the sun, the moon and the stars declare His glory (Psalms 19:1-3).
• Because God has revealed Himself in His Word (the Bible Hebrews 4:12 and Jesus Christ John 3:19, John 8:12, Col. 1:15-17).
• Because His moral law is written in your heart (Romans 2:15).

And what is the Gospel? The Gospel is simple. In 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 we read,

“….Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures”.

What is sin? 1 John 3:4 in the King James Version says,

“Sin is the transgression of the law”.

What law is this verse referring to? In Romans 7:7, speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit the Apostle Paul makes it abundantly clear,

“What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’”

“You shall not covet” is the 10th of the Ten Commandments!

In Romans 3:23 we discover that,

“All men have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

The most frightening thing about God is the fact that He is good.

Why is that frightening? Because He is not just “good” as we mortals think of good. God is perfectly holy. The holiness of God is something man cannot begin to comprehend. The Bible says,

“God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.”

Furthermore it tells us,

“He dwells in unapproachable light and no man can see Him and live.”

For God, evil is not a relative term. The punishment for one sin is the same for all sin. Imagine someone robbing a bank and only gets $100.00 before he is scared off and runs away. But another man robs a bank and gets $100,000,00. Is the one more or less guilty than the other? Aren’t they both equally guilty of bank robbery, both had the same intent. Aren’t both men deserving of the same punishment? We tend to think that there are small sins and big sins. But with God sin is sin. He hates lying and stealing just as much as He hates adultery and murder. He hates all sin and must punish every transgression. He is perfectly just. Fortunately as we will discover He is also perfectly merciful.

Every one of us have broken God’s moral law–its called sin. And since the law is written on every man’s heart (Romans 2:15), every man knows this is true. Unfortunately, many people choose to live in denial. This denial is primarily based on two factors:

• People love the world and the things of the world. That includes the passing “pleasure” of sin for a season (life is short). Sadly, many never take the time to think this through. Life is short, eternity is long. Sin is deadly, hell is real and Jesus saves!
• The second reason is, we love the praise men more than the praise of God. Many people cannot bear the thought of identifying themselves with Jesus Christ (the name that can clear out a room faster than any other name) and admitting they are sinners. “After all, what would my friends think if I became a religious fanatic or a Jesus Freak?” On this basis, many people choose to ignore or deny God’s existence. To do so is called idolatry. Idolatry is spiritual adultery–an abomination to God.

The solution for sin

Matthew 1:21,

“And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

In Romans 5:8, God’s Word says,

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

1 John 1:9 says,

“If you confess your sin, He is faithful and just to forgive you and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.”

The word “confess” in this case means to say the same thing that God says about your sin. He hates it and we should too.

Romans 10:9 says,

“If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved”.

If you truly believe in Jesus, then you will have faith in Jesus. If your faith is genuine, you will learn to become faithful by the power of His Spirit living within you (Gal. 5:22-23). If you truly love Jesus you will learn to love the things that He loves and hate the things He hates. We should love God and hate sin. You will love to obey Jesus–not to get saved, but because salvation is His gift to you (John 14:15. Eph. 2:8-9). We love Him because He first loved us (1John 4:19)!

You can study the Bible for the rest of your life and never exhaust its vast wealth of knowledge and wisdom. But getting in to heaven is as simple as believing what Jesus says about Himself,