Meeting God
January 22, 2012
Introduction
Would you like to meet God face to face? Would you like to talk to God? Do you have a quarrel with God? Do you think He has been unfair? Do you feel ready to meet God?
Body
I. Sometimes people want God to explain what has happened to them.
A. Job was such a man.
(Job 23:1-7 NKJV) Then Job answered and said: {2} "Even today my complaint is bitter; My hand is listless because of my groaning. {3} Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, That I might come to His seat! {4} I would present my case before Him, And fill my mouth with arguments. {5} I would know the words which He would answer me, And understand what He would say to me. {6} Would He contend with me in His great power? No! But He would take note of me. {7} There the upright could reason with Him, And I would be delivered forever from my Judge.
B. What was Job’s problem?
1. He was suffering, but not for something he had done.
2. Satan was challenging God on why people serve Him.
(Job 1:7-12 NKJV) And the LORD said to Satan, "From where do you come?" So Satan answered the LORD and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it." {8} Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?" {9} So Satan answered the LORD and said, "Does Job fear God for nothing? {10} "Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. {11} "But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!" {12} And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person." So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.
C. God answered Job.
(Job 38:1-3 NKJV) Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: {2} "Who is this who darkens counsel By words without knowledge? {3} Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.
II. Could we answer God if we were given the chance?
A. Job was overwhelmed by God’s appearance.
(Job 42:1-6 NKJV) Then Job answered the LORD and said: {2} "I know that You can do everything, And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. {3} You asked, 'Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. {4} Listen, please, and let me speak; You said, 'I will question you, and you shall answer Me.' {5} "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You. {6} Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes."
B. Job was given a chance to be restored.
(Job 42:10-11 NKJV) And the LORD restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. {11} Then all his brothers, all his sisters, and all those who had been his acquaintances before, came to him and ate food with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversity that the LORD had brought upon him. Each one gave him a piece of silver and each a ring of gold.
C. When man sinned, things changed and have never been fully restored.
1. God place hostility between man and Satan.
(Gen 3:15 NKJV) And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel."
2. There was a general suffering which man was given because of his sin.
(Gen 3:17-19 NKJV) Then to Adam He said, "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it': "Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. {18} Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. {19} In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return."
3. He lost his right to the tree of life and the Garden of Eden.
(Gen 3:22-24 NKJV) Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"; {23} therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. {24} So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
III. Someday we will stand before God to give an account.
A. It will be a day of giving account.
(Rom 14:10-12 NKJV) But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. {11} For it is written: "As I live, says the LORD, Every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God." {12} So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.
B. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
(Heb 10:30-31 NKJV) For we know Him who said, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. And again, "The LORD will judge His people." {31} It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
C. It will be a day of complete surrender. “Every knee shall bow to Me,”
1. Every knee shall bow to Me, -- That means the most powerful men who have every lived.
2. We will be totally powerless to stand against God.
Conclusion
I. Christ is our only hope.
(Rom 3:23-28 NKJV) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, {24} being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, {25} whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, {26} to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. {27} Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. {28} Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.
II. Once we were without hope.
(Eph 2:11-15 NKJV) Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh; who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands; {12} that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. {13} But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. {14} For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, {15} having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace,
Scripture quotations marked "NKJV™" are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.