Facing God

Eventually every one of us is going to have to face God. We will stand before God and will answer to Him. One day you are going to die. That is a fact of life, and anyone with any sense understands that. I don’t care if you are into health foods, popping all the vitamins you can possibly take and you are taking care of your body the best you can. Sooner or later, that body of yours is going to give out. Death is sure to come. It may come slower to some than others, but it is going to come to all of us.

The Bible teaches us that we will all stand before God someday. Notice Romans 14:12 says, ‘So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.’ One day, you are going to stand before God. When you stand there before God, He is going to have you give account for your life. He is going to ask you some very important and serious questions, and you are going to have to answer for your life and how you lived it.

I don’t know about you, but when I was in school, I didn’t like tests. I always dreaded examination time. It definitely was not my favourite day. But I knew the day was coming, and that fact caused me to listen for one purpose. I didn’t want my grades to look too bad when I took my report card home.

Most people I know aren’t too interested in taking the test when their life ends. They aren’t too interested in standing before God. In fact, most people I know have so put God off in their life that they don’t even think about death. But God says every person is going to stand before Him one day and give an account for his life.

In Romans 2:2 the Bible says, ‘But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.’ When we stand before God, we will be judged according to truth. I don’t know what your opinion might or might not be of our justice system. In many cases, there are people who lie and get away with it, even though they are guilty. We may never know the truth, but God knows what really happened. God’s judgment is according to truth.

When you and I stand before God, we will give an account for our lives. God will not judge us according to the outward appearance or the way things look. He won’t judge us by popular public opinion. He won’t take a vote on the matter, and there won’t be a jury to make the decision. We will be judged according to truth. Now that is scary, because truth is so exacting, so straight, and so narrow. When we are judged by truth, we are all going to be found guilty. We are going to be found empty, without excuse.

John 17:17 tells us where truth is found. Jesus says there, ‘Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.’ So far we have seen three facts. God tells us that we are one day going to stand before Him. When we face Him, we are going to give an account for our lives, and we are going to be judged according to the truth of the Word of God.

Some people might say, ‘Well preacher, I don’t really believe the Bible is right. I don’t think it is truth.’ Well, it is certainly your right to decide you don’t agree with the Bible. But think about this. If you are wrong, and God does judge people according to the Bible, what will you do then? You see, your not believing it won’t change the fact.

You can believe whatever you want to believe and I can believe whatever I want to believe. But ultimately it is not what you believe or what I believe that matters. God says it is according to truth that He is going to judge us, and God tells us that it is the Bible that is His truth. You can choose not to believe that if you wish.

But suppose I was to tell you that you were going to be judged and your whole life, whether you were going to live or die, was going to hinge upon a particular test you were going to take in five minutes. Would you be interested in knowing what the test was about? Would you be interested in knowing the answers to the test? I would. I would want to listen to a fellow who said, ‘I have the questions and I know what the answers are.’ I would want to at least check it out and see if it was true or not. So before you discard the Bible, I think the wisest thing you could ever do is to sit down and at least check it out. Listen and see what God says and then make your choice.