Luke 14:31-33

PREPARE TO MEET GOD

Luke 14:31-33. “ What king, marching off to engage in war with another king, will not first, sitting down, counsel if he is able, with ten thousand, to meet him coming against him with twenty thousand? and if not, while he is still a great way, sending an embassy, he asks those things appertaining to peace.” This brief parable is very clear, explicit, forcible, and overwhelmingly convincing. The sinner is one king, and God is the other. The sinner is on his march to meet God Almighty, who is coming to meet him with the mighty hosts of celestial armies. Death and judgment are ahead. Every day makes the number less. Hence the transcendent importance of availing yourself of all your time and opportunities to prepare to meet God. How fortunate for you if the meeting is far enough ahead for you to send on an embassy and negotiate for peace! How can you send that embassy? Go to praying with all your might. Let every breath be a fervent prayer, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” and if possible make your peace with God before you must meet Him face to face.

“If now Thou standest at the door, O let me feel Thee near, And make my peace with God before I at Thy bar appear!”

The stupid indifference which characterizes an ungodly world is an incontestable confirmation of the total depravity so prominently taught in the Word of God.

“ Thus, therefore, every one of you who does not consecrate all of his possessions is not able to be My disciple.” This is a grand climacteric conclusion, rung out by the Savior in the ears of the vast multitude, and clinching all the nails which He has driven during this powerful discourse on discipleship.

“Here I give my all to Thee Friends and time and earthly store; Soul and body, Thine to be Wholly Thine, for evermore.”

How can I know that I have really consecrated all to God? He will let you know it. You will reach bottom-rock, and be conscious of the tremendous reality from the crown of your head to the soles of your feet. How wonderfully Jesus preaches Christian perfection! How can any man claim to be one of His preachers, or even a disciple, and entertain heretical or even superficial views on this grand central idea of the redemptive scheme? Errors on other matters of revealed truth may be overlooked and counteracted by the genuine and glorious experience of experimental perfection, but on this doctrine the fearful liability is that the experience will not rise above your Creed. Good Lord, help us all!