Acquaint now thyself with Him – Job 22:21

If we would rightly “acquaint ourselves with God and be at peace”, we must know Him as He has revealed Himself, not only in the unity of His essence, but also in the plurality of His persons. God said, “Let us make man in our own image” – let not man be content until he knows something of the “us” from whom his being was derived. Endeavor to know the Father; bury your head in His bosom in deep repentance, and confess that you are not worthy to be called His son; receive the kiss of His love; let the ring which is the token of His eternal faithfulness be on your finger; sit at His table and let your heart make merry in His grace. Then press forward and seek to know much of the Son of God who is the brightness of His Father’s glory, and yet in unspeakable condescension of grace became a man for our sakes; know Him in the singular complexity of His nature: eternal God, and yet suffering, finite man; follow Him as He walks the waters with the tread of deity, and as He sits upon the well in the weariness of humanity. Be not satisfied unless you know much of Jesus Christ as your Friend, your Brother, your Husband, your all. Forget not the Holy Spirit; endeavor to obtain a clear view of His nature and character, His attributes, and His works. Behold that Spirit of the Lord, who first of all moved upon chaos, and brought forth order; who now visits the chaos of your soul, and creates the order of holiness. Behold Him as the Lord and giver of spiritual life, the Illuminator, the Instructor, the Comforter, and the Sanctifier. Behold Him as, like holy unction, He descends upon the head of Jesus, and then afterward rests upon you who are as the skirts of His garments. Such an intelligent, scriptural, and experimental belief in the Trinity in Unity is yours if you truly know God; and such knowledge brings peace indeed.

– Charles Spurgeon

1834 – 1892

This devotion was taken from Morning and Evening by C.H. Spurgeon.

God is the decider and determiner of every man’s destiny, the controller of every detail in every individual’s life, which is another way of saying, “He is God.”

– John MacArthur

“If God must act against what is not just, He must act against you…

A preacher who wants you to walk out the door feeling good about yourself will never enable you to feel good about God…

Everyone thinks a good and loving God ought to do something about evil, but nobody wants to define evil…

Why is it that you think that I must be angry about wickedness but you say it’s wrong for God to be angry about wickedness?”

-Paul Washer

Oh, my brothers and sisters in Christ, if sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies.

And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stop, and not madly to destroy themselves.

If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.

– C.H. Spurgeon

Satan needed to counteract the truth. So he developed lies about God, eternal destiny, and other spiritual truths. The results of those lies first appear in Genesis 4:6-7: “The LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou angry? And why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.” Sin ruled over Cain because he failed to obey God. Although the Lord had apparently made it known that He required sacrifices for atonement, Cain brought the fruit of his hands–things he had grown in the field. However, Abel brought a blood sacrifice. Genesis 4 records the initial development of false religion, which is based on one thing: human works. Abel brought a sacrifice for sin (i.e. Christ), which was a picture of the final sacrifice. Cain brought his own works, which has been the continual legacy for false religions throughout the centuries. All false religions claim that man enters God’s presence not on the basis of what God has done by His grace, but on the basis of what man can do himself if he is good enough.

Satan knew that if he was going to control the world’s system, he would have to do it through religion, since man is a religious being. So he developed a religion that opposed God’s grace and exalted man’s own achievements. There are basically only two religions in the world: the religion of divine accomplishment or the religion of human achievement.

– John MacArthur from “The Love God Hates”

I don’t care how strong your religion is, or how strong your church life is, I don’t care how strong your morality is. On that day of judgment God will tear it down and it will wilt. Whenever humans declare themselves to be righteous they are doing it by contrasting themselves with other humans who are worse. And you can get away with that, but when your righteousness is contrasted with the righteousness of God there is nothing but to throw yourself down and declare your morality to be dung.

– Paul Washer

“The conflict of the ages is upon us. This unbiblcal distorted thing called the church, that mixes with the world and dishonors its so-called Lord, has been found out for what it is, a fraud. The true church is born from above. In it there are no sinners,and outside of it no saints. No man can put another’s name on its member’s roll;and no man can cross another’s name off that roll.. This Church-of which, bless the Lord, there is still a small remnant in the world-lives and moves and has its being in prayer. Prayer is its soul’s sincere desire.”

Leonard Ravenhill

For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. (Psalm 51:16-17)

“There is all around us, however, a very evident and continuing substitute for worship. I speak of the compelling temptation among Christian believers to be constantly engaged, during every waking hour, in religious activity.

We cannot deny that it is definitely a churchly idea of service. Many of our sermons and much of our contemporary ecclesiastical teaching lean toward the idea that it is surely God’s plan for us to be busy, busy, busy–because it is the best cause in the world in which we are involved.

But if there is any honesty left in us, it persuades us in our quieter moments that true spiritual worship is at a discouragingly low ebb among professing Christians.

Do we dare ask how we have reached this state?

How can our approach to worship be any more vital than it is when so many who lead us, both in the pulpit and in the pew, give little indication that the fellowship of God is delightful beyond telling?”

A.W. Tozer, “Tozer on Christian Leadership”

HAT TIP:  Christian Research Network

It is not kindness at all, but the worst form of cruelty, to suggest that what people believe doesn’t really matter much if they feel spiritual and do good. In fact, on the face of it, that claim is a blatant contradiction of the gospel message.

– John MacArthur

The major portion of professing Christianity in our nation and world today would be correctly termed apostate. The first two places where apostasy always departs from Biblical truth are the inspiration of the Word of God and the deity of Jesus Christ.

– John E. Ashbrook

Understand that when at the first sign of scrutiny a teacher or someone in sin says, “Judge not, back off !;” understand this beloved, all they’re doing there is misapplying that verse in order to protect themselves so that they can keep their shtick going. And for false teachers some of those shticks that they’ve got going are pretty lucrative. The last thing that they are really concerned about when they quote that verse is to uphold the righteousness which Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount. Otherwise they wouldn’t twist the Scripture that way.

– Don Green

Although the Bible primarily focuses on the human agents propagating false doctrine, it also deals with the source of false doctrine: Satan and his demons.

Behind all false teachers are invisible demons. No false teacher teaches from his own wisdom; a demon or demons inspire him to teach. False teachers are mouthpieces for Satan.

– John MacArthur

See Also: Marks of a True Believer – Test the Spirits

We must have no truce, no treaty with Rome. War! War to the knife with her! Peace there cannot be. She cannot have peace with us—we cannot have peace with her. She hates the true Church, and we can only say that the hatred is reciprocated. We would not lay a hand upon her priests; we would not touch a hair of their heads. Let them be free; but their doctrine we would destroy from the face of the earth as the doctrine of devils. So let it perish, O God, and let that evil thing become as the fat of lambs. Into smoke let it consume: yea into smoke let it consume away.

—C. H. Spurgeon

1834 – 1892