PP0559 DATE
ACQUAINT THYSELF WITH GOD!
Job 22:21.
Job 22:21 Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee. (KJV)
(Leave your Bibles open to this passage of Scripture please)
INTRODUCTION: Spiritual anemia among Christians is destroying the local church today. The reason is that for the most part church members do not know God.
(Phil 3:10 KJV) That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
As we used to say back in the country, when Paul made this statement he said more than a mouthful, and that is, “That I may know him.”
I believe that if a you are truly acquainted with God then you will be attempting to pattern your life after Him. A person who is acquainted with the God of the Bible will in some fashion begin to look like Him, to think like Him, and to talk like Him.
To be acquainted with God does not come natural. This process must be planned and followed after diligently. Peter tells us, (2 Pet 1:5 KJV) And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
To add anything following salvation will require a great diligent act by the Christian. This requirement will omit many. Most will not go this far into the Christian life.
How can we acquaint ourselves with Him? I’m not sure I have the answer; however, I do believe that we can all better acquaint ourselves with God by the following methods.
I. THROUGH SCRIPTURE
(2 Tim 3:16 KJV) All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
A. If This Is Going To Work For You Then You Will Have To Know ALL Scripture. Since all scripture has a specific purpose in the life of a Christian then you must know ALL of it. You must develop a knowledge of the entire Bible if you are going to know God.
(Job 22:22 KJV) Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart.
B. If The Scripture Is Going To Be Of Any Benefit To You In Knowing Who God Is, Then You Must Know The Scripture By Heart.
(Psa 119:11 KJV) Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
I recently heard David Gibbs of CLA say, “If the government ever puts a Christian on trial for using the Bible as the authority, the first question that will be asked is, Have you read the Bible through from cover to cover? If so, how many times? If your answer is ‘No’! you lose the case.”
Where do you get your authority for the things you practice as a Christian. If you say, “The Bible”. Where about in the Bible?
All the system would be saying is, “How can you know God and not know the Bible? How can you claim an acquaintance with God and not know the scripture?” Just being a member of a church is not enough to qualify one the acquaintance with God.
C. We Claim The Bible As The Authority In Raising Our Children. Where is it found in the Bible on raising children? Can you find it? Do you practice it? Do you discipline your children according to the Bible? To answer – “We believe the Bible” is not enough. Prove your belief by the Bible.
D. We Claim The Bible As The Authority To Educate Our Children. Where is it found in the Bible? Where is your authority for home schooling? You can’t just say the Bible says it. Where does it say it?
Turn to:
Ga 4:1 Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; (This is talking about a child)
2 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. (KJV) You understand who the “tutors” would be, but the word “governors” is referring to anyone that would be over your child in any capacity. This whole process is under the authority of the father. In America, thus far, we don’t have any real conflict with this. But, it may come that you will have to go to jail if you insist on deciding when, where, and what your child is taught.
You cannot be any more acquainted with God than you know His Scripture. If you don’t know the scripture then you don’t know God.
E. The Bible Tells Us When To Stand Against The Government. Can you find it?
Most Christians need to just claim ignorance and then begin to get acquainted with Him through His scripture. You will have a hard time convincing God as to why you did not know His word. It has been available for 2000 years. You probably have never lived in a home where at least one copy of the Bible was not present.
If you don’t know Him it is because you don’t want to know Him.
(Jer 29:13 KJV) And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
(Jer 29:14 KJV) And I will be found of you, saith the LORD:
This is more than an occasional reading. “With all your heart” – This would be like you holding your breath under water and you get to the point that you must have air even if you die. That is with all your heart. Do you know God in that manner?
God will make Himself available to you. You can know Him.
Turn to: Job 23:12 KJV Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. (Someone tell me what does that mean?)
Are you willing to spend whatever time it will require in order for you to get acquainted with God? Are you reading the Bible through at least one time this year? If not then don’t tell anyone you know God. You may know who He is, but you don’t know Him. I know who Bill Clinton is but I don’t know him. I know who George Bush is, but I don’t know him.
Not only can we get acquainted with God through the Scripture, but also:
II. THROUGH SERMONS
God puts a great emphasis on preaching and sermons.
The word “preaching” is used 27 times in the Bible. We should value the preaching of sermons very highly on our list of what pleases God.
A. Listening To Sermons.
1. Sunday AM service.
2. Sunday PM service.
3. Wed. PM service.
4. Special services.
There will be nearly 200 preaching services each year in our church alone. Then we support other Independent Baptist churches in town who conduct various revivals and Bible Conferences throughout the year.
When you attend a preaching service, do you listen?
Do you sleep?
Do you day dream?
Do you sit here and plan your week?
Do you plan Sunday dinner?
Do you solve your business problems?
Do you really listen?
Do you plan your vacation or your business trip?
Do you feel that you know God a little more intimately each week after having heard the pastor’s sermon? God will use sermons to direct and move you in any certain direction.
Do you really listen to the preaching each service? Do you make mental notes, and then let it soak into your spiritual intellect?
You need preaching.
5. Cassette tapes. We have hundreds of cassette tapes available to listen to. Probably 100 or more different preachers on tape. Hundreds of different subjects and scriptures. You could go a long ways in securing a Bible college education through just listening to tapes that we have available here at the church.
6. Videos. We have several VCR videos that can be watched of various different preachers. Some of the greatest preachers in America are in our Video Library – the Bible Institute.
B. Reading Sermons.
1. There is a variety of sermon reading material available.
2. We have various publications available in the foyer that have sermons in them.
3. There have been numerous other publications that have many good sermons in them on different subjects.
4. You should make it a policy to read one sermon each day by some preacher. If you did this there would be less time to watch sinful TV. If you did this there would be less time to involve yourself in worldly or carnal ventures. I have been challenging you for several weeks to read more books about God and His plan for you. Are you doing that?
Each of you can develop a greater acquaintance with God through listening to and reading sermons.
III. THROUGH SACRIFICE OR SUFFERING Phil. 3:10.
Php 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; (KJV) Sufferings as used here is not talking about relation to the Cross. No one can suffer like Christ did on the Cross. It is talking about living for Him. Suffering and sacrifice coming to each of us because of our dedicatio.
To really understand what Paul is saying we must look at this in its full context: (Phil 3:7 KJV) But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. What does gain mean? Paul said that gain was to him loss. Gain is lucre. That’s money. Paul is saying, “If I have money then I count that loss for Christ.” He is not just talking about just having money. Rather allowing money to control you. When money controls you in your decision in giving to certain causes, and projects then this is what Paul is saying.
(Phil 3:8 KJV) Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
(Phil 3:9 KJV) And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
Then notice what Vs. 10 says:
(Phil 3:10 KJV) That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
This verse of Scripture seems to bear with it a great deal of sacrifice.
An acquaintance with God will require a sacrifice from the believer. Paul was saying that it may require us to give up all that we have to know Him in a real Bible manner.
A. The Fellowship Of His Suffering.
You can feel the physical attributes of this statement. Paul is talking about suffering for Christ. This is a great sacrifice to any believer.
Someone has said that one way of knowing a person is to suffer their ills and their problems with them. I believe this is somewhat of what Paul is saying.
(2 Cor 11:25 KJV) Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;
(2 Cor 11:26 KJV) In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
(2 Cor 11:27 KJV) In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
Do you know Him like Paul knew Him?
B. Being Made Conformable To His Death. “fashioned like unto”.
Being subjected to like conditions of His death.
Paul’s desire was to know Him in the same life style that Christ has lived. His enemies hated him and wanted to kill him. How long would your church stay consistent if people was trying to kill you?
How many of us today want to know Him in this fashion? I’m afraid there are not many willing to be “made conformable to His death.”
I have heard of writers writing a biography of an individual would go to that person’s homeland and live a period of time under the condition in which their subject lived.
C. Sacrifice Means That We Are Willing To Allow God To Provide All Our Needs For Us.
To experience this, you must put it to a test.
Dr. Tom Wallace said once, “Christians need to keep God obligated to them.” This can only be done through our own sacrifice to and for Him. This can only be done by the spending of one’s self.
No one will be very acquainted with God from an “easy chair”.
No one will be very acquainted with God without some type of sacrifice. That is because God is a God of sacrifice. He requires sacrifice. He gave the greatest sacrifice that anyone could give, His Son.
IV. THROUGH SERVICE
There is no better way to get acquainted with a person than to work alongside them for many years. Most everyone in this room now has become acquainted with someone with whom you have worked with for many years. You have become acquainted with their likes, their dislikes, their emotional attributes, their social preferences, their religious convictions, their habits, their family, their personal thinking habits, etc. You would consider yourself to be well acquainted with them.
A. Working With And For God Brings An Agreement. (Amos 3:3 KJV) Can two walk together, except they be agreed?
A Football team that has practiced and worked together day after day for months knows exactly what the other person is going to do.
The quarterback and the receivers seem to think together. The ball will be thrown by the QB to a spot where the receiver may not be at the time but the QB knows he will be there. Why? Because they have worked together over and over on that same play hundreds of times.
Do you know God like that? A person who has been working by God’s side for a long period of time will be well acquainted with Him.
V. THROUGH SPEAKING (PRAYER)
A. As You Communicate With God Through Prayer, And As He Communicates With You Through His Word, You Will Become Well Acquainted With Him.
(Exo 33:7 KJV) And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the LORD went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp.
(Exo 33:8 KJV) And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle.
(Exo 33:9 KJV) And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the LORD talked with Moses.
(Exo 33:10 KJV) And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door.
(EXO 33:11 KJV) AND THE LORD SPAKE UNTO MOSES FACE TO FACE, AS A MAN SPEAKETH UNTO HIS FRIEND. AND HE TURNED AGAIN INTO THE CAMP: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.
(Exo 33:12 KJV) And Moses said unto the LORD, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight.
(Exo 33:13 KJV) Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.
(Exo 33:14 KJV) And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.
(Exo 33:15 KJV) And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.
(Exo 33:16 KJV) For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.
Listen to another time Moses spoke with the Lord:
Ex 32:7 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:
8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
9 And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:
10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.
11 And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?
12 Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.
I wonder how many Christians of the 20th Century vintage could talk to God as Moses did in this passage? Do you know how and why Moses did and could speak with God like he did? Because he was well acquainted with whom he was speaking.
Listen to Abraham speaking unto the Lord:
Gen 18:22 And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the LORD.
23 And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?
24 Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
25 That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?
Can you imagine any human talking with God in such a manner? The only qualification that Abraham had to do this was that he was “acquainted” with God. They were on first name basis.
I have been in prayer meetings with John Rice, Lee Roberson, Tom Malone, Dr. Bob Gray, and Dr. Curtis Hutson. I’ve heard those men call upon God in a manner that was evident that they were well acquainted with the One they were speaking.
Answer this question today? How well do you know God?
How well are you acquainted with Him?
Are you acquainting yourself with Him today? If so, then you will have to use somewhat the method I have told you about today.
Are you on speaking terms? Do you know Him well enough to speak to Him as often as you wish? Can you speak to Him concerning anything you wish?
Eliphaz, Job’s friend, spoke good advice to Job when he said, “Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.”
Let me challenge you with the same words today, “Acquaint now thyself with him,”.
Why acquaint ourselves with God? Eliphaz said that “good shall come unto thee.” It will go you good to be acquainted with God.
INVITATION
BETH HAVEN BAPTIST CHURCH MINISTRIES
PO BOX 891523
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK 73189-1523
405-691-8701
This sermon and thousands of others are available on a CD Disk that may be purchased for $75.
If interested contact the above address.
