(Read Job 22:15-21.)
THERE is wonderful counsel given in the 21st verse of this chapter: “Acquaint now thyself with him (God), and be at peace." That is the Holy Ghost's counsel to the sinner. He has been showing what took place with men who did not want to be acquainted with God, who said to God, “Depart from us." They were "cut down,” they were "overflown with a flood.”
Perhaps, my reader, you try to think that the story of the flood is a myth, you would like to think it all a mistake; and why do you thus dislike the thought of the flood? Because by allowing the truth of that, you admit that God does judge wickedness; and if you admit that He judges once, you cannot deny that He may judge again. He will do so.
The devil likes to get men to disbelieve the flood because he thus obliterates from their conscience the recollection of the holy character of God, who must and will judge sin.
The men of old times said, “Depart from us," and what do you say, reader? If anyone speaks personally to you about your soul, do you not also say, "Depart from us"? The beauty of the gospel is this, that it brings us into close quarters with God. You cannot deny the goodness of God to you, and yet your mind is at enmity to God, and why? Because you do not know Him.
What turns round a man's heart to God? Knowledge of Him. “Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace." When a soul knows the Lord the most miraculous transformation takes place. The gulf is bridged between the guilty soul and God, and you who drew back from God find now your delight in Him. There is nothing more terrible to an unconverted man than to have to do with God; he fears Him, he dreads Him, he knows nothing of this peace in his heart of which the 21st verse speaks.
“Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace; thereby good shall come unto thee.” What goodwill come? Eternal life, the forgiveness of sins, salvation, and the knowledge, too, that you are a saved person. No longer will you be an exile, but a child. And do you ask, When may I get all this? This Scripture gives the answer, “Acquaint now thyself with. God— not to-morrow, for to-morrow is not yours. To-morrow, some one else instead of you may say, "Depart," for yours are not the only lips that say, Depart." There is a day coming when the Master of the house will rise up and shut to the door, and then He will say, “Depart from me," to those who would know Him then.
Perhaps, my reader, you may never have been troubled, you may have a certain sort of peace, but it is not divine. The Lord tells us that “When a strong man armed keepeth his palace his goods are in peace." Who is the strong man armed?. The devil. What is his palace? The world. And what are his goods? The unsaved souls of men and women. When the Holy Ghost first speaks to the conscience, there is the very opposite of peace. There is trouble and dismay. But where the conscience is exercised, where the soul is broken down with a sense of its own wretchedness, God knows all about it, and He knows how to speak peace to such an one. If you will look at Isa. 57:15 to the end you will read “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." No, my reader, there is no rest; no peace for the soul that knows not God, either in time or in eternity. Your body may get rest in the grave, but there is no rest for your soul, no rest in hell. Your very face now bears the stamp of unrest upon it, though there may be carelessness and indifference, Satan not letting you be disturbed.
Perhaps you think the word wicked does not apply to you, you a decent, respectable, church going person. You who have put' your hand into your pocket to send missionaries to heir to convert the heathen. Yes, my reader, you may be all this, and yet you may never have been converted yourself.
Are you one who says, “I should like to be at peace with God. What can I do? “You can do nothing. It is too late for your doings; Christ has done it all, there is nothing left for you to do. Hear what God says of Jesus, “And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself" (Col. 1:20).
'What can blot out your sins and mine? The blood of His cross. What only can give peace? The blood of His cross. There was between God and man enmity. Where was the enmity? On man's side. Who departed from God in the Garden of Eden? Man. Who put the trees of the garden between him and God? Man. Who slew his brother? Man. Who put to death the blessed Jesus? Man. Who resisted the Holy Ghost in all ages? Man. You know, my reader, if you have resisted the strivings of the Spirit of God with you. It is always man who departs from God, who hates God, and it is always God who goes after the sinner, who seeks to win back the confidence of man.
Until you know God, you can never know real peace; until the blood of the Cross rests on you, you cannot know it. But the moment I see that on the Cross where the enmity of the heart of man put Jesus, there flows out all the love of the heart of God, then I get peace.
God speaks of an unsaved man and calls him “wicked," speaks of his doings and calls them “wicked works," and when I am brought down to see the truth of this, how glad I am when I find out my own guilt to turn round to Him, and find that He is the only One who can do anything for me.
It is true that man made the breach between himself and God, and, you say, he ought to repair it. But he cannot. He cannot do anything for himself: cannot give to God a ransom for himself, much less for his brother; but Christ has rendered to God that which He took not away. He has laid down on the treasury bench of God the sinner's ransom. When he said "It is finished," there remained not one thing for the sinner to do. He made peace by the blood of His Cross. He rose from the dead, and came and preached peace, and I get the Holy Ghost writing “He is our peace.”
What can give a guilty soul this peace? Acquaintance with God. “Acquaint now thyself with him and be at peace." God now takes the character of the "God of peace," and if I get to know God, I get to know peace, because it is the very character of the One I have learned to know. The Lord, too, is called “the Prince of Peace," and who are the subjects of this Prince? Every believer is a subject.
“Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God." What is it to have peace with God? It is to have a sense in the soul that there is nothing between God and me; that every question of sin is entirely settled, that what was due to me was all laid on Christ, and, therefore, when can I lose my peace? When Christ loses His place in the presence of God. It is all in Christ. He is my wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. He is my peace likewise, as the Holy Ghost says "Christ is all.”
The Christian is one who looks back and sees everything settled by the work of Christ, who has Christ now as His peace, and who goes out into the world carrying peace to others—a Peace-carrier. Again I say to you, my reader, “Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace." W.T.P.W.