Delight in the Almighty

Delight in the Almighty

(No. 1839)

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 3, 1885,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"For then shall you have your delight in the Almighty, and shall lift
up your face unto God." Job 22:26.

THE Lord said to Eliphaz and his friends, "you have not spoken of Me
the thing that is right, as My servant Job has." And, therefore, we
must always regard what they said with careful discrimination. They
were wise men according to their light, but they were quite at sea in
their judgment of Job. However, in this particular verse, Eliphaz
declared that which is taught in many other parts of Holy Scripture and
we may profit by his utterance. God grant that by His Spirit we may
fully experience the joys described in the words before us.

Eliphaz and his friends had judged Job from their own point of view,
making their own experience to be the standard. They, themselves, had
prospered and, therefore, they inferred that if a man served God, he
must necessarily prosper in worldly things–and that if he did not
succeed as they had done, he must have been guilty of great crimes.
Though they could not discover any actual fault in Job, they concluded,
without further evidence, that he must have been a hypocrite and have
acted oppressively to his servants, or have been unmindful of the
claims of the poor, or in some other way have brought upon himself the
wrath of God. It never entered their mind that so terrible a sickness
and such a list of dreadful calamities could have befallen any man
except as a punishment for special sin. They inferred virtue from
prosperity, and sin from adversity. Unrighteous and cruel logic! At
once false and brutal! It renders men at once false witnesses and
Pharisees, condemning the innocent because of their sorrows, and
flattering themselves because of their ease.

To judge according to outward circumstances has been the tendency of
men in all times–even David could not understand how it was that the
wicked were so free from troubles while all day long he was, himself,
plagued and chastened every morning. A right principle lay at the
bottom of this wonder for, indeed, the Lord will reward the good and
will punish the wicked, but a great mistake is made when we suppose
that this life is the time for meting out rewards and punishments. God
will, undoubtedly, when the time shall have fully come, discharge the
full vials of His wrath upon the ungodly, but the present is a period
of long-suffering, where the wicked spread themselves like a green bay
tree. Unless God's mercy shall lead them to repentance, they are in the
same wretched condition as bullocks which are being fattened for the
slaughter! Who envies them? Many of the ungodly have their portion in
this life–they increase in riches–their eyes stand out with fatness,
they have more than heart can wish.

As for the children of God, it often happens that gall and wormwood are
mingled with their drink–waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.
We must not judge according to the sight of the eyes, or according to
present conditions, or we shall make gross mistakes. The richest may be
the most wicked and the poorest may be the most gracious. Those who
suffer least may deserve to suffer most and those who are most
afflicted in this life may have the highest glory in the life to come.

I suspect that Eliphaz and his friends had enjoyed smooth sailing. How
could they judge the man who had done business amid tempests? Their
mental life was not disturbed by great conflicts. They had not gone
deeply into things, nor searched to the bottom of spiritual
matters–they had no knowledge of their own hidden corruptions and had
endured but little of the rod of chastisement and, consequently, they
had been at ease. Their mistake was that they sat in judgment upon
another who was more tried than themselves–and condemned him for being
in sore distress. Their own serenity led them to judge the troubled one
very harshly. This ought not to be. If any of us are inclined, thus, to
judge and condemn, it is time that we put this mischievous spirit far
from us. If we judge others, others will judge us. Two can always play
at that evil game!

I remember a company of terribly despondent Believers who were, for
years, a severe scourge to their happier Brethren. Having a deep sense
of their inward corruptions, being sorely tempted of the devil and
having only a weak and trembling faith, they tyrannized over others who
were more happy than themselves. They judged that those who were not as
much tempted as themselves did not exhibit the spot of God's children.
None were more bitter than these humble people in denouncing those who
had not been as much humbled as themselves. Those who did not sit in
the dust and groan to the same tunes as themselves, they judged to be
very dubious Christians–and took care to scald them with that kind of
hot pity which is not much different from contempt! This was as wrong
as wrong can be. It is not to be endured that the sick should make
themselves the standard of health; that dwarfs should set up to be the
models of manhood! These worthy people set up a standard marked in very
black ink and those who did not come up to so much grief and so much
unbelief, they set aside as very questionable members of the Divine
family.

This is manifestly vicious, but it is equally evil when judgments are
pronounced from the other side. For persons in good health, whose
livers act well, who have abundance of this world's good and very
little care and trial–who have not often had to stand by the grave and
weep because the arrows of death have struck their dearest ones, who
have never known what it is to be wounded in spirit–for these to set
up their standard and condemn the weak and the sad, is a crime against
the Lord! To say, "If you do not believe as firmly as we do. If you do
not rejoice as we do; if you are not as sensible of sanctification as
we are–you are not in Christ at all," is a piece of arrogance very
grievous to the Spirit of the Lord.

Oh, my strong Brother, listen to one who knows by experience the
heaviness of a child of sorrow! Who made you a ruler in Israel? God's
children always play the fool when they play the judge–they are never
in order when they act as if they were the head of the family of Grace.
The Father knows all His children. All who observe carefully will also
know that while some are strong in the Lord and in the power of His
might, others are weak in faith and mere babes in Grace. These little
ones are not one jot the less precious in the sight of the great Father
than the more fully grown ones! Let none of the strong cattle push the
weak cattle with horn and with shoulder, for when the weak ones
complain unto God, He will regard them and will avenge them upon the
proud. If you are strong, God keep you so, and make you stronger– but
use not your strength for treading down the weak! If you are weak, the
Lord strengthen you, and deliver you from this malady, but do not envy
the strong and begin to speak lightly of those who excel you. The more
of light, the more of joy, the more of holy confidence, the more of
faith–the more glory to God–therefore covet these things earnestly as
among the best gifts. May the Holy Spirit help us to attain the highest
degree of Grace, but may He always prevent us from judging our
Brethren! Here was the fault of Eliphaz. He was right in many of his
statements, but he was wrong in his ungenerous application of them to
holy Job.

I want, this morning, as God shall help me, to lead you up to the
pastures on the hilltops. I pray that I may help you to a higher and
joyful experience in the things of God, while I shall speak, first, of
a desired position towards God– "Then shall you have your delight in
the Almighty, and shall lift up your face unto God." And secondly, upon
the question–when can this happy experience be realized? "Then," says
the text and, therefore, there is such a time when we can have delight
in the Almighty and lift up our face unto God.

I. First, here IS A DESIRED POSITION TOWARDS GOD.

Many men forget God–He is no object of delight to them, for they
ignore His existence and they would even think it a great relief if it
could be proven that there were no God–no God to observe them, no God
to record their misdeeds, no God to call them to judgment, no God to
punish them for their iniquities. Let us pity the multitudes who claim
to be happy without God, for it is the extreme of depravity when,
blotting out God from his soul, a man obtains a wretched comfort as the
consequence of his folly. To be without God is to be without rest in
the present and without hope for the future.

Great numbers of men go a stage further–they believe in God, they
cannot doubt that there is a Most High God who judges the children of
men– but their only thought towards Him is that of dread and dislike.
They do not want to hear of Him! If the things of God are forced upon
their attention, they are soon weary of such distasteful themes, for
they only look upon God as a just and terrible Judge who will certainly
punish them for their transgressions. It is woe to them even to think
of the great God. Though this dread of God and this neglect of God
cannot deliver them out of His hands, yet they find a kind of comfort
in it. As we are told of the ostrich, (I know not whether it is true or
not), that when it

cannot escape the hunter, it buries its head in the sand so as not to
see its pursuer–so these foolish persons blind their own eyes and thus
produce a foolish security of heart! They think of God with dread,
dismay, despondency and despair.

I am grieved to add that this principle even tinctures the thoughts of
true friends of God, for when they bow before God it is not only with
the reverence of a loving child, but with the terror of a slave! They
are afraid of Him who should be their exceeding joy. Their view of God
is incorrect, for it is not such as the Spirit of Adoption would give
them. They are really trusting in Him and in the great Propitiation
which He has set forth, but they have not come to know Him under that
blessed term which our Savior puts into our mouth when He bids us say,
"Our Father, which are in Heaven." Such trembling ones are still under
the spirit of bondage which causes them to fear, as condemned persons
dread the executioner. They stand like Israel trembling at the foot of
Sinai–they have not come unto Mount Zion and to the blood of
sprinkling, which speaks better things than that of Abel. God is still,
to them, exceedingly terrible, so that they fear and quake. Even though
they are His children, they are not able to lift up their faces unto
their own Father. They haunt the outer courts of the sanctuary, but
into the Most Holy Place they do not dare to enter–they see the smoke
of the burnt offering, but they have not learned to feed upon it and so
to have happy communion with God. These people may be safe, but they
are not happy! They may be saved from sin, but not from sorrow! Faith,
if it were stronger, would, effectually slay and bury servile fear.

Let us meditate upon what is here meant by delighting in the Almighty.
The man who experiences this delight is glad that there is a God. That
atheistic philosophy which makes the whole world to be a chance
production which grew of itself, or developed itself by some innate
force, is a very dreary piece of fiction to the man who delights
himself in the Almighty. I tremble at any teaching, religious or
scientific, which seems to place God further off than we have believed
Him to be. To draw Him nearer to me and, myself nearer to Him, is the
innermost longing of my soul! Do you not feel the same? I know you do
if you have a child-like spirit towards Him. We delight to see God in
the shadow of every passing cloud, in the coloring of every opening
flower, in the glitter of every dewdrop, in the twinkle of every star!
The Lord is personally at work in all the processes of Nature and
natural laws are simply the Lord's usual method of operation. Our God
is so near us that in Him we live and move and have our being! At this
spring tide, in the fragrance of the flowers and the song of birds, we
perceive God everywhere present, renewing the face of the year.
Beloved, the thought of God is to the souls of those who know and love
Him the most delightful that can cross the mind! To put God away from
us is injury to our happiness, as well as treason to our duty–but to
get nearer and clearer views of His Omnipresence, His Omniscience, His
Omnipotence, is to increase the joy of our heart.

To go a step further, the delight of the Believer in his God is a
delight in God as He really is, for there are, in the world, many false
gods of men's own imagination. Remember that your own thoughts of what
God is are far from being correct unless they are drawn from His own
Revelation. This sacred Book is infallible, but not our thoughts–and
where we differ from God as He has revealed Himself, we differ from the
Truth of God. It is as easy to make an idol out of your own thought as
it is for the Hindu to make a god of the mud of the Ganges. There is
but one God revealed in Holy Scripture, in Nature and in
Providence–His name is Jehovah–the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of
Jacob and who has still further declared Himself as the God and Father
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! He is God in undivided unity of
Essence, in the trinity of His Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

With all our souls we worship and adore Him! Just as God appears in
Holy Scripture, we are to delight in Him, regarding Him as love, as
mercy, as long-suffering, as justice, as power, as purity, as all
goodness and greatness in one! The characteristic which seems to cause
most delight to perfect saints in Heaven is not love, alone, nor mercy,
alone, but that which comprehends Grace and mercy, and much more–I
mean holiness. This is the perpetual cry of the seraphim, "Holy, holy,
holy, Lord God of Sabaoth." The holiness of God, or, if you will, the
wholeness of God, the completeness of God, the perfection of God is the
delight of all Believers. We would not tone down a single attribute. We
would not disturb the equilibrium of the Divine perfections, but we
delight in God in all those aspects of His Character which are
mentioned in His Holy Word.

Further, he that delights in God delights not only in God as He is, but
in all that God does–and this is a higher attainment than some have
reached. "It is the Lord," said one of old, "let Him do what seems good
to Him." Too many would call God to their bar and hold a trial upon
what He does with men in this life, and with the wicked in the world to
come. Far other was the spirit of the Apostle when he said, "No, but, O
man, who are you that replies against God? Shall

the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why have You made me thus?"
Concerning any event we simply ask–Has God done it? Then we bow before
His decree and say no more, for what He has done must be right and
wise. When the Lord afflicts us and hides the reason from our eyes, let
us not contend with Him. And if we cannot go further, let us be silent
before Him, even as was the afflicted man of God of whom we read,
"Aaron held his peace." Better, still, will it be if we can complete
our confidence and say with Job, "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken
away, and blessed be the name of the Lord." He that delights in the
Almighty will delight in Him even though he smarts beneath His hand,
and will bless Him even when His dispensations are killing ones–as
said the Patriarch of Uz, "though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him."

Practically put, this delight in the Almighty shows itself in the
Christian when nothing else remains to him. If he is stripped of
everything, he cries, "The Lord is my portion!" When the cupboard is
bare and the garments are worn out– and poverty stares the man in the
face–he says, "My God is such a satisfactory and all-sufficient
portion that I am rich and increased in goods while possessing nothing
but my God." The same is true when such a man is surrounded with every
earthly comfort, for he still feels, "The Lord is my portion." The
saint begs vehemently of his God that he may not have his portion in
this life. If God were to multiply his stores beyond his power to count
them, he would be dissatisfied unless in all these he saw his Father's
covenant love. One saint, who suddenly became poor, was still as happy
as ever, for he said, "When I had abundance, I saw God in all things
and now that I have lost my property I see all things in God." These
are equally blessed states of mind!

It were well to combine them and see God in all things, and all things
in God at the same time! So it should be with the Believer. "Why," he
says, "these earthly comforts never were my delights–these were not my
daily manna, but only little snacks for the time–sips of sweetness
while I pass through the barren wilderness." The Lord was and is my
chief portion, my well of comfort, the rock of my salvation. If we make
props of our outward joys, we shall fall when they are taken away, but
it we rest wholly upon the foundation of Divine Love, altogether apart
from external things, we shall never be moved. Happy is the Christian
who can practically enjoy delight in the Almighty by making Him to be
his All in All–all the day and every day!

You will see this delight in God exhibiting itself in frequent
meditations upon God. Such a man has pleasure in being alone with God
and his sweetest occupation is meditation upon the years of the right
hand of the Most High. He finds, in holy contemplation, pastures large
and green in which his soul does feed and lie down–

"My God, You are mine, what a comfort Divine! What a blessing to know
my Jesus is mine." These happy meditations very soon show themselves in
words. The man that delights in the Almighty delights to speak about
Him. That which is in the well will, before long, come up in the
bucket–and that which is in the heart will soon display itself in the
tongue. Is there any conversation more elevating, more consoling, more
strengthening than conversation about the Lord our God? And when you go
home from such society, do you not feel it sweet to fall asleep with
the savor of it upon your lips? Is not holy converse infinitely better
than all the mirth and merriment of the world's amusements? Here is
something to feed upon, something solid, something real–saints delight
to contribute to such conversation and to receive instruction from it.

"Delight yourself in the Lord." This will give you pleasure in the
midst of pain. Do you know what it is to have many aches, sufferings
and, perhaps, a throbbing head–and yet to feel that you have another
self which has no pain because it dwells in God, where all is calm and
quiet? You felt that it would be a great mercy to be released from this
painful life and yet you have not raised the question with your God,
but have waited His good pleasure. Faith has made you feel, "wherever I
am, whatever I feel, so long as God is near me and His sweet love fills
my bosom, I will greatly rejoice and triumph in the God of my
salvation."

This will show itself in your life, for it will be a pleasure to do
anything to exalt the name of God. It will gild your ordinary
conversation with heavenly splendor if, in it, you adorn the doctrine
of God your Savior in all things. You will march to Heaven beneath the
spell of celestial music and the bliss of the glorified will stimulate
your spirits when you can feel that all is for God, and that God is All
in All to you. This is to delight yourself in the Almighty. God give us
to get into that state and to stay there till we leap to Heaven and are
in that state!

I call your attention to the special name by which Eliphaz describes
the ever-blessed God. He says, "Delight yourself in the Almighty." Is
it not singular that he should choose a term descriptive of Omnipotence
as the paramount cause of the Believer's delight? God is Love and I can
readily understand how one might delight himself in God under that
aspect. But the Believer is taught to delight himself in God as strong
and mighty. What a mercy it is that there is a power that makes for
righteousness!–that at the back of all these wars and confusions and
behind all sin and false doctrine–there is an infinitely powerful God!
During the last few weeks you have felt an intense joy in the
Omnipotence of God. You have whispered to your forebodings–"It is all
right. The Almighty is not paralyzed, His arm is not shortened: the
Lord reigns." Brothers and Sisters, the pendulum swings to and fro,
advancing and retreating, but yet there is a real progress made–you
cannot see it by watching the pendulum, but up higher on the face of
the clock there is evidence of an onward march and of a coming hour!

The Kingdom of God is coming–righteousness shall prevail! Delight,
also, in the fact that Jehovah is almighty in mercy–mighty to save. He
can forgive the greatest sin. He can change the hardest heart. He can
help us to fight out unto victory the sternest of our battles against
unrighteousness! He is stronger than sin and Satan, for all power
dwells with Him. When you look at this phase of it and think of His
dear Son exalted on high to give repentance and remission of sins, you
may, indeed, delight in the Almighty Redeemer, as "able to save them to
the uttermost that come unto God by Him." Surely, when you see
Omnipotence linked with righteousness and mercy, you will delight
yourself in the Almighty!

Think, also, of the Lord's almightiness in the matter of the keeping,
preserving, defending and perfecting of all His people. The sheep of
His pasture shall not perish, for the Good Shepherd is Omnipotent to
smite the roaring lion who would devour them. None that trust in Him
shall ever be ashamed or confounded, world without end. All the elect
are well secured within the fold of Jesus, neither shall any pluck them
out of His hand. Delight yourselves in the Almighty, for all the power
of God is enlisted on the side of the Believer. To me, I confess, it is
an intense joy that He is almighty to carry out every one of His
eternal purposes. Jesus shall not fail nor be discouraged! That which
Jehovah has willed shall be–in the unfolding of the great roll of
history it shall be found that it tallies exactly with the Divine
purposes and immutable decrees! He that sits on the flood reigns King
forever and ever. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Let our hearts
delight that the Lord God Omnipotent already reigns and let us pray
that in yet, a further sense, His Kingdom may come, as come it will.
Let us delight ourselves in the Almighty, linking that word to every
other attribute and rejoicing that He has almighty love and Omnipotent
Grace. Again, let us say "Hallelujah!"

Now, let us turn with intense satisfaction to the other expression used
by Eliphaz–"You shall lift up your face unto God." What does it mean?
Does it not mean, first, joy in God? When a man hangs his head down, he
is unhappy–it is the attitude of misery. But oh, when our thoughts of
God are changed, and our relationship to God is different, we lift up
our faces and sun our countenances in the light of God's favor! The
face of God in His Anointed is toward the Believer and, therefore, the
Believer's face is toward the Most High. He has said, "Seek you My
face," and how can we seek His face but with our own faces? "Look unto
Me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth," is the Divine
call–and the Believer looks to God with intense joy, knowing that in
Him is his salvation!

Does it not signify, also, that this man is reconciled to God and clear
before Him? How can he, who is guilty, look up? Guilt makes a man hang
his head. "Conscience makes cowards of us all." But oh, my Brothers and
Sisters, when the atoning Sacrifice has come with all its power to
us–when we are washed in the blood of the Lamb and we are clean every
whit–then we lift up our face unto God! In that tremendous day when
Heaven and earth shall flee before the face of the Judge, we shall be
bravely calm, fearing no word of doom because we are cleansed by the
atoning Sacrifice, and justified by the righteousness in which we put
our trust! What a blessed thing to lift up one's face unto God in
confidence towards Him through Christ Jesus!

Does not our text indicate fearlessness? Fear covers her face and would
gladly hide herself, altogether, even though to accomplish concealment,
the rocks must fall upon her. That sacred bravery which the Holy Spirit
breathes into the child of God makes him cry, "Abba, Father," and, in
the spirit of adoption, he lifts up his face unto God!

May it not also signify expectation? "I will lift up my eyes unto the
hills, from where comes my help." "My expectation is from Him," says
David. Oh, to lift one's face toward God, looking for deliverance,
safety and rest–and expecting both Grace and glory from His right
hand!

Brethren, I am talking very simply of things well known to me, and yet
I cannot convey to you a sense of the joy of a face uplifted unto God.
You must feel it for yourselves, by lifting up your own faces. Some of
you poor creatures cannot lift up your faces unto God by reason of
despondency, but we pray that you may yet do so. If you have ever
looked unto the Lord through the glass of the Atonement, you will then
be able to lift up your faces towards Him with a calm delight. As for
you who are God's own people and yet go through the world in bondage, I
charge you, cry unto the Lord to change your condition and fill you
with His joy–for then your faces will shine in the light of His face!

I am sure that he who has this delight in God and this lifting up of
the face towards God, is a man that has wonderful peace with regard to
the past. The past is forgiven, its iniquity covered, for the Lord has
looked in love upon him. The man who walks in happy communion with God
has a wonderful peace with regard to the present. Is it well with you?
"Exceedingly well! God loves me, and I love Him. I am brought into
fellowship with Him by Christ Jesus, my Lord, and we are friends, with
a friendship which is secured by mutual delight and sealed by Covenant
engagements, so that it can never cease to be."

Such a man has peace with regard to the future. He has no fear of evil
tidings. His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. He is not afraid of
coming dangers in life, nor of the pangs of death, nor the terrors of
judgment. When you delight in the Lord, nothing can disturb the
unbroken current of your joy! The sublime serenity of the heavens which
arch above your head enters into your own spirit when the Lord, who
made the heavens, dwells in your heart! Strive after this sacred peace!
Delight in the Almighty and lift up your faces unto God.

II. I must close by noticing our second point, and that is, WHEN CAN WE
REALIZE THIS? I have not confidence enough in Eliphaz to make his
answer to the question the only one that I shall give you. I must give
you something fuller and better than was known to him.

First, a man can realize all this when he knows that he is reconciled
to God. What is God's way of effecting reconciliation between a sinner
and Himself? Every sinner is under the curse of the broken Law, for it
is written, "Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which
are written in the Book of the Law, to do them." No one of us has
continued in the perfect observance of the whole Law and, therefore,
God's righteous verdict is against us! The only way of escape from the
curse is through the glorious Son of God who took our nature and was
made a curse for us, as it is written, "Cursed is every one that hangs
on a tree." He stood in our place, bore the punishment due to our guilt
and thus became a curse on our behalf. All the sacrifices of the Jews
were types of this–they were fingers of light pointing to the one,
all-sufficient Sacrifice. That Sacrifice the Lord has accepted for men
and He has set forth the Lord Jesus to be the Propitiation for our
sins, and not for ours, only, but for the sins of the whole world, so
that whoever believes in Jesus Christ, God's appointed Sacrifice, is
set free from sin. And being set free from sin, he can then delight in
the Almighty and lift up his face unto God!

Yet even this could not effect our delight in God unless there was
something else. So there must be, in the next place, a renewed nature.
Our old nature will never delight in God. The carnal mind is enmity
against God! It is not reconciled to God, neither, indeed, can be. It
is an alien from the life of God and an alien it will always be. So,
then, you must be born again–and when a man is born again of the
Spirit of God and receives a new nature–that new nature delights in
the Almighty! There is an old nature in us which still fights against
God, but the new nature, which is of Divine origin, cries after God as
a child after its mother. It lives in God as fish live in the sea! God
is its element, its life, its All in All. So, Beloved, if you have been
both reconciled and renewed. If you have felt the power of the blood of
Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit begetting in you a new
nature–then you can delight yourselves in God!

In addition to this, you will delight in God much more fully when the
Spirit bears witness with your spirit that you are born of God. The
spirit of sonship is the spirit of delight in God. What son is afraid
to behold his father's face? A loving child suns himself in his
father's smile! How I have seen little children clambering up their
father's knees looking into his face and saying, "What a dear face it
is!" This is a faint picture of our joy in God through Jesus Christ, by
whom, also, we have received the Atonement. What would some of you give
to see the dear face of that dear father who was taken from you years
ago! I can understand Cowper saying of his mother's picture–

"Oh, that those lips had language!" Oh, that our departed ones could
speak to us, again! But our heavenly Father always lives, so never let
it be said that we dare not lift up our faces unto Him! We look up and
say in our darkest moments–

"For yet I kno w I shall Him praise, Who graciously gave to me, The
health of my countenance, Yes, my own God is He."

I cannot tell you the inexpressible sweetness of that last line to my
soul. Thousands of times it has fallen from my lips. If I have nothing
else, I have a God, and my soul lays hold on Him as Jacob grasped the
angel. I will not let Him go! Whether He blesses me or does not bless
me, I still will cling to Him with desperate resolve and cry, "my Lord
and my God." This God is our God forever and ever! He shall be our God
even unto death.

To come back to Eliphaz and to conclude with him. We shall delight
ourselves in God and lift up our face when we do as Eliphaz, here,
tells us. First, when we live in communion with Him. "Acquaint, now,
yourself with Him, and be at peace." If we do not know God, how can we
delight in Him? What delight can there be in an unknown God? Brothers
and Sisters, you are not half as happy as you might be because you do
not study this Book, where, as in a glass, you may see the face of
Jehovah your God! Oh, that you knew more of His dear Son, for he that
has seen Him has seen the Father! Take God for your daily company.
"Acquaint now yourself with Him." Great as He is, dare to be free with
Him. Though you are but dust and ashes, yet, like Abraham, speak with
Him as a man speaks with his friend, for as you know your God so shall
you delight in Him and lift up your face unto Him.

Then, further, we must, if we are to know this delight, lay up God's
words in our hearts–(v. 22). "Receive, I pray you, the Law from His
mouth and lay up His words in your heart." Your neglected Bibles hide
your God! When dust falls on the Scriptures, dust falls on the eyes of
those who have neglected them–and then they cannot behold the Glory of
the Lord God. The more of Scripture is understood, fed upon and
received into the inward parts, the more will be your delight in God!
You can have no pleasure in the Speaker if you despise the Word
spoken–let it be to you as marrow and fatness.

There must be added to this delight in the Word of God a constant
cleansing of the way. "If you return to the Almighty, you shall be
built up, you shall put away iniquity far from your tabernacles." God
cannot manifest Himself to us if we continue in sin. If you professing
Christian people are as greedy and hard as other people in your dealing
with the world–and if in your families you are as quarrelsome and
untruthful as the ungodly–God cannot come to your tabernacles. There
must be purification of life, or there cannot be fellowship with the
Lord. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Impurity
of heart will cause blindness of the eyes as to spiritual things.
Careful walking will bring joyful walking, but if you lose your purity,
you will lose your peace. If you are a child of God, you cannot sin
without feeling the rod–you must obey the Lord in order to enjoy the
Lord. Walk in the footsteps of Christ, who did always the things which
pleased the Father, and you will receive the joyful witness–"This is
My beloved son!" Put away sin wherever you perceive it and ask for
Grace to be helped to detect it in all its lurking places. Seek out the
Babylonian garment and the wedge of gold which Achan has hidden, or
else the Lord cannot abide with you. Get rid of your idols!–

"So shall your walk be close with God,

Calm and serene your frame.

So purer light shall mark the road

That leads you to the Lamb."

In addition to this, there must be a constant trust. "Yes, the Almighty
shall be your defense, and you shall have plenty of silver." (See v.
25). He who does not trust God cannot delight in Him. You cannot lift
up your face to Him while you think Him untrue. A childlike confidence
is essential to a holy joy. Let us throw ourselves upon God, as a
swimmer casts himself upon the water, that it may bear him up! Let us
trust in God as a child trusts its mother, without the shadow of a
question. We sometimes know a great deal too much of what we ought not
to know. I see some of God's children very anxious to feed upon the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil–but as for me, I am content
with the tree of life! The old serpent still persuades men to pluck
forbidden fruit from that evil tree!

I know children of God who hold their hands to their heads and cry,
"Would God we had never read that skeptical book and never learned how
to distrust the Lord!" Let the times past suffice for the feeding of
doubt. Let us eat no more carrion, but feed upon the salted meat of the
Word of God! Let us quit the garlic of Egypt and feed on the manna of
Heaven! We do not need to know what the world believes or does not
believe, for the world lies in the Wicked One. We do not care what may
be the spirit of the age, for the spirit of the world in all ages is
the Prince of the power of the air,

the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience! Be it yours
and mine to come to Christ, to live on Him and to believe on Him with
unstaggering faith–so shall we delight ourselves in God and lift up
our faces to Him.

Lastly, let us abide in continual prayer. Verse 27–"You shall make
your prayer unto Him, and He shall hear you, and you shall pay your
vows." Lack of prayer is a great lack, indeed! Slackness at the Mercy
Seat will soon take away the spring and elasticity of our spiritual
walk. If we are to have a closer walk with God, we must have closer
communion with God in supplication.

Now, dear children of God, I have set all this before you, but what
power can be in my words unless the Holy Spirit blesses them? I have
watered this sermon with strong desires for the spiritual benefit of
you all and now I am mourning over the many who do not know anything at
all about it! They are still devoid of the knowledge of God and of all
desire for Him. I am very, very sorry for you. My heart pities you. We
have heard of "the Bitter Cry" from the slums of London, and a bitter
cry it well may be, but there is a poverty, compared with which mere
lack of bread is riches! There is a degradation, compared with which
the low estate of the pauper is nobility itself! To live without your
God–how terrible a death! You know not what joy means! You have not
begun to spell the word, "delight," until you have begun with God. True
joy comes only from a true knowledge of the true God.

Oh, Sirs, if I had to die like a dog, I should wish to be a Christian,
for the sake of the bird in the hand of present delight! If there were
no hereafter, the immediate peace and joy of trusting my God are an
overflowing reward. But there is a hereafter and what will you ungodly
ones do when that hereafter dawns upon you? You have done without God
all your days and God will do without you all eternity! What terror
lies in that fact! He will say, "Depart!" because you always did
depart. He will decree your continuance in the path which you chose and
bid you keep on going away from Him forever.

He will say, "He that is filthy, let him be filthy still," and what
more dreadful doom can fall upon any one of you? O, you immortal
spirits, you need an immortal God! O, you that cannot cease to be, you
need the Highest of all Beings in whom you may hide yourselves from
ceaseless anguish! Trust in God and then shall you be filled with
infinite happiness, but not till then. God bring you to Himself, that
He may bring you to delight! May the uplifted Savior draw you and
uplift you! May you begin the life of Heaven by an immediate delight in
the Almighty–and from that delight may you never cease! To Him be
glory forever and ever. Amen.
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