A.W. Tozer, Bible studies and sermons

[Shammu]

QUESTIONS WE ASK
By A.W. Tozer

      I am convinced that anyone who brings up the question of consequences in the Christian life is only a mediocre and common Christian! I have known some who were interested in the deeper life, but began asking questions: "What will it cost me-in terms of time, in money, in effort, in the matter of my friendships?" Others ask of the Lord when He calls them to move forward: "Will it be safe?" This question comes out of our constant bleating about security and our everlasting desire for safety above all else. A third question that we want Him to answer is: "Will it be convenient?" What must our Lord think of us if His work and His witness depend upon the security and the safety and the convenience of His people? No element of sacrifice, no bother, no disturbance-so we are not getting anywhere with God! We have stopped and pitched our tent halfway between the swamp and the peak. We are mediocre Christians!

[Shammu]

BEYOND EMPTY PROFESSION
By A.W. Tozer

      Preaching from the pulpit about the Christian "deeper life" does not automatically produce a deeper life church and congregation. The profession of men and women that they believe in "the deeper Christian life" is no assurance that their fellowship is actually a deeper life church. The deeper spiritual life many people say they want is not a message; it is not a sermon; it is not a profession. I am a pastor and I think I major in telling the truth. It is true that it is about time we stop coddling and apologizing for congregations that have reputations for being deeper life churches. The deeper spiritual life is not something just to be talked about - it is a quiet enjoyment of daily blessing and peace and victory that is lived day by day; beyond empty profession and without any two-faced circumstances!

[Shammu]

CONFESS CHRIST'S LORDSHIP
By A.W. Tozer

      I think it is a completely wrong concept in Christian circles to look upon Jesus as a kind of divine nurse to whom we can go when sin has made us sick, and after He has helped us, to say, "Goodbye, Jesus"-and go on our own way. Suppose I go into a hospital in need of a blood transfusion. After the staff has ministered to me and given their services, do I just slip out with a cheery "goodbye"-as though I owe them nothing and it was kind of them to help me in my time of need? That may sound far out to you, but it draws a picture of attitudes among us today. But the Bible never in any way gives us such a concept of salvation. Nowhere are we ever led to believe that we can use Jesus as a Savior and not own Him as our Lord. He is the Lord and as the Lord He saves us, because He has all of the offices of Savior, Christ, High Priest, and Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption! He is all of these-and all of these are embodied in Him as Christ, the Lord!

[Shammu]

HOW DO WE LISTEN?
By A.W. Tozer

       The living God has spoken to lost mankind in a variety of ways. The general response among us has been, "We did not hear His voice. We did not hear anything." John recorded in his gospel the reactions of an audience of people who heard God speak audibly. When Jesus talked of His coming death, asking God to glorify His name through it, "a voice came from heaven, 'I have glorified it, and will glorify it again':" (John 12:28). And what were the reactions of the bystanders? "The crowd that was there heard it and said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him" (John 12:29). People prefer their own logic, their own powers of reason. even when God speaks, they refuse to recognize His voice. They will not confess that God has spoken through Jesus Christ, the eternal Son. When He confronts them with their sin, they consult a psychiatrist and hope they can get their personalities "properly adjusted." But in a coming day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of all!

[Shammu]

UNCLEAN BY COMPARISON
By A.W. Tozer

      In the Old Testament, whenever the living God revealed Himself in some way to humankind, terror and amazement were the reactions. People saw themselves as guilty and unclean by comparison! In the book of Revelation, the Apostle John describes the overwhelming nature of his encounter with the Lord of glory. Although a believer and an apostle, John sank down in abject humility and fear when the risen, glorified Lord Jesus appeared before him on Patmos. Our glorified Lord did not condemn John. He knew that John's weakness was the reaction to revealed divine strength. He knew that John's sense of unworthiness was the instant reaction to absolute holiness. Along with John, every redeemed human being needs the humility of spirit that can only be brought about by the manifest Presence of God. Jesus at once reassured John, stooping to place a nail-pierced hand on the prostrate apostle, and saying: "Do not be afraid. I am the Living One. I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and hades."

[Shammu]

GOD KNOWS THE HYPOCRITES
By A.W. Tozer

      I do not consider that it is my place as a Christian to stand around making judgments and calling other people "hypocrites." Our Lord Jesus Christ is the only man I know who was holy and perfect enough to call the religious leaders of the day hypocrites. I am just a man with faults and shortcomings of my own, and I must always consider myself lest I be tempted! I preach to my own congregation about our faults and our failings, with the warning that some of our professions of blessing and victory may get into the area of "umntentional hypocrisy." Through the grace of God and the kindness of our spiritual ancestors we may have spiritual light that some others do not have-but in all honesty, we are wretchedly far below what we should be in living up to it, day by day. It helps us to be honest and frank and humble to know that the great God Almighty knows the secrets of every person's heart!

[Shammu]

MORE THAN RELIGION
By A.W. Tozer

      Contrary to much that is being said and practiced in churches, true worship is not something that we "do" in the hope of appearing to be religious! True worship must be a constant and consistent attitude or state of mind within the believer, a sustained and blessed acknowledgement of love and admiration. If we have this awareness in our own lives and experience, then it is evident that we are not just waiting for Sunday to come to church and worship. Having been made in His image, we have within us the capacity to know God and the instinct that we should worship Him. The very moment that the Spirit of God has quickened us to His life in regeneration, our whole being senses its kinship to God and leaps up in joyous recognition! That response within our beings, a response to the forgiveness and pardon and regeneration, signals the miracle of the heavenly birth-without which we cannot see the kingdom of God. Thus the primary work of the Holy Spirit is to restore the lost soul to intimate fellowship with God through the washing of regeneration.

[Shammu]

HONOR GOD'S SPIRIT
By A.W. Tozer

      I think there are great numbers of Christian believers who ought to go home and go into their places of prayer and apologize to God for their demeaning attitudes toward the Holy Spirit of God. Included in their numbers are Bible teachers who are guilty of leading us astray. They have dared to teach Christians that the Holy Spirit will never speak of His own person or position, as though the third Person of the Godhead may be ignored and His ministry downgraded! Jesus said, "[When He comes] He shall not speak of himself, but whatever He shall hear, that shall He speak" (John 16:13b). Jesus was actually telling His disciples: The Comforter will not come to stand on His own, to speak on His own authority. He will guide you into all truth-He will speak and act on the authority of the divine Godhead: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If you do not yield and honor the Holy Spirit, your lives will not show forth the blessed fruits of the Spirit!

[Shammu]

RESPONDING TO THE SPIRIT
By A.W. Tozer

      Are we raising a whole generation of young men and women without any sensitivity to the voice of God's Holy Spirit? I am on record, and I will be as long as I live, that I would rather lose a leg and hobble along throughout the rest of my life than to lose my sensitivity to God and to His voice and to spiritual things! Oh, how I want to keep that sensitivity within me-within my soul! I am thinking about a great throng of men and women raised in Christian homes. They have been brought up in Sunday school. They probably cut their first baby tooth on the edge of a hymn book when the mother was not watching. Still, to this day, they are not right with God. Some have made a kind of profession but have never been able to delight themselves in the Lord. The reason? They have lost sensitivity to the message and the voice of God. If the Holy Spirit cannot move something within their beings every day they are not going to be effective Christians-if they are Christians at all!

[Shammu]

WHEN PENTECOST CAME
By A.W. Tozer

      As we read the New Testament, we find a very simple and very plain and very forceful truth-the Holy Spirit makes a difference! Consider the early disciples-Jesus Himself had taught them for more than three years-the greatest Bible school! But still He had to caution them and encourage them not to depend on their own wisdom and strength: "Tarry ye . . . until ye be endued with power from on high" (Luke 24:49b). He promised that they would receive the Person of the Holy Spirit to carry out His plan of world evangelization. After Pentecost, the Spirit brought them a new and vivid consciousness of the actual Presence of God. He gave them the gifts of divine joy and peace. He gave them great and continuing delight in prayer and communion with God! Finally, we recall that before Pentecost the disciples could only ask questions. After Pentecost, throughout the record in the book of Acts, they stood in the authority of the Spirit and answered all of the questions of the people concerning God's plan of salvation through the crucified and risen Christ!

[Shammu]

THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT
By A.W. Tozer

      The miraculous events wrought in Jerusalem by the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost indicated to the disciples that Jesus Christ, the Messiah-Savior, had indeed taken His place at the right hand of the Majesty on high. With Jewish critics all around, Peter lifted his voice and said that all who were in Jerusalem on that day were seeing the fulfillment of prophecy-the words of Jesus that He would send the Holy Spirit after His death and resurrection and exaltation. "Therefore," Peter cried, "let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36). Many, many have failed to note Peter's Pentecostal emphasis: the important thing in God's plan was the fact that Jesus had been exalted in heaven, and that His glorification there had been the signal for the coming of the promised Holy Spirit. What a lesson! The Spirit does not have to be begged - He comes when the Savior is honored and exalted!

[Shammu]

THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT
By A.W. Tozer

      The miraculous events wrought in Jerusalem by the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost indicated to the disciples that Jesus Christ, the Messiah-Savior, had indeed taken His place at the right hand of the Majesty on high. With Jewish critics all around, Peter lifted his voice and said that all who were in Jerusalem on that day were seeing the fulfillment of prophecy-the words of Jesus that He would send the Holy Spirit after His death and resurrection and exaltation. "Therefore," Peter cried, "let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36). Many, many have failed to note Peter's Pentecostal emphasis: the important thing in God's plan was the fact that Jesus had been exalted in heaven, and that His glorification there had been the signal for the coming of the promised Holy Spirit. What a lesson! The Spirit does not have to be begged - He comes when the Savior is honored and exalted!

[Shammu]

GOD IS SOVEREIGN
By A.W. Tozer

      Oh, how I wish that I could adequately set forth the glory of the One who is worthy to be the object of our worship! I do believe that if our new converts-the babes in Christ-could be made to see His thousand attributes and even partially comprehend His being, they would become faint with a yearning desire to worship and honor and acknowledge Him, now and forever! I know that many discouraged Christians do not truly believe in God's sovereignty. In that case, we are not filling our role as the humble and trusting followers of God and His Christ. And yet, that is why Christ came into our world. The old theologians called it "theanthropism" - the union of the divine and human natures in Christ. This is a great mystery and I stand in awe before it! The theanthropy is the mystery of God and man united in one Person-not two persons but two natures. So, the nature of God and the nature of man are united in this One who is our Lord Jesus Christ!

[Shammu]

BLAME SOMEONE ELSE
By A.W. Tozer

       In the earliest day of failure and tragedy in the garden of Eden, Adam came out of hiding, knowing full well his own guilt and shame. Adam confessed: "We ate from the fruit of the tree that was forbidden-but it was the woman who enticed me!" When God said to Eve, "What did you do?" she said: "It was the serpent that beguiled me!" In that brief time our first parents had learned the art of laying the blame on someone else. That is one of the great, betraying evidences of sin-and we have learned it straight from our first parents. We do not accept the guilt of our sin and iniquity. We blame someone else. If you are not the man you ought to be, you are likely to blame your wife or your ancestors. If you are not the young person you ought to be, you can always blame your parents. If you are not the wife you ought to be, you may blame your husband or perhaps the children. Sin being what it is, we would rather lay the blame on others. We blame, blame, blame! That is why we are where we are.

[Shammu]

UNHOLY, UNRIGHTEOUS, UNHAPPY
By A.W. Tozer

      All of history and the daily newspaper testify that the human race lies in ruin-spiritually, morally and physically. The long parade of gods, both virtuous and obscene, and a thousand varieties of vain and meaningless religious practices declare our spiritual degeneration, while disease, old age and death testify sadly to the completeness of our physical decay. By nature, men and women are unholy; and by practice we are unrighteous. That we are also unhappy is of small consequence. But it is of overwhelming importance to us that we should seek the favor of God while it is possible to find it, and that we should bring ourselves under the plenary authority of Jesus Christ in complete and voluntary obedience. To do this is to invite trouble from a hostile world and to incur such unhappiness as may naturally follow. Add the temptation of the devil and a life-long struggle with the flesh and it will be obvious that we will need to defer most of our enjoyments to more appropriate time!