A.W. Tozer, Bible studies and sermons

[Shammu]

GOD'S GRACE IS ETERNAL
By A.W. Tozer

      It is a typical and accepted teaching in Christian churches today that Moses and the Old Testament knew only God's law, and that Christ and the New Testament know only God's grace. I repeat: that is the "accepted" teaching of the hour - but I also hasten to add that it is a mistaken concept, and that it was never the concept held and taught by the early Christian church fathers. God has always been the God of all grace, and He does not change. Immutability is an attribute of God; therefore God at all times and in all of history must act like Himself! He is the God of all grace; therefore the grace of God does not ebb and flow like the ocean tides. There has always been the fullness of grace in the heart of God. There is no more grace now than there was previously and there will never be any more grace than there is now! The flow of God's grace did not begin when Christ came to die for us. It was part of God's ancient plan of redemption and was manifested in the blood and tears and pain and death at Calvary's cross!

[Shammu]

HIS CROSS IS MY CROSS
By A.W. Tozer

      To take Jesus Christ into your life without reservation is to accept His friends as your friends and to know that His enemies will be your enemies! It means that we accept His rejection as our rejection. We knowingly accept His cross as our cross. If you then find yourself in an area where Christ has no friends, you will be friendless-except for the one Friend who will stick closer than a brother. I made up my mind a long time ago. Those who declare themselves enemies of Jesus Christ must look upon me as their enemy, and I ask no quarter from them! And if they are friends of Christ they are my friends-and I do not care what color they are or what denomination they belong to. If the preachers would faithfully tell the people what it actually means to receive Christ and obey Him and live for Him, we would have fewer converts backsliding and foundering. Preachers who are not faithful one day will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and answer to a faithful Savior why they betrayed His people in this way!

[Shammu]

NEW TESTAMENT ROOTS
By A.W. Tozer

      It is really a blessed thing in our Christian fellowship and in our congregations that God never asks whether it is a big church or a little church! A young pastor, when introduced to a well-known church leader, said, "You do not know me. I am the pastor of a little rural church." I think it was a wise reply that came from the churchman: "Young man, there are no little churches; all churches are the same size in God's sight!" But, whether large or small, it must be an assembly of believers brought together through the Name of Jesus, to worship in God's Presence; and with the right to receive all that God bestows. With these roots, we should ask ourselves if we are truly interested in spiritual attainment as were the New Testament believers. We must confess that the spiritual temperature among us may often be lower than in the early church. But we hold to the message that those who truly honor the Presence of the Savior are included in this relationship that goes back to the New Testament and to the apostles!

[Shammu]

SPECTATOR CHRISTIANS
By A.W. Tozer

      This we have heard: "I am a born again Christian and I am happy that my sins are forgiven and I go to church on Sunday because I like the fellowship!" We ask: "Do you not go to put yourself in the way of spiritual blessing?" The answer: "No, I am saved and I do not need anything!" We ask: "Have you offered to witness, to pray, to encourage, to assist, to participate in your church's life and outreach?" The answer: "No. My church seems to get along very well without my help!" Brethren, this "non participation" kind of faith is a strange parody on Bible Christianity. Men and women who say they are believers just cancel themselves out. Is it something we have learned from the sporting events?-the great majority are spectators. They come and sit! If there is any true spiritual life within us, God will give us a gift of some kind and the humble soul will find something to do for God!

[Shammu]

DO THINGS POSSESS US?
By A.W. Tozer

      I think a lot of people in our congregations get confused when some learned brother advises us that we must all join in a fervent fight against "materialism." If men and women do not know what materialism is, how can they be expected to join the battle? Materialism in its crisis form occurs when men and women created in the image of God accept and look upon matter as "the ultimate"-the only reality. The advice, "We must fight materialism," does not mean that everyone should get a sword, and run after a fellow named Material, and cut him down. What it does mean is that we should start believing in the fact of God's Creation and that matter is only a creature of the all-wise and ever-loving God! The believer is not deceived into believing that the physical things we know and enjoy are the ultimate end, in themselves.

[Shammu]

WITHOUT FEELING?
By A.W. Tozer

      I do know something of the emotional life that goes along with conversion to Jesus Christ. I came into the kingdom of God with joy, knowing that I had been forgiven. I have had people tell me very dogmatically that they will never allow "feeling" to have any part in their spiritual life and experience. "Too bad for you!" is my reply. I say that because I have voiced a very real definition of what I believe true worship to be: "Worship is to feel in the heart!" In the Christian faith, we should be able to use the word "feel" boldly and without apology. What worse thing could be said of us as the Christian church if it can be said of us that we are a feelingless people? I think we must agree that those of us who have been blest within our own beings would not join in any crusade to "follow your feelings." But if there is no feeling at all in our hearts, then we are dead!

[Shammu]

WHO IS YOUR EXAMPLE?
By A.W. Tozer

      The Christian churches of our day have suffered a great loss in rejecting the example of good men, choosing instead the "celebrity of the hour" for their pattern. We must agree that it is altogether unlikely that we know who our "greatest" men are. One thing is sure, however-the greatest man alive today is the best man alive today. That is not open to debate. Spiritual virtues run deep and silent. The holy and humble man will not advertise himself nor allow others to do it for him. The Christian who is zealous to promote the cause of Christ can begin by living in the power of God's Spirit, and so reproducing the life of Christ in the sight of men. In deep humility and without ostentation he can let his light shine. To sum it all up: the most effective argument for Christianity is still the good lives of those who profess it!

[Shammu]

 MAKE GOD'S WILL OUR WILL
By A.W. Tozer

       The mystery of man's free will is far too great for us! God said to Adam and Eve: "Thou shalt not eat from this tree." Here was a divine requirement calling for obedience on the part of those who had the power of choice and will. When they disobeyed they usurped the right that was not theirs! The poet Tennyson must have thought about this for he wrote in his In Memoriam: "our wills are ours, we know not how; our wills are ours to make them Thine!" "We know not how;" then Tennyson girds himself and continues, "Yes, our wills are ours to make them Thine." As created beings, that is our only right-to make our wills the will of God, to make the will of God our will! God is sovereign, and we are the creatures. He is the Creator and therefore His is the right to command us with the obligation that we should obey. It is a happy obligation, I might say, for "His yoke is easy and His burden is light!" It is important to agree that true salvation restores the right of a Creator-creature relationship, acknowledging God's right to our fellowship and communion!

[Shammu]

WHY SETTLE DOWN?
By A.W. Tozer

      Why should a Christian "settle down" as soon as he has come to know the Lord? I blame faulty exposition of the New Testament for stopping many Christians dead in their tracks, causing them to shrug off any suggestion that there is still spiritual advance and progress beckoning them on. It is the position of some would-be teachers that everyone who comes into the kingdom of God by faith immediately obtains all there is of God's spiritual provision. I believe that such a teaching is as deadly as cyanide to the individual Christian life. It kills all hope of spiritual advance and causes many believers to adopt what I call "the creed of contentment." I am sure you agree with me that there is always real joy in the heart of the person who has become a child of God. Sound teaching of the Word will then hold out the goal of moving forward, emulating the Apostle Paul's desire to become a special kind of Christian!

[Shammu]

FALSE PRETENDERS
By A.W. Tozer

      All persons who are alienated from God and outside of Christ are part and parcel of a mighty deception! They are called upon to pretend that they can have peace of mind within and that they can be relatively happy and make a big success of their human lives if they have youth and wealth and morality and high position. In that sense of what is going on all around us, David never had to apologize for writing that "every man is a liar!" The whole human concept of success and happiness and inner peace, based upon who we are and what we have, is completely false. The rich young ruler who came to question Jesus had wealth, morality, position and youth. But his very first question gave the clue to his own inner emptiness of life: "What good thing should I do, that I may have eternal life?" He knew very well that there is not a person alive who has eternal youth or eternal position or eternal righteousness. So, like every other man, he had to make a choice!

[Shammu]

COMPROMISE IS COSTLY
By A.W. Tozer

      Christianity today is so entangled with this present world that millions never guess how radically they have missed the New Testament pattern. Compromise is everywhere-but actually no real union between the world and the Church is possible. When the Church joins up with the world it is the true Church no longer but only a pitiful hybrid thing, an object of smiling contempt to the world, and an abomination to the Lord! Nothing could be clearer than the pronouncements of the Scriptures on the Christian's relation to the world. The confusion which gathers around this matter results from the unwillingness of professing Christians to take the Word of the Lord seriously. This whole thing is spiritual in its essence. A Christian is what he is not by ecclesiastical manipulation but by the new birth. He is a Christian because of a Spirit which dwells in him. Only that which is born by the Spirit is spirit, no matter how many church dignitaries work on it!

[Shammu]

CHRIST MADE THE WORLD
By A.W. Tozer

      Think about the world into which our Lord Jesus Christ came-it is actually Christ's world! Every section of this earth that we buy and sell and kick around and take by force of arms is a part of Christ's world. He made it all and He owns it all. Jesus Christ, the eternal Word, made the world. He made the very atoms of which Mary was made; the atoms of which His own body was made. He made the straw in the manger upon which He was laid as a new-born baby. Let me digress here. I hear an occasional devotional exercise on the radio, in which the participants ask: "Mary, mother of God, pray for us!" It is only right that we should express our position based on the Word of God, and the truth is that Mary is dead and she is not the "mother of God." Mary was the mother of that tiny babe, for God in His loving and wise plan of redemption used the body of the virgin Mary as the matrix to give the eternal Son a human body. We join in giving her proper honor when we refer to her as Mary, mother of Christ.

[Shammu]

LOVING GOD ONLY
By A.W. Tozer

      The first and greatest commandment is to love God with every power of our entire being. Where love like that exists, there can be no place for a second object. Yet popular Christianity has as one of its most effective talking points the idea that God exists to help people to get ahead in this world! The God of the poor has become the God of an affluent society. We hear that Christ no longer refuses to be a judge or a divider between money-hungry brothers. He can now be persuaded to assist the brother that has accepted Him to get the better of the brother who has not! Whoever seeks God as a means toward desired ends will not find God. God will not be one of many treasures. His mercy and grace are infinite and His patient understanding is beyond measure, but He will not aid men in selfish striving after personal gain. If we love God as much as we should, surely we cannot dream of a loved object beyond Him which He might help us to obtain!

[Shammu]

ASCRIPTION OF GLORY
By A.W. Tozer

      I am discovering that many Christians are not really comfortable with the holy attributes of God. In such cases, I am forced to wonder about the quality of their worship. The word "holy" is much more than an adjective saying that God is a holy God. It is an ecstatic ascription of glory to the triune God. Everything that appears to be good among men and women must be discounted, for we are humans. Abraham, David and Elijah, Moses, Peter and Paul-all were good men, but each had his human flaws and weaknesses as members of Adam's race. Each had to find his own place of humble repentance. Because God knows our hearts and our intentions, He is able to restore His believing children in the faith! So, we should be honest and confess that much of our problem in continuing fellowship with a holy God is that many Christians only repent for what they do, rather than for what they are!

[Shammu]

THE MYSTERY IN WORSHIP
By A.W. Tozer

      Consider the experience of Moses in the desert as he beheld the fire that burned in the bush without consuming it. Moses had no hesitation in kneeling before the bush and worshiping God. Moses was not worshiping a bush; it was God and His glory dwelling in the bush whom Moses worshiped! This is an imperfect illustration, for when the fire departed from that bush, it was a bush again. But this Man, Christ Jesus, is eternally the Son. In the fullness of this mystery, there has never been any departure, except for that awful moment when Jesus cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46). The Father turned His back for a moment when the Son took on Himself that putrifying mass of sin and guilt, dying on the cross not for His own sin, but for ours. The deity and the humanity never parted, and to this day, they remain united in that one Man. When we kneel before Him and say, "My Lord and my God, Thy throne, 0 God, is forever and ever," we are talking to God!