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“There is a Way that Seemeth Right to a Man“

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There is a Way that Seemeth Right to a Man

Pastor and author A.W. Tozer

May 6, 1956

Outline

The importance of the end goal in life.

  • Life is a journey with a heavy commission, traveling towards an end.
  • Bible cares little about journey, only end matters.

The importance of choosing the right path in life.

  • Tozer emphasizes the importance of the end goal over the comfort of the journey, citing biblical teachings.
  • Tozer urges listener to take right path for right end, as all paths lead to finality.

Deception in spiritual journey.

  • Tozer warns of deception, noting that what seems right can be wrong.
  • Tozer warns of deception in religion, emphasizing importance of self-examination and proof of faith before it’s too late.

False ways and the importance of following the right path.

  • Tozer: The way of the drunkard doesn’t seem right, but it’s the way that leads to death.
  • Tozer: The way of the gangster, murderer, harlot, and thief doesn’t look right, but it leads to death.
  • False teachers abound, promoting doctrines of demons and lies.
  • Tozer warns against naming names in sermons, citing biblical precedent and personal experience.

False beliefs and the importance of living a life of Jesus Christ.

  • Tozer: Expertise in identifying counterfeit money comes from familiarity with real government issue.
  • Tozer argues that people are drawn to false religions because they seem right, but ultimately, only Jesus Christ is the true God.
  • Tozer warns against self-deception, highlighting examples of those who appear righteous but are actually on the path to death (drunkard, thief, harlot, worldly-minded, carnal professor, and procrastinator).
  • The way of life is the way of Jesus Christ, and it’s crucial to be serious-minded and think about the consequences of living a lifetime in error.

The importance of following Jesus Christ.

  • Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation, and He calls us to follow Him by renouncing sin and taking up our cross (John 14:6).
  • The Lord has people in various denominations and churches, including Catholics, Greeks Orthodox, and Calvinists, who have found the way to salvation despite their differences (Acts 15:14-18).
  • Tozer emphasizes the importance of having a good conscience towards God, rather than focusing on details of baptism or mode.
  • Jesus criticizes the Pharisees for their hypocrisy in religious practices, highlighting that it is the heart that defiles a person, not just external actions.
  • Jesus and his disciples eat with unwashed hands, demonstrating that following God’s laws is more important than following man-made rules.
  • Tozer warns against external religion, emphasizing the importance of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Message

We turn to an old and often-used verse in the 14th of Proverbs. Many, many years ago, I don’t know how many years ago, I talked once on this. And I have been thinking it over the last days and want tonight to use this verse as a basis for a few considerations.

The King James Version text reads this way, there is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. And this is not a comforting verse, and I wish it were, but it isn’t. There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end of it are the ways of death, a way and the ways.

Now, here in this verse, as many places in the Bible, human life is likened to a journey, and you and I are on a journey, whether we believe it or not. And we’re travelers carrying a very heavy commission. Like a wartime messenger, we’re commissioned and strictly accountable to Almighty God. And we cannot go backwards, and we cannot stay still. But life is a journey, and we’re traveling that journey toward an end. And the Scripture says, the end thereof.

Now, let’s think a little together about this, the end thereof. The Bible cares very little about the journey, but the Bible cares everything about the end of the journey. By saying the Bible, I mean, the teaching of the Bible. Of course, God it is who cares. God cares not so much about whether the road is long or short, whether it’s crooked or straight, whether it is paved or muddy, whether there are rocks in it, or whether it lies a black macadam all the way. He doesn’t care about that. He only cares about the end.

Today, it matters very little to the men and women of this world about the end. They think only about the comforts of the way. We have inventions that have made it comfortable. Our journey is more comfortable than it used to be. I often smile when I think about our modern methods of transportation. How they now make it possible for a man who has no reason to go where he’s going, to go comfortably. They now make it possible for a little man who doesn’t amount to much in his own community, to travel in such luxury, that as Caesar, or any of the rest of them of the great men of the world, wouldn’t have believed it possible. The commonest man can lay his money down now, can rise and travel as a king; and the magic carpet of olden times is nothing compared with the way men can travel now.

So, because we can thus travel in luxury, almost in royalty, we get the idea that if we’re going somewhere, we amount to something and there must be some reason for it. I think the old wartime slogan might well be back. Is this trip necessary? Why are you going? People are careful or are thinking only about the comfort of the way, but not the end of the way.

Now, the blessed teachings of the Scripture, reverse that. They do not care very much about the journey, but they care everything about the end of the journey. And remember, that to every man there is an end of the journey. And at last, that will be all that matters. It won’t make too much difference how you got there. It won’t make too much difference about whether you were comfortable or uncomfortable on your journey. But if you got where you’re going; if you accomplished what you set out to do; if you succeeded in achieving; and above all things, if the destiny that is yours is finally the one that God has ordained so that you can go at last assured and right, that’s all that matters. And remember that when the end comes, there’s no changing it.

Now, we can change it. A man is given a certain journey, a certain mileage is built into him, we’ll say. He’s got half a million miles, mileage built into Him. And God says, all right now, you can go half a million miles, and then you will fall apart, and you will not go any further. That’s it. Now, at the beginning, everything depends upon whether we start in the right direction. Because the end of the journey is altogether dependent upon how we aim, what direction we take, whether the journey is started right. But after you have used up your mileage and God says, all right, you’re finished, your through, why then, it’s too late to do anything about it.

Now, I’m very much concerned my brother. I’m not concerned to amuse you. And I’m not concerned even to cheer you up. But I am very much concerned that you might take the right path leading to the right end. Because the way that leads to the end that is right, is the only right way. All paths lead to an end at last. And there is an end for everything in the sense of a final finality. And then there is an end in the sense of achievement and destiny. But only the right way leads to the right end.

And you’re here tonight, and I don’t want to unchurch anybody nor suggest nor feed into your mind any doubts, but I only want to ask as a pastor, if the way you are going now will lead to the right end. Because you see, there is a way that seemeth right.

Now, this suggests the possibility of being mistaken. Religious deception is one of the most prevalent things that you know of. Even the person who earnestly seems to be going right may be mistaken, because it says here, there is a way that seemeth right. Do you notice that the path seems to be right? And the very fact that it seems right, makes it that much more treacherous. If it did not seem right, everybody would be suspicious and say, well, that couldn’t be the right way. It couldn’t possibly be the right way. But every false way, has certain proofs that it’s the right way; and you have to dig beneath the surface to be sure. You have to test and know.

Things are so much alike. Good is so much like evil, and evil so much like good under certain aspects. Truth is so much like falsehood and falsehood so much like truth when seen under certain lights. Just as a wax orange is like a real orange when seen under certain lights. Just as gold looks like brass and copper, and copper looks like gold under certain lights. But we have to do more than see them under certain aspects and under certain lights. We’re duty-bound to be sure about ourselves, because things seem to be so much alike. A live man looks like a dead man and a dead man looks like a live man. See a man lying under a certain light in a bed or on a couch, and you don’t know whether he’s alive or not. You may even have to call in a doctor to determine whether he’s alive or not, because dead men look like living men unless you examine carefully.

So, there are things that are unlike and absolutely hostile to each other and contrary to each other yet may seem on the surface to be the same. So, in religion, so in the journey from here to God, so in the journey from here to heaven or from here to hell. There are many things that seem right, and the ways are so many. And there are so many people shouting from so many house tops that my way is the right way.

There is every likelihood that even a small congregation that we have here tonight for some reason; even in this small congregation, there’s every likelihood that there are some who are honestly deceived. You see, this is not a question of a man knowing better and doing it anyhow, this is a question of a man being honestly deceived about the direction that he has taken; and such persons are doomed to a rude and terrible disillusionment in the awful day of Christ when the end has been reached, and when there is no reversing. No going back, we’ve reached the point of no return.

So, it’s important to prove it now while we can do something about it. It’s very important that we should, now, while we can test ourselves and be very, very sure. Because we only have so much mileage in this, you know, and we’re traveling, and we’re on this journey, and we’re going to reach the end of it one of these times. And it is very important that we don’t allow ourselves to be fooled by appearances.

And then it says here, the way of death. Now I’ve tried to talk briefly about the end thereof and the way that leads to the end and the way that seemeth right. And now we talk about the ways of death. Now, have you noticed that these ways of death are not the way of the drunkard, the gambler, the thief and the gangster and the delinquent? That’s too obvious. And the Bible doesn’t say in here anything about it. It says elsewhere, but not here. It’s a very comforting thing to fill hell with drunkards and say, well of course, a man that gets drunk and drives when he’s drunk and beats his wife and drives his children out the back door and lies in the gutter overnight, of course, that man is lost. Of course, he’s on the wrong way. But you notice that the Bible doesn’t have it in focus here at all. It says there is a way that seemeth right, and the way of the drunkard doesn’t seem right. Nobody ever saw a man staggering down the street pouring out filth and blasphemy from his lips and say that man is right. He’s on the right road. Nobody ever did that.

And yet, when we talk about the wrong way, we think about the drunkard, and we’re glad to use him as a dumping ground to dump all our own sins over on the drunkard and say there’s your man. But the Bible doesn’t say, the way of the drunkard. It says that’s the way that seems right, and the drunkard’s way doesn’t seem right. It’s wrong, but it doesn’t seem right, than the way of the gambler, the man who spends his time playing the horses or playing cards or playing the roulette wheel here in one of the gambling dens. That doesn’t seem right. Everybody knows that isn’t right. And they say that man is wrong. `He’s desperately wrong. You can look at him and know that he’s wrong. You can look at him and be sure that he’s wrong. All the marks of his wrongness are upon Him. The Bible says there is a way that seems right and yet leads to death. Not the way of the gambler, though that leads to death, but it’s not what is before us here.

Then here’s the robber and the thief, the purse snatcher and the man who climbs in the window when you’re away and steals everything he can get his hands on. The crooked businessman, the big shot gambler who robs, does that look right? Did Al Capone ever look right to anybody? Is the man who mowed down seven men on St. Valentine’s Day here a few years back? Did he look right? Did they look right? No, no. That way didn’t look right. The way of the gangster and the murderer, the way of the harlot. That doesn’t look right. Everybody knows that’s not the right way.

But nevertheless, there is a way that seems right and that leads to death. And there is exactly where the woe of it lies. What way is it? Well, it’s the way of the false religionist. Do you know, the Scripture talks about the doctrines of demons, and says that in the last days there shall be doctrines of demons, false teachers everywhere brought, teaching false religions. They’re everywhere and they’re everywhere now. In the last days, perilous times shall come. And those days are upon us now, days that we are speaking of right now.

The Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter time some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. speaking lies in hypocrisy and having their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats. The blindness that you can overlook, this is too much for me, forbidding to marry, there’s celibacy, and commanding to abstain from meats which God has created to be received with Thanksgiving, and so on. Why, my brethren, these are false ways.

But you say you’re one more church saying we have the right truth, and everybody else is wrong. No, we’re not, and we are not. And I do not say that we have all the truth and nobody else has any truth, I would be ten times a fool If I dared to say a thing like that. I say that we have in our hands, accessible to us for very little, and you’re going to borrow one from your neighbor, if you don’t have one, a book that tells us the right way, the way of Christ who is the Truth and the Life; the way of the cross, the way of faith, the way of simplicity, the way of repentance, the way of righteousness. And it’s not all held in this church, but there are God’s people scattered all over the world in many groups and denominations who have found the right way. They have the way of truth.

But there are the ways of the false religionist. You know that. So, they look right. And they managed to doll everything up and make it look completely right.

I have been criticized because I do not name names. I get letters saying Mr. Tozer, you lay down principles, but you don’t name names. Why don’t you name people that are wrong? Why don’t you give names and addresses of people that are racketeers and false leaders? And why don’t you name people that are leading the church of Christ astray? And my answer is, two reasons. One is, that if I were to put in print what I know to be true about many people, I would be in libel suits continually. And the second is, I would not be Scriptural. The Lord laid down principles. He said, there shall be wolves in sheep’s clothing. But He didn’t say though that wolf lives at such and such an address. He said, beware of false prophets, but he didn’t name the false prophets.

And Paul said, in the last days, perilous times shall come. And there shall be false teachers, but he didn’t name the false teachers, only on one or two occasions. John named a fellow by the name of Demetrius and Paul named one or two, but mainly they named nobody. They laid the principle down and said, now, this is what is right. And if they don’t conform to this, then they’re wrong.

One of our preachers some years ago, decided to preach a series of sermons on false doctrines. And he really was laying them out good. He was naming them and calling them by name. And Sunday night after Sunday night, he preached on false doctrines. And the more he preached, the colder his heart got, the colder it got. So, at last, after several weeks of it, he went down before the Lord in real earnest prayer and said, Father, what’s the matter? And the voice said to his heart, it’s those sermons you’re preaching on false doctrines. Then he said, he lay literally down and beat the floor and cried, O God, am I wrong? Am I wrong? Are these doctrines, right? And the voice said, no, you’re not wrong in your doctrine, but you’re wrong in your spirit. You’ve got a wrong spirit toward these false doctrines. And that’s what’s the matter with you. You’re fighting false doctrines so hard that you’re losing love and patience and tolerance, and you’re hurting your own heart. And that’s what’s wrong with you.

Well, he said he went to a banker, or a man who worked in a bank and handled a lot of money, and whose business it was to test and tell and find counterfeit money. And he said to him, your job is to be able to locate and identify counterfeit money? He said, yes, that’s my job, that’s what I do in a big bank downtown.

Well, he said, you must have studied it a long time, he said. I did, I took a course in it in order that I might be able to identify counterfeit money. Well, he said, I suppose that you have handled vast amounts of counterfeit money before you got good and became an expert in this matter. The fellow smiled and said, the simple fact is, I have never handled any counterfeit money. And he said all the time that I was studying, I never saw a piece of counterfeit money. He said, we never looked at it. He said, what? You can identify counterfeit money and know it instantly as soon as your eye falls on it and yet you’ve never saw any while you were studying to work at that job? He said, that’s correct.

Well, the preacher said, what did that teach you? He said, they let us see and examine and feel and live with real government issue. And we became so familiar with every denomination, every one of the the numbers of bills that are put out by the government, and the silver, so that we knew the real things so well, that as soon as any variant appeared, we saw the difference in a second.

The preacher relaxed and went home smiling and told God what a fool he had been. He said, Heavenly Father, I have been out trying to teach the people to avoid counterfeit money when all the time I shouldn’t have been teaching them to know the real thing so well, that they’d be able to know the false thing across the street. So, he gave up his series against false doctrines.

So that’s why I never preach against Adventism nor against Father Divinism or against any of the isms. My business is to tell you all about Jesus Christ and all about what He did for you and all about what He will do for you and all about what the Bible teaches about the great major facts of the world and of heaven and earth and hell. And when you get familiar with them, you won’t need to worry about false doctrine, because you will know false doctrine clear across the street. So the way of the false religionist is a way that seems all right.

I wonder tonight how human beings educated in American schools can believe some of the things they believe, but they do, because they seem all right. Father Divine, for instance, bless him, peace, it’s wonderful. And he seems all right. Everybody’s happy, saying peace, peace, peace, and they claim to live right. I think they do. But they say he’s God. And God says, I am God. This little man says, I am God. I wonder who’s going to die. The God who says, I am God, or the little god who says, I’m God. I wonder who’s going to be buried and put away shamefacedly underneath the ground one of these days? The God who made the heaven and earth and says my name is Jehovah, I am God, or the little man who doesn’t know who his father was and who says, I’m God. I think I know which one is going to be buried. And yet there are people following him. All sorts of people saying peace, it’s wonderful and lining up just to get a touch of the father, poor people.

Then there’s the self-righteous. The self-righteous, those who believe they’re all right. You know, it’s possible, brother, to be wicked as the very devil and still think you’re all right. That’s a wrong way. The drunk man who staggered to his feet and says, I’m not so bad. And right in the midst of his drunkenness, defend his own righteousness, self-righteous on the wrong way. But he looks all right. There’s the carnal professor, the religious minded fellow who loves poetry and the Scriptures, but he’s not renewed inwardly. And he’s been confirmed and baptized, and he’s been given the work, but he’s not a Christian, nevertheless. He’s only a professor of Christianity.

Then there’s the worldly-minded person. The man James said, ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore who will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. And John says, love not the world neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. And yet that same worldly minded fellow shows up with his new suit on Easter, and shows up with his flower on Mother’s Day, and shows up with all the external accoutrements that indicate that he’s a Christian, but he’s got a mind that worldly. He belongs not to the kingdom of God, but to the kingdom of Adam. Then there’s the hopeful procrastinator, who’s putting it off.

All of these I mentioned as samples of those who seem to be all right. The drunkard doesn’t. The thief doesn’t. The harlot doesn’t. But these seem to be all right. And because they seem all right, they go on believing themselves to be all right. And the end thereof are the ways of death. Can you think of anything? Are you serious minded enough to think with me a minute here and say to yourself, how terrible, how terrible to go on a lifetime, thinking honestly, believing that I’m alright. And then finding in the end that I was all wrong and was on my way to death?

Well, what is the way of life? The way of life is the way of Jesus Christ our Lord. He said, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. And they said, mine eyes have seen thy salvation. And He said, I am the Door and by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved. Jesus Christ, that’s the way. You can state it, this denomination or that one, but it’s Jesus Himself is the way and He calls us to Him. He calls us to Him to follow Him to take His cross, and walk with Him, and be willing to renounce sin. For He came to delivery his people from their sin and publicly owned Him as the Savior.

For if men will not own Him, He says, He won’t own us. But if we own Him before men, He will own us before the Father which is in heaven. It’s all so very, very simple. Come unto Me. Believe in Me. Receive me. Accept Me. Take My cross and follow Me. It’s all so very simple that the church doesn’t half believe it and the world doesn’t believe it at all. So, the way that leads to God and to peace and to a good end and to happiness at last, is the way where Jesus Christ is found.

And you know, He has His sheep everywhere. He has His people, His sheep, thank God, who know Him. Not only in this church, but in many churches. I often look back and remember the Catholic woman that I knew in another city. She was a converted woman. She loved Jesus Christ with glowing devotion. Her eyes shown when she talked about the Lord and salvation. And she did more for me and my family, I think, than any protestant in that city.

But she was a Catholic and went to the Catholic Church. She found the Lord somewhere in the middle of it all. Now, I admit, I don’t know how. In the midst of all the paraphernalia, I don’t know whether I’d ever see the Lord, but she found Him. You will find them among the Greek Orthodox. You will find them in Mar Thoma church by the thousands. You’ll find a few among the Coptics. You’ll find them among the Calvinists and the Armenians, the Baptists and the rest. The Lord has His people. They have all found the way. They’ve put away the way that seems right and they’ve taken the way that is right, which of course, always is Jesus Christ the Lord.

You know, friends, if you’re mistaken on some details, it’ll be all right anyhow, if you have found Jesus the Son of God. You get into an airplane and forget your baggage, you have your ticket, you’ll make it all right. If you will get to where you’re going. You can be mistaken about what town that is down underneath. You can be mistaken about the name of the plane you’re on. You may even be mistaken for the moment about the line, the company that’s flying it. But if you have your ticket and the plane is bound to the right city, you will be alright.

So, Christians can be mistaken about a lot of things and yet right in their hearts, and they can be right about a lot of things and yet wrong in their hearts. You say, which mode of baptism is right? I answer you with the answer of a good conscience to God. But have you got Jesus? Is He your Savior? Do you love Him now? Are you trusting Him now? Then you’re all right, you’ve got your ticket. And you’re all right, even though you’re mistaken about the little details around the margin. God isn’t hard to live with and He isn’t demanding, and He isn’t exactly. He only wants to know that you love Him with all of your heart.

What kind of God would God be that made a difference between heaven or hell, whether somebody had or hadn’t pronounce some word over me; Had or hadn’t put water on my head; Had or hadn’t dunked me into the into the water; Had or hadn’t confirmed it? What kind of God would he be, that would make arbitrary rules, as arbitrary as the rules of bridge or baseball and say now, you either play My way or you go to hell. What kind of God would that be? He certainly wouldn’t be the God of the Bible. He certainly wouldn’t be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who never cared about details.

The Pharisees were great for details. Their phylacteries had to be so wide. They stood in a certain position to pray. And they wouldn’t walk over the grass on the Sabbath day for fear they trample out the seed out of the head of grass, and thus be threshing. They wouldn’t gather an egg or eat it that had been laid on the Sabbath day. And otherwise, they made pests out of themselves. And they thought that God was such a one as they. Jesus Christ smiled and said, you don’t understand. You don’t understand at all, because I am here to save you. I’m here to be your Friend and your Redeemer and to die for you and to rise; and you come and follow Me. And if you follow Me, everything will be alright.

So, he turned their eyes away from eggs and grass and days and meat and clean hands. Those old Pharisees were so rotten inside, you could smell them a block away. And yet, they wouldn’t eat without washing their hands. They scrubbed themselves very carefully before they would touch a bite of food.

Jesus came in one day, relaxed and easy, traveling along with His group telling them about God and heaven and salvation. And Peter said suddenly, say, I’m hungry. And the Lord said, well, it is getting late. Let’s eat. So, they got a basket out and all got a meal. The Pharisees were ringed around them, all ringed around them, their little beards shaking, you know, all around Him. And Jesus sat down, broke the bread and handed Peter a piece, Bartholomew a piece, John a piece, and they all began to eat. And they ran around saying, look, look, He doesn’t wash His hands before He eats. Look, he’s defiling himself. Jesus stood up, put His lunch down and said to these hostile men around the body, not what enters into a man’s stomach defiles him, but what comes out of his heart makes him unclean. And they all turned and slunk away, because crawling out of their hearts were vile worms and serpents and toads and evil vermin and rodents. They were bad inside, but they were careful to wash in soap before they ate their lunch.

So, Jesus always smiled about the outside. He said, what do you have inside, friend? What’s inside of you. What do you have inside? It’s the religion, the way that is right is the religion of the heart inside. And if you’ve got Christ in your heart inside, it doesn’t make too much difference about the other thing. Salvation that depends upon the weather I never thought much for.

Suppose that a man lived way out in the Arizona desert, and he was dying, and there was a little creek there and in wet weather the creek flowed, but in dry weather it didn’t. And he had gotten converted, and he loves the Lord. But he was dying, and the pastor couldn’t baptize him because the creek was dry. And the Lord up in heaven looking down says, too bad about that because if it had rained and it had water, he would have made it through. But it didn’t rain, and they don’t have water and I’ve got to send him to hell. Too bad, I’m sorry to do it. Depart from me.

Can you imagine a grotesque situation like that? Never, never, Brother. Can you imagine God condemning a man because he didn’t wash his hands? You should wash your hands, surely. But what’s that got to do your relation to God? Jesus Christ is your relation. He’s your link. He’s the golden link that binds you to God.

So, you take Jesus Christ, love Him, believe Him, follow Him, trust Him fully, then obey, then obey Him as much as you know how. But in the meantime, know that He’s your salvation. He’s everything. There is a way that seems right, smooth and externally alright, but it’s a deadly way for it leads to the way of death. I hope you’re not on it. If you are, you don’t have to be. You can change tonight. You can move over unto the way that leads to God which is Jesus Christ our Lord. Let us stand.

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Tozer Talks

“Discouragement and What The Christian Can Do About It“

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Discouragement and What the Christian Can Do About it

Pastor and author A.W. Tozer

May 5, 1957

Outline

Christian discouragement and its effects.

  • Tozer warns against discouragement, recognizing it as a valuable tool for the devil in his war against Christians.
  • Discouragement affects Christians of all ages and backgrounds, including the young and old, the sober-minded and the radiant.

Causes and cures for Christian discouragement.

  • Tozer: Christians struggle with discouragement despite appearing holy and happy.
  • Elijah’s loneliness led to discouragement, highlighting the importance of supportive relationships.
  • Tozer warns of discouragement in spiritual pursuits, emphasizing shared experiences among believers.

Spiritual encouragement in dark times.

  • Tozer emphasizes God’s promise of never leaving or forsaking believers, even in times of discouragement.
  • Tozer argues that Christians should not be discouraged by the wickedness of others, as it is a normal part of history, and the darkness makes the light of faith more visible.
  • Tozer cites Jeremiah as an example of a discouraged prophet who continued to pray and preach despite his feelings and believing men and women have learned how to live and shine in darkness over the past 2600 years.

Feeling trapped and captive despite freedom.

  • Tozer expresses feeling trapped and captive despite being an American, citing work and financial responsibilities.
  • Tozer reflects on captivity and spiritual growth, citing Ezekiel’s experience in Babylon.
  • Tozer advises young students to prioritize prayer and spiritual growth alongside academic work.

Christian biography and discouragement.

  • Tozer: Discouraged Christians are often gloomy and anticipate negative things, but God’s presence can give them rest and courage.
  • Tozer: Meeting gloomy brethren can be challenging, but God’s presence can overcome their discouragement and fear.
  • Tozer argues that many Christian biographers are dishonest by only highlighting the positive aspects of their subjects’ lives while hiding their flaws and failures.
  • Tozer believes it is the obligation of Christian biographers to tell the whole truth, including both the good and the bad, to their readers.
  • Tozer warns against discouragement from reading about great saints, sharing personal experiences to illustrate the importance of understanding their full story.

The importance of God’s help in times of darkness.

  • Tozer emphasizes the importance of living saints, not just those who have passed away, as they are the only ones God has now to continue His work.
  • Tozer encourages believers to trust God and write biographies about them, highlighting their good deeds and magnifying their impact.
  • Tozer emphasizes the importance of trusting in God’s help during difficult times, citing Psalm 103:1-6.
  • Tozer encourages believers to approach the Lord’s Supper with reverence, humility, and meek self-assurance, knowing that God is watching over them.

Message

This is Communion Sunday, but I am not going to talk about redemption; I’m going to assume it. And the text is found in Deuteronomy 1:21. Behold, the Lord thy God has set the land before thee. Go up and possess it. For the Lord God of thy fathers has said unto thee, fear not, neither be discouraged. Go up and possess the land and remember that God has said, fear not, neither be discouraged.

I want to talk a little about discouragement and what the Christian can do about it. This topic comes up in cycles of perhaps 10 or 12 years in this pulpit. Perhaps, it should come more frequently, because I know what a perfect nuisance discouragement is. It is one of the Christians worst enemies. Maybe it is not the greatest, I doubt that it is the greatest. I doubt that discouragement is the greatest enemy the Christian has, but it can easily be the greatest nuisance the Christian has to deal with. And it is a valuable thing to the devil on his war against the saints, because it is seldom recognized for what it is.

When a Christian becomes discouraged, his good, sound, common sense tells him he’s just being realistic. And he’s forgetting that it’s not realism, it is discouragement, and it works when no other temptation will. The Christian that would not be guilty of any sin willingly and who has victory enough that he or she doesn’t fall into temptation unwillingly, may yet be visited by this infernal, dark shadow from the pit, this thing we call discouragement, and greatly hindered in the Christian life.

Now, discouragement, as I’ve pointed out before on other occasions, is a mood. It is an emotion which can easily become a ruling emotion. And it is more than an emotion, it becomes after a while a disposition. It becomes an outlook and an attitude. It becomes a lens through which we see everything; dark glasses through which we behold everything before us. And of course, mood, is mental climate. It isn’t the man, it’s the weather that the man has on the landscape of his life. Just as weather isn’t the field or the farm, but it goes a long way to determine whether the farm shall have a good crop or not.

So, mood is not the man, but it determines whether there shall be a good crop and what kind of plants are going to grow. A joy and power and effective ministry simply can’t grow in the climate of discouragement. But fear and self-pity and self-engrossment are found there.

Now, you’d be surprised, I suppose, if you could know how many Christians at any gathering are bothered by a degree, at least of, discouragement, because it spares no class of Christian. There is the young Christian and there’s the old Christian. And I find that after serving the Lord, more or less raggedly and spotly, but serving him nevertheless for a long half or two thirds of a lifetime, I am nevertheless as prone to discouragement today as I was when I was 17. So that, if I’m any sample, even a poor sample, it is safe to say that this discouragement spares nobody. The sober minded man that you take to be a solid, well set up and self-assured person, may be suffering from a deep discouragement, so deep, that it’s affecting him physically.

And then there’s the radiant Christian, the shining Christian. I meet a few of them, not many, but you meet a few radiant Christians. They’re shining, ebullient Christians. They overflow. And yet, in the deep of their heart, very often, they also get discouraged. they keep the shine on, and they don’t mean to be hypocritical because they’ve learned to smile and muscles are used more than the other, so they still smile. But if you could get at the root of their lives, you’d find they were deeply discouraged over something.

And there are the very lofty Christians that seem to dwell so very high that you could hardly believe it possible that dwelling as they are, as it were among the angels, that they could be discouraged. But they do get discouraged anyhow. Then there are those practical, down to earth Christians that are followers of the Apostle James, the kind that are practical and salty. And you say, well, surely, they never would be discouraged, but they get discouraged, too.

And if you could know how many right here this morning came to church with heavy feet. Dragging what might not be very big feet, but that seemed to you, like as if each one weighed 40 pounds, dragging them off to church, because you felt you ought to. But you had no particular urge because of the discouragement that’s come upon you.

I want to talk a bit about the causes of discouragement and prescribe a cure. You know, the difference between negative preaching and or positive preaching of the Bible kind is, that negative preaching finds out what’s wrong and positive prescribes for the remedy. The doctor that would only diagnose, tell you what’s wrong and set you on your way, would only be half a doctor. And a book that would only tell us what’s wrong with us would only be half a book. But this book tells us what’s wrong and then tells us what to do about it. I want to do that myself.

Well, one of the causes of discouragement is loneliness. There was the man, Elijah. And he is a dramatic example of a great man that became deeply discouraged. He was discouraged because there was nobody around him that understood him and nobody that was going his way. He lacked the support of like-minded souls. It may be that in your home or in your office, or wherever you must spend a major part of your time, that you have no like-minded souls with whom you can have fellowship. Now, that may bring to you, as it did to Elijah, a great sense of loneliness.

And here is a little trick that I want to call to your notice. That the loftier and more dramatic the character is, the farther down he can plunge into discouragement. There never was a man I suppose in his lifetime, or perhaps in 1000 years period in Israel’s history, that could have gone onto the mount and dared to call the prophets of Baal to make a test. Elijah did it. And Elijah went from that mount where a fire fell, and the victory came straight down to the cave and to the juniper tree.

Now, the higher up you’re able to go, the further down you can go. They have a saying in the prize ring that the bigger they are, the harder they fall. And that same thing is true in the spiritual world. The farther up we get, the farther down we can come unless we watch ourselves and take the means of grace to save ourselves from discouragement. And the higher the ideals; some Christians are never very discouraged because they have never had very much to aim at. They don’t expect anything and when they don’t get it, they just say, well, I didn’t expect it anyway. But there are Christians with fine high ideals, higher than they’re able to reach. And a month or six months of struggling for ideals that they can’t reach, or haven’t yet reached, may turn them back on themselves in deep discouragement; the loftier the ideals, the spiritual aspirations, the wider we are open to the invasion of discouragement.

Now, what is the cure? The cure is simply to remember that your discouragement is based upon an error. You think you’re alone, when actually you are not. In the first place, there are 1000s of others just like you. There are merry clubs and redheaded clubs and ball-headed clubs. I wonder why we shouldn’t form somewhere, a little club of those who are prone to be discouraged and talk it out with each other. You’d find that there are a lot of people like you.

And if you were to go to heaven and gather around you this morning, a group of the redeemed who have gone there, that there would be 1000 of them, and they’d get up and testify. Let me tell you, that if they told the whole truth, they’d remind you that there were times when they felt pretty blue about this whole business of serving God in a bad world like this.

So, there are 1000s like you, and you’re not alone at all. And your discouragement is based also upon a failure to remember that God is with you, and that you’re never alone. In the old Methodist church, we used to sing a song I haven’t heard it I think since. I’ve seen the lightning flashing. I’ve heard the thunder roll. I’ve felt sin’s breakers dashing trying to conquer my soul. And I’ve heard the voice of Jesus telling me still to fight on. He promised never to leave me, never leave me alone. And the chorus was, no never alone, alone. Well, that’s true all right. The song doesn’t rate among the great, but it has a truth in it.

And we’re never alone. If you keep that in mind, friend, you’re never by yourself.  Are not the angels sent forth to minister unto them that shall be heirs of salvation? But you say, yes, yes, that’s all right. St. Teresa and Francis and Finney and Spurgeon; the angels no doubt helped them. What kind of a mother would it be that gave all of her attention to her healthy, strong children and let the sick ones lie and rot?

And what kind of God would God be if He sent His angels to bless St. Augustine and Julian and forgot us poor people that need it? No, no, He sends His angelic ministers to minister unto them who shall be heirs of salvation, but for our moment are in a tight spot. And wasn’t it when our Lord was praying in the garden and was sweating blood that the angels came and ministered unto Him. It was not when He was in Joseph’s carpenter’s shop, helping his father here and there and getting in the way and growing up to be a big boy. That wasn’t when he needed the angels. But it was when blood was flowing from His pores, as it were, sweat, or sweat as blood.

So, if you’re discouraged this morning, you’re the very one the Lord has pointed out. In fact, I have Scripture for this because it was when Elijah was in deep discouragement, so deep, that he went to sleep, blue and despondent, that God said to an angel, go down and feed Elijah the prophet, and he went down and baked cakes for Elijah. Not a radiant victorious prophet, but a discouraged, despondent prophet. And an angel had that job to do.

Now, another thing that may discourage us Christians, is the wickedness of the people; and we have Jeremiah for our Bible example. Jeremiah looked around him and every place he looked was wickedness, just every place. He had no newspapers in that day, but if he had, he would have found a whole front page and most of the rest of the paper covered with wickedness, or reports of wicked deeds or wicked plans. And Jeremiah just got plain tired of talking and not having anybody paying any attention to it. He’s called the weeping prophet. But he’s a long way from being a weeping prophet, but he did get discouraged.

What are you going to do about it now? You remember that man who vexed his righteous soul surrounded by iniquity, the stars in yonder heaven don’t shine in the daytime. Why, because there’s already light upon the earth. Why do they shine at night? Because the darkness makes them visible.

And so, in all the periods of history that have been reasonably decent, the great saints have not stood out. They have always stood out when the darkness was upon the earth. When our Lord came, there was darkness upon the earth. The church burst into paganism as into the deepest Stygian darkness. And the Wesleys came not at a time when everybody was praying. They came at a time when nobody was praying, except a little handful they called the Holy Club, or at least nobody we know about was praying.

So, my friends 2600 years have gone by since Jeremiah prayed and preached in discouragement. And for 2600 years, believing men and women have learned how to live and shine in darkness. And they’ve learned it from the very Jeremiah who was so discouraged so much of the time.

Then captivity. Do you ever feel that you were captive? Do you ever shrug cynically, when you heard somebody talk about our free, American way of life, and say to yourself, free? How do you get that way? I haven’t been able to get away from these four or five children for months. And I love them, and God knows I would die for them, but sometimes I want to scream. And you fellows that get up and go to your jobs, go to your works, punch the card, and hear the bell ring and then punch it out again and go home and back. And it’s repeating in and out, up and down, day in and day out, until you’re blue, and the two weeks’ vacation they give you it doesn’t help you at all, because you take your work with it and carry it back with you. Maybe two months might help you, but the two weeks do not. And you say, I’m captive, I feel I’m captive.

And then, if I’ve got anything left, I pay out in income tax. And if I’ve got anything left from income tax, somebody needs an expensive operation or I have to pay that out, and here I am. Call me a free American? Oh, dear friend, you’re the freest person in all the wide world even politically yet. I can stand up here and condemn anybody from the president down to the corner policeman. And not only that, I can have a loudspeaker out in front, condemning the policeman, loudly. He can’t do a thing. The freest nation in the world, still. So, let’s still thank God for the stars and stripes that are white with the prayers of 1000 saints in red with the blood of 10,000 men who died to keep us free, and blue with the baltic of the skies.

As the poet said, let’s thank God. But still, even though you’re free, you don’t feel you’re free. You feel you’re captive. And you know, it’s possible for preachers to get like that too? Just when I say to myself, now, I can shake my head and be free, I get a special delivery letter. And then there’s something to do.

And brethren, this man Ezekiel was captive. He was captive. And he was sitting among the captives by the River Chebar. I don’t want to travel. Some people want to travel all the time. I don’t want to travel. I could have gone to half a dozen or twenty different countries and had my way paid over the last year and wouldn’t go, because I find that almost everything is in Chicago that you will find anywhere else. And if it isn’t, you can always read National Geographic.

But I would like to see the river Chebar. I really would. I’d like to sit down there and dangle my toes in the River Chebar and have the old muddy stream flow by. And try to recapture the emotions that must have visited the breast of that young priest of Israel as he sat there despondent knowing that he was now a captive, a slave in a strange land. And everywhere he looked, he saw harps hanging on willow trees and a silence that you could cut with a knife. And except for the sobbing of some old lady or the petulant cry of a child, not a sound.

Ezekiel sat by the River Chebar. He was discouraged because he was a captive. But you know what Ezekiel saw while he was a captive that he didn’t see before he was a captive? He saw heaven opened and had visions of God. And you know that it’s right from where you are in your captivity. All people want to serve God the hard way. And I never could understand why.

I wrote here some time ago an answer to a question about how a young student going to college can get free so that he can do his college work and can still pray as much as he ought to, and I made several suggestions. And I said among them, why, readjust your life, adjust it so that your praying time fits in with your study time and all the rest. And not only that, sanctify, consecrate your study, so there’s something good too. And people wrote me mournful letters as though I had joined the cult of positive thinking and said, what in the world do you mean, Brother Tozer, you mustn’t tell young people that they’re to readjust their prayer life. Pray whether you make good grades or not. I didn’t tell him not to pray. I only told them that they could get victory over their academic captivity if they knew what to do about it. Nobody wanted them to know, I guess.

Well, anyhow, that was Ezekiel. What a captive he was. Just home and back again. The kitchen and the baby, when it isn’t needing attention, why, there’s something else. Say, I’ll lie down in five minutes. And you lie down five minutes, the telephone rings, and somebody’s banging on the back door. All he’s wanting you to do is to take a package for Mrs. Jones next door. Would you please? And of course, you would please, and you do, but your rest has been broken. So, you feel your captive. If you could only look up, you might see heaven open. And you might have visions of God. For always remember that when we’re too free, we get carnal and have our own way. And the fellow who has his own way is not likely to be looking for God’s way. But it’s when we have our own way taken from us that we get a feeling of discouragement. But out of it all and through it all, the light of heaven may shine.

Then there’s the gloomy brethren. It says just a few verses down from the text that I read. It says that the brethren made our hearts to be discouraged. The brethren made our hearts discouraged. Whether shall we go up they said. Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying the people is greater and taller than we. Half my lifetime has been spent, I think, reassuring people that the Anakim aren’t bigger than we are. They’re just not, that’s all. They may rate higher and weigh more, but in God, they’re not as big as we are. Nobody’s as big as a Christian if the Christian walks in the will of God. He’s bigger than anything you can bring against him any time. If God be for us who can be against this, but these discouraging brethren.

I like to meet old Tom Hare because he’s never discouraged. Now, I have no doubt, but that Irishman gets discouraged. I have no doubt. He’s a human being and as long as he’s in the flesh, he’ll have his times. But I have never met him when he was, I think. But I meet so many gloomy brethren. They’re always anticipating something that is going to happen. Usually, it doesn’t happen, but often they think it’s going to.

Well, do you know the answer and the cure for the gloom that is shed upon us by discouraged Christians? It is, My presence show go with thee, and I will give you rest. Now, that’s what God said to Moses. The brethren said, we can’t go up. And God said to Moses, My presence shall go with thee. And if the presence of God is with you, of whom should you be afraid? You know the answer too well and we’ll pass it on.

Then, I want to point out another thing that discourages the people of the Lord if they’re conscientious. Reading Christian biography does it. You say, now wait a minute; I’ve heard you recommend we read Christian biography. I do recommend we read Christian biography, but you have always got to know how to do things. It isn’t the doing of a thing that helps you, it is knowing how to do it and then doing it. If we do the right thing wrong, that’s not so good at all. And so if we read Christian biography wrong, it may harm us instead of help us. Because we read about the great souls that have lived and then we compare ourselves. And we begin to wonder if we’re Christians at all. And we get very blue as a result. Now, I’ll tell you, what causes that and what you can do about it.

Next month, that is in June, I’m to, O Lord, help me. I don’t know why I ever promised to do it. But I’ve got to go to Wheaton and speak at a convention there of editors and writers and journalists’ students. And they had two subjects they want me to handle. Neither one of them of which I am capable of handling. But they put a little pressure on. So I said, Yes. And one of them is, the obligation of the Christian biographer to his public.

Well, I have some convictions on that and I’m going to tell you at least one little thing I’m going to tell them, that most Christian biography is just plain not so, because the biographer feels that if he were to tell the truth about his subject, he would discourage the readers or take away something of the glamour from this great character.

So, he tells about all the high days and never mentions the low days. He tells about all the light shining peaks of his life and never mentions the deep hollows in his life. He tells about the time he was victorious and never mentions the time that he got defeated. He tells about the time that he prayed all night, but never tell us about the time that he went and fell asleep by nine o’clock and didn’t make it. And tells always the good things and hides the bad. Now, that is intellectual dishonesty. And it isn’t fair to the public that reads. And one of the obligations we owe to our public, if we write biography, is to tell the whole truth.

I told almost the whole truth about A.B. Simpson in Wingspread. And some people huffed and puffed and shook their feathers and said, you’ve sold him short. I didn’t sell him nearly as short as I should have. Because though he was a saint, he was a mighty human saint. And there never was a saint yet that didn’t have a human side to him. And that’s why Thomas a Kempis, himself a great saint said, if thou who would have peace of mind, examined not too closely in other men’s matters, and he was talking about Christian men too. Don’t dig around for weak spots, you’ll find them.

Have you noticed that Christian, that is, biblical biography, always helps you. Whereas the other kind of biography tends to discourage often, but Biblical biography tells the whole story. David wrote a hymn. Sure, he did. David slew the enemy. Sure, he did. David stole Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, and murdered Uriah. He did that. But that would have been kept out of the biography the Christians write, but not the one the Holy Ghost wrote. If you can know the whole thing about a person, you won’t be nearly as discouraged as if you only read the very top peak of experience.

Then you will say, well, I never had anything like that. Like the man we heard about, and I’ve often mentioned, who heard a fellow testify how he had been to sea and there was a great storm, and the ship was ready to sink. And he prayed and the Lord delivered them. He went home and cried half the night. He said, O God, you’ve never delivered me from a shipwreck. And God said, have you ever been to sea? He said, no. He had never been to sea, but he wanted to be delivered.

Now, what’s the answer about the discouragement that comes from reading about the great saints? I read about St. Francis and the others, and I say to myself If that man is a Christian, I’m nothing. Well, let me tell you. In the first place, he didn’t see the other side of it. The second place is, they’re dead. They’re dead. If A.B. Simpson were to stand up here, I’d promptly shrink down to the height of his shoe. But he’s dead. He sleeps on the hillside there at Nyack, and I’m still able to walk. And a living dog is better than a dead lion. And so even though you’re not as mighty a soul, as holy; and you’re alive and she’s dead.

We’ve gotten to a place here now after nearly 40 years of history back of this little church. We’ve gotten to a place here now where we get misty-eyed and nostalgic as we talk about the great souls that we once had here in our fellowship. But they’ve gone to heaven. And they can’t win a soul. They can’t teach a class. They can’t do what you’re called on to do. They’re not earning money. They can’t keep a missionary in Borneo. They’re gone. And blessed are they in their reward and their works do follow them. But they’re gone. And if God depended on the saints that are dead, the work would grind to a sudden, terrible jolt and all the churches would fall apart. So, God has to take what he’s got. And what he’s got is you and me; and we’re all God has now. So instead of being discouraged, get your teeth sunk in a little deeper and set your chin a little and trust God and say, Father, I thank Thee that though I’m not as great as the great souls of the past, I think, why I nevertheless, love Thee.

Just think what you could do with a biography. If you were to take just any of us here, McAfee here, or me or Brother Chase up here, any of these my eye happens to fall on. Just think what you could do if you’d write a biography about us and never tell one thought we had. Just tell which souls we were. Tell all the good and magnify that and put it in a perspective in a context where it looked shiny. Why, we’d have saints all over the church here, halos everywhere.

The simple fact is, we know each other too well to believe all that about each other. I know this man. I know how he lies on his face and prays by the hour with me and with Brother Moore and others that come in three times a week. We have our prayers up here. I know his love of God and His worship. I also know his faults and tell him so. And he knows mine and just shakes his head. So, my brethren, thank God you’re you and not somebody else. A little boy was asked, who would you rather be yourself or Lincoln? He said, myself; why, Lincoln’s dead. And there’s sense in that. It was good sense.

So, my friends, remember this and then we’re through for the morning. Now listen to these words from Isaiah 50:7-10, For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore, shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord GOD will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up. Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.

So, if you’ve been coming through shadows and darkness. And if you’ve been threatened by the devil or your enemies, you have a perfect right to stand up and say, the Lord God will help me. Wherefore should I be confounded? And hear God say, all of you who walk in darkness and have no light. Trust in the name of the Lord and stay yourself upon your God and you’ll be alright. And I believe that’s true of me and of you and of this church. Do you believe it. Amen.

So let us come up of the Lord’s Supper this morning with cheerfulness, with reverence, humility, but with meek self-assurance as well. Knowing that God didn’t call us out to forget us and leave us somewhere along the way, or rust on the highway, but that the Lord is looking after every one of us. He takes care of every one of us. He knows our names, all about us. And we’re safe in His keeping though storms around us are sweeping. For He’s the Pilot of Galilee.

Now, we will have the communion service to follow. And it is for every child of God. You don’t have to be a member of this church. We recognize that this church is an organization, whereas the church of God is an organism. It is composed of all who are members of His body by the new birth. So, from wherever you come and whoever you are, if everything’s right between you and God, you join us this morning as we go on into the service to follow.

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“Things Permitted by God for Growth in Grace“

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Things Permitted by God for Growth in Grace

Pastor and author A.W. Tozer

September 28, 1958

Outline

The Bible and the nature of the world.

  • Disciples appoint leaders to manage daily ministry, prioritizing prayer and preaching.
  • Tozer desires to be a liberal preacher, imagining headlines like “Khrushchev converted to Russian Baptist Church” or “Walter Reuther apologizes to General Motors.”
  • Tozer laments the absence of biblical preaching in modern Christianity.

Church conflicts and sin in early Christianity.

  • Tozer argues that conflicts often have deeper causes than apparent.
  • Tozer: Early church faced sin despite Pentecost, miracles, and redemption.

The Presence of Sin in Religious Settings.

  • Tozer argues that holiness cannot be assumed based on outward appearances, even in a church setting.
  • Satan targets those closest to God, not those far away.
  • Tozer argues that Satan hates prayerful people and tries to trouble them, but God loves them and delivers them.
  • Tozer advises against praying and instead suggests living a lukewarm life to avoid trouble but acknowledges that this approach may lead to hell.

Sin and its presence in the church.

  • Tozer emphasizes the importance of standing up for freedom and truth, even if it means facing opposition.
  • Tozer argues that sin will always act like sin and can only be dealt with through redemption or hell.
  • God uses evil to polish the good, as seen in the Bible and in the life of Paul.

God’s use of suffering to perfect believers.

  • Tozer: God uses suffering to polish and perfect those in His bosom.
  • Tozer argues that God uses difficult situations to perfect and cleanse believers, citing examples from the Bible.
  • Tozer describes a community where men would physically punish a wife beater, breaking his spirit and shaming him.

Facing and dealing with sin in the church.

  • Tozer: Shame can be a means of spiritual growth, as God allows us to be publicly corrected and humbled.
  • Tozer warns of unconfessed sin in the church, urging separation and spiritual maturity.
  • A.W. Tozer emphasizes the importance of being oriented towards the spiritual life, facing the right direction, and being prepared to jump into action when trouble comes.
  • Tozer uses the metaphor of a church being like a battlefield, with wounds and weaknesses, but also with forgiveness and growth towards maturity.

Message

In the Book of Acts, in the sixth chapter of the book of Acts, in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplied. there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said, it is not reason that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you, seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, who we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch: And these they set before the apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. And the Word of God increased, and the number of disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly. And the great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. And Stephen, full of faith and power did great wonders and miracles among the people.

I want to make a confession this morning. I wish I could be a liberal preacher. I wish that I didn’t have to tell the truth. Oh, just for a little while, maybe, not long. I’d probably get tired of too much sweetness and light. But I’ve thought about what I’d like to do if I could write my own headlines. If I could write my own headlines, I’d have one of the most wonderful newspapers ever published since man scratched on a rock and left it for some other man to figure out.

For instance, if I were editing that paper that I’d like to edit tomorrow morning. I had to have a headline saying, Khrushchev has been converted and has applied for admission to the Russian Baptist Church. Now that would be a headline, and blood pressure would go down all over the world. And then I’d have another headline, say, Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek, went fishing together and kissed on each cheek when they parted. Then I’d quit worrying about the Formosa Straights. Then I’d have another headline saying Walter Reuther apologizes to General Motors for bitter things he said about them. And then I’d have another headline saying, 48 hours since a crime has been committed in the United States. Nobody has been killed on the highway since last Wednesday.

I can fix myself up a newspaper that would be something, now I tell you, and it would sell if I could follow it with anything. But of course, I’d have to, on the last line down below in red ink, I would have to write “April Fool’s.” Because that isn’t the kind of world we live in brothers and sisters. We live in a miserable, fallen, upset, hate-filled, God-defying world. A world where the spirit of wickedness works in the children of disobedience. And so that isn’t the kind of headline we get. Look tomorrow morning and see, find any of those headlines or anything approaching them.

Then I’d like to be able to preach for a while, announce a series of sermons and never have to acknowledge the presence of anything wrong with anybody. Start out with everybody 100% sanctified and cleansed and indwelt by the Holy Ghost, loving each other and in great fellowship; and great grace was upon everybody. And the devil was chained, and we were surrounded by the presence of beautiful angels. I’d like to preach like that for a while to be released.

But you know, you can’t find Scripture to support that kind of preaching. Some are trying it. And I don’t know how long they’re going to be able to keep it up. Some of them manage to find something to talk about and still keep it up for a long time. But you know, whenever you open your Bible, you run into two things, the grace of God and the sin of man. And no matter where, just close your eyes and flip it like this and see what you find, 2 Chronicles. Well, there you find trouble. And Solomon did thus and thus. And flip it over again. You find in the Psalms; God be merciful unto us and bless us. Well, why did you have to pray God be merciful? Because we’re a bunch of sinners. Find your Bible, open your Bible, wherever you will, and you will find trouble and grace, grace and sin, mercy and judgment, goodness and severity. You’ll find it throughout the entire Bible.

Now, all this is preliminary to saying a few words which I trust will be helpful. About this passage I just read to you here in Acts the sixth chapter. It says there arose a murmuring among the disciples about the Grecians against the Hebrews.

Now, the occasion was simply this, that certain people believed that the widows, certain widows were being neglected. They said, there is segregation being practiced here. And these Grecian Jews, who were Hellenistic Jews, Jews who had been brought up and trained in Greek schools in contradiction to those who had been trained and brought up in Hebrew schools. And when they got to Jerusalem and got converted, they naturally, the ones that were Hellenists and had been brought up in Greek schools and had been taught Greek, spoke with an accent. And the ones who had been brought up in Palestine, spoke the language of Palestine and had no accent. And the result was that the ones with the accent, said that their widows had been neglected. They said, you are showing partiality towards the ones that don’t have the accent. You’re practicing segregation here.

Now, the apostles, of course, were Palestinian Jews, and they were accused of favoring the Palestinian widows, very, very normal for the Hellenistic Jews, the Grecian Jews to imagine. Now, the cause of it was much deeper than that. Always remember one thing, when there’s a fight, the reason for the fight is never what you thought it was. Two men meet and start calling each other names, and then finally end up in a bloody brawl. And when they get dragged into court, the judge says, what caused this? And then one says he called me a name. And the other one says, Yes, but he called me a name first. That wasn’t the cause of it. That was the occasion for it. But the cause of it was deeper than that. And so it is with every trouble everywhere all the time. The real source of the trouble is always deeper than we think.

So, the cause laid deeper, the hidden presence of uncleansed sin was here. You know, we’re romanticists, you and I, and extremely inclined to be romantic. And we like to look back upon the church and talk in glowing terms about the church that was. There never has been a period in history when the church was all it should have been. And there never has been a church that was all that it should have been. I have quoted here before the little proverb that says he lies well who comes from a far country. And if you can find somebody that can come far enough that he knows that nobody can check on him. He’s likely to describe the spiritual conditions where he came from in glowing terms. But the simple truth is, if you went there, you probably would find that there were troubles there too.

Well, the cause lies in sin. And in the sixth chapter of Acts only a little while removed from Pentecost, what does it say here in the margin. It leaves it the same year. According to this, I don’t know how far you can trust these marginal dates. But according to the marginal dates here, it was the same year. And not yet one year removed from Pentecost, they were having troubles and accusing each other of partiality. So, you see, even that early church was human and the sin was there. And right in the presence of the apostles, here was the sour spirit expressing itself, expressing itself in dark looks and complaining and concealed whisperings and discontent.

And see the seriousness now of all this. God had become flesh to dwell among them. And they called Him Emanuel, Jesus the Savior and He was made Lord and Christ, and the Holy Ghost had come. After He had been slain and raised from the dead, the Holy Ghost had come. Redemption was an accomplished fact. And the Spirit had come as fire and sat upon them, and many were converted, and miracles were being done all around them. And yet, right in the very presence of it, there were murmurings and complaining. You see, this points up a well-known fact that sin is such a rash and unreasonable and rebellious thing by nature, that it will include itself even into the sanctuary.

I’d like to believe that when the Father puts on his black robe and gets his clerical collar on, and the little bright, freshly scrubbed altar boys get their robes, and everybody comes in still and quiet and the incense is smelt and the organ is heard and the bells jingle, I’d like to believe that that means everybody there is holy. And I’d like to believe that in an Alliance Church when everybody comes stumbling up the stairs and talking out loud, down to the front, and all the noise and ugliness that attend our services. Sometimes when we’ve all gotten together, I like to think that means simplicity, artlessness childlikeness, and that when we stand to sing and preach that that meant absolute holiness.

But you know, you can’t be realistic and believe any of those things. You can’t believe they would take a fellow that smokes and drinks and gamble’s and loafs and put a black robe on him and have him stand up and jingle bells. That doesn’t make him holy. And it doesn’t make a man holy who loves money and loves to eat a five-pound steak and go to bed at night and tell jokes until one o’clock. It doesn’t mean that when he gets up and preaches an evangelistic sermon that you’re hearing a holy man. As sin intrudes into the sanctuary, brethren, and it follows right to the prayer meeting. There are those that imagine that a banquet, or say, religious ballgame, that that’s where the devil; the devil never attended a religious ballgame yet. He didn’t need to. The devil attends the prayer meeting. He works where the people of God are trying to be a holy. A doctor doesn’t work on a man who had just been pronounced 100% healthy. He works on the fellow that’s likely to die.

And so, Satan doesn’t work on the man or the woman that isn’t close to God. He’s works on the ones that are so close he’s afraid he’s going to lose them. So, he follows around into the sanctuary. It was when the angels of God appeared before the presence of the Most High, as it was there that satan appeared. Satan appeared among the angels. You’ll look for Satan in a saloon.

The cartoonists have all showed Satan in a saloon, or in a halfway house somewhere, sitting on the front porch with half dressed women. He never attends any such places. Satan never attends a theater. Satan’s never found in a gambling den. Satan never goes to a saloon. Satan isn’t anywhere near Skid Row. If he sees a fella start for a mission and thinks he’s going to get converted, of course, he will send a demon to work on him. But as long as the fellow just lies around Skid Row, he doesn’t bother him. He knows he’s got him. The chicken raiser doesn’t bother when the chickens are inside the pen. But when one flies over the fence that he goes out and gets worried.

Now it’s right in the presence of the Holy One, right in the presence of God, sin comes. It’s so brazen and rash, that it follows right up to Pentecost and right in among the apostles and right where the saints of God are in prayer. My friends, we want to remember that. Some of you go to prayer and you say, I have a hard time in prayer. Well, if you don’t want to have a hard time, quit praying. If you don’t want a hard time, stop praying. You won’t have nearly as hard a time if you stopped praying as you will if you do.

But you say Mr. Tozer, I’ve always been taught the opposite. Well, then you’ve been taught wrong. Because it’s the praying man that gets himself in trouble. It’s the praying man that satan hates. It’s the right living man, satan hates. God loves, but Satan hates the praying man, the good man, the man who’s escaping, the man who wants to be right. The man who gets on his knees, He’s the One God loves, but satan hates. And so, Satan is going to trouble the man. It was one of the problems of the book of Psalms, one of the problems of the book of Job, why did the good people have such a tough time of it? It’s because Satan hates them.

God loves them, and Satan hates them. And they are in trouble because they’re prayerful people. So if you don’t want trouble, don’t pray. If you want to go to hell, why then, don’t pray. But if you want to have a relatively easy time and get along with your neighbors, don’t pray. Try to get along with everybody and go the way they go. And if they want you to drink, drink a little, but don’t drink too much. If they want you to dance, dance a little, but don’t dance too much. They tell dirty stories that makes your wife blush, laugh, guffaw and then apologize to your wife and say, that was kind of raw, but I had to laugh. Live like that and you stay out of trouble. Get on your knees and you invite trouble. Go to God and ask God to delivery you and set you free and make a holy man out of you, and you invite trouble. But it’s a wonderful kind of trouble, wonderful kinds of trouble.

I don’t quote Franklin D. Roosevelt very often. But he made a speech one time in which he said something that every American molecule inside of my body from my balding head to the bottom of my feet responded with an amen. He said we Americans love freedom and we’d rather die on our feet than live on our knees, meaning by that, we’d rather die fighting for freedom than to kowtow to a totalitarian big wig. And I, for my part, any day of the world at my age would rather give my life and die and have it over, to be a free American and to walk around looking over my shoulder for fear of Khrushchev or Mao Zedong was going to hear something I said. I’d rather die fighting than live a slave.

It’s the same way in things of the Spirit. Long ago I had to make up my mind. Are you going to be an easy, smooth preacher and get along and having everybody love you and celebrate your birthdays and bring you flowers and just carry around on a chip as we would say on the farm? Or are you going to be a prophet? And I said, God you can have the flowers and the other boys can have the gifts and memorials and I’ll take the power and the insight and the prophetic discernment and truth and the warfare in the fight. After a while you will likely smell the smoke. But I confess this morning that I’ve had on just about enough smoke. And I’d like to preach something nice and smooth and sweet. And I’ll do the best I can tonight.

But this morning, I’ve got to talk to you about this. And it isn’t sweet at all. It shows sin right in the presence of praying people, rationed rebellious. And now until it’s been destroyed, it will always act like itself. You can always be sure of that. It will act like itself. And sin can never learn good, and it must always be itself, even at the gate of heaven. Sin must always act like itself. God always acts like God and He can never act any other way. Satan sometimes tries to act like an angel of light, but that in itself is sin. So, the devil always acts like the devil. And God being holy, can’t possibly act any other way but like God. Satan, being unholy, can try to act like an angel but only succeeds in acting like a devil infinitely more devilish.

So, sin will always act like sin. And it can be dealt with only in two ways: by redemption or by hell. Either by confession and deliverance from it or by the certainty of hell after a while for it will go. And sin will be the fuel to keep the fires burning.

Now, why does God allow this? Why does He allow it among his children? Why? Well, He allows it for a number of reasons. Because He’s merciful, and a lot of people that were making trouble here in the book of Acts, the Bible just passed over them. They were making trouble, but later on, they saw their mistake and they went on to know God better, and they were ashamed of the way they had lived.

Haven’t you? Can’t you remember back, maybe some years back when you were sharp, and maybe you gossiped about somebody or said something hateful to somebody, and now you’re deeply sorry? And if God had judged you right then, sharply and harshly, he would have lost you. But He was patient and now you’re sorry, and you’re living a better life than you did. So, God in His mercy allows sin even to enter into the sanctuary.

And then it acts as an abrasive to polish God’s saints. God wants His saints to be shining saints. And God uses acids to make them shine, and to determine which ones are real and which ones aren’t which is gold and which is only imitation gold. The presence of evil in the world, and even crowding itself brazenly into the sanctuary, it’s the sharp switch God uses to chasten His children. And later, they’re to be thrown into the fire. Don’t forget it. He says, let the wheat and the tares grow together until the harvest. And then He will garner the wheat into His harvest. But He will throw the the tares into the fire.

Now those should be terrifying thoughts. They’re terrifying thoughts. It’s a terrifying thought to me that God uses the rejected to perfect the accepted. That’s a terrifying thought, that God uses a man He’s rejected to polish the man He’s accepted. He uses the woman He’s rejected, to punish and polish the woman He’s accepted. He uses the evil to help polish the good. If you don’t believe it, read your Bible. All the way through it was like that, tribulations and troubles and woes and jail sentences and lashings and all that Paul had to endure. They were that he might be a better man.

And Jesus learned obedience, how? By the things He enjoyed, no. He had learned obedience by the things He suffered. And the Pharisees and the scribes and Herodians and the lawyers and the rest of them that made life miserable for Christ, they were the abrasives polishing Him to make Him, even though He were God made flesh. They still taught Him something. He learned obedience by the things that He suffered.

Now, He never sinned. Let’s keep that straight. It’s necessary that we should. If He ever sinned, then sin had a claim on Him. He never sinned, so sin had no claim on Him. And when He died, He died not for Himself, but for us. And there lies the glory of atonement. But something He had to learn as a man, and that thing He learned as we are learning it in the same way.

Well, how the apostles met this. Do you notice how the apostles met it? I don’t know whether I’d ought to go on and talk about how the apostles met it or whether I’d better close here. I think maybe I’ll just close here and point out that God is using things and people that He is never going to receive to His bosom, to polish and perfect those whom He has in His bosom.

In the olden days, a man who loved his children very well, used to hire school masters and governesses. And they turned over to those school masters and governesses, the care of their children. And they were permitted to punish them; corporal punishment was permitted. And while the parents were greatly careful to get the right person, they did allow them to punish their children.

Now, God allows us to be punished. And it’s something we don’t like. We don’t want it. We wish it didn’t have to be so. We wish that everything could be sweetness and light. We wish that we could just live on syrup and lie down deep in green pastures, all day long beside the green pastures. We wish that, but it doesn’t work that way, my friends, God uses a tough, brutal husband to perfect and cleanse and sanctify a wife who’s obedient. And sometimes he lets her turn and say things back. And then he punishes her for saying it, even though the ugly husband to whom she said it, deserved that 20 times compounded. But that she dared to say it, God punishes her and makes her sorry, and she has to repent. And the good woman has to go to a bad man and say, I’m sorry. I’m to blame when it’s just the other way around. And so, it is God is using the troubles we have in this world as polishers and abrasives to wear away and take off the rust and to remove the impurities.

And this is one of the ways that God works. In the book of Hebrews, you know, it is so plain, that I don’t know why we escape it. It says in that 12th chapter of the book of Hebrews, that we must remember that the author, Jesus, is the author and finisher of our faith. And that for the joy set before Him, He endured. For the joy set before Him He endured.

And what did He do in the shame? You know, that’s one thing we can’t stand. We can stand pain, but we can’t stand shame. That’s one thing. That’s why I believe if corporal punishment were reintroduced. No, I’m not bloodthirsty, but I think that in the day, you know, when a big rough brute of a man beats his wife and beats up everybody he meets in a drunken brawl. Nowadays, they give him a suspended sentence.

But there was a day when men around the neighborhood, after a fellow out in our country, after a fellow had done this a few times, he’d beaten his wife a few times, or beaten his children until they come to school with black eyes.

He got a little note from the farmers around the neighborhood, signed by fellas around the neighborhood. And they said, now, we’ve had enough of this. Then the next time he got a little too much liquor and beat up his wife, several fellows appeared, too many for him to handle and said, come on, you might as well go quietly. And he knew what was coming.

So, they took him out, stripped him to the waist, and switched him like a kid. Switched him. And after a fellow had had a good licking, he never could lift his eyes again. If they’d come and tried to fight him; if they’d simply come and given him punishment for the body, he could have taken it.

But after he’d been taken out and whipped, it broke his spirit. He lost face. After that he had no face left at all, just a head. And every place he went, the people would smile. After that, he was a pariah, an outcast. Shame, often drove men like that out of the neighborhood. They just couldn’t stand it. They’d been licked like a kid. And they were so proud of the fact when they flex their muscle, a great big watermelon came up here, proud of their muscles. But after they got licked, they hadn’t anything left to be proud of. Shame is a terrible thing, brethren.

And the Scripture says here that he despised the shame. The shame He endured. He despised it and is now sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. And so now, you remember, that the Scripture says, my son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord. The very chastening we sometimes get from God, that very chastening is itself shameful. He allows us to be publicly put down a notch. And with shame, we hang around wondering if we will be received by the company.

I have never forgotten the missionaries telling about the Congo. A church member there who has been received into full fellowship, backslides, and commits any act he shouldn’t commit, and makes him sit in the penitential form for six months. There are special select box seats over here to the left of the pulpit. And if two or three fellas appear there with the shame of face and sheepdog look, they’ve been caught doing something good Christians shouldn’t do. And the old elder sentences them to sit in that box for six months, every Sunday twice until they have proved they’ve lived right, and then they can get out. It’s a tough way, a tough way, but it works. People are happy to keep right and live right in order that they might not get put out there on display. And Paul, in one of his terrible self-disclosures said, we have been made as the off scouring. We’ve been made a spectacle, the shame of it.

Well, it’s too bad, but it has to come, and it’s always brought upon us because somewhere there’s unconfessed sin, not necessarily ours, not necessarily yours or mine, not necessarily in among the people of God at all, except it has come in among them, and it’s not part of them. So instead of our seeing the headline, Khrushchev converted, Mao Zedong spends all night in prayer, we’re going to read Khrushchev insults Ike, Mao Zedong threatens to take Formosa. We’re going to hear, so and so dragged in an alley and murdered on the north side.

We’re going to hear that sin is present in the world. Sin is here and we’ve got to face it. And we’ve got to learn how to live with it but learn to live apart from it. And we’ve got to learn to live in a religious community, which we call the church, that isn’t perfect. And after all, suppose somewhere, there were to spring up in Chicago, a perfect church. A church where they had no carnal people at all. There wasn’t any flesh left, it was all crucified. Everybody was saintly. They were all Tom Hares. Everybody was as sweet and as pure as a dear old lady in Pittsburgh where I was last week. Ninety-nine years, nine months and 18 days she was, one of their old saints, she slept away and went to heaven.

Well, you fill a church full of people like that. Do you think you’d feel at home there? I don’t know whether I would or not. But you’ll never find one like that. You find one, two, or three or five or ten, but you won’t find a church full.

We’re growing up. We’re maturing. We’re fighting. And always where there’s a battle, there’ll be some people wounded. The only army that has no wounds is an army that has never smelled the smoke. And the only church that has no flaws and no weaknesses is a church who lives on Shakespeare and book reviews. They have no reason to have any troubles. They just come and go. But all of us who are seeking to know God better, we’ll have our troubles.

Now somebody says, trying to think this out and says, is Mr. Tozer slyly trying to get at some trouble in the church? No, there’s no trouble in our church. If there is, I haven’t heard of it. Everybody’s happy as far as I know. And we know and forgive each other and realize we’re not all we ought to be and not all we’re going to be. But there’s no trouble that I know of. This, simply, I preach it because it’s here, it’s in the book.

And it’s well for us to be informed. They call that oriented now, that is, orientated. It’s the same word. It means facing around in the right direction, so you’re squared off to where you’re going. Unless we know these things we’ll never be oriented to the spiritual life. You’ve got to get you squared off and face right.

I read somewhere a fellow said, never park with your wheels twisted. He said never back in, then leave your wheels turned left. If you do when you start. you’ll forget and you’ll leap out into the traffic. He said, always square them straight ahead so when you start, you won’t suddenly find yourself out in traffic.

Well, that squaring away. That’s what I like. I like to preach the Word of God so His people can, if they will be squared away facing the right direction. And from whatever direction trouble comes, and if they’re suddenly forced to jump, they’ll jump in the right direction, because they have been instructed and informed and orientated. Now, I think that’s all for this morning. And we’ll sing a closing hymn.

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Messages

Tozer Talks

“Obeying the Truth, Love One Another“

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Obeying the Truth, Love One Another

Pastor and author A.W. Tozer

January 17, 1954

Outline

Biblical logic and love.

  • Tozer emphasizes the importance of ordering one’s thoughts in preaching.
  • Tozer emphasizes the importance of understanding the logic of the Bible, which moves with precision and follows beautiful reasoning.
  • Tozer highlights the New Testament’s reason-based demands, never giving whimsical commands without a sound reason.

External vs. internal religion.

  • Tozer argues that many religions begin with external practices, hoping to change the heart through actions, but this is opposite to the New Testament’s emphasis on internal change (heart matters).
  • Tozer contrasts Jesus’ approach with that of the Pharisees, who focused on external practices to change the heart, while Jesus emphasized the importance of internal change (the heart) for spiritual transformation.
  • Tozer argues that external religious change is insufficient without an internal transformation of the heart and soul.
  • Hindus attempt to purify their souls through bathing in the Ganges River, but their efforts are futile due to the river’s impurity.

Spiritual purification and the importance of obeying truth.

  • Tozer: Seeking right in wrong way, erroneous journey despite honesty and good intentions.
  • Tozer argues that many people are traveling in the wrong direction spiritually, despite appearing to make progress.
  • Tozer argues that some Christians focus too much on activity and forget about the importance of inner renewal and belief in the Bible.
  • Tozer suggests that both faith and obedience are necessary for spiritual purification, like the two wings of a bird.

Faith and works in the Bible.

  • Tozer argues that faith and works are interconnected, citing examples from the Bible such as Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and others who demonstrated both faith and works in their obedience to God.
  • Tozer emphasizes that faith without works is dead, and that works are necessary to demonstrate true faith, citing Hebrews 11 as a “works chapter” that highlights the importance of both faith and works in the life of a believer.
  • Tozer argues that true love for others is not feigned, but rather unfeigned and based on a genuine transformation by the Holy Spirit.
  • Tozer criticizes politicians and union leaders who feign love for the people they serve, while actually pursuing their own power and profit.

Genuine love and its cultivation.

  • Tozer: Real love isn’t always fawning, but can be tough & honest (John 1 John 4:18)
  • Tozer emphasizes the importance of cultivating love in the heart through prayer, obedience, and humility
  • Tozer warns against half-heartedness and double-mindedness, emphasizing the need for a unified and wholehearted commitment to love
  • Tozer emphasizes the importance of being filled with the fullness of God, rather than settling for half-hearted faith or half-baked spirituality.
  • Tozer encourages listeners to purify their souls and demonstrate genuine love for their brethren, rather than feigning affection.

Sermon

In the first chapter of 1 Peter, 1 Peter 1:22, the 22nd Verse. Peter continuing his exhortation to the Christians scattered abroad says, seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently. Now, that’s as far as we’ll go because the other, with the privilege the apostle claims for himself, switches on the word “being” to something else altogether. So, we’ll stay by verse 22.

Those of you who preach or teach or address groups of any sort, will note that there is one thing that you must be able to do if you’re going to address an audience at all, and that is to be able to order what you’re saying. The average Christian knows enough to preach all night. But he couldn’t do it because he is not skilled in ordering what he has to say. So that sermon preparation as far as the homiletical angle of it is concerned, simply consists of ordering what you’re going to say so that you won’t talk in circles and meet yourself constantly running around the circle.

Now, this 22nd Verse, to my mind, is one of the most perfect verses for a sermon, not that there will be the most perfect sermon, I promise you that. But I mean, a sermon outline here, something that you could get in your head or heart and be able to give it. He says, you have purified your soul, point one; by obeying the truth, point two; through the Spirit, three; unto unfeigned love of brethren, four; see, therefore that you love one another, five; out of a pure heart, six; fervently, seven. And it even has the good fundamentalist seven. One of my dear brothers won’t preach at all unless he can get seven points in his sermon. I never allow myself to be hemmed in by mathematics. If there aren’t seven there, I’m not going to put another one in. If there are less than seven, I’m not going to add one merely to make it look good. But there are seven here.

And starting out with this, we notice a peculiar phrase, or two of them: seeing that, see that. You Bible students might put a line under this. Now, incidentally, in studying the Bible, never try to spare your Bible. The Bible that was given to you 25 years ago; it was a wedding present and is still in perfect shape. They might just as well have given you Barton’s Almanac because it’s not doing you any good. Wear your Bible out. Mark it up. Thumb it. And then when it’s gone, get another one. Retire it honorably and get yourself another one. Work on your Bible. And so, I don’t hesitate to say, if you want to do a mark on, so that seeing that, see that.

Now, there is the sweet logic of the apostolic teaching. The older I get and the more familiar I get with the Scriptures, the more I’m pleased with the logic of the Bible. It moves along with beautiful precision. It marches like an army. Occasionally, the holy writer or the writer who spake as he was moved by the Holy Ghost, will take the liberty of a digression. Paul is full of them. They call them ellipses. The scholars call Paul’s style elliptical. He will start to say one thing, and then he’ll look over and see something else and lose the thread of his thought and dash over and say something better. They call it elliptical.

But Peter did the same thing here and you will find that in the Bible. But you’ll also find that wherever there is a complete statement, it always follows beautiful logic. So he says, seeing that therefore, see that. Now seeing that ye have done this one thing or seeing that this one thing is true of you. Therefore, see that this something else is true of you, based upon this other thing that is true view. Now, that is clear as I’m afraid it isn’t.

So, we have it here, the Bible never breaks in; comes ripping through to your heart with a command, but always precedes it with a reason for it. That is, the New Testament always gives biblical reasons for what it demands. There’s never anything whimsical about the Holy Ghost. There is imperious, a command, but that command always grows out of some sound, plentiful reason why it’s perfectly natural and right that it should be so. So, he says, seeing that you have purified your heart, therefore, love.

Now let’s look at the seven divisions here. And don’t brace yourself for a long talk, for I promise you it won’t be. He says, you have purified your souls. And the man of God begins with the word “souls” inside us. Most of the great religions of the world begin with externals. In fact, I am at the moment unable to think of any that do not or does not begin with the external. They begin with diet or dress or aesthetic practices or the celebration of days. And then they hope, and do hope indeed, that somehow by the performance of external acts, they will be able to work in on themselves to their heart. That by beginning in the fingers, you can work through to the heart. Beginning at the toes, you can work up to the heart. That’s the religions of the world. Buddhism begins externally; and the great religions that make so much of dress and of ascetic practices.

It would be amusing if it were not too significant of a trend, to see how such groups as the Hollywood actors and the nightclub boys and all the rest, are going in big for yogi these days. Everybody wants to be yogi. Well, the yogi, of course, is one who begins outside. And by certain body practices, by even body postures. He manages to control his breathing. And then, after he’s got his breathing under control, he controls his thoughts and slowly he works it in to his inner man. And the hope is that he’ll change himself and purify his soul by something he does on the outside. Now that is exactly contrary to the Scriptures, to begin on the outside and work into the center is unknown to the New Testament.

And that was the area of warfare between our Lord Jesus Christ and the Pharisees. The Pharisees were externalists. Jesus Christ was and is an internalist. They believe that by practicing external things, they could work in to the center and change the internal through the external. Jesus knew better and fought them as long as He lived on earth, and died and went to glory to prove them wrong and to prove that He alone knew that it was the heart that mattered. It was the internal that mattered and when the internal is right, the outside falls into line perfectly. That is also the difference between modernistic doctrines and liberalistic religions that begin by training and make much of religious education.

Now, religious education at best is the training of the man to think right and act right. And certainly, it’s not to be decried. It is to be desired. But without the secret and mysterious internal change, all of this outside change will be found to be wasted at last. He says, you have purified your souls.

Now I conclude from my study of the Bible, that the faith of Christ begins in the center and works out to the externals, conduct, and that we are safe in concluding that if a heart has not been reached, any religious profession is vain, completely vain. If the heart has been reached, the religious profession then takes on meaning. But if it has not been reached, all religious profession is vain. Does it sound like an old bromide, or religious cliche for me to repeat what you hear so much from the average evangelist? And he’s right in it, that you can join all the churches in the city, be baptized by every mode known and celebrate every holy day in the Christian calendar, and still be lost, if you are not changed on the inside.

You have purified your hearts, your souls, he says. And so, the soul is the inside of a person, the essence of the one, the person that which matters. That which makes you. That which is you. For the word soul here certainly can be, and is extended to mean the whole interior man, since synonyms would be the heart of the man or the reigns of the man. But it’s the whole interior man, and this man has been purified. There is a purification of the deep inner life that is required before we have any right to believe that our religious profession is valid. Now that’s one, you have purified your souls.

Now, the next question is how? Purification of the soul by bathing in the river Ganges is the method practiced by the Hindus. But the catch is that all they ever get is external bathing. And they tell me those who’ve seen the Mother Ganga, that it isn’t much, because Mother Ganga is too dirty to ever cleanse anybody. But we do not smile at them, nor do we look down our holy noses at them for the simple reason that they’re trying, erroneously, to do a right thing. They’re seeking a right in a wrong way, and they’ll never reach it, just as a man might erroneously start to drive to Detroit but turned his car in the direction of Omaha. Now he might be ever so honest. And some of you may smile quietly inside remembering the time you did that very thing. You thought you were going the wrong direction.

A man told me once this. He said he was a truck driver and worked with two men; their systems they had two men on the truck. And they had a little bed up there as they have, and one would sleep while the other one drove and then they would spell themselves that way, so they always had a fresh driver. I don’t know if they always do that, but they do that, some trucking companies.

Well, this man told me that he was driving once on a truck and his copilot was sleeping in the little bunk back of the driver. And he said, he came down this way, say, going east, saw a filling station, swung completely around, made a U turn and parked. He got some gasoline and woke up his friend. He said it’s your turn. It’s time for you to drive a lot.

So, he climbed up in the bunk and went sound asleep. 25 miles later, the new driver found that he his friend had turned the truck around. Now he was perfectly honest, but completely erroneous. It was a mistake. He had 50 miles to make up because of an error. You might say, but he’s such a good man. The difference is, he’s going the wrong way. But he pays his debts and he just loves his wife. It doesn’t make any difference. He was traveling the wrong way. And he will never get to the terminal going the wrong direction. But he’s so handsome. And a man with hair like that couldn’t make a mistake. He did. He made the mistake and nevertheless, but he belongs to the Masons and he’s a church member, but he’s gone the wrong way. And no matter who’s going and how nice he is nor how bushy his hair, if he’s going the wrong way his personality won’t get him going the right way.

Now, there are 1000s of people that the devil has turned their vehicle around and they don’t know it. And they’re pushing it right down to the floor and they’re going along beautifully. And they imagine they are going where they want to go because they’re making a good bracket and getting up some speed, but they’re not going the right direction. The yogi who gets his breathing under control and can properly manipulate his abdominal muscles, and who can hypnotize himself and draw in his thoughts and all that, he is making progress all right, but he’s traveling in the wrong direction. For he’s assuming the validity of an erroneous doctrine, that the heart is made pure beginning from without, whereas the Scripture says, the heart is made pure first and then everything else comes of itself. Ye hath purified your heart.

Now, how do you purify your heart. It says, by obeying the truth. Now, by obeying the truth, I don’t want you to be shocked by that word, obey. It’s not popular in the day in which we live, but it’s a good word, obeying the truth. Now, there are two sides, obeying and believing. In Acts 15:9, the Holy Ghost says, God purifying their hearts by faith. And in our text, the Holy Ghost says, purify your souls by obeying the truth. So we have faith and works, one by Peter and the other by the Spirit and the apostles in the book of Acts. Now, is there any contradiction here? No, here’s where our critics come along and say there’s a contradiction here. There’s no contradiction whatsoever.

Suppose that I was talking about, oh, a seagull, and I was making a great deal over the seagull’s beautiful right wing; and I said that seagull has one of the most graceful right wings you ever saw. Now, watch him. And he extended that right wing and push it out there and shook it off. And it was so graceful, an artist would run for his pencil just to outline the symmetry and beauty of that wing. So, we teach the validity of flight by the right wing of a seagull. But another man comes along and says, have you ever noticed the left wing of the seagull? It’s simply beautiful. But the first man says, heretic, and legalist, that you would dare mention that a seagull has a left wing. Why our whole church is built on the doctrine that has a right wing.

And the critic stands off and says, listen to that argument, they’re contradicting each other. Well, anybody ought to know that a seagull can’t fly with one wing. He’d only flapping a circle. He’d never get off the ground. And also, anyone should know that a seagull can’t fly with a left wing. He would fly in a circle only. He’d be spinning the other direction. If he tried to fly with his right wing, he’d go counterclockwise. And if he tried to fly with his left wing, he’d go clockwise, but he’d be where he was after he was done flapping.

Now there is the trouble in our churches. Some go out and get busy. Just as soon as you join the church, they give you five jobs and the chairmanship of a committee. And away you go. And people just wear themselves out flapping their left wing. But talk to him about the new birth. Talk to him about cleansing on the inside. Talk to them about the renewal of the soul and they don’t know what you mean. But our crowd, we specialize on right wings. And we don’t believe much in activity. We just believe in believing. And we’re both wrong and we’re both half-right.

But if you’ll believed the Bible instead of believing half-truth and see that when one man says you are purified by faith, and another man says you are purified by obeying, they’re not contradicting, they’re simply giving you both wings of the bird, that’s all. Faith has to have works, or it flaps in a circle. And works have to have faith or they’re dead. So, by works and faith, we go along.

Have you ever noticed that eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews? I was just looking at it here this morning. Have you ever noticed how that’s called the faith chapter, isn’t it? It says, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith. But have you ever noticed it’s also a works chapter? By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. He offered it by faith, but he did offer it. And he offered it in obedience to some revelation God had given him. By faith Enoch was translated, but also, Enoch by works walked with God until he was no longer.

By faith Noah built an ark. And by faith and works, he built an ark. So that it took works to build the ark. If Noah had sat down on a wooden horse and piled his tools beside him and said, I’m a just to believing, he’d never have gotten the ark built. But he called in his carpenters, laid down the blueprints and went to work. And somebody came along and said, you hope to save yourself by building an ark? You are not a New Testament Christian. You are a legalist. You’re mixing works with faith. No, no, Noah might have replied, I’m obeying my faith by doing what I’m told. So, he built himself an ark.

Go on down the line to you come to Abraham. By faith Abraham went out, but he did go out and by faith. Who else down here in a hurry, Gideon? Gideon did things by faith, but he also did them by works. He actually girded on the sword and went out.

Then there was Barak and Samson. Samson could have sat sublimely by and gazed at the heavens and said, I am believing in the Philistines, and would have swarmed around him. But he grabbed a jawbone of an ass and slew about 1000 Philistines. And then there was Jephthah and David and Samuel. You can go right on down the line. So, the the 11th chapter of Hebrews is not only a faith chapter, it’s a works chapter, too. God never makes a whole chapter of one wing. He puts the other wing in, even if it isn’t so visible. So, they’re both there.

Now again, through the Spirit. But you say, that is teaching the power of the human character to do good. No, it isn’t, because he says,”through.” The Spirit of God never commands righteousness without giving the power to be righteous. So, it is through the Holy Ghost. The real Christian who has been renewed inside and purified in his soul. He’s got no confidence in the flesh. He knows the flesh will never get him anywhere. But in Romans 8, we have that the works of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh.

Now, the fourth point is, unto unfeigned love of the brethren. What does this all lead to, unfeigned love of the brethren. You see that word “unfeigned” here. Unregenerate society feigns its love, mostly. Politicians feign their love; they will kiss your baby. They’d even kiss your hand. They used to send garden seed. I haven’t got a package a garden seed in years. Has anybody around here got a package of garden seed? They used to send out garden seed, hoping that you would plant their garden seed and vote for them the next senatorial election. But they smile, they visit, they traveled around, they make whistle stops, they wave the flag, they quote Lincoln, and they’re all doing it to get your vote. They love you so much. When they make their speeches, they refer to you in drooling affection. But the reason they refer to you is that you have the sovereign power to put an X after their name.

And I suppose I shouldn’t say it here, but I often think how some of these lugubrious tears that union leaders shed over the poor, exploited, downtrodden proletariat. I think they’re crocodile tears made out of plastic, because those boys, call them in, call them out, call them in, call them out and make fools out of them. Treat them like puppets. And they’re riding in Cadillacs. Well, unions are good things, in a way, if they’re carefully run. I’ve always believed that. I also believe that they can become curses when they get into the hands of men who only claim to love the public but love only their own pocketbook and their own power.

And then there’s that salesman. He comes in, bless him. I used to sell books myself. That is, I went around trying it. I never sold much, because I was too honest and too timid. But a salesman comes in and he finds your name next door, and it’s Mrs. Jones, he says. How nice to see you. He found out next door who you are. Also he’s inquired about your family. Did Jim get back from the war yet? He wants to sell you something. The unregenerate world feigns its love for the most part except for its own tiny circles. But the Spirit implants real love, unto unfeigned love of the brethren. And the love of a Christian is not a feigned love.

I have had it said of this church, that it’s very friendly. And I have also heard it said of this church, that it’s quite unfriendly. I think perhaps a happy medium would be the truth. You will find friendliness here if you smile and look friendly. You will probably be passed up if you will look as if you didn’t want to be a friend. But I have been in churches where they just fawned over you. Haven’t you?

I remember years ago visiting a church. I just sat back there look straight ahead.

Pretty soon the pastor came around, and he fawned over me. You’d think I was Eisenhower’s twin brother they didn’t know he had. He didn’t know who I was. It wasn’t because of me. It would have been anybody else the same. He said he was so happy I had decided to look in on them. I hadn’t. I just had gone to church, but I didn’t quite accept that. It was a little too much. When you love me too much, brother, I’m worried about you. Love me enough, and it’s all right. Don’t love me at all, and I’ll pray for you. But when it gets to be fawning love, it’s feigned love.

Now, the Holy Ghost gives us love that is real. It’s real love. And you know that real love isn’t always fawning over its object. Real love sometimes rebukes. The sharpest book in the New Testament, you know what it is? The sharpest book in the New Testament is 1 John. The apostle of love also could wield a paddle more vigorously than any other apostle. So, the loving John could lay it on when he needed to. He that loveth his son whippeth him betimes, Scripture says. And God loves us and whippeth us betimes. And if we love each other, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we love them with the meek, harmless, fawning love, but we love them for their soul’s sake. And we love them in God, unto unfailing love of the brethren.

Then he says see now that ye love one another. Obviously then, this love is not a wild plant that will grow of itself. It is there in the heart by a divine planting, but it must be cultivated. Dandelions will grow without cultivation. Love must be cultivated. The human heart must be cultivated. We must work on it. We must pray, search the word, and obey and believe and humble ourselves and open our minds to the incoming Holy Ghost, so that we may cultivate and see that we love one another.

Then he says, out of a pure heart. And I can only pass that by for time’s sake and say that no other kind of heart can really love purely, because the heart to love purely, must love unselfishly. Unselfish love does not exploit its objects, and it doesn’t ask anything in return. That is so lofty that the modern world knows little or nothing about it. But it’s out of a pure heart.

Then he says, fervently, and I close by reminding you that God hates everything that’s halfway. He hates half-minded people. Ye are double-minded, He said. Now, a double mind is a mind that’s half one way and half the other. And God hates the double mind and says no man who prays with a double mind need expect to get anything. Have some kind of mind. Settle for one, but let it be all one thing. Don’t let it be a divided mind. But that’s what a double mind is.

They used to call them Sunday Christians in the country. They said they had Sunday religion. And they used to say quaintly that they hung their religion up with their new suit in the closet when they got home Sunday night and never put it on again till the next Sunday morning. Now that’s being double-minded. And God hates all double mindedness because it isn’t real. He says we are to love fervently out of a pure heart, fervent love, fiery love, fervid love. And God says that Ephraim was a cake not turned and you know what that is. I might ask for a show of hands, how many had cakes for breakfast this morning? I was brought up on buckwheat cakes. And I know what a half-turned cake is. It’s a half-baked one. And the Lord hates half-baked things. He wants it to be baked all the way through.

And then he talks about the lukewarm. Now, I want to ask you this question and send you home with this metaphysical problem on your mind. Is a bottle half full of something, half full or half empty? I don’t know myself. And is lukewarm water, half warm or half cold? Tell me Tom after church. Incidentally, I got a long, five-page letter from a brother in California, vigorously taking me to task for saying that Tom Hare was Irish. He declared he’s nothing of the sort. But I’ll talk about that later.

But what I wanted to say was that what God wants here is not a half anything. What I started to say is, is a half Christian a half-sinner, a half-Christian. I don’t know, but I do know this, God will sweep the whole business out together. He’ll have nothing to do with half stuff. He says that we are to be filled unto the half-fullness of God—never! For God to say a thing like that, He wouldn’t be God. Filled unto the fullness of God, he says, not unto the half-fullness. God has nothing to do with half-full things. He gives us a whole day, not a half day. He gives us a whole personality, not a half personality, a whole mind, not a half mind, a whole salvation not a half salvation. And He expects our love to be a whole love, fervent, and not half cold.

Well, that’s a little outline. You’re welcome to it. Think it over. Seeing now that you have purified your soul by obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren. Now see to it that that love goes to work, and you really love each other out of a pure heart, fervently. That’s Peter’s exhortation. I pray that it may be taken to our hearts and may do us good.