“Jesus’ True Enemies-The Religious Pharisees and Scribes”
Jesus’ True Enemies-The Religious Pharisees and Scribes
Pastor and author A.W. Tozer
May 12, 1957
We shall operate, Lord, through us, and that what’s done shall be Thee doing it, and not us. Let Thy blessing be over us. Thou hast been with us, Thou hast been here tonight, and we have quietly heard Thee speak, and heard Thee sing, and we’ve heard Thee singing over Thy church, and joying over them with joy.
Now we beseech Thee that the opening of the Word may be in the Holy Ghost. Let Thy blessing be upon this great city, bless Allen Redpath on the north side, Dr. Hager way out south, and Fesmire Brothers in their churches, and the many other churches round about us. Some gospel churches and some not, but wherever there are gospel churches, O Lord, God bless them this night, Father. And let Satan, let there be out of his vicious hands some who were up until today his slaves. We ask this in Christ’s name. Amen.
In the fifteenth chapter of the book of Luke, the very famous chapter, for it has in it those three parables of Jesus, the opening two verses: then drew near unto Him all the publicans and sinners for to hear Him. And the Pharisees and the Scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.
Now there were two kinds of sinners here, publicans and sinners, and they were the nonreligious sinners. And then there were the pharisees and scribes, and they were the religious sinners. Four people, four classes of people, publicans, sinners, pharisees, scribes, and they were all sinners. Only the pharisees and scribes didn’t know they were, and the publicans and sinners knew they were.
Now, it is a most solemn and significant thought that the conflict of Jesus when He was on earth was with religious people. And if you press it further, you will find that the conflict of Jesus was with Orthodox people.
Now, I don’t want to labor this, and I have no wish to make myself odious, but it’s here, and all you have to do is read the New Testament, and you will soon find that there was a sharp line of demarcation drawn with the Lord Jesus on one side and His enemies on the other.
And in the day in which we live, when we think of this conflict of Jesus with His enemies, we put it like this, Jesus over here, and along with Jesus, Alliance and fundamentalist people, and full gospel people, and presidents of Bible institutes, and professors of homiletics, and good church workers, and good board members in Jesus, and evangelists in Jesus, and pastors in Jesus, and good Bible church people in Jesus, that’s on the one side.
And over on the other side, liberals, and horse racers, and Catholics, and men who run saloons, and gangsters, and juvenile delinquents, and harlots, and thieves, they’re over on the other side. Now that’s the neatest division that can be made of humanity. The only trouble is, brothers and sisters, it just isn’t that way.
When our Lord Jesus Christ was on earth, here was the division. Over here was Jesus, and over here was his enemies. And on the side of Jesus, over on his side, there were the harlots, and the publicans, and the sinners, and the cripples, and the blind, and the dumb, and the deaf, and the pagans, and the sick.
And over on the other side were the rulers of the synagogues, and the fundamentalists, and the Pharisees, and the church workers, and the cantors, and the Scripture readers, and those who read the Law of Moses daily or weekly in the synagogues.
I think it’s one of the most awful thoughts that the human mind can entertain, that Jesus Christ, when He came down from heaven’s pure glory to walk among men, that unsullied soul of His that never knew the faintest shadow of a wrong thought, that Jesus who was higher than the highest sinners and removed infinitely from them, yet walked among them without soil, and that the only enemies He found when He was here were not only religious people,
But His own religious people, the Jews, and His people who expounded the Scriptures rightly. He did not rebuke their position, their doctrinal position. He did not rebuke them and say, you don’t expound the Scriptures right. You don’t rightly divide it. Here you’re wrong on page 3, chapter 8, verse 6. You’re wrong. He didn’t say that. For those His enemies were the expounders and the conservators of orthodoxy, and the very ones where righteousness should have dwelt. But nevertheless, they were those who said, this man receiveth sinners, and they could tighten up their white lips and hiss that word sinner to make it sound like a serpent.
My brothers and sisters, I draw from this this conclusion that religion without love is a dangerous thing. And if I were going to go through life and finally perish at last and be without God in the world to come, and only wanted to have as good a time as I could while I was going through the world, I would choose deliberately and of purpose to live among irreligious people who don’t go to church and who do not particularly care to hear the Word of God and who would rather sing a popular number than sing a hymn, provided those on the other side. That are the ones who do love to go to church and hear the hymns sung and the gospel preached had not love in their hearts.
Because religion without love can be as damning and as destructive as the worst atheism in the wide world. And these unblessed religionists that hounded and dogged Jesus, they did it, they hounded and dogged Jesus until finally they put Him where they had planned to put Him on a Roman gibbet. And there he hung and blood streamed down off His side and ran off His toes in stringy dribbles down onto the hard rocks below.
And they who put Him there were not the unbelievers. They were not the Romans. They were not the pagans. They were not the harlots. They were not the publicans. They were the Scribes and the Pharisees and the priests and the high priests and lovers of the synagogue and the good and moral people. They put Him out there to die. And now I say to this to you, sir, that there is such a thing as a morality that is infinitely iniquitous.
There is such a thing as a righteousness that is boundlessly vile. There is such a thing as a goodness that will be fuel for the fires of hell. There is such a thing as a morality that spits in the face of God.
And so, these religionists, these good moral people, who had no idea in the wide world but what they should finally go sweeping into heaven and have God Almighty himself come forward and take a bow and admit them into the holy and eternal world with great rejoicing. And yet here was that same God whose heaven they hoped to enter. There was this same God, and so they indicted Him and convicted Him and executed Him on charges which have since become His glory. And every charge is a new jewel around His head. Let’s look at some of them.
These religionists said about Him that this man claims that he, if we destroy him, he’ll be able he’ll be able to raise up this temple in three days. They said, listen to this blasphemer, listen to this sinner, and they hissed the word out with sibling sarcasm. Listen to this sinner. He says that if we destroy the temple, he’ll raise it up in three days.
And in their self-righteous blindness, they didn’t know that what He meant to tell all the poor dying world was that God has given Me a temple and this temple is My body. And someday you’re going to destroy it on a cross. And in three days, it’s going to be raised again from the dead. And I’m going to come out of the tomb and I’m going to establish immortality and life and bring it to light through My gospel so that all the dying world can live if they will. And all those that are marked with mortality shall become immortal. And all of those who are going down to the grave shall find suddenly that grave expand to the vast capacity of the broad heaven itself and they shall rise again as heroes again. And they didn’t know that’s what He meant.
And so, they took Him out on a cross, poor blind righteous men, and nailed Him up there to die for saying that He was going to raise up the temple in three days. And I don’t know how you think about it, but the older I get, the more I thank God for immortality. Not that I have it now, for I do not have it now. Don’t you imagine you do. You don’t. You have eternal life, but immortality is something else and only one man has it and that’s Jesus, having alone having immortality, the Scripture says.
But when He comes back in His glory, He’ll impart immortality to all those He raises from the dead and changes on their feet to take to be with Him in the glory. And I’m thankful to my Heavenly Father for that immortality.
Sometimes, I tell the story at funerals. There are some stories, you know, that get to funerals as often as certain morbid ladies. And this is one of them, but it’s a true one and it’s a good one. They say that when Edmund, king of the Saxons, way back in the 6th century, there were Christian missionaries who came from, I don’t remember what land, and they asked permission formally to preach the gospel within the confines of Edmund’s territory.
And Edmund, being a pagan, didn’t know what to tell them, so he called his advisors together. And here they came together from everywhere. And among other things on the agenda, as we’ll hear next week’s agenda, among other things on the agenda, this was one. Shall we or shall we not admit these Christian missionaries inside our kingdom to propagate their religion?
And after they had debated it back and forth a while, an old general, scarred with many a battle, got to his feet, asked for their permission to speak, and then he said this, in effect, to the king. He said, your majesty, I have heard the remarks, pro and con, whether we should or should not admit the Christian missionaries into the kingdom. But he said, I think we should, and here’s why. He said, you know how it is in our banquet hall, sometimes in the winter night, we gather together and the fires are lighted and it’s warm and there is music and feasting and drinking and we’re all having a joyous time and it gets too hot and someone throws a window open and another window open and out of the night, driven by the storm, there flies in a bird. Wing weary and cold, she shivers in and flutters in fright around among the lights and settles for a while and leaps up and circles again. And then when she’s warm and refreshed, she goes out the window on the other side and has gone into the night and we don’t know where she came from and we don’t know where she went.
So, your majesty is the soul of a man. We come in the window we call birth, and we flutter around a while in the world and then we go out into the darkness through the window we call death and nobody has been able to tell us where we came from nor where we’re going and these Christian missionaries claim they know. And I would therefore speak in favor of these missionaries coming in and telling us where we came from and why we’re here and where we’re going when we go out into the night again through the window of darkness. And he won his case, and the missionaries went in and the Saxons became evangelized.
And I tell you there was wisdom coming from that wise old general. Jesus Christ brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, and they nailed Him on a cross because He said I’m going to do it, destroy this temple and I will build it again in three days. And He was saying to those that could hear Him I have come to bring immortality to the world. But they in their self-righteous blindness went in onto Him in fury and nailed Him to a cross. And so, the ages have glorified Him for the immortality that they crucified Him for.
And then there was the healing on the Sabbath day. Do you remember that? He didn’t mind, He stopped and healed people on the Sabbath day. Our Lord was so informal about everything and so completely relaxed and at ease. And He did everything that He did so spontaneously and without fanfare. And there was no program printed and nobody knew exactly what was going to happen.
Love was at work. Love was walking around on the earth. A Love that could destroy men in hell, but a Love that could heal them when they were sick. And this Love was walking around on the earth
And so, when He came to the sick, while He saw some fellow over there that was suffering, and He just went over and healed Him. And they said we can’t stand this it’s against our tradition. Why Rabbi so-and-so, D.D., said that we weren’t to do anything like this; and it’s written in the book, and don’t they know what the Talmud says? And they’re going a contrary to the laws of our fathers.
And so, they glared at Him while He made the pain disappear. And they glowered at Him while blind milky eyes covered over with a film of night suddenly became light and they saw for the first time the blue sky above and the green grass below. And they said we can’t have this. If this man continues to heal on the Sabbath day, he’ll disrupt our whole constitutional setup and we rabbis will be without a job.
And they said we’ll get that fellow as soon as we can. They couldn’t do it too fast because they’re afraid of the public, afraid of the people. But as soon as they could get to Him, they nailed Him on the tree. And they stood back and watched the blood dribble down off His toes onto the rocks below. And they crucified Him because He loved people when they were sick and healed them.
Now, the ages have glorified Him because He loves people. And I’d like to tell you this brothers and sister, He loves people. I want to love people. I have a little book in my pocket that’s got a prayer in it. God help me to love people just as you love people.
Now loving people doesn’t mean being a soft, pussy, mousy, smiling, smirking fellow. The typical pastor doesn’t mean that necessarily. That was the Pharisees. They loved them technically and legally.
Jesus loved them actually and really. And so, He just walked among them, and He loved them, and He healed them. And principles and laws and regulations weren’t so much to Him, but love and people they were everything. In all the wide world there are people now that can thank Him that He loves people. That He loves just plain, sick people and tired people and old people and bereaved people.
And so, they nailed Him on the cross because He healed on the Sabbath day. And He said don’t you know that God made the Sabbath to be a blessing to people and not people to be crucified on a Sabbath? But they said, we can’t take that because that’s contrary to our rules.
Then another charge they brought against Him was that He exposed the octopus we call priestcraft. He exposed it. And here they were, and we’ve got countries now that are priest-ridden to a point where the priests are the boss. You can’t get married without paying the priest. You can’t get born without paying the priest. You can’t get buried without paying the priest. And you can’t get your grandmother out of purgatory without paying the priest. And you’ve got to be paying, paying, paying. Always they’ve got their soft white palm out after something.
And they were that way in Jesus’ day. And our Lord Jesus Christ walked quietly among them. Love was in his heart and a blazing penetration in His eyes. And He saw through all of their of their little schemes and saw how they walked quietly around and stroked their learned beards and shook their holy phylacteries in order to awe the public and make the common fellow down there, these poor fellows that know not the law, think they were somebody.
And Jesus Christ came down and walked among them with a quiet smile on His face. And here was old Rabbi Ben somebody or other and he had a garment on him. They’re all ironed out pretty. And his beard was combed down to the last whisker and curl and his hair was done beautifully. And everything about him was religiously impeccable.
But Jesus looked past his garments and saw the maggots crawling inside of his heart and the serpents squirming through his soul and the black darkness and night in his heart. And He walks right up to the priest and tells him off. And the priest isn’t going to take that. He just isn’t going to take it because he’ll have to go to work if they ever find him out. If they ever discover what kind of a scoundrel he is inside, he’ll have to go to work and he hasn’t learned anything. And so, he’ll be in a tough place. And I think there’s a lot of Christianity running in this country today; just running faint yet pursuing.
Some young fellow just started out thinking he was called to preach and discovered afterwards that he was called by his mother-in-law or his wife or his mother. And if he could gracefully get out of it and if he could do anything else, he’d quit. But he’s never learned to do anything else, and he needs his retiral. So, he’s continuing on, waiting for the bell to save him from the ropes.
Brothers and sisters, that’s priestcraft. And they don’t have to look to the Roman church to find priestcraft. They found it in the day of Jesus, and I believe it’s here today. I pray that God will deliver us all from the octopus of priestcraft. And we thank Him today that He did. And He took the key away from the priest and He hung it on His own belt.
And when John saw Him up yonder walking among the golden candlesticks, he saw a belt around His waist. And on that belt, he saw two keys. According to what I hear, those keys are in the Vatican. But according to what the apostle John said, those keys are on the belt of the Savior, hanging around His waist.
They are the keys of death and hell. And nobody else gets them, nobody, no school, no denomination, no conference, no council, no college of cardinals, no bishops and no popes, no rabbis. He took the key away from the priest and put it on His own belt. And He opens heaven and hell as He wills for those that love Him. I’m glad for that, aren’t you? And yet they crucified Him for the very charges that I have named.
And then they said also, this man receiveth sinners. They said this man receiveth sinners and they whispered it and they hissed it and they made it to be an accusation and a charge against Him. This man receiveth sinners and the whole centuries have praised Him that He takes in the sinners.
John Newton thanked God He received sinners. Jerry McCauley thanked God he received sinners. And Mel Trotter thanks God He received sinners. And D.L. Moody thanks God He received sinners. And old Augustine thanked God that He received sinners. And old brother Lawrence could thank God that He received a big, awkward, crippled sinner. And all down the years we’ve thanked Him for that which they cursed Him for. And we’ve praised Him for that they crucified Him for.
And they nailed Him on a cross because He wouldn’t admit that righteousness was an external thing, a keeping of rules and regulations but it was something of the heart. He knew that righteousness was of the heart, and they said righteousness is of the rules. And they took the rules and nailed Him on the cross and drove a rule in one hand and a rule in another hand and a regulation in His foot and a bylaw in His other foot; nailed Him up there and said we’ll crucify this man because he dares, he dares to receive these sinners. And we know that they’re sinners, these sinners. And they spat and turned their backs. And He went out to the cross and bled. And He bled for the very persons in whose faces they spat; this man receiveth sinners.
A long time ago in the little town of Akron, Ohio, an ignorant young donkey of a fellow who didn’t know his right hand from his left and could scarcely find his way home after six o’clock at night and couldn’t remember his own phone number, met this Savior, met this Savior. And brother, long before I was preaching, I had met this, Savior. And this Man received a sinner, a sinner.
Now I can’t sing, Brother McAfee, as you know, and you never let me forget it either. Neither does anybody else let me forget it, but I’m going to surprise you one of these days when I really let go. But I am going to sing one of these times. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust.
Remember, Brother Miller, what it says back there in Isaiah? Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust, and the earth shall give up her dead. And then is when I’m going to sing. And I read here this. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and the four and twenty elders, I like this better than if I knew who they were.
A lot of people spend a lifetime trying to dig around among the Greek roots to find out who these people are. I get more of a kick out of it not knowing who they are. I don’t know who they are. The four beasts and the four and twenty elders.
Now here’s the place for a man who hasn’t anything better to do to spend two years and three months figuring out who they are. I don’t know who they are. I know they have a right to be up there and I know that they’re the living creatures and I know that.
And I know they’re four and twenty elders and I don’t know why they’re twenty-four. Seven is a perfect number and there were twelve apostles. I don’t know. Maybe part of them were from Israel and part the other half from the church. We’ll let the teachers figure that out.
In the meantime, I’d just like to look at these four beasts and twenty elders and see them in prophetic vision falling down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of fragrances, incense, and which are the prayers of the saints. And they sung a new song saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof for Thou wast slain and has redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation and has made us unto our God, kings and priests and we shall reign on the earth.
And behold, I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands. The only place where you’ll go to find bigger numbers than you find in the Washington budget is in Revelation 5:11, where it says the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands which is a way of saying they couldn’t be numbered; saying with a loud voice worthy is the Lamb.
And I’m going to be singing in that choir, worthy is the Lamb that was slain. And even up there, they won’t forget it with their glorified bodies they won’t forget the Lamb. With their glorified brains they won’t forget the blood. And with their glorified persons they won’t forget there was a Lamb slain.
Worthy is the Lamb to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And it rises in crescendo and volume as it goes upward and upward. And every creature, which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them heard I say blessing and honor and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever and ever. And the four beasts said, amen. And the four and 20 elders fell down and worshiped Him that liveth forever and ever.
So, you see my friends, this man received sinners. And the very fact that He received sinners is what caused all this commotion in the heaven up yonder. Now, no pharisee would dare have been there because it would have been too noisy for the pharisees.
And the scribe didn’t have anything anywhere that he could lay his finger on. Where does it say it in the manual? It wasn’t in the manual. It wasn’t in the manual, but it was in the hearts of the people. And it wasn’t planned. It was spontaneous. The Lord loves a spontaneous, a spontaneous affection.
Well, it’s kissing when you meet and kissing when you part and all that kind of thing. That isn’t so, so much maybe because you’re supposed to do that. But I got a little love tap here some time ago that I hadn’t forgotten yet. I guess maybe it was three months ago now when one of our little grandchildren, now four, just turned four, went out of the house. I do have to admit it, myself. He’s a pretty handsome little guy.
And he was running around there, full of joy. And I had a little cold, so I didn’t want to give it to him. So, I didn’t want to face him. So, I slipped up behind him and I stooped down and put my hand on his shoulders. And I whispered to him, you’re a nice little boy. And he reached around, gave me a spontaneous pat and said, you’re a nice grandpa too.
Now that wasn’t planned, brother. If we had planned that, it would have ruined it. But it was a spontaneous burst of affection. I didn’t know he felt that way about me. I really didn’t. And he never had been taught etiquette. He just did that because he liked me.
And up there in that glory, there are those who weren’t trained how to do it. They just do it. They just, just open their hearts and it comes out. And that’s, that’s what God loves.
Well, I was going to preach about these different people that came to Jesus, but I’ve had a nice time talking about the fact that anybody could come. This man receiveth sinners; so, I’ll break my sermon in half and preach the other part of it sometime again, God willing.
But now I’d only like to close by saying to this to you, that this Man received sinners and He receives all kinds of sinners. He receives them if they come. And when they come, they cease to be sinners. They are now believers, and they are now children of the Most High God.
But you know, you’ll never come as long as you allow self-love and self-righteousness to be in your heart. You’ll never come. The pharisees didn’t come, and the scribes didn’t come and the lawyers didn’t come. They came and asked questions, but we don’t read where they came.
But the harlots came, the publicans came, and the outcasts came, and the ostracized people came. And you know what I’m afraid of, dear people? I’m afraid that we are a self-righteous people. I hate to hear people say, well, the hillbillies are pushing in in this section. Colored people are pushing in here. The lower-class people are pushing.
Who are the lower-class people? Do you know, anybody here know? Who were the low-class people there? Were they the harlots and publicans and sinners and drunkards and irreligious people who didn’t darken the church door and ten years? Were they the low-class people? Not in the eyes of Jesus.
The low-class people were the theologians and the religious philosophers and the Talmud scholars and the Torah explainers who wore the robe of righteousness and the phylacteries to show how much they prayed, but who didn’t know God when they saw Him in the face; who could look in the face of God and didn’t know it was God.
And a kicked and bruised and downtrodden and betrayed harlot could be dragged in by the heels into His presence and look in His face and gasp and say, why it’s God. And the pharisees went away snapping their sharp teeth together and hissing, He receives sinners. But the poor woman whose sins were physical looked up and said it’s God. But the expounders of the law didn’t know God when they looked in His face.
My brethren all I want to bring this to a conclusion and say is, that it’ll pay you and me to do an awful lot of heart searching. It’ll pay us not to take too much for granted and it will pay us to go before our God and lie very low. Just let me have a thought that another man is lower than I am even though he’d be a raper from the Park Forest Preserves.
And I’m a pharisee and you, woman, think for a moment that there’s any difference in the sight of God, and that you are superior to the woman who burns the red light to make a living, and you’re a pharisee. Humility and penitence and self-accusation and fear of the Lord are dear to the eyes of God and sweet to the heart of God. And wherever there’s penitence it comes up like a glorious puff of incense into the very nostrils of the Most High God.
And wherever there’s self-righteousness and self-assurance and a feeling of superiority over Jehovah’s Witnesses and over the liberals and over the Catholics and over the people who know not God, just you feel superior to them, just let one impulse of superiority enter your heart and it stinks in the holy nostrils of God. To be a righteous man and not be a self-righteous man is the work of the Holy Ghost.
To be a moral woman and not be a foully immoral woman in her morality is the work of the Holy Ghost. To be a good clean young fellow and yet not look down your nose at the poor gang boys with their yellow leather jackets and their Levi’s and their switchblade knives that roam the streets is the work of the Holy Ghost.
And so if God doesn’t work within you to make you humble and meek and lowly, you will build into your heart that which the Pharisees and the Scribes had, that terrible self-righteousness that didn’t know God when they saw Him in the face, that frightening, that frightful and frightening thing that would put words above deeds and laws above people and days above pain and would nail on a tree a Man whose only crime was that He loved sinners and whose only evil was that He would heal the sick on a holy day and with shining eyes would tell the world.
I come to bring you immortality. I come to take away sin and bring you immortality. Those were His only crimes. They manufactured them. They paid lying men and suborned witnesses to lie about Him, but they could bring make nothing stick. Their only crimes they could lay against Him were these I’ve named and one or two more, one of them being this man says he’s God, and I’m glad He’s God for I can’t put myself in the hands of anybody less than God.
One of these times, that heart so faithful it has been to beat, it’s 72 times a minute. Mine does 62 in good weather. 72 times a minute and doctors tell me not to be bothered by it because I’ll last longer because I’m not wearing myself out. See, my heart doesn’t beat so often. It’s got longer to go, but they’re all going to run down one of these days, all going to run down.
And when they run down, nobody will be around to help us, nobody, nobody. Somebody will be on the phone, but you won’t hear it. Somebody will be calling a number, but you don’t know it because that’s the last number you look up. The undertaker’s number. Somebody will be on the phone. They’ll be dialing that number.
You won’t know it. You will be cold and still and quiet, and your fear-possessed soul will be out there. Where will it go? Where will it go? If you have no redeemer but Mary Baker Eddy, if you have no redeemer but Father Divine, if you have no redeemer but some human redeemer, God have mercy on you, amen and amen.
But the Redeemer that came to the world was God, and He said He was God, and they nailed Him on a cross for saying He was God. But Luther beat on his great German chest and said that it takes a mighty Savior to save such a mighty sinner. And He can’t be anything less than God and be able to do what He’s got to be able to do.
And I want to tell you this as long as I am in my right mind. Now if I should be brainwashed somewhere like some men have been and lose my mind, God knows what I would do. If I were caught by the communists and brainwashed and broken, I might go out and do anything.
But as long as I keep my right mind, here are two skinny knees, two of them. They’ll never bow to man, never bow to man. Never will I kiss the toe of a man, never will I kiss the ring of a man, never will I genuflect nor kowtow before a man. But there is a Man whose name is Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary to suffer under Pontius Pilate, to rise again from the dead the third day, to ascend unto the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From whence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. He said, I am God and I believe it. And I believe it with everything that is in me. And if I didn’t believe it, there aren’t books enough in all the world.
And I’ve got so many books that they’re piled up like this. If I should die suddenly, I don’t know what anybody would do with my books. I don’t know what they’d have to send for the waste paper to get rid of. I’ve got books, everybody, not a book, not a book, not a one would help me. And I have friends all over this world, literally all over this world. Now that I’ve been preaching, I’m 60 years old, and I’ve been preaching since I was 18.
And so, I’ve made friends, and I can’t go to a town where somebody doesn’t know me. And if I wasn’t too proud to do it, I’d never have to go to a hotel in any city because folks, somebody around there, you know, they know you. But I don’t know a friend I could lean on.
I got friends here, I got friends out here in the audience, but I don’t know a friend I could lean on in that day when my wife is on the telephone calling a number she doesn’t know now, she’s never had to call it. And when that time comes, I don’t know a friend. I don’t know a friend from Martin Lloyd Jones in London, one of England’s greatest preacher, Alan Redpath, one of America’s greatest preacher. Or you can go north and south and east and west and find them. And I know them, and they love me, and I love them.
But they couldn’t help me in that hour when somebody’s dialing a strange number for the first time, saying, come over and get him. Only God can help me, and that man who helps me has got to be God. He’s got to be God. And that man received sinners, and I am the sinner. And I came to Him, born to the Virgin, and a man as I’m a man, but He was God as I am not God. He was God as only God is God, but He’s man as I’m a man.
So, I’m glad for all the things they nailed Him on a cross for, I glorify Him for. Together we shall sing in that day and raise the loud happy anthem in praise of the very charges and accusations they made against Him. And thank Him forever that this Man receiveth sinners.
So, if you’re a sinner, don’t go home and say, I’m too bad. This man receiveth sinners. Jesus Christ will take you this very night if you’ll turn away from your sin and turn unto Him.
Burt Miller, will you come up and lead us in prayer? Let us stand, please. Let us stand. Let us stand.
Now while he’s coming and while we’re waiting to have prayer, is there somebody here that would say, Mr. Tozer, I want you to pray for me. It doesn’t matter what the need is, whatever the need is, put the hand up, we’ll see it. Whatever is the need, put the hand up. Yes, God bless you. Who else? Just put the hand up. We’re going to have prayer here before we close. And so you want us to pray. All right, Brother Miller, please pray.
[Burt Miller Prayer]
Our Father, in the name of this mighty Christ of God, the man Christ Jesus, tonight we would bow not only the knee, but our hearts before him. O we thank thee for Thy matchless grace, infinite grace, that God so loved us as sinners that He came to seek and find us. We’re glad for the work of the Holy Spirit that located us and put in our hearts the desire to seek Him whom to know right is life eternal.
And Lord, like one of so many centuries ago, we can likewise say this poor man, this poor woman cried, God heard and answered and delivered, took our feet out of the miry clay and put them on the rock to stay. Oh, how we thank Thee for seeking and finding us.
Now, Lord, Tthou has spoken to us tonight about having the spirit of a Pharisee and described, Lord, we wonder how many of us are like the elder brother who in his self-righteousness, his self-morality had no love for his wayward lost brother.
Oh, somehow, Lord, help us to locate ourselves as to where we are tonight, as to our attitude toward Thee and our fellow men all about us. Don’t allow us, Lord, to Sunday after Sunday, drink in great truth and hear Thee speak through Spirit-anointed men and do nothing about these, Lord, who are lost and hell-bound. These that we would draw our skirts aside from Lord, all delivers from a self-righteous attitude, we pray.
Put upon our hearts tonight, those of us who know Thee in truth, such a burden for the lost that’ll cause us to do something about it, not just merely pray for them, Lord, but seek to snatch them as brands from the burning. Remember the lassie that raised her hand. Meet her need, Lord, and there’s so many others of us tonight, perhaps whose hands should have been raised, but maybe yet raise them to Thee in our heart’s need. Give us then, we pray Thee, a heart like Thine that shall reach unto these whom Thou art seeking to woo and to win.
In the name of the Christ of the living God, amen.