Tozer Speaks: Volume One: 128 Compelling & Authoritative Teachings of A.W. Tozer

by A.W. Tozer

I disagree with the liberal who wants to reduce everyone to a single level—Christian and non-Christian, religious and irreligious, saved and lost, the believer and the doubter.

The Bible actually says that God has given us the privilege of being born, and this is not just poetry.

But this is not poetry—this is theology—“He gave them the power to have the right to be children of God!”

The promise to us is this: what Jesus is, we will be.

Not in a sense of deity, certainly, but in all the rights and privileges and in standing we will be equal to Him and like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

But the Bible knows absolutely nothing about passive reception, for the word ‘receive’ is not passive—it is active.

In the Greek this word ‘receive’ is active—not passive.

That’s what it says in the Greek: “As many as took Him actively.”

I warn you—don’t for one second let the crowds, the bustle of religious activity, a surge of religious thinking—fool you into thinking that there is a lot of spirituality. It isn’t so.

We have edited Jesus Christ down.

Some want to cling to their sinful pleasures, and in our churches in this deadly, degenerate, sodomistic hour, we are guilty of making it just as easy as possible for double-minded Christians.

Why should believing Christians want everything pre-cooked, pre-digested, sliced and salted, and expect that God must come and help us eat and hold the food to our baby lips while we pound the table and splash—and we think that is Christianity! Brethren, it is not. It is a degenerate bastard breed that has no right to be called Christianity.

I.

II.

III.

IV.

V.

VI.

VII.

VIII.

IX.

I have my doubts about signs and wonders that have to be organized, that demand a letterhead and a president and a secretary and a big trailer with lights and cameras. God isn’t in that!

You know by this time that I have a philosophy of faith, and I must begin by telling you that I cannot recommend that we have faith in ‘faith.’ We have a great deal of that kind of thing right now because there are men who are devoted completely to preaching faith. As a result, people have faith in ‘faith’—and largely forget that our confidence is not in the power of faith but in the person and work of the Saviour, Jesus Christ.

We have full confidence in Jesus Christ—and that is the origin and source and foundation and resting place for all of our faith. In that kingdom of faith, we are dealing with Him, with God Almighty, the One whose essential nature is holiness, the One who cannot lie.

the human heart by nature is filled with unbelief.

To most people those are just words—like ‘pixies’ and ‘fairies.’ So, there is a false idea of unreality in our hearts when we pray and pray and pray and receive no answers.

Everything was created for a purpose and I claim that there are some things that human reason cannot do, things that are beyond its capacity.

Reason could not tell us that Jesus Christ should be born of a virgin, but faith knows that He was.

Reason cannot prove that Jesus took upon Him the form of a man and that He died for the sins of the world, but faith knows that He did.

Reason cannot prove that on the third day Jesus arose from the dead, but faith knows that He did, for faith is an organ of knowledge.

A young man loves a young woman. How does he know it? Does he read the encyclopedia in order to base his love on reason? No, he listens to the ticking of his own heart. He knows it by feeling. So, along with reason, feeling is a means of knowledge, and faith can be placed in the same category.

Faith simply ignores reason, and rises above it. The brain just comes staggering along behind like a little boy trying to keep up with his dad. The brain, like the little boy, comes along on short, stubby legs, trying to reason. This is exactly why the word ‘wonder’ often appears in the New Testament. “They wondered at him.” “They wondered at him, and they all marveled.” Faith was going ahead doing wonders and reason was coming along, wide-eyed and amazed. That is the way it should be, always.

I have always claimed that a believing Christian is a miracle, and at the precise moment that you can fully explain him and all about it, you have a Christian no longer!

Faith does not rest upon promises. Faith rests upon character. Faith must rest in confidence upon the One who made the promise.

So, what is the promise for? A promise is given to me so that I may know intelligently what to claim and what God has planned for me and what God will give me. Those are the promises and they are intelligent directions and they rest upon the character and the ability of the One who made them.

For the most part, we live in a land of lies and deception and there is a psychology of deceit and mistrust ground into us from our birth. But when we enter into the realm of the kingdom of God and the realm of faith, we find everything is changed—everything is different in this new realm.

The dear, old Bible itself is a book of absolute honesty.

So, we lean on the Bible and its truth and its assurance in the things of God. You can trust it—but don’t abuse it and misuse it.

No wonder the saints of God die with the Bible at their side!

Memorize the Word of God, let it become a part of your being, so that you can fully know and count upon the merits of Jesus.

They Know They Will Never Be Turning Back

Jesus implied that there are ‘other’ kinds of Christian disciples as well as true disciples.

I. Who is a true disciple of Jesus Christ?

II. What are the ‘other’ kinds of disciples?

III. The marks of those who are not disciples ‘indeed.’

IV. Benefits promised the true disciple.

Notice what our Lord said to those Jews who believed and who had begun to follow Him: “… Disciples indeed”—indeed disciples!

“If you continue in my word, then you are disciples in more than name—you are disciples really, and in fact!”

If I say ‘up’—I imply ‘down.’ If I say ‘long’—I imply ‘short,’ or I would not have had to say ‘long.’ If I say ‘good’—there must be a ‘bad,’ or there would be nothing to compare.

Jesus replied, in answer: “I am the One that I have been telling you I am. I said, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again’—and that’s who I am. “I said, ‘The Son of Man is in Heaven’ and I referred to myself, and that’s who I am. “And I said, ‘I that speak to you am the Christ’—that’s who I am. I said, ‘The Son gives light to whom He will’—that’s who I am. “I said, ‘I am that bread of life which came down from above to give life unto the world’—and that’s who I am. “And I said, ‘I am the Light of the world, and he that follows me shall not walk in darkness’—and that’s who I am. “I speak and I judge and the Father is with me because I do always what pleases the Father. And I speak from the Father—and that’s who I am!”