The Very Best of A. W. Tozer

[Pages:274]The Very Best of A. W. Tozer

Contents

FORWARD ............................................................3 EXCERPT(S) FROM:

The Pursuit of God ............................................8 Born After Midnight........................................19 God Tells the Man Who Cares........................33 That Incredible Christian.................................53 The Root of the Righteous ..............................64 Of God and Men..............................................77 Man: the Dwelling Place of God.....................90 How to Be Filled with the Holy Spirit ..........114 Worship, the Missing Jewel .........................118 Who Put Jesus on the Cross? ........................121 Paths to Power ...............................................128 Let My People Go .........................................131 The Knowledge of the Holy..........................134 The Divine Conquest.....................................147 Born After Midnight......................................170 The Pursuit After God ...................................176 The Root of the Righteous ............................174 That Incredible Christian...............................191 Of God and Men............................................201 Man, The Dwelling Place of God .................208 I Call It Heresy ..............................................218 Who Put Jesus on the Cross? ........................241 God Tells the Man Who Cares......................254 I Talk Back to the Devil!...............................262 Worship: The Missing Jewel.........................268 How to be Filled with the Holy Spirit ...........272

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Forward

"The Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness"

Whenever I read A. W. Tozer, two verses always come to mind: Isaiah 40:3 and Matthew 3:3, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness." Like Charles Spurgeon during the Down-Grade Controversy in the latter part of the nineteenth century, Tozer said and wrote much about what was going on in contemporary Christianity. He said so much, in fact, that he was once quoted as saying to David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, that great expositor and 30-year pastor of Westminster Chapel in London, "I have preached myself off every Bible conference platform in the country" [Cited in A Treasury of A. W. Tozer (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1980), p. 8]. While he never desired to offend, he knew that the Word of God does offend (Matt. 15:12-13), and that when you tell people the truth, they often become your enemy (Gal. 4:16).

I view Tozer, as well as Spurgeon and others, as "the voice of one crying in the wilderness" because people seem to consider such men to be crackpots, troublemakers, or simply opinionated critics whom we can easily dismiss. It greatly distresses me when even those who love Tozer seem to dismiss many of the things he said as being mere opinion and therefore unworthy of serious consideration. One author, for example, writes about Tozer:

I heard him preach many times (always with profit) and waited for his books to be published as impatiently as a detective-story addict waits for the next installment of the current serial. I still reread his books regularly and always find in them something new to think about. This does not mean I always agree with Tozer. There were times when I felt he was leading a parade of one down a dead-end street, such as when he vigorously opposed Christian movies. His sometimes acid criticisms of new Bible translations and of churches that "majored in counting noses" were but small defects in an otherwise straight and sturdy wall. [Warren Wiersbe, Walking With the Giants (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1976),

p. 163.]

While I certainly do not agree with Tozer in every area, I must take issue with the listed observations being labeled "defects." There are, indeed, legitimate points to challenge in all three of those (especially the third one), and, quite frankly, anyone who does not see it is not being very discerning. As we'll see, Tozer was committed to the authority of the Word and quickly (and rightly) condemned that which did not conform to It.

It is this very dismissal of much of Tozer's contemporary comment that reminds me of John the Baptist (Is. 40:3; Matt. 3:3). Seven hundred years before John preached, Isaiah foretold of the herald's coming to "prepare the way" for Christ. When the herald arrived, he announced (or "heralded") the arrival of the King. Such heralding was a common practice in ancient times. The herald would travel far ahead of the monarch and prepare the way. He, along with a group of servants, would repair the roadway and make sure it was as neat as possible. The herald would then arrive and proclaim the coming of the monarch to everyone he met.

With this in mind, I would like to offer a brief biography of Tozer, while at the same time drawing a few comparisons between him and John the Baptist. (For a more thorough biography of Tozer, see James L. Snyder, In Pursuit of God: The Life of A. W. Tozer [Camp Hill, PA:

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Christian Publications], 1991). I'm sure that Tozer's humility would not have permitted him to approve of this comparison, but I am respectfully going to do it anyway. (I also hope he would forgive me for using alliteration, for it was something he avoided, viewing it as being artificial.) While expositing the Gospel of Matthew, I was deeply struck by John the Baptist, and while reading about Tozer and reading Tozer himself, I discovered several similarities.

The Man

Much of what A. W. Tozer wrote and preached has been overlooked at best and ignored at worst. This is strikingly similar to John the Baptist. As Henry Morris observes:

. . .for some strange reason, John is almost ignored by modern believers. In a very real sense, he was the first Christian, the first Christian witness, the first Christian preacher, the first Christian prophet, and, finally, the first Christian martyr. He was the first to baptize converts and could have even started the first local church since the disciples of Christ were already largely organized and ministering together under John before they were instructed to follow Christ (John 1:35-37; Acts 1:15-26) [Henry Morris, The

Defender's Study Bible (Grand Rapids: World Publishing, Inc., 1995), p. 1009.]

John the Baptist was truly an outstanding and unparalleled individual. Our Lord Himself said that John the Baptist was the greatest man who had ever lived up to that time (Matt. 11:11). That is a truly astounding statement in light of men such as Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others.

What about A. W. Tozer, then? Well, while his conception was not miraculous, while he was not filled with the Holy Spirit before he was born, and while he was not the greatest man who ever lived up to that time, he was nonetheless a true herald and modern day prophet of Christ.

Aiden Wilson Tozer was born on April 21, 1897 in Newburg (known then as La Jose), Pennsylvania. The family moved to Akron, Ohio in 1912 where Tozer came to Christ in 1915. From 1919 to 1924, Tozer had three brief pastorates: the Stonewood Christian and Missionary Alliance Church in Nutter Fort, West Virginia, the Morgantown, West Virginia Alliance Church, and the Eastside Chapel Alliance Church in Toledo, Ohio. It was in 1924 that his ministry changed when he began a four-year pastorate in the Indianapolis, Indiana Alliance Church (my hometown). In his previous pastorates, his work was mostly evangelistic, but Indianapolis marked the change to the Bible teaching ministry for which he is now famous.

Tozer had little formal education, leaving high school after one day because "he felt he could make better progress in independent study" [Snyder, p. 35]. This feeling was vindicated as the years went by. Tozer's remarkable knowledge came from his voracious reading and study. While in Indianapolis, he was a regular at the public library. "Every Monday and Wednesday people would see Tozer walking to the library with both arms loaded with books. He would exchange those books and return with a similar load" [Snyder, p. 67]. Further, "He read theology, history, philosophy, poetry, and literature in general. He was especially attracted to the ancient writers, particularly the church fathers and Christian mystics" [Snyder, p. 108]. Tozer believed the Biblical truth that the first responsibility of a pastor is to preach and teach the Word, which could be accomplished only by hours of study. As we'll point out in Chapter 8, this practice is not the norm in contemporary Christianity.

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It was in 1928 that Tozer accepted the pastorate of the Southside Alliance Church in Chicago, where he labored faithfully for 31 years. Again, what struck me about Tozer's acceptance of this pastorate was his uncompromising commitment to study and prayer. In his meeting with the church board, he made it clear that the priority of his ministry was preaching and teaching, which required many hours of study and prayer. He made it clear that he was not "a visiting pastor," that he would not spend all week visiting the church people in their homes. While this seemed unusual to the board, they extended the invitation anyway. Again, as we'll see in Chapter 8, this is not the emphasis today. Because of so many other demands on a pastor's time, study and prayer are often the last considerations.

Tozer pastored one other church, the Avenue Road Church in Toronto, Canada. He believed the Lord was leading him away from Chicago for two reasons. First, the inner city neighborhood around the church had deteriorated considerably and the church people wanted to relocate to the cleaner and safer Chicago suburbs, but the 61-year-old Tozer felt this to be the job of a younger man. Second, Tozer wanted to devote more time to Bible conference speaking and to Alliance Life, the official publication of the Christian and Missionary Alliance.

A plethora of churches invited Tozer to be their pastor, but it was the persistence of Avenue Road, much like the persistence of Southside Alliance, that paid off. They offered Tozer a position of "preaching pastor," which meant that his only duty would be to preach twice on Sunday, leaving all other pastoral duties to the other pastor and thereby freeing Tozer to do the other things he wanted to do. Somewhat taken aback by such an offer, and after prayerful consideration, Tozer accepted and preached there for almost four years.

The noteworthy aspect of Tozer's departure from Southside was his making clear that he was not retiring. He told his Chicago congregation, "I'll preach as long as I can hold a Bible." He went on to observe that the priests of Israel only had a 20 year ministry, starting at 30 years of age and ending at 50, but that prophets never retired [Snyder, p. 217].

How unlike our day this is! Many pastors today have retired, or are planning to retire, in direct contradiction of the Biblical principle that Tozer practiced. Indeed, he carried on his busy ministry until the Lord took him home on May 12, 1963. In fact, the fatal heart attack that ushered him into glory occurred just seven days before he was scheduled to preach at the Alliance General Council. As one of his sons later commented, "He burned himself out for Christ."

One parallel between Tozer and John the Baptist was their attitude toward money and possessions. It was said of the Lord Jesus that, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head" (Matt. 8:20), but John the Baptist had even less than Jesus. John lived in the wilderness, dressed in camel's hair, and ate locusts and wild honey. All of this was an indictment against the religious crowd of the day--the Pharisees, Saducess, and priests--who were self-indulgent and self-satisfied.

Likewise, early in his marriage to Ada Pfautz and early in his ministry, Tozer learned what it means to live by faith, often living literally from hand to mouth. The lesson stuck with him throughout his ministry. Even when "success" came, money was never a consideration. By his own choice, his salary was always meager, even in the peak years, and he signed away much of the book royalties he would have received. Like John the Baptist, Tozer was content with whatever food and clothing God provided.

This does not imply that either John or Tozer encouraged people to be hermits or ascetics. Rather their way of living was a dramatic reminder of how possessions and prestige can keep men away from the things that matter most.

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The Ministry

The ministry of John the Baptist can be summed up in one word: preaching. As we'll examine in greater detail in Chapter 8, the word "preaching" translates the Greek verb kerusso, which primarily means, "to herald." The noun form pictures the imperial herald, whose duty it was to proclaim loudly, extensively, and authoritatively the coming of the king and the wishes of the king. Paul uses this word in II Timothy 4:2 to specify the first and foremost responsibility of the preacher: "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine."

This was John's task, his only task. He proclaimed the king in word and action. He never promoted himself or accepted honor for himself. His only desire was to proclaim the king.

This likewise was the ministry of A. W. Tozer. More than anything else, even more than his great success as a writer, he considered himself a preacher. His writing was, in fact, merely an extension of his pulpit ministry, which is the way it should be today but tragically is not as a rule. Every other aspect of Tozer's ministry revolved around the pulpit ministry.

The Message

Another important parallel between these two men of God was their message, namely, repentance. As we'll explore in Chapter 7, a prevalent teaching today is that of "no-lordship," the teaching that says one can "accept Christ" (a term Tozer criticized severely) as Savior without accepting Him as Lord. Going hand-in-hand with this teaching is the denial that "repentance" is a necessary aspect of salvation. John, however, clearly proclaimed the necessity of repentance.

The Greek for "repent" (metanoeo) literally means "to turn around, to change direction, to change the mind and will." It does not imply some vague or uncertain change; rather it always denotes a change from that which is wrong to that which is right. Repentance always implies a change of thinking, desire, and conduct of life. As we'll see, the Lord Jesus proclaimed repentance, as did "the twelve," Peter proclaimed repentance, and the Apostle Paul proclaimed repentance. Salvation, therefore, is truly a "conversion," that is, a conversion from a life of sin to a life of holiness.

Tozer likewise strongly preached the message of repentance:

I think there is little doubt that the teaching of salvation without repentance has lowered the moral standards of the Church and produced a multitude of deceived religious professors who erroneously believe themselves to be saved when in fact they are still in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity [The Root of the Righteous, p. 44].

The Manner

As mentioned already, the manner in which John spoke was of "one crying in the wilderness." That great expositor and scholar John Gill explains this term:

The voice of one crying, bontos, lowing like an ox; which expresses the austerity of the man, the roughness of his voice, the severity of his language; that he called aloud and

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spoke out, openly, publicly, and freely; and that he delivered himself in preaching with a great deal of zeal and fervency. I have often pondered the scene of John thundering out the truth of the Living God to the people of his day. I often imagine the shocked look on the faces of the self-righteous Jews when John pointed his finger at them and said that they, the covenant people of Abraham, needed to repent. Nowhere do we see John compromise, cower, or capitulate his message. In reading Tozer I see the same attitude. I see a man who stood firmly for the Word of God and thundered forth its truth. As one writer comments, "To listen to Tozer preach was as safe as opening the door of a blast furnace!" [Warren Wiersbe, Walking With the Giants, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1976), p. 163]. The interesting thing about this, however, is that Tozer's voice was actually somewhat weak and had a distinct nasal quality about it. During his ministry in Chicago, he decided he should do something about this deficiency. So, as biographer James L. Snyder recounts, "Typical of Tozer, he went to a bookstore and purchased a volume on voice training to learn all he could about voice control. In his office was a large copy of Milton's Paradise Lost. Tozer would place it on a music stand borrowed from the sanctuary and read it aloud. He read through the book at least four times in order to strengthen his voice and gain better control of it." He even carried balloons in his briefcase and blew them up often to help strengthen his lungs [Snyder, p. 109]. Was all this motivated by vanity? Did Tozer do it so he could be acclaimed as a pupiteer? No, he did it all that he might be better able better to proclaim the truth of God. And proclaim the truth he did, no matter what the consequences. As mentioned in the Introduction, he once remarked that he had preached myself off every Bible conference platform in the country. On one occasion, for example, Tozer was invited to speak at a holiness church. The service consisted of what he viewed as "inappropriate levity" and a ladies trio that sang several secular songs. When it was his turn, Tozer laid aside his planned message and proceeded to rebuke the church for its lack of the very standards it used to have [Snyder, p. 112]. I don't know if he was ever invited back, but I doubt it. Either way, however, it didn't matter to Tozer. He never preached to ensure that he would be invited back. Unlike the tolerance and lack of standards that permeate Christianity today, A. W. Tozer stood without apology against anything that dishonored the Lord he served. He was, indeed, "the voice of one crying in the wilderness." How we so need more like him today!

Dr. J. D. Watson Sola Scriptura Ministries From the Introduction to his book,

The Forgotten Tozer

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Excerpts from The Pursuit of God

Chapter 1. Following Hard After God

My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand, upholdeth me. Ps. 63:8

Christian theology teaches the doctrine of prevenient grace, which briefly stated means this, that before a man can seek God, God must first have sought the man.

Before a sinful man can think a right thought of God, there must have been a work of enlightenment done within him; imperfect it may be, but a true work nonetheless, and the secret cause of all desiring and seeking and praying which may follow.

We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit. "No man can come to me," said our Lord, "except the Father which hath sent me draw him," and it is by this very prevenient drawing that God takes from us every vestige of credit for the act of coming. The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after Him; and all the time we are pursuing Him we are already in His hand: "Thy right hand upholdeth me."

In this divine "upholding" and human "following" there is no contradiction. All is of God, for as von Hugel teaches, God is always previous. In practice, however, (that is, where God's previous working meets man's present response) man must pursue God. On our part there must be positive reciprocation if this secret drawing of God is to eventuate in identifiable experience of the Divine. In the warm language of personal feeling this is stated in the Forty-second Psalm: "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?" This is deep calling unto deep, and the longing heart will understand it.

The doctrine of justification by faith--a Biblical truth, and a blessed relief from sterile legalism and unavailing self-effort--has in our time fallen into evil company and been interpreted by many in such manner as actually to bar men from the knowledge of God. The whole transaction of religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless. Faith may now be exercised without a jar to the moral life and without embarrassment to the Adamic ego. Christ may be "received" without creating any special love for Him in the soul of the receiver. The man is "saved," but he is not hungry nor thirsty after God. In fact he is specifically taught to be satisfied and encouraged to be content with little.

The modern scientist has lost God amid the wonders of His world; we Christians are in real danger of losing God amid the wonders of His Word. We have almost forgotten that God is a Person and, as such, can be cultivated as any person can. It is inherent in personality to be able to know other personalities, but full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be achieved in one encounter. It is only after long and loving mental intercourse that the full possibilities of both can be explored.

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