This loss of the concept of majesty has come just when the forces of religion are making dramatic gains and the churches are more prosperous than at any time within the past several hundred years. But the alarming thing is that our gains are mostly external and our losses are wholly internal; and since it is the quality of our religion that is affected by internal conditions, it may be that our supposed gains are but losses spread over a wider field (A.W. Tozer The Knowledge of the Holy)
We want to continue our look at some statements by Tozer and reflect on them as they apply today. Tozer’s statements are powerful and even insulting if we take them seriously and apply them to where they need to be applied. Even more importantly, Tozer seems to have the same idea as God.
Thus says the LORD, “Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the LORD. “But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word. But he who kills an ox is like one who slays a man; He who sacrifices a lamb is like the one who breaks a dog’s neck; He who offers a grain offering is like one who offers swine’s blood; He who burns incense is like the one who blesses an idol. As they have chosen their own ways, And their soul delights in their abominations.” (Isa 66:1-3).
The above text shows what God desires in a heart and what He thinks of heartless worship. We see in v. 1 that the Israelites wanted to please God by building Him a temple. If you think about it, that is laughable. God is infinite and as such fills the universe. The Temple cannot possibly be a place that benefits Him. As YAHWEH, the self-existent One, there is no way that man who receives all benefit from God can benefit God in any way. The Temple was for the sake of man, not God. The same thing is true of worship in certain ways. God does not command men to worship Him because it benefits Him in any way, but because that is how His glory is manifested and that is how man shares in the glory of God. What does man think He is doing in building buildings and building all sorts of ways to worship God? As it says at the end of v. 3, “As they have chosen their own ways, And their soul delights in their abominations.” In choosing his own way in the worship of God, the souls of men are delighting in their abominations and not the worship of God.
As we can see in the first part of v. 3, the Israelites were doing the worship that was commanded. They sacrificed the right animals and offered the grain offerings and incense. However, it does not appear that their hearts were right before God. When the heart is not right before God, even commanded forms of worship are abominations to Him. As to the modern day, people can build the nicest of buildings and that be the house of the filthiest of hearts. The people in those buildings can be doing those things that appear to be great works of service and so many things, but all of it can still be nothing but abominations to God. They may be making great sacrifices and be very conservative people, but they can still be an abomination to God because of the soul and what it delights in.
V. 2 tells us what God’s true delight is in worship. As compared with the souls of men choosing their own ways and delighting in their own abominations, we see that God loves the humble, the contrite of spirit, and those who tremble at His word. Or as David put it in Psa 51, “For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” God does not want people offering animals and things that they can give apart from themselves, He wants the heart. He demands that the heart be humbled before Him which is taking the place that creatures should take before their Creator. There is no worship apart from a humble heart and there is no humility apart from the majesty and glory of God being recognized and bowed to. There is no worship unless the creature sees its sin and is therefore contrite or bruised inwardly because of the sin. There is also no worship apart from the trembling of the humbled and contrite creature in hearing and listening to the words of God. If that is quality religion, then the Church in America is truly in trouble. We must humble ourselves and seek the face of God or the downgrade will continue. With much show and outward appearances, true religion is about lost.
God Loves... Himself 
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