God Loves… Himself

“The modern scientists has lost God amid the wonders of the 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.” –A.W. Tozer

Last time we explored how evangelicals and religious people lose God while amid the wonders of His Word. Continuing in the same line of thought, it is easy to see that prideful people can simply stuff their minds with facts and think that they are becoming very religious. Paul tells us that “knowledge puffs up” or “makes arrogant.” What happens when people study the Bible and do the so-called spiritual disciplines without a humble and broken heart? It makes them even worse in their pride. Imagine that, if you can, that Bible study can actually harden a person’s heart and bring greater condemnation. The so-called spiritual disciplines can also harden a person’s heart and bring greater condemnation. While this may shock you, consider the case of Judas. He knew far more about Jesus and the teachings of Jesus than virtually anyone else other than the disciples. But when he chose money more than Jesus he was rejecting far more than others as well.

Let us consider the case of the scribes and the Pharisees. Jesus condemned them far worse than the prostitutes or anyone else. He condemned their praying, their giving of alms, their fasting and their knowledge. He blasted them because they tried to act so righteous on the outside while inwardly they were hypocrites. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness” (Mat 23:27). It is hard to imagine that the spirit of the Pharisees is alive today, but as long as the evil one is still active that spirit will still be alive. As long as man is proud and self-centered the Pharisees will live among us. They might know a lot about the Bible and they might be very outwardly moral, but they are not lovers of God and of His glory. They have lost sight of God amongst the wonders of the Bible.

One might ask how that is done. Well, all we have to understand is that man is full of self and pride unless God changes the heart. It is easy for man to think that God will elect him and not send him to hell. After all, he thinks of himself as being quite a nice fellow and thinks God should think the same. But down deep that heart is still wicked in its pride and self-centeredness. It only loves God for what it thinks God does for it. It only loves God because it thinks that God loves it. When the truth of God is seen, however, that heart will rise against the glory of God in a heartbeat. That heart reads the Bible with false spectacles on because it reads the Bible as if it is all about self. It might be caught up with various doctrines and all, but that pumps that heart with pride too. The proud heart loves what people say about it and its knowledge. The proud heart loves for people to notice how moral and good it is. The proud heart wants people to notice just how faithful it is in the spiritual disciplines. The proud heart thinks much of a god, but it never comes to know the true God.

We must never lost sight of the fact that religious people can simply be religious people and not people that know God. Eternal life is in knowing God and His Son and not in all the religious activities that are so popular in the conservative world today. One can school their kids at home and be a Pharisee. One can oppose abortion and be a Pharisee. One can not touch a drop of liquor and be a Pharisee. One can memorize the whole Bible and still be a Pharisee. One can pray hours a day and still be a Pharisee. One can fast and mediate hours on end and still be a Pharisee. The Pharisees did not know God and modern Pharisees don’t either.

One reason that people can lose sight of God amid the wonders of His Word is because the person in his pride has never been delivered from pride and self-love. So that person takes the Bible and studies it for reasons of pride and self rather than to know God. The proud person always thinks that the Bible speaks to others when it speaks of sin. The proud person is his or her own god. So it studies the Bible and practices so-called “spiritual disciplines” as a service to self and pride. But the true God is not in his or her thoughts and so the true God is lost amid the wonder of the Word and of the things that the Word prescribes for believers to do out of humble hearts.

“The modern scientists has lost God amid the wonders of the 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.” –A.W. Tozer

It is interesting to think of how Tozer has put this. Scientists (some of them) and lovers of “nature” have gotten so enamored with nature and its complexities and beauty that they have forgotten the Creator of all of those wonders. In one sense scientists and lovers of nature are caught up with what they know and how those things can make them feel. It becomes abhorrent to them that there is a grand Designer of it all. But they have lost sight of God in those things where His glory shines. They may study things about the sun and the moon and really forget that those great luminaries in the sky shine the glory of God upon them. Some are so enamored with trees and mountains that they forget that those things testify to the wisdom and majesty of God. Some are so caught up with the animals that they forget the One who designed them, feeds them, and manifests His glory through them. We wonder how anyone could not see God and His glory through His creation. Christians are amazed that anyone could be so blind.

However, within Christendom many are even blinder in one sense. We have the glory of God shining through His specific revelation to man and even more through Christ the very outshining of His glory. Within the confines of evangelical churches as well as liberal organizations many are fervent in their study of the Bible. What is wrong with that? Well, in one sense nothing. But we must also remember that the scribes, Sadducees, and the Pharisees were given to diligent study of the Bible. Jesus told the Sadducees that they were mistaken because they did not understand the Scriptures nor the power of God (Mathew 22:19). Jesus took the scribes and the Pharisees to task throughout the Sermon on the Mount when He repeatedly corrected their misinterpretations. In fact, the case could be made that Jesus spent a lot of His time correcting the wrong teachings of the scribes and the Pharisees. We also see Paul doing that to the various churches. So we must be careful if we assume that just because we know a lot of things about the Bible that we know the Bible. This is a terrible delusion.

What we have in modern evangelical thinking is a massive number of helps and commentaries on and about the Bible. We think that because we know many things about the Bible we must know God. After all, the Bible is the revelation of God. But we must be very careful about this. In the Old Testament we find over and over that the people of God were constantly told by God that they did not know Him. In other words, just hanging out at religious services (even if commanded by God) does not necessarily lead a person to know God. Studying the Bible does not necessarily lead a person to know God any more than reading a biography necessarily means that we know the author. We might read several books by an author and books on the author without knowing the author. This is exactly what is going on within the churches today. People have given themselves to study and some spiritual disciplines (as they are called) but these do not necessarily lead people to know God.

When people get caught up in various moral or spiritual activities, they might be in great danger of losing sight of God. The hearts of atheists and the irreligious are quite proud in their suppressing of the knowledge of God. But the hearts of people also can suppress the truth of God in the midst of Bible study and prayer. The heart is so deceitful and not one can know it but God and those He wants to show it to (Jer 17:9). So people can apply a salve to their conscience by learning many things about the Bible and even certain things about God and the Gospel without ever knowing God. This is, in one sense, a very tragic thing. It is like dying of thirst while laying in flowing water. Eternal life is to know God (John 17:3). It is not to know about God and it is not necessarily found in knowing many things about the Bible. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (I John 4:7-8). It matters not how much one knows about God and the Bible if it does not lead to a loving and knowing God. All of that knowledge will only condemn a person even more if he or she does not know and love God. This is a person losing God in the midst of the wonders of His Word.

“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 a 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 is encouraged to be content with little.” -A.W. Tozer

In the last blog we ended by looking at one way justification can be taught in a way that bars men from the knowledge of God. This time we will look at a second way that a sterile teaching of justification bars men from the knowledge of God. The first way (last time) was how men come to Christ. The second way is how men are to behave toward God after conversion. Tozer points out how this mechanical and spiritless way of religious conversion leads to a faith that does not jar the moral life. Christ can now “be “received” without creating any special love for Him in the soul of the believer. Can we imagine that the Lord Jesus Christ will live in a soul and not give that soul a love for Himself? The very definition of a believer is one that has the life of Christ in his soul and one that has the love of God poured out in his heart (Rom 5:5ff). A believer is one that the love of God has set on this person and has given that person a love for what is best. What is best is for God to give a person Himself and a love for Himself. It is not possible for a person to be converted and not have a love for God in his or her soul. If a person does not love God, that person is not savingly loved by God. It is impossible. All believers know God and eternal life is in knowing God (John 17:3). I John 4:7-8 is quite clear on this issue: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” All those that love God (everyone) are born of God and know God. The person that does not love does not know God. Any individual that does not love God is an individual that is lost and unconverted. There must be a love for God in the soul or the person is not converted.

The importance of focusing on the love for God is seen in the modern teaching that men can be saved and yet not hunger and thirst after God. We have diminished justification and evangelism into such a mechanical and easy thing that we don’t see that men must be turned from self-love to a pursuit of God out of love. Those that are justified are reconciled to God and adopted as His children. All those that have God are one with Christ and are His bride. All those that have Christ have the Holy Spirit and He works His fruit of love in the hearts and lives of His people. There is no such “critter” as a believer in Christ that does not love Christ. Therefore, all those that are of Christ have some hunger and thirst after spiritual things. We are known by our chief love and if our chief love is God it will be seen by hungering and thirsting after Him. However we teach men justification, it must include a heart that hungers and thirsts after God. If our teaching of justification does not lead to that, we are not teaching justification in its biblical parameters.

Tozer goes on to say that men are “specifically taught to be satisfied and is encouraged to be content with little.” What an indictment on anyone who does this. Where is there room in the Greatest Commandment for being satisfied and content with just a little religion or just a little Christ? Men and women must be directed to pursue God with panting hearts. A doctrine of justification that allows for men and women to be cold toward God and the things of God is not a doctrine within the confines and life of Holy Writ. Perhaps we are careless in pressing men on to pursue God because we don’t want to offend them. Perhaps we are content to have people cold toward God because we are content with their church attendance and tithes and we don’t want to have them stop that. Whatever the case, men must be taught the Gospel in ways that are to goad them on to seeking the glory of God. If we don’t do that, then we are not being faithful to God or to the people.

Pastors are to teach the whole counsel of God and not just focus on one or two teachings. Pastors must teach the people to pursue God and not be satisfied with the present state of things. Those in the congregations must urge their pastors to preach and teach the whole counsel of God. All must begin to teach justification in such a way that it urges men to hunger and thirst for God. The Gospel of God should produce a faith that works by love.

“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 a 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 is encouraged to be content with little.” -A.W. Tozer

The Gospel of the grace of God, the Gospel of the glory of God, and justification by faith alone are really one and the same Gospel. In fact, this one Gospel is the only Gospel. However, the doctrine of justification by faith alone can become an avenue that keeps men from God. In the modern day we tell men certain facts and if they give some form of intellectual assent to them we will consider them saved. As Tozer says, justification by faith relives us from sterile legalism and unavailing self-effort. But that is only true where it is taught with accuracy and applied to the heart faithfully. The doctrine by itself can be taught to the intellectual part of man and the heart left untouched. Or, to put it another way that Tozer has spoken of previously, the real beliefs of a person can be hidden underneath the rubbish of creeds and religious notions. This is not an effort to deny the importance of creeds, but to point to the importance of reaching the inner man with the teaching of Scripture. One can give assent to the creeds and still have a heart that is depraved and separated from God.

Tozer says that justification by faith (alone) is now interpreted by many in a way that bars men from the knowledge of God. He then answers how this can be true by saying that religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless. In other words, we try to get people to pray a prayer or utter assent to a statement of Scripture or a creed and yet we do not try to get them to seek God for a change of heart. When we have a canned message that we term “the Gospel” and we do nothing more than try to get a prayer out of someone or try to get them to give assent, we are engaged in mechanical evangelism that is spiritless in the sense that it is focused only on the outer man. When we teach people that we consider believers and we do nothing but teach their minds, we are engaged in mechanical and spiritless teaching.

But the impact of this statement surely hits home hard when he says that many are teaching justification in a way that bars men from the knowledge of God. Can that be true? Surely Tozer was exaggerating. How can someone teach justification by faith alone and do that in a way that bars men from the knowledge of God? This should provoke much thought and a lot of searching of heart in all those concerned about the glory of God in the world. We should all ask ourselves if we are teaching the Gospel in such a way that bars men from the knowledge of God.

How can we teach the Gospel in a way that bars men from the knowledge of God? Tozer points to at least two different ways. One, in the way men supposedly come to Christ. Two, the way men behave toward God after conversion. The first way is how we teach people to come to Christ. If we do not teach them about the Law in order to show them their true need for Christ, we have not taught them about the holiness and righteousness of God. People must be taught the Law because the Law expresses the glory of God. The Law came with glory and it still has much glory because it is a reflection of the holiness and love of God. If we do not teach men the Law, then indeed there is not much change in their life because they see salvation as a mechanical process by which they simply agree that certain facts are true. But where is the sovereign God in all of that? Where is man to learn of sin in truth if we do not teach him that sin is only known as sin when it is against God? Sin is not bad just because it is harmful to people, but it is extremely bad because it is against God. But until these things are taught, man sees sin as related to himself. Without the Law and the display of God’s holiness and love through it, men do not see their pride. Anyone that is not delivered from pride and self as the center of their being has not been delivered by the humble Savior in the Gospel. If justification is only taught as a doctrine to be held by the mind then the heart of man is not touched. We must teach justification in a way where the whole of man is touched in order that the whole of man may be saved. Christ does not save part of man, He wills save the whole man or the whole man will perish. Justification must be taught in a way that reaches the whole man or it is not really taught.

“Sound Bible exposition is an imperative must in the Church of the Living God. Without it no church can be a New Testament church in any strict meaning of that term. But exposition may be carried on in such a way as to leave the hearers devoid of any true spiritual nourishment whatever. For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard the truth. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts.” (A.W. Tozer)

How heretical it might sound to some to read that the Bible is not an end in itself. Instead, the purpose of the Bible is “to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God.” Or, in the words of Scripture, it is to know God. Bible study, teaching and preaching must all have that same goal. Too often in conservative circles the goal of Bible study is to know more about the Bible. Well, to know more about the Bible is good, but it cannot be the ultimate goal of Bible study. If we leave it at knowing more of the Bible, then we miss the point of the giving of the Bible which is to know God. More knowledge of the Bible can lead men to great pride, but to know God is to be humbled into the dust. The Bible is to bring men to know God in an intimate and satisfying way. Anything less is simply to settle for far too little.

Now if the Bible is not an end in itself, then preaching the Bible in an expositional manner must not settle for a simple exposition either. Expositional preaching that is little more than a running commentary is to treat the Bible as an end in itself. However, preaching must use the Bible for its intended purpose and that is to magnify and glorify God to the people so that their souls would be fed with the glory of God and then go out and live to the glory of God. Men and women will never grow spiritually, though they may grow in their knowledge of the Bible, if they do not come to know God. Eternal life is to know God, though that is far different than to know about God.

Tozer tells us that men must “enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts.” Here is a description that is more than just words. Scripture tells us that we must abide in Him and His love. So we are told here that we must enter into Him in order to delight in His Presence. Men are not able to enter into God and delight in His Presence through running commentary type of sermons. So preaching must in some way move man to delight in God which is to taste and know the inner sweetness of God Himself. This is what feeds the souls of weary and hungry people that are moving in this world as pilgrims and aliens. This alone is what sustains the soul that is weary of dealing with selfish and self-centered people in the world. If I may be blunt it is also this alone that distinguishes the people of God from the world. What is it that distinguished believers from unbelievers? Is it morality? Is it being good or going to church? No, it is the very presence of God that distinguishes believers from unbelievers. The church is His dwelling place and His temple. The church is the dwelling place of His glory.

It is only when the glory of God is set forth in Christ that men “taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts.” Notice that men are not tasting the Word at this point, but they are tasting God Himself. What does this mean? It means that God is in them and that they are in God and they have the very love of God in themselves working a love for Himself. This means that the joy of God is in them giving to men the joy of sharing in His joy. It is, as II Peter 1:4 sets out, a very partaking of the divine nature. Preaching to be preaching must strive for this goal. It is a noble goal and it must always be recognized that God is sovereign over these things. There is no pat formula that guarantees that God will meet with His people week after week at their beck and call. But this is to be sought with prayer and the way we preach.

The preaching of the Church must change. We cannot go back and copy the methods of the Puritans if we want to see revival in the Church. We must note that it was not their methods in and of themselves that brought revival; it was a hunger for God Himself that was evidenced by this. We must begin to hunger after God and plead with Him to come in our day. Expositional preaching without God at the center of it is no more than offering a sacrifice without love in the OT or prayer and fasting without love for God in the NT. The preacher must have a heart for God and he must desire the people to taste the glory of God in the depths of their being. What else is there?

“Sound Bible exposition is an imperative must in the Church of the Living God. Without it no church can be a New Testament church in any strict meaning of that term. But exposition may be carried on in such a way as to leave the hearers devoid of any true spiritual nourishment whatever. For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard the truth. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts.” (A.W. Tozer)

The last blog covered how exposition of Scripture in many ways is starving people in the churches. People are being faithful to the text in the sense that they are just talking about the text. They are being faithful to the text in the sense that they are giving a running commentary on the text. But they never arrive at what is needed to nourish the souls of the people that are hungering for God. In this blog I want to discuss how exposition is to feed the souls of the saints who hunger for the things of God.

Clearly just taking a chair and reading a commentary on a text is not sufficient to feed the soul. That is about all that some sermons that are expositions of the text do. So how is one to go beyond that? As Tozer says, “it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself.” So expositions that are using mere words and stop with mere words are not nourishing souls. However, the expositions of Scripture that nourish souls are those that feed the soul with God Himself. At this point, however, we must proceed with caution. One can speak of God in a way that is just mere words as well. But for the moment, what we want to assert is that preaching is to feed people with God Himself. So to do that one must always be looking at the character of God that is in the passage or that underlies the passage. The Bible is a revelation of God and its intent is to show forth the glory of God. An exposition of Scripture that does not do that is simply missing the main point of the text no matter how faithful the preacher is to the text in other ways.

To feed souls in preaching is to set forth the glory of God in the face of Christ in preaching. It is not necessarily the case that each sermon must focus on this entirely, but that the point of the sermon is built on this and it must show how it is so. Sin must be addressed as against God and its hideousness is only seen in light of His holiness. Self-denial is not a virtue as such, but one must deny self in order to live for the glory of God. Repentance is not just a turning from outward acts that violate the Ten Commandments, but it is a turning from living for self in order to live for the glory of God. All texts of Scripture should in some way point to the glory of God as its goal. This would be preaching that has God’s glory for its goal and it is that type of preaching that feeds and nourishes the souls of hungry believers.

But we must get back to the “mere words” part. The believer must come into a living experience with God in order for the truth preached to obtain its goal. Preaching is not just mere words, though it is the use of words, but the intent is to have the hearers meet with God and not just hear. In this sense the sermon must strive to have hearers see that they need to go to God and not just hear words. The human being has been made in the image of God and it is only when the soul of that human meets God that it can be satisfied. God alone can satisfy the soul. God alone can move the soul to become more and more like Himself which is spiritual growth. God alone can give Himself to a soul during preaching or any other time. As II Corinthians 3:18 sets out, the true growth of the believer is in beholding the glory of the Lord. It is in beholding that glory that the believer is transformed from one degree of glory to another. That is spiritual growth. This points to the real need of preaching which is to set forth the glory of God in the text and strive to move people to see and taste of that glory.

A mere exposition of a text with words alone will never feed hungry souls since the soul is hungry for God. Preachers need to repent of their running commentaries that are nothing but man-centered and word-centered expositions of the Scripture and get back to exalting God in their sermons. Let us forget trying to be respectable and scholarly and get back to preaching that exalts God and feeds the souls of people that must see His glory in order to be converted and to spiritually grow. After all, preaching should be a supernatural thing and not just something that is confined to the earthly level. Let us enter into the supernatural with our preaching.

“Sound Bible exposition is an imperative must in the Church of the Living God. Without it no church can be a New Testament church in any strict meaning of that term. But exposition may be carried on in such a way as to leave the hearers devoid of any true spiritual nourishment whatever. For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard the truth. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts.” (A.W. Tozer)

There is absolutely no doubt that the Bible must be taught in order for a church to be a real church. In some way the Bible must be opened up with exposition. There has been a revival of sorts regarding expository preaching in the US the past few years. However, as Tozer notes, “exposition may be carried on in such a way as to leave hearers devoid of any true spiritual nourishment whatever.” Not only can it be, but that appears to be the main way exposition is done. In other words, even if a person sticks with the text and deals with the words of the text, that does not mean that the text is being dealt with in terms of the spiritual understanding and the glory of God through Christ that under girds the whole Bible.

I have been under many preachers where the text was dealt with. The sermon consisted of dealing with the text that was there, the words in the text, some inner consistency was shown, and then some things were added at the end for the hearer to do. However, my soul was left dry since I was left wondering where God and His glory were. A man can be utterly faithful to the text in the sense of striving to expose what is there within its own context. However, the sermon that is faithful to the text in one sense can be very unfaithful to the glory of God and spiritual things in another sense. Faithful exposition in one sense can be a disaster to a church. When the text is dealt with in one way there is no spiritual nourishment for the souls of the people. Faithful exposition in one sense can be as dry as the dirt in the dust bowl days of the 1930’s. Faithful exposition in one sense can be nothing more than an intellectual exercise in the Bible guided by a text.

Preaching must be seen and understood as the means God has given the Church for spiritual nourishment. Preaching that does not feed the soul has failed the purpose that has been assigned to it by God and it fails the souls of the people that gather. The souls of people hunger for food too. Over and over men wonder why people leave the church when they (the pastors) are giving them solid food in expositional preaching. Perhaps it is simply because the pastors are taking care to preach the text in one sense but are not preaching in a way that nourishes the souls of the people. People are not always able to verbalize the problem, but no true believer is ever satisfied with a form of expositional preaching that does not nourish the soul. When hermeneutical and homiletical issues are expressed in the sermon more than things that nourish the souls of the people, there is a huge problem. In that case the preacher is more concerned with the form and style of preaching than with nourishing the souls of the people.

Martin Lloyd-Jones mentioned a style of preaching that he called “a running commentary.” In this style the preacher might go through a book or an extended text. But what the preacher does is essentially make comments on the text as he goes through the text. This ends up being little more than a commentary on the text as he goes through it. In some ways a lot of modern expository preaching is closely akin to a running commentary. The text is dealt with in its own context and comments are made that fit the text in a broader biblical context. However, the souls of the hearers are left dry and untouched. Information alone will never feed the soul anymore than telling someone about vegetables will nourish their bodies. We must wake up to what preaching really is or our churches will resemble the dust bowls of the 1930’s more than well watered fields that are bringing forth fruit.

People will starve to death under the style of expositional preaching that is becoming popular today. It sounds so good in that it is an exposition of Scripture. However, the Bible was never given for the purpose of simply teaching its words. The words alone will never provide meat and drink for the soul. We must never forget that Christ taught that He was food and drink for hungry and thirsty souls. Just hearing about Christ is not enough. Souls must be led to eat from the manna from heaven and to drink from the Fountain of Living Water. The duty of preachers is not fulfilled by a dry exposition that one can get from a commentary, but is only fulfilled by preaching the glory of God in Christ which feeds and nourishes hungry souls. People need God, not just dry expositions.

“Thanks to our splendid Bible societies and to other effective agencies for dissemination of the Word, there are today many millions of people who hold “right opinions,” probably more than ever before in the history of the Church. Yet I wonder if there was ever a time when true spiritual worship was at a lower ebb. To great sections of the Church the art of worship has been lost entirely, and in its place has come that strange and foreign thing called the “program.” This word has been borrowed from the stage and applied with sad wisdom to the type of public service which now passes for worship among us.” (A.W. Tozer)

Does the “program” really detract from worship? I think that what Tozer means here is the entertainment in the church that has replaced worship. This is exactly what has happened to the Church in the modern day as well, though it is being taken to levels that Tozer would not have dreamed of in his worst nightmare. Throughout the land worship has been lost and has been replaced by various forms of worship. We now have worship ministers and worship bands. We have drama programs, skits, and interpretive dancing. We have professional musicians that play various instruments with various musical groups and we call that worship. Where is God in this?

It seems as if man and man-centeredness has taken over the Church. No longer does God take center stage and all things are done to seek His presence, but now man has taken over the center stage. The churches think that they have to do many things to attract and/or keep people. We have no fear of watering down the Gospel (which is really to change the Gospel to no gospel at all) and offending God in order to keep men coming back. We have no fear of changing our songs and ways to seek God in worship in order to make things light and pleasant so sinful man may be comfortable enough to come back. We have kicked the discussion of sin out of the door in an effort to make man comfortable with our so-called services. But in not talking of sin, we are also not talking of the glory of God and His holiness. So in all of these things we are more concerned with pleasing men than with pleasing God. That means that what we call worship is in fact worship, but it is worship of men. The Church is on its knees before men in worship of men and the honor of their presence and in doing that they have kicked God out of the building (figuratively speaking). This is a grievous form of idolatry.

The Church has virtually no idea of what worship is in the modern day and this is seen by all of its discussion on music and types of music. The real issue with music is whether it is honoring to God and whether it promotes the truth of His glory and is conducive to reverence and awe before His glory. God is no more honored by hymns than He is by a more contemporary song. What honors God is when men love Him and express that from the heart. Some types of music are certainly more conducive to worship than others. Any music that distracts the one that is supposed to be worshipping God is not good music for worship. The affections should be raised by the truth of who God is and not by the music that is being played. If the affections are raised by the music being played rather than the truth, then perhaps the feelings are moving the person but it is not love for God. That would then be closer to idolatry than to worship.

Choirs and bands lend to entertainment rather than worship. Special music tends to honor the person with talent rather than bring people to honor God from the heart. However, it seems to be more important to have people enjoy themselves at church rather than to come into the presence of a holy God and delight in Him. What is happening in churches across the land appears to be an attempt to fill the void that is there because of God’s absence with religious activity that is really trying to act as if God is still there. We try to pull the strings of the feelings of people and call those feelings love and joy in God. The deceitful thing is that we use the names “God” and “Jesus” while all of these things are being done and so people think their hearts are elevated by divine things.

If a church focuses on type of person and uses that to determine how church is to be done, that is idolatry. A church is to focus on God and His glory to determine how church is to be done. If and only if God is focused on does true worship occur. There is no need to fill buildings with carnal and unbelieving people if we are going to focus on them. They can get that at any business they go to. What the unbelieving world needs to see is people focused on God so that His glory would be seen. The very act of the true worship of God without fear or concern of what others think is exactly what people need to see. A program presented is really a substitute for worship and people never see the real God in the midst of that. It is also an admission that it thinks that it can work up true worship better than the Holy Spirit can. God is sovereign and man is not. The Church needs to remember this.

“Thanks to our splendid Bible societies and to other effective agencies for dissemination of the Word, there are today many millions of people who hold “right opinions,” probably more than ever before in the history of the Church. Yet I wonder if there was ever a time when true spiritual worship was at a lower ebb. To great sections of the Church the art of worship has been lost entirely, and in its place has come that strange and foreign thing called the “program.” This word has been borrowed from the stage and applied with sad wisdom to the type of public service which now passes for worship among us.” (A.W. Tozer)

While the modern day is not as in Tozer’s day, that is, I am not sure that many millions of people hold right opinions, yet it is interesting that in his day he thought many had right opinions but spiritual worship was at a low ebb. This is to show that true religion does not consist in right opinion alone. On the one hand he saw more people than ever before held right opinions and yet on the other hand he wondered if true spiritual worship was at the lowest point it had ever been. How can both of these things be true and that at the same time?

Maybe it was because people focused so much on the content of their belief that they neglected to commune with God. If so, that sounds a lot like today. Doctrine is thought to be important by fewer and fewer people, but with many of the few that thinks doctrine is important it does not seem to enable them to commune with God. This is a grievous hurt to true worship and communion with God.

Maybe it was because people held their right opinions with the intellect and they never did any heart work. This sounds just like the problem of today. People focus on the intellect and do not deal with their hearts. Perhaps dealing with the heart is a scary issue because when it is seen in the light of Scripture it is a frightful thing to view our own hearts.

Maybe it was because people never looked at the glory of God and were self-centered in their beliefs. This sounds very much like today. The Gospel is virtually lost in this generation because man is so self-centered in all that he does. Men will never see himself until he sees the glory of God. Man will never turn from himself as his own god and idol until he sees the glory of God. Man-centeredness leads to no true worship at all.

Maybe it was because people never really dealt with their sin and so kept all things on the outward part of man. This is closely linked to the reasons above. People do not want to see their own sin and so it is easier to just deal with the intellectual aspects of doctrine. Morality is also easier if men practice just the outward things of Christianity and so judge their sin only by the outward violations. How easy it is to keep the Law if we only obey the outward things of it.

Maybe it was because men wanted to be respectable in their worship. If worship is watered down to mean that people sing songs that are theologically correct, then that is respectable and men don’t have to make fools of themselves by having tears or by getting excited in worship. True worship is, while not going to the excess of the Charismatic movement, a grateful heart and a true reverence and awe of being in the presence of God (Heb 12:28-29). Isaiah was not concerned about being respectable before men in Isaiah 6. He was riveted to the glory of God and then of his own sin. It is not manly to have tears over one’s own sin or to gasp at the sight of His glory these days. Therefore, it could be said that respectability is simply another way of saying “lukewarm.” This is death to true worship.

Maybe it was because people were trusting in scholars and pastors for their beliefs and did not meditate and pray on them for themselves and as such never were taught of the Holy Spirit. Men and women are to be taught of the Holy Spirit and not just their pastors and scholars. Modern day scholars and pastors are not more into the right opinion of things rather than that which moves the heart to true worship. Granted, both are really necessary. But when the heat is left off of the light, the light is not all that warming to the heart. People need to learn that knowing God is far more than just correct opinions that are given to them from scholars and pastors. That is like knowing a spouse from what others tell you about him or her. No, the people must learn from their pastors how to seek and to know God. Anything less is simply deception and leading people to degrading worship.

“Orthodoxy, or right opinion, is, at best, a very slender part of religion. Though right tempers cannot subsist without right opinions, yet right opinions may subsist without right tempers. There may be a right opinion of God without either love or one right temper toward Him. Satan is proof of this.” (A.W. Tozer quoting John Wesley)

Nicodemus was a man with a lot of right teachings of God. How many of the Scribes and Pharisees had orthodox teachings of God? While they had many problems, it might have been that their real problem was trusting in human wisdom and tradition. “At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants” (Matthew 11:25). We should take note that Jesus did not say that the Father had hidden these things from the secular wise and intelligent, but these things were spoken to the religious. So it is not just the smart atheist or the smart liberal that Jesus is speaking to, but even to those that are orthodox and yet wise in their own eyes.

Let us think of a very learned and yet orthodox man. How is that man to understand the things of God? The natural man cannot understand the things of God (I Cor 2:14) because the Spirit alone can reveal the things of God. Jesus said that it was not flesh and blood that had revealed things to Peter, but His Father who was in heaven (Mt 16:17).

So as we think of things like this, no matter how smart an individual is only God can reveal spiritual things to that person. Orthodox doctrine as teaching the letter of the words is nothing that an unbelieving person cannot grasp with the mind. It is the Holy Spirit alone that can take those words and open up the beauty and glory of God to human beings through those words. Orthodoxy, though very important, is never enough in and of itself.

Other than Christ, Satan has perhaps the greatest knowledge of the Bible and of the character of God than an unsaved individual can have. However, what does he lack that his great intellectual powers cannot give him? Most likely he is an expert in Hebrew and Greek. Most likely he knows vast amounts of the history of the Church. Without doubt he knows theology books inside and out. However, he has never been humbled and he has never received the kingdom of God like a child. He does not have access to the Holy Spirit who alone can open the eyes of the heart to see the glory of God.

So what is it that human learning can give a person that Satan does not have a lot more of? What is it about orthodoxy that can teach a man more than Satan already knows far better? These questions should do some prodding in our hearts so that we can ask ourselves what we are focusing on. No matter how much human learning we obtain, the Holy Spirit is the One who must show us that those things really mean. This is not to knock learning and even vast amounts of learning, but it is to say that all that learning will amount to nothing if the heart is not humbled before God and taught by the Holy Spirit. Christ’s word is that all must become like a child in order to enter the kingdom. What theology book can we turn to that will teach us that? How much learning is needed for a man to come with his face in the dirt to humble himself before God? Could it even be that a thirst for knowledge can simply be a proud man wanting to know more than others?

We have been taught to listen to the scholars in order to understand Scripture. But are we so sure that understanding Scripture depends on modern scholarship rather than to know the living God? What is it that the scholar has to offer? The scholar has opinions to offer on the background and on parts of a disputed text. Without knocking those (and in fact these things can be very helpful) we must assert that the Bible was written by the Holy Spirit and the believer has direct access to the writer of Scripture. It is the Spirit alone who can open up the deep things of God.

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me;
and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life” (John 5:39-40). The scholars in the time of Jesus studied Scripture a lot. But they did not understand that the Scriptures were to take them to Christ. The same thing is true today. There is a need for scholars, but we must never think that the scholar is able to understand the spiritual issues of Scripture apart from the Holy Spirit. Orthodoxy and the outward meaning of a text is not the same thing as knowing God. It is the Holy Spirit that is said to guide His people into the truth (John 16:13). At least that is what Jesus thought. We must humble ourselves in order to be humbled so that we can know God.