Fulfills That for Which God Made Him — A.W. Tozer

Knowing Christ Through the Resurrection

The great chapter of Philippians, beginning in verse 7 and ending in verse 15, where Paul begins with what could be described as the loss of a child, and going on down to verse 11. I'm not going to write this much, but that's the truth.

And on down, where he says this line of words, I might have come under the resurrection, out from the dead. And not to go ahead already where the prophet, but I follow after. And after him, and on down, till I touch forward toward thee, I must recall God and Christ Jesus.

And then in verse 10, that I knew him. What you might want to talk about this, that I knew God. In the first place, I believe that God created the heaven and the earth and all things that are there. I believe that God made the heaven and the earth and all things that are there.

God’s Purpose in Creation and Human Life

And I'm going to believe that he made it. And that he made each one his kind of life to his will. Which he chose for us. And then he adjusted that kind of life to an environment which he chose for us.

And he made the churches. Chose in his own environment. And made the kind of life God gave us. That church was chosen for the purpose for which it was made. And God being who he is, there can be a church of any kind higher than this.

He chose that for which God made it. Now that's all. You can't go higher than that. Chose in your heart. You can write their names on the walls of famous buildings. You can give them all sorts. Noble prizes and sacred prizes and every kind of prize.

Or you can canonize them if you wish. It's all been told and all been said. You cannot say any more. God created a certain kind of life. Gave him an environment to inhabit. And he has lived in that environment and confidence.

Has lived the kind of life God gave him. Now that's all. The angels and archangels. Chosen and converted and prophets. Prophets can't go any further than that. Now, it says here that that's not their place to stay.

Angels, Their Habitation, and the Limits of Created Beings

But let their own habitation. God has reserved in every nation's kings under judgment of the great day. And here we see a certain order of beings. Or a certain number of orders. That let their place to stay.

That is, they left a place for which they have been created. To warn anybody, any intelligent people, any moral people anywhere. That leave this proper sphere and state. Will no longer make good things and pain.

Because they're not so tender and for which they were not. Now that I said generally, of any living being anywhere. Incidentally, brothers and sisters, you and I are willingly part of this system. Because we're scared stiff.

We're afraid to lose our imagination. And we're afraid to believe what the Bible teaches us. The Bible talks about angels and God's one. And the seraphs and the cherubim. And the watchers and the holy ones.

Principalities and powers. And you and I insist on people, that's all. We are afraid to rise. Our faith-filled imagination is encompassed in the wonder of the full universe. Freedom. Now God created man in his own image.

Humanity as the Image of God

And of no other creature is this spoken. And in the scriptures, there's God who said he ever created the seraphs in his image. Nor the cherubim, but all of his creatures in his image. And you and I think we're a principality of power.

But it seems that God made man in his image. God said affectionately, let it all in its full in the image of God created man. And therein came the blessed life of man that came to live in his soul. So that, you know this.

You can take this out. Make a slide. Make a playlist. And make a radical. I'll do it. But I'm sure you won't. But as originally created, man was more like any other creature that ever was created. As originally created, man was more like God because of what God said that he made man in his own image.

And a wise old German Christian said this. Nothing in the universe says much like God is being told. Now as far as he took for granted, I admit that man's soul was sinful and lost. And in that sense, sin is not like God.

In the soul, a sinner is like God. But there is something basic in human nature and in the soul of man that can become more like God than himself. I wish we could believe that. I wish that we could accept that as a part of our sin.

Do not be afraid. But if you save it and save it, the Lord will charge us with believing man's all right. Man's not all right. Man's a fallen creature. Like an automobile that left the highway, had a curve and went over a gully down in among the rocks.

Man is not lost. Man is not damned. And I heard a preacher this afternoon talking about my poor lost damned soul. No doubt damned, brother. You're lost if you're not converted. You're lost if you're not damned.

That's another thing altogether. He created man to know him. And he created man to know him in a sense and to a degree that no other creature can. The creatures that are in the presence of God may not know God as well as the man says if God has made him within it.

The Loss and Restoration of the Knowledge of God

Once you see that there has to be a degree of light there which enables a man to know God, don't sit back there under your table or the dog barrel lying on the right. You put a record on. You put on something by Mozart or Beethoven.

Never even open a C .P .I. Because there's nothing in that tap nature that can understand Beethoven or Mozart. Put on some of the fine records of London, the great choir there singing Christmas carols.

Well, the dog will get up and go over and sit down and gaze in spite of that little ad. He knows his master's voice. No dog ever looks into a picture. He did with curiosity. He can't appreciate it because he hasn't got the kind of light that can appreciate it.

With a two-year-old baby. We thought at first that our grandchildren were unusual. When we'd play music, they'd sing a little body. Then we found out all didn't do that. But everybody put into them.

They've got an in them to do it. God put them into the rhythm of the universe. Now, I'm not afraid of it. Well, frankly, but I'm not one afraid of rhythm. Because the beat of God, the up, down, up, down, it's God the music in the universe.

And so the little babies are born into the water, into the stream. And when they're old enough to hear music, they're old enough to smile and play to it. And to the life that God gave them that kind of nature.

You know, my brother, God made us to know him in a way that we can know him. He made us to know him to the degree that no other creature can know him because no other creature has quite the capability.

Certainly the angels have capability. They're holy angels and they obey God. And certainly the seraphim are in the throne in the fire of God and they know God. But they don't know God. If man will know God, then redemption has been completed.

It seems that man should be higher than the angels. God made him a little while lower than the angels so that he might raise him higher than the angels. And when it's all over and known, we shall rank higher in the hierarchy of God than the very angels themselves.

But a man by his turn lost his knowledge. He lost it. I read about it over here in Roman literature. Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imagination.

His heart was darkened. And even as they did not like to explain God in their knowledge, God gave them a reprobate mind to do those things which were not convenient. One day he said to do this graceful act.

So that men lost their knowledge of God. So that now man, though he has the potentiality to know God in a way no creature in heaven can. He still doesn't know God because his conduct is unworthy of his high origin.

And his heart is filled with a huge amount of what I mean. And so that's what's the matter with us. That's why we have these crises all the time. And they turn out to be on his missionary. Well, what's the matter with it?

Human Emptiness and the Search for Meaning

In philosophy, in psychiatry, in psychology, in sociology. And all of this could make the world a better place. Indeed, we could all, men could all be like brothers. Each other's brothers. Loving each other more than ever since the beginning.

There's more hatred and more suspicion. And more petrifying. And more espionage. And more sceptery. And more calling out. And at the beginning of the world, what's the matter? Because man is filled with a vast emptiness.

He was created to know God. And he chose the God. And he liked not to have God in his knowledge. Because man is like a bird sitting in a cage or like a sea water. And so man is simply preyed for the image.

And this is it. This is the eternal being. This is the light. This is the sun. And that's what's the matter with us. We don't know. Some kids get into an old banged up car. It's tight. And hammered. And go out on the prowl looking for anybody.

Not anybody in particular. But it's all down in the deep soul of them is the knowledge. That sometimes they've got the gut. The world isn't enough. And there's a longing they don't understand. And so it turns in on them.

And turns to shame. Becomes perverted. And like the alcoholic who chews the gutter and loves the gutter. And what about the non-knowing God for sin? Well, the creatures of God can be known. Creatures of God can be human race.

As the abandoned angels of sin. Why did we abandon the angels of sin? Because they were never made in the image of God. They were made morally capable of moral and spiritual processes. But they were not made in the image of God.

Why did not God? Because man was made in the image of God. And so God gave man a chance. A chance of redeeming. How does the Bible teach that? It teaches that in Christ and through Christ. He is the image of the invisible God.

The brightness of His glory and His presence. Our old father said this about us. I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ. The only begotten Son of God. Begotten of Him. God of God. Light of light. Very God.

Very God. Begotten. Not made. He is of one substance as the Father. Spiritual man. And this is what the Bible teaches. It teaches that everything that God had is. And when you listen to the liberals who say.

God revealed Himself through Christ. And when you listen to the liberals who say. That Christ reflected more of God than other people did. Don't listen to the liberals who say. That there's one piece of metal.

You're after another. So certain individuals are seen to God. In a way that other individuals aren't. A religious genius is. And that Jesus Christ was the supreme religious genius. Capturing and reflecting more of that.

Don't listen to that. Because all it amounts to is to insult Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was not a reflector of deity. Only although He was that. He was not a revealer of deity. Of that. He was and is.

And always has been. And never can cease to be. God. Light of light. God of God. Very God. Begotten. Not created. And so that all that God had is. Christ is. Jesus Christ is to be back at the ancient fountain again.

Returning to the Ancient Fountain in Christ

Back at the ancient fountain again. In all the advancing years. Because I felt this way when I was converted at 17. I certainly didn't have it developed this far. But I mentioned my views. And I tell you my brethren.

That we've switched our way on into artificiality so far. That it's a one by one. Wonderful. This act of our souls. In faith and prayer. To go back to the ancient fountain. To start over again. And there no God for ourselves.

All over again. Back to that. And started that. And started. Back beyond where the world began. Back beyond where the ages began. Ancient. Glorious. Trimly. Ancient fountain. The call of being of God.

The shining God. And in Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ. We leave all the environs. And we go back to the ancient source of our being. It's on this blissful center rest. There's our moving world. Now rest my long divided heart.

It's on this blissful center rest. Back at the ancient source of our being. We find the beginnings. We start all over. That I may know him said Paul. That I may know him. Now my question tonight is why Christians know Christ so little.

The Incomprehensible God and Experiential Knowledge

Now I'd like to say to you this. That not all of the Godhead can be known. This discovery is only a little good thing for us. Because. A real good taking down is good for Christians sometimes. For getting what certainly belongs.

And if any of you have the idea. That you know pretty well all that can be known about God. Good. And the one who gets about two more of six pound pressure in his bow. And from his bow it'll take God a long time to get him.

Well brother. Not all of the Godhead can ever be known. Because. That being that was capable of knowing all of the Godhead. You'd have to be equal. Just as you can't pour a quart of water. Into a vessel holding less than a quart.

So you can't pour all of the Godhead into experience. With anyone being less than God. Put it before what some of the ancient fathers said. In arguing for the trinity. They said look at it like this. God the eternal father infinite.

God in his name is love and he is love. And so the very nature of love is to give. And he could not give his love fully to anybody. It was not fully equal to him. And so there you have the ancient. Son.

He was equal to his father. So father poured out his love into the son. And he could contain it. And contain all of it. Because the son loved it. And then he said these wise men from the old brethren.

They said for the ancient father to pour his love out on the son. With miscommunication had to be very close to the father and the son. And that was the holy ghost. So there you have the ancient father.

With the fullness of his love. Pouring himself to the holy ghost. He is indeed equal to him. Equal to the spirit and the father. So not all of the Godhead can be known. The limitless infinite spirit being is called God.

Filling and surrounding and enfolding and upholding. All that can be known of God is the living God. And when Paul said. When Paul said that I may know him. For him no one will know he is not intellectual at all.

You don't know God as you know the multiplication table. I know the more kids. The students. So I learned the more code. And I could send him a few messages. He wasn't on it for a while. You know. Go over the old telegraph instrument.

And. Follow almost anything. Touching nothing you can't lift. But he can lift you up. And Paul says that I. He did not mean intellectually. He means by experience. Personally and consciously. He meant that I may know.

Personally myself. Here is touching spirit and heart touching heart. And conscious knowledge of God. And all the old hemorrhage people. I get to heaven and want to hunt some of these old fellows up. I'll be satisfied with a thousand years.

But after that if I get up enough courage. I go hunt up some of these dear old brothers. And one of them will be. And then I think Paul said this. There is a vast difference between hearing a leech. Leech leech.

Leech and hearing that one has been saved. Now. One thing to hear that there's been a concert. It's another thing to have heard the concert. It's one thing to hear that there has been a planet. Subtly discovered.

But it's another thing to have gained on that planet. This describes almost all Christians. Not all certainly. But a great many. Too high a percentage of Christians. They've heard. They've seen. They've heard.

But they've never heard of some church. There are. There are. There's no God only by His church. And I don't want to jinx this one. But it's my conviction. A growing conviction with me. That that's what's the matter with us now.

But you don't know. It's the gospel church. The believing church. But you tend to know God only by hearsay. I have never heard of Him except by hearsay. And others have heard Him and known Him. But only thinkers.

You've heard only faint echoes of God. For hearing the voice of God. Can always tell a man. Or a woman. Who's been into the presence. There is a vibrancy in the testimony. That you don't find anywhere else.

I can. I can know it by reading about it. There's. Most people who go there. But everybody that goes and travels abroad and comes back. Well. If you've actually been there. You know it in a way you can't know if you've only read a book about it.

Knowing God Beyond Religious Activity

You know it's a book about God. That's all. They've heard the faint echo of the voice of God. They've seen the reflection of the light of God. They've seen the faith God Himself. And their personal knowledge of God is very slight.

And I don't want to hurt you. Well I will if I have to. But I would say that I'm afraid that a lot of us here. For all our education. Are able in self very much. Church attendance. And fellowship. And singing.

And lean on each other all the time. To have faith and fellowship. And religious activity. And all the various religious shops. To lean on each other. That's one thing my brethren. That's one thing. Jesus had that.

He had his brethren. He had his work to do. He had his healing. Raising floating eyes. And unstopping ears. Answering questions. And blessing people. He had that. But all the knowledge of God. That was.

Terminated. In individuals. So that when women could pray. They had waited on God. All night. He didn't feel that he was alone. But God was there. You know. Modern Christian service. Just pray this. And do that.

And go here. And go there. And the result is. We know God. Only by hearing of this sweet meat. That we never heard it played. For ourselves. You know. We want to change. Instead. To change. God wants to give himself.

God wants to impart himself. With his gifts. Separated from God. All his gifts. Is dangerous. Any gift is dangerous. If I were to pray. And receive gifts. From the epistles of Paul. The gifts of the Spirit.

And I got them all. They'd be dangerous to me. If he'd give himself. Listen. God wants to give me himself. Wouldn't I say. Oh I'll go. And listen. To him. And speak to him. Give him God's life. And praise him.

And live in praise of God. And receive. And if he gives you. Without giving you. He's given you. A row out of the corn. And if he gives you a garden. Without giving you himself. He's given you a garden.

If he gives you. A land. Without giving you. God. He's given you. He's given you. Without it. That you may destroy it. Now. And God wants to give you himself, and you and I, to instigate this modern teaching God to his benefit.

Seeking God Rather Than His Gifts

What we can do, you write a book, anybody can write a book now and sell it, anybody. All you have to do is write a book in ways to get things from God, and you have immediate success. Fourteen ways to have things in mind, and a way to do it, how we can bring God to our service.

And the printer can't keep up with us. We work at God for what we can get out of him. And that's the great blight that rests upon us, the great blight that rests upon us. The sovereign God wants to be loved for himself, and he wants to be appreciated for himself.

And more than that, that's only part of it and not even half of it, that he wants us to know that when we have him, we have all the rest. Jesus said it, seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and his righteousness, the kingdom of God, his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

Why does God forgive sin? He forgives sin because sin is the shadow that stands between him, God, and us. And if God is everything, no God, the shadow has to be removed, so God forgives sin. Why does God pour out his Spirit on us when he speaks to us?

It's in order that the Spirit when he comes will take the things of mine and throw them unto you. Why does God answer prayer in order that else he might unveil his own face to us? Why has God given us the scriptures?

If you read the scriptures, you might make the scriptures, my brethren, are not an end in themselves. You hear them talked about as though they were an end in themselves. No man has seen the verbal inspiration of the scriptures as originally given them by Jesus.

But verbal inspiration or any other theory of inspiration, the Bible an end in itself, is a dangerous thing, because the purpose of the Bible is not to lead you to the Bible, but the Bible is to lead you to God.

And the Bible is a ladder through which you look and see how beloved God is with you on your path, as it is in the song of Solomon. The Bible is the ladder. The Bible is the means of communication. The Bible is the entrance in.

The Bible is more than anything else. But the modern verse is, raise God, raise God. Oh, that God would raise up somebody that could say this, that could make the Orthodox church speak. The Bible people, they, they really, really doubt that he'd raise up somebody that could make us speak.

We've undergone, to say, indoctrination and brainwashing in a time of things that make servants instead of our being God's servants. And we like that somehow, and we doubt. I decided that the first few years of my ministry, if I couldn't have paid money, and now I've not.

So I believe God said he couldn't keep things that are all excited because God paid money. Somebody over here was paying for money to buy an outboard motor. They needed an outboard motor. Of course they were paying for it.

Can't you keep it? And somebody over here heard this and said, you're paying $350 to buy them a motor over there. I said, no. But that's, what you might say, that's down on the level of delusion. There's something grander and higher and higher than that.

And if God doesn't give himself over there along with a motor, they'll let that motor in himself. But every gift he gives, he wants to give himself in gifts. And that's the wonder of it, my darlings. But nowadays, use God, use God, use God to get to God.

Use God to give you safety. Use God to give you peace of mind. In heaven, at last. God has put me to those who will say, God, I don't know. My heart craves thee. My heart is, my heart is pained. Nor can it be at rest till it finds rest in thee.

Loving God Above Prosperity and Success

And I'd rather have thee and nothing than to have everything rolling in my way. You can't be sure about this, businessman. You can't be sure it's high. You're prospering, you say, because it's high. Well, go ahead and fall right with me.

I think you should, but you're prospering in upcoming. Maybe the economic level of the day in which you live may be cutting corners. You'd better have God in your dimes than have all the riches in the world and have God with us.

God is searching for those who were put beneath the cloud of forgetting. The brother said, all that God has made. For he is a jealous lover and he suffers no rivals. And he don't stand in there and take his place or even very notably take his place.

He wants us to speak up. Incidentally, David Wesley, somebody asked him about teaching. And he said, well, let me tell you something. If anybody comes to you to teach, and they teach any more of any more love, don't listen to them.

Don't listen to them. The only teaching is that which says teach more of God. Teach to know the kind of God. You can't all know all that God had. And you can know every deal in Christ to your soul infinitely more than you now know.

And if you take it to this, and you get sober minded and serious and stop feeling, and you begin to seek for God himself, then all the gifts of God would come along with God. And all the blessings of God would come along with God.

We want a figure, we want clean hearts, we want a principle within. We want love divine, all of it telling. We want all of that. These whole things, apart from God, we've only found a rose with a thorn.

But if we find God, we sing. Sing God. Better I say a thousand times, may God through Jesus Christ. If you say, I have accepted Christ, now he's with me. Oh, very wonderfully good. That's good. But do you know, the man Paul had been converted to, and he was one of the world's great Christians when he wrote that, I may know him.

And that I may know her every resurrection and the fellowship every suffering. Be made conformable unto his death. He was carrying on, and it appeared to be that the knowledge of Jesus Christ, what he called the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, the excellency of Christ Jesus my Lord.

The Deeper Life Is Knowing Jesus Christ

Now, friend, this is what you and I are here for. Somebody wants to know what the deeper... I always miss with God from your sermon tonight. I almost shrink from hearing it. Because everybody's talking about the deeper life they want God.

God's the deeper life. Jesus Christ's the deeper life. And as I plunge further into the knowledge of the triumph of God, and as I move out into God's presence, and as less of me and more of God, and the life becomes deepened and strengthened in God, so that this is the next step, that I might know him.

And anything that keeps me from knowing him is my enemy. If it stands between him and me, that friend is an enemy. If it is a gift that stands between him and me, that gift is an enemy. If it is an omission between him and me, that omission is an enemy.

If it is a defeat I had once, and I allow that defeat to get me down and stand between... Forget that. Forgetting all the things that are past, I plow forward and press on. And if it's a victory that I had back then, victory stands between me and the knowledge of God, I've got to put that victory behind me.

Well, I suppose I might as well stay in bed. Anybody knows what I mean. I am headed by the grace of God to do, I think some of you do, but dear friends, do you see what I mean? That all of this keepin' me of the gospel by abundant in God I serve.

God running around with a basket, giving away presents, like John D. Rockefeller, and he scrambled for his diamonds. So many diamonds, you know, I've talked about it. I found his diamonds, had the image of God on them.

Wonderful, isn't it? But nothing compared with the deep knowledge of God himself. You know him? You know him? You know this knowledge of God, nobody can argue out of it? Nobody can argue out of it. They can come and point a fist, hand, or finger at you and call you every name the Lord permits.

And unless you feel bad about it, but you still know you're no God. They can come and argue with you with me and give you scripture to prove you're all wrong, and one day you can say, Oh, well, you're a pretty good expositor, but I happen to know God.

You got things too late. You're coming to prove I can't? Now, whoever came to prove it, so we can know God for ourselves, that I might know him. Some of you know that. Some of you are plowing through.

I've gotten letters. I've gotten phone calls. I have a hadosha. And I know that some of you are finding the Lord in a new, rich, deep, and wonderful way. And I'm glad. But, uh, how about a direction? Can't we speak it?

Prayer for Surrender and Deeper Knowledge

Now, let's pray. Now, before we do pray, we're going to find out if there are words for you to say. I want you to remember me. The only one you have is talking back to you. You're bigger than you are.

You're not here, maybe, quite about it all intellectually, but you're to God. You want to know what Paul knew? You want to know what God has revealed and given to an experience of his saints down the years?

And you say, pray for me, Mr. Tozer, that I might have the spirit and the courage, pray, to rise and sit behind me and under my feet, whatever it is, friendship, ambition, a plan, or gifts or victories or anything, that prevents me from speaking.

If you raise your hand, we will pray for you. Anybody here, if you say, I do want to speak, put your hand up, say, yes, I do. Do it. You want to know, yes, I say, I do. Do it. Do you want to? Yes, yes.

Yes. God, through the hands of his garments, now let's have a response. Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was with you, in the beginning was Christ.

Prayer for Freedom from Past Victories and Defeats

We thank you, Lord Jesus, that when we come to you, we go back to the beginning. Back of Paul and back of Moses, back of Abraham, back of Adam. We go back to the beginning. Christ, light of every man, in thee we see the Father, in thee we know the Father, who requested the Father from us.

In the name of thy Son, Jesus, we pray, Father, that thou hast taken people, and evil to one, and we've been, in the past we've been, through ways that may be rough and hard, and even painful and chastening, but lead them until all is behind them, everything's behind them, and they've put behind them everything, everything, what they're proud of and what they're ashamed of, and what victories they've had and defeats they've had, and the mistakes they've made.

Oh, we pray thee, lead these things on, and teach them how to look forward and not backward. And we know, Father, that when we talk about these things, some come because they feel that they can follow or a text they can memorize or some one little tip they can do.

Oh, Lord God, it is not thus received, but rather by the cultivation of the knowledge of God and by faith and humility and care and trust and confidence and obedience and trust in one word, and at last the mountain-top appears in view, and up out of the mist we come to the sunlight, come, oh, Holy Spirit of Heaven, come with all our faith and power, and we pray thee and say, God, we pray thee, Lord.

Thank you. We pray for all of these, and we pray, Lord, for some who didn't request a prayer for anything, but who should have this night without even salvation. And we pray for all the churches that are coming to bring their service to you within a half an hour or so.

Bless them all, Lord, and thank you. Pray thee that every mess may have peace, and that every couple of months and every harvest we come from home. If there be victory in the church of Jesus Christ this night, we praise God all the time.

If we will get saved, we ask this thing through Jesus Christ our Lord.