The Holiness of God - Part 3 — A.W. Tozer

Thou not from everlasting? O Jehovah my God But they said, now, are your problems too much for you? Jesus will handle your problems. Are you troubled mentally? Jesus will give you mental peace. And do you have trouble getting on in the office?

Biblical Religion Centers on God's Presence

Jesus will help you to get on in the office. All this is true. But, O friends, how far it is from biblical religion. There was God in the midst. And what was it that gathered the people together in the book of Acts?

The Holy Spirit's Call in Acts

They ministered unto the Lord and fasted and prayed. And there in the awesome presence they heard the voice of the Holy Ghost say, Separate me, Barnabas and Saul. Now we are thrown back on our planning and our reasoning and our thinking when the great and holy God is in our midst.

God's Pure Eyes and the Reality of Sin

So I would recommend that you remember these words, thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil. You have evil in your life, evil in your heart, evil in your home, evil in your business, evil in your memory, unconfessed and unforgiven and uncleansed.

Remember that it is only by the infinite patience of God that you are not consumed, for our God is a consuming fire. And it's written here, Holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Now look at them come, see them, as they come from everywhere, these teachers, with their dingy gray interpretations, pulling this down and explaining it away and saying, See note on such and such, pulling it down and destroying it.

But it stands, my brother, holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Now, if you can interpret that neatly and go home without being bothered, I wonder if your eyes have ever gazed upon that awful thing.

Encountering the Overwhelming Holiness of God

I wonder if you know, have, or do have the knowledge of the holy. I wonder if that sense of the overwhelming, crashing holiness of God has ever come upon your heart. It was a common thing in other days when God was the center of human worship.

When we came to him and worshiped God, it was common for men to kneel at an altar and shake and tumble and weep and perspire in an agony of conviction. And they expected it in that day. We don't see it now because the God we preach is not the everlasting, awful God, mine holy one, who is of pure eyes and to behold evil and cannot look upon iniquity.

And we use the technical interpretation of justification by faith and the imputed righteousness of Christ to water the wine of our spirituality down. Until we're what we are, God help us in this evil hour.

The Defilement of Human Morality

So we take into the presence of God this tainted soul. We come into the presence of God with our concept of morality, having learned it from the books and gotten it from the newspapers and gotten it in school.

We come dirty with everything that we have dirty and our whitest white dirty and our churches dirty and our thoughts dirty. We come to God dirty and do nothing about it. If we came to God dirty, butt trembling and shocked and awestruck and would kneel at his presence and at his feet and cry like Isaiah, I'm undone, I'm a man of clean lips, then I'd say, all right, I can understand.

But we skip into his awful presence. And somebody who is dirty comes with a book, seven steps to salvation, and gives seven verses underlined and gets a fellow out of his problem and out of his trouble.

Dear God, that's why we're going down each year, each year, more Christians, more people going to church, more Christians, more people going to church, more church buildings, more money and less spirituality and less holiness.

Holiness as God's Unchanging Requirement

And we're forgetting that without holiness, no man shall see God. I tell you this, standing here tonight, that I want God to be what God is, and I want God to remain what God is, the impeccably holy, unapproachable holy thing, holy one, all holy one.

I want him to be and remain the holy in capital letters. I want him to be that, and I want his heaven to be holy, and I want his throne to be holy, and I don't want him to change or modify his requirements.

Even if it shuts me out, I want something holy left in the universe. You can join almost any church now. I've heard recently of a certain church. Well, it's a Baptist church, and not all true Baptist churches.

I've preached some pretty strict Baptist churches, and I'm more or less of a Baptist myself, and that's a Baptistry back there. But I'll say this to you, brother, that this particular Baptist church, and they tell me there are many of them, they say, now at the closing hymn we open the doors of the church, and they can come and anybody can join.

A gangster can join. I say, never, never, never, never, never. For if they can't get into heaven, they oughtn't to get into our churches. And the problem with this is that we keep or let our churches stay dingy gray instead of pleading for holy whiteness.

The Call to Repentance and Holy Living

And as soon as anybody begins to plead, we Christians ought to be holy, somebody comes along and says, now, my brother, don't get excited about this, and don't become a fanatic, for don't you understand that God understands our flesh, and he knows we're but dust?

Oh, he knows we're but dust. But he says, thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look upon iniquity. And without holiness, it's impossible to please God. As Benny wrote this, I think it's one of the most awesome, wondrous things ever written.

Eternal light, eternal light, how pure the soul must be. When placed within thy searching sight, it shrinks not, but with calm delight can look, can live and look on thee. The spirits that surround thy throne can bear the burning bliss, but that is surely theirs alone, for they have never, never known a fallen world like this.

But how shall I, whose naked sphere is dark, whose mind is dim, before the ineffable appear, and on my naked spirit bear the uncreated demon? How shall I, whose naked sphere is dark, whose mind is dim, before the ineffable appear, and on my naked spirit bear the uncreated being?

Bearing the Glory of the Holy God

Out of which come the holy burners, who sing, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. How can I bear it? And you don't know when. All your religious helps, all your marked Bibles, all your jolly Christian friends, all your ham-eating, sweet potato-eating, joke-telling, banqueteering Christians.

I eat ham, too, incidentally. I'm not against ham, but we make banquets and tell jokes and have one man band. But one of these times, each one of us will be called before the ineffable to appear, and on our naked spirits bear the uncreated being.

How are we going to do it? There is a way for man to rise to that sublime abode, an offering and a sacrifice of holy spirits, energies, and advocate with God. These, these prepare us for the sight of holiness above, and the sons of ignorance and night can dwell with the eternal light through the eternal love.

I think that's one of the greatest things ever written by a mortal man. It's too awful. We're afraid of it. The spirits that surround thy throne, seraphim, cherubim, angels, archangels, principalities, powers, unfallen creatures, they can bear the burning bliss, but that's because they never, never have known a fallen world like this.

But how can I? Isn't it enough for somebody to mark his New Testament, rub my nose in it, try to comfort me? No. I don't want to be comforted. I don't want to be comforted. I want to know what it'll be like in that hour when I leave my wife and my children and my grandchildren and my good friends and my 15-year warm friend, McAfee, and all who give blood for me.

I've got them here in this city that'll give blood for me. I can go to cities all over the United States and up into Canada, and they'd give blood for me. But there's not a one who can help me in that awful hour when I appear before the ineffable, and the uncreated being impinges on my, then I want to know.

Conversion as a Radical Work of God

So we can. There is a way. It's through the offering and the sacrifice. We advocate with God, but don't take that lightly. Don't take that lightly, my brother. Conversion used to be a revolutionary, radical, wondrous, terrible, glorious thing.

But there's not much of it left. It's because we've forgotten that God is the Holy One. His hymn is running, running like a frightened, flying like a frightened bird. The bird of time is on the wing and has a little way to flutter.

The wine of life is oozing drop by drop, and the leaves of life are falling one by one for the ineffable. Every man must appear to give account of the deeds done in the Let's pause now for peace in our prayer, and remain in an attitude of prayer, and I'll finish praying by praying for somebody if they want me to.

Seeking the Advocate and Cleansing from Sin

Who would say, Mr. Tozer, I'm troubled too about this, and I, I may have made some sort of religious profession, but oh, I want to know that I'm shielded by the Advocate, by the blood. I want to know that by the grace of God and the indwelling Spirit, I can bear the burning bliss.

I want God to do something new for me, to revive my spirit, to change my dingy gray to white, to make me sick of compromise, weary of this checkered living. Pray for me, Brother Tozer, that I might become a holy man, a holy woman indeed, by the blood of the Lamb and the fiery purgation of the Holy Ghost.

Pray for me. Who will say pray for me? When we pray, we're going to have this understanding with you, that you're going to do something about this, that you're not going to say, well, the pastor prayed for me.

Cooperation, Surrender, and Confession

You're going to thank God, and you're going to expect him to answer, but you're going to work with him, cooperation, surrender, confession, if necessary restitution, straightening out of your life, determination, that you're going to cooperate with God in all this.

Let's pray. Father, we pray for these friends who ask us to pray. Father, we pray that thou through thy Son, Jesus Christ, will help every one of these that they might drive a stake down and say, as Israel said when she crossed the river, this is a marker I crossed here, something really happened.

Oh, we pray that this decision made tonight may not be the careless decision, but that it may be a determination that's as big as life and as strong and deep as all their faith, that they will, they will seek to meet all the requirements, that they may in that day rise to that divine abode, that the sons of ignorant and light and night may dwell with the eternal light because of thine eternal love.

Grant this. Then for those who didn't, some who didn't but should have, oh Father, keep upon us a sense of holiness, that we can't sin and excuse it, but that repentance will be as deep as our lives. This we ask in Christ's name.

Amen.