Peace as God Sees It - Part 2 — A.W. Tozer

God's Message to the Nations, Israel, and the Church

And how does God see the nations and the world and the Church for the days ahead? Well, the message of Christ to men is, first, to the nations. I have read already, nations shall rise against nations.

And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the day of the coming of the Son of Man. I read in the book of Jeremiah, the 6th chapter, "...have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people, slightly saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.".

There are no more beautiful words than peace, and yet I have heard it under incontexts and under circumstances that make me shudder when I hear it. And what does God say to Israel for this new year, a year they don't recognize?

They start their year in September. He says that Israel shall be blinded in part until the fullness of the Gentiles shall come in. He says they shall be a people wandering throughout the earth, persecuted and despised, till Christ shall come.

Then there will be repentance and light and peace. What does God say to the true Church? He says to His true people there will be rejection and a cross to carry, and labor and waiting and watching and sacrifice and hard work.

Then rapture in the Father's house and glory. This, He says, but His call is to the individual. Always it's what Kierkegaard called that lone individual, that beautiful expression, that lone individual.

Christ's Call to Become Like a Child

Jesus Christ is walking as He walked in olden days, and He's saying to that lone individual, Come unto me. And He says it to everybody. He's saying to the arrogant and the proud, Let him be converted and become as a child.

Oh, there's been a lot of talk about what that means. What does it mean to be converted and become as a little child? A lot of men have wasted a lot of time trying to figure it out. I don't know whether I know or not, but I think we can all look at a baby and pretty much figure it out.

Innocent, heartless, candid, completely honest, and blunt to the point of embarrassment, and trusting in their father and mother with complete trust. And Jesus said, This is what pleases me. Not the sophistication of the Pharisee, not the smooth, suave etiquette of the man about the town or the woman about the tavern, but the simple, direct candor of the child in the heart of man.

The whole world has stood in admiration of Francis of Assisi. And about the only thing there was about Francis of Assisi was that he insisted upon living like a child while he was a grown-up man. That is, he insisted upon having a heart that was as candid and simple and loving and innocent, hiding nothing and being what he was.

And Jesus, our Lord, said, Let him be converted and become as a little child. But you know, we learn how just as soon as they teach us manners, they teach us to be hypocrites. Just as soon as they teach us, you've got to teach people manners.

You couldn't raise a herd of buffaloes in your home. You have to teach them manners. But while we're teaching them manners, we're teaching them to be something they normally aren't. And it doesn't take a child very long to cease from being that simple, humble little chap to being ashamed of being kissed or being ashamed of being patted on the head when they get a little older.

Sophistication has taken over now, and they're trying to be something they're not. And a little tiny girl puts on her mother's high-heeled spikes and her long dress and proudly goes about the house. She's trying to grow up.

Simplicity soon goes. And pretty soon, the gal she is when she gets out of bed at 6 .30 and the gal she is at 8 .15 when she leaves for work are two different women altogether. I heard of a man who married a very homely soprano.

She was a wonderful singer. And one night, he turned the light on and saw her there and punched her and said, Sing, honey, please sing. And you've heard that old one, but I'm just putting it in here, not to tell a funny thing, but because we're not what we ought to be, you know.

Civilization is built on hypocrisy and double-dealing. Advertising is built on it. Practically everything's built on it. And when a man comes along and acts like a Christian, he's an amazement to the world.

Christ's Meekness and Rest for the Weary

Jesus said, Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly. So that's what he says to the arrogant and the proud. What does he say to the weary and heart? He says, Come unto me, and I will give you rest. What does he say to the habit-bound?

Christ's Mission to the Captive and Brokenhearted

I want to read that, because that's just too good to try to quote, and maybe not quote correctly. Listen. And there was delivered unto Jesus the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written.

He said, Jesus, now, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind and to set at liberty them that are bruised.

So that's what he says to the habit-bound. There isn't a habit that you can't break if you let the Lord Jesus Christ, if you give yourself to him. And what does he say to the lost soul? Well, look at that fifteenth chapter of Luke.

There was a lost sheep and a lost coin and a lost boy. God showed me that one time when I was a very young man, that this lost boy and this lost sheep and this lost coin are all one. That it's the Father who receives the lost boy, it's the Son of God who looks for the lost sheep, and it's the Holy Ghost, the woman with the light, that looks for the lost coin.

So we have the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost all looking for his lost one. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost all looking for the lost. So to the lost he is saying, You are my lost sheep, come in. To the boy he is saying, You are my lost son, come and live again.

And to the lost coin he is saying, We are looking for you with the light, and if we find you and you find us, you will be saved. And what does he say to the sinful? He says, All manner of sin shall be forgiven unto men.

I believe that. All manner of sin shall be forgiven unto men. I get letters. I get letters from all over the world, and they ask me questions, and a lot of people are worried about their unpardonable sin, and some are worried about demon possession.

A young man called me from the city of Toronto, and then he called me long distance from Montreal and talked a long time, and then Christmas morning, 2 .30, he called me again. Very fine, intelligent young man, gracious, called me sir.

All you good Canadians do that. That's a lovely thing that you don't hear much in the States. They call you Mac and Bud down there, but you folks have culture enough that you call a man sir, and I like to hear it.

I may even practice it now. But he called me sir, and he talked like a gentleman, but he's convinced that he's committed the unpardonable sin, or at any rate he's demon possessed, to me, is that he was a happy Christian until he got in with a certain group and began to seek what he called the baptism, and then this trouble started.

Now he doesn't know, but thinks that I'm mistaken. I said to him, Listen, son, you're having a nervous breakdown. Your trouble is nerves. He said, I know that's what you think, but I think these are demons, but there isn't anything anybody's done.

The Roman soldier that raised a great five-pound sledge and drove a square nail through his holy palm, he can be forgiven. And the Pharisee that looked at him out of angry eyes and snarled his curses, he can be forgiven.

And the harlot that looked out of her house and watched him as he went by can be forgiven. All manner of sin shall be forgiven unto the sons of men. That's my hope, that's my hope. And the lonely. These are lonely times.

God's Presence with the Lonely

It must be lonely to be an old person. I'll never live to be old. If I hear anybody laugh, I'm going to come down there. But I'll never live to be old. Lonely. How many there are that are lonely? Go to the parks in the summertime, and you'll see them sitting there lonely.

Their generation is gone. I saw him once before as he passed by the door, and again. Fading stones resound as he totters o 'er the ground with his cane. They say that in his prime, ere the pruning knife of time cut him down, not a better man was found by that crier on his round through the town.

But now he walks the streets, and he looks at all he meets, sad and wan, and he shakes his feeble head, and it seems as if he said, They are gone. The mossy marble rests on the lips that he has kissed in their bloom, and the names he loved to hear have been carved for many a year on the tomb.

It must be an awful experience of cosmic disaster to be left lonely in your old age without God. But, lo, he says, I will be with thee down to old age, and when hoary hair shall thy temples adorn, thou still shalt be like lamb in my bosom be born.

He sang to old people. My father was about sixty years old when I talked to him and others talked to him and a Baptist preacher preached to him. My old father, who had lived for sin sixty years, gave his heart to Jesus Christ and was converted.

Shortly after that, he developed cancer. He used to sing, When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and time shall be no more, and the morning breaks eternal, bright and fair, when the saviors of earth have gathered over on the other shore, and their old is called up yonder, I'll be there.

And my hard old father, who never wept, would shake the tears out of his eyes and say, That's all that matters, that's all that matters. When he was sixty-three, he died. He never lived to be the lonely old man that he might have been, and if he had lived a long time.

Chosers live long, only they always get killed, I don't know. They're accident-prone. I don't know whether they just wander around or whether they're just plain dumb. But when I come to think of it, almost all of my relatives either lived a long time or else died of an accident.

My grandfather died of an accident. He was an Englishman, by the way, an English immigrant. They were on a log jam and tumbled off into it under the logs and drowned. My Uncle Clem fell off a wagon, hurt his leg and died, finally as a result of some sort of thing that happened to him.

My Uncle Ashley was walking with a friend in a rainy night and was hit by a streetcar and killed. My Uncle Bucky, Bill, who was riding with his young son Ira, a train hit him and killed him and his son.

They all get killed. But otherwise than that, they lived a long time. But loneliness. Behold, I stand at the door and knock, and if any man will open the door and hear my voice and open the door, I will come in unto him.

And how can you be lonely when Jesus Christ is in your home and in your heart and in your life? How can you be? You can wake up in the night and the angels of God are singing to you, and the voice of the Lord is sounding in your ear.

God's Presence in an Age of Fear

And then the fearful. Our Lord said there would be fearful. I listened for one hour today, from one to two or from two to three, whichever it was. I listened for one hour to the Canadian newsmen, and boy, there are some sharp ones now, tell me.

From all over the world. They had gathered somewhere, I guess, here in Toronto, and they were giving a sum of all that had happened in the world. And then predicting. What predictions? You might as well let alone.

I could have done as well as they did. Nobody can predict the future. But as for summing up what there had been, they were sharp boys, all right. But you know, they were scared, and I've heard them from every place, from all corners of the world, all nationalities, and they're all scared.

People are afraid these days. Young fella gets out of high school and says, what's the use of going to college? I'll get called into the service anyhow, and time will be taken out of my life, and probably taken out and shot.

Let me make some money and have some fun while I can. The world's scared. Men's hearts are failing them for fear of things that are coming upon the earth. But our Lord says, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

And if the Lord is with us, I can't see why we should be afraid. A preacher told us about going to sleep in the same room with his little boy, or girl, I think it was. And the little girl, she was scared there in the dark, and every once in a while she'd cry out, and she'd say, Daddy, and he'd say, Yes, honey.

Say, Are you there? Yes. She'd say, Yes. He'd say, I'm here. Go to sleep. And then there'd be silence for three minutes, and then, Daddy, are you there? Yes. He'd say, I'm here. Finally, she said, Daddy, are you awake?

Yes. Is your face turned toward me? And he said, Yes. He said he never heard a peep out of her after that, because his face was turned toward her. You may be sure that he is here, and he that keepeth Israel never slumbers or sleeps, and his face is turned toward us.

Keep that in mind. And we'll be all through these coming days. And however the nations of the world must be dealt with, God's people in the world will have the benefit of his perpetual presence and his face.

Did you know that the word presence, the word face, is the same thing in the Bible? The presence of God and the face of God is your kind of God. God never stands with his back to you. If God is there, God's face is toward you.

Trusting God Instead of Self

So let's ask God these days. Let us have sorrow for wasted days and wasted lives, but let's not be discouraged. He will forgive us, for he forgives all sins. Let us trust him for faith for a better tomorrow.

But remember one thing now, over the next three hours or two hours and a half, don't trust yourself. I sat in a meeting one time with a group in an Alliance Church in the city of Akron, Ohio at a watch-night meeting many years ago, and there was present there a missionary of the African Inland Mission, a good friend of mine, Emil Savulka, a great saint.

And one young man got up, gripped his seat, and with an intensity that shook his body, told about what he planned to do for the New Year and how he was going to be a better, holier man, and he was terribly shaken.

And I think with a violin in mind, Brother Savulka turned to me and said, He's pulling his string too tight. He's pulling his string too tight. I think he had in mind the turning of the peg of a violin string so she snaps.

And he said he'd better watch. Well, I don't know whether it was that same year or not, this man was a great believer in divine healing and was quite ready to be sharp about anybody that wasn't a lump on his neck here.

The doctor didn't know how it was, said, I'll forget if you'll be all right. But he came back. He went back. He wasn't all right. Others came. Finally, specialists began to come. Then they took him to the hospital where he didn't want to go, but he went.

And he believed, he believed that he was going to be all right. And then suddenly he said, I see Jesus is with the Lord. Don't pull your string too tight, because if you pull it too tight and make too many vows and too many resolutions, you'll be trusting in yourself.

Don't do it. Let us trust in the Lord. Let us sum it up now in saying number 212, I think it is, is it number 212? How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word.