The following sermon gives a picture of accepting Christ that is biblical. He contrasts it with contemporary evangelicalism of the 1950s and 1960s (he died in 1963), which had many of the problems we currently experience.
His message presents the true path and the false very clearly. This entire blog is about that problem, and this sermon is one of the best descriptions of it.
Highlights of Tozer’s sermon:
- Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners
- Those He saves do not have to have completed any works
- How does one enter into a saving relationship with Jesus?
- 3 ways identified: 1) Acts 16:31 – believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved; 2) John 1:12, receive Christ as your savior; and 3), accept Christ as your personal savior
- This sermon focuses on the third statement, what it means to ‘accept’ Him [you will also better understand what it means to believe, and to receive Him]
- It does not mean to passively accept Christ, remaining unchanged – explained
- Many believe that ‘accepting’ Christ indicates that He is waiting until they evaluate Him to see if they want Him to be in their lives, not so – explained
- Many believe that ‘accepting’ Christ can be done without any inconvenience, not so – explained
- Two relevant Old Testament passages examined briefly, to bring out the wrongheadedness of modern evangelical techniques: the Passover and the Prodigal Son parable
- Those passages show that one cannot remain where he is after ‘accepting’ Christ
- If any man will come after Me, let him pick up his cross, deny himself and follow me, explained in terms of biblical receiving of Christ and modern ‘acceptance’ of Christ
- Problems of self-denial briefly explained
- Concerns of modern evangelicalism vs biblical evangelicalism
- Acceptance of Christ is to: *form an attachment to Him; *to realize that Jesus is Lord over all things and head of the church; *that He has the keys of death and hell; *that your attachment to Him will transform you; *that if the direction of your life did not change after you ‘accepted’ Him, then you are not converted, you’re simply a victim of the ‘accept Jesus’ heresy
- Genuine converts learn that they cannot compartmentalize their lives, barring the Lord Jesus Christ from certain areas of their lives, He will be Lord over their entire lives
- Christ will not be one of several prophets / authorities in a genuine convert’s life, He will be the chief authority
- “Cross” explained
- “Self-denial” explained
- Preachers who lead potential converts to believe that being a Christian is a good time…are lying [they are unbiblical also, one needs only to read through the Bible, or the New Testament to see the foolishness of that popular belief]
- An analogy about baby chicks leaving their eggs given to show the harm of making things too easy for converts
- Closing prayer
The following link is to “The Sinner’s Prayer” post from this blog. It agrees with Tozer, that modern evangelicalism uses unbiblical methods to bring people to Christ [that many think they are converted and are not]; however, this post uses the discoveries of Jonathan Edwards about conversion (he analyzed the true and false conversions of many, after the great awakening of the mid 18th century – therefore, his findings are reality based and meaningful to anyone wanting to ascertain whether his conversion is genuine or counterfeit).
If you want to learn more about the heresies of the ‘modern gospel’ then, see Categories, Gospel Message, therein is an 8 part series that examines that many false ways that are still in use today.
Tozer partial bio from Wikipedia:
Tozer hailed from a tiny farming community in western La Jose, Pennsylvania. He was converted to Christianity as a teenager in Akron, Ohio: while on his way home from work at a tire company, he overheard a street preacher say, “If you don’t know how to be saved … just call on God, saying, ‘Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.'” Upon returning home, he climbed into the attic and heeded the preacher’s advice.[2]
In 1919, five years after his conversion and without formal education in Christian theology, Tozer accepted an offer to serve as pastor of his first church. That began 44 years of ministry associated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA), a Protestant Evangelical denomination, 33 of them serving as a pastor in several different congregations (his first, a small storefront church in Nutter Fort, West Virginia). Later, and for thirty years (1928 to 1959), he was the pastor of Southside Alliance Church in Chicago; the final years of his life he spent as pastor of Avenue Road Church in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Observing contemporary Christian living, Tozer felt the church was on a dangerous course toward compromising with “worldly” concerns.
Born into poverty, Tozer was self-educated and taught himself what he missed in high school and university.[3]
Tozer began writing for the Alliance Weekly magazine (now Alliance Life) in 1931.[4] The denominational magazine of the Christian and Missionary Alliance became the platform from which his writing career emerged. He later wrote the monthly column “There’s Truth in It” (1936–37) and “A Word in Season” (1944–46). In May 1950, he became the editor of the Alliance Weekly, a position he filled until his death in 1963.[5]
Audio sermon from the YouTube site, Christian Sermons and Audio Books