Selective Acceptance of the Teaching of Christ and the Apostles
The sermon highlights the problem of selective acceptance of Christ's teaching and the importance of maintaining a clear and accurate understanding of His message.
A.W. Tozer addresses the troubling trend of selectively accepting the teachings of Christ while diminishing His divine nature. He critiques religious leaders who elevate Jesus' ethical teachings but disregard His claims of deity and essential doctrines on sin and judgment. Tozer warns that this selective acceptance undermines the integrity of Christ's message and leads to a lack of certainty in faith. He emphasizes that the same issues faced in the past are resurfacing in contemporary discussions, suggesting a need for a return to a holistic understanding of Christ's teachings. The sermon calls for a recognition of the full authority of Jesus, both in His person and His teachings.
Text
It may seem a bit odd that the religious teachers who exalted the teachings of Jesus to the seventh empyrean should in the same breath demote the person of Jesus to the level of a common man; yet they did just that. They lamented with many a crocodile tear the error of the Church in worshiping Jesus and failing to spread His ethics throughout the earth. The implication was that the man Jesus was important only because of the sterling quality of His ethics; though it was hard for some then and it is hard for others now to understand how a mans teaching can be greater than the man.
The same persons who exalted His doctrine of love completely ignored His claim to deity and brushed aside His teachings on sin, judgment and hell, as well as His whole system of eschatology.
This arrogant picking and choosing among the words of Christ gave some persons the impression that these teachers were far less sincere than they claimed to be, for a man need not be a genius to reach the conclusion that if Jesus was wrong about almost all of His teachings there could be no certainty that He was right about the rest. Well, it is not my intention to fight again the battle of Bunker Hill.
If all this belonged only to the past we might be content to let the dead bury their dead and pass on to something else; but the ghosts of the old Modernists appear to have been reincarnated and many of the arguments raised by the liberals a generation ago are now being repeated by the orthodox.
Sermon Outline
- Selective Acceptance of Christ's Teaching points: - The Problem of Demoting Christ's Person - The Implication that Christ's Teaching is More Important than His Person
- The Arrogance of Picking and Choosing points: - Ignoring Christ's Claim to Deity - Brushing Aside Teachings on Sin, Judgment, and Hell
- The Sincerity of Modernist Teachers points: - Questioning the Certainty of Christ's Teachings
- The Relevance of This Issue Today points: - The Reincarnation of Modernist Arguments
Key Quotes
“It may seem a bit odd that the religious teachers who exalted the teachings of Jesus to the seventh empyrean should in the same breath demote the person of Jesus to the level of a common man;” — A.W. Tozer
“A man need not be a genius to reach the conclusion that if Jesus was wrong about almost all of His teachings there could be no certainty that He was right about the rest.” — A.W. Tozer
Application Points
- It's essential to approach Christ's teachings with a clear and accurate understanding of His person and message.
- Picking and choosing among Christ's teachings can lead to a distorted view of His message and a lack of sincerity.
- Christ's claim to deity is essential to understanding His teachings and message.