A. W. Tozer - I Talk Back to the Devil: The Fighting Fervor of the Victorious Christian

1972, 1990 by THE MOODY BIBLE INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO

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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the King James Version.

Cover design: Erik M. Peterson

Cover photo by Ben White on Unsplash.

Previously published by Christian Publications, Inc.

First Christian Publications Edition 1972, Revised Edition 1990

First WingSpread Publishers Edition 2008

First Moody Pubishers Edition 2018

ISBN: 978-1-60066-035-1

LOC Control Number: 2008921676

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In his lifetime, Dr. A.W. Tozer was quick to admit that he could take no delight in preaching on spiritual perfection themes because of the reality of meeting Satans opposition head-on.

When preaching the twelve sermons that are published here, Pastor Tozer told his Chicago congregation:

I have never given more time and more pain and more prayer to any other series of sermons in my ministry.

Because of their importance, I have literally felt Satan attempting to thwart the purpose of God. I have felt I was in raw contact with hell.

There are so many in the Church who are spiritually blind that I tell God that I want to be able to seeI want to be a lowercase seer. I want to penetrate and understand and have discernment concerning the whole plan of God. I want to appraise the situation and see it as God sees itto know the role of God in this day of religious confusion.

Now, that doesnt make a man easy to live with. It doesnt make him popular, and it doesnt create any problem for police taking care of the crowd.

This course has forced me frequently to follow the trail of opposition and temptation straight to the Foe! But I would rather have it this way than to have to admitas some will have to admitto having spent a lifetime preaching the Word of God and yet never having met the devil once in open combat!

In my preparation, there have been struggles and combat, moans and pains. I think this is the conflict of Jesus being relived in His people. And some of you have felt it too. Some of you have come out into a newer, more blessed and happier experience in God, which is only beginning for you!

I have received mail concerning these sermons. The courageous ones signed. The cowards wrote without signing their names. Their suggestion seems to be that I am a show-off to preach about perfection and that I am trying to get a reputation for being saintly.

But I will tell you somethingit is a delightful thing when you know that you are close enough to the Adversary that you can hear him roar! Too many Christians never get into lion country at all!

Most of you who will now go on to read Dr. Tozers straightforward appeals for Christlike living did not hear the sermons as they were preached. So, it is our hopeas it was Dr. Tozers for his hearersthat you will resist the temptations to become a run-of-the-mill Christian and that you will press on into blessed victory in lion country!

The devil makes it his business to keep Christians in bondage, bound and gagged, actually imprisoned in their own grave clothes!

Why doesnt the old devil, Satan, give up and bow out of the picture when a person becomes a believing Christian?

Although he is a dark and sinister foe dedicated to the damnation of humans, I think he knows that it is no use trying to damn a forgiven and justified child of God who is in the Lords hands.

So, it becomes the devils business to keep the Christians spirit imprisoned. He knows that the believing and justified Christian has been raised up out of the grave of his sins and trespasses. From that point on, Satan works that much harder to keep us bound and gagged, actually imprisoned in our own grave clothes.

He knows that if we continue in this kind of bondage, we will never be able to claim our rightful spiritual heritage. He knows also that while we continue bound in this kind of enslavement, we are not much better off than when we were spiritually dead.

This is one reason why the Christians in todays churches are behaving like a flock of frightened sheepso intimidated by the devil that we cant even say Amen!

I admit that occasionally you find a few who are just childishly happy about everything, but that is not what I mean. Often these are just like children playing in the marketplaces, having never been seriously engaged in the conflict on the spiritual battlefield.

Show me an individual or a congregation committed to spiritual progress with the Lord, interested in what the Bible teaches about spiritual perfection and victory, and I will show you where there is strong and immediate defiance by the devil!

Satan Loves to Intimidate

Satan has been in this business of intimidating and silencing and oppressing the people of God for a long, long time.

The armies of Israel experienced this kind of fright in the valley of Elah when Goliath and the Philistines were camped on the opposite mountain. King Saul was leading Israel, but he was sour, fearful, intimidated because of Goliath, that giant of a man who daily shouted his taunts, I defy the armies of Israel this day! (1 Samuel 17:10). So the army cowered in fear.

But a little fellow by the name of David came along, and he was in right fellowship with the Lord. We are told that the spirit of the Lord came upon David, who said to the Israelites, Let no mans heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine (1 Samuel 17:32).

This was the first word of encouragement to come to these ranks of soldiers who had been able only to gaze in fascinated fear at that great giant who taunted them daily. David was confident and serene because he knew and trusted the Source of all strength! The recorded result was one of the great, miraculous turnarounds of history: David and his sling disposing of Goliath in a way that brought glory to the God of Israel as well as victory to the armies of Israel.

I am sure that it is not glorifying to our God that Christians should be so intimidated and silenced in our day. It was Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, who came down and took our human body for Himself. He was a man, born of a woman, a man wearing our own naturebut He was also God!

He went to the cross, and they sacrificed Him there. The Father, God Almighty, accepted His sacrifice as the one, last, final fulfillment and consummation of all the sacrifices ever made on Jewish altars. After He had been dead three days, He came forthraised from the dead and out of the grave. After a few days He ascended as Victor over all the forces of death and hell and sat down amid the acclamations of the heavenly hosts!