Grace of God — Hans R. Waldvogel

Svarūpa Gāndhāṅgāi Pūlū-siddhī-karundārvala-salejya-palāzā. Something depends on the way you walk upon, and if I am the way, well, then you're surely going to reach your goal. And if you'll follow me wherever I lead, I'll take you from glory to glory, from step to step, and from day to day, and there will never be any retardation.

There will be a going forward until you reach that wonderful city of God. I've had a strange privilege when I lived in Chicago to hear some of the world's great famous preachers, one after the other, but I don't remember what they said except a few sentences.

Salvation by Grace Rather Than Works

And one of them was F .B. Meyer, a German who wasn't satisfied with Germany, went to England, but anyway, he found the Lord. And when I heard him, he was 82 years old. He came to Chicago, and the only thing I remember about his sermon was this.

He says, I'm thankful to God that he allowed me to be born a sinner. I was a strange statement, he said. If he hadn't, I would never have learned to appreciate the grace of God. By grace are ye saved.

Anybody who's going to be in heaven is going to be there by grace, not by the works of righteousness, which we have done, but quite the opposite. You remember the song they sing? Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood.

Oh, rally around the flag. Here's the wonderful flag of salvation. Hallelujah. Glory to God. If you don't know that song, you ain't going to heaven. But if you're the sinner that's the blackest on earth, you've got first chance to get in there.

Though your sins be a scarlet, the trouble is people don't like to admit it. But if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, we fool ourselves. And if we say that we have not sinned, we make God a liar who himself had to be made sin for us to deliver us.

Receiving the Abundance of Grace

Oh, wonder of wonders. Ravanshankai moselegadio, namalamu robe irribadzolokobujilivado. God doesn't expect me to make myself holy, to purify myself, to sanctify myself, but he expects me to accept the abundance of his grace.

And if I don't do that, I'll be lost forever. Oh, that's the gospel, that you believe on him whom he has sent. This morning I was awakened with a song. Usually I'm like you are too. Jesus always wakens me with his kiss.

And this was the song. He comes to make his blessing flow far as the curse is found. And before I was fully awake, I said, well, Lord, now I know where to find your blessing. It's in the place where the curse has done its worst work.

Wherever the curse has done its work, that's the place where Jesus Christ is bound to manifest his blessing, his salvation. And if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just. He wouldn't be faithful and he wouldn't be just if he left a stick in our sins.

But to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And that's why I too am thankful to God that I was born a sinner who became an heir of salvation, of his righteousness, of his holiness. Thank God. And when Jesus Christ comes after the Old Testament economy, the Bible says unto you that our good Pharisees circumcised the eighth day with a long Jewish nose and and what else?

And a long title, doctor title and doctor of philosophy. And like a chameleon, like Saul of Tarsus, blameless according to the law. No. Unto them that fear my name. Oh, that fear of God that made Paul tremble and say, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?

A righteous Pharisee from the body of this dead. Oh, that fear of God that made Isaiah cry, woe is me. I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips and dwell among a people of unclean lips. Did you ever confess that?

If not, you still have unclean lips. We love it if we confess not somebody else's sin, but our sin. That's the change. That's the difference. Jesus Christ is not going to compromise with those who preach their own righteousness and boast of their own righteousness and their own self-righteousness.

But oh, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just. He's got a job to do. A wonderful job that no one else can do. Moses gave us the law that condemned us. But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

Pursuing Christ's Righteousness and Resurrection Power

Oh, the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness. I wonder why we don't make a beeline for it, for his righteousness. I wonder why we don't make a beeline for the resurrection power of the Son of God when he is willing and able to manifest the day by day.

I wonder why we still allow sin to have its way in our hearts, in our tongue, in our minds. People confess to me that everywhere in the world, their minds are defiled, their hearts are broken and defiled.

Why don't we make a beeline for Jesus Christ unto them that fear my name? Oh, woe is me. I'm undone, shall the Son of righteousness arise with healing under his wings. Oh, the abundance of grace. The abundance of grace.

We choke it with our theology. That's what we do. When I came to a Bible school, I had all the students before me and talked to them about having forsaken the first law. They all confessed that since they came to Bible school, they had forsaken their first law.

I can say what you please. They did it. They confessed. They sobbed. They wept. They cried. They cried for forgiveness of their sins. It wasn't a sin. It was just a neglect of the intimacy with Jesus.

Abiding in Jesus as the Source of Life

That lovership of Jesus, without whom we can't do nothing. We can't take a breath without him. And we don't have to. Christ in you is the hope of glory. Here's a new man. He says, don't let your heart be troubled.

If you're believed on me, you put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, Lord. Now you take over. You take over, Jesus. You're the one now. Thank God. Hallelujah. And unto them that fear my name from among all nations and all peoples.

And that's the secret that the Jewish nation did not appreciate. Because they thought that by their own works, they could make themselves the chosen people of God. But ye are chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people that ye should shine forth the praises of him that has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Beloved, it's Jesus, not flesh. Christ that has accomplished it all, Alpha and Omega. And there's the key to the book of Revelation. I am the beginning and the end. Thank God. And he has begun a good work in us.

Thank God. And he wants to finish it. And here it is. He comes. Oh, my Lord. Anybody here that doesn't know that you're here, Jesus? Anybody here that hasn't spoken lovingly to you? How dead they are.

How dead. Anyone here that hasn't breathed in that heavenly atmosphere that is blowing from the very throne of Almighty God, wherever the Holy Ghost is poured out. Beloved, what is the matter with us?

Seeking Jesus Who First Seeks Us

He comes. Oh, my Lord. And how many years do you have to knock? Oh, Jesus, I thought I was seeking you and I found out that you were seeking me. You were wanting me. You saw that I was lost. He saw me plunged in deep distress and flew to my relief.

He says, without me, you can do nothing. Why do you try? You can't even think a good thought without me. You don't have to. You can't speak a decent word without me. You don't have to. Beloved, they talk about deep life Christianity.

There ain't no such a thing. There's only one life and that's Jesus. He is life. And thank God he comes to make his blessing flow far as the curse is found. And wherever I find the curse and I found out my whole being was under the curse.

What do I do with it? Why open the hard store? And he comes and he makes his blessing flow and he takes the curse upon himself and has made a curse for me that I might be made the righteousness of God in him.

The Camera, the Negative, and the Need for Light

And I was like this boy. I was a proud Swiss kid because I was the only boy that had a camera in that whole great big town of Bach and Bülach. And it cost, with all the implements that were necessary to make pictures, one dollar.

And that camera meant more to me than a thousand dollar outfit means to our boys today. You give it to them and they throw it in a corner. They don't appreciate anything. I tell you, I wrapped it in silk paper.

I dreamed about it. And not only that, but I went to work to learn, to learn how to take pictures. And I had to find out because nobody knew how to show me. Nobody could show me. I was like the Schwab in my shop.

He borrowed a camera when he went to a picnic one day. He was a real south brooder. And so he borrowed a camera and he took, I don't know how many, a dozen pictures on that film. And then he opened it up and took the film out.

He said, you shall make stroph. Now you can't take pictures that way. I found out something. My first victim was my mother. She had to sit there a whole minute. And now don't you move an eyelash. I remember my poor mother.

She was very obedient. First time she was obedient to me. I had to obey her otherwise. But she sat there. And then with a beating heart, it still beats. I went down into the cellar, made all the windows dark and put the thing in a developer and waited for my mother's beautiful face to come out.

And oh, horrors. Talk about horror pictures. It was a Zulu Kafir instead of my mother. Her white apron was black. And the white of her eyes was black and the black was white. Everything was upside down.

Everything was topsy-turvy. Didn't look like my mother at all. It looked like, well, a savage from the heart of Africa. I, good night. Well, I found out that you have to get the blessing where the curse is found.

The Son of Righteousness Brings Healing

I found out that I needed the son of God. I mean, the sunshine. Found out that I had to make a negative, a positive out of the negative. And I tell you, when I discovered that, I was looking for the sun.

And the sun didn't shine like it should. I took that copying frame, you know, and I stuck it in the sun. And as long as the sun shone, it was there. And then when the sun moved and I moved the copying frame, I need that the sun, the son of righteousness shall arise with healing under his wings.

And when that sun shines upon you, you're healed right in the place where the curse is found. There, thank God, the grace of our Lord is exceeding abundant. Oh, thank God. I wonder how the apostle Paul became so gentle, so loving, so kind, so humble, so filled with the love of God.

And how was he able to tell the others? Now, let this mind be in you. Fulfill my joy that you be like minded, having the same love, the comfort of Christ. Let this mind be in you. Now, how do you dare?

You who kill the Christians, cause them to blaspheme. What made the change? It was that son of righteousness that arose with healing under his wings. And he allowed it to shine upon him until he couldn't see anymore.

Couldn't see the natural sun anymore. Oh, you let that sun shine upon you. Beloved, that's the only way you can take a real photograph. And when I saw my mother in the positive, I was the happiest boy in all of Europe.

You haven't seen Europe unless you've seen Switzerland. And I was the happiest boy in Switzerland. My, to think that I really succeeded in taking a picture of my mother, but I didn't. I made a butt job out of it.

It took the sun to make it right. Hallelujah. So will you. He comes to make his blessing flow. And where does he shine? Oh, expose yourself to that sun all the time. All the time. Faith is contact with Jesus.

Faith, Testing, and Joy Unspeakable

Whom having not seen ye love, in whom though now you see him not, yet believing, he rejoins with joy unspeakable and full of glory. And though if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptation.

You've got to have that negative fully developed and fully fixed. And you've got to know what you're like by nature and in yourself. And then he says, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptation and that heaviness will turn into joy, unspeakable and full of glory.

When you behold him and his beauty in his marvelous. Oh God, my God, are we going to wake up? Jesus Christ, did you come for me? Did you come to me? Did you come to be my all and in all? Did you really come at the command of Almighty God to cleanse me from all unrighteousness?

He says, I did. And did you come to be within me the righteousness that avails before God, the joy of the Lord that never fades, the peace of God that passes all understanding? Didn't he say the kingdom is at hand?

He said that because he was the king. And tell me, tell me something. Why don't we fight the good fight of faith and make sure that whatever trial comes my way, why that's one of these negatives and let the sun shine through it and you'll have a positive.