Silence, Inwardness, and 'Love Unto All the Saints' — Hans R. Waldvogel

You know, I like God's ways. They're so different from man's ways. Our sister talked about Holy Ghost meetings. You know how to have Holy Ghost meetings? Nobody knows but the Holy Ghost. He knows how to get under the skin of people.

He knows how to keep them awake. Somebody says, Brother Walsall doesn't let us go to sleep. Well, the Lord has done all kinds of things. There was in a certain church, I think it was the Baptist church, a minister who was delivering a homiletically correct sermon and all at once he spied his little boy up on the balcony throwing chestnuts down at the people.

He said, Johnny, stop that. He said, okay, Pop, you go ahead preaching. I'll keep them awake for you. Well, the Lord has given me a bag full of chestnuts to keep people awake with. You know, ever since I started preaching, preachers and laymen have told me I shouldn't use illustrations.

One preacher said, someday when you get to be as deep as I, you won't do that anymore. I said, well, that may be a long, long way. It's a long, long way to Tipperary. But I found out that they're like the chestnuts.

They keep people awake. If you preach a homiletically correct sermon, they go to sleep because people don't listen anyway. It doesn't go into their thick skulls, most of them. And one time when I went to Germany, I got some steamer letters and one of them was not very flattering.

Some woman too. She says, please bring us back some new jokes because we're tired of hearing the old ones. Well, I get a new one once in a while, but the old chestnuts are good too. Praise the Lord. I was telling one last night that you haven't heard, I don't think, of a man that was looking for death for 4 ,000 years and he finally discovered death.

It happened so I read. I didn't see it myself, but some years ago the news came out that in the museum, Natural Museum in London, when the keeper opened the door in the morning to an apartment where there were Egyptian mummies that had been there for 4 ,000 years from Moses' time and Joseph's time.

They found one of them that had been broken open and alongside of that mummy they found the corpse of a man, a middle-aged man, dressed in white and with white shoes and he was quite dead. And in his hand he held a bottle with some poison in it.

And then they pieced the story together that 4 ,000 years ago this man lived in Egypt and he had a sweetheart he was very fond of and he was a very cunning one of these magicians that opposed Moses. He had invented a poison or rather a medicine that would make you live forever.

So he said, honey, honey just think we're gonna live forever. What a wonderful time we're going to have. You know how they are when they honey at the honeymoon. Of course I don't know how it would sound after 4 ,000 years, but anyway they were going to live forever.

But in the meantime she became unfaithful to him and she got another sweetheart. And this other sweetheart didn't like the idea of having a bride that would live after he was dead. So he invented an antidote that would undo that elixir that made people live forever.

And she, stupid as she was, she drank that elixir and so they both died in each other's arms and they were mummified. And the elixir was put in her mummy so that nobody could get hold of it. And he had still some of that eternal stuff.

And so he walked through the earth and he was looking for that mummy. He said, now he couldn't die. And for 4 ,000 years that fellow sought that elixir, that antidote. And finally he found it in the Museum of Natural History in London when he found that mummy and he found out that was his sweetheart.

Had been there 4 ,000 years and the bottle was still in that mummy. So he went in there and he hid himself behind the pillars and then when the place was locked at night he opened the mummy and he took out the stuff and he drank it.

And that's how they found him next morning. Entered into rest and he had the bottle still in his hand. Now you know I thought that thing talked to me. It was a real test not for me. If a man is willing to look for death for 4 ,000 years, how ought we to come to a meeting like this where Jesus Christ has an elixir to give eternal life, life more abundant.

Spiritual Wakefulness and the Danger of Spiritual Death

Hallelujah. And unless we come with that hunger and with that thirst and with that wakefulness, unless we come to meet the Lord Jesus Christ, we're going to die. Spiritually die. That's what's the matter with the churches and that's what's the matter with this church.

It'll die pretty soon unless God can wake us up unto the wonder of Jesus Christ. Unless he can. And that's the reason we want Holy Ghost meetings. That's the reason God has made me instead. And that's the reason sometimes I'd rather sit here for a half an hour and do nothing.

Do you know what happens? It gets the people's attention on Jesus. That's what happened on Patchen Avenue. When I came to Patchen Avenue and a big churchman met me on the way, he said don't go there. That place is full of fanaticism and furthermore he says God doesn't want German assemblies.

Let them learn English. He said near Patchen Avenue there's a tent meeting going on and a revival that's been going on for months and night after night. The revival is going on. So when I came to Patchen Avenue, Sister Amanda had drummed all the German people together and taken them down to the tent where they had tambourines and pianos and bass drums and stuff.

And I went down there and I saw Amanda dancing with a tambourine and I said what a revival. What a, that's what they call a revival. A lot of noise. And I came to Patchen Avenue. Those people said what are you going to do there?

I said I'm going to do what I always do. Love Jesus and worship him and get out of his way. And it was wonderful. The first night we were there 15 people were present and Jesus came. Jesus came. I was satisfied.

I said now thank God the victory is won. Jesus is here. It was one of the meetings in the first week when I didn't preach at all because the place was filled with the cloud of his presence. And I thought I wonder what these people will think of it.

Here is the, the drummed up revival. And our people went down there and somebody said to me, the deacon said I should go and drum them together. I said nothing doing. Leave them there. That kind of people don't make a revival.

It's the people that want Jesus Christ that make a revival. Glory to God. And he got them. He brought them one by one. And when they came in and they met Jesus Christ. They said well isn't this strange.

Here's a preacher and he sits and does nothing. Closes his eyes. But you know after a while they got their eyes on Jesus. Remember one woman came in there and she sat there a while and she looked around.

She came from that place where they drummed up enthusiasm. And she looked to the right and they all had their eyes closed. She looked to the left. They all had their eyes closed. She looked to the platform and I had my eyes closed.

So she called for a song. Let's sing number 37. I had seen the Lord. I said all right we'll sing it a little while later. Let's wait a minute. Jesus Christ is walking through these aisles. Blessing his people.

Filling the vessels with oil. So this woman thought well might as well close my eyes too. So as almost as soon as she closed her eyes she felt something happening on the inside. You know that the kingdom of God is within.

And if it isn't within it's no place. Absolutely you can take the fastest spaceship and fly to Mars and Venus and fly to Arcturus and fly through all the Sirius and all the nebulas and all the universes.

And you'll never find the kingdom of God until you find it on the inside. Until Jesus Christ has come on the inside. Until the inside has become silent in the presence of God. Silent enough for Jesus to speak his own word.

Inward Silence and the Life of Christ Within

That's why he says he that loveth his life shall lose it and that's what's the matter with us. That's what we call a revival. When we stir up the old life and we wind up the old toy rabbit until his ears and his legs and his little tail rattle.

Until the spring is run down and then you got to have another evangelist to come along and wind him up again. But Jesus says he that drinketh of the water that I give him. Oh my Lord that's what I need.

Jesus Christ this morning I need something that you alone can give me. Nobody can give it to me but you can. And Jesus did you mean what you said when I when you said I'm with you always? Did you really mean?

Did you expect me to believe that where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I. You Jesus. You Jesus who rose from the dead. You Jesus who have all power in heaven and in earth. Beloved we don't know how black the unbelief is in which we are still in Christ.

Things would be different. Why do we feel the presence of God here? Because somebody has prayed through and somebody has believed through and somebody has faith living faith in the manifestation of Jesus Christ.

And everyone in this meeting that has a spark of faith contributes to that atmosphere. It's because you have faith and because you have come and believe Jesus. And you don't have that faith unless you live like that in between meetings.

Unless you practice the presence of God in between meetings. Where is God going to find the people that learn these lessons? Where is God going to find the church that will be ready for the rapture? Why he that has wrought them for the self-same is God.

Who is going to gather us before the judgment seat of Christ to give everyone according to what he has done in his body. What he has done with this gift of the Holy Ghost while he walked in the streets of Brooklyn.

God's going to judge us and we know the terror of the Lord. And since we know the terror of the Lord we labor that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him. We spoke of Enoch who was accepted in the sight of God.

And God took him because before his translation he had this testimony that it pleased God. How did he do it? He walked with God. Oh beloved where is God going to find the people that walk with God among people that can be as careless as we are with our appointments, with our words, with our thoughts, with our feelings.

Well does Jesus Christ want to control me like that? What does he say? Your whole... Oh that's somebody, my spirit. Your whole spirit. Oh yes Lord you can have my spirit because I don't know much about it.

I don't know if I have one or not. You can have it. Go ahead take it. But he says your soul. That relates to your feelings, your ambitions, your thoughts, your wishes, your desires, your appetite, your soul, your whole spirit and soul.

Repentance, Holiness, and the Cleansing of the Temple

All right you can have my soul too but how about your body? Oh beloved who gave you this authority to come here and overthrow the tables of the changers and to cast out the animals, the dogs and the cattle?

Who gave you this authority? My what a revolution they had. What a revival they had in the temple at that time. That's the kind of a revival we need beloved. We need someone to come with a whip, with a two-edged sword.

We need somebody that has authority to overthrow the tables of the money changers. Someone that has authority to discern the thoughts and intents of our heart and make us feel terribly bad with our present condition until we cry.

I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lip and I dwell among a people of unclean lip. That's what we need but we don't want that. We have found out to compromise. We know how we detest preaching that's strong.

We detest the preaching that tells us the truth. Beloved I tell you God's going to have prophets and apostles in these states that will unsheathe that two-edged sword and it'll be a sword of fire that turns every weight and all we needed today.

But what would they do with the prophet who would rise up today when recently a great man, I think it was in Wisconsin, and he was one of the great men of the school system when he refused to allow teachers to teach the doctrine of evolution.

He was deposed. He was fired from his job. America that was born upon the foundation of the Bible who received the constitution by the ministry of the angels and America was not born in a bar room or in a pool room but in a prayer closet.

In a prayer room that's where it was born and today beloved we defile the temple of God and we tear the Bible to pieces so that we don't even dare speak of the things that are today not only tolerated but preached from the prophets.

Condoled by the great conventions of Methodists and Presbyterian and and other ministers and the whole world is today and the whole nation is today sodden in the stew of Sodom and Gomorrah and you don't dare say a word.

You don't dare talk about holiness and godliness. Let every one of you know how to possess this vessel in sanctification and honor why we have drifted so far that today we're not in the city of God that has foundations but we're in Sodom like luck.

And who's going to save us beloved? God's going to start a new movement in this world and it's going to be when Jesus Christ himself comes to be glorified in his face and there'll be no monkey business about it.

No one will open his mouth but by the Lord. No one will move but by the Lord. Jesus Christ will come and fill the members of his body with himself. He'll draw the monk himself and then you'll have a church without spot or wrinkle or any such a thing.

Receiving the Holy Ghost and the Wise Virgins

And you know that that's why God has us here this morning. You know that almighty God has not only something to say to every one of us but he's got something to give. My God what are you giving me? When Paul came to Ephesus he said have you received the Holy Ghost?

Did she believe? He didn't say have you spoken in tongues according to Acts 2 .4. No. He said have you received. You've got to receive him. The foolish virgins took no oil in their land nor in their vessels.

They didn't take it when God offered it to them. Have you received the Holy Ghost? Why they said we didn't know. But as soon as they knew they reached up their hands. They brought their vessels. They didn't rest until the apostle had prayed for them and the very fact that they received the Holy Spirit and spoken tongues and prophesied proved that they were ready.

They wanted him. They wanted the gift of heaven in whom also after that you believe you were sealed. Oh beloved the Bible tells us what happens when the angel goes and seals the servant of our God in their forehead.

That's been going on for the last 50 years. There's been a sealing and who is the seal? Beloved it isn't the gift nor the power but it's himself. Oh as many as received him. That's it him my Jesus. Oh glory to God he's never given us another message but that.

He's never set before us another prize. It's the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. But beloved let's remember that the baptism in the Holy Spirit is only putting on the baby shoes and many have not even put on the baby shoes and they're satisfied.

They have not received the baptism in the Holy Ghost and if we were really wise virgins we would do something about it. Our prayer meetings would be different than they are. Our altar services would be different than they are and God must raise up the ministry in this world that is endowed with power from on high whom God can use not only to slay the wicked but to bring life to the members of his body.

To wake up the dead by the word of life and God's going to have them thank God. And they put on the baby shoes and they were baptized with the Holy Ghost and more than that the apostle writing to them says since I heard of your faith in Christ Jesus.

Oh what kind of a faith was that? It was faith in one that was risen from the dead and walked among them and their meetings were meetings together with him. And then he says and your love for all the saints beloved.

Love Unto All the Saints

I ought to confess that I'm not a Christian until I love all the saints. Not until I tolerate them. We do that naturally don't we? Why yes we have nice meetings here and so if you don't like it okay. But love, love makes me a slave of everyone.

Love makes me a servant of Christ and of his people. Love makes me a member of his body. Members one of another and now Paul says I heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and love unto all the saints. We ought to spend the month seeking that love unto all the saints.

We ought to practice it. We ought to be fearful if our hearts are not dedicated to the upbuilding of the kingdom of God and of the body of Christ. We ought to be terribly disturbed if we find in our hearts anything that is not lovely.

What does he say? Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise about Walt Fogel, think on these things.

Don't kiss because his tie is in straight or because his hair. Some people never see anything but when my hair is in combs or straggly. Beloved if you I've heard of your love for all the saints. Beloved that love is of God.

That love is an expression of the life of the Holy Ghost within. I never knew what that was until the Spirit of God moved in. And then there were certain scriptures that spoke to my heart. For instance, where Paul says, the Holy Ghost gives me witness that I have continuous sorrow and grave heaviness in my heart for my kinsmen.

God did that very thing for me. My kinsmen, my friends in the Baptist Church, my relatives, the men I worked with in the shop. There was continual weeping in my heart for every one of them. Jesus had become so precious and so wonderful to my heart and he created in my soul the outflow.

And what could I do about it? Well, I prayed for them day and night. Oh, that's the prayer in the Holy Ghost. Even so come Lord Jesus. How glibly we claim the promise you and your house shall be saved.

It doesn't mean that at all. It means that if you are a real father of your household, not a hand-picked husband. Not a hand-picked husband who has to run where his wife tells him to run, but a man of God whose head is Christ and who is the head of his family, who takes not only the responsibility but the promises of God.

Oh, my soul. And you know that God gave me a whole congregation of people that just came out. Some came out of my shop and a group came out of my church. This prayer in the Holy Ghost compelled them to come in.

And there was another scripture that is often overlooked. Here he tells, I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and companion in labor and fellow soldier, but your messenger and he that ministered to my want.

For he longed after you all and was full of heaviness because that he had heard that he had been sick. Why, when you're sick, you want everybody to know that you're sick, even though you're not very sick.

Oh, this woe be gone countenance. I see it sometimes. Oh, Susie, what's the matter with you? I've got a kick in my back. And we want everybody to know how sick we are. And Epaphroditus, why he should have been glad that the Philippians heard that he was sick.

Wish they knew how sick I am. You know, they pray. I tell you they pray. But here was the love of God. He knew that it would make them sad. And it made him sad to think that they were sad. And he didn't want them to know that he was sick.

He wanted them to be glad. He wanted them to be happy. Beloved, we don't understand this language at all. We can learn all the languages in the world, and we don't understand it until we understand the language of Jesus Christ, who gave himself a ransom for all and Jesus.

And Paul talks about this experience as if it were the beginning, the kindergarten experience. Now I heard of your love to all the saints. Oh, God, we have a German song. Ein Herz und eine Seele waren der Rest in Christenmenge.

Ob Christi her, durch Land und Meer, nach millionen Seele, die Krone, ach, die Liebe brach. Ein Herz und eine Seele, they were one heart and one soul. And when they were led into the torture chambers and into the arena, the young ones wanted to die for the old.

And the heathen pointed at them and said, look how they love each other. And isn't that what Jesus said? That's how people will know that you're my disciples, if you have love one for another. It would be such a good thing if we could repent.

Repentance and the Body of Christ

If we could wake up and realize how wretched and miserable and fooled and blind and naked we are. We say we have love, but it doesn't reach to the end of our noses. It doesn't reach anywhere. Oh, my father, you've got love for me that will set my heart ablaze, that will make rivers of life to flow from me into the members of your body.

Oh, that's what he means when he says we must be fitly framed together. And the apostle Paul says, I rejoin in my sufferings for you. He says, now don't feel bad about my sufferings. They are your glory.

What a strange language. Isn't that strange? He says, I rejoin. And you know, they didn't have prisons like we have here in Sing Sing, where they have moving pictures twice a week and ice cream soda and baseball games and, and air conditioned cells.

I read only recently of one man that was, was let out of jail, but he wanted to get back. He liked it so well. There was one in Germany who was arrested because of some crime. And when they let him out, he said to the jailer, I'll be back.

Keep my soup hot for supper, I'll be back. It was in Berlin. He liked it so well. He thought, well, here I have free, free board and lodging. And so how did he manage to get back? He was a Swiss. He knew how.

He went on the street and he, buttonhole, the first soldier that came along and said, say, He said, is it true that the Kaiser used up all the $5 million that France paid as war indemnity? Now, of course, he went right back into jail and the soup was still hot.

Wasn't that with Paul? Chained down, cold floor. And yet he says, I rejoin in my sufferings for you. I fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ for his body's sake, which is the church.

Therefore, I suffer all things for the elect's sake. Do you ever suffer to make these meetings what they ought to be? How could I suffer? I don't have anything to suffer. Well, if you got on your knees, I tell you how, if you came an hour ahead of time and when everybody's gabbing, you get down and pray instead and really call on God.

Fervent Prayer and Revival

Like Alfred did. He went to Philadelphia to the highway church one time when he was a soldier. And he was hungry for God. You know, a soldier doesn't have enough of God in his chapel. So he went to the highway tabernacle between meetings and here was a group gabbing and there was a group gabbing and there was a group gabbing and there was a group gabbing.

And he went into a corner and he knelt down and called on God and he says, and the Lord hit me. And that's how he expressed it. The Lord hit me and I got noisy. I started to yell, he says, and presently they all came around and they all started to shout.

They had a revival. Oh, beloved, I suffer for the elect state that they also may obtain. Oh, this love for the saint will make us active. It'll give us wisdom. It'll make us rise. We say in German, Liebe macht erfinderisch.

Love makes inventors. What a change comes over a young fellow when he's in love. You can always tell the sound of his voice. You can tell by the way, he dresses himself. I had feelings with a boy a full number of times who never washed himself, never cleaned his fingernails, never brushed his shoes, never pressed his pants.

He looked like a gypsy. One day he had his hair cut. I don't know how that happened, but you could see the dirt. You could have planted the peas there and they'd have grown. I said, for goodness sake, go home and wash that hair of yours.

So he did. I got action that time. But one day, what a transformation. He came almost dancing, his pants straightened. He had washed his face, manicured his fingernails, and then he had a hand crossed over the right eye.

New hands. And he was pulling kid gloves over his head. Well, he said, if it's all right with you, I'll stand on the afternoon train for Philadelphia. I knew what was in Philadelphia. It's a long way to Tipperary.

And all Philadelphia was so far away because there was a girl there. What a transformation. When you love the same, you will think of something. The least of these my brethren will be to you the son of God, whether present or whether absent, that we may be accepted of him.

I envy some people. We've had them in this assembly. We've had people who were always suffering, always putting themselves out to help souls through to God. Mr. Petticoat used to take them into her house and make them part of her family.

And there others have done the same thing. And you think that's easy? Yes, for a heart that's full of the love of God. Why, as you've done to the least of these my brethren, you've done it unto me. It doesn't mean that love, the Bible also talks about taking the truth in love.

And that kind of preaching will be acceptable with those who love the truth. No matter how strong it is, there will be the flow of the life of God in it. And the love of God will flow and deliver, slay the wicked and raise the just.

Oh, how we need faith and love unto all the saints. And now he says, I cease not to give thanks for you and to pray that God might give you. That's been going on in these meetings. God has been on the giving end.

Wisdom, Revelation, and Waiting Upon God

And what does he give? The spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. I've seen people grow rapidly in these meetings in the knowledge of the Son of God. Things that no human being could communicate to them.

The Father who is in heaven has given to them. You don't know how, but it's come to them into their heart by the Holy Ghost who searches the deep things of God. Beloved, that's what we need. We need to come to meetings and come to God.

And we need to learn to reach upon the Lord with that faith. Oh my God. There was a saint in the Catholic Church who was a real saint. He was a reputed saint. Even Wesley thought he was the greatest saint in the world.

And this man says, the imperfection of souls consists in not waiting enough upon God. I wrote in the margin, when is enough? When is enough? Waiting upon God. He says, the unsubdued nature seizes unfair pretext to intermeddle and thinks it is doing wonders.

Yet this is the reason why our souls are troubled, our inward silence is disturbed. And God does not produce in us that word of life. Oh beloved, that's the revival that's coming, the indwelling Son of God, the indwelling word of life.

Where when you minister, when you witness, when you preach, it is his life, life-giving word that comes forth. And as you live among men, you live no more. Christ lives in you. God's got something to give, not death.

And if you thought 4 ,000 years, it's taken 6 ,000 years of heavy labor of God with humanity to come to this place. But you know, there's never been a time in the world like today. It is true that the dead are rising up everywhere.

Not only in Pentecost, but in other churches. God is finding his own. The Holy Spirit is finding his own. He that is of the truth, heareth my voice. Oh, there are millions of voices today clamoring for attention.

There are devils transformed into angels of light, and they perform signs and wonders to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect. But he that is of the truth wants Jesus alone. Doesn't want anything but Jesus Christ.

Has no other ambition but to please him. To walk with God. Hallelujah. And today, this morning, God is here. God is ministering to our hearts. Did you come to meet him? Did you come with a heart hungry for the bread of life?

The Bread of Life and the Mystery of Revelation

Your Father is giving you the bread that comes down from heaven. Beloved, I could speak a thousand years and not make any impression, if God didn't take the words and transform them into life. Life. You can sow the seed, and it does no good until that seed has miraculously and mysteriously been transformed into life.

And life comes forth. Oh God, unto us life was manifested. And think of it. I'm sorry that I talk so long, but you know, I don't mind people looking at their clocks, or when they begin to shake them, or when they look for their calendars.

You see, what day of the month it is? Wednesday. Revelation. Oh God, could you do that for me? My Father, Jesus says, you've revealed it unto me. What? The great mystery that even the angels don't understand.

He has for you. Oh, what a, what a mystery that people like we are, such dumbheads as we are, know Jesus, and know the indwelling Son of God, and have come to the fountain, hallelujah. In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and ye are complete in him.

What does it mean? It means that I never know anything, and yet I always know everything. All that pertains to life and godliness comes to me from the head. Like from the head, every part of my body is controlled through the head.

Jesus Christ controls every part of his body. Oh, it's going to be a wonderful church one of these days.