Are You a Living Epistle? — Hans R. Waldvogel

Christians as Living Epistles

Do we begin again to commend ourselves or need we, as some others, epistles of commendations to you or letters of commendations from you? Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart.

And such trust have we through Christ to God, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who also hath made us able ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit, for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

The Glory of the Spirit’s Ministry

But if the ministration of death is so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of the Lord, shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? Lord, is that spirit.

There is liberty, but we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord. I came into the meeting tonight and saw the heaven descending.

Words of Jesus, where he said, were two of you, fine with every meeting, or he wouldn't bother to. Unceasing wonderment to me, how that he always, sometimes people don't pay very much attention to him.

Manages to come, manages to manifest himself. He must have a real, he must have a real plan, and wouldn't it be interesting to find out just what God's plan is? To meet my Lord, or to this meeting, because it was the right thing, or because I wanted to meet him, and everything will depend on that.

The Potter’s Work of Shaping the Believer

To dishonor. In the rookery in Cincinnati, he took the clay and he kneaded it like my mother used to knead the dough when she baked bread. But he kneaded it very, very well, and then he took it and, I wish I was a potter then.

And he had a muscle, believe me, on that poor clay. It just flattened out like this. And then he kneaded it again, and kneaded it again, and then again. Delighted me somehow. But he took it up, and then he kneaded again, and he kept that up for a while, and then he put it on a wheel, and put his hand into that clay, and they began to mold it.

My, that was beautiful. He just drew it up like this, and he made a nice vase, or a vase. But he took a knife and he slashed it right through the middle. And then he measured the walls of that vase, and he found they weren't equal, they weren't just right.

And so the whole process started all over again. Now he had a plan, you see, and the clay didn't have a plan. If the clay had a plan, it didn't say nothing. He, he just didn't. He was just clay in the potter's hand, and isn't that what God says, ye are the clay.

With the vase, put into, even if he tried, there's no way out. He's got to stay in that fire. Parts of the world, it has a world, but my God has an eternal reputation. But Burakhai, Balbasalo, parted for us to get hold of it.

He saved us when he gave the people the law, to see God moving and molding life. Look into a meeting like that, a woman, a lady, or all attention for himself. He wants my very body for himself. He'll eat to buy of me gold.

Repentance and Cleansing from Sin

Find someone to come and tell me that. Missionary told us how one day, man came to his store, it was in Arabia, and the fellow had never had a bath in all his life. And so the missionary wanted to take him into his house for a few days, but he offered him a bath, first of all.

This man was so indignant, he was so insulted. He said, well, who do you think I am? You think I'm so dirty that I need a bath? You love it? That's the way saints are. When God Almighty offers them a bath, lets his own veins flow blood, blood, permission.

If we hide our sins, we shall not prosper. How many people hide their sins? They're never cleansed. They're never purified. They're never changed. God says we're changed into his image. This desire to be like Jesus, has he implanted in your soul to show you that?

Why am I so proud? Why is it that I'm ashamed to have somebody tell me my faults? Why? It's because they don't want to get rid of them. To do somehow. God is bound to have it. That's a wonderful call.

God’s Purpose to Conform His People to Christ

And God made that call before he made the world. And when he said to Noah, that's a strange thing. After he had destroyed the giant, it has destroyed and defiled its way before me. And because the heart and the imagination of the human heart is only evil continually, and people will not be.

The end of all flesh has come before me. And when he had saved Noah and his family, he said, now be fruitful. But in one of the old times, the foundation of the world, he knew your name. He predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might have works of the flesh and to waste our, filled us with the Holy Ghost.

The Horse Released to Fulfill Its Calling

This is a horse that could fly and he had wings and he was destined to fly over the clouds. And he belonged to a young student. And this student had a wonderful time riding on back. But one day this poor student got so poor, he had to pawn his clothes.

He had to pawn everything and finally had to pawn his horse. And he pawned him off to a farmer. The farmer didn't want him, but he gave him just a few dollars for it. He hitched the horse. He was pulling the plow.

And the farmer for Pegasus wasn't accustomed to work like that. The cow kept pushing him with his horn. And it was an awful team. But this is serious. This student made some money, made the first thing he did was to, and the cow, he went to the farmer and he said, how much do you want for that horse?

Oh, he says, you can have, I'm disgusted with it. Because it knew him now, it made us a peculiar people, praise the Lord. And so he unhitched the horse. And as soon as the horse felt the masters, his eyes began, young students swung himself on the back of Pegasus.

And the farmer stood there with open mouth. Beloved, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all. So many hitched together, not with a cow, but with a mule. They also did predestinate to be conformed. And while the law was not able to do it, God had to find a way.

Jesus Christ as Lord and Master

And that way is Jesus. And he who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, he is not interested in the backsliders. He's not interested in those that are half hearted. He says, Oh, then every man, her endlessly patient with us.

There comes a time when he says, if I miss church, his idols, the spirit of God says, there's living illustration of death, which was engraven upon Moses had to stay there 40 days and 49. Well, God wrote those words upon the tables of stone.

What a job for today, 49. And when he came out of that cloud, his face shown happened to him. I was so happy this morning coming to church with our children. They were singing all along the way. When they got tired, singing English, they started singing German hymns.

They claim we can't talk. And these 20 German, they do, they sing like the Germans themselves, but they sang a song that I didn't know. They said, when Jesus came into my heart, something happened to me.

Oh, that song. Do you have that test? Confidence to you. When Jesus comes in, calls us to repentance through Switzerland with me. I took him to my hometown and he said, where's that little house of the chimney sweeper?

Transformation When Jesus Takes Possession

I showed it to him. Elapidated affair from top to bottom, dirty and in the ditch to see where foundation to fix that whole house from top to bottom. And they made it so pretty. It looked like a doll. Jesus comes in, something happens.

Your neighbors quickly, they'll know the difference moved in. Who is that boss? Why is the spirit of the living God says, you are a living God known. And he says, not as I did. And he says, I'm going to give them a new heart and put my spirit within them into their heart.

Almighty in my life. If he has, it must have been because I've made him law or be a hypocrite and say, Lord, Lord, and then do what my flesh wants me to do. Or my evil nature, my pride, my conceit. Jesus is on the throne.

We ought to be for this ministration of the spirit. Praise the Lord. You are not in the flesh. Well, in you, that's it. His word in his word, does he meditate? There's a tremendous lack of that kind of Bible study.

Becoming a Living Epistle Through the Word

Do you know that? Recently I have a minister I met and he's an eloquent man. He's a man that can't live, can't get along with his wife. His children are a disgrace. He does things that you wouldn't expect from a man of the word.

Why does he do that? The spirit is not law. He has not bowed to Jesus Christ. He has said, comes to his own will. He says, I'm going to have my, he says, the spirit will receive from me the tables of the heart.

And he are the epistle of Christ. The love of Jesus is coming soon. We all feel it somehow. We all realize it, but how will I appear before him? Am I a commendation for my Lord? Is he able to lead me?

Can Jesus Christ put you any place and depend upon you to live for him, to shine for him? Can he put you into a difficult place? People to still live and peace. It will not be beloved unless the spirit is Lord.

Vessels of Honor Under the Spirit’s Rule

Oh, how many times God puts us into very difficult places in order to show us not become vessels unto honor that Jesus Christ is not Lord. There's somebody else Lord, and you can see it on your face. There's the mark of the beast.

The Bible says his name shall be in their foreheads. Oh, when the name of Jehovah has been placed upon your foreheads, he does. It's because he has written his law, the precious, our hearts, angels. He make us his angels.

It shouldn't be. He that was rich became poor that by his poverty. How is it in my life tonight? I ought to ask myself. He gives us two methods here are two wonderful, holy to meditate in the word until they become a living epistle and then behold as in a glass, the glory of the Lord.

Beholding Christ’s Glory and Growing in Holiness

We've been beholding his glory tonight. Haven't you? We sit here in his presence, the sunlight of his face. How many times I've seen faces transformed in a meeting like this again and again, and I can see that people are looking into the face of Jesus.

Beloved, if we'd spent more time doing that, we'd be more conscious of being transformed, transformed. What kind of changes does God make? Why he changes us in his image. It's unbelievable, unspeakable, but it's true.

Never to so many people, the Christian being changed. They live for nothing. To delight is in the law of the Lord. That's the beginning of the Christian life. When the Holy ghost gives you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and you begin to eat this word, how different, how very different.

Now it's my daily food, righteous, delighted day and night. And he's like a tree. It communicates to me the very divine nature of the son of God. I'm changed. When we see him, beloved, it won't be so very, very long until the pearly gates will unfold.

The Hope of Christ’s Return and the New Creation

When you just think of it, just think of that can number shining like the sun in the kingdom of their father. We are unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins. And you know, death and sorrow and suffering and sin and flakling is all behind you.

And here's the new Jerusalem. Here's the father and the son and the Holy ghost. Beloved, we're on the way. We're in his hand. He is shaping us tonight, changing us, seeking to get into our hearts and into our mentality, seeking to gain our attention to the churches.

And when he has gained our attention, oh, that word will enter into our heart like the seed of the kingdom. And God sent it.