Psalm 91 — Hans R. Waldvogel

The Necessity and Honor of Divine Salvation

It is such a tremendously wonderful thing to be saved, and I know tonight that nobody can get saved unless God saves them. You can't do it yourself, but it is a wonderful, wonderful thing and a great honor if God saves you.

People think that, oh, the Lord ought to be so happy if they come to church once in a while, and if they sing a few songs and maybe come to prayer meeting too during the week, why the angels ought to turn somersaults for joy that one scalawag comes to church.

Beloved, I tell you something. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth by millions of so-called Christians when they sink into hell and they cry for one drop of water to cool their parched tongue.

It is a great victory when God really saves a person, and so many people are not saved at all, or they're only half saved. They make a decision under the power of some emotional preaching maybe, but it's a different thing when the Spirit of God unsheathes his sword and shows you that you're a hell-bound sinner.

Conviction of Sin and Salvation Through Christ

Like the Apostle Paul, O wretched man that I am, wretched man, who shall deliver me from this corruption? Why, he thought he was good, and he was good. He was a wonderful church man, one of the best, one of the peers of Phariseeism, and yet when God decided to save him, and dear God, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, thank God, and to save them to the uttermost.

And I'm so thankful, and I know that I will thank God throughout the ages of eternity, that the day came when he saved me like that. First of all, he shone into my soul. I was like the Apostle Paul, good church member, good church member.

Everybody appreciated me. I'd never gotten into sin, never gotten into the world, never defiled myself, shunned lies or anything of that nature. All worldliness was far from me, but God had not been able to dig down into my soul to show me the corruption that I had inherited from Adam.

What a blessing, what an honor, what a grace when God is bound to save you. And I know that many, many people are under that light, but they don't obey God. We're living in a time when the prosperity of fools shall slay them.

What churchanity do we develop? What a bunch of hypocrites we fill our churches with. What an awful thing when people are not brought to the fountain of blood and made to realize that Jesus Christ had to die to save them.

There's nothing that'll save you but the blood of Jesus Christ. And listen, when you go to Calvary and you find out what your salvation cost, your Savior, you're not going to play with your sin anymore.

Spiritual Warfare and the Secret Place

And when God had succeeded somehow in saving me like that, I found out that I was surrounded by a host of enemies. I first found out that there was a devil. I first discovered that the Bible said the truth, that when he says that the devil goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

Day by day I was surrounded, day by day I was tested, day by day I was tempted. As any young man, any boy can be tempted, but day by day I discovered something, the secret place of the Most High God. I discovered that Jesus Christ was mightier than the devil, that he was real, that he meant what he said when he said, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what he will and it shall be done for them.

But I discovered too that I had to come out from among them and be separate and in order to get into that secret place of the Most High God. I studied Psalm 91 one day. I had a job. I had to go down the basement and fire up the furnace.

And while I was shoveling coal, I said, oh God, how does a person get into that secret place of the Most High God where he is safe? Have you noticed the enemies he speaks about here? He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, from the noise and pestilence.

He shall cover thee with his feathers. What is he talking about? The snare of the fowler. Oh how many are caught like that. They don't get very far in their Christian life, but they're caught in the snare of the fowler.

He is watching for them and because they are not watching, they're caught. The noise and pestilence, these germs that go about seeking to defile, to destroy. As I travel through the world and I hear people testify, Christian people, sometimes it seems my hair wants to stand on end when I hear what people live like.

Young people, what they live like. Old people, how they live. One old woman came to me recently in Germany. She says, I killed my children. What shall I do? She had done what thousands of women do. Thousands of women, church women do.

On Easter Sunday, they put on a new hat in order to cover the corruption and the murderous spirit that dwells in their souls. And I tell you, there's no religious scarf that'll save you from the corruption that you're living in.

It takes blood, the blood of my God alone flowing through my veins. He said, if you eat my flesh and drink my blood, it costs my Savior something to save me from my sin and then to keep me from the snare of the fowler.

Testing, Temptation, and Dependence on God

But oh, how interesting life is when I look back over my life now. And really, it's strange to me now to wake up and to find out that I'm older than all everybody else. I've always looked up to everybody else as being older than me.

All of you folks, all of you women. And now suddenly they send me cards of condolences. They say, oh, we hope you'll hang around a while yet. I expect to. But when I think back over my life and think of the snare wherewith the devil tried to catch me, I said, God, why did you allow me to go through such a test as that?

And how was it that your grace was able to bring me through clean as a whistle? How is it, my God? Why did you allow that? Why, it would have been an impossibility for me to escape. It was fixed up. Why did you allow Joseph to be tempted day after day when nobody was watching him?

His mother was far away. His father was far away. Why was it that God Almighty allowed that boy to go from one test into another and to the very bones he was tested? Why? Because God was working for eternity.

That's the reason he allows you to be tested. That's the reason he allows you to go through trials and through testing because he wants you to be so dependent upon him that the devil cannot touch you.

And that's why we need to find it. I said, oh God, while I was firing that furnace, my God, how can I find that secret place? There must be a place like that. God speaks of it in this world. I was living at that time in the Middle West, but here in Brooklyn, there's the secret place of the Most High God provided for you and for me.

Christ Opens the Way to the Father

That's what Jesus is talking about when he says, I go to prepare a place for you. He had to do it by going through the cross. He had to bring the veil. He had to, by his own flesh, make a way for you and for me to come to the Father where he lives, to be united to God, that they all may be one in us as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee.

That they may be one in us and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and has loved them as thou hast loved me. Oh, I'm so glad that Jesus Christ provides a full salvation, a real salvation, a salvation that saves, that brings me out from among them.

He came to save us out of this present evil world. I'm glad for that word, this present evil world. Not the world of the Romans and the Greeks and and the Chinese, but the Americans. Every one of us has been called to go through this present evil world and you will become acquainted with all the testings and all the temptations and with the sins and the defilements that the world has to offer.

And the world, like an old siren, like that wife of Potiphar, will schmooze and will certainly drag you down into perdition unless you dwell in the secret place of the Most High God. But here is God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Ghost inviting us to come and abiding in him.

Making God Our Habitation

And as I ask God, my God, how do I get into that place? He showed me two places in this psalm where very simply he tells us, because thou hast made the Lord even my refuge, thy habitation. Oh, it doesn't mean that I make a pop call once in a while and come to church when I feel like it and if I have a nice air-conditioned room to come to, but it means that my soul cries for the living God as the heart panteth after the water brooks.

Glory to God. I don't mind to talk like this. I know people say, well, Brother Walpole is a carp. No, sir, I'm not aiming at you at all. Go where you belong. I'm talking to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.

I'm talking to those who cry, oh, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I can point you to a fountain that's filled with blood, blood of the Lamb of God. And as you plunge into that fountain, you'll come out whiter than the snow.

And I'll bring you to the throne of the Lamb. Hallelujah. He's in the midst of the throne and he has all power and he has all wisdom. And he says, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you.

And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth. Oh, the Spirit of Truth is the fountain of life, is the stream of life that flows from the very heart of the Father and brings life wherever it is received.

Abiding in Christ and Readiness for His Coming

Beloved, why are we not filled with the Holy Ghost? We don't pay the price. We don't make the Lord, who is my refuge, our habitation. It costs something. It costs my God everything. My God had to become flesh and dwell among us and he had to go through death and he had to rise again from the dead and he had to receive from the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost in order to make this life possible.

But it's not only possible, it is inevitable. Children, abide in him that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. I'm not surprised that people are not waiting longingly for the coming of the Lord.

They're scared. They're afraid. They're not ready. They're not getting ready. I'm so glad the Bible tells us how to get ready. Ye are clean through the words which I have spoken unto you all to receive the words of Jesus Christ.

He that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them shall be likened unto a wise man that built his house, built it upon the rock. And he that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not. There it is.

Ye have received my word. Now you're clean. Now abide in me. And the Bible tells us how graciously my God will protect those who make him their habitation because he has set his love upon me. Therefore will I deliver him.

God's Faithfulness in Temptation and Sanctification

And as I said, I wonder how God allowed me to go through such tests. I know that a little carelessness would have made me fall right into the pit. Would have been impossible to escape. But listen, God says these temptations, God will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will this temptation also make a way of escape?

Oh my Father, my Father is faithful who calleth you. And what is this call? That your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't it strange? What a strange life we're living in.

I see these children as they're being dedicated. I say, oh my God how wonderful thou art. Here's a child. A year ago we didn't think of him at all. Here he is today. He belongs to this world like the sun belongs to the world.

You wouldn't think of doing without these boys here that blow the trumpets. But 50 years ago we didn't think of them at all. But here they are. Perfect human beings. And every day in the United States 10 ,000 babies are coming into life.

And what does God do with them? Why does God allow? Why does God create them? Because every baby that comes into the world is as marvelous a creation as Adam was when he came from the hand of his creator.

How perfectly those eyes see. How perfectly the mouth is shaped so that it can begin to talk. And how perfectly the ears are manufactured so that you can hear sounds. And every part of that body speaks of the wonderful wisdom and power of God.

Sin, Resurrection, and the Hope of New Creation

And yet it is appointed unto man once to die. The sentence of death is upon every child that's born into this world. Why? Because of sin. But because God has made a second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ is going to raise us from the grave thank God.

That's going to be the wonderful fulfillment of the word of God. Let us make men in our image. And it is sown in weakness and raised in power. Sown a corruptible body and raised an incorruptible body.

All this is the hope we're living for. Thank God. And my God is going to fulfill his gracious word and his gracious plan and his gracious promise in those who live the life decently upon this earth. But now while we live here he has provided the secret place of the most high God.

Oh my father, my father, I've got to live in this world. But thank God I can walk with Jesus. I can abide in him. The Holy Spirit has made it so real. How did it become real? Well the first thing that God showed me was this.

That whatsoever you ask the Father in my name that will I do. Showed me a life of prayer. A life of drawing nigh unto God and he will draw nigh to me. Only Jesus Christ has opened the way into that sanctuary.

Cleansing, Holiness, and the Life of Prayer

But oh how imperatively necessary it is for me to live like that. Because thou hast made the Lord, even my refuge, your habitation. Jesus Christ who spoke his words of love and then went away to be with the Father said, abide in me and I in you.

And he tells us what will happen to those who abide in him. First of all he says, he that abideth in him sinneth not. There's the protection I need. It's God himself spreading his wings, covering me with his own mantle, hiding me in his great heart.

It is a secret place that men don't find unless they seek it. Unless through the power of the Holy Ghost they're introduced into it. But all of us know something about it. We know something about drawing nigh to God.

First of all being convicted of sin and then being cleansed if we confess our sin. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Beloved that's step number one.

Why were so many young men disqualified from army service when they made it, tried to make a soldier out of me in the first world war. There was a young fellow who was so anxious to to wear a uniform that he bought one before he got one.

Polished his brass buttons, had a cane in his hand you know. Unfortunately he was a little shaver. But the way he stalked up and down to show himself to the girls, oh soldiers, mage, they're good for nothing.

And you know when he got his physical examination he came out of that room with a big R painted on his forehead. Refused, rejected. He cried like a baby. Why was it that so many were rejected? Why is it that so many of us are rejected from service to the King?

The Holy Spirit and Purity of Heart

Oh my Lord and my God if I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me. The Holy Ghost does not come upon proud minds and proud hearts, but upon hearts that are cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ, purified from all iniquity.

That's why I say what a blessing it is to be saved. What an honor when God Almighty does the work. And he will, if you respond to him, he will turn you at reproof. He says behold I will pour out my spirit unto you.

But he that abideth in him, oh that's the only place of safety. My God don't I know it. I cannot take one step and be safe unless I walk in him and abide in him. But he that abideth in him, is that you?

The Bible talks about you. God talks about you. Jesus talks about you. The Holy Ghost talks about you. As we heard a while ago, he writes a book of remembrances. He sinneth not. Dear Lord is there such a place?

Why yes there is, thank God. He that sinneth has not seen him, neither known him. Oh wonderful keeping power, glorious keeping power. I am abiding in the fountain that flows so full and free. And he that sinneth has not seen him, neither known him.

That's why the Apostle Paul says, one thing I do, I press toward the mark that I might know him and the power of his resurrection. Children of God, we have a wonderful friend. A marvelous Savior who not only saves us, but he becomes our salvation.

God is my salvation, thank God. You can't divide that. Fullness of salvation in the secret place of the Most High God. He shall give his angels charge concerning thee. They shall keep thee in all thy ways.

Praying in the Holy Ghost and Living as God's Temple

Now listen, there's not a single person in this place that can keep themselves from sinning, because we're surrounded, we're in a world full of wickedness, full of sin. But we don't have to be in the world and abide in the world, but we can come into this secret place of the Most High.

How is it done? It's done by living a life of prayer in the Holy Ghost. Praying in the Holy Ghost. Look at that little epistle of Jude. He pictures the condition of the church as it is today. He pictures the gatherings of the saints, and he shows how false prophets and false apostles have come in, into the church.

And he says they're pointed there unto. God sendeth them strong delusion, that they all might be damned who receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. The love of the truth is love to you, Jesus.

You personally. You who offer to come and dwell within my heart. You who have purchased this body of mine. To be a temple of the Living God, to be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.

Beloved, this place is ready for all of us. And no matter how weak you are, even the youth shall faint and be weary, and young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord. I like the illustration my father always used.

The Lion of Judah as Refuge and Protection

This fellow who brought his dog into the zoo. You remember that, don't you? And he was a bad man. Dog was a nice dog. And he hit the dog, and the dog took one leap into the cage of a Barbary lion. And the lion growled.

And he put his arm around the dog and just hugged him like this. And all you could see was the black eyes of the dog looking through the mane of that lion when the master called him. He said, Give me back my dog!

Because it was in Berlin, they had to talk German. The dog didn't understand any other language. And the dog shook his head. He was safe. Perfectly safe. In the embrace of this lion. So the man called the waiter and said, Here, my dog's in that lion's cage.

Get him for me. And he gave him his keys. He said, Get him yourself. Beloved, there's a lion of the tribe of Judah. He's my Savior, my salvation. Praise God. He said, Lo, I'm with you always. I will not leave you comfortless.

I will come to you, and if you abide in me. Oh, dear Lord, how do I dare step outside any moment, any day, when you have opened your heart to receive me and to hold me in the hollow of your hand and to protect me?

Beloved, I need that hiding place, don't you? I need it. I need it as long as I'm in this world and then forevermore. Oh, dear Lord, but what a marvelous, marvelous place he that abideth in him sinneth not.

He that sinneth has not seen him, neither known him. And when that Lord Jesus Christ provides for me, the spirit that raised him from the dead to dwell in this body, he will control my mind. That's where sin is fabricated.

At my tongue, that's where the poison of ass formerly was created. And he will protect my whole spirit and soul and body. What a Savior! But more than that, he says, if you abide in me, you will bring forth much fruit.

Bearing Fruit Through Abiding in Christ

And that means everybody. France is in the vine. And I think that we're very foolish if we try to produce fruit ourselves in our own strength. But many, many, many try to do that. And what a bot they make of it.

But you know, it's one thing to be successful. In Germany, you can have meetings of thousands of people. All you have to do is say, signs and wonders and they just jump on your neck. The whole nation.

That's why we don't do that. It's a different thing to be a tree planted by the river of water and bringing forth your fruit in your season. That fruit will remain forever. It will not come as rapidly perhaps, but it will grow.

Like the Bible says, as a tree that bringeth forth fruit in his season, his leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Children of God. God knew what kind of a Savior we needed.

That's why he provided Jesus for us. And the question is, do you want Jesus? Do you want him? Listen, they that seek me early shall find me. And there's no other way. There is no other way. Brother Wanamacher and I compared notes when he was here this week.

We started out together. There was a group of ministers. Oh, more than a dozen. Where are they? Mr. Wanamacher made up his mind to find God. He wanted God. He was weak in body, but he would spend one week after another fasting, praying, waiting upon the Lord.

And he has gotten to be in such a place that his fruit fills the whole world. Everywhere there are testimonies to the fruitfulness of that one man. And the others laughed at him because he couldn't talk English very well.

He couldn't talk German very well. He couldn't talk Hungarian very well. But I tell you, he could pray. Same thing is true of Brother Benjamin. He filled that country, Venezuela, with the light of the God.

You will bring forth much fruit, and your fruit will remain. And listen, don't be fooled. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. I've seen that too. With thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.

You see that every day. They try to fool God. They try to get away without abiding in that secret place of the Most High God. And today the battlefield is strewn with dry branches that are withered and ready for the fire.

I saw a picture of the Civil War. They talk about the dead. What good is a dead soldier? I want living soldiers. Jesus Christ wants living branches. You and I are to be a living branch in the living vine.

Oh come, come, here's the secret place. Father, Father, I know that thou hearest me always. Oh my Father, I thank you because we're not strangers. We're not pilgrims. We're fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God and built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.

Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone. I'm glad it isn't Peter.