The Day of the Lord (Pentecost) — Hans R. Waldvogel

I pray God to have his way with me tonight. I mean now. How would you like the Lord to have his way with you now, tonight? What would happen if God really, well, there's nobody stopping the Lord except yourself.

The Great and Terrible Day of the Lord

Oh how we need God to have his way with us. There's something in this text that interests me very deeply. It's the mentioning of that great and terrible day of the Lord. And I tell you why. Because we see that day approaching with rapid steps.

We know the day is at hand. Now the apostle Paul said two thousand years ago the day is at hand. And it was. When the Bible talks about the last day, he talks about this of grace. When God is waiting to see how many will accept the gospel and come out of darkness into light.

And out from under the power of Satan unto God. And in every generation the message was the same. Come out from among them and be you separate. And touch not the unclean thing. Flee from the wrath to come.

And if you make a little study of the wrath to come, you'll find out that even enough. The seventh from Adam, the father of the Swiss, prophesied that six thousand years ago. He said behold the Lord cometh with myriads of saints to execute judgment.

And he says in his last day Christ was manifested to take away our sin and to preach the gospel. This is the day of which Isaiah wrote when he says and in that day thou shalt say praise the Lord. That's what we say, don't we, when we greet one another.

Or how do you greet folks? You say hi or do you say lo. No, we say praise the Lord. Glory to God. What's the matter with your long face? Hallelujah. Alletag is on a giant. Praise the Lord. In that day thou shalt say praise the Lord.

And that God has a lot to say about this last day. Jesus Christ says in this day the seed is being sown. A sower went forth to sow. And when Jesus Christ went to heaven, he commanded his apostles to go forth into all the world and to proclaim the glad tidings to every creature.

The Gospel, Judgment, and the Day of the Lord

And he that believeth that is baptized shall be saved. And he that believeth not shall be damned. John 3 at the end of the chapter he says he that has the Son of God has life. And he that has not the Son of God shall not see life.

But the wrath of God abideth on him. And when he talks about that great and notable day of the Lord, he's talking about the day that's coming right soon. A day that the world is not expecting. Oh if you talk to the world about the day of the Lord, they'll do exactly like they did to Noah.

When Noah was building an ark to the saving of his house. And he condemned the world. But the day came when it started raining. And the door was shut. And the world was condemned. And so today people don't believe about the day of the Lord.

But thank God ye are all the children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. And if the Holy Spirit, as we heard tonight, has made it alive. And if you give God Almighty a chance to keep in your soul that hope.

That hope. Oh glory to God you're not going to be harnessed together with a cow. I always remember Pegasus. You remember? That horse that had wings could fly like the wind. And one day the fellow that owned it, a student, got so poor that he had to pawn it.

He had to sell it. And he sold it to a farmer. And the farmer said, what can I do with a horse with wings? And so he clipped his wings. And he harnessed him to a plow with a cow. And here that poor horse was getting consumptive.

Because it wasn't made for that plow. It was made for the sky to fly over the clouds and to rain like an eagle. And here this student finally made some money. And he came skipping along the road and whistling a song.

Oh what a beautiful morning. Everything's coming my way. And presently we saw his Pegasus pulling a plow and weeping bitter tears. His head bowed. Harnessed with a cow to the farmer. Will you sell me that horse?

Farmer said, sure you can have him for a few pennies. He's no good anyway. So he paid him the few pennies and the horse was unharnessed. And his wings had grown again. And the student just put his hand on his mane, you know.

He felt the touch of the master. And when the master swung himself on his back, the farmer stood there his pipe fell out of his mouth. And I'd like to know what kind of a cow you're farming. Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

That's unequal. You're not going to make the grave. You're going to become consumptive spiritually. You belong somewhere else. Let the master touch you and he'll put fire into you. He'll put the Holy Ghost into you.

He'll speak hope into your soul. He'll speak to you of that great and notable day of the Lord that is coming when he says, here are all the children of light and the children of the day. Ye have no need that you write a few of the signs of the Jesus present.

You know yourself that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. Have you heard what's that? You're watching for the thief to come along. Oh, beloved God, all the children of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness.

Hallelujah. We are not overtaken and we're not fooled and we're not surprised by the day. We're children of the day. Our hearts are filled with light because we keep our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ and our very bodies.

Holiness, the Holy Spirit, and Resurrection Hope

Thank God. These bodies that once were bodies of sin with powers of the flesh and of the world and of the devil, they're today stocked with the power of the Holy Ghost. They're filled with the power of the rapture, with the resurrection light of the Son of God.

God has not appointed us to rant. And it's going to be a very, very terrible day. The Bible says here, I will make signs and wonders to be seen, blood, fire, pillars of smoke. Remember when I came into Pentecost, it was before the second world war.

I preached on this text one night in the city of Kenosha. And I said to the people, listen, they're saying peace and safety. I've just come out of the army. And they had told me I was crazy because I didn't want to take up arms and kill the Germans.

And they told me they were making the world safe for democracy now. And I said, listen, before long, you'll be singing, get your gun, get your gun, get your gun, they were looking at me. They didn't believe that.

But wasn't the long before Johnny had to get his gun. And this time it was a different kind of a gun, wasn't it? It was a different kind of a war. Blood, blood, blood. Why they told me how in Germany, these mass graves were healing.

A brother told me how he saw them healing when thousands were buried there. A lot of gases, blood, the whole ground was soaked with blood. When we came to part time, there were crosses by the thousands where people were buried underneath the debris and had not been able to sell it very decently.

City of Hamburg, 180 ,000 died in the bombing raid and 35 ,000 overnight. And when we came there, 60, between 60 and 70 of all the children had TB. And we saw the little kids and the little children running around looking for a hole to crawl into because their fathers and mothers had to be killed.

What a thank God said, I will do thanks in heaven above and in the earth today as we are seeing these earthly signs to war, a dying world that the end is near. Blood, blood, fire, I will live in Germany.

Today they're in prosperity. Today they're not as hungry for God as they were 10 years ago. Today they've got their cabarets again and their nightclubs and their harlotry and their drinking vows. And all those things are going rampant again in Germany.

10 years ago, they were all praying. 10 years ago, they were all crying. And when you held a meeting, everybody put up their hands and wanted to get saved. We began for mourning and for fasting and for repenting.

And instead of that, let us drink a drink for tomorrow we die. And beloved, what's going to happen in America? We don't know, but we know the end is near. We know that by the rabbi, La Gordera, Heizel, Vago, Caleb, Padia, we know that all flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof is as the power of the field.

And it shall be cast into the oven and Jesus Christ will come and they will cry for the rocks and for the mountains to fall upon them and to cover them from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne.

And those who don't pray now, they'll pray then. There's certainly certainty. Jesus says, as a snare shall it come on all them that fall upon the face of the earth, as it was in the days of Noah, as it was in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah.

So shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. Are you waiting for the Son of Man to be revealed? Beloved, if you're dead with Christ, if your life is hid with Christ in God, then you can look up.

Because when Jesus shall be revealed, we shall also appear with him in glory. Hallelujah. And what a wonderful message. Here's where God Almighty began this great work. And in every generation, he has continued this work.

The Church Through History and the Witness of the Martyrs

And in every generation, he's added church upon it, sir. In every generation that I've been backlining, as man has been rose out of hell, his feet, seven heads, and ten horns, and his mouth filled with blasphemy, so that he couldn't prevail against the church of Jesus Christ.

So he went and put on a different garb, and he came back like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon. Their Rome did not conquer heathen, then they adopted it. They clothed themselves with it. But beloved Rabbi, Yahuwaih Yosef, the Holy Spirit was at work all the time.

And if you read church history, and you read the history of the world, you'll find that all the time, God had a whole. How the blood of martyrs flowed, whose jaw, the martyr first, whose eagle eye could pierce beyond the grave, he saw his master in the sky, and called on him to say, and he knew it was a faithful say, and word of all acceptation, that if we be dead with him, we shall live with him.

If we suffer, we shall reign with him. And as they went into the arena, to be slain by wild beasts that pointed at the and his head was a jaw and a face. Look at it. We're going to judge you in that day.

Today you're judging. In that day we're going to judge you. Oh, in every generation, the Holy Ghost was at work. In every generation, the gospel of Jesus Christ was preached. And you'd be surprised what a great company that no man can number are there now, clothed in white, with palms in their hands, and crying salvation unto our God, and to the Lamb that sitteth upon the throne.

This last day, this last has brought forth a new generation, a holy nation, a peculiar people, a chosen generation, a royal God, and he says they shall live and reign with Christ forever and forever, for another wonderful thing has happened.

The Church as the Bride and the Overcomers

And that's why I said, my soul cries for more of God. The church has gone through. See, see, she is pictured as a woman in travail, in pain to be delivered of a man's child that shall rule the nation with a rod of iron.

Beloved, that's the church of these last days. Oh, what a price the devil put up. And that makes us understand a little bit church history and history of the world. It was the great red dragon. Beloved, he wasn't after the backsliders.

He wasn't after an apostate church. He wasn't after these backsliders that play bingo instead of going into prayer meetings that mind miraculously thinks he's got them by the neck. But he's after that faith that's to be born.

He's after the overcomers. He's after those in whose mouths is found no guide, who are not defiled but keep themselves free and unspotted from the world because they're not Jesus, because they've heard the gospel and they've been filled with the Holy Ghost.

Love, fire. What does he mean? Pillars of smoke. That's strange. I saw a picture in the Pentecostal evangelist of the explosion of a nice hydrogen bomb. What is it? It's a pillar of smoke. It's an exclamation mark.

And this gospel is now the end of the year. Here's no question mark. It's an exclamation mark. And beloved, it's a sign. A sign. But God be praised. There are heavenly signs today in every nation and in every country.

People are prophesying, speaking in other tongues. That's the testimony of Jesus Christ everywhere. Everywhere the voice of the Son of God is being heard. And even though there are, there is a lot of smoke.

The fire of the Holy Ghost. Today little children know more than 60 years ago the priesthood. Today people know Jesus. They know how to walk and to please God. They know how to keep themselves unspotted from the world.

And if God can't find them in Pentecost, he'll find them in other churches, even in the Catholic church. Beloved, it's they that do righteousness that are born of him, not they that talk about him. God gave their confidence to them.

Act of righteousness shall be filled. But look at the signs. Big heavenly signs that God is performing today in this fire. What a change God has made in us since he baptized us with the Holy Ghost. And what is the change?

Why, we've learned to know Jesus personally. We know him, hope to know his life eternal. We know how to walk with him. We know how he dwells within our hearts. And thank God he's causing us to grow up into him in all.

It was 34 years ago. People blamed me for it. I knew that God used me many times. But I knew it was Almighty God. I knew that sometimes he pushed me aside and he preached himself. I knew that. And another thing that I marveled at was the hardness of heart.

How people could hear and hear and hear and not change and not repent and not get right with God and still lie and still live in the flesh. The love of God says let him that is wicked be more wicked still.

You don't get into a hell of a lot of trouble. But he says whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered. There it is. You've got the chance that Peter had. The very same chance that Paul had.

You've got the very same savior that Elijah had. You can call on the name of the Lord and though you think they are scarlet they shall be as white as snow. And if you have received him then you're begotten unto a living hope.

Thank God. And you can forget the things that are behind and you can press towards the mark. Glory to God and God holds the prize of the high calling of God before you. And it's an eternal prize. It's a project.

Sons and Daughters of God in the Last Days

Signs and wonders in heaven above. These are heavenly signs and what is God after? Listen. Your sons and your daughters. Where are they? The sons of God. The daughters of God. Oh they're in the powder room for a half an hour painting their lips and tweezing their eyeglasses.

Are they? Maybe. Sons of God. Where are they? They're day and night waiting upon the Lord. The Bible says sons and daughters of God that attend upon the Lord without distraction. Why do they do it? Oh because today is an honor to thank the Lord.

Signs and wonders. Only Jesus Christ can produce these signs. Only he can beget sons and daughters that really bear his image and have received his divine nature. But I tell you God Almighty will not cease when once he has received a heart.

Once a man or a woman has really. And that's the tragedy today in the church. I've been in churches where God Almighty walked almost visibly among men and spoke his word and people prided themselves of having heard from heaven.

And they went away and did exactly the opposite of what God told them. But I saw what happened to those that took the word of God to heart. Almighty God came and dwelt in them. He became their Lord. He became their bridegroom and became his bride.

I found the man after my own heart who will do all my will. Where are the sons and daughters of the living God? He said they shall prophesy. God said he shall. You shall. God is not going to let you warm the bench in a church and then live for the devil and live for the world or live for yourself.

But he'll requisition you to be his son and to be changed into the likeness of his son Jesus Christ our Lord. How is it coming to pass? They love us. They're pretty close. Do you know that God has sons of God in the world today?

Pentecost and the Hope of Transformation

And they're not yet made man. But all creation grows. Don't you hear the very seed grow in the sky? Don't you hear the sigh in the trees and all animal life is groaning and bleeding? The deer with an arrow stuck in his heart is bleeding himself to death.

Look at Germany, the eastern part of Germany. Look at all these nations under communistic rule. Look how many thousands, every day approximately a thousand risk death to come to the western zone of Germany.

What does it all mean? Oh beloved it all. Oh the victory of the cross is it going to be enacted in you and in me. Does God Almighty have you? Paul says he's greatly. He has apprehended me. For which also I was apprehended of Christ Jesus.

Beloved it began on the day of Pentecost and today Pentecost. Glory to God that the Lord told us this morning is not a day. It's a person. It's the bridegroom. It's the king. The king. He says I will do.

You don't need to fool yourself. You can have the stamp of Almighty God upon your life. You can have the name of Jesus Christ engraved in flaming letters across your heart. You can have a ring on your finger like these brides that oogle their ring.

I don't blame them. They have a real diamond. Jesus. That they might be filled with all the Holy Ghost doing with you.