Taking the Cross Sincerely — Hans R. Waldvogel

Living in the Bosom of the Father

His life is lived with Christ in God, and Jesus lived like that. He always lived in the bosom of the Father. The Bible says, the son who is in the bosom of the Father, and wherever Jesus ministered, wherever he spoke, wherever he walked, he always did those things that pleased the Father.

He was always controlled, always controlled. His very thought is that the words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself. And again he said, I do always the things that please Him. What a life! Your time is always, but my time is not yet.

Oh, what a son of God! To dwell in the bosom of the Father, even while he was being crucified by wicked men. No wonder death couldn't hold him. No wonder death had to give him up, when he conquered death, when he abolished death, and conquered hell.

What a life the son of God lived. But you know, when he says, I will come again and receive you unto myself, said, where I am, he may be also not talking about heaven, but he's talking about that heavenly place, that wonderful union with the Father.

And do you realize that Jesus Christ is here today to do that for us? The Holy Ghost has taken it upon himself to make us like Jesus. How happy are the people who are classified with those that the Apostle Paul talks about.

Enemies of the Cross and the Heavenly Walk

He draws a very strong, a very powerful distinction there. He says, many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, enemies of the cross of Christ. They don't take things seriously.

Whose God is their belly. Their mood, their governance, their rule by earthly considerations. They mind earthly things. Isn't that a description though of most Christians that we know? They mind earthly things.

Their end is destruction. Now that of course we have ruled out of our curriculum. We don't believe that. Why no, we have somehow succeeded in fitting the Bible to our natural tendencies and experiences.

And we've been very adept at doing that. But oh, the judgment of the Bible, their end is destruction ought to go to our hearts. But our conversation, our walk, our life, our life is in heaven. Oh, it is when we're in meeting joy, when we sing and worship and speak in tongues.

Oh, we do pretty well then. But how is it outside of meeting? Our conversation is in heaven. Now that's the question. There must be a happy lot who have attained to that place. And how to attain to that place without diligence is out of the question, is impossible.

The Cross and the Crucifixion of the Old Man

Why beloved, only the cross of Christ can deliver me absolutely from destruction, from this earthly life. Enemies of the cross of Christ. And the cross of Christ is only an emblem. This is after all only a deception, unless it means the crucifixion of my old man.

With its affection and love. You realize that all of us live in our affections and in our lusts. Those things controlled us. They controlled our actions. They controlled the destinies of our lives. We arranged our living according to the lusts and affections of our own heart, among whom we also had our conversation in time past.

That word conversation is the same as is expressed in walk. Our walk is in heaven, among whom also we all had our conversation in time past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.

But who doesn't do that? Who would have the brass to judge that or to criticize? The desires of the flesh and of the mind control humanity. They control Christianity. There's but one cure, and it is death, and not the death of man, but the death of God, the death of Christ, that cross of Christ that has wrought the sentence of death upon my old man, and I have been crucified with Christ.

Oh, what an act of the Holy Ghost. What a marvelous act. But you know that it takes a very definite surrender to Jesus, very, very definite, if ye then be risen with Christ. Now, have you been risen with Christ?

Have you been raised with Christ? A lot of what we call spirituality is but imagination. We read books. We have known people that would take deep life books by Madam Guy and walk down the street like this, and breathe heaven.

Oh, what a deep life Christian I am. What a farce. I tell you, the cross of Christ is so real, you cannot mistake it. You can't. When God unsheathes his sword and turns it against you, you will lose all judgment of others.

Then you will know what true humility means, for you consider everyone better than yourself when God Almighty has been able, by the light of the Holy Ghost, to show you the destructiveness of this deceitful heart of ours, the absolute hopelessness of self.

Human Wisdom Versus the Wisdom of God

You know what will happen? It will change our services, our Holy Ghost services, toggle things. It'll give God Almighty a chance, and God won't fool us with theological dogma, and with a lot of entertainment.

He won't fool us with words which man's wisdom teaches. That's what we learn in Bible school and in theological seminaries, words which man's wisdom teaches. Well, you're not a very good preacher if you haven't got a doctor title.

Go to California and buy one for five bucks. Doctor of theology. Oh, what a lot of charlatans we are. What a lot of fools we are. When they thought themselves wise, they became fools. God points to the source of wisdom that despise, spat upon, be spattered with blood, mangled, crucified, born, crowned God.

That's the wisdom of God. That's the sentence of God upon all that is me. Everything pertaining to me, and unless I accept the sentence of God, beloved, the harlots and publicans will get into heaven quicker than myself.

I tell you, even weeping enemies of the cross of Christ. Oh, we sing about the cross. Some of the finest composers in the world, like John Sebastian Bach and Steiner, they have written wonderful compositions about the cross, the seven words of Christ from the cross, and we think the world's awfully spiritual by going to a concert and listening to those wonderful tone poems, and they're wonderful.

They're beautiful, it's true. But there's no beauty about the cross, beloved. There is nothing but shame and sentence of death. Let no man trouble me. I bear in my body the marks of the Lord. Beloved, God says if any man decides to be wise, let him become a fool, and you will be looked upon as a fool by a wise world.

You'll be ostracized. They won't have any fellowship with you. They won't want to have anything. Oh, they're nice. You know, we're cultured enough to be nice, but if you don't wear their buttons, you can't function.

Heavenly Citizenship and the Corruption of the Flesh

But oh, to have the heavenly mind that our conversation, our walk, our life is in heaven. I must be in heaven now. God knows whether I love the cross of Christ. God knows the people who think the thoughts that he gives.

Don't you think he knows why it says all flesh had corrupted its way before him? How? They were wonderful people before the flood, sons of God. They were wise. They chose to themselves wise according to the lust of the eyes.

They saw how the daughters of men were beautiful. Well, don't we do wise? Of course, that's what it is. Why, that's how we live. And don't you dare say anything to the contrary. Don't you dare talk about a spirit of God that declares sentence of death upon all that natural life.

You won't be a popular preacher if you do. All flesh had corrupted its way before God. The thoughts and the imaginations of their hearts were only evil, continuous, God's all. Die Menschen wollen sich von meinem Geiste nicht mehr strafen lassen.

Men will not be disciplined by the spirit of God. Now, beloved, we ought to question ourselves very sincerely. Do I live under that censorship of the Holy Ghost? Yes, thank God, I do to a certain extent.

But there are certain limitations that I make to my God. I say, now, not that. You know, that's not so bad. That's not, of course, it's earthly. Yes, but wouldn't it be nice if we all went to our own funeral today?

We sure. Well, to say, well, God, this time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, meaning the will of my own mind. Jesus Christ has got something wonderful for you.

Receiving Christ and Refusing Conformity to the World

Oh, Jesus Christ, that I will come again. He doesn't leave that to a pope or a cardinal or a priest or a preacher or an evangelist. Even if you pay them $50 to pray for you, they can't do it. It takes the Holy Ghost.

And as many as receive Him. Oh, God, it's to receive you, not just to receive a blessing that should be soaped on me once in a while, but to receive you, the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, that King whom Moses had before him all the time and who gave him power to endure the whoredoms of that great nation Israel.

And he went through and laid the foundation for what was to follow. And that same eternal King, that immortal, that invisible King, claims my life for his kingdom. Beloved, this is a wonderful doctrine.

I suppose almost everybody in this meeting acknowledges that. But do you know how wonderful it would be if we began to do that? And if we really, and actually, it would mean, well, it would mean exactly what the Bible says, not to be conformed to this world.

This world is ruled by the spirit of the pit, the spirit that now has his work in the children of disobedience. The works of the flesh are manifest. And how manifest, adultery. You can't open the paper, but it's full of adultery.

Fornication, unclean, inordinate defection, evil concupiscence, covetousness, variance, wrath, emulation, strife, heresies, murders, revelings, drunkenness, and the like, of which I've told you before and tell you again that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

But you don't have to go into the world. You find a lot of these things in the church, and they're rampant, and they live, and they possess us, and they control us. And God says there's no man cometh unto the Father but by me, the Crucified.

The Fruit of the Spirit and Love for Enemies

Oh, Jesus. And the fruit of the Spirit is heavenly. It's love. Oh, we have a little love. We do, like we heard the other day. Like the harlots and like the publicans, we love those who love us. We smile at those who smile back at us.

But to love the least of these, my brothers, to love your enemies, not to tolerate them, but to love, love your enemies, love them. If I don't have love, my tongues is a tinkling cymbal and a sounding brass.

Let me not boast of it anymore. No, beloved, our conversation is in heaven. It is. Praise God. If ye then be risen with Christ, that constitutes salvation. The apostles preached no other salvation but this.

The saints of all ages never knew any other salvation but this. When the other night we had a baptismal service, I know that in the early days they baptized believers immediately. But you know, after a while I read of one of the church fathers who came out of Eden, and he was a philosopher among the Eden.

And when he got the light of salvation, he fasted and prayed for three years and meditated on the truth of God to prepare himself for baptism. That's what baptism meant to them. And listen, God is going to restore that light to the church in his work.

Jesus Christ as the Only Way

He is. Jesus Christ, after all, is the only way. And thank God for Pentecost, which has made such inroads into our lives and into our hearts. And this morning, I'd like to thank God for that faith home in Zion with Mrs. Robinson at the head of it, Elder and Mrs. Brooke, Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell, Mrs. Judd, and that whole constellation of brilliant stars that shone for a while in the dark sky of this century.

It was the brightest constellation that God Almighty set ablaze in the sky of the 20th century. It was Almighty God letting his blazing eyes shine upon a world that is an enemy of the cross of Christ and shine into a church that hesitated to let Jesus Christ be the king and be all and in all.

And God was not able to raise a man like the Apostle Paul, but like Moses, he had to take a woman like Mrs. Robinson. But she did. He went through. He did go through. And I'm not a bit hesitant to thank God this morning, because that light has been shining here these 33 years.

And if it hadn't been for that woman, we would be in darkness today. But the light is shining. The light is shining. The question only is whether we will do like the wise men from the east, when the whole world was plunged in darkness.

Never more religion in the world than at that time when Jesus was born, but never less godliness. And God couldn't get Israel. He couldn't get enough men out of Israel to recognize the coming of the master.

He had to go to the east. He had to go to Gentile nations to find men that were wise enough to follow the star when they sought. Why did they follow the star? Because they were among those who watched and prayed and waited for the coming of the Messiah.

Watching and Waiting for Christ's Return

And what does God say unto them that look for him? Oh beloved, don't think that a week of prayer like this is wasted time. It has brought us more blessing already than a whole year of gabbing. It has brought to my soul such an awakening that I'm, I wish we could continue another week.

Oh when the holy ghost comes and shakes you and says, wake up, wake up. You're asleep in enemy's country. You're going to perish. Wake up. I am here to bring you to where I am. And we've been slow in following the lamb of God.

And we don't watch and wait and look for his coming. Else the work of purifying ourselves would go on differently. Who here can boast of being much different from the way he was a year ago? Are you holier today?

Do you pray more? Do you think more sweetly at his feet? Are you better acquainted with Jesus? When Pentecost came and people came into graveyards, there were men in whose mouth the word of God was flaming fire.

Do you know where they landed? I don't want to mention the name, the word. God allowed them to sink into deep mud, because presently they began to reflect, to take credit to themselves. They were the gifted of God.

They were the chosen ones. They were powerful. Now they told others to tarry for the baptism and they had no more time. They didn't have to. But there was one woman who received marvelous gifts, like Moses, like Paul.

Mrs. Brooks told me one day, and we came into gifts, she said, we prophesied. And we felt that we didn't have to pray so much anymore. They didn't realize that they got their gifts through Mrs. Robinson's faith.

And she said to me, but you know, Mrs. Robinson still prayed all night. She never gave it up. She still fasted until she fainted. She still hungered and lamented after Christ. The apostle Paul said, you think you're perfect.

Don't you do it. Do as I do. I forget the things that are behind. Yes, and the powerful, sure, mighty, so mighty signs and wonders, but I forget the things that are behind. I pray for tomorrow, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering, beloved.

That knowledge doesn't come to us only through prayer, but it comes through forgetting the things that are behind and counting them, but refuse. It doesn't mean that you put certain things in the icebox so you can grab them again when you want them.

You know what you do is refuse. You get rid of it. You don't want to see it. You don't want to smell it anymore. Oh, how good it is when the saints of God stretch themselves of every way and of the things that so easily beset them.

Prosperity, Entertainment, and the Temptations of Earthly Life

When some years ago we wanted to have a radio program in Europe, I went from north to south to investigate the possibilities, and do you know what I discovered? I discovered that the saints of God did not have radios.

They said that's worldly. They wouldn't have them in their homes. We think that's fanatical, but I wonder how much better off lots of, lot of us would be without television sets and without some of those gandhis.

Why, you wouldn't be up to date if you didn't have them. And I declare, some of those things are necessary, it's very true, but what a temptation. But I count everything but refuge. Beloved, if there was ever a time in the history of the world when the saints of God are in danger, it is today.

When you look into America with the prosperity of fools that slays them. Beloved, we're swimming in it. We're drowning. We're drowning in prosperity. You can't get people to pray decently. Pentecostal ministers have said to me, we have only one meeting a week that amounts to anything.

That's Sunday morning, but Sunday night you can't get them out. They've got their television sets in their homes. You mean to tell me that people like that are going to heaven? Why, they wouldn't stand it in heaven without Barney Google and Sparkplug and Muff and Jeff and Crazy Cat.

They wouldn't stand it five minutes. They're full of it. It's in their hearts. But how different to be crucified, to be slain, to follow the Lamb with whichever he goes. O Lamb of God, I know where you're going.

Following the Lamb Through Suffering

I know where you're going. And it says to you like it said to Peter Quo Vadis. Peter said to Jesus Quo Vadis. Where are you going? Peter was leaving Rome because persecution was getting too hot. And Peter thought it was uncomfortable.

And there were plenty open doors. And for me it gets too cold here. I wish I had a call to the Hawaiian Islands or Florida, someplace where it's warm. And it's getting too hot for Peter. And so he left Rome.

And he met Jesus on the way. Jesus was going to Rome. And he said to Jesus Quo Vadis. Where are you going? Jesus says I'm going back to Rome to be crucified once more, because you refused to. Beloved, what does God have to do to get his church ready for the rapture?

I wonder. When we were in Europe, we met some folks that really went through the fire. And they stood to death. We met Brother Reese from Leipzig. He's a Pentecostal preacher. One of his secretaries, a fine young lady, was with us in Hamburg.

And we pled with her. We gave her fifty mark. And you know that girl cried like a baby. Fifty mark is about ten dollars, or not even. It's about ten dollars. Why she cried like a child over such a gift is that.

And we pled with her to stay in the West. He said, why do you want to go back there into that trap? You're liable to get killed, put in a concentration camp. He said, well, who will preach the gospel there if they all run away?

Brother Reese told us about a bishop of the Lutheran church whom he met. His brother had been martyred by the communists, had been executed. And he said to our brother Reese, our Pentecostal preacher brother, I'm praying for grace to become a martyr.

That was his outlook. That was his hope. He could have pled. He could have had it easier. And we sit here in a fine church like this and we can't even testify. Not comfortable. And we can't spend an hour, time to pray.

We haven't got time. Ten minutes yet, fifteen minutes yet. Listen, how long is it since you've prayed another soul through at our altar services? Why is it that we don't get through to God? Where are the saints?

When I sought the baptism, I used to say, God, I'm going to be the last one out of here. I remember one night on Sheffield Avenue on Montana Street in Chicago, in the Persian mission, it was two o 'clock in the morning and there was just one other man and I praying and seeking the baptism.

And there was a Norwegian brother who stopped by. He had the baptism. He got the job from God to pray me through. Mind you, he stayed till two o 'clock in the morning. And I remember how he walked up and down and he said, Oh God is here.

And his Norwegian broke. God is here. I just saw fire. We did see fire in those days. Beloved, I think that the kind of a revival we need is to get back to the cross with Christ and take it serious. It is God that was crucified for us.

Imputed Righteousness and Fellowship With Christ's Suffering

And he imputes to us that righteousness of the Son of God. If we bow to the cross, glory to God, and to the power of the cross, if we cry to know him and the power of his resurrection and that belongs to it, the fellowship of his suffering.

That means the fellowship of his death. If I might be made conformable unto his death, no other death will do. How many talk about being crucified with Christ. But what they really do is like the sorcerer's apprentice.

You remember when he pronounced his formula and the broom began to carry water until the house was drowning and he didn't know how to stop him. And that's what's the matter with us. We don't know how to stop the old witch.

And so he took an ax and chopped it to bits. And presently there were a thousand brooms carrying water instead of one. Here they were all going at it like this. And the house really did drown. And that's what's the matter with us.

We crucify the flesh but we raise a thousand old atoms and they all trouble us. But oh Jesus, Jesus, there's only one way. Beloved, there's only one way. This is the way. This is the way. If ye then be risen with Christ.

Living as Lights in the World

I have no business in this world but to live in it honestly for my God, someone said. I have no business in this world but to let the light and hope shine that man may glorify my Father who is in heaven.

That every word and thought and act of mine, my very breath, my very movements will show forth the praises of him who has called me out of darkness into his marvelous light. And the reason we don't do that is because we play at religion.

We play at being crucified with Christ. We're not serious. We're not really willing to be dead. To be dead. Oh God, could you help me this man? Oh my Father, out of your heart of mercy, out of your great heart of mercy.

I might drop dead right here in the pulpit. I don't know. You might drop dead right there. We've had that happen immediately. One moment Sunday morning when we sang our last song, he died just like that.

You might die just like that and you won't take any of your fleshly joys and places and prosperity with you. But oh, to be rid of it now, Jesus. Oh, this call of the King. Oh, this invitation of the Father.

The Bride Prepared for Christ

It is so unspeakable. I'm not surprised that God sends strong delusions. I'm not surprised that God allows the devil himself to be transformed into an angel of light and his ministers into ministers of righteousness.

Jesus Christ is not going to have a hypocrite for a bride. He's going to have one that'll be like him. He's going to have a band of people that'll follow the Lamb withers whoever he goes. Glory to God.

They're going to know him. The power of his resurrection is going to be their life. The fellowship of his suffering is their glory. Glory to God. They will not be under the control of earthly things. Why we don't even come out of our jumps, out of our sensitiveness, out of our peculiarities, out of our bondages.

We don't even find it out. The people that started out in the spirit here, they're not here anymore because they got sore at the priesthood. They got sour inside of them. Instead of bowing to God's call, blessed are they that are called unto the merry supper of the Lamb.

Beloved, I'm exuberantly happy this morning to think that God still deals with us in his mercy. Oh, I'm so thankful because I've known God to say of certain people, don't talk to them anymore. They won't take it.

Just don't bother them anymore. And they went on prophesying and speaking in tongues and dancing in the spirit and all that sort of stuff, and God left them alone. He's going to his idols. But I tell you, if Jesus Christ finds one soul that wants him, he will bless them, letting them partake of the spirit cup, his death.

Oh, that I might know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering. Jesus. How is it that today, 2 ,000 years after those words were written, they're still so potent. They're still so conviction, so powerful.

Oh, glory to Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. Our conversation is in heaven with him. Oh, glory to God. You don't have to die physically to get to heaven. Our conversation is in heaven. From thence also, we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change this vile body, that it may be fashioned right unto his glorified body according to the working whereby he is able.

Beloved, he is able. You and I are not able, but oh, he has come. I come to receive you unto myself. I like that. You can have all the heavens, the first, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, and seventh.

I want to be where Jesus is, and if it happens, to be in Brooklyn.