God Is Able — Hans R. Waldvogel

God's Ability to Fulfill His Promises

It's a pitch that we ought to know. We ought to join in singing it. It's like this. He is able. God is able. Now if I ask you to quote some scriptures that tell us what God is able to do, we might get some very interesting additions to this symphony.

Let's see who can quote one text. Yeah, that's excellent. Now unto him that is able, unto him. Now I'd like to know who that is. I really like to get acquainted with him and I'd like to learn how to pray to him and to think the right thoughts about him.

But there's another scripture I'm thinking of. Let's see if you can quote it. Right. I'd like to know him too. He is able according to the working whereby he is able. We talk about the presence of the Lord and I'm afraid we get used to it.

And we do get used to it unless we really allow God to do what he promises to do. He is able by the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself. There's another scripture that talks about the ability of God.

God's Power to Keep and Present His People

Oh boy, isn't that something. You think he means you and everybody in this meeting? Think of it. We're all going to be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ. All of us are going to receive the things done in our bodies and to think there's someone here in this meeting who is able to keep all of us from stumbling, from falling and to present us spotless before the presence of his glory.

Not in our own explanation with exceeding joy. I'd like to know him. I really would like to get acquainted with him, wouldn't you? And then there's something else about his ability. Yes. Let's see where is that in the Bible?

Able to make all grace abound toward you so that always having all sufficiency ye may have to give to him that needeth. All right, Deacon, pass the hat. God is able. How very wonderful. But that's the pitch.

And listen to me for three minutes. I'll get started on it. That's the secret of the faith life. God is able. What is he able? What are you able to do? Why he is able to fulfill all his promises? And that is the secret of the faith life.

Abraham's Faith in God's Promises

Abraham in the Old Testament days was fully persuaded. We quoted that the other night, that what God had promised, he was able also to perform and he believed God and he was called a friend of God. And Abraham didn't have an easy time of it.

It was a fight of faith. Thank God. But God had promised. That was sufficient for him. And now I'd like to know whether God made a promise to you. And what is that promise that God made to you? That's the thing we ought to be interested in.

Abraham was so deeply interested in the fulfillment of God's promise. He was fully persuaded. No matter what Sarah said. No matter what anybody else said. No matter what conditions were like. He hoped against hope because God said it.

And God made him his friend and calls him his friend. Oh, he said, by myself have I sworn. Because Abraham believed God. Because he hoped where there was nothing to hope. And now what did God promise to me?

That's the question. The Bible says that exceeding great and precious promises are given to us. Now why did God bother to write down for you exceeding great and precious promises? Why did he make them so personal that he told you not only he was going to fulfill them, but he said come with boldness unto the throne of grace that you might obtain them for he is faithful that promise.

Now why did he promise? Why? Because he wanted to fulfill. And because he knew he could. But he needed somebody here upon this earth in this sin cursed earth who would be interested enough in these exceeding great and precious promises not to be satisfied with anything short but their fulfillment.

Knowing the God Who Calls Things Into Being

But God Almighty made promise to Abraham. Abraham was fully persuaded. Why was he fully persuaded? Well, he somehow knew God. He talks about God who raises the day and calls the things that be not as though they were.

And whether he felt it or not, undoubtedly sometimes he didn't feel like it. But he had the word of God and he knew that this God who promised him was able, abundantly able to fulfill all his promises.

And now God says he is abundantly able to fulfill all his promises to you. And he'll make you a son of Abraham if you walk in the footsteps of Abraham your father. Now we ought to be interested in these wonderful promises.

This morning we had some strangers here and when they left the church, a young man looked up at the church and said, my it's a beautiful place. I said, yes, the Lord gave it to us. He did. We didn't go out to try to get it but God just gave it to us.

And when the time came that we had to pay the mortgage, I said to the brethren now we're going to pay that mortgage on our 25th anniversary. And they made googly eyes at me. That was next year. They said, well, we better have a campaign.

We better send out mimeographed letters and tell people that we got to have money, money, money, money. I said, nothing doing. This is God's house and if he wants this house, he'll pay for it. They didn't believe me.

But somehow I had known God well enough to know what he's going to do or how he was going to do it. Didn't know, but I knew that God had given us this house. It was his house and I knew that he was able, thank God.

God's Provision for the Church

And you know what happened? Of course, all of you know how that before that 25th anniversary came around, a letter came to the Ridgewood Pentecostal Church from a law firm. And you don't like to receive letters from a law firm.

When you see this august description, Finkelstein, Finkelstein, Finkelstein, and Finkel, law firm, what do they want? I opened it with a trembling hand and I found the testament in there. Some woman who had been here about three times whom nobody knew, liked the meeting so much that when she was going to die, she wrote a will and she put thousands of dollars in that will for the Ridgewood Pentecostal Church.

Thank God. And then some. All we had to do was to collect it. It was the testament. It was God's testament. I'll never forget that night when our choir sang the hallelujah chorus. I can still see Handel turn over in his grave.

He'd never heard that song like that. And I burned the mortgage and people still made googly eyes. Beloved, Abraham was fully persuaded. What? Not that he was worthy. Oh no, no. He said, God, why do you talk to me?

I'm just dust and ashes. God says, you're my friend because you believe me. Because when everybody made a liar out of me, you said, wait a minute, that God promised. And he is able to call the things that be not as though they were.

And he's able to raise the dead. And if I sacrifice Isaac upon the altar and he dies, my God's going to raise up that boy. He was so fully persuaded because God said it. That made him a friend of God.

Abraham's Obedience and Hope Against Hope

God said it to you. And we have Sunday school pictures where Abraham with a hunchback walks up that mountain and drags Isaac along and you can see the tears fall into his white beard, nothing doing. He walked up there like a hussar.

What did he say to his fellows? He said, Bleibet ihr hier mit dem Esel? Ja, der Unglaube ist ein Esel. Bleib da. Ich und der Junge werden hingehen und anbeten und wiederkommen. Das war in seinem Herzen felsenfest eingegraben.

Wir kommen wieder. Christ in heaven. Children of God, that's what we're here for upon this earth, not to do anything but to let God do it. And God tells us what he's going to do, thank God. And throughout the history of the world, you'll find that those who've really made a dent into the kingdom of darkness were people that dared believe God and hope against hope because God said it.

There's no use believing something that God didn't promise. But where God made promise, he put himself on record. That's my design. That's my blueprint. That's what I'm going to do if that vessel believes me.

Fighting Unbelief and Religious Dogma

And then all hell rises up. The devil has a remarkable arsenal of unbelief. He comes around. It's the strangest thing. Strangest thing. He doesn't come around with communistic things or pornography. I hope you're through with that business.

But he comes around with theological dogmas. Wonderful things that theologians print and tell you and teach you. Wonderful things. I've been reading a book. It's really wonderful, marvelously interesting.

It's thrilling to read what people have to say about God. And when you're through with it, you'll say, oh, the poor people are in darkness. Beloved God made promise to Abraham. And if you had a God like Abraham, I always say, if that God that wrote the New Testament was able to raise the dead and call the things that be not as though they were, would you get interested in studying the New Testament?

Would you say, now, if these promises are for me, I'm going to claim them. If you realize that God Almighty gave Jesus Christ to die for your sin, so that sin shall not have dominion over you, would you go on sinning?

Would you go on serving the devil? Would you go on making a fool of yourself? Or would you confess your sin and be delivered from all unrighteousness and all the chains that bind you? It costs something.

Seeking the Baptism of the Holy Ghost

It's a fight of faith. When God got hold of me, and it was my brother, of whom we heard tonight, who showed me the way into Pentecost. And when I saw the light that God had promised to baptize him of the Holy Ghost, it was so stupendously wonderful to my soul.

I got frightened. I thought, I wonder if it hurts. I was a kid, but I would pray. Most of my praying I had to do after midnight. And I remember how I'd kneel in that cold room, waiting on the Lord every night after working hours, at least an hour or two, waiting upon the Lord.

And I knew he had promised to baptize me with the Holy Ghost. And you know, sometimes it was very, very hard to pray. Very difficult. Get up an hour ahead of time in the morning to have at least an hour alone with God before going to work, and then getting bawled out by my mother for not having gone to sleep the night before.

She thought I was going to die. It was hard work, but I had the promise of God. Thank God. And I was not going to go to heaven without the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And I had no help. No help. As soon as our dickens found out that I was seeking the baptism, they came around with their mouth smelling like a tobacco factory.

Says, you better be careful. You're getting into fanaticism. That's the only time they cared about my soul. But oh, Jesus cared. Jesus cared. Jesus cared. Thank God. And it was so good and so healthy for me to pray through, to defy all hell and all feelings of tiredness.

And when I didn't feel like it, sometimes I didn't feel like praying at all. But I stuck to my prayer because God had promised. And what would my loss be if I hadn't stuck to it? God promised. God told me what he wanted to do.

God said what he wanted to do, not because I was worthy, but he said, you don't amount to anything until you're filled with the Holy Ghost. I need you. I must have you. And thank God. God was able. God was not only able.

Praise the Lord. I think in the millennium, I'm going to write a book. I don't have any gift now nor any time to write books, but when that millennium comes around, where everybody minds their own business, I'm going to write a book.

Moral Courage and the Faith of David

Praise the Lord. Oh, the wonder of experiencing God upon this earth. And God tells us how to experience him. God makes it. I know why God made it difficult. I tell you, he's not going to have heaven full of spineless creatures, men and women that have no backbone, no moral backbone, that won't stand up against the enemy.

It's never been like that. Look at when all Israel was scared of Goliath. What a giant, how he opened his mouth. And they crawl into the rat holes and you'd hear that gurgle, gurgle. Oh, on your mouth the coming of the Empire State Building.

Yeah. They were scared stiff. But David knew his God. What he says, this uncircumcised Philistine, he spat on his hands. Where is he? Where is he? Oh, faith. He didn't go in his own name. He says, you come to me with spear and sword.

I come to you in the name of Jehovah. Oh, beloved, that's the way of faith. My God has promised. And what he has promised, he is able, not only able, but he is willing to perform. That's why he tells me what he's going to do and what he wants to do.

Believing Without Seeing and Living by Faith

And he does it. When I believe him and to believe him means that I open my heart. Why do I have to believe? Because I can't see him. When they saw him, he says, this is, this is not final. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.

I'll come again and then I'll be in you and you will be in me. Oh, wonder of wonders. Let's learn our lesson. Let's learn the lesson of the faith life. You can learn it today. This night you can learn another lesson.

God has promised and he is able. He is a, I love him. I like him. Somebody said tonight, who is this God that we believe in? Is this God that we're praying to? Who is this God that says he forgive us all that iniquities and heal us all thy diseases?

Who is he? Why is my father? I want to take you by the hand and lead you step by step and from glory to glory and from victory to victory. And don't you be small and don't you be weak. You're surrounded by a cloud of witnesses.

Learn from them how to stand by faith and how to fight by faith and how to win the victory by faith.