The Eye Is Faith, and the Light Is His Presence — Hans R. Waldvogel

The Darkness of the Heart and the Need to Hear Jesus

Here is something that is in my soul, the word of Jesus, when he says, How great is that darkness! Did you ever see darkness? Now tell me, did you ever see darkness? One time I went through Carl's Bad Cavern, and that's a very deep cavern, and it's many, many miles long.

And one time the guy said, Now I'm going to let you see total darkness. He says, You never saw total darkness, but today you're going to have a treat. You're going to know what total darkness is like.

I'm going to turn off the light for just a few seconds. So he turned off the light, and it was a total darkness. There was a female moron that had her cigarette lit. But I've seen total darkness in the tunnels in Switzerland, total darkness when there isn't a spark of light.

And Jesus says, How great is that darkness! And he's talking about our hearts. We've heard much about our hearts. How little attention we pay to the words of Jesus Christ. He says, It's either that your body is full of light, or great is that darkness.

And it all depends upon one thing. It all depends upon diligently hearkening to the voice of the Lord. You know our government is building these guided missiles, and they're wonderful instruments. In their head they have a mechanical brain, or an electrical brain that's guided by radar.

And unerringly it finds its target, thousands of miles away perhaps, and way up in the stratosphere. And that guided missile starts out with a terrific roar, and as it goes up that eye, it has an electric eye that takes over.

And that eye has to be perfectly gauged. And if it is, it's guided by radar, and it unerringly finds its target. Now Jesus Christ says that you and I have an eye. If we're children of God, our eyes have been opened to see.

Something that the whole world doesn't see, is not possible for them to see. That's why great is the darkness in the world. The God of this world has blinded the mind of them that believe not. Oh, that's the eye.

Faith Looks to Jesus and His Finished Work

Somebody said, how do you look at Jesus? Well, if you don't know, you'll never find out. Faith of God. God gives me his word. God Almighty gave me his promise this morning. We heard the promises of God exalted.

The finished work of Christ on Calvary. An unbeliever made the statement some time ago. He thinks that all Christians are fools. He says, now Jesus Christ either rose from the dead or he didn't. Isn't that true?

Either he paid the price or he didn't. Somebody said to me when somebody dies, You Christians believe they went to heaven. Why do you howl? Well, if you don't howl, people will say what they said about me.

They said, he has no harm. Somebody died and I didn't howl. I still kept the joy of the Lord. Beloved, that joy of the Lord is worth more to me than all the vials and all the tabards and all the sympathy that the world can bestow upon me.

The joy of the Lord is my strength, praise God. And the world has a right to point at us and say, where is now your God? Where is your God? Get one of these missiles. This gadget in his head and it'll miss the target by maybe a thousand miles.

The man took a picture. He had his camera trained on a scene and he thought he was going to get a thousand dollars for that picture. And when he developed the plate, there was nothing on it. He had forgotten to open the shutter.

Well, what's the difference? Forgot to open the shutter. The camera was intact. The plate was there, it was very sensitive. And his developer and everything was all right. But that thousandth of a second was missing.

And he lost his thousand dollars. He lost his picture. And Jesus Christ says, if your eye is evil, you'll be full of darkness. And how great is that darkness? Maybe that's what accounts for the darkness in my soul.

Oh, the devil has filled the world with darkness. Like one time not very long ago, all of London was filled with darkness. A black fog had settled upon the city and you couldn't see a thing. People couldn't find their way anymore.

Cars had to stop in the middle of the street. And yet right in the middle of the city of London, there was light. The sun was shining. How did that happen? Well, it was in a church. And the church had a high steeple and on top of the steeple an opening.

And that steeple looked right through the clouds. And the sun shone right down through that steeple into the church. And so people who gathered there were in the sunlight. And Jesus Christ says, if your eye is single, he gives you a tower.

And he gives you an eye. And he complains about the church. You're blind. You think you're rich and increased with goods. But you're blind. You're full of darkness. And you might be full of light. Full of light.

Praise God. Your whole body full of light. What is that light? Why, it's the presence of God. In thy presence is fullness of joy. I have said to the Lord, I shall not be moved. Go through this life without having your eye trained on Jesus Christ.

Keeping the Eyes on Jesus in Spiritual Battle

And keeping it trained on Jesus Christ. When he commands us to pray without teething, He puts that electric train in your top story. Use the expression. Now you wouldn't understand what I mean. I mean when God commands you to pray without teething, He commands you not to consider the devil nor his works.

But to consider Jesus Christ. He doesn't even tell you to consider your faith. You know lots of people are defeated because they consider their faith. They advertise their faith until it's all blown away.

He says consider Jesus the offerer and finisher of your faith. He'll take care of your faith. Oh, when your eyes upon Jesus Christ. And what a great and marvelous privilege you and I have above all the people in all the world.

Pentecostal people have something that nobody has. They've got an eye that's open. This is the Son of God. They see something that puts faith into their heart. That's where faith comes from. It doesn't come from your feelings.

You're licked if you look at your feelings. But looking unto Jesus our finisher of our faith is the proper method of fighting this fight and winning the crown. And beloved, it's the word of the Son of God.

Else we might put it aside as unimportant. But Jesus Christ says if you don't keep your eye gently upon Jesus you'll be full of darkness. And how great is that darkness. I was telling about that fat man who got caught by the Indians.

He had been fighting with an Indian tribe. And another tribe came along and caught him. And because he was fat they got him ready for the pot. They were going to cook him or roast him or broil him or something.

And he didn't like it to be in darkness because he was surrounded by Indians, bloodthirsty Indians. He didn't know that American Indians were cannibals. Well, they were. He got acquainted with history.

They went back. And he had a reason to be full of darkness. He really did, like you. When you get your thermometer and get your doctor book and get everything, you can certainly be full of darkness. And when you look at yourself and your own weakness and your own nothingness and your own inability and your own weakness and your own sin, you have a right to say, my Lord, wretched man that I am.

And so was he. They were having a good time with him. They were carrying on their war dances with their tomahawks. They were jumping around him, you know. They thought, well, we're going to eat him, but we might as well have a feast before and work up an appetite.

So they danced around him. And his heart sank. And the perspiration stood out on his brow. And he was thinking of his wife and children and of home. I think he came from Germany, if I'm not mistaken. But anyway, now he was in America in the jungles and Indians dancing around him.

And one of them came up to him with a knife, threatened him. Well, he almost died from fright. And the more scared he was, the more these Indians rejoiced. You know that that's what the devil's looking for.

You know that you make the devil happy when you howl and you growl and you grumble and you murmur. The Bible says do all things without murmuring and disputing that you may be blameless and harmless sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.

And when I keep my eyes on the captain, my heart is filled with faith, praise God, because then I see not only a champion, not only a victor, but my victor. Victory is of the Lord. He sent my salvation.

Whom shall I fear? Well, hallelujah, I didn't know you were so far away. Silly great man. He had reason to be frightened. He really did. And all at once he cheered up and all at once he faced it up and he wiped his brow.

Ha ha ha. He began to laugh. And the Indians couldn't understand. And one of them went up to him with his knife and threatened to scalp him. And what did he do? He took off his wick and handed it to him laughingly.

And now these Indians got frightened. They were so scared. They'd never seen anybody scalp himself. And as easily as that happened, he had looked up and up in one of the trees in the foliage he saw a red feather.

That was all. Just one red feather. But he knew that red feather was a signal and he knew that the trees were full of his friends. They had come very silently to rescue him and they all crawled up into the trees and he knew they all had their arrows strained on his ends.

He knew that. That red feather told him. That whole red feather took all the fear out of his heart. What is it that takes the fear out of your heart? The fever descended from 185 to 135 overnight, one brother told me.

Well, that's a good sign, isn't it? Sure. Feels much better. That red feather did it, beloved. And in a few seconds all his enemies were smitten. Most of them were dead by poison arrows. And he was free.

The Lord Is Light and Salvation

But that red feather, that sight of the red feather, and Jesus Christ says, if your eye is single, your whole body will be filled with light. Because here's the light of the world. The Lord is my light and my salvation.

Whom shall I fear? And someone has expressed it like this. One look at Jesus Christ cast all my enemies into the pit. True that is. And sometimes the battle gets so hot, the Lord has said, that you get your eyes off your cap.

Does that ever happen to you? And that's defeat. That's defeat. That's what the devil is looking for. And you and I have no business looking at the works of the devil. When the battle gets real hot, that's the time to keep your eye on the captain and not look at the enemy.

That's victory. Every time. God tells us so. Why don't we obey the Lord? Why? Because darkness has filled our hearts. And you know that darkness is not a darkness you can shoo away. It's like the darkness in Egypt.

It's the presence of the devil and his lies. And the light is the presence of Jesus Christ and his truth. Oh to see Jesus. Oh to get my eyes on Christ like Paul when all hope that we should be saved was taken away.

The very sturdy fishermen. They said, well this is the end. Nothing can be done anymore. And they gave up. They knew that 14 days they had been tossed to and fro. And they had cast all their wheat out of the ship.

And poor prisoner Paul and James, that last day, loosed his chain. And he came smiling. That's a fine time to smile. You ought to know how serious the situation is. What's the matter with you? What's the matter with you?

That would have done a lot of good. Well he knew how serious the situation was. But he knew how great his God was. And God had spoken to him. Did God ever talk to you? Did God ever give you his word? Oh beloved, it's the word of the conquering hero.

Faith Triumphs When Hope Is Gone

It's the word that shall never pass away. Heaven and earth may pass away. Hydrogen bombs and not. But my word shall not pass away. How do I dare take my eyes away from Jesus Christ? And yet you know that most Christians don't live like that.

I told before how the Lord told me one time, how many people there were in the world that kept their eyes on Jesus all the time. I was shocked out of my wit. But the Lord verified that. There aren't many that care.

We don't care. We don't realize how serious the matter is. If you realize this, you will do like Paul. He got up. He said, all right folks, now let's have lunch. You haven't eaten anything for days. Now come on, let's have lunch.

Boy, the idea. Now. Now and all. That's the time to glorify the Lord. You know that faith is never more triumphant than when all hope is gone. Beloved, I tell you, God's got a lesson for us and unless we learn it, we're licked.

We're sunk. I tell you the truth. It's a question of life and death. And the difference between life and death is my hearkening diligently unto the Lord. And these folks that built these guided missiles, they know that.

Do you know that our scientists are working day and night to perfect a missile that will carry 1 ,500 miles? They know that Russians are working overtime. And they tell that there are problems to be licked.

Just think what all has to go into a missile like that. But the welfare of the whole world depends on who gets there first. That's how serious it is. The people in America don't know that the day, last night I think it was, the night before Lord Thomas made his statement, he said, Atomic history is getting more fearful all the time.

And the statement was made by one of our great statesmen that Russia and America possess enough atomic weapons now to wipe out all of humanity, the whole world. And if war breaks out, that's what's going to happen, except for those who shall escape, who are ready to meet the Lord.

Now it's a serious matter. And everything depends on those guided missiles now being properly trained. And everything depends on your eye and my eye of faith, except the man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

It was darkness like London was covered with a thick fog. But hallelujah, there's the sun shining in the house of God, in the heart, in the heart that insists on setting his mind on things above, not on things on the earth.

I don't dare consider the devil. I don't dare. Much talk has been about divine healing. That seems to be easiest to understand. But it applies to our soul's victory. It applies to our sanctification. But when the great flu came, I was in Camp Grant and one night we had 94 days.

The flu came and people just wanted to sleep. And down they lay and tomorrow they were dead. You remember how out here in Ridgewood, in the cemetery, they dug trenches. They couldn't dig graves anymore.

They just got a tractor in there and a shovel and a steam shovel and they dug trenches and put them in. That's how they died. And there wasn't a church where the caskets weren't stacked up except the Pentecostal church.

Do you know why? They refused to take it. They refused to believe it. I remember how God said, Don't go to bed. They didn't. I believe that's what saved my life. Of course, I didn't know too much about divine healing, but there was a Pentecostal brother in Camp Grant.

When I began to spit blood and told him, he said, don't do my healing. And because they had sufficient means to be a German spy, I was under suspicion and so when the doctor ordered me to bed or stay in, they made me clean the spit so there was nothing doing.

I'd rather go out on the drill field. So I went out on the drill field as sick as I was and drilled eight hours a day in the hole. God said, don't go to bed. Don't attempt it. Don't take it. Don't call it by name.

Don't say, I know what it is. You invite the devil. You say, come on in, devil. We've always expected you. I know you by your horns. God says, you're not stern to the flesh to live after the flesh. God says, he that raised Jesus from the dead dwells within you.

Shall I consider him or shall I consider the devil? Jesus said, though he were dead, yet shall he live. I am resurrection. I am life. How do I dare dishonor my God and not look at him and consider him life?

The Gospel, the Cross, and the Armor of God

A lot of these things are far more serious than isolation this morning. You think that's Brother Walpole. He's always ranting, always raving. I'd like to rave like a wild Indian this morning. I'd like to get us to see it's a matter of death and life.

Listen, we're going to be face to face with death itself. He's digging your grave already. He is forging things. And the very medical science today has forged all humanity and changed it. They can't get away anymore if they want to.

They can't. They have made law according to which you're tied down to the flesh and the world and the devil. And Jesus Christ rose from the dead triumphantly. And he said that they might have life and have it more abundantly.

And here we're subject under groveling in the dust. Never mind, I'm not blaming you. I'm in the same fight. But I'd like to keep my eyes focused on him. I'd like to see, consider Jesus Christ. I'd like to fill my mind with the thoughts of God and my heart with meditations of Jesus.

And though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I will say I fear no evil. God's got a great, but it is not going to be to the fearful nor the unbelieving. It is not. It is not. The devil does not need much of a crack to get in.

He doesn't. He's a ghost. One little question mark and opens the door to the devil. Madame Guyon found that out. The word, God Almighty revealed his word to her. And when she got to the sick, she said, don't be sick anymore, get up.

If they obey, if they just made one little question. Yes, when God's time comes, that is the answer. God's a gentleman. He'll let you have your way. He will. He has given us his word. He has given us his time.

Praise God. He's given us his gospel. And what is the gospel? It's the power of God unto deliverance. We heard about forgiveness. He says, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.

Why, that delivers us once and all. Thank God. Did you see the red feather? No. Did you see the blood? Did you see the cross? Glory to God. You see the king today. Oh, our vision is blurred. Let's see to it that it becomes clear.

It'll take something that most Christians haven't got and don't look for. It'll take some real standing up. Some real putting on the whole armor of God. And what is that armor of God? It's the girdle of truth.

The beginning of the creation of God. And there's nothing for your back. Nothing for those who run. But there's a sword, a keen, glittering sword. Two edges. Alive. More sharp than a sword you saw. Here you see.

Glory to God. And even Jesus Christ had to make use of that sword. When the devil came along with his false theology, Jesus said, it is written. It is written. How shall the scriptures be fulfilled? All things that were written in Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me have to be fulfilled.

They love it. They have to be fulfilled in me too. God's written your biography in the Bible. God says, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. Praise God. Jesus Christ said, all power is mine in heaven and in earth.

And I am with you always. And yet many times we act as if, well, just now he isn't with us. Just now. We can't use him. Just now. But never mind. As I said, I'm in the same fight. And you know that I tremble when I talk like this.

Turning the Eyes Upon Jesus in God's Presence

And if God didn't give it, I wouldn't give it either. But it's good. It's wonderful medicine. It's life. Hallelujah. And when we look back over our lives and see what God has done, how many times we've stood tremblingly in the midst of a dark valley and we've tremblingly said, I'll fear no evil.

And we didn't dare look at the enemy. Oh, you look at the enemy and his words for just a fraction of a second and the exposure is made. And the vision is blurred. That's why when you take a picture with a camera, you don't take out the film and expose it.

And you don't. You change it. And so it is with your heart. Oh, turn your eyes upon Jesus. And you know that's one of the chief purposes of these prayer meetings. Everyone that has been able to come and sit in the presence of Jesus says, Sitting at the feet of Jesus, oh, what words I can say.

And everyone gets a vision as we heard. There comes a vision to your heart that has never been there before. Jesus says he's hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babe. And beloved, it will never come any other way but by the revelation of God.

And God knows the hearts that are purposeful in him. God knows. And oh, how he desires to have hearts that he can call his own. Do you think it's terrible to be in this world and to be in this fight? It starts out as an eternal journey.

Why? Our tribulation, which is but for a moment, works. It works for us. I do thank God today for all the tribulation that's come my way because today I know what I didn't know. I know it's been appointed by God.

I know it was necessary. I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. And like David says, before I was afflicted, I want to say, But now have I kept thy law. I know that in mercy hast thou afflicted me.

For now I have respect unto thy command.