There Hath No Temptation Taken You — Hans R. Waldvogel

Temptation Is Common to Every Believer

There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful. He doesn't say that you're not going to be tempted. Why what kind of a soldier is that that runs away as soon as he smells gunpowder?

I told about a German man who was on guard duty during the French-Prussian war, and an officer found him in a saloon, he said, what are you doing here, you're supposed to be out there. He says, you go out there yourself, those French are shooting sharp.

My goodness, the fellow could have the worst accident at the front. Well, so of course, being a Schwab, he chose what one of our boys did, he said he used to think that the best way to overcome temptation is to yield to it.

The Christian’s Call to Be More Than Conquerors

But oh what a very wonderful call God has to all of us to be more than conquerors. Every one of us is going to be a conqueror, or we're going to be conquered, one or the other. Every one of us is in the fight.

And if you fight the fight lawfully, the Bible says, you're going to wear a crown. Oh, when you read those seven marvelous epistles that come right down from heaven, right down from headquarters, right from the King of glory, this dazzling King of whom we read, the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God dwelling in the light that no man can approach unto, whom no man has seen nor can see.

Tell me, is he your King? Have you heard his voice? Have you taken an oath of allegiance to him? Why yes, don't you know that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

That alone makes life on earth interesting. Everything else fades away. Everything the world enjoys, and they do enjoy it for a little while, wears out in time. But oh, here's an interesting call. What a marvelous call.

When they tried to make a soldier out of me in 1918, we were out in a drill field and one of the officers said, now boys, try to get to France as soon as possible. That's where the fun is. I wondered why he didn't go to France.

It was comparatively easy, you know, to march up and down here in parade and to have the buck private salute. Oh, how proud they were and woe unto the buck private that didn't salute the second lute. If it was a captain, it wasn't so bad.

But boy, these second lieutenants, they thought they were Caesar, Augustus or something. But anyway, I wonder why he didn't go. He advised us to get over to France as soon as possible. He said, that's where the fun is.

And we had a boy in one of our churches who during the Second World War, couldn't wait to get at those Nazis. Oh, he said, give me a bayonet, give me a gun. And so finally he was drafted and he was sent across.

And as soon as he got pretty close to the front, he sent telegram after telegram, please pray that I be discharged, please let me come home. Ah, but beloved, the Bible is full of admonition and that very word that I quoted a while ago, of course, you know where it is found.

God’s Faithfulness in the Battle Against Temptation

God will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able that have no temptation taken you. Don't complain. But such as is common to man, you think that your temptation is worse than everybody else's.

But God says it ain't. Not only that, but he says he is faithful and he will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able. He knows how much you can bear. And sometime when we get to heaven, we'll feel like four pikers if we didn't overcome.

If we didn't stand our ground, thank God, he has not called us to defeat, but to victory. And in those seven epistles, the promises are to the overcomers and what marvelous promises. And beloved, they're meant for you.

That's the wonderful thing. In the very first epistle to Ephesians, a nice church filled with the gifts and powers of the Holy Ghost, but they had grown careless. Oh, the prosperity of fools shall slay them.

You know, the best Christians come out of times of persecution. And here was a church that didn't have any persecutions anymore, but they had signs and wonders performed among them. And Jesus Christ admits that they're wonderfully blessed and wonderfully kept by.

You've left your first love. Oh, you cut yourself off from the very fountain of life. My people have committed a twofold evil. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water. Beloved, Yabba raigal velebo yol vosele garabal Adya.

Christ Living His Life Within the Believer

My Christian life consists in having Jesus Christ himself live out his own life within me. And there is no substitute for it. You can boast of signs and wonders and gifts and visions and all that sort of stuff.

There's absolutely no substitute for putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. And that's what he means when he says he will make a way of escape. That's the wonderful thing for every temptation and every trial.

God watches over you. God Almighty has called us to victory. But it says you have left the fountain of living water. Your first love. Many people have never known that first love. What is it? Why he tells us, As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

Abide in my love. And if you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love. And what is this commandment? That you love one another as I have loved you. Oh, what a wonderful life that creates when the very love that flows from the heart of the Father into the heart of the Son flows into my heart.

That's the way of escape. Do you have a difficult time to love your neighbor as yourself? My, what a time people have. But beloved, that's his command. And more than that, Hallelujah, it's his provision.

The love of God is shed abroad in our heart through the Holy Ghost. And when you don't forsake the fountain of living water, you have that way of escape. Jesus Christ sends forth his seven spirits out of the very sanctuary of heaven for you and for me.

What a way of escape. What a way of victory. I cannot play chess. I learned it as I was a boy and I was all, I was interested in it. But today, I don't have the brains and I don't have the time for it.

The Chessboard Illustration of Christ’s Victory

A little while ago that came into my hand through some paper that was published in some advertisement. A chess problem and I looked at it. And I, it intrigued me. It just intrigued me so that I said, I must solve that.

And as I tried to solve it, I found out it was impossible to solve it. I said, that's a put-up job. Whoever invented that chess problem went out to fool people to make them work at it and to work at something that's impossible to solve.

So I kept looking at it. Here, black was to be conquered in two moves by white. And here were the king and the queen and the rooks and the bishops and the knights all bunched together. And there were just a few white pieces.

Now, how in the world? I said, well, it's out of the question. And so I was just about going to give up when I said, Jesus. I found out that he's a good chess player. Immediately, he showed me just one little move and black was defeated with king and queen and bishop and rooks and knights and pawns and everything was just licked.

Jesus knew the solution and whatever your temptation is, maybe the king of hell and maybe the queen of Brooklyn and maybe the bishops of the Roman Catholic church and maybe the rooks of some other Kazumas.

And maybe the pawns and everybody bunches together against you. Listen, child of God, the question is, do you want to overcome? Oh, do you love Jesus Christ more than yourself? Has his love conquered your heart?

Have you discovered that in you dwells no good thing and there's no power there to fight the good fight of faith and to overcome? And then Jesus Christ says, my God shall supply every need of yours. God is wonderful and he says, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh.

The day is at hand. The night is far spent. Jesus is coming. Praise God. And he promises to the overcomer to give him to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Beloved, all of us are going to stand before this great king pretty soon.

The Resurrection Hope and the Believer’s Future

I tell you, it will be soon and it'll be much sooner than many people desire it. Ah, but to stand before that king and to receive the things done in my body, this body that has been purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ to be his body, to be his temple, to be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and feed for the master's youth and prepared unto every good work.

And Jesus Christ has purchased this body to be his possession throughout the ages of eternity. One of these days, this body will be sown like a grain of wheat and it will rise in glory and in power and hallelujah, immaculately and immortal.

Mortality shall be swallowed up of life. Is that your hope? Is that what you're fighting for? Tell me, tell me, are you living for that living hope to which he has begotten you again? Oh my God, let this world beat it.

Goodbye old world, I'm through with you. There was a time when I said goodbye old girl, I'm through with you. Goodbye everybody, I'm through with you. God will allow you to be tempted, thank God. He's not going to have heaven full of hypocrites, heaven full of cowards and deserters, no sir.

He'll allow you to be tempted. He'll allow Satan to come your way. He says he'll send strong delusions that they all might be damned who love not the truth. Ah but Jesus says whoever loves the truth will come to me.

The Promises to Those Who Overcome

What a call, what a call beloved. Oh what a call comes down from heaven to me to fight the good fight of faith. And all through these seven epistles we have that same marvelous arrangement. He that overcometh.

And what happens to those that don't overcome? I'll spew them out of my mouth. I will take their name out of the book of life. I will kill her children with death and so on. But he that overcometh, what promises, what provision.

Listen you're either an overcomer or you're not and if you're not an overcomer you're not taking Jesus Christ. Jesus is that way of escape. And no matter how many men black amasses, Jesus Christ has got him licked to begin with.

If you take Jesus, hallelujah, there is a way of escape. But I must be in earnest about it. And that's why he tells us make not provision for the flesh but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. And isn't that where we are liable to fail?

We're liable to run when the enemy comes along instead of standing your ground. He says by faith ye stand. How wonderful that Jesus Christ has come to live out his own life within me. To fight the battle for me, to overcome for me.

Hallelujah, overcoming is inevitable. And he says my strength is made perfect in weakness. I'm talking to young people, to these boys and these girls. I've gone through the same stage of evolution that you're in now.

I know what it's like. I know what it's like to be in a school full of boys and girls that are full of rot. I know what it is to go through a shop where men are so foul. We had a man, an Englishman, he was a diamond setter and as a boy, as an apprentice, I had to chase for him.

Now when a diamond setter sets a diamond, he needs a boy to hammer that tool of his, to hammer that diamond in so it doesn't fall out. And while I was hammering that thing, he would try to tell me smutty stories.

Christ’s Power to Sustain the Tempted

I've gone through all that business and found out that Jesus Christ is abundantly able, abundantly victorious. God will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but the very temptation will make you find the way of escape.

It'll drive you to Jesus Christ, who himself, in the days of his flesh, offered a prayer with crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death. And he was heard. Listen, though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.

That's where he met the devil and that's where he overcame Satan. And all his hosts, praise God, that's why he is able to succor them that are tempted. And you must put it in your notebook, there is no sin to be tempted.

You cannot overcome temptation until you meet it. It will meet you, but when it meets you, here is Christ waiting to succor you, to make you more than conqueror. And I have the choice. I've got that choice to make, thank God.

And I've made it. And all through life, I found out that you don't overcome in your own strength. It's impossible. But he, they that wait upon the Lord, we've quoted it a thousand times and we all ought to have memorized it.

Even the youth shall faint and be weary and young men shall utterly fall. Oh, how many young men started out with me in this fight and they have utterly fallen, most of them. Most of them, they did not go the way that God led us all and directed us all.

Jesus Christ as the Only Way of Victory

Beloved, there's only one way. And that way is Jesus Christ, hallelujah. And almighty God spared not his own son. Think of what God almighty, your heavenly father did in order to make you go through. He spared not his own son.

We know that his own son died on the cross and paid the penalty for our sins. He did that. We know that he was made sin for us who knew no sin. But we ought to know today that he rose from the dead and he lives within us.

And we were raised together with him to walk in newness of life, thank God. And when I'm face to face with my temptation and with the enemy, Jesus Christ is much closer to me than the enemy. He's within me.

And he that is within you is mightier than he that is in the world. And to find that out day by day makes for a happy walk with God. If we walk in the light as he is in the light. But listen, child of God, it's an individual choice.

If you measure yourself by others, you're going to lose out. Because you'll find lots of people, they'll talk about it, but they won't pay the price. We used to have a group of ministers come to Seneca Avenue.

They came out of the denomination and they said, when we need a blessing, we come here and we always get a blessing. And God was after them. One of them was a man of world renown. He had a big name and he had a big job.

And every time he came, I believe, God dealt with him about praying, living a life at the feet of Jesus. I remember how he got up one night and he said, now folks, I know that was God. I know that God was after me.

I know that that's what I need. We sing, I need thee. Oh, I need thee. But the Chinese sing, I want you. Oh, I want you. And when you want him, you can have him. And this poor man died in middle age. And the night when he was going to die, he was talking to one of his fellow brethren.

God’s Protection and the Renewing of the Mind

And he said, you know, we've made an awful mistake. We've run ahead of the Lord. Thousand shall fall at thy side, 10 ,000 at thy right hand. But it shall not come nigh thee. Oh, this way of escape is Jesus.

Jesus, Jesus in the morning, at noon and at night. Hallelujah. Glory to God and wonder of wonders. He is abundantly able for everything. Listen, is your Jesus able to keep you spiritual? Is your Savior able to subdue all things unto himself?

Is he able to transform you by the renewing of your mind? So that your mind is held by his power. Whatsoever things are true. Let me take one of these computers now and see what's crawling around up there.

Whatsoever things are true. Whatsoever things are honest. Whatsoever things are just. Whatsoever things are pure. Oh, whatsoever things are lovely. Whatsoever things are of good report. If there be any virtue, if there be any praise.

All right now, that's going too far, isn't it?