We Glory in Tribulation Also — Hans R. Waldvogel

Justification by Faith and Hope of Glory

Now let's see how many are familiar with that scripture, we glory in tribulations. Well if you don't, I'll tell you where it is and maybe I will read it to you. It is here, therefore, being justified by faith, it's Romans 5, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Now suppose we all rejoice in hope of the glory of God. You can hear that in the songs, when I get to heaven gonna put on shoes, gonna run around in glory and get all the news. If you never had any shoes, you might have shoes there, praise the Lord.

I saw, I heard a choir, the Hall Johnson choir, colored choir, all ladies and it was during the time when the skirts were short, they cut them off three times and they were still too short, above their knees.

And they were singing, when you get to heaven, what are you gonna wear? Long white robe. I thought, well you better wear it now. We glory in hope, praise the Lord, oh what glory shall be revealed in us.

And you know the Bible has much to say about hope and not being moved away from the hope of the gospel. It was that hope that made Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to be friends of Almighty God, because they forsook the world and they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims upon the earth.

They saw a city, they sought a city that has foundations and they labored for it. Praise God, and oh how God appreciated Abraham when the king of Sodom came and offered him all his riches and Abraham lifted his hand to Almighty God and he swore, he said, I wouldn't take a shoestring from this dirty man.

Oh listen, do you glory in hope, do you glory in that hope and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel. In another place it tells us that every man that have this hope in him. And you know, nobody has that hope except people that are filled with the Holy Ghost.

The natural man does not have that hope. He lives for this world. You can't blame them, that's all they have. You can't blame a hog for going into the trough and saying, oink, oink, oink. That's all he's got.

He feeds on the husks that the swine eat and I don't envy them for it. With their little curly tails. I used to see them on the farm and there was the runt, you know, trying to stick his snout in between the fat hogs and he couldn't get in.

He tried here and then he tried there and then he tried there and his little tail was going like this. That's all they have. And when the beetles come around, oink, oink, oink. Don't blame them. That's all they have and that's all they seek.

The Holy Ghost and Life in Christ

These lusts of the flesh have to be satisfied somehow because the fire of the Holy Ghost has not been able to purify the vessel. This body has been filled with sin and it's already dead. God says they've gone aside after Satan.

They're already dead while they live. But how wonderful when we glory in the hope that we shall be like him. The Holy Ghost has done that. The spirit of truth which the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him.

He dwelleth with you and he is within you. And here God is talking about those that have been justified by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and now they have peace with God. And hallelujah. That's what we've been doing tonight in this meeting.

You know this meeting is a masterpiece of Jehovah. It's a masterpiece of God and it would be good for us to wake up and to realize what God is doing for us day by day how he comes and he moves upon us.

I'm afraid that some of us are becoming hardened through the deceitfulness of sin because if you don't meet God, if you don't receive what he gives you, day by day you die spiritually. The spirit of God must strengthen this inner man.

He must. And every man that had this hope in him. I remember the time God put that hope into my soul. Up to that time I was a very ambitious young fellow. I was learning my business. I wanted to make the very best possible career in this life.

But when this hope got hold of me, I was a boy like these boys here. But you know, the world lost its charm. I saw the hollowness of it. I walked, I lived with other boys. I worked with them. I saw not only the hollowness of it, but I saw the sinfulness of it.

God somehow gave me a hatred for sin and a love for righteousness. Oh God can do that and God must do that. And here it says, having therefore been justified by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have peace with God.

And then that hope got hold of me. Oh, it was different then. Then I began to think of Jesus and live for Jesus Christ and seek him with all my heart and pray and study the Bible. And you know, this book became like a new book to me.

It had a meaning. Every word was for me. Every word was a word of my father. Beloved, we ought to search our own hearts and see where we are at. Here is a good, wonderful book. You can take this book and find out whether you're healthy or not.

Searching Scripture for Spiritual Health

I dealt with a Baptist preacher for a while about the baptism of the Holy Ghost and he was against it, against praise. He said, you don't have to be so noisy. You don't have to shout so loud. He was against divine healing, but he got sick.

And when he got sick, he said to me, you know, I got a doctor book. I looked in my doctor book, he said, and I didn't know how sick I was until I saw the description of my sickness as the goggle of the mogul with serious complications in the tubular pontifex of the lower stratum.

And when you read these Latin, he said, now I know how sick I am. Why didn't you read this book and find out how sick he was out of this wonderful Bible? I found it out, thank God. And I found out how to get well, how to be cured, how to be healed, thank God, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

And that hope gripped me and it gave me an aim in my life, which is still my aim, thank God. And that hope make us not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.

I think it's right in this chapter. Oh, yes, to whom we have access by faith into this grace, wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God, and not only so, but we glory in tribulations also.

Tribulation Produces Patience, Experience, and Hope

Now, there it is. Do you glory in tribulations? If you know God, you will. If you know God's way, you will. You'll find out that without tribulation, you'll never make the grade. He tells us why we glory in tribulation, because we know that tribulation works something.

First of all, patience and then experience and then hope. And that hope make us not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. And so here we have this wonderful description of tribulation.

We glory in tribulation also. And you know, because it is tribulation that gives faith a chance to prove itself and gives Jesus Christ a chance to submit for your flesh his spirit, to dispossess your flesh and to give you his spirit.

The Bible says here that it works experience. That's where we experience Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. Look into the world, what men will suffer. We talk about Thomas Edison. That man was called crazy by his fellow workers.

They used to go like this when he came around to the office because he would sit day and night over his inventions. Even as a boy, they tell me that when he was four years old, he got it into his head to hatch some eggs.

He sat on them. And of course, he didn't hatch them, but he was so mad when his mother called him to supper, he says, she didn't give me a chance. But he didn't give up. He invented that phonograph and then he discovered how to create electric light.

And today the whole world is blessed because that man stuck to it when everybody called him crazy. He had somehow a name in his life and he went after it with all his heart. And that's what God Almighty does when he gives you that wonderful hope.

Persevering in Faith and the Prize of Christ

We shall be like him. We studied Hebrews 3 the other day where he talks about if ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel. And we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.

We are not of them that draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. And when God had saved me like that and given me this hope, I discovered that I had an enemy. The devil was after me like a roaring lion and I stood alone in those days, but I had to pray because, oh, how many times I had weeped in my trial in that dark, dark valley.

But that's the place where Jesus Christ came to me and revealed himself to me. And that's where he'll reveal himself to you. And don't think that you're going to go to heaven on flowery beds of ease. That is not God's way, has never been God's way.

He says all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose. And there it is. They're called and they're chosen and they're faithful. And I would like to inspire the young people in this place to put on the whole armor of God and to make sure that they keep this goal before them, that they keep before them the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

The world will not help you. They'll drag you down. The devil won't help you. He'll defeat you. Your own flesh won't help you. It'll defeat you. And backslidden, pentecostal people won't help you either.

They'll lie to you. They'll defeat you. They'll drag you away from the prayer closet and they'll say, don't take it so hard. That's what people have said here. They've come back here from their revival meetings and said, you see, you don't have to be so strict as Brother Waltho will teach us.

No, you don't have to. You can go after the devil if you want to, but you can also follow the Lamb with us wherever he goes and not love your life unto death. And you'll find out that it's in the tribulation, in the testings, in the trials where your faith is tested, where you say, I would be true for there are those who trust me.

I would be pure when everybody else is impure for there are those who care. I would be strong for there is much to suffer. I would be brave for there is much to bear. You'll find out neither the world nor the flesh nor the devil will give you strength to be brave or to go through.

Prayer, Spiritual Warfare, and Victory

And if you waste your time, and that's why we always have our altar services after meeting, and I'm sorry that so many have never caught the vision of the necessity of getting to God and waiting upon the Lord.

And getting strength from heaven, you won't make the grade, let me tell you. And if you don't believe me, the day will come when I don't want you to curse me as you sink into the pit. I've told you the truth.

I've warned you in the name of Jesus Christ. I know what it is to fight through. As a young Christian, I've never gotten into the world, never defiled myself, never got into sin, never I was raised in a minister's home.

And yet I found things in my nature that rebelled against the will of God that wouldn't go all the way. And God wouldn't give me any rest until I prayed those things out. And instead of just sitting in the meeting and listening to the word of God, I acted upon it.

I remember in one meeting where God came to me and three times he spoke to me. He said, are you overcoming the world and the flesh and the devil? There was something I had not overcome. And another woman came to me and she said, are you in a fight?

I said, yes. She said, I had a vision. Jesus Christ showed me that he wants me to pray for you. And then God gave a message through one of his prophets. He says, when you take up a prayer and take up a fight, fight it through.

Don't quit until you got the victory. I had it. I went out of that meeting. They didn't have an altar service. What a loss. After God spoke to all those people, no altar service. I didn't need any. I went into the woods that night.

I said, God, I'm going to stay here until I've got this victory. I must have it tonight. I'm so glad I made that covenant with God. I went into those woods and I know in heaven, in the shade of the tree of life, I'll remember those trees and that woods where I got down before God.

And I began to wrestle with the devil because all hell rose up. The devil didn't want me to get that victory. I wouldn't be here if I hadn't had it. If I hadn't fought through in that dark night in that forest, I wouldn't be here tonight.

God needed that victory in my life. God needs the victory in your life. We read here in this chapter that they that receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life. Oh, God needs a kingdom of priests here upon this earth.

Not people that talk about it and shout about it, but men and women that have within them the power of an endless life in whom Jesus Christ has risen up and defeated all the works of the flesh and broken all the chains of hell and driven out all these bondages.

Wrestling Through Trials and Receiving God's Deliverance

And I was in that forest and then the fog settled upon me. And if it ever was difficult to pray, it was hard to pray that night. I'll never forget that night. I will never forget. I told when my brother was buried how that when he and I were boys, we had to go into the woods to get kindling.

Little Edwin was with me going through the woods. He said, is this the place where he got kindling? I said, yes, this is the place. Night after night after school, we had to go to the forest and sometimes it was very hard and then it would get dark and we had this heavy load of wood and we loaded on a wagon.

My brother would be pulling the wagon and I would be pushing and then we had to go through the dark woods and I've always been blessed with a sanctified imagination. I could imagine the witches hiding under the leaves and the hobgoblins and I could see them stretching out their bony hands after me and I heard hellish voices, but I had to push and my brother would turn around.

He says, come on, push. We're almost home. And then I smelled the fried potatoes and the coffee and that gave me new courage. But here in the woods, beloved, there were real hobgoblins. Don't fool yourself.

There are real devils and there are real enemies. And some of you, they don't bother at all because you don't fight. You don't fight. You don't care to fight. You don't care to make the grave. You don't care for Jesus.

You don't care for the crown. You don't care for his word. God has never been able to plunge that sword of the spirit into your soul or plexus and make you writhe under it and cry, woe is me. I'm undone.

My God, who shall deliver me from the body of this death. But if you do, you'll find that God is there to give you the victory. And I prayed and prayed and prayed. I said, God, I'll stay here if it takes all night.

I'm glad I said that because I would have run away. But you know, it didn't take all night. It took one hour and a half and all of a sudden heaven opened. I don't know that I've ever had a more glorious and a more happy moment in my life than when heaven opened and God spoke to my soul.

You remember how he spoke to Abraham? Abraham, because thou has done this thing, but God allowed him to be tested and tried and to go through this awful trial. God will allow you to go through. God isn't fooling with you.

He didn't put you into this world to feed the undertaker or his pocketbook and to feed the worms. He put you here that he might save you, that he might redeem you with his blood and that he might work within you that which is well pleasing in his sight to the glory and praise of God.

Choosing Jesus Over the World, Flesh, and Devil

And you've got to make your choice. You've got to make up your mind whether you're going to have Jesus or the flesh, the world and the flesh and the devil are making their bid for you. But that night, my Lord and my God, my father, my God, because thou has done this thing, are you in a trial just now?

What are you going to do? Run away? We know that tribulation worketh patience. We don't like that word patience. We like to have instant victories. God doesn't always give them that way. God wants to put something inside of you that'll stay.

That's why he lets you be tested in your body sometimes. You'd like to be healed when somebody pours oil upon your head. And if Fosworth doesn't do it, you go to Wigglesworth or some other party and then you give up and then you go and get castor oil.

That's all right, too. But listen, Kaje rabbiakanai bangolo berrajo, yei la mazeraba. Men ought always to pray and not to faint. You're not a man if you don't pray like that. You're not. If you haven't got the moral fiber and the backbone to pray through when all hell howls against you.

Abraham, Faith Under Trial, and God's Provision

Oh, you could get strength to give us power to the faint and to them that have no might. He increases strength. But God watched Abraham. He allowed him to go through because God needed a friend upon whom he could depend and through whom he was able to bring that great nation into this world, that nation that finally resulted in a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, a nation that's going to be caught away to be forever with the Lord and the nation which here upon earth will reign with Christ.

And thank God not only men, but women are chosen as well. But here is the wonderful call. We glory in tribulation also. And when you get the hang of it, hallelujah, you're not going to let the devil fool you anymore.

You won't. You'll say, God who gave me the victory yesterday is going to give me a victory now. Remember when the Lord began to lead me into the life of prayer and the life of faith rather, and I had my pockets full of nothing.

Did you ever see nothing? There ain't no such a thing as nothing is there. Well, my pockets were full of it and I needed something. I looked at the bushes. I thought, now why can't the Lord make $5 bills out of those leaves?

I looked twice. I thought maybe he didn't. I felt in my pocket. I thought, well, the Lord could. Of course, I knew he was no counterfeiter, but I knew he could have filled those pockets with money, but he didn't.

He didn't. And he gave me a little lesson. He said, God, if God makes it easy for you, you'll never learn your lesson. You'll never learn to know your God. If God makes it easy and we like to find an easy way.

Missionary had told me that, they said, when we started in this life, we had a hard time, but we had God with us. Today, they said, our needs are supplied and we haven't got God with us anymore. We're defeated.

Appointed to Tribulation and Trusting the Living God

Oh, young man, young man, here's a call of God Almighty. Not to make a George Washington out of you nor a Napoleon Bonaparte, but to make a son of God out of you. To reign in life by one. Oh, that's it.

Jesus Christ. It's the call of Jesus Christ. And the Bible says that we are appointed to these trials. Paul writing to the Thessalonians said, we sent Timotheus unto you to find out whether you're standing in all your tribulations.

Now we're happy. Now we rejoice when we heard how firmly you stand. Remember when I was with you, I told you that we should suffer tribulation. We are appointed there unto. Oh, dear Lord, dear Lord. Oh, God, I prayed it.

Don't let me run away. People have said to me, run away. Why do you take it? We didn't take it. Don't you take it? I said, if I run away, I take myself with me. I take my defeat with me. No, my God has put me into this crucible.

I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction. We have a wonderful opportunity to follow the lamb withers, whoever he goes by glory in tribulation also, because God will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but he will with the temptation, make a way of escape so that you shall be able to bear it.

Do you know that way of escape is Jesus Christ? That's what the tribulation is for. You've been trusting in yourself. And Paul says, we have the sentence of death in ourselves that we should learn not in trust in ourselves, but in the living God who raises the dead.

Beloved, why do I talk like that? Well, it must be that there's somebody in the meeting that God wants. You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood. What party do you belong to? As a kid, I came from Switzerland and Teddy Roosevelt was the big man.

And when it came to election time, the fellows in my store, I was then an errand boy, they got hold of me one day and they said, what party do you belong to? Are you a Republican or a Democrat? I said, no, I'm a Christian.

They laughed. Listen, what party do you belong to? Are you Catholic or are you Protestant? That means nothing. But if you belong to that chosen lot whom Jesus Christ says, I've chosen you and I've ordained you, then you belong to Jesus Christ.

And he belongs to you.