'Ye Shall Be as gods.' That Was Not Christ's Ambition — Hans R. Waldvogel

Examining Ourselves Before God

The Bible says examine yourselves. That doesn't mean that I should examine somebody else. It's a bad, bad sign when I examine everybody else. It shows that I haven't seen myself. I have lost sight of my own great need.

You know, that's the mark of a true Christian. He examines himself in the presence of God and he judges no man. Jesus was like that. But it would be good and it is good and it must be good for us to examine ourselves or to let God examine us.

Examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith, whether Christ be in you. I've been sitting here praying for this one thing, that God might help in these days for us to see our great need. What is our need?

Human Sin and the Need for New Birth

Well, we're a perishing lot, perishing. Woe is me, I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips. I'm in a poisonous atmosphere. Who shall deliver me from the body of this dead?

There's no deliverance except the thing that our brother spoke of, to be made new, absolutely new. As long as we try to fix up the old, we'll only make an awful job out of it. But oh, if Jesus Christ has his way, he'll go his way.

We will go his way and his way is just one way. Learn of me, I am meek and lowly in heart. Oh, is that my desire? I come to learn to play the fiddle or the bass fiddle. Why, when I come to this teacher, I had a teacher for two years who didn't know himself how to hold the fiddle and he was teaching me bad habits.

And when he finally got too old to teach me any longer, I got another teacher. He said, play something for me. So I took my fiddle. Boy, he said, that's rotten. The first thing I had to do was to get another kind of a fiddle.

He said, this fiddle's not for you. I had one that was made for a man and I was just a little boy, you know, and I couldn't. He says, that's rotten. He made me start all over on new principles. That was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Transformation Through the Renewing of the Mind

And what does the Bible say? Don't be conformed to this world, but be ye transformed. A turning upside down, a beginning on a new foundation. Let this mind be in you. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

What is my mind this morning? How am I minded? I'll soon find out. I'm choking because of the atmosphere around about me and coughing and barking. Why, I haven't gotten down. I read of a place where there was a fire and many people died from suffocation, asphyxiation.

The smoke choked them to death. And there were two or three that were saved alive. I'll tell you how it happened. They knew what to do. When the smoke filled the whole building and they were up somewhere on the third floor, they got on their stomachs and they put their nose to the ground.

They had been informed that there was always a certain layer of air on the ground. The smoke rises and whatever oxygen there is and whatever air there is drops to the bottom. And so they had enough air to sustain their lives and for them to get out and to save their lives.

And all the others, with all their fuss, with all their fuming, they choked to death. And if I want to find a way of life, there's only one way. Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. Let this mind be in you.

Christ's Meekness Under Temptation and Reproach

What is that mind? Why, Jesus wanted to humble himself. When he was reviled, he reviled not again. Well, we don't do that either. We're too cultured, but we get sour on the inside. We don't like it. Jesus liked it.

He said, I delight to do thy will, O God. He condemned sin in the flesh. He said, no. He was tempted in all points, like we are, like Adam. Why, you shall be like God. We heard it quoted a while ago. Why, don't let them do that to you.

How quickly Jesus Christ showed what mind was in him, what mind controlled him. Get thee behind me, Satan. Oh, to have that mind in me which was also in Christ Jesus, that's a wonderful monitor that will guide me in the right direction.

It'll guide me down where I find Jesus, where I breathe a heavenly atmosphere, and I'm not choked by the poisonous gases of pride, and conceit, and self-seeking, and self-made spirituality. Beloved, there's no salvation.

I tell you, there isn't any salvation. Our hearts are too deceitful. We become spiritually minded, and all the while we admire ourselves. My God, who shall deliver me from this Satan that now puts on the livery of heaven, that now is transformed into an apostle of life.

Humility Versus Spiritual Self-Admiration

How we praise ourselves, how we admire ourselves, simply because we have not been turned upside down. Our minds have not been transformed. We have not the mind that was also in Christ Jesus. How do I feel when I'm judged, when I'm misjudged?

That's one thing the Lord had against me when I first came into Pentecost. He said, you're doing my will along every line except one. You don't like to be criticized. I didn't. God held that against me.

Why, that's the mind of the flesh. Oh, beloved, the thing that will help us very, very greatly is to seek Jesus. And when we seek Jesus, we will soon get down. The Holy Ghost will see to it. The unction that you have received of the Holy One will teach you all things.

Teaches you to keep your mouth shut. I always say it teaches you French. It does with a vengeance. Have you learned to keep your mouth shut? Have you learned to keep your heart with all diligence lest these thorns and thistles spring up?

I found out that one can be very spiritual on the outside and still have a sour heart and still have a root of bitterness in the heart. My, there was a time when I'm chafed under it. I couldn't deliver myself.

I couldn't get out of it. It was choking me. The only thing to do was to get down. Really get down. And I mean get down. I had to go to people that had harmed me, that had hurt me, that had sinned against me and humble myself before them.

That did it. That helped me. Oh, when that mind that is also in Christ Jesus controls me. Beloved, that's not my own mind. It's his mind. And Jesus Christ offers to think for me, to feel for me, to be my own life also.

He that hateth not his own life also. Why, beloved, when we do that we will welcome vicissitudes. We will welcome. Someone has said we ought to consider the people that harm us and that do evil and ill to us.

We ought to consider them our very best friends. It isn't praise that blesses me and lifts me, but blame. Blame is far better than praise, but until I like it. I had an experience one time when I was awakened to my great need of humility.

Prayer for Conviction and Self-Knowledge

I wish I had that awakening today. Oh, I chafed. I thought, my God, my God, my God. First I cried to God to show me myself. I had learned that from another brother. In Kenosha we had a habit of walking up and down and walking up and down praying and he did.

It was during the depression when the men had no work and so they spent eight hours a day in prayer and sometimes 12 hours. Didn't do them any harm. And this young fellow's walking up and down and said, oh God, show me my abominable self.

My Lord, show me my abominable self. I took that up and I began to pray like that, but oh my, did you ever pray like that? You know, you'll get to the place where you think everybody has wings and you have horns.

The strangest thing what happens when you really want to know the truth, when you really want to know the truth and you realize that you're dying, you're choking to death. You begin to pray like that and I prayed, I prayed, I prayed, I prayed, I prayed tremendously.

And oh, the vision that God gave me at that time, the awful, awful condition. Why that is salvation when we realize how deceitful above all things and desperately wicked our own hearts are. Why it was Adam and Eve that were deceived by that angel of light Lucifer.

Rejecting the Serpent's Promise of Godhood

He shall be as God. Isn't that a wonderful ambition? Why today it's being preached in Pentecost from one end of the earth to the other. Why you shall be as God. You can buy phonograph records. They come from California and they'll tell you who you are, why you don't know.

You're sons of God. You are. You ought to have your pockets full of money. You ought to stick out your chest. You ought to tell the devil where to get off at. Beloved, it's that same poison of Lucifer and it's not surprising because the devil knows his time is short and if God Almighty can get his people down with a transformed mind, with the renewal of the mind, when Jesus Christ can possess the minds of his people, then Satan will be in the pit.

That's where Satan reigns, in the church. That's where the man of sin spreads himself, in the church, in the place where it ought to be Christ and Christ alone. And if it isn't Christ alone, I will never meet the great.

I will never find that throne room of heaven. And where am I? Am I on the way? Well, I ought to examine myself. I will soon find out. How do I like it when things, when people do outrageously mean things?

It was at that time that God allowed people to do that to me. I chafed under it. I wanted to forgive and I did the best I knew how, but there was something in my heart that rose up within me. And one time when one man railed on me, I rose up against it.

I didn't rail back. I knew better than that. I knew I'd only get it worse. But in my heart, there was something. There was something created. I knew that was poison. I knew it was thorns and thistles.

God says you can't get into the kingdom. They that do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you shall prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Servanthood as the Pattern of Christ

What is that? Why, if any among you seems to be great or wants to be great, let him be the lowest of all. I've given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. I've washed your feet. Blessed are ye if you do those things.

And so I had to learn my lesson. And I remember how desperately I prayed. And one day, like Brother Gardner said the other day, the Lord checked me and said, look out, come. Sure enough, it came again that day.

But oh, the transformation God had wrought in my soul. The more they railed on me, the more I rejoiced. Inwardly, I was just laughing. It was like honey out of the rock. I knew that wasn't myself. I knew that I could never have done it up to that time.

I would get inwardly very wild and mad, and now so sweet, so loving. And the more they railed, the more I rejoiced. And glory to God, I knew God was answering prayer. God was transforming me. Praise God.

My mind was gone, and the mind of Christ was beginning to possess me. What does he mean when he says, blessed are the poor in spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. God has a kingdom prepared before the foundation of the world, but he has no takers.

That kingdom is not going to be given to the old Adam, nor to his son, but to the last Adam, who is made the Lord from heaven, who said, all things are delivered unto me of my father. And he says, now come, learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.

Christ's Humility as His Glory

Oh, to be like the blessed Redeemer, we think of the glory of heaven, and how we're going to be transformed into the same image from glory to glory. But we don't realize that that glory of the only begotten of the Father was full of grace and truth.

It was his humility that constituted his glory, his lowliness, his utter meekness. Not my will, but thy will be done. That's where the Father was glorified in the Son. That's where the veil was rent, and the way was open for you and for me to become sons of God.

Learn of me. Learn of me. Learn of me. If we're wise at all, beloved, we're going to do one thing alone. I do one thing alone, and wholly give myself to one who gives himself to me. Sir Sagan wrote that song.

Consecration in Ordinary Service

Where is the school for one and all, where men become as children small, and little ones are great? Where to unlearn all things I learn from self, and from all others turn, one master here and see. I learn to do one thing alone, one thing alone, and wholly give myself to one who gives himself to me.

And you know that transforms every, every little thing in life into a throne room where I meet my King. We heard a while ago about the kitchen sink. How wonderful when that kitchen sink becomes a meeting place with God.

Every item in all the world becomes a throne where I bow before the King, where I humble myself before the King. And our sister talked about the sink, how it became a throne room. I remember in a faith home, a dear sister who sought God with all her heart, and how that when she had fasted five days, one day she came down into the kitchen, and you know some of the saints don't like to wash dishes.

And here was a pile of dishes, and she hadn't, she had fasted, she hadn't eaten for five days. And when she saw that pile of dishes, what did she do? Go into a dump and say, where are all these lazy saints?

They eat like butchers three times a day, and here I've been fasting and waiting on my Lord for five days. Where are these lazy creatures? And then roll up her sleeves. No, sweetly singing she did the dishes, never letting on at all.

I tell you, that sink became a throne room of the King. I knew another thing. The young girl, see, she never liked to do dishes unless George was helping her. My, what a sanctuary that kitchen sink became.

How different it was now. Why, that was the Lord. Why, sure. Otherwise she didn't like it at all, but my goodness. You know, marriages are made in heaven. All from the sink is sort of a way to heaven.

My, how marvelous. Oh, how wonderful, because you come to me. Hold the fork, the knives are coming, foams are on the way. Oh yes, that was the Lord. I tell you, that was the Lord. I am holy. Glory to God.

And so they went to the altar. And because you come to me with long-saved love. Oh beloved, these hearts of ours are deceitful above all things. I'm desperately waiting. Who can know them? But when I'm minded like Jesus Christ was minded, I'll be on the way.

Following the Lamb and Finding God's Will

I'll not deviate. I will not seek myself, nor the things that satisfy the flesh, and then blame the Lord, and blame all the holy angels in heaven for having led me that way. But I will follow the Lamb, whithersoever He goeth.

That will be my guide. It'll be the cross of Christ. Oh Jesus, show me the way. Follow me. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Oh beloved, to get down, to humble myself, to really be transformed by the renewing of my mind, to prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.

That's it. It isn't the way the gale blows, but it's the way the sail is set that determines the way she goes. And when my sail is set in the right direction. Oh Jesus, this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.

Oh my Father, when I learn to get down, really get down, and really humble myself, I will find the way like those three in that house, full of smoke, and full of fire. They got down. They found out that along the ground, there was a certain layer of air, and they got out alive, and all the others took to death.

Oh let me learn my lesson, to really be transformed by the renewing of my mind, that I may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.