======================================================================== INWARD PURITY by Hans R. Waldvogel ======================================================================== Summary: God desires a fast that involves undoing every burden, letting the oppressed go free, and loosing the bands of wickedness, and this can only be achieved by forgiving from the heart and having a broken and contrite spirit. Duration: 23:16 Topics: "Purity" Scripture References: Psalm 91:1-2, Isaiah 58:6-8, Isaiah 58:10-11, Isaiah 58:13-14, Matthew 6:33 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of living a life that pleases God. He highlights the need to show compassion and help those in need, such as feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. The preacher also emphasizes the significance of true worship, which involves purifying one's heart and seeking God in spirit and truth. Additionally, the sermon emphasizes the importance of honoring the Sabbath and delighting in the Lord, as this leads to blessings and guidance from God. The preacher references various Bible verses to support these teachings. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Something that might be helpful to us. Isaiah 58, Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, And show my people their transgression. At the house of Jacob their sin, Yet they seek me daily. That's what we have been doing. Now here's our photograph. They like to know my way. That's what we've been doing. That's the reason we've come here. Listen to sermons. They ask of me the ordinances of justice. They take delight in approaching to God. That's us. But now, wherefore have we fasted day and night, And not fasted twenty- one days? How long did you fast? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, And now takest no knowledge? Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and ye Shall not fast as you do this day, To make your voice to be heard. Will thou call this a fast? Well, I'm just using this as an illustration To show coming, thank God, to let the oppressed go free, And that ye break every yoke. There's something in that. You know, if you don't forgive from the heart, Now we forgive. We've been taught to forgive. But down in the heart, there are these fighting. You've got somebody by the throat in your heart. We don't do it outwardly at all. But in our heart, there is the memory of grievances. Somebody has grieved us. Or as the southerners sing, He, my main buddy. And you'll never forget. He done me wrong. Some people have a wonderful knack of remembering things. I think that's been one of my failings. Never forgetting a thing. Outwardly, yes. But inwardly, always keeping a reserved hatchet. You've got a sort of a closet somewhere where you keep these hatchets polished. Or maybe a bottle of iodine or something. Just in case. Just in case you meet a certain person. Or not even meet them, but just think of them. Rather than watch for everything's in truth. Oh, after all, the true worship of God is done in the heart. If you forgive from the heart. Now that's what God's talking about. That's the fast that I have chosen. That ye undo every burden. You remember the man to whom the king forgave a great debt because he begged him? And then he'd hardly gone out of the palace when he met a brother who owed him a dime. And he got him by the throat. He said, give me that dime and there'll be a due. How many people do you have by the throat? Spiritually speaking. Boy, we choke them, don't we? Not outwardly, of course. You might get choked yourself. But down in the heart. Oh, to undo the heavy burdens. How clean. We talk about every man purifying himself, even as he is pure. And then we allow this impurity in our hearts. We don't allow the light to shine. My sister Rose was a young woman. She was cleaning the house one day and I came home. The shades are drawn. Why we keep the shades drawn? Everything looks clean. There are 26. And there were 26 sunbeams that shone that ate their way through that thick dust. A billion solar systems. Terrible. How many people have you got by the throat? This is the one act of purifying my heart. This hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure. We clean up, really, and we let the light shine. Oh, let that light shine through you. And it'll expose all that rubbish and all that uncleanness. And when God says, who worship him in spirit and in truth, he needs people that really want to please him. And I can't please him by bowing my head down as a bulrush. That may make my prayer more comfortable. Sackcloth and ashes may make my knees to hurt a little less. But that isn't the kind of a prayer. He says, Untie the heavy burdens. Let the captive go free. Let go that brother of yours. Father will not forgive us our transgressions if we don't forgive from the heart. But to forgive from the heart means more than to say it with my lips or to act it with a superficial smile. It means a cleansing of my heart, where the love of Jesus Christ takes the place of my natural love, which fails in every instance. And so now that our weeks of prayer come to an end, God wants that grace to unwind. It will, thank God. The kind of a fast that I have chosen, it is to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free. And now maybe we ought to stop right at this verse and do it now. Come. See if you can open this knot wherewith you have tied me. Tie me, oh boy. Tie it around my neck. I can feel it choking soon. Well, God says wonderful things. Is it not to deal thy grace? The poor that are cast out, thou seest to naked the doubt. Then shall thy light bring forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily. There's the best teaching on divine healing. Then we pray and pray and pray and we say, Now God, why don't you answer my prayers? Look how many have got imprisoned down in your basement. They came into a monastery. They came with their eyes. This house is dedicated to the world. Bury the lives starving to death. Feel it. See that you love. Even as he, we will not be partakers of Christ. But here he shows us the way to divine. Speedily. That's where the fountain of healing has been stopped. The love of Jesus Christ is dead or lies dormant. And God wants us to wake up and realize what it means. It means to present his glory. The highway of holiness is a way, not of hypocritical rejoy and peace. I believe God's been dealing with us about these things very strongly. Thank God for conviction. I do thank God more and more for conviction. What is conviction? Why is the Holy Ghost making intercession for me according to the will of God when I pray not to cover my sin by a superficial cloak of God's grace? But when I pray to be cleansed, when my heart desires the purity within that God desires, David says, thou desirest truth in the inward part, and when God can make me in the inward part, then I'll repent. That's true repentance. And I'll get rid of my sin, the inward sin. I will really be cleansed. And then my health will spring forth speedily. Does God want us to be well in body? Why, of course he does. Certainly. He says, how much more shall your heavenly Father, when I was a young fellow and got sick, I remember when my father discovered it, how anxious, he was much more anxious for me to be well than I was. Why, he went to all kinds of extremities to bring me back to health. He would have taken my sickness upon himself if he could have healed me that way. And God says, how much more shall your heavenly Father, but beloved, he chastens us that we might be partakers of his holiness, and if I pay no attention to his word and to his will, God seeketh such a worshipper in spirit and in truth, and thereby, he says, a clean heart, a heart that trembles at his word. Behold, thou desirest truth. He says, thou desirest not sacrifice, else I would give it. People are willing to kneel here for hours, and lots of people are willing to fast. God says he doesn't desire that in the first place. But he desires a broken and a contrite spirit that trembles at his word. And I know that God has blessed us in these weeks with conviction. Just think what would happen to us if there were no conviction. I read an account by a physician some time ago about pain, and the statement was made that if there was no pain, if the human body was not subject to pain, soon all of humanity would be dead. There would be no warning signal when you get sick. You'd have your arms and legs cut off and you wouldn't feel it. People wouldn't shun danger anymore. And in a short while, there would be no humanity. Pain is a great blessing. It's the warning signal that God has put into the body to show you that something's out of harmony with his divine law. Something's wrong. There's danger. But oh, this pain of an awakened conscience. How we need, how we need to be heard to the quick. We will never be partakers of his holiness. We might manufacture our own holiness. But oh, to be partakers of thy holiness. And look at the wonderful promises. Marvelous. He says, Lord, do you mean that? My God, do you mean that? And do you mean that these blessings are withholden from me because I don't pay attention to your will? And you notice that here, he makes known his will for my daily life. Oh, thank God for weeks of prayer. We need them. But if God had his way, we wouldn't need them. We would pray without ceasing. Every act of ours, every thought, every word, every feeling would be under the control of the Holy Ghost. In the midst of danger. You've read that little book, Practice of the Present. Someone pinned up part of it. He was more inward and more in touch with God than when he was bowing his head down as a bulrush in the desert. Now isn't it wonderful? Aren't you glad that God will hide us? And God will keep us as we go from this holy place into the commonplace experiences of everyday life. And he'll make true his promise. He'll make your life break forth as the morning. You'll be the light of the world. Holding forth the word of life in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation in your home. Your life, your life will shine because Jesus Christ will be your light. And thou shalt, and here are more, thy light shall break forth as the morning. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer. Thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity. You know what it is, the putting forth of the finger? Oh, if the Lord knew who that woman was, he did. How is it that we know all about it? Why is it that we're interested in it when God says, Don't you judge? And when Jesus says, I judge no man, don't judge. Oh, that's the reason we're not more greatly blessed folks. And thank God these things are in the Bible. And so he says, and if thou draw out thy soul, then shall thy life rise in a way like a watered garden. Still not. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on the holy of the Lord, I'll defeat thee with them. ======================================================================== Audio: https://sermonindex1.b-cdn.net/22/SID22880.mp3 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/hans-r-waldvogel/inward-purity/ ========================================================================