10TH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Dear friends in Christ Jesus.

There is such a thing as divine providence; there is a God who not only created the whole world with its inhabitants but who also preserves and rules it; who directs all that happens to us and leads all his creatures, if they let themselves be guided by him, to their goal, to perfection. Our very reason points this out to Us. A being who cannot create himself cannot preserve himself either. Therefore, if God would have refused to do any more in the world after he had created it, it would immediately have fallen back into that oblivion from which it was created. And if God would not rule the world, if God would not turn everything which man does into good, what would happen to man with his great, natural, universal weakness and sinfulness? Individuals would have destroyed each other, and nations would have destroyed entire peoples, and the earth would have become the arena of complete misery and distress, yes, a hell on earth.

But now there is God's providence which either hinders the evil, or turns it into good, which protects the one, holds back the other, and after war sends peace to the nations, who has his hands everywhere, works everywhere, and without whom nothing which happens takes place. God's Word tells us, "In God we live, and move, and have our being." Acts 17:28. "From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. He fashioneth their

hearts alike; he considereth all their works" Ps 33:14,15.

Even many Christians suppose that everything in the world is a part, of nature and the result of their efforts; God lets things go the way they want to go; the world is a world of chance; this befalls the one, that befalls the other depending on the way the dice fall. Others say: everything is foreordained; the world is a machine which God has built but which he sets in motion and lets run down without being concerned about it. Finally, still others say, that God is at least not concerned about the individual nor about trivialities; whether it rains today or the sun shines, whether a child is sick or healthy, whether a poor person finds work today or not does not interest God; he lets that up to the wisdom and concern of man himself. To think of all these trivialities in human life is either impossible or not worthy of the. great God.

However, my friends, no matter how enlightened such doubters think they are, they nevertheless show by such principles how greatly unbelief has blinded them. What can be more unreasonable than to ascribe an organized world to chance? Or what can be more foolish than to believe that God could indeed have created the world as a machine, but then, as it were, became ashamed of his work and left it? And finally, what can be more senseless than to believe that God is indeed concerned about the great things but is unconcerned about the little things in the world? If God is not concerned about the small, insignificant, the individual things, how can he provide for all the great things? does not the whole consist of little parts? Or, is such concern unworthy of God? It is not really the clearest proof of God's infinite greatness, power, wisdom, and goodness? What more wonderful thing can we think of God than this, that the fatherly eye of the Creator looks upon everything? that his love embraces everything? that his hand guides all?

Oh foolish unbelief! No, my friends, let us remain with that, belief which God's Word reveals, that without God's will not a single sparrow falls from the roof nor a single hair from our head; that the eyes of all creation wait upon, him, the great Lord, that he gives them their meat in due season; that he opens his gentle hands and satisfies every living thing; that he provides for the birds of the heavens and clothes the lillies and the grass in the field. True Christians have the duty of seeking out God's footprints wherever they are; therefore, scarcely a day passes for a Christian at the close of which he does not recognize and must praise the traces of divine providence.

My friends, as necessary as it is for a Christian to pay attention to God's government in the realm of nature, just so necessary and even more necessary is it in the kingdom of grace; yes, our salvation depends upon our carefully noticing the visitations of grace which God vouchsafes to us. The inhabitants of Jerusalem did not want to recognize them and the result was temporal and eternal ruin. Our today's text reminds us of that.

The text. Luke 19:41-48.

The Gospel just read contains a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem which took place 36 years later. Here Christ tells us that this destruction would be a punishment because this city did not recognize the time in which they were visited by God. With tears he warns all who would not hear and let themselves be saved. May our devotion be now engaged with

CHRIST'S HEARTFELT AND LOVING WARNING NOT TO

DESPISE GOD'S VISITATIONS OF GRACE

We ponder:

I. God's Visitations of Grace, and

II. Christ's Loving and Heartfelt Warning not to Despise Them.

Oh great, holy God! What are we that you descend and visit us who are dust and ashes and sinners, who forsake and deny you! Oh how great is your love and condescension! Alas, we must confess to you that, oh infinite God, you often, yes often, come to us and visit us, and we will not let you remain with us. Alas, Lord, forgive us this serious, inexpressibly great sin against your divine majesty. Come again to us, for without you we are and remain unhappy; come into our heart, dwell therein until we are inseparably united with you there in eternity. Hear us, most faithful God for the sake of Jesus Christ, your dear Son, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

I.

My friends, God has indeed left not himself without witness to any man but has done much good to all so that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him and find him. Yes; he is not far from everyone of us, for in him we live, and move, and have our being. But at special times God gives men special grace and opportunity to see what belongs to their peace; then, as it were, God comes closer to man than usual; he, as it were, himself comes to the door of man and urges upon him all the riches of his grace; in Holy Scripture this is called a visitation of grace.

Of all the nations the Jews had such visitations and the citizens of Jerusalem experienced them the most. Whilst the heathen world sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, in the country of the Jews, on the other hand* the sun of divine revelation shone at all times. Whereas the heathen were misled by soothsaying priests and kept in the most horrible superstition, God, on the other hand, sent to the Israelites from one age to the next holy prophets who, enlightened by the Holy Ghost, preached to all the saving truth. Whilst the heathen knew absolutely nothing of the fact that a Redeemer of the world would come, on the other hand, all prophets preached clearly to the Jews that a descendant of Abraham and David was to be born in whom all the families of the earth were to be blessed! These were visitations of grace pure and simple which the Jewish, nation experienced above all others.

Without a doubt the most wonderful and the greatest was the one when God's Son himself walked and lived in the flesh among the people. This was a time of grace such as had never been nor ever will be, a time of grace no nation on earth except Israel experienced nor will experience. So many and such amazing miracles were never done at any time and in the presence of no other nation than at that time before the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They heard the richest, the most convincing, the most deeply moving, the most comforting sermons that anyone ever heard; they were the most powerfully, the most urgently, the most enticingly invited and called into God's kingdom. Heaven descended to earth in order to entice the inhabitants of Jerusalem into heaven. Not only was Zacharias moved to exclaim in the spirit of prophecy during this time of grace, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people; the dayspring from on high hath visited us" Lk 1:68,78b, even the people had to recognize such a visitation from God when the saw the blind receive their sight, the deaf and dumb receive their hearing and the ability to speak, the dead arise; they, therefore cried out, praising God, "A great prophet is risen up among us; and, God hath visited his people" Lk 7:16.

This visitation took place not only in the church by the preaching of the Gospel and in the homes through spiritual blessings, but also in the heart by extraordinary, powerful awakenings by the Holy Spirit. Through the preaching of Christ and his disciples there arose a great agitation in the hearts, of all;

consciences were awakened; even the most hostile hearts could not completely resist the truth which was preached; even the conscience of the scribes and Pharisees said that Christ preached the truth, the way he showed was the only way to salvation. Even the roughest soldier had to confess, "Never man spake like this man" Jn 7:46; and in amazement the whole nation had to confess, "He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes" Mt 7:29. It, therefore, often became clear that the whole nation clung to Christ, and when he entered Jerusalem the last time it cried out, "Hosanna to the son of David; blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest" Mt 21:9.

My friends, every time God lets his Word be richly and powerfully preached to a nation or to a city or to a congregation and thus brings many to the conviction of the divine truth, this according to Scripture is: God has visited them. Particularly has our beloved Germany experienced many such visitations. When at the beginning of the 16th century the whole world was covered with the darkness of the papacy, God visited particularly Germany in grace, for there he awakened his glorious instrument Dr. M. Luther. This man once again blew the dust off the Bible and brought the truth of the Gospel and the whole pure doctrine to the light of day. Then the first apostolic times returned; entire hosts of evangelists arose; millions of souls came to the knowledge of the truth, and even the enemies of the truth became uneasy in their conscience and often had to confess that Luther preached the truth. However, pride did not allow many of the great bishops and learned to let themselves be reformed by a despised monk.

My friends, not only whole nations experience such visitations but also every individual soul. In the life of man there are times when God knocks especially loud on the door of his heart, when he receives more opportunities than at other times to know and seize God's grace. God is always visiting every person not only whenever the pure Word of God is preached, whenever he goes to communion, whenever he opens the Bible, whenever he reads a good edifying book, whenever true Christians speak with him about divine matters, there are also times of special divine visitations of grace. We often hear sermons which make little impression upon our souls, but now and then it happens that our innermost being is seized by a certain sermon, all at once our sins are uncovered by it which we never saw before, and we become frightened at God's wrath; or all at once a wealth of God's grace is revealed to us which we had never known before, and our heart melts for joy and feels, as it seldom feels, the sweetness of God's comfort; that is nothing else but a gracious visitation by God.

Moreover, we often go to Holy Communion and seldom have special experiences; but it also happens at times that before, at, or after we go to the Table of the Lord we discover and taste our great misery of soul or the great friendliness of God with special force; we are mightily moved and forced in our soul to promise God that we will deny everything and devote ourselves only to him; that also is nothing else but a divine visitation of grace.

Again, we often read in Holy Writ, but we may read many chapters experiencing only little of its power; but it also happens at times that a verse, a story, a promise, a threat, a teaching, a warning, and the like which we have perhaps often read without pondering upon it now makes a special impression on our soul; perhaps we are forced to wet our beloved Bible with our tears; we exclaim in our heart: Yes, of a truth, that is God's Word! we are filled with holy decisions; we are thus either disturbed in our false rest or after waiting confidently for a long time suddenly rest and peace and joy enter into our heart through a verse; that also is nothing else but a gracious visitation of our God.

Again, we often read edifying books, and it seems to us as though we could appropriate little from them; at times, however, it happens that we come to a

place which seems to be written alone for our situation; we find our innermost thoughts revealed and described; we are awakened and say: Oh, I must become a different person; yes, today, this hour I will begin a new life; I will become faithful in my Christianity; I will not become lukewarm and indifferent again; away sin, away vanity, away world, I will seize Christ, seek my salvation in him, and follow him. Oh blessed is he who has such experiences in the reading of edifying books! these are simply visitations of God.

Often we pray daily for a longer time without noticing any special awakening however, it also happens at times that when we have begun to pray, truly feeling for the first time our misery, we suddenly are filled with a most ardent longing for God; our devotion increases, the words which we first had to search for suddenly flow forth of themselves, we might not even stop praying, we forget completely what surrounds us, it seems as though God were very close to us, we discover: God hears us; he utters his yea and amen to our prayers; we are then also compelled to pray most urgently for our brothers and sisters and close our prayer with praise and laud to God. Also such experiences in prayer are nothing else but precious visitations of grace on the part of God in our souls by which he wants to draw us steadily away from the world and closer to himself.

Again, we are often alone; we do not read, we do not pray, we let our thoughts roam; then it happens not seldom that all at once we detect an unexplainable restlessness arising within us; many passages of Scripture flash into our mind which reprimand us and many of our sins; an inner groan arises within us; we hear a voice which says: pray! pray! God's Spirit is knocking at our heart; all these are times when God particularly visits us and works in our souls either to convert us and bring us to Christ or to keep us with Christ, to strengthen us in the face of temptations nearing us, and to warn us against dangers which are coming. Trouble and tribulation, sickness, poverty, disgrace, and all manner of physical and spiritual distress which God sends us are some of these gracious visitations. Yes, if the cross enters a home or among a family, God also enters in; that is why Christians have coined the saying: The greater the cross, the nearer heaven; the greater the distress, the nearer God. During just those times when the spiritual Zion, the poor Christian laments in his temptations: The Lord has forsaken me; the Lord has forgotten me, then God is closest of all; then he remembers him in greatest love; then God shows that he has graven us upon the palms of his hands. To be sure, we come to recognize this after the distress has ended; "now to chastening for the present," we read in the Letter to the Hebrews, "seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby" Heb 12:11.

My friends, we have seen from all this what are gracious visitations from God; let us now secondly ponder Christ's loving and sincere warning not to despise them.

II.

My friends, Christ utters his warning more with tears than with words; and where is there a verse which could admonish and warn us more beseechingly than the tears of the Son of God? With weeping eyes he stands before unfortunate Jerusalem shortly before his suffering and death; he, however, does not weep over himself but says, "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eves. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation" Vv. 42-44. So, there are two things which Christ wants to say with his tears: first, how great that love is which Jerusalem despises, but also secondly, how great

and terrible that misfortune is which would follow this contempt.

With his tears Christ says: Oh you citizens of Jerusalem, though your sins are great, all, all of you could still have been saved; for behold my tears; I love all of you; for all of you I came into the world; for all of you will I die; I have come as a Shepherd in order to see you lost sheep; I have come as a heavenly physician in order to heal all your sick souls; I have come as a heavenly Bridegroom in order to invite all of you to the eternal wedding; oh, how often I would have gathered you as a hen gathers her little chicks under her wings, but you would not. Remember, O Israel: not the host nor the greatness of your sins is at fault that you are lost, for I have redeemed you, I have sought you, I have called you to myself; the only reason why you are lost is because you despise my love, my grace which I offer you. But know: since I have called and you refused, I stretched out my hand and no one paid any attention to it, you set at naught all my counsel and did not want any of my reproof, then also howl over yourself some day when the day of punishment and revenge will dawn.

And alas, it did appear; thirty-six years later everything literally went into fulfilment against Jerusalem which Christ had predicted of this city. At the same place on the Mt. of Olives and at the same time, namely at Easter when Christ with tears lamented over Jerusalem's coming misery, there the Romans pitched their main camp. During this seige more than a million Jews died,partly by famine and pestilence so that the corpses, heaped up on the streets of Jerusalem, decayed unburied, partly they died in the flames and by the sword of the Romans, or they were nailed by them to the cross. Gladly would Titus, the Roman general, have spared the city and the temple, but the Jews had been surrendered by God into such twisted notions that they were not moved to any proposals of peace and thus incited the Romans to level the city and the temple to the ground. Let everyone where possible use this day to read the story of the destruction of Jerusalem and to ponder the horrible judgment which God let fall upon a people which did not want to know his gracious visitations.

My friends, Christ did not weep over Jerusalem alone but over all who ever despise his gracious visitations in the world. No one is ever lost because of his sins, for there is forgiveness for all, but only because they despise his grace. Herod was not lost because he murdered the children, for even this could have been forgiven but because he despised Christ; Judas was not lost because of his stealing, for even for this he could have found grace but because he rejected Christ's grace; Ananias and Sapphira were not lost because of their hypocrisy and lies, for even for this Christ died but because they resisted the Holy Spirit who wanted to lead them to Christ. There is only one sin which damns man, that is unbelief, or despising the Word and God's grace.

If a person falls, though it may be ever so deeply, Christ is ready to receive him again every time he returns with remorse and repentance to him; but if he does not want to listen to his Word, if he disdains the precious Gospel, what is to help him? If a person loves the Word, he also loves Christ, but if he despises his Word, he despises Christ himself.

The love and grace which Christ once personally offered Jerusalem by his preaching, these he offers us now through the written and spoken Word; if we now despise this, we do the same thing today which Jerusalem once didto Christ. If we are reprimanded by God's Word, Christ is reprimanding us; if we are awakened by God's Word, Christ awakens us; if we are comforted by God's Word, Christ comforts us; if we do not accept the reprimand, the awakening, the comforting of God's Word we push Christ away from us, we close the door of our heart to Christ, his tears apply also to us.

Therefore, my dear friends, play close attention when you are convinced of

your sins from God's Word, when you are moved, when your conscience is smitten, when you are drawn and enticed by the Holy Spirit; then Christ is visiting you as he visited Jerusalem; then know what belongs to your peace; do not then cast divine sorrow out of your mind, then do not try to give false comfort to your conscience, then do not reject his punishment, otherwise you do not know the time in which you are visited and Christ's love is lost for you.

Then let Christ's tears move you and regard his Word as your greatest treasure in this world; then if you accept the Word, you also accept Christ, if you accept Christ, this will give you eternal life.

However, my friends, Christ warns us against despising God's visitations not only because otherwise we reject his love and grace, but also because temporal and eternal misfortune must follow upon such contempt. As a perpetual warning example God turned the glorious city of Jerusalem with its magnificent temple into a heap of rubbish, and its inhabitants in part died a terrible death, in part were scattered over the whole earth. Why did God do this? Because he visited this city with his Word, but they did not accept the Word and did not want to know what belonged to their peace. God would gladly save all; that is why he gives his Word; whoever rejects this, him God in turn rejects. God has proven this not only in the Jewish city of Jerusalem but also in all Christian congregations who have lost the love of his Word. As richly as God once visited Asia, so poor is it now; as gloriously as congregations once bloomed in Africa, so desolate is it now spiritually; as highly as God once pardoned Europe, so ravaged is it now.

Oh how I can therefore rejoice, my dear friends, that I can give you the testimony that you do not reject the precious Word of God, that you gladly want to hear it in its truth and purity and submit yourselves to it. But remember, my dearly beloved friends: the best, the most blessed congregations have nevertheless finally fallen. Where are the zealous Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, Thessalonians to whom St. Paul wrote? Where are the faithful Philadelphians to whom St. John wrote? Where are the glorious German congregations of whom Luther once wrote to his prince, that they were like a paradise in which young and old were provided with God's Word, and from whom we have received our precious confessional writings and all the glorious treasures of our church? Once they were full, of earnestness and zeal for God's Word but now that is gone.

As they could fall, so can we also fall; our flesh and blood very easily becomes sated with God's Word; therefore, let us never be secure; let us watch where the foe wants to take the treasure from us, let us incite and admonish one another so that everyone may remain with God's Word and regard it as the greatest treasure, in this world. Above all, let us not give up in calling to God to preserve his Word and sacraments in their purity for us and our children, and that he would rule our hearts through his Holy Spirit so that we will hold firmly to it against all error, awaken us with it in weakness and indolence, prepare us with it against all apostasy, comfort us with it in all anguish and distress, steadfastly confess it before the whole world, believe according to it, and live by it so that finally we can die happy in it.

Abide, O dearest Jesus,

Among us with Thy grace

That Satan may not harm us

Nor we to sin give place.

Abide, O dear Redeemer,

Among us with Thy Word

And thus now. and hereafter

True peace and joy afford. Amen

(53, 1,2)

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