21ST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. Amen.

Dear friends in Christ Jesus.

Our Savior, says, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." Mk 16:16. St. Paul says in Rom. 14:23, "Whatsoever is .not of faith is sin;", and in Hebrews 11:6, "Without faith it is impossible, to please, him." These passages have been a thorn in the side of many. They say, Yes, yes, all the religions of the world say, that faith in their mysteries is absolutely necessary; because all religions demand this, doesn't this prove that this' is supported by error and deceit, or must finally be thus supported? And why should everything depend on faith alone? Is it not more natural that God above all depends on the character, on the noble convictions, on the proper principles, on the good works of a person?

We answer, That all religions, even the false, demand faith from those who wish to be saved does not cast suspicion upon the doctrine but rather confirms their indisputable truth. Just because all men feel that without faith it is impossible to please God, that is why there is no religion whose first demand would not be, You must believe.

It can be no other way. No one can offend and insult us more grievously that those who contradict our words, do not want to believe them, and say to our face, What you say is not true. Now if a poor sinful human being feels deeply offended when someone refuses to believe him, how much more must God be offended if his Word is not believed! Yes, what sin can be greater than unbelief! Whoever does not believe simply says, God is a liar. As little as a blasphemer can enter into blessed communion with God, so certainly does the unbeliever exclude himself from all blessedness in God. Whoever is a true Christian brings every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. He does not in unbelief say when the mysteries are revealed, How can this be? but, Oh, what depths! A true Christian makes no distinction between Holy Scripture. He does not accept the one point which he can understand, and reject the other which seems incredible, but in childlike simplicity believes every Word of God as it is written, and clings firmly to it even though the whole world does not. He thinks, All men are liars, but what God says is true; what he promises he fulfills; nothing is impossible for him. Whoever does not have this faith is not a Christian, because whoever does not believe God does not consider God his God and denies the very first point of true divine worship, namely trust.

This must also be added: The Holy Scriptures teach that the Son of God is the Savior, the Surety, the Substitute of all men; that he bore the punishment of sins for all men, fulfilled the Law, and paid their debt. Faith is nothing else that the assent of man to this covenant of grace; it is accepting what Christ did and suffered for him. Whoever does not believe, not only blunders and falls into an error of his reason, but he does not accept Christ and his redemption, rejects the payment made by his Suretor, rejects the blessedness which his Savior won and which was given by grace, and wantonly hurls himself into damnation. To be and remain without faith and still be saved is, therefore, impossible, as certainly as God's Word is the eternal truth.

As nothing in this world is perfect, so .is also the faith of the Christian never perfect; his faith always remains somewhat mixed with unbelief; and of this unbelief of the believers let us hear more for our instruction and comfort.

The text. John 4:46b-54.

This Gospel just read gives me the opportunity to direct your devotion to a very important, subject, namely, the unbelief which remains in this life even in the heart of believers. Hence, I will speak to you on

THE UNBELIEF FOUND IN CHRISTIANS

I. What the Condition is, and

II. How Believers can be Increasingly Cured of it.

Lord Jesus, you are the True Vine and your believers the branches. You not only threaten that your Father will take away every branch which does not produce fruit, but you also promise that he will purge every branch which brings forth fruit, that it may produce more fruit. We pray, let your Word which is to be preached now, serve to cleanse all your believers among us from the defects still clinging to them, and especially that they may be cleansed and freed ever more from all traces of unbelief, that they all enjoy the rest and peace which you brought us from heaven, serve you joyfully, and every hour come into your presence with rejoicing that no tribulation may drive them away and that finally they through you joyfully conquer sin, world, death, and hell, and are saved. Amen. Amen.

I.

Our text tells us, "And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judea into Galilee, he want unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son; for he was at the point of death. Then said Jesus unto him. Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die." Vv.46b-49. From this narrative we see three things. First of all, wherein the unbelief with which even the believers are burdened really consists, when this unbelief is the strongest, and finally, under what circumstances it is most often revealed.

Undoubtedly the nobleman, of whom we are told, carried the seed of true faith in his heart. We hear that he firmly believed that Christ not only could help when man could not, but he also had the firm confidence that he wanted to and would help. Whoever expects all help from Christ and confidently flees to him as the helper in all distress certainly has true faith in which he will never be ashamed. When Christ reproaches the nobleman, "Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe," v.48b, we see that in his heart a considerable residue of unbelief had remained. He believed that he could be assured of Christ's help only if Christ would go with him into his house, lay his hand upon the head of his fatally sick son, and say to him something like this, Be well, my son, stand up and walk. The nobleman wanted something for his faith which he could see, hear, and notice with his senses. He instructed Christ as to what to do and did not yet want to trust Christ Jesus completely and blindly.

This remainder of unbelief we find among all believers of all ages, and the younger one is in faith the less free he is of it. Most are open unbelievers; either they live securely, do not concern themselves about God's Word and their salvation, seek only worldly things, live in vanity, yet deem themselves good men while despising Christ and his grace. Or they have only an imaginary faith which is in their mouth and mind but not in their heart. Thank God there are people whom God's Word has penetrated to the very heart, who know that they are lost sinners, who are frightened of themselves and earnestly sigh, Alas, what must I do to be saved? If such who are concerned about the salvation of their souls hear the Gospel of Christ, that Christ is also their Savior, who made amends for their sins through his suffering and death, and that whoever believes in him receives forgiveness of sins, is in God's eyes considered righteous by grace for Christ's sake, and should be saved, oh what a joyful message is this precious Gospel of grace for such people! For them Christ is an ocean

of blessedness, joy, pleasures, and delight. They exclaim, I have found Christ and with him my eternal salvation; oh, how fortunate I am, how blessed I am! What rest, what peace, what certainty I have in that which before I really Christ I did not know, yes, did not even suspect! Oh, if all would know, say such young believers, how well off a man is with Christ, they would joyfully leave the world and sin, like I did, and go to him and be saved!

Now if one considers this condition of young Christians and hears their joyful confession of faith, it seems as though all the unbelief of their heart is all at once forever and completely conquered. But it only seems so. The fewer experiences a man has in the ways of the Lord* the more he is like the nobleman in our Gospel. Also of other newly converted we can say, "Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe." V.48b. What is their usual condition? Most are so quickly and so joyfully certain of their salvation, because they have a sweet feeling in their heart; because they discover that God instills a friendly comfort in their souls; because the Gospel as a soft refreshing shower has fallen upon their languishing heart; because their heart and conscience no longer condemns them; and because God perhaps lets them prosper also in temporal things.

If we consider such newly converted people in spiritual or temporal distress, what happens? Then it again often seems as though the light of faith is completely extinguished. If he no longer feels grace in his heart, he thinks that he has again lost grace; if he no longer finds the comfort of the Gospel, he thinks that this comfort has no meaning for him any more; if he detects no special refreshment at the preaching or the reading of the Gospel, he thinks that he is completely hardened and the Word no longer makes any impression upon him; if he is again smitten by his conscience, if sin rages in his members, if he is again assailed by the terrors of God's wrath and hell, he thinks, Alas I have fallen from grace under God's wrath, from communion with Christ under the rule of sin, from heaven into hell. If on top of it, together with such inner distress he must also bear the cross; if poverty oppresses him, or he is laid upon a painful .sickbed by a lingering illness, or if he falls into shame, or if God perhaps takes a dear child or a dear spouse or his only faithful friend though death, if things always appear more troubled and dark about him, then he thinks, God has departed from me; how can I be God's child! Alas! my faith was only something I imagined.

There it is; thus the powerful impulses of unbelief show themselves in a young Christian. They all suffer from the spiritual sickness of wanting to see first, feel first, discover first, seize with their hands, so to say, the miraculous help of God first of all, and then to believe firmly.

Although with experienced Christians the power of unbelief is broken more and more, and they are more accustomed and skilled in trusting God even in the dark, no person is so firm, so high, so perfect in faith that he is not often tempted in a similar way. The desire always to walk in the mild sunshine of God's friendliness remains until our death; the desire for having visible supports for our faith never leaves us until our eyes close in death and the eyes of our spirit see the crown and the hand of our soul swings the palm of eternal victory. Even the most experienced Christian must confess with David of himself, "Lord, by thy favor thou hast made my mountain to stand strong; thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled." Ps 30:7. God's Word gives us many examples. Even a Moses was weak in faith when in the wilderness he was merely to speak to the rock to have it produce water for the languishing people; in unbelief he struck the rock twice with his staff. Even the apostles in the ship around which the waves raged, cried to the slumbering Son of God, "Master, carest thou not that we perish?" Mk 4:38. "Lord, save us; we perish." Mt 8:25. Even the apostles in

little faith did not only say in the wilderness when 4,000 hungry had gathered around them, "Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude?" Mt 15:33, but shortly thereafter, after they had witnessed Christ's miraculous feeding and then forgetting it again, they were very much concerned at having brought only enough bread for themselves and Christ. So deeply is unbelief rooted in the human heart.

II.

Let us in the second place hear how believers can be healed and increasingly freed from the unbelief remaining in their heart through God's grace.

The nobleman of our text furnishes us a wonderful example. We see Christ do three things in order that the nobleman is healed of his unbelief: first of all, Christ showed him his unbelief, directed him to his Word, and finally, crowns the little faith of the nobleman through his miracle in a manner he did not expect.

When the nobleman in weak faith came to Christ, Christ did not reject him; he received him, but when he insisted that Christ should go to his home and let his miraculous help be seen, he reprimanded him saying, "Except ye SEE signs and wonders, ye will not believe." V,48b. When in spite of that the nobleman stood the test and implored, "Sir, come down ere my child die," v.49, Christ only gave him the promise, "Thy son liveth." V. 50. With divine power this Word entered his weak, despairing heart, the haze of unbelief quickly left his soul, and his faith received great power and certainty because we read, "And the man believed the WORD that Jesus had spoken unto him, and went his way." V.50b. How happy, how strengthened, how full of confidence the nobleman went on his way! And lo! when on the next day he was close to home, his servants met him and brought him the good news, "Thy son liveth." V. 51. As certainly as the nobleman had expected no other news, yet he heard it uttered with joy. He immediately asked, when his son became better and heard, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said unto him. Thy son liveth; and himself believed, and his whole house." Vv.52b.53. His weak faith became strong and great, he also became a zealous and blessed preacher of faith to his family, and finally got his wife and children and servants to join him in being faithful disciples of the Lord Jesus.

Here we hear, my friends, how believers are increasingly cured of their unbelief. From this we learn first of all that Christ does not reject those who out of weakness do not want to believe firmly before they see, feel, and discover, but that he also rebukes this as a great weakness in them. Do not be deceived by the sectarians of our day, who lead their hearers to strive unceasingly for the sweet feeling of grace and the perceptible witness of the Holy Ghost in their hearts, and not to consider themselves children of God until they have received this. This is a completely wrong order of salvation. Such preachers seek to plant in their hearers that from which Christ seeks to free his Christians; they praise that in them as a true sign of a true Christian which Christ rebukes in them as weakness and sickness.

Hence, whoever hitherto did not want to let anything calm him until God, as it were, had given him visible and feelable signs and wonders must recognize this, as a remnant of his natural unbelief; from now on he must accustom himself to build and found everything only on the Word. A Christian must thank God, if he sends many perceptible signs of comfort into his heart; but he must not desire to have these remain always in his heart. He must accustom himself

in all the distresses of body and soul, in all afflictions, anxieties, and temptations not to ask, What does not heart say now? how do I feel? but rather, What is written? What does God promise sinners?

Oh, if a Christian begins to practise that, if he begins to seek his comfort in God's Word and. clings to it, his natural unbelief must increasingly leave; the seed of faith which he carries in his heart grows ever stronger, and finally becomes a deeply rooted tree, which not even the fiercest storm of temptation is able to uproot. Then God is also so gracious that he lets such a Christian who clings firmly in all misery to his Word increasingly experience how he need never be ashamed of his faith, how God must help those at all times who hope in him for the sake of the honor of his name, of his Word, for the sake of his promise, and his truth. Finally, an assailed Christian often arrives at the point of being able to say, "When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be light unto me." Micah 7:8b. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death," though I feel nothing, though on the contrary I find in me nothing but wrath, condemnation of my conscience, and. the power of sin, yes, though it seems as though I were completely forsaken by God,"I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." Ps 23:4.

Oh, if a Christian arrives at the point, where he is satisfied with a few supports of the Word, if he desires nothing but that God should not take his Word from him, and preserves him in it, then he is strong in the faith, and as we read in our today's epistle, he is strong in the Lord and in the power of his might because he has put on the whole armor of God, so that he is able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Then he has nothing to fear from his last misery, his hour of death. He knows: though in death everything may leave me, and all comfort forsake me, I will cling firmly to the Word of grace for poor sinners, and with this anchor of hope confidently venture upon the sea of death. This anchor keeps me fast, with its help I will arrive at the shore of that blessed land where my faith ceases and blessed sight will begin.

Oh then, all of you, my dear hearers, if you learn to believe in the Word in the darkness of this wretched life, the eternal day will finally arrive in the new heaven and on the new earth where righteousness will dwell. Amen.

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