5TH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen.

Dear friends in Christ Jesus!

Very many think that there is nothing easier than to believe. Oh, they think, if Christianity depends upon faith, it is a simple matter to be a Christian. People have such thoughts mostly because they have never earnestly tried to believe or have never experienced any temptation of faith. It is first during the time of distress and temptation that one learns how difficult it is to believe. Then is revealed that there is no greater art than to believe from the heart.

One of the occasions which reveals the difficulty of faith is especially prayer, prayer when one really desires something from God which he needs and yet which only God can give him. If one is in great need and man's help is of no avail; if one is oppressed by want and has no prospects of getting bread for himself, for his wife and child; or if the hour of death is about to strike and one can no longer cling to human comfort, and if one is to step into eternity with only a free trust in God's grace in Christ: ah, those are the hours which show how difficult it is to pray in faith! How the poor heart trembles! If only it could hold to something tangible, so that it would not have to be satisfied only with an absolute faith in that which is invisible! Then the thought arises in the soul: Is God also with me? How still, how lonesome it is! Does God hear my sobs as well and see my tears? Is he not far removed from me up in heaven? Will he really turn to me in my chamber? Will the great infinite God, who rules the universe and who dwells amid the hallelujahs of the angels, will he regard me, ask about me, hear my weak crying, clod of dust, little worm that I am? Am I not a sinner? In days of prosperity I have so often forgotten about God, will he incline his ear to me, now that trouble drives me to him? Alas, now I see: I could not escape God; I have at last fallen into his hands! When He called, I often did not hear; now when I call he will also not hear me!

That is what our heart tells us in trouble. Oh, that means a struggle! A thousand doubts then arise! then the heart tosses like a restless ocean; then, as it were, darkness closes in; the storm clouds gather about his head, and instead of a gracious answer, he expects thunder and lightning, God's punishment, abandonment in trouble, death, and ruin. Yes, in trouble when the mere knowledge of having prayed cannot ease the soul; when prayer must become earnest; when one knows that something must actually be obtained from God by prayer; when one notices that now is the time when God will actually let his heart be moved - then it becomes clear how difficult believing is, how the heart does not want to believe.

And yet this believing confidence while one prays is so absolutely necessary! As little as a rowboat can reach the harbor without an oar, as little as incense gives off its odor if it is not scattered upon burning coals, so little is prayer acceptable to God, powerful, and heard without faith. What the kernel in the shell and the soul in the body is, that is what faith during prayer is. In Hebrews 11 we read, "Without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Heb 11:6. Yes, James says, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God...and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord." Jas 1:5-7.

However, the Scriptures assure us that God's children actually pray with believing confidence for we read, "Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble; thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear." Ps 107:17.

Now since everything in prayer depends chiefly upon it being offered in faith, and yet our heart finds it so hard to believe, permit me now to show you what should awaken you not to pray in doubt but in the firm faith that you will be heard.

The text. John 16:23-30.

My friends, this entire Gospel contains an admonition of Christ to the Apostles and all Christians not to doubt that their prayer in his name will be heard.

Let us therefore answer the question:

WHY SHOULD A CHRISTIAN PRAY FIRMLY CONFIDENT THAT HIS PRAYER WILL BE HEARD?

I. The Infallible Truthfulness of the Triune God.

II. The Heavenly Father's Almighty Love.

III. The Son of God's Continual. Mighty Intercession, and finally,

IV. The Holy Spirit's Intercessions with Unutterable Sighs.

Oh God, our heart quotes your Word, "In all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee." Ex 20:24; fulfil your promise even now to us, since your name is to be remembered, that is, your holy Word is to be preached; come to us and bless us for the sake of your grace and truth. Amen.

I.

"Verily, verily. I say unto you. Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you." That is the way Christ speaks at the beginning of our Gospel. The first of the four immovable pillars upon which rests the certainty that our prayer will be heard, if it is offered in Jesus' name, that is, trusting in and appealing to his merit and reconciliation, the first reason is therefore: the infallible truthfulness of the Triune God.

If a pious and rich man had a son who to his sorrow was universally despised, and he stated: Whoever turns to my son and will seek his friendship, he will receive from me whatever he asks, who then would still doubt that he would receive from that father whatever he asks for, even if before he had been his enemy, just as long, as he had made his son his friend? That could take place only if he had reasons to doubt the truthfulness of the man.

By nature we all were indeed enemies of God, and we, therefore, have no right to come before God with requests; still less could we expect to have our prayers answered. But God also has a Son, Jesus Christ, whom all the world despises and rejects; and he has made a covenant of grace with us: whoever believes in his dear Son, to him should be given everything for which he asks.

In this way our prayer receives a secure, immovable foundation. We do not have to ask ourselves, Am I also holy, worthy enough to be heard by God? but only, Do I believe in God's Son? do I rely upon his merit? do I appear before God not in my own works but in the gracious righteousness of my Savior? If we do this, we. can and should not doubt that our praying is acceptable to God and will certainly be heard by him.

The Triune God clearly says, "Call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." Ps 50:15. Now as David says, "The word of the Lord is right, and all his works are done in truth," Ps 33:4; he is, as Moses testifies, "not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent," Num 23,19a; and Solomon testifies to us, "There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand." Prov.19:21. It would be false humility if a person were to think: Will the holy God answer my prayer which arises in an impure heart and is spoken by sinful lips? No; God has promised, that he wants to hear all who pray in Christ's name; that is settled and cannot be overthrown by our unworthiness; yes, if we were to doubt, we would commit the terrible sin of denying God's truthfulness; we would declare that God does not keep his promises; he repents having stated that he is so gracious; yes in one word, we call God a liar.

Christ, however, knew the human heart; he knew how difficult it is because of our great corruption to trust God like a child and hope for an answer to our prayers; he therefore even strengthened and confirmed the promise of an answer with an oath and exclaimed, "VERILY, VERILY, I say unto you. Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you." Therefore, if we do not want to believe God when he gives his promise, we should and must still believe him, since he has sworn to this promise with an oath.

Therefore my friends, do not listen to your heart when you pray; do not look upon yourselves;, direct all your thoughts to God's promise and his oath; cling to that; rely upon that and do not doubt: God will give you what you pray for so that he may keep the honor of his truthfulness. Speak this way to God: I am indeed a sinner who is not worthy of grace, but I come not in my name but in Christ's name; I therefore firmly believe that you will keep your promise and graciously hear me.

As certainly as God will not descend from his throne and as certainly as he will never lay aside his divine glory but remain God into all eternity, so certainly will he answer even the most miserable groans of a poor sinner who relies upon Christ. For the Scriptures say, "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance," Rom 11:29. "Shall unbelief make the faith of God without effect?" Rom 3:2; "If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful; he cannot deny himself." 2 Tim 2:13. David relies upon that and says, "When thou saidst Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek." Ps 27:8. Here you have the most wonderful example of one who prays so that he will be heard: he relies first of all upon God's promise and his infallible truthfulness.

II.

I have shown you this main pillar which carries the edifice of our unshaken faith that our prayer will be heard; but now hear how each person of the Triune God especially supports this certainty; I therefore in the second place direct you to the almighty love of the heavenly Father; Christ in his admonition reminds the apostles of this in the words, "The Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me. and have believed that I came out from God." V. 27.

Beyond a doubt, God loves man for he is his creation and God himself has assured us of this fact a thousand times in his Word. One characteristic of true love must of necessity be that it is inclined to do the will of the one who loves him and surrenders itself to him. If man's love to God is poured into his heart through the Holy Ghost, though it may be ever so small and ever so weak,

it reveals itself at all times by the man desiring from his heart to be obedient to God's will in everything. But what is our love in comparison to God's love? Less than a drop in comparison to the ocean, less than a little spark in comparison to a fire which fills heaven and earth. As certain as this is, so certain can we be that God's love burns to answer our prayers, to fulfil all our desires. The Psalmist therefore says, "The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him; he also will hear their cry,and will save them." Ps 145:18. When therefore we doubt whether God will answer our prayer, we do nothing else but declare that God loves us less than we love him. Who, then, must not reprimand himself, if he ponder this? We see how mother love hurries to the aid of a petitioning and weeping child, and God's love should not be as tender as that of a sinful mother? Far be it! On the contrary, the Scriptures say, "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands." Is 49:15,16a.

Recall what great things God has already given us even before we could ask him for a thing! Who could ask God to call him into existence out of nothing? Without our prayer he gave us body and soul, yes, oh infinite love! without us asking him he gave us his own dear only-begotten Son; what will he now not give us if we ask him? This greater thing which he has done for us should awaken us to trust him also in lesser things. However everything which we could ask for is infinitely less than the way God has honored us in suffering and dying for us. Thus God shows that his love toward sinners is unending, infinite, boundless. Certainly, if we doubt that our prayers will be heard, the chief cause must be that we either do not yet know this infinite love or have not pondered it. For it is impossible that God, who, gave himself and with this grace the kingdom of heaven to us without us asking him, yes, while we were still his enemies, could refuse, us when we have become his friends through faith and come to him in prayer.

Therefore, my dear Christian, whenever you ask for something from your heavenly Father, think of the sacrifice which his eternal love brought when he gave his only-begotten Son for all sinners, hence also for you; all doubt will disappear and you will exclaim with the apostle, "God that spared not his own Son, but, delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" Rom 8:32. "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." Rom 5:8b.9.

Finally, even if man's love, no matter how great it may be, is not enough to grant all our petitions directed to it because man is weak, God's love on the other hand is almighty. No want is so great which it cannot help, no danger so great which it cannot turn aside, no distress so terrible from which it cannot snatch.you, no perplexity so great in which it cannot provide the way out; in short, for the almighty love of the heavenly Father nothing is difficult, to say nothing about it being impossible.

Cling to this love, my dear Christian, when you pray and do not doubt: it is more willing to give you than you can be eager to take. Do not worry that something which is good for you would be refused you, but be concerned that you come to recognize the answer to your prayer and praise God for hearing it.

III.

Now we come to the third reason why we believe our prayer will be heard, and this is the Son of God's continual, mighty intercession.

Christ says in our Gospel, "I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you." V. 26. At first glance this indeed seems to refute the comfort of Christ's intercession, but it only seems so. Christ does not mean to say that he absolutely refuses to pray for us, but that he is not the only one who dares to pray, that his intercession does not annul our prayer, that his is not the only intercession acceptable to God, but that he merely supports our prayer by his intercession, that we should not stop praying our own prayers but should ourselves pray so much the more confidently.

That this is the meaning of Christ's words we see when Christ a few moments after this talk offered his wonderful high priestly prayer to God in which he said, "Father, I pray for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine... Holy Father keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are...Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one, as Thou Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." Jn 17:9,11,20,21. See here, how ardently our High Priest prays for the apostles and all Christians until the end of the world! Therefore, even St. Paul tells us, "Christ is at the right hand, of God, who maketh intercession for us," Rom 8:34; and St. John declares, "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus. Christ the righteous."! Jn 2:1. And in the letter to the Hebrews we read, "Because Christ continueth ever, he hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." Heb 7:24,25.

Herein lies inexpressible comfort. How confidently we can pray since we know that the Son of God is at our side! When we beseech God for something, Christ adds his prayer and says, Yes, Father, do what this sinner asks of you; he is one whom I have redeemed; he belongs to the sheep of my flock; hear him, Father, for my sake; look at my satisfaction for him and be gracious to him.

Oh my dear hearer, if we really believe that Christ supports our prayer in this fashion, how can we still doubt that God will hear us? If the heavenly Father rejects something we pray for, he must at the same time reject his own dear Son; will he do that? Truly not. What should our most gracious. Savior not receive from the Father by the power and merit of his availing atonement? In Christ the entrance into the heavenly sanctuary is open, he himself, brings our wishes, sighs, and prayers into the secret counsel of the Triune God. Him the Father should not hear? refuse something to God himself? for Christ and the Father are one; the Son is in the bosom of the Father, he is in the Father and the Father in him!

Even in the state of humiliation Christ says, "I know that thou hearest me always." Jn 11:42. Should the Father hear him in the days of the flesh when he went about in the form of a servant, and in the state of exaltation, now that he has ascended the throne of glory and given him all power in heaven and on earth, he should not be heard by the Father? Far be it! Therefore, as certainly as God's Son is heard, so certainly are we. Blessed are all they who come before the Father in Christ's name!

IV.

One more thing remains which takes away the last doubt that we will be heard when we pray, and that is fourthly the Holy Spirit's pleas with unutterable sighs.

Anyone who believes in God's Word will not deny that true prayer is most certainly heard; yet that is the very thing which unceasingly wants to rob us of our confidence and weaken our faith; we suppose that we do not pray correctly and so our prayer is vain and weak; we do not doubt so much that God is gracious enough to us but that we are too unskilled for such a great work. But even in the face of this temptation we have a positive, sure comfort. This Christ gives us in our Gospel in the words, "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again. I leave the world, and go to the Father." V. 28. Why does Christ repeat this here again where he is speaking of prayer? Because he went to the Father in order to send the comforter, the Holy Ghost. St. Paul explains this to us, "The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." Rom 8:26.

Therefore, though we may feel ever so unskilled for prayer; though we may not often know not only how but also what we should pray for, we are nevertheless to pour our heart out before God to the best of our ability. Our sighs are not in vain; they are a work of the Holy Ghost. Now should God not hear the sighs, the wishes, the desires, the imploring which his Holy Spirit himself works in us? This means that he would disdain and reject his own work. That is impossible. On the contrary, God assures us in the Prophet Isaiah, "And it shall come to pass that, before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear." Is 65:24. The words of our prayer have not even passed our lips when our desires already ascend to heaven, are written into God's book and we can and should be certain of one these two. things, either that God will give us what we ask for, or something which is better, for what not we but the Holy Spirit in us prayed to God.

Oh my dearest friends, do not let your flesh and blood deceive you into despising your prayer, because God regards it highly if it is offered in faith; it has great influence if it is offered earnestly. Let us at all times "come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." Heb 4:16.

Prayer is a glorious advantage in true Christianity; it is a trusting conversation with God; a precious antidote against despair in all distress; a refreshing drink in the heat of temptation; a strong wall against the temptation of the flesh, the world, and Satan; a chain uniting us with heaven; a key to the treasure house of God, yes, to the heart of the heavenly Father; a cordial in anxiety; a helpful refuge in the anguish of death, a foretaste of eternal life and a participation in the enjoyment of the heavenly marina of the saints and angels.

Pray therefore at all times and rest assured that, even if you prostrate yourselves before God with tears, sighs, yes, can desire something only in great weakness, even this prayer receives, even this seeking finds, even this soft knocking rings in God's ears and it will be opened unto you. Just do not forget these four pillars: God's truthfulness, the Father's love, the Son's intercession, and the Holy Spirit's pleas; rely upon these things; with them drive away all doubt; by them strengthen your faith; then, equipped by prayer, you will be strong, daily receive grace, power, and blessings from above until your prayer will become an eternal song of praise and your joy be perfect before God's throne. Amen.

SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION John 15:26-16:4

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all! Amen.

Dear friends in Christ Jesus!

Today when comparisons are made with by-gone days no point is subject to more boasting than that today we have a much clearer conception of God than in the past. They say, Formerly, especially under heathenism, God was thought of as a wrathful, vengeful Being; but now through the gentle light of enlightenment such dark clouds are driven from the face of the most high Being; finally, after a thousand-year struggle of superstition against the truth, God stands there as the Father of all men, and in every heart which has not shut out the newly risen light, lives the joyful consciousness, "God is love."

Many who cannot differentiate the false from the true light are deluded by such talk. And no wonder; the wish is father to the hope. Every person has a conscience which says to him: You are a sinner and therefore you are deserving of punishment. Oh, how the natural man loves the report, that the teaching that God is the wrathful Revenger of all ungodly conduct is a fable, a false Jewish notion, which is now displaced by a deeper investigation into God's essence.

But how can a person deceive himself more bitterly than this way? What kind of a father is he who does not become angry and who looks with pleasure upon his children even if they despise him, laugh at his commands, and go from one act of wickedness to the next? What sort of a judge is he who is not zealous in avenging all evil deeds and without respect of persons pronouncing the punishment threatened in the law and causing, it to be executed? Such fathers are called weaklings and such judges biased. Therefore can we propound more unworthy ideas about God than to consider him such a weak, good-natured Father and a biased, unjust Judge? A God who does not become angry at sin nor avenges the transgression of his commandments is a wretched God, yes, is no God. Of course, we should not suppose that God becomes angry the same way a man does, whose anger is always spotted with sin and, as the Scriptures say, does not do what is right before God; we also dare not think that God thirsts for vengeance, that he gloats over man's misfortunes, that is, rejoices in the ruin of his foes. Scripture teaches nothing like that; it says that God's anger and vengeance is holy; if we would deny that we would deny God's holiness. However, a God who is only love and not holy is a miserable idol, a production of man's fancy.

Of a truth, this miserable enlightenment has so blinded men that they deny God's wrath and vengeance. Do not suppose that this is written only in the Bible. This is written in flaming letters in the history of all ages and in the great book of nature. When we hear that whole nations were brutally wiped out, that entire countries were frightfully ravaged, bloodbaths instituted and whole regions depopulated by pestilence and famine; when we hear that the earth often opened its mouth and swallowed thousands, when we hear of cloudbursts and large rivers flooding, flourishing fields being destroyed and property together with man and beast being carried to destruction; when we hear the storms roar and the thunder crack and the peaceful home set on fire by lightning and see people struck down in a second - when we see this and still believe in a God who rules the world, can we deny any longer that this God is

not only love but must also be angry with the world in which sinners live? Without a doubt.

But as I said before, we dare not be surprised that unbelievers look upon their most unworthy ideas of God as enlightenment and the true knowledge; for it is impossible for him to know the heavenly Father aright who does not believe in his dear Son. Christ speaks of this in our today's Gospel. By its guidance let us ponder this some more.

The text. John 15:26 - 16:4.

A year ago on the basis of this Gospel I presented to you the comfort of the Holy Ghost which Christians have during the persecutions which they suffer from the world for the sake of their faith. This time let us direct our attention to Christ's words, "These things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me." V. 3. I speak to you about:

THE INSEPARABLE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE FATHER AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST

I order to explain this, listen

I. What This Means: Know Christ?

II. To What degree is This Knowledge not to be Separated from the Knowledge of God?

I.

Knowing Christ is the noblest and most blessed knowledge which a mortal can receive. For in Christ lies hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. This, however, is not merely knowing the story of his life, suffering, death, resurrection and ascension, nor does it consist only in having learned the1 teaching of his person, that he is God and man, nor of his office, that he is High Priest, Prophet, and King of all men, the Savior of all sinners, and can talk about these things and answer questions. Though it is important that a person be thoroughly instructed in these doctrines of Christ from youth up, he can nevertheless in spite of all his head-knowledge be lacking in the true knowledge of Christ. When the Holy Scriptures speak of knowing, they do not mean merely a historical learning received by understanding and memory, but something living, something which the Holy Spirit works in us; Christ therefore says in our Gospel, "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me." V. 26.

You now perhaps ask, How can this happen? In this way, my friends: By nature no person understands that with all his works, with all his wishing, striving, and ability, his is a lost cause. By nature every person thinks that he must make himself worthy of his salvation by a pious, God-pleasing life. Most say that they hope to enter heaven because they rely upon God's goodness, grace, and mercy; but if they would only earnestly examine themselves, they would find out that they build their heart's trust mainly upon themselves.

As long as a person remains in this delusion of self-righteousness, so long he still does not have the true knowledge of God, even though otherwise he may know much about him. In addition, no person can penetrate this wall of selfrighteousness by himself: This is the work of the Holy Spirit. When God's

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Word, particularly the Law, is preached: You shall fear, love, and trust in God above all things, and the like, then in man's heart the voice of conscience is stirred up: You have not done this; you don't want to nor can you fear, love, and trust God like that. You therefore do not please God; you are worthy of being rejected.

Sad to say, most resist this voice of God which they perceive in their soul when they read and hear God's Word. Most try to persuade themselves of something else; they think: Oh, it is not: as bad as it seems to be in the gloomy hours. Thus they disperse and banish these serious thoughts so that they sink into the cares or lusts of the world.

Blessed is that man who is not reprimanded in vain by God's Spirit; blessed is he who searches further in God's Word and cries out to the Holy Ghost when his sinful corruption is revealed to him, that it would become ever more clear what a great sinner he is! This does not lead to a false sadness and melancholy but to a sorrow which,as the apostle says, works repentance unto salvation which no one will regret. For the Holy Spirit will not let that person who becomes terror-stricken at God's law despair, but then he also reminds him that Jesus Christ cameinto the world to save sinners, that He is a Physician for the sick, the weak, and the wretched, and not for those who think themselves well and strong, that he calls sinners to repentance and not the righteous.

You see, my friends, when a person throws away everything upon which he relied before, in which he comforted himself, wherewith he set his mind at , rest; when he begins to hunger and thirst after another righteousness which avails before God and which he does not find in himself; when he begins to look around for Christ with yearning and to think: Oh, that you were also my Savior! Oh, that I also shared in your grace! then, then the sun of righteousness enters with its first rays into the heart of the sinner, then first Christ becomes really necessary, lovely, beautiful, great, and wonderful to that man.

Then such a person also begins to understand the Bible, especially the words of Christ, which he pondered in the past without detecting special power and having special delight in them in a completely different way. That person finally arrives at the point where he wants to know nothing but Christ and nothing tastes but Christ, and he is certain of heaven and salvation. We see this clearly in the Apostle Paul, who at first was captured by a shocking selfrighteousness and as a Pharisee supposed he was a blameless man who would certainly enter heaven by his works. How does this man speak later on when the light of the Gospel of Christ had risen upon him? He confesses, "Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." Phil 3:6-9. See from this: that is what it means to know Christ; it is nothing else than to believe in him, take comfort in him, recognize him as his Savior, and actually find all salvation, all righteousness, all blessedness in him. As one, for example, says that he knows another is his friend, that is, that he has experienced and become aware in deed and in truth that he is our friends, means us well, and will not forsake us in any distress, but remains faithful until death.

Now my friends, have all of you known Christ, known him in this way? Have all of you had such experiences with Christ? He is the Savior of all men; for that reason he is also yours; the only question remaining is that you also recognize him as yours. Oh, blessed are they who have come to this knowledge! then they have the true philosopher's stone, the One Thing which we all need.

II.

This leads me to the second portion of our meditation, where we will hear in how far this knowledge cannot be separated from the knowledge of God the Father.

Christ indicates this in our Gospel in the words, "These things will they do unto you, because they have not know the Father, nor me." V. 3. Christ thus says that the enemies of the Gospel and the persecutors of Christians have not only not known him but they have also not known the Father. Who boasted more that they knew the Father than an Israelite? "We have one Father, even God," Jn 8:41, the Jews once unanimously yelled at Christ. And which nation for the past centuries has boasted more that it alone worships the true God than the Mohammedan? Finally, who these days exalts his pure knowledge of God more than the rationalist of our times? And all of these reject God's Son as their Savior.

Note these points. That there is one God a person can indeed know without knowing the Savior. The heathen have known of his existence from nature and from the forceful testimony of their conscience. But it is an entirely different matter to know that there is a God and to know who and what he is, what his essence is, what!his will is, what his counsels are, and how he is minded toward us.

This is the knowledge which Christ denies to all the foes of the Gospel who donot know him. Therefore he says in another place, "Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him." Mt 11: 27c. John testifies the same, "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the

Father." 1 Jn 2:23. God dwells in a light which none can approach, that is he is so deep that none can find bottom, so high that none can reach him, so great that none can grasp him, so mysterious that none can understand him.

To be sure, he reveals himself clearly in his works, and in him we: live, move, and have our being; therefore, we should seek him so that we might find him. However, this natural revelation should arouse us to look around for a true revelation; this should nourish in us the longing: Oh, that I might find God whose existence I detect! Oh, that I might know how I can serve him and come to him!

However, in Christ, his dear Son, God has stepped forth from his unapproachable light. Even in the Old Testament, even then it was the Son of God who appeared to the saints and established a covenant with his people. But in the New Testament God stepped forth even more clearly from that impenetrable darkness. In Christ he, the Invisible, has become visible; in him he has revealed his mysterious essence; in him he has revealed his eternal counsels and his secret will for us men. In Christ the infinite gap between us and God has been filled. Christ is the mirror in which God lets himself be seen, for he is the reflection of his glory and the image of his essence. Also in Christ alone God wants to be known. Christ therefore also says: I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Here you see, my friends, the inseparable union between the knowledge of God the Father and his dear Son Jesus Christ. Vainly does man make the keenest studies of the highest Being; without Christ he remains eternally far removed and strange. Vainly have the so-called philosophers undertaken the assignment to find eternal truth through the powers of human reason; whoever does not find it in him who confesses, "I am the Truth!" remains in darkness. Everything which man finds out about God through his own powers remains vague notions without reality. God is a God who does not intend to be known alone by the learned but just as well by children and the simple. If a child and a very

simple person knows. Christ, he also has the true knowledge of God such as no wise man of the world can attain, and if he ponders the essence of God a million years.

It is a beautiful thing to be wise in matters relating to this world; however, anyone who, seeks true wisdom in that will find if turned into folly in God's eyes. First, he must have grasped the Second Article concerning Christ, then he will understand the First Article of God the Father, almighty Maker of heaven and earth. Therefore all who do: not do. this reject not only Christ but also the Father. They set up a false God, not as he is but as they think he is; they do not serve the eternal, true, living God but an idea created by their reason. Therefore, all who do not believe that Christ is the true Son of God and yet observe an external divine worship, really observe merely a worship of idols just as those heathen who worshiped the sun, moon, and stars. Their temples in which Christ is not worshiped are heathen temples, no better than the heathen temple of Diana at Ephesus. Christ is God and outside of Christ there is no other God; he who does not seize Christ does not seize God, and if he thinks he is, he is grasping, merely a deceit of his heart. That is why John says: He who does not remain in the doctrine of Christ does not have God.

As crushing as this doctrine is for those who deny Christ, for it calls them idolaters and deniers of God, just so comforting is it for believers. We see from this that even the simplest can have the true wisdom, that in this question the learned does not have the least advantage over the unlearned. See from this that you should not tremble slavishly before God's frightening majesty; the way you find Christ to be is the way you should also find God; as Christ is minded toward you, so is. God also minded toward you. As Christ is full of grace, full of friendliness, full of patience, full of eternal infinite love toward sinners, so is God. If Christ is your friend, then God is your friend. If you confidently approach Christ, so you need not fear God, for then you have already approached God. If you have Christ, you have God, if you have God you already have heaven, life, and eternal salvation; then you have everything for time and for eternity. Therefore: hymn 366,2.