[AI translation] Our help and sanctification of our souls come from the Lord, who is Father, Son, Holy Spirit, the whole Trinity, one, eternal, true God. Amen.Let us sing the first verse of Psalm 89:
"I will sing the mercies of the Lord forever,
And I proclaim his faithfulness always,
For I say his mercy endureth for ever.
Which he will so build, that it shall stand for ever,
And that thou wilt strengthen it to the heavens.
Thy holy righteousness, and thy vow!"
Let us pray:
Gracious God, our Father! Worshippers of your holy name, your loving and beloved children, from near and far, gathered in one great invisible assembly before your majestic throne, we praise you for the great grace that you now address us again with your Word. Act with your Holy Spirit so that our open hearts may receive with humility and obedience the message from you! Amen.
(Let us listen to the Calvin Choir singing Schütz: Blessed be the whole earth!)
The Word of God, on the basis of which I would now like to pass on the message entrusted to me, is written in the Book of Acts, Part 16, verses 30-31, as follows:
"Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and both you and the people of your house will be saved."
Dear Invisible Church!
A father of a family with a wife and children at home once asked the apostle Paul after a great spiritual upheaval: "What shall I do to be saved?" And then the apostle said to him these words, repeated many times, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and both you and the people of your house will be saved." There is a great promise in this Word, but it also puts a tremendous responsibility on us! It focuses our attention on the salvation of ourselves and the people of our house, and brings the two into close relationship with each other. Faith in Christ has serious consequences not only for the salvation of yourself, but also for the salvation of the people of your house, the people around you. It is good to see these two so closely side by side, in relationship to each other for once!
What this Word means, above all, is that God holds us responsible for the souls of the people of our house. Let us face the serious question: how do we take this responsibility, and if we do, how do we manage it?
We have read in our church bulletins this autumn that many more parents wanted to enrol their children in our church schools this year than last year and in previous years. So many have already applied to our overcrowded schools that if we had twice as many schools, they would all be full. This is an expression of the great need that parents have, perhaps unconsciously, for their children to live a life of faith in God. It expresses the unconscious suspicion that we adults have not taken the things of faith seriously enough, that we have failed in our so-called Christianity, and that if we have failed in this way, we would at least like to make amends in our children. The world has paid a very bitter price for its contempt of God's eternal laws! And if we have been so heavily condemned for our sins, at least let the young, at least let the future, turn to God and be better than we were! May more blessings thus at least light the path of our children's lives!
This is a good request, my brothers and sisters, but it does not yet take care of the responsibility of which the Word speaks! For by sending the children entrusted to our care to school and ensuring their participation in faith formation, we have not yet settled the question of our responsibility for their salvation. And yet, for most parents, this is the sum total of their concern for the faith life of the people of their house. He entrusts his child's coming to faith, his religious education, to the school: the priest or the religious education teacher is there to set the child's affairs straight. As if the most precious inheritance of our children: their salvation, could be bought by paying tuition fees! Do we not feel that we are renting out the performance of our most sacred parental duty, and are rest assured that we have done our best?!
Sometimes it is good to think back to the vows we made when our children were baptised. We vowed then that we would raise and educate that child so that he or she would grow up to be a self-conscious follower of Christ. Many parents just raise their children, leaving someone else to lead them spiritually. But even more important is how you yourself, at home, educate the people of your house to follow Christ, how you personally care for the salvation of the people of your house. You can have someone else teach him music, languages, maths, sports, and if he does not progress well, you can blame the paid teacher, but you are primarily responsible for his salvation!
Let it be well noted: the Word speaks of the salvation of the people of your house. So it is not a question of your child learning religion as well as geography, because you consider it necessary that he should always have a spiritual crutch at hand which he can draw on when he is wounded in the storms of life. It is not a question of a general religious spirit, but of the salvation of his soul, of the glorious future inheritance which Jesus Christ has obtained and bequeathed to your child by His moving death on the cross. So much of the most precious treasure of the people of your house is at stake that the Lord made you swear at your baptism that you would take care of it and do your best to bring your child to receive this inheritance. The people of your house are mortal, and at any moment the Lord may call one of them. Could you send him on his great journey with the peace of mind that he is not in default of his salvation? Art thou accustomed to discuss this most important matter with the people of thy house? And in silent prayer, dost thou habitually discuss with God this most important matter with the people of thy house?
I know everyone today is overwhelmed with their busy-ness. We hardly have time to sit down quietly and have a serious conversation with the people of our house. But this is the source of irreparable omissions! I read somewhere that a young man was once on trial for some sort of embezzlement. The father of the accused was a well-known jurist, and his famous law books were in the public domain. How could he bring such disgrace on his name? "Yes, I remember," replied the boy, in a monotone. 'I remember very well that when I went to him for something, he looked up from his books and addressed me: "Go away now, my boy, can't you see I'm writing a book? And my father finished his book and I'm standing here! Even more terrible would be the same scene before the eternal Judge at the last judgment! If you were accused there of never having had time to deal with the questions of his salvation!
The trouble is, we have long since ceased to educate the people of our house to open and discuss among themselves their spiritual affairs, their salvation questions. We lack the spiritual atmosphere in which hearts can be opened in full confidence. And if you did not have time to listen to your little girl complain to you when her bride's heart was broken, do not expect her to bring her complaints and sorrows to you when her heart is broken! Have we still any authority of faith before the people of our house? Can they trust us in matters of faith and of the soul? Would they believe and accept our spiritual counsels and teachings? Do they not see us too closely, and know us too well, for our fine moral preaching to have long since lost its credibility with them? (Is Dad preaching, or is he serious?)
Or maybe it's just as well that the people of our house don't discuss their salvation problems with us, because we'd be embarrassed, we wouldn't really know what to say, since we ourselves are so uncertain about these things! If our child were seriously struggling with some sin, could we advise him what to do? Could we take his hand and lead him to the throne of grace? Could we reveal to him what the death and resurrection of Christ means to a sinner's heart?
What would our children's life of faith and following of Christ be if only the example we saw at home and the teaching we heard at home were the only way to educate them? And yet, wherever they go to school, whatever noble or pernicious influences they may be under elsewhere, it is at home that they are most influenced! I am often astonished to see in my children a movement, a word, a piece of my character, with an uncanny resemblance. Parents do not take seriously enough the responsibility of acknowledging that their children's souls are like a secret camera or gramophone that unconsciously records and reproduces what they see and hear. If the people in your house do not see and hear Christ at home, how can they believe in Him?
Do you value the salvation of the people of your house? Well, do you know where it begins? It starts there, that you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ! Thus saith the Word of God, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and both thou and the people of thy house shall be saved. The missionary replied: It's much easier among the Gentiles, because at least they don't think they know what Christianity is! And when we hear such a simple exhortation, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ", we think we are already beyond that! But are you really over it? Do you really believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?
So it is not a question of whether you believe in God in general, or even whether you believe in Christ: that is, whether you believe what is written about Him and what He taught to be true. All devils believe in Christ, that is, admit that His person, His doctrine, is true and amen, and that is why Satan is afraid of Him! But the question is, Do you believe in Christ? So it is a living faith by which you are connected to Christ and He is connected to you, He is flowing into your life. It is like putting a sponge in water: the sponge is in the water and the water is in the sponge. Do you believe in Jesus Christ? But not as a master teacher, poet, philosopher, social reformer, ideal, but as your personal Saviour, who for you, for you and in your place, took up the shame of the cross, the atonement for your sins, whose blood cleanses your soul and your life from all sin!
Believest thou - O, not only in His teachings, but in His holy, divine Person, Who willingly undertakes to reveal, to live out His pure, blessed, true life in thee, if thou wilt, if thou wilt, if thou wilt let, if thou wilt ask! And when you shall so believe in Christ that the people of your house shall recognize Jesus in your word, in your countenance, in your love, in your appearance, in your service, then there the Sovereign of Life will slowly take possession of the other souls in your house. The Jesus who truly lives in you by faith cannot long be resisted by the people of your house! Only you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and then you can trust in the blessed promise that "both you and the people of your house will be saved!"
Let us pray!
Most high God, our heavenly Father! We humbly thank you for your holy promise and blessed warning! We bless you for the precious inheritance which you have prepared for us in heaven through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ! O help us not to squander this most precious treasure of ourselves and of the people of our house, nor to lose it through unbelieving frivolity! Moreover, we beseech Thee to keep it for us, and to preserve us for our heavenly glory stored up with Thee! Work in us the faith by which the holy and true life of our Saviour may be made visible in our lives. We pray for our children and for all those you have entrusted to us. We pray for those near and far who are dear to our hearts. Grant them, O Lord, the greatest of all, the one thing necessary: the joy of a life reconciled and sanctified in Christ our Saviour, here on earth and for eternity! Bless our lives that we may be a blessing among souls longing for your blessing - to the glory of your holy name!
Amen.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever.
Amen
After these things the Lord bless us and keep us. The Lord make his face to shine upon us, and have mercy upon us. The Lord turn his face toward us, and give us peace through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let us sing in conclusion:
Blessed is the people who rejoice in you.
All its work, O Lord, is well done.
They walk boldly before thy shining face,
And in thy name they rejoice without ceasing,
For you exalt them to great glory,
And multiply thy good deeds upon them.
(Psalm 89:7)
Amen
Date: 1 February 1948 (Radio Service)