[AI translation] My Christian Brothers and Sisters!
There are uncomfortable questions in our lives that tend to embarrass us when they are asked because we don't really know how to answer them. One of these questions is, "Do you really believe, with full conviction, what you say you believe? Do you really believe in God, in the risen Jesus Christ, in the forgiveness of sins, in eternal life, in the resurrection? Or do you just say, without thinking, without any serious conviction, to the questions of the Lord's Supper, "Yes, I believe and confess that? Many times we ourselves do not really know whether we really believe or not. We do not really examine ourselves from this point of view. We don't even think much about the biblical warning that "without faith it is impossible to please God", which implies that the greatest sin is unbelief, because unbelief is the source of all other sins that lead a person to damnation! Many times we only think we believe, and then some great trial, some great shock or calamity reveals that we had no faith at all.
An interesting incident once happened in a small village. The door of the fire station was always locked, and the key was hung on a peg, the location of which was known to the firemen, so that whenever a fire broke out they could open the door and get access to the necessary equipment. Once, when the door had not been opened for a long time, a fire broke out in the village. Firemen rushed in, looking for the key, but could not find it. It was lost, nobody knew about it. They tried all kinds of false keys to get into the storeroom, to no avail. Time passed, the fire spread, and by the time they finally bolted the door, it was too late, the house was already burnt to the ground. From that time on, it was decided that, whether it was needed or not, someone would check every day that the key was in place and open the door.
This is what happens to us. We live in peace, thinking we have our faith in order, until some great calamity strikes us, and then we find out that we have no faith. Then we who thought we were believers suddenly start to scramble, choke, despair, look for help, and even though we know that God has help for us, we can't get it. His whole world is closed to us because we lack the faith to open it. It is good to try the key in the lock from time to time to see if it really opens. Just recently I heard of someone who was a great believer in spiritualism and happily proclaimed that his faith was so rock-solid that it could withstand any strain. He declared with absolute conviction that he was not afraid to die, because his faith was stronger even than death. Soon afterwards the last hour of his life came, and those who saw him die said that perhaps no man in the world had ever had such an agonizing death. The wretched, deceived soul screamed so, and wailed so terribly, that through the closed window, and in the noise of the street, people were frightened to listen to him. This soul had thought all his life that he believed, and only when it was too late did he realize that he had not a shred of faith. Let us not be like that! We live in times when we must be ready at any moment to open the door of the fire station. So it's good for us to try the key to see if it really opens.
We all know well the case of the Apostle Thomas with the risen Jesus. Even today, we still call doubting the apostle Thomas. But let us not look down on this man because of his doubts! There are two kinds of doubt. Some doubt because they look down on things of faith, saying that modern man cannot believe "just anything". He thinks that when he is told of the great truths of God's hidden world, it is fitting for him to smile indulgently. Such a man often doubts because he loves to argue, loves to contradict, doubts because he does not want to believe. This is the doubting of unbelief. Thomas' was not like that. A believer has doubt in his heart too, but it is because he wants to be sure of his faith. He feels painfully that his faith lacks conviction, he is in doubt, he is searching for a basis on which to base his faith. I once had a conversation with a very serious, learned, famous man about the afterlife. He listened with great devotion, and at the end he said, "Oh, how I wish I could believe all that! He would have been very happy to hear the news of Jesus' resurrection from his fellow disciples, but he did not dare to believe it, fearing to be disappointed, and he was tormented by doubts, seeking assurance. I am always very glad when someone comes to me with such doubts to talk about the great questions of their faith. Such doubting usually leads to the consolidation of faith.
Unfortunately, there are many who are the opposite of Thomas. There is a so-called religious type among churchgoers who believe everything because they take nothing seriously. You can tell it what you want, it says so! They agree to everything, approve of everything, promise anything - and then everything stays the same! It is from this inertia that the Word of God now wants to bring us out. Through the example of the Apostle Thomas, the Lord is telling you to seek for yourself a certainty, an unshakeable foundation for your faith!
It is good to know what faith is! The original language of the Old Testament uses a word for faith which, in Hungarian, literally translated, means a support, like the pillar of a bridge on which the arch of a bridge spanning over water rests. To believe, therefore, means to lean on, to lean with all my weight on something. So to believe in Jesus Christ is to build all my thoughts on Him, to rest all my burdens on Him, to hold, lift, carry all my life on Him. As we can see, faith is an unshakeable, solid thing, like a well-built bridge that can withstand enormous tests of strength! Is this your faith? Thomas knew very well that his was not - and Thomas's fault was not that he doubted, but that he sought to be certain in the wrong way.
The big problem is that many of us today still want to have assurance in the way that Thomas did, even though Jesus rebuked and rebuked Thomas for this way. So what was this way that was wrong? Thomas wanted to feel the scars on Jesus' hands with his finger, he wanted to perceive at all costs what he should have believed. He wanted to gain assurance of faith through his external senses. We too fall into the error of confusing feeling with faith. The other day, I tried to comfort a suffering man by telling him about God's love and explaining that God loved him too. Our father almost cried out at this and said: What can I do, I never feel that God loves me!
Jesus told Thomas that happy are those who do not see and believe. This means that faith is not an emotion, faith is independent of the ups and downs of our moods. How terrible it would be if God only loved us when we felt like it. For there is nothing more variable than human emotion! At one time I feel that I am a child of God, that I am very close to Him, that we are very close to each other - at another time I feel that God has rejected me, that He does not care for me, that we are separated. Well, Brothers and Sisters, every believer should remember this well: it is not important what I feel, because when I think of myself, when I seriously examine myself, I cannot feel anything but that oh, I am a miserable man! Instead of his feelings, the believer must rely on the Word of God. The greatest example of this is Abraham, who, with his wife, asked God in vain for a child, but God did not give him one, and who, at the age of one hundred and one, finally fulfilled God's promise to make him the father of many nations. If Abraham had then listened to his feelings, he might have laughed well at God's promise, but it is recorded of him that he "hoped against hope, believing" that the divine promise was true. The apostle Paul records of him that he fully believed that what God promised, God did; and God did it. Yes, to hope despite feelings: that is faith! To hope in the midst of the utmost hopelessness: that is faith! To such Jesus says, blessed are they that see not, and believe!
The other mistake Thomas made was that he wanted to experience first and then believe. We too sometimes fall into the mistake of thinking that we must first have faith experience, so that we can have a good foundation for our faith. But even the support of experience, of experience, cannot give us complete certainty of faith. The fact that I was converted at some time, the fact that I have had moving experiences in my life in which I experienced the power of God, does not give me any assurance that I still have a living, solid faith. I cannot live by past experiences, even if my own experiences are. Jesus says: Blessed are they that see not, and believe, that is, who can believe without experience, without the constant chasing after renewed experiences, even in the drabness of spiritual everyday life.
On what, then, should we base our faith, if neither our feelings nor our experiences are sufficient, and may even lead us astray?! The other Scripture I read is: "Faith is by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." Or in shorter words, faith is by hearing the Word of God. The only solid, unchanging foundation on which our faith can rest without danger is the Word of God, the Scriptures! Moods may change, experiences may fade, heaven and earth may pass away, but my words, says Jesus, will by no means pass away. Believe everything because God has said it. Believe not that your prayers will be answered by God because you have had a case of it, or know it from the experience of others, but because Jesus promised that: Ask whatever you want in my name, and I will do it! Believe for the forgiveness of your sins only because God has promised that whoever repents and confesses his sin, the Lord is faithful and just to forgive him! Believe in the goodness of God alone, for it is written, "Thy understanding shall watch over thee, and thy understanding shall keep thee."
Believe in eternal life, because Jesus said that no one can snatch your life out of His hands! God's words never change. Only what God Himself says is certain, but then it is absolutely certain! On this we can rest our faith! The unconditional trust of our lives in God's Word, the total trust of our lives in God's one promise: that is true faith! It is faith that is worked in our hearts by God the Holy Spirit Himself through hearing or reading His Word. If you want this kind of faith: listen, read the Word, and prayerfully ask for the work of God's Spirit!
Amen.
Date: 16 May 1943.