God Our Healer

Well, that was certainly very beautifully done. Thank you all for that special, beautiful, special music, and I hope that we can hear from you once again in the near future. I feel very blessed in my life that overall I've had relatively good health, and so I stand here this afternoon without too many aches and pains.

Even so, there have been times of sickness in my life, and I remember I've had colds and flus and fevers, maybe a back pain that would stay around a little while and leave before too long. One ache and pain that I have that was very severe was when I was age 19, my first year at Ambassador College. I had a toothache that came on and it got worse day by day, and I was not able to sleep for a couple of nights in a row. Finally, one of the students said, well, why don't you go and be anointed for it? Well, I was learning a lot of new truth. I'd never understood anointing before coming to college. So I went and I was anointed. I'd heard sermons mentioning it. That very night, the toothache began to go away. I don't think it was totally gone that first night, but it was much better. I slept some. The next night was pain-free. A merciful God healed me from the suffering of that toothache. Another time around my mid-30s, my wife will well remember this. We were in Greenville, South Carolina. I had this infection. I can't remember right arm or left arm in my wrist. It began to swell up and became very painful. Exactly what was happening, some type of infection. I don't know what it was to this day, but it began to spread. Red streaks began to go down my arm to my elbow area. So I went to a doctor and had a checkup. He wanted to put me in the hospital and put me on antibiotics. I decided not to go that route at that moment. I did look to God and trust toward Him. Being anointed, it began to be better before too long, and I recovered my health from that occasion. I remember with our children many occasions where they had sicknesses of one type or another, and that there were healings. A merciful God has come to our rescue in healing and raising up from sickness and disease. Sickness and disease happen to us all, and it makes us feel wretched. Sometimes we get to feeling so bad that the old saying comes into play. I felt so bad, I thought I was going to die, and then I got worse, and I was afraid I wouldn't die.

But at the very best, sickness makes us feel wretched, and at the worst, it impairs, debilitates, and destroys us. A merciful God does not want us to have to suffer pain and sickness and disease. Let's turn to 3 John 2. God wants us to prosper and to be in good health. This short little book has this verse that is so full of meaning and shows that God, our loving Father, wants us to prosper materially and physically, and He wants us also to be in good health.

He doesn't delight to see us with the sickness or disease. 3 John 2, Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers. Yes, our God would like for us to feel good. He would like for us to enjoy life and to be in good health. Life forced us to, first of all, then turn to some verses in the Old Testament.

God has always been a God down through history that has healed His people, and sometimes not even ones that He was working directly with. Let's go to one of the first references in the Bible of Bimalik, a king that Abraham dealt with. Let's go to Genesis 20.

This king and his household were healed by God, even though God was working with Abraham. Let's notice, and I'll bring out just a little bit of the story in chapter 20. You can read the whole thing. But Abraham came into this area, and he told the king there, Abimelech, that Sarah, verse 2, was his sister. Well, Abimelech took Sarah, and then God afflicted the household of Abimelech. And he said, you're a dead man. He came to reveal himself to Abimelech in a dream. You're a dead man. You have a man's wife. And so, you know, Abraham had actually not told Abimelech that Sarah was his wife, so Abimelech sincerely told God, well, I didn't know.

He said it was his sister. You can read the whole story. But the final aspect of this episode is that Sarah was returned to Abraham. And in verse 17, Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his maidservants. And they bore children, for the Lord had closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife. So God healed this king and his family after he had afflicted them, after he had taken Abraham's wife, Sarah.

Let's turn to some other verses in the Old Testament, Exodus chapter 15. Well, notice something also along the way as far as good health. There are some responsibilities on our side as well, things that we must do in order to enjoy good health. Exodus chapter 15 and verse 26. Exodus 15 and verse 26, If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in his sight, give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes.

You see, there are things we must be doing. We see that good health is actually conditional then. There's some obedience, there's some cause and effect involved here. But if we do obey God diligently and do what is right in his sight, God says, I will put none of the diseases on you, which I have brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord who heals you.

And in the Hebrew, the word is Yahweh Rapha, and it means God-healer, God our healer. One of God's very names is that he is our healer. Let's read also Exodus chapter 23 and verse 25. Exodus 23 and verse 25, So you shall serve the Lord your God, and he will bless your bread and your wine. Even here we see cause and effect. If we obey God and serve him, then he will bless our food and our water. I will take sickness away from the midst of you.

So if we serve God and do his will, then it's his desire to do that, to take away sickness. We have two whole chapters, which I will not even turn to them now, but you know them. Leviticus chapter 26, Deuteronomy chapter 28, cause and effect chapters. And God says if you obey, then you'll have all these blessings to come upon you. If you disobey, you'll have all these curses to come upon you. And among the curses, if you will read in those chapters, guess what? All kinds of sickness and disease.

If we disobey God, all kinds of sickness and disease will come upon us. And that certainly is why we have so much sickness and disease in the world today. It's because we don't diligently obey God and serve him and do his will. We read examples of Elijah healing the widow's son whose breath had left him in 1 Kings 17. In 2 Kings chapter 4, we find that Elisha raised the dead son of the Shittite woman, raised him from the dead. One of the outstanding examples of God healing and adding length of life is found in 2 Kings chapter 20.

Let's read this passage. 2 Kings chapter 20. A king of Judah who had many years added to his life. 2 Kings chapter 20 and verse 1. In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. He was on his deathbed. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, Thus says the Lord, set your house in order, for you shall die and not live. How would you like to have a servant of God? Here you are sick and feeling wretched and like you're going to die. And a servant of God says, get your house in order because you're going to die.

Well, Isaiah delivered the message from God and then he headed out the door. But he didn't get very far. Let's notice what happened in verse 3. Remember now, oh, pardon me, verse 2 rather, Then He, Hezekiah, turned his face toward the wall. He didn't take this from Isaiah sitting down. He may have been lying down, but he didn't take it lying down. He turned his face to the wall and he prayed to the Lord, saying, Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before you in truth.

And with a loyal, King James translation says, perfect, with a loyal, perfect heart, and have done what was good in your sight. This prayer was less than 30 seconds and Hezekiah wept bitterly. It was a short emotional prayer. Well, verse 4, it happened before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court that the word of the Lord came to him saying, Return and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people, Thus says the Lord, the God of David, your father. I've heard your prayer. I've seen your tears. Surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord. And I will add to your days 15 years and deliver you and this city out of the hand of the King of Assyria and defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.

And so Isaiah told Hezekiah that he would have 15 years added to his life.

15 sweet years. You know, when you're told to get your house in order that you're going to die and somebody then comes back and says, No, just scratch that. You're going to have 15 years. What 15 sweet years that would be.

But you know, the years numbered down, you got to that last year. It'd make you do some deeper thinking, wouldn't it? To say, this is the last year of my life. You'd have to really enjoy that last year, but you'd be very thankful even so that you have 15 additional years of life given to you by a merciful God. God is a God example after example in the Old Testament that healed people. What about the New Testament? Let's come to Matthew 4, verse 23.

So many examples in the New Testament. God hasn't changed at all.

In Matthew 4, verse 23, Now Jesus went about all Galilee preaching or teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. His fame went throughout all Syria. They brought to him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics and paralytics, and he healed them.

And great multitudes came from all around.

Yeah, Jesus Christ preached the gospel and he healed people in the process.

We have some good examples of Jesus healing in Matthew 8. Let's just read some verses from the first part of this chapter.

In verse 1, Matthew 8, when he had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. He had just given the Sermon on the Mount.

In chapters 5, 6, and 7 here. And he came down, great multitudes following. The holder leper came and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if you're willing, you can make me clean.

Was Jesus willing? Jesus put out his hand and touched him, saying, I am willing. Be cleansed. And immediately, his leprosy was cleansed. A great miracle. This man who had suffered leprosy, maybe a long time, was healed of it now. In verse 5, another example, when Jesus, an outstanding example of healing, when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him pleading with him. A centurion was a Roman soldier, an officer, in charge of a hundred soldiers. That's what centurion, centurion, the centurion mark, even means a hundred, a man that was in charge of a hundred soldiers. A centurion came to him and said, Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented. Jesus said, I will come and heal him.

I'll come and pray for him and heal him.

The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but only speak a word and my servant will be healed. You don't need to come to my house. Just speak the word and my servant will be healed. For I'm a man under authority, having soldiers under me. I say to one, go and he goes, another come, he comes, do this, and he does it. Jesus, when he heard it, he marveled and said to those who followed, I say to you, I've not found such great faith, not even in Israel. And I say to you that many will come from the east and west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. The sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. They'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus said to the centurion, go your way.

And as you have believed, as you have believed, so let it be done for you. And his servant was healed that same hour. Jesus never even saw this one.

You know, Jesus may have been several blocks away, may have been a mile or two away from this one. But this centurion said, just speak the word.

And Jesus said, well, just like you believed, let it be done.

Says his servant was healed that same hour.

So it didn't take even the presence of Jesus Christ, did it? It took belief and it took God's power at work.

So the centurion's servant was healed in that miraculous manner. In the next verse, verse 14, Matthew chapter 8 and verse 14, now when Jesus had come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother lying sick with a fever. And he touched her hand and the fever left her. Then she arose and served them. So again, a great miracle was done by Jesus Christ.

Healing has always accompanied the preaching of the Gospel.

It's always...

Healing has been a part of God's working with humanity down through history. Let's notice in Matthew 11 and verse 5, Matthew 11 and verse 5, the blind...

This is what the ones who came from John were told to go back and tell John, the blind received their sight and the lame walk. The lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear. The dead are raised up and the poor have the Gospel preached to them.

So we know that all during the ministry of Christ, tremendous miracles were performed. What about the early church?

Were there healings in the early church? Let's go to Acts chapter 3.

Acts chapter 3.

And we'll begin reading in verse 2.

Acts chapter 3.

And beginning in verse 2.

Well, we can read verse 1. Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a certain man lain from his mother's womb.

This man had not been able to walk since he was born his whole life. A certain man lain from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple.

Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. This man was looking for a handout for money. He fixed his eyes on him, or fixing his eyes on him with John. Peter said, Look at us! So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them.

Peter said, Silver and gold, I do not have, but what I do have, I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.

And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up. And immediately, his feet and ankle bones received strength.

Just a great miracle.

It was not his own strength. It was strength provided by Almighty God. So he leaping up, stood and walked, and entered the temple with them, walking, leaping and praising God. What would that be like? You know, we take it for granted to get out of a chair, get out of bed and walk. We take it for granted. This man had never walked before. What excitement he must have felt. All the people saw him walking and praising God, and they knew that he was the one that had been at the gate.

A fantastic miracle had been done. Look at Acts chapter 5.

These miracles were simply amazing in the early years of God's church. Acts chapter 5 and verse 14, believers were increasingly added to the Lord in multitudes both men and women, so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them. The shadow of Peter, apparently, passing on people, they had that faith that they would be healed if they could just have the shadow of Peter to pass over them.

Amazing. Also, a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed. So there were some fantastic healings that took place in the early church.

We don't have time to read all of them, but you can read where the apostles, including the apostle Paul, healed many during the preaching of the gospel, during the work that they did.

What about today?

Are there miracles that go on today in the same magnitude, let's say, as during the ministry of Christ and the early church? Let's address that in just a moment.

Is healing a part of the gospel message today? Let's first of all ask that question. Is healing a part of the gospel message? Yes, it is. Let's go to Mark 16.

Mark 16.

In verse 15, Jesus commissioned His disciples at that time, and it is also the commission of His disciples today.

Mark 16 and verse 15, He said to them, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

That's our commission. It continues to be the commission of the church.

He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but He who does not believe will be condemned.

And these signs will follow those who believe.

Now, through the ages, these signs have followed the church of God, and they continue to follow the church today.

In my name, they will cast out demons. We've had that to happen, ones who have been really out of their minds and possessed of evil spirits. We've had that to happen in our time. They will speak with new tongues. We have not had that to happen. That's not to say it will not happen, but God can certainly give that gift of tongues as He did in the early church if He ever chooses. They will take up serpents, and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them. We know that Paul took up a serpent.

We don't know if anyone else has done that in our time or not.

The last part of verse 18, they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.

Has that happened in our time? Have we had any miracles, dramatic healings? You know, when I first came to Ambassador College, I was told of one that had come in a wheelchair. He was a victim of war, a war injury, and he was not able to walk. I think he was paraplegic.

And yet he was walking around by the time I got there, but I was told of his story of how he had come, not able to walk, and that he was healed and able to walk. So, you know, we've had situations like that.

One young girl that my wife and I visited in the state of Florida many years ago. Was wheelchair bound, and she was a paraplegic. She had an injury as a child on the way home from school one day. And she came down with an infected area and injury in her back because of this attack on her way from school, and she was not able to walk. When we... she requested a visit from a minister of the Church of God. She found out about the work we were doing. So we came by, and her mother led us back to her room. And we came by, it seems like a time or two before, she asked that we pray for her, that God would heal her. And so we did.

And we went over verses in the Bible, which many of which we are covering here today.

Well, the next time we came about a month later, we knocked on the door and said, we'd like to see... and we gave this girl's name. And the mother said, well, come on, I'll lead you back to her. No, sit down here, pardon me, in the living room, and she will come out. She will come out. She came walking out.

And she came to services in the local church. So we've had situations like this to develop. With our own children, we've had miraculous things to happen, as well as in our own lives. So yes, we have had many, many miraculous healings in our time.

Now, one thing that I think would be important for us to understand as far as miracles and healings, there have been times in history that God performed greater miracles and healings than at other times in history. For example, there were great and fantastic miracles done when the Israelites were in slavery. All kinds of... well, the plagues where God turned water into blood and the frogs and the lice. And then finally, the death of the firstborn.

Fantastic miracles! And then the water opening up at the Red Sea, and God giving them manna. All kinds of things happened, but that didn't happen at every stage of history, did it?

Jesus Christ came on this... Well, we should go back to another period in Old Testament history when it is obvious that in the time of Elijah and Elisha, that more miracles were performed at that time.

Even an axe head swam. I don't think that axe heads have swam at every period of history. But it was God's purpose to do greater miracles in the days of Elijah and Elisha. Why? Could it be that Jezebel and false religion had grown so great that God wanted to show that there was still a true God and a true religion instead of the false religion they were trying to get all of Israel to follow?

It could be that was the time of Ahab and Jezebel. So that may be why God did greater miracles in the time of Elijah and Elisha.

What about in the time of Jesus Christ? Obviously, God wanted to show, well, here is not just any human being. Here is a human being.

Here is God... or a... here is Emmanuel, God in the flesh. God wanted to make it obvious that Jesus Christ was not just anybody.

And so fantastic miracles were done by Jesus Christ. What about the early church? They did some great miracles as we read, just even the shadow of Peter passing over the sick.

And so God, again, was getting the church off to a big start. But you know, later in New Testament history, even here in the Bible, Paul said, I left this minister's sick at this city. He left... why didn't he heal him?

And so... and he said to Timothy, well, drink some wine for your... drink no longer water, but drink a little wine for your stomach's often infirmities. Why didn't Paul just go ahead and heal Timothy of his stomach's often infirmities? So we have indications that the healings were not as dramatic, even later in the New Testament era. Paul himself had a sickness he was not healed of. Let's turn and read about that in 2 Corinthians 12.

So it's important to realize that not at every time in history has the same level of miracles been performed.

At the end of this age, guess what? There's going to be some fantastic miracles done by the two witnesses.

If you are around during that time and you get news, able to get television or newspaper reports, you will read about the work of the two witnesses. They will be front page headline news, and God is going to do fantastic miracles with them. Will there be healings? We don't know, but there could be. But certainly miracles that will cause people to take note.

2 Corinthians 12, verse 7, Paul said, Lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.

What was this thorn in the flesh? Some kind of disease, some kind of sickness, some kind of physical problem.

Verse 8, concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord. That pleaded shows an emotional appeal that God would heal him.

I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.

And he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

Well, Paul accepted that.

He accepted that he was not going to be healed of this thorn in the flesh. And so he said, Therefore, most gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities.

I think Paul is a little bit ahead of me yet on that. How about you? I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

So he realized it was for his spiritual good. So sometimes God does not heal us of every affliction, because he has a greater purpose in mind for us.

How should we then... what should we do when we are sick?

Well, the Bible instructs us exactly what to do. Let's turn to James 5 and verse 14. We look to God, first and foremost. We look to God to help us and to heal us.

In James 5 and verse 14, First of all, verse 13, is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. And if he's committed sins, they will be forgiven.

And then it goes on to say, Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. Sometimes we do need to ask others to be praying for us also.

So, you know, we do anoint with oil. All of God's ministers carry around this little flask of oil. I happen to have a metal one here.

Many of them are a little glass bottle. It has olive oil in it. And we just get down and anoint the person on his forehead and ask God to heal him. And we've had so many healings.

And God does heal in his own manner, in his own way and time. What if the minister cannot be present? What if it's a long way and the minister just isn't able to be there? Paul faced that situation. Let's notice what he did in Acts 19.

Acts 19 and verse 11.

Verses 11 and 12.

Acts 19, verses 11 and 12. God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul.

So this is an unusual miracle. It's in the Bible. We follow this example today. Verse 12. So that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick. And the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them.

We do that today.

We send out what we call the anointed cloth. It's a piece of cloth about three inches long and about three inches square.

And we anointed. We get down and pray. When someone requests prayer and we're not able to be there, then we anoint that cloth. We put it in the mail. You know, many people have said that they were healed or began to recover from that very moment that they made the request.

Because after all, like the centurion, he said, you don't need to come to my house. Just speak the word. That kind of faith. It's our faith to word God by which the healing is done.

And that faith must be the same kind of faith where one man was let down through the roof. They took the roof up. They had these roofs that were flat. They could take up some of the tiling. They let him down through the roof so that he may have access to Jesus Christ, and he was healed. Another woman in a crowd of people said, if I can just touch his garment, I'll be made well. And she was.

And Jesus said, well, who touched me? The disciples said, what do you mean? All these people around you. Jesus knew that virtue had strength had gone out from him. And this woman then came up and confessed it was her, and she was healed because of her faith. So it is according to our faith. Did you know in one city that Jesus went to, it says he did no great miracle there because of their unbelief?

So it does take faith. Jesus himself did no great miracle there because of their unbelief.

So we do have to have a faith that is deep. Now, just exactly how does God heal? It is through the stripes of Christ that we are able to receive healing. Let's read about that a few verses. Isaiah 53.

We're healed by a merciful God who understands what suffering and pain are like. Jesus Christ has suffered and healed. Jesus Christ has suffered, pain, and sickness. He's taken it upon himself.

In Isaiah 53, verse 3, and he's talking about Christ at his first coming, he is despised and rejected by men.

A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

A man of sorrows, the word in the margin is pain, pains. And acquainted with grief, again, the margin, sicknesses.

And we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised. We did not esteem him. Surely he has borne our griefs, again, sicknesses in the margin, and he has carried our sorrows, pains. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him.

And by his stripes, we are healed.

And that's because Jesus Christ, having suffered such pain, understands what it is like. He's a high priest who we can come to our Father and ask in his name, and using his stripes that we may be healed. Let's read also Matthew 8.

Matthew 8.

And so it is by the stripes of Christ that we are able to be healed of our infirmities and our sicknesses, whether physical or spiritual or mental or emotional healing. It is through the sacrifice and the suffering of Christ that we're able to be healed. Matthew 8.

When evening had come, they brought to him many who were demon-possessed, and he cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick.

That it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, and we just read it in Isaiah 53, he himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.

Our merciful high priest has taken that upon himself.

Let's also read 1 Peter 2.

I think it's important to read these three passages that show that it is through the stripes of Christ, the scourging and the beating that Christ went through, that we are able to be healed.

That healing is made possible.

1 Peter 2.24.

Who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed.

Already that sacrifice had been done by the time Peter wrote this, and that healing has already been provided through the sacrifice of Christ.

We know, brethren, who needs healing? We all do. Physically, we get sick, and we have times will come that we need to have a minister of God to anoint us. We need to call God's minister and say, I need to be anointed. I'm sick.

And we are happy to come and do that, and if we're not able to, to send an anointed cloth.

But, you know, there's also other kinds of healing that God also helps with.

Let's turn to Luke 4. What about emotional and mental sickness or healing?

What about scars and injuries? Let's read in Luke chapter 4 some verses that indicate that God helps us to heal from damage which has been done. Sometimes lives have been severely abused in physical ways or sexual ways or emotional ways. What about a child that has just screamed at all the time? There's emotional damage that is done. It could go on for a lifetime. But, except for God's healing.

God's healing is there to ask to heal that person of the emotional and mental damage that was done.

In Luke chapter 4 and verse 16, he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, as his custom was. Jesus had a custom. What was it? He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. He went to the church. He went to church to hear God's Word. And he stood up himself to read.

He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah, and when he had opened the book, he found the place where it's written. You'll find this in Isaiah 61. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, and he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Jesus Christ has been sent to give recovery of sight, to set at liberty, to preach the acceptable year, to heal the brokenhearted. You know, the word in the Greek for brokenhearted means crushed. It means bruised, shattered.

And, you know, that can be more than just in a physical way. There can be emotional scars and injuries that have happened. And so, when the damage is done in those mental, emotional, and spiritual ways, God's healing is there. Jesus Christ was sent to heal the crushed, the bruised, the shattered. And God heals the damage that was done to physical bodies, and to minds, and to emotions. A person that has suffered damage because of abuse in the past can be healed with God's Spirit and God's healing power. He can be healed in that pain, the fear. If there's any guilt or any scar or damage, it can be healed completely by a merciful God. Brethren, healing is a very important part of our relationship with God. We look to Him to provide and to sustain us, both in physical and spiritual ways.

Now, we realize that as far as healing is concerned, physical healing, if we have a sickness, there's our part. We read those verses that if you will do what is right in God's sight and keep His laws and commandments, then I will put none of these diseases upon you. We do have our part. We have one minister that many years ago that was sick. He was in bed for several weeks. He's one of my teachers at Ambassador College. He had some kind of sickness and he just couldn't seem to get over it. He went on for two or three weeks. Finally, Mr. Armstrong came by and said, well, have you been to see a doctor and find out what it is? Maybe you can do something that will help. Well, he did that. He went to a doctor and he found out what it was. He made some changes, did some things. Before too long, he was well. So, you see, God expects us to do our part.

Sometimes we may not be healed because God does expect us to find out some things that we need to change and things that we need to do. You know, doctors have a lot of knowledge. When a doctor told me that he had seen many a sunrise having worked on a human cadaver all night. Working on cadavers, learning every little sinew, bone, tissue, every part of the body.

Doctors have studied. They have a lot of knowledge. They've also studied diseased tissue. Now, they don't know everything. They do have their limitation. We should never put our trust in them like Asa, the king of Judah, trusted in the doctors instead of God. And then it says he died. So, you know, we should never put our trust in doctors instead of God. But we should use doctors and not be afraid to have an exam or check up. Luke was called the beloved physician.

And Jesus himself said that not those who are sick, pardon me, not those who are well, but those who are sick have need of a physician. He said that in Matthew 9 and verse 12.

So not those who are well, but those who are sick need a physician. So physicians can be a big help and we should use them then to help us in the right way, always looking to God for overall guidance and also for healing. We should do all we can in the way of good diet and sufficient sleep and exercise and stress management and avoiding body injury. Do all we can certainly to maintain our health. But one thing we always have to fall back on if we've done the best we can do, and we still come down sick, we have a merciful God that stands ready to heal us and to restore us. And if he doesn't, as he did not with the apostle Paul, then that healing will yet be in the future. When the apostle Paul is resurrected, he will not have a thorn in the flesh. He won't have a thorn in his brand new spirit body either. But there will be healing. Jesus returns with healing in his wings. That's what it says in Malachi 4. He comes with healing in his wings. Now, I think that means situations like that where God did not heal someone and maybe let them bear that infirmity or die. You know, everybody's died of a sickness of one type or another, or some reason that they died. And Jesus Christ will come back with healing in his wings.

We have a merciful God that we can look to, and one of the benefits he grants to us is healing. Let's read just a few verses in Psalms, Psalm 107 and Psalm 103. We'll let this be the concluding verses this afternoon. Brethren, we have a merciful God that he wants us, he wants to help us to prosper and to be in health. He wants us to feel good. And so often when we ask him to heal us, he says, I will. He wants us to enjoy good health. Psalm 107 and verse 17. Psalm 107 verse 17. Fools because of their transgression and because of their iniquities were afflicted. Often we do foolish things and bring on sickness. Yes. Their soul abhorred all manner of food, and they drew near to the gates of death on their deathbed like. Verse 19. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. He sent his word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions. O that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. I just thank God there have been many times I believe God has healed me, added to my good health back to my life. I thank God for that.

We have that benefit that God grants to us. Final verses Psalm 103, and we will read the first three or four verses, maybe five verses. Psalm 103 verse 1. Bless the Lord, O my soul! Here's a very positive, joyful attitude of worship toward God. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me! Bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. You know, every insurance policy carries with it benefits, right? Well, serving God carries with it many, many benefits and blessings. Bless the Lord for all these benefits, then. Verse 3, Who forgives all your iniquities? And God does mercifully forgive all of our shortcomings, all of our sins. When we mess up, we fall short, we lose it, then we can ask forgiveness through the sacrifice of Christ. Who forgives all your iniquities? But notice, Who heals all your diseases? God also heals us, He strengthens us, He raises us up.

Who redeems your life from destruction? Who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies and satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles?

Let's always be thankful to God for his many benefits. Have a strong faith and trust in our relationship with God. And let's always be thankful for the benefit of healing us when we are sick.