Healing in the 21st Century

In the time after the death of Solomon, when Rehoboam began to reign the ten tribes of Israel, as you know, of course the young king was very harsh in how he dealt with the elders of the land. And as a result of it, ten tribes to the north broke off and formed another nation. You remember the story in the account of how Jeroboam became the king of the ten tribes, which became known as Samaria or Israel to the north.

And he was very intent on keeping the people under his rule. He wanted to lead them and to keep control of the people that had come under his rule. And so he made a feast up for the eighth month, like the feast that was to happen in Jerusalem, so that they wouldn't turn back and go back to King Rehoboam of Judah. Let's go to 1 Kings 12 with that sort of background.

And I'd like to show you something over here. I'm not going to give you a history lesson, but I felt that you needed that kind of background to understand the setting of when this particular event happened. But in 1 Kings 12 and verse 28 here, you know, so here talking about, again, the king of the north of Samaria or Israel, therefore the king asked advice and made two calves of gold and said to the people, it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem.

Here are your gods over Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt. It's kind of interesting, isn't it, that he hearkened back to the time in the wilderness when, in fact, they had built that golden calf and made the same statements that were made clear back at that time.

And so, Jeroboam put this in motion. And he set up one in the fell and the other he put in Dan. And it says, Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. And he made shrines on the high places and made priests from every class of the people who were not of the sons of Levi. And Jeroboam ordained a feast the 15th day of the eighth month. So rather than the seventh, he made it in the eighth month like the feast that was in Judah and offered sacrifices on the altar.

So he did it befell, sacrificing the calves that he had made. And at befell, he installed the priests of the high places, which he had made. So he made offerings on the altar, which he had made at befell on the 15th day of the eighth month and the month that he had devised in his own heart. So he came up with this again in his own heart. And he ordained a feast for the children of Israel and offered sacrifices on the altar and burned incense. And so this is what Jeroboam did. He made Israel to sin with this, and he led them to do this contrary to what God had instructed. Apparently, God perhaps expected Jeroboam to do something quite different than this.

And then, of course, Kings afterward, if they were sinful, were measured by the name of Jeroboam, you know, the sins of Jeroboam that they send after the sins of Jeroboam. Now, let's go over to chapter 13 here. And God was angry about this, and so he sent a prophet to Jeroboam. And it says, And behold, a man of God went from Judah to befell by the word of the Eternal. And Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.

So here he was there burning incense to these pagan gods in this particular circumstance. And then he, the prophet of God, cried out against the altar by the word of the Eternal, and said, O altar, altar! Thus says the Eternal, Behold, a child, Josiah by name, shall be born to the house of David. And on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places, who burn incense on you, and men's bones shall be burned on you. Kind of a gruesome thing.

And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which the Eternal has spoken.

Sure, the altar will split apart, and the ashes on it shall be poured out. And so it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, who cried out against the altar in Bethel, that he stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, Arrest him! Arrest him!

And then his hand, which he stretched out toward him, withered, so that he could not pull it back to himself. All of a sudden here Jeroboam's hand just simply scribbled up and withered.

And the altar also was split apart, and the ashes poured out from the altar, recording the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Eternal.

And then the king answered and said to the man of God, He changed his mind, you know, after that happened, Please, and treat the favor of the Lord your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me. So the man of God, and treated the Eternal in the king's hand, was restored to him, and became as before.

Now, this might be an unusual way to introduce such a subject here, but obviously what happened to Jeroboam that day was a miracle on two accounts.

Number one, his hand withered, and number two, he was healed of the withered hand. And it was really a tremendous miracle that happened right there before the eyes of Jeroboam and maybe others that might have been there that saw what had happened.

And so we see this miracle taking place in the Old Testament of healing of the withered hand.

And it's interesting, in the New Testament there is an account of Jesus Christ healing a man with a withered hand as well. Now, I bring this up, brethren, because now in this 21st century, many people do not believe in such miracles as this. All such miracles, they say, can be explained through scientific methods of analysis. In other words, all we have to do is figure out, you know, what were the physical reasons for this. And I'm sure that probably someone has ventured to guess at an explanation of why this happened and that there was no miracle that took place here in this case. You know, they probably would argue that probably Jeroboam had a temporary seizure, you know, or something like that, and his hand appeared to be trivial. And then he came out of it. I'm sure they would explain it probably in those physical terms.

But people don't tend to want to believe in miracles. Unfortunately, there are many televangels, as you know, of the past particularly. You don't see many of them out there, as you did at other times in the last 20 or so years. And they've been proven to be charlatans and fakes.

It's not surprising that many people today simply do not believe. They find it hard to believe in miracles such as healings and other things that happen to people. You know, Jesus Christ said, in the end of the age here, He said, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth? Maybe we're living in that kind of time where people just simply don't have any faith anymore. They think that science again can answer all of the questions that we have, and so science has sort of become a God to people. And also, we know that Peter said, knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts. So, there would be people who would scoff at anything religious. They would scoff at anything that was a miracle or any such things as being sort of a hocus pocus type of religion, and that there would be no validity to it at all, and in fact be laughable. Well, brethren, considering the fact that Jesus Christ, when the Son of Man comes, would He find faith? And Peter talked about scoffers in the last days that would not believe. You know, they wouldn't believe the Bible, and they wouldn't believe, obviously, miracles either. Does God still heal in the 21st century? Does He still do that? Or is healing one of those things that is an archaic, ancient thing that doesn't happen anymore today? You know, are there miracles being done in the church? Are there miracles being done in the church? You know, are there really any promises in the Bible about healing? You know, people talk about healing, but are there really any promises in the book here about healing in the first place? You know, maybe some people have just got it wrong, and they don't understand what the Bible is saying. And also, brethren, is there a bigger picture about healing which we have not seen that we need to come to see and to grasp and to understand? You know, usually there is a bigger picture, isn't there? It's like when we are called into the church, we talk about how that God eventually paints a picture for us, and we've got to get the big picture. We've got to understand what God is doing, why God put man upon this earth. Well, is there a bigger picture about healing that we need to come to see and we need to come to understand?

So, brethren, are there promises of healing in the Bible? If somebody asks you that question, where would you go in the Bible to prove that such promises exist in the Bible? You know, I don't want to go through every last scripture here, but I do want to show you at least a couple of places where we see that healing was a part of the New Testament church, and it was something that occurred and did happen in the Old Testament. We see, of course, what happened in the case of Jeroboam. You know, even though God, you might say, through what the prophet did, cursed Jeroboam, he then, of course, healed him. We, of course, see that happening also in the case of, you know, the incidents regarding Aaron and Miriam in the Old Testament, where the hands became leprous and, you know, Moses' case. He put his hand in, and it pulled it out, and it was leprous, and he put it back in, and it was healed, you know, like it was new.

So, brethren, are there promises in the Bible about healing? Let's go to Psalm 103. I think, probably the first thing that I think about when I think about promises in the Bible that regard our human health here and what God does for us. Here in verse 2, here David says, "'Bless the Eternal, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.'" You know, there are benefits by having God's favor. You know, it's like when you buy a ticket on a ship, and if you've ever gone on a cruise, there are benefits to having a ticket, isn't it? It's really nice to be able to go into that dining hall and eat whatever you want, you know. Now, by the way, I haven't gained any weight since I've been at camp. I thought I would, because I'm eating more than I ever have, but I came home and I weighed myself, and I weighed the same. But when you go on a cruise, now that's a different story, because they give you so much to eat. You really over and buy, but at least I often do, because there's so many beautiful desserts and that sort of thing. We've only been on a couple of cruises, you know, but it really is a great experience. But when you buy the ticket, you get all the benefits, don't you? They're involved in it. And when we have a relationship with God, let's not forget the benefits that go with it. Notice it says, who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases. And so, we see here that God heals all of our diseases, according to what it says here. And so, we have benefits. That Hebrew word, by the way, is gimel, meaning a recompense or reward, that God gives us a reward. Now, I'm not going to turn to it, but you might want to turn to, write down at least, Exodus 15, verse 26, where there's a part of the verse there. It says, for I am the Eternal who heals you.

I am the Eternal that heals you. And so, God considers Himself our healer.

James 5, let's go over to the New Testament now. Like I said, we could go through a number of verses. We have the promise. We know that Jesus Christ talked about how that if we ask anything in His name, that He will do it. We cry out to God, and we ask for healing, that He will do that. He will intervene, of course, in different ways, in sundry ways, in our lives, and give us those blessings. In James 5, though, in verse 13, I think very clear over here, here it says, in verse 13, is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing. 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 will raise him up. And if he's committed sins, you know, sins were part of it, he will be forgiven. And so, here we see that God, you know, here through James, says that if we're sick, be anointed, and if, you know, God will raise up that person that is sick, and that God will intervene for that person. Like I said, I could go through a number of verses here, but, you know, just to show again that yes, indeed, there are promises in the Bible that God heals us, that He will intervene for us. And, you know, the Bible says He gives grace to the humble. You know, God's graces or God's favor is given to us if we will humble ourselves before God. So, there are numerous scriptures in which God does indicate to His church and indicate to Israel and indicate to His disciples that He will heal, that He will hear our prayers, and He will answer our prayers. And we see that, you know, in the Old and in New Testament. Now, who is our healer? You know, the minister sometimes is the one that ministers the oil in anointing someone's head, but who is the healer? Well, the doctor's not the healer, obviously. You can go to the doctor, and most doctors realize that they are just simply helpers. That's all they are. They help things along. But God is the healer. But now, let's go to Exodus 15. I mentioned to you that God claims to be the healer. But let's go over here to Exodus 15 and notice the full scripture over here. Exodus 15, God talking to Israel as they've come out of Egypt, crossed over, remember the Red Sea by this time, and the other side, of course, leaving the Pharaoh, the armies in the bottom of the sea, and whatever, Egypt was on the other side. But in Exodus 15, down here in verse 25, let's notice here.

Exodus 15 and down in verse 20-25. Here it says, So he cried out to the Eternal, and the Eternal showed him a tree, when he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. Therefore he made a statue of an ordinance for them, and there he tested them, and said, verse 26, If you, now here's where he gives some ramifications of healing, if you diligently heed the voice of the Eternal, your God, and do what is right in his sight. So there were precursors and necessary things that they had to do, and that is to be diligently following God's word, and doing what was right, and give ear to his commandments, and keep all those statues. I will put none, he said, of the diseases on you which I brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Eternal who heals you. I'm the Eternal who heals you. One of the names of God, by the way, is Yahweh Rapha, or God Healer. God Healer, one of the names, is Yahweh Rapha. Of course, God owns us, and he's the only one, really, that can forgive us, and he's the only one that can heal us, intervene for us. Now let's go to Deuteronomy over here. Deuteronomy chapter 28. Now, what is Deuteronomy 28? What do we call that chapter? Bless him and curse him. You've read, I'm sure, chapter 28 here, probably many times. God, at the first part of it, talks about how if Israel obeyed him and walked in the ways of God, that God would bless them abundantly in so many ways. He would bless them with good rain. He would give them good crops. He would give them cattle and multiply the cattle. He would give them children. Through the womb would be blessed. There would be tremendous blessings. And all the way around, if Israel obeyed from verses 1 through 14, in fact, are the blessings that God promises if they obey. Then from verse 15, onward, the curse is for disobedience.

Here. And, you know, again, God is the healer. He's the Yahweh Raffa. And, you know, God promised blessings for obedience, but warned of cursings for disobedience. Well, let's notice down in verse 27 here. And it says, "...and the eternal will strike you with the boils of Egypt with tumors, with a scab and with the itch from which you cannot be healed." In other words, if they disobeyed.

That this would be what would happen to them. You know, sometimes in the United States, when terrible problems occur, like Katrina, you know, Hurricane Katrina, you know, some people have said, well, you know, God didn't strike Israel or modern Israel, the United States of America. Yeah. I don't know if that's so-so, because, you know, I think that we've faced some mighty terrible cataclysms lately. And I think we have to ask the question, is it because God is sending a message to the United States of America? You know, why do we have a Joplin? You know, why do we have other places where earthquakes have taken place and where devastation has occurred?

You know, why don't we have the floods in Iowa, now up in the the codice there? You know, does God, in fact, withhold His blessings from a nation if they do not obey? You better believe it.

You know, I would say it's not that God, you know, causes things to happen, but what happens is God doesn't stop them from occurring. You know, how many things could have happened in the United States of America in the past, but God stopped them from occurring? But He didn't stop Katrina. You know, He didn't stop, you know, Joplin. He didn't stop these things from happening before. And I think we have to understand that perhaps the reason He hasn't done that is because this country is getting worse and worse, morally. It's like God keeps blessing and blessing, but there's no change about. There's no turnabout. Down in verse 35, this is what God told ancient Israel, and it says, "...and the eternal will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head." Verse 29, and it says, "...and you shall plant vineyards and tendom, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worms will eat them." Remember God told Israel, look, if you obey Me, you know, you're going to be blessed with rain and new season. You know, what happens, of course, if you don't obey Me, you don't get the rain.

Sometimes it rains too much somewhere, and sometimes it doesn't rain enough somewhere else.

So it's a, you know, a case where crops are not going to be healthy that are in the fields, and you're not going to be able to partake of those. So, brethren, God promised blessings for obedience, and He promised blessings if people obeyed, but He warned of cursings for disobedience.

And, brethren, our conduct is important to our healing as well. You know, we must not think somehow or another that we can live any way we choose and think that we will have God's grace, to think somehow we'll have God's favor. You know, it's commonly believed by many in professing Christianity that one can worship God any way they choose, and that is simply not true. You can't find that in the Bible. That is not what the word of God says. Let's go over to Psalm 107. David recognized these things. He understood these things.

In Psalm 107, in verse 17, it's kind of interesting here what it does say in verse 17 on down to verse 20. It says, "...fools, because of their transgression and because of their iniquities, were afflicted." We're afflicted.

"...their soul abhorred all men of food. They grew near to the gates of death. Then they cried out to the eternal in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distress." You see, they called out to God, and God healed them. God intervened for them.

He said His word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions.

And so, you know, sometimes people, when they turn aside, they end up getting sick. And one of the things that they need to do is turn to God with all their heart and all their soul and all their mind. You know, God, again, has a right to tell us how to live, and He has the right to tell us when He's going to heal us and when He's not going to heal us. Would you agree with that?

God, you know, is the one that makes those choices. And we need to keep this in mind. It's easier to work with God instead of against Him. You don't want God against you. You don't want God to be working in such a manner that you're going to be not having the opportunity to have His blessings and His grace in your life. Of course, it's important not to judge someone, you know, who might be sick because only God can make such a judgment. You know, we can never know what God is doing with people. We really can't. You know, on occasion, when Christ healed a blind man, for instance, He was blind from birth, the disciples asked who sinned. And this man or his parents is what they suggested. You know, they thought, well, maybe this man sinned or the parents sinned, and that's why he was born blind. But Christ said neither the son or the parents sinned, but that God had allowed it to reveal His works through the man being healed. And so, in that case, see, if somebody had tried to judge someone as having sinned, they would be very much in error. And sometimes that is why God allows people just to go through different things.

Maybe there's a time in the future where we're going to find that some that maybe have not been healed for whatever reason, you know, are going to be healed as a demonstration of the power of God in the future. One thing that we see in the Bible, brethren, is the Messiah was prophesied to come healing as a proof that He was the Christ, that He was the anointed one. That was something that He was to do. We know that Jesus Christ is going to be the future King of kings and Lord of lords.

And He's going to convince to heal the nations and the world tomorrow as well. But let's notice over here in Isaiah where it talks about how that what the Messiah would do in Isaiah 53, Isaiah 53, in verses 3 through 5 here, speaking of the one who was to come.

And this was, of course, the Christ or the anointed one, as the word Christ means, or the Messiah. It says, "...He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." So Christ was acquainted with these things. And it says, "...we hid as it were our faces from Him. He was despised, and we did not esteem Him." And it says, "...surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted." Some thought, well, you know, God may be punishing Christ for what He was going through.

But He was wounded for our transgressions. The reason He was strapped to that stake and beaten with a cab dying-tails was because of what we did, and not what He did. He was perfect. He never committed a sin in all of His life. He was bruised for our iniquity.

Now, each time again, the charge of metal and glass tore at His body. He was bruised, and when it pounded against His back. But He went through that because of us, brethren. And by His stripes, we are healed. By His stripes, you know, we are healed. It's through that process that we have the opportunity to be healed. And so, it was prophesied that Jesus would come and make this tremendous sacrifice, and it involved healing. I'm not going to go to 1 Peter, but you would want to probably put in your margin, as a reference to 1 Peter 2, verses 24 through 25, you know, there Peter shows that it's not only for physical healing, but for spiritual healing.

Because he talks about the same Scripture here in Isaiah 53, where Christ was healed.

But in verse 25 over there, Peter says, For you were like sheep going astray. In other words, we were spiritually going the wrong way. And so, as a result of the stripes of Christ, we were able to be returned to Christ. And, you know, the shepherd and overseer of our souls, as Peter put it. So, it's both a physical and a spiritual healing that Jesus Christ gave his body to be beaten for us for. Now, spiritually is first and foremost, brethren, but it's for physical healing as well.

Now, what pattern did Jesus Christ set when he came? What did he do when he came?

You know, this was a prophecy that occurred much, much earlier. And then, later, Christ comes along. What was the pattern that Jesus Christ set when he came? What were the first things that he did?

Well, let's go to Matthew 4 and over here and see a few Scriptures to show the pattern that Jesus Christ did things in Matthew 4 and verse 23 over here. And it says, And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Of course, he came preaching the gospel, as it says in Mark 1.14, and healing all kinds of sicknesses and all kinds of disease among the people. In other words, there was a great number of a variety of sicknesses that he healed, showing that he is able to heal any sickness, any disease that is upon the face of the earth. And it says, Then his fame went throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all sick who were afflicted with various diseases and torments. In other words, people with mental illness as well. And those who were demon-possessed, epileptics and paralytics, and he healed them. And great multitudes followed him. And so he had all these people coming down from as far as Syria, which is a long distance, by the way, to come down into the environs of Judah and Jerusalem, to travel all that distance to be healed. And so his fame went far and wide during this particular time. And so Jesus healed again all manner of sickness, disease, both physical and mental. Chapter 8. Let's go over here. Again, we see this pattern of what Jesus Christ did. We need to, again, understand why did he do these things. Why did Christ come doing these miracles? Quite often people don't think about that the way that we, as God's people, should, because we do have to see the big picture.

Chapter 8 and verse 5 through a notice. And it says, Now when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came down pleading with him, saying, Lord, my servant is lying at home, paralyzed, dreadfully tormented. And Jesus said to him, I will come and heal him. And 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. In other words, he knew that God could do this. He was apparently a man that had faith in God. He says, For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say, Did this one go? And he goes into another come, and he comes into my servant, do this, and he does it. And when Jesus heard it, he marveled and said to those who followed, Assuredly I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel. No, he believed in what God was capable of doing, what Jesus Christ could do. And he knew that God had authority, and that authority that the man recognized also showed his faith in God, that what he could do and what he was able to accomplish here. And notice going on here, it says, I say that many will come from the east and west, sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

And so there are those, again, that should have been the ones that believed but did not. Verse 13, and then Jesus said to the centurion, go your way, and as you have believed, so let it be done for you. And the servant was healed that same hour. So tremendous healing took place here. And it says, And 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, He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses. So through Christ's stripes, again, we are healed. And so Christ set the pattern of doing these tremendous healings when He came in His ministry. Now, why did He come healing? Why did He come healing? Jesus came healing and doing miracles, brethren, in His ministry to give a foretaste of the kingdom of God that was going to come. That was ahead. And this is why there were so many dramatic healings and miracles that were taking place during His ministry on a regular basis that people were being healed and great miracles were being done. Even the dead were raised. Tremendous miracles. How many of you have seen somebody raised from the dead? Well, of course, none of us have, have we? I would say, for the most part, many of us have not seen dramatic healings in terms of people getting out of wheelchairs and doing that kind of thing. I think that the time is going to come when we're going to see that. But these were dramatic healings that were done when Jesus Christ was in His earthly ministry. Now, though these healings continued, brethren, to follow the church, it does not appear in the Scriptures that it was like the many miracles that Christ performed during His ministry and during the time immediately after the founding of the church through the apostles. You know, as we get along in time, when we get, say, up to the 90s A.D. and the 80s and so forth, we do not see it being talked about in the same degree. But it did happen during the ministry of Jesus Christ. It did happen during the time of the apostles when the church was being founded and was being raised up. Let's notice over an ax of things that happened after the ascension of Christ, which we have in Acts 2, you have the miracle of Pentecost.

That was a dramatic miracle that took place. But over in chapter 5, the church was coalescing. It was coming together. You have the incident here of Ananias and Sapphira. But in verse 12, down here in verse 12, Acts 5, verse 12, And through the hands of the apostles, many signs and wonders were done among the people. And they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch, and yet none of the rest dare join them, but the people esteemed them highly. And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women. So 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. And it says, And 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 we see, again, dramatic healings taking place.

You, of course, have also in chapter 8 about Philip, the things that happened there, the miracles that happened up in Samaria as well. Now let's go back to Matthew chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9. Matthew 9 and verse 35.

It says, Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

And when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep, having no shepherd. And so Jesus Christ did these miracles, and he was moved with compassion. Now this is in the Bible to tell us that Christ was compassionate. He saw what people were suffering in that time. He saw not only their physical ailments, but he saw their spiritual ailments of not having a shepherd, that they could be healed spiritually speaking. The things that Christ experienced, though, brethren, was so that he would be a faithful high priest. And of course, he's now in heaven at the right hand of the Father and is our high priest. And through the things that he learned, the compassion that he experienced here in the flesh, he knows he understands our frame, our feeble frame. I'm not going to go to it, but in Hebrews 4 in verses 14 through 16, you see again that as a result of the fact that we have this faithful high priest that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities, you know, Paul talked about how that we should go boldly before God because Christ is there and Christ understands our high priest. Now let's go to Matthew. Matthew now over in verse 10. I'm just sort of going through Matthew here and showing how many times it talks about Christ doing these healings. And again, it was to give people a foretaste of what was really going to come. You know, again, imagine what it's going to be like, brethren, at the beginning of the millennium. You know, when people are just healed right and left. And I think that is what is going to occur and begin to happen, where there's so many things are going to happen so rapidly and throughout the entire millennium. These things are going to happen. And imagine, brethren, what it's going to be like in the Second Resurrection, the great white throne judgment time, when miracles are taking place, people, you know, that were diseased all of their life and they're completely healed.

That God's going to wipe away tears from people's eyes.

But people were giving again, given a foretaste of what the kingdom was going to be like when when Jesus is the righteous King was going to be ruling upon the earth.

Now, Christ did not come, by the way, to fix Satan's mess. He didn't come to do that.

And we don't have that job of doing that, brethren. Right now, what we are here is to arrest you and save those that God is calling. But Christ, really, at that time, didn't come to heal everybody, even. There were some people, it's almost like he was resistant to healing.

You know, you can read through again the stories and the count and you'll see what I'm talking about. But in verse 1, notice in Matthew 10, it says, and when he had called the twelve disciples to him, he gave them power over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of diseases. And so, this power was passed on to the disciples, to the apostles. And then he sent them out. And down here in verse 8, let's notice, verse 7. And he says, and as you go preach, saying the kingdom of heaven is in the hand, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons, freely receive, freely give. And so, they were to go out and the healings were a part of what they did in establishing the church and raising the church up. And, you know, there were dramatic healings and there were also people were raised from the dead.

There were remarkable things that took place, not only by the way of the apostles here, the twelve apostles, but others as well, as I mentioned about Philip. And there were others that were sent out two by two and miracles took place there as well. Now, again, Jesus did not come to convert the whole world at that particular time. He came to give them a foretaste of what the kingdom of God was going to be like. You know, he came to call those that were to be called. You know, Christ called the apostles. And there were others, of course, that were called. You know, think about the fact, though, that with all of these miracles, there were only 120 people to believe Christ.

120. You think a man has all these miracles, you'd have thousands. I remember a guy named Ernest Angeli. How many of you remember Ernest Angeli? Any of you here at all? He was a funny guy. You know, he looked funny, actually. Forgive me for my bluntness, but he had a mop on his head just about. He had this funny haircut. He was pretty heavy set. And he had this funny preacher's voice, but he became popular for a long time. To heal the death, he'd stick his fingers in their ears, and he'd say, Be will healed! You know. And anyway, he would heal people, make them get up out of wheelchairs and all that sort of thing. It was during that time, by the way, if you remember back then, it was called the Sunday Morning Comedy Hour. People would watch some of these guys that were charlatans, obviously. Many of them were. But, you know, there were people, of course, that were not really healed, but these people that were in Christ's day, and during the Apostles, and those that were healed, and people who are healed today are really healed. But Jesus Christ did not, again, to come to convert the masses. In fact, he said this. He said, For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted.

And so he didn't come to convert them. He said, And that I should heal them.

But, blessed are your eyes. It says, For they see, and your ears, for they hear.

And at that time, there were very few that got it, that really understood it.

And the disciples, by the way, didn't get it completely. You know, there were things that they just didn't see about Christ's sacrifice, and what it meant, and all that. Their scriptures will tell you that they didn't have a clue as to what was going to happen to Christ. But there were some things that they did understand. But the gift of healing was passed on, and it is a part of the church as well, the early church as well. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 12, just to show. You know, we really are blessed, brethren, to know the truth, and we must not take it ever for granted, the truth that we do know.

Be thankful that God has opened our eyes and shown us the truth. And again, given us the bigger picture as to what God is doing here upon the earth. We need to again see a bigger picture of what God is doing through healing, and what healing is all about.

But in 1 Corinthians 12 and down in verse 8, notice talking about the gifts that were in the church. You know, in chapter 12 and down in verse 8, it says, to one is given the word of wisdom. So some are given the word of wisdom through the Spirit. Some people have that ability to talk to other people, and to reason with people, and to guide them and direct them in a wise way, in a wise manner. Here in this congregation, we have people that have that gift and that ability. To another, the word of knowledge through the same Spirit. There's some people that seem to have just very good minds, and they're able to assimilate knowledge. We see that in the church at large as well. People that are able to work in capacities, even within the church, full time to do some of these things. But again, we have this all throughout the church. And to another, faith by the same Spirit. To another, gifts of healing by the same Spirit. And so not everybody has the gift of healing.

You know, there are some ministers, obviously, that perhaps have more of a gift of healing than others.

I think all ministers have that gift because they're involved in it, but I think that there are some that have more of a gift that way. They tend to have more faith. They have more belief in healing and confidence in healing. Down in verse 28, it says, And God has appointed these in the church, first apostles, second prophets, and third teachers. And after that, miracles, then gifts of healings. Notice here, brethren, that the apostles and the prophets and the teachers are before these particular gifts. So you have to, again, recognize the order of the importance within the church. Then gifts of healing helps administrations, varieties of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Do all have the gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? And the answer, of course, is no. Not all people do that. If different sundry gifts that are within the church of God. Now, we need to be praying, brethren, that God will give us more of the gifts of healing. We need to be praying that God would give us more faith and belief and confidence. There were times when Christ Himself could not do miracles in some places because there was no faith. There was no belief.

We need to have faith, brethren, and we need to pray for more faith as God's people. But not everyone has the gift of healing or other gifts. Some people just have that knack.

The gift of tongues, by the way, is knowing languages. Some people can just pick up a language just so quickly. It's amazing how they can do it. When I traveled to Europe, Dr. Karlek is one of those guys here. He's reading Russian and trying to learn Russian.

Before that, he was learning Italian. I'm thinking to myself, I'm trying to learn English.

Forget about learning another language. Greek is Greek to me, Spanish is Greek to me, and Russia is Greek to me as well. They're all Greek to me. But some people just have that knack and that ability to do that. I don't know how they do it. Maybe we have some other gift that we have. But we see that God passed it on to the church, that there are healings within the church today. Now, how does God perform a healing in a person's life in a person's family? How does he do it? I think we need to again understand that. Perhaps we all do. But let's sort of sum it up as to how God heals in our life and our family. There are many different ways. Some people, especially little children, I've seen this to be so, are healed instantly.

A young person can be healed, and it's like they're healed almost instantly. It's interesting, remember in the case of the centurion servant, it says that he was healed from that hour.

And so it happened within the hour. And so some are healed instantly. Some are healed within the hour.

And some, you know, you can read again about the healings that were done. It's from that time they began to heal. In other words, they weren't healed immediately. But they began to get better. They began to progress. You know, sometimes it is that way. Sometimes miracles can be just instant, though. And they have to be instant, quite frankly, in cases. For instance, there was a little girl that was some years back in the church that was run over by one of these big tractors. I'm talking about with the metal wheels. She was run over. And, you know, what occurred is she was pressed down in the mud, and she didn't have one scratch on her after it was over. A little girl. God protected her. It had been you and I. It might have been different, but it was a little girl. There was a little girl, I remember, down in Alabama that fell and broke her arm, and the bone was jutting out. It was that bad. They took her. She was anointed. They took her onto the emergency room anyway. And by the time they got to the emergency room, the doctor examined her. He said, there's nothing wrong with this person's arm. It was a miracle. And, you know, God does those things. He still does those things, brethren. You don't hear about them. You know, you don't. You may be. I've never said anything about that miracle that took place in Alabama. During those years, and there have been other miracles that occurred, there was a man, in fact, that was in the church back in Kentucky. The man died. They had him on the gurney, and he had the sheet over his face. God anointed. He was being anointed before, and he died. But he had the sheet over his face. They pushed him in, where they put the, you know, like in the morgue. Guy set up like it fell off, and he said, I'm hungry. He was healed. And, you know what? He died a number of years later. Kind of interesting, isn't it? Things like this happen that occur. You know, we find that God heals those some things that are instant.

Another way is that sometimes it might take weeks or even years to heal. You know, I've had this acid reflux problem, and sometimes I'll tell you it has been terrible, just terrible. You have no idea how it's been. You can feel like you're having a heart attack. It is that bad. And, you know, I've been wrestling with it probably about 10 years, and it's getting better.

Been anointed multiple times for it. It's getting better. Not gone completely yet, but, you know, I know God is doing that. I can't do anything about it. You know, He's the one that has to do it. I do the best I can do with it. It's interesting, also, though, that this happened for me while I was here. I had a problem by lower back. You may remember the time. It's gone. It was quite a while ago. I had problems with my leg. It began to go numb on me. And, you know, it was hard for me. I started having to drag my leg a little bit. I don't know if you've ever had one of those flip-flop shoes, you know, where the... But every time I put my foot down, it would flop down. It wouldn't... It wasn't normal. I had a terrible pain in both these shoulders. I couldn't lift my hand up in the cupboard. I had a neck problem, by the way, that I'd had for 20 years. And I believe I was healed of all of that. I don't have a neck problem anymore. I don't have any pain in my back.

You know, I don't have the numbers in my leg. So God healed it. I can't really give anybody else or anything else the credit for that, because others, you know, have tried the physical things I've tried, and it hasn't helped them, you know. So, you know, I have to give God the credit for that in healing. So some maybe take weeks or even years to heal. Some are not healed, and they die. And maybe because of a lack of faith or a lack of unbelief, you know, the Bible says that, that there's the possibility that some would die as a result of not having faith and unbelief. Maybe not taking the Passover seriously, not realizing the sacrifice of Christ and the body and the blood of Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 11, we see that. You know, here Paul is addressing the Corinthian church, and this is why he told them, he said in verse 28, But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup, he's talking about the Passover, of course, for he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. And for this reason many are weak and stick among you, and many sleep. And so he's talking about some have died because they did not discern the Lord's body or the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Now, once again, we cannot judge people who may not be healed, because again, only God can judge those kinds of things. We can't judge people's character. We can't judge them and say, well, you know, if you'd only believed more and had more faith in the sacrifice of Christ, I've known the people, by the way, that were tremendous examples of people of faith, and they were not healed for what a reason, and they died, you know, faithful people.

I would again say people that had extreme belief in God. So, you know, we need to again understand. We can't make judgments. It's unwise to judge other people thinking they must have done something wrong. People get sick and it's not their fault. Sometimes it's in the genetics. Sometimes it's not anything they did. Maybe it happened when, you know, down the line when Uncle Harry somehow messed up the genes, you know, in the family, you know, or Aunt Freda or whoever is a part of the family tree, you know, down the line, and it just became a part of the genetics. So, no one is at fault that may be suffering as a result of it. And some people are not, you know, well because God is going to glorify Himself through healing at a given time and at a given place.

You know, God does not heal every time. He really doesn't. Sometimes people get sick and they die.

Like in the case of Job, Job got sick. He did get well. But how long was he sick? We don't know.

Think about the fact that here you have this man, Elijah, that was so powerful that someone's corpse was thrown on the bones of Elijah and he was resurrected just by being on the holy bones of Elijah. And yet, Elijah got had a sickness of the death.

Either Elijah or Elisha. I can't remember which one of the two there. Maybe some of you off the top of your head can remember. But just again, the principle being that a man that is holy can get sick and he can die as well. I think it was Elijah. But so, you know, sometimes people get sick and they do not recover. Sometimes sickness is just what the doctor ordered, like for instance for Job. Sickness was just what he needed. You know, sickness can affect a man in a very powerful way. Paul, by the way, had his ailments for purpose for a reason. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 12 and notice this. 2 Corinthians 12 and verse 7. 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 7. I'm in 1 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 12 down in verse 7, down to verse 10, and it says, Unless I should be exalt above measure by the abundance of the revelations, God has been revealing so many things to Paul, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. I think this is a good way to probably describe something that's just a continual irritation. You ever been sick with the pain or, you know, experienced something that's just really hard to deal with? It is like the devil's buffeting you the whole time. That's the way Paul put it. It says, Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times, and it might depart from me. And he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

Now, it's interesting that here he received this word from Jesus Christ that, Look, my grace is sufficient for you, and you're going to become perfect through the weakness that you have here. But notice the mature way of thinking that Paul channeled his mind here. And this is the mature way of thinking of someone, by the way, that sees the big picture, rather, in this life and understands again what our lives are all about.

Because notice here, when he realized he was not going to be healed of this problem, which was an eye problem, you know, probably because, remember, he had to read these big letters. And I don't know, maybe he had an eye-graining problem, you know, that was just a source of constant irritation to him, it sounds like here. It says, Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast, he said, in my infirmities. I'm going to boast in that, Paul said, but that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses. For Christ's sake, for when I am weak, I am strong.

And so, brethren, this is the mature Christian. This is what the mature Christian comes to see, that here in this case, you know, Paul realized he was not going to be healed, and so he turned it around, and he said, Okay, I'm going to boast in these things. I'm going to make this work for me.

I'm going to become stronger, spiritually speaking, become perfect as a result of these things.

And so, the Apostle Paul had this problem, and he turned it around, he made sickness, you might say, something that he was going to use to help himself grow. You know, I know it's incredible to think about, brethren, but you know some of the happiest people, frankly, that I have known in my entire ministry have been deeply and profoundly afflicted with serious illness.

I want you to think about that as well, yourself. I think you might come to the same conclusion. I think, by the way of Karen Johnson and what she goes through in her life, where she just is immobilized. But you know, there's not a solitary time that my wife and I have not gone in and visited with Karen, that she had a big smile on her face, and she was so positive, and a very happy person, a genuinely happy person. You know, so it is really interesting to think about some of the happiest people being that way that seem to go through some of the most difficult things a human being could go through, and they're happy. They're happy, and they're going to make the most of their life. So somehow, Paul got an unspeakable joy out of his relationship with God when he was afflicted. For some, their complete healing will not, in fact, come until the resurrection, where they're given a new body. So God may not heal in this particular time. You know, what is also very profound to think about is you have Paul that was not healed. He pled with God to intervene to heal him of this, and he came to these conclusions about himself. And even though he was not healed through Paul, miracles took place. Miracle after miracle took place.

I'm not going to go there, but in Acts 19, verse 11 through 12, it says, And God wrought special miracles by the hand of Paul, insomuch that it says, Under the sick were carried away from his body, handkerchiefs, or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out. And yet he himself was not healed. How does God perform healing in our life and our family? These are the ways, brethren. And some are helped along in the healing process by operations, drugs that can help with aid and assist, or just time. Just time. So, brethren, what is the balance in our understanding about healing? What is the balanced thing that we ought to think about healing, brethren? Well, realize this.

God is more concerned with the spiritual outcome of everything than how things may be physically for any one of us. Christ did not come to heal everyone then, and he's not healing everyone now.

Whether we're healed or not, brethren, if we're not in the kingdom of God, what does anything matter?

What does your life matter if you're not in the kingdom of God?

Only God, again, can determine what is best for us now anyway. And so, we're told in James 5 verse 16, we're told, confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. And then he says, the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

And so, again, even though these things are the case, we need to still remember that God does heal.

He still intervenes. Miracles do happen. And if effective prayers are made by those who are righteous, appealing to God at the very throne of God, that powerful things can happen.

Well, like in Paul's case, even though he was not healed personally, his prayers, his involvement healed many people, affected many people.

And I dare say, brethren, there are some that perhaps have not been healed among us, that pray for other people who are healed when we may not be healed, for whatever reason that is there. But again, we need to see the big picture, brethren, of what healing is all about. Let's go over to Revelation 21, because we really begin to get the big picture. Christ came again to give a foretaste of what the kingdom of God was going to be like. What it was going to be like when Jesus Christ was ruling upon the face of the earth, and when God's servants, the stinks of the Most High, are ruling with Christ. Revelation 21, verse 3. This is the time, by the way, when New Jerusalem is going to come down out of heaven, like a bride adorned for her husband. In verse 3, And I heard a loud voice from heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them, and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. And it says that there will be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. And then he that sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. I make all things new. And he said to me, write, for these words are true and faithful. So there's come a time, brethren, where God's going to wipe away every tear. There's going to come a time where not only is sickness going to be done away, but death is going to be done away altogether. Now, brethren, why in the world then do we, are we going, are we sick now?

Why do we have to go through these things? Why do we have to suffer sometimes?

Well, brethren, we're going to be kings and priests in the kingdom.

You know, Christ was acquainted with pain and suffering, with what it was like to be a human being, so that he could be our faithful high priest. We're going through these things, brethren, so that we can be faithful priests in the world tomorrow. We're going to understand people. We're going to understand what it's like to be in this physical flesh.

And God is going to use us, brethren, to heal the nations. We're going to heal the nations, and we're going to intervene for people. We're going to be there to assist people, and we'll have an understanding of this human flesh. We'll be advocates for people.

Revelation 22. Revelation 22. Let's notice this.

And it says in verse 1, And he showed me a pure river of water, of life, Clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. And in the middle of the street, on the inner side of the river, was a tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month.

And notice this. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

So, God, you see, the big picture, brethren, is that Jesus Christ came heralding the time when the nations would be healed. Not just one person during the ministry of Jesus Christ, but the nations would be healed. That the whole world was going to be healed.

And, brethren, those things that we see in this time make us yearn for that time when everyone will have the opportunity. I know we'd like to go down to the hospitals and simply start healing people right and left. That may happen before Christ returns, by the way.

When God wants to get people's attention, He will do it.

And when the time comes, that may very well be happening. We will be able to make people hear the gospel of the King of God. They probably still won't believe it, but they'll hear it. They'll be given the gospel. And maybe those same people, when they go through the tribulation, are going to repent. And so, brethren, what we go through right now are to help people during the Millennium, to help people during the Great White Throne Judgment time.

You know, when we're going to play the role of priests in the world tomorrow, does God heal in the 21st century? You better believe it. He still does in the Church of God.

God does heal in the Church in this modern 21st century time. And He will do so in a dramatic way in the future, right before the time of the tribulation. But may help us to promote the furtherance of the work and preaching the gospel as God chooses to do whatever He chooses to do. But one thing, brethren, that is very, very important is let's not be doubters. Let's not be unbelievers. Let's not lose faith in what God can do. God can do anything in your life, in my life, in anyone's life.

And, brethren, God loves all of us. He really does. The most important thing to Him, though, is our spiritual condition and what we're going to be in the future. So, brethren, let's not be like the doubters of this world. But, brethren, let's be believers in the power of God to heal.

And let's see the big picture about healing. And let's continue to have that faith, brethren, because God does yet heal in the 21st century. Well, we're going to have to head over, by the way, shortly to Stockton and speak over there and head back down to High Sierra tonight. But we'll see you guys take care. We'll see when we get back from, you know, down in Phoenix and afterwards. You take care of yourself.