Seeking God's Divine Healing

I wanted to begin with something I know all of you realize that I haven't been here for several weeks. And I've had a lot of time to think about what God tells us regarding healing.

And I know that that process is one that He sets in place, and that is, in a sense, somewhat of a natural process over a period of time. But He also shows us that we can seek His healing.

He wants us to seek His healing physically because there's a great connection. I want us to begin in Isaiah 38 because this has great meaning to me because I found out six weeks ago that I had something that was serious enough that required open-heart surgery.

Now, I would have never imagined with the health that I have enjoyed up to this point that I would need to do that. And yet, that's what I've gone through, and that's, like I said, I've been recovering from that ever since. And yet, in a sense, knowing what they did, knowing even how I feel, I know I'm better. I'm better because of what they did as far as in this operation. But I feel that there's a way of looking at this for me. I certainly didn't want to have a massive heart attack and die, and certainly die at the very young age that I am of 65.

I mean, I want to be in 75, in 80, in 85, maybe 90. I don't know how, you know, I want Christ to return before that. But I certainly didn't want to end my life, you know, what would seem to me to be somewhat prematurely. So I think this example of Hezekiah in Isaiah 38 is very applicable because Hezekiah was a king of Judah.

He was actually one of the, what you would say, would be good kings as opposed to bad kings. And he did a number of things that were very commendable. But it says here in Isaiah 38, and actually I'm not going to the account in 2 Kings or in 2 Chronicles. There's more information about Hezekiah and what he did. And you see his illness in each of these accounts, but I'm only going to go to it here. In Isaiah 38, it says, in those days, Hezekiah became sick and he was about to die. And Isaiah came to him and said, God says you're going to die.

That was not good news. That was not what Hezekiah wanted to hear. I don't even know what age he was. I'm sure that someone has figured that out. But what it says was, in verse 2, Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord and said, Remember, O Lord, I am poor you, that I walk before you in faithfulness with a whole heart, and I've done what is good in your sight. And he wept bitterly. Now, it appears that Hezekiah focused on most of the good things he had done.

And he didn't all do all good things. He did some bad things. And there's an account where it shows that even since he became ill, he was suffering from a certain level of pride that God allowed him to learn about and to overcome and to repent of.

But what it says in verse 4, the word of the Lord came and said, and He said this to Isaiah, I want you to go and say to Hezekiah, that says, that says, Lord, the God of an ancestor, David, I've heard your prayer and I have seen your tears, and I will add 15 years to your life. So if he was 65, then he was going to get 15 more years, and there was going to be a sign. God performed a sign so he would know.

And so God, in a sense, lengthened his life. And I certainly want to feel that that may be the case with me, because I would want to be up and around and able to continue to serve God for a lengthy period of time.

But what I really want to point out about this, because you have, starting in verse 9, down through the rest of this chapter, what Hezekiah wrote, what he wrote about what he went through. And I think this can be important, not simply for me, but for you, because I know all of us, at one time or another, struggle with, you know, we try to avoid, as much as we can, illness and sickness.

And, you know, yet, you know, we almost always know of someone who is ailing, someone who is sick within our congregation or within, certainly, the wider strain of the church. We get emails every week of people who are in need of healing.

And yet, here in verse 16, it says, Oh, Lord, by these things people live, and in all these is the life of my spirit. Restore me to health and make me live. Verse 17, he says, Surely it was for my welfare that I've had this great bitterness. See, what he had gone through, you know, he was deeply moved. His heart was touched with the problem. He was almost to die, and that he sought God and turned to God and appealed to God and wept before God. And God offered him relief. He offered him to be restored. And so it was important, important to Hezekiah, that he understood that it was for my welfare that I have had this great bitterness. So he knew that, well, it was God working in his life. And I want to view that that way in my life, and I would offer that you might want to do that. It says in verse 17, the latter part, you have cast all of my sins behind your back. And then he makes a statement in verse 18. He actually makes a statement between the living and the dead. He points out the dead in verse 19. Let's see. Yeah, he makes his statement in verse 18. The grave, so people who have died, people who are no longer alive, he says the grave cannot thank you. And death cannot praise you. And those who go down to the pit, so he makes three references there to dying. People who are in the grave, people who die, people who go down to the pit. And I know the new King James probably says a little different wording there, but he's referring to each one of those. He says, if we die, then we can't thank God. We're simply dead. We simply are in our grave and awaiting the resurrection.

And yet here he says in the grave, you can't thank God, and death doesn't allow you to praise God. And those who go down to the pit cannot hope in your faithfulness. See, that's what we want to do. That's what each and every one of us want to do as we're alive. He says in verse 19, the living, the living are the ones who thank you as I do this day, and fathers make known to their children your faithfulness. It has become more significant to me than I perhaps ever remember it being, that I want to always thank God for everything that I can possibly think of.

I want to praise and worship God, because that's what you can do as a living human being, as an individual that God is working with and granting an understanding of the things of God. Well, we have every reason to praise and worship God. And then the last one here that's mentioned is to hope in your faithfulness.

See, we have every reason to look forward in hope, every reason to believe, because God is faithful. He will help us. He will encourage us. And so we have reason, even if we run into difficulties, even if we have things that we labor with, we have hope through those things and then beyond, because we have hope in what God is going to do in bringing the kingdom of God to the earth, in establishing His kingdom, and in causing the truth of God to be surrounding the world.

See, the whole world needs the knowledge of God, and yet that's only going to happen whenever Christ intervenes. Whenever He returns, that's going to be made available. So I would hope that all of us can keep that in mind, because that's certainly been pointed out to me in a very dominant way. And I see that as something I want to do every day and many times a day to be grateful for that. I want to go on to 1 Corinthians 11, because I know as we prepare for the upcoming Holy Days, as we examine or evaluate our lives, evaluate our spiritual progress, or lack thereof, you know, that's what we're all evaluating.

We're to evaluate. It tells us here in 1 Corinthians that in order to properly come before God at a Passover service, the New Testament Passover, and in order to properly do that, we need to examine ourselves to evaluate ourselves. And as we do that, you know, then we're able to come before God in a reverent way.

We come before Him respectfully. We come before Him thankful. We certainly come before Him in an attitude of praise and worship. But here in 1 Corinthians 11, I want to mention one thing today that I think has great significance, and it's not been something that at least I feel I've understood real well. Although here you find in 1 Corinthians 11, as Paul had said in verse 27, I'm not going to go through all the verses and talk about how that he was telling the congregation there that Jesus was the one who had established the symbols of the bread and of the wine that would be used to memorialize His death.

And that, of course, is what we're doing as we celebrate a Passover service and a Passover day. Even though it's a sobering day, it's also a celebration because what was being made available to us, what was being extended was the love of God. It was being extended to us through the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. And he says in verse 27, as you come together, whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an irreverent manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord, but you should examine or evaluate yourself.

Now, of course, that's pretty clear. We're not to evaluate each other, or the focus is not on me being able to see your sins. I need to look at mine. I need to see where I fall short or where God is helping me or God is causing his righteousness or his nature to grow in me. And that, again, is not something that I can take much credit for.

It's simply something I want to be thankful for and ask for help in being able to appreciate that. So he says, examine yourselves and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

For he goes on to say, and he makes his statement in verse 29 and verse 30. I think, you know, we certainly have not only read it, we've talked about it a good amount, but I don't know that if I fully understood what it really is talking about, it says in verse 29, all who eat and drink without discerning the body of the Lord. Those who eat and drink without discerning the body of the Lord, eat and drink judgment against themselves. And then he follows that up in verse 30. For this reason, it would appear, for this reason, those who do not properly discern the body of the Lord, for this reason, many of you are weak and ill, and many of you, or some of you, have died. He tends to make a comparison between properly understanding the body of the Lord and the whole topic of healing, and a topic of healing within the grouping of the church. And so he goes on to say in verse 31, if we judge ourselves, then we would not be judged. And so that, of course, is the focus. That we want to examine or evaluate ourselves, we want to judge ourselves, and then we want to take the Passover in a proper reverent manner. But what I want to focus on is what it says in verse 29 and 30.

See, what does that mean to properly discern the body of the Lord? I would say that it may involve many factors. I think it involves many factors involving our God.

Now, it's very clear that the Corinthians were out of line. That's what Paul was correcting. And I'm not again going to read all this chapter that you can read if you would like. And really, it's helpful to read the whole section from verse 17 down to the end to get the general idea. But actually, it ties together much more. But they were clearly out of line in the observance or in the care that they had for one another. They weren't respectful toward one another. They weren't loving toward one another. They weren't praying for one another.

And what we find as the result of that is many of them were sick and many died. See, I believe that I need to grow in my understanding of what the Bible reveals about what it takes to relate to God in such a way that we are seeking His forgiveness and that we are seeking His healing. See, that's a big topic. But I ask us to think about what it is to properly discern the Lord's body. Because we can think that, well, I know it's and there are two pretty broad areas that you can connect to this. And I'm only going to deal with one of them. I'm only wanting to deal with one of them, but two areas are clearly the fact that Jesus suffered, that His body was bruised, it was broken, and that is connected to our healing. That is connected to our relationship with God that allows us to receive the benefit. The benefit of healing. And another aspect involves really the love and the care and the concern that we have for each other. You know, the body, thinking of it as the church. So there's two different areas there, and I'm not focusing on the second one, although I probably will next time. But the first one is the one I want to focus on because we want to understand the connection between healing and receiving the benefit and the blessing of healing. And what the Bible tells us, here in Psalm 103, Psalm 103, I think most of us would be familiar with this statement.

David says in verse 1, "'Bless the Lord, O my soul, all that was within me, bless His holy name, bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all of His benefits.' And so he was encouraging them then, and I believe he's encouraging us now not to forget the benefits of God, and he starts enumerating those. Verse 3, who forgives all of our iniquities, so he forgives our sins, thankfully. That's clearly a benefit from God. God says He will do that as we come to Him in a repentant attitude, as we yield ourselves to Him, as we're willing to be guided by His Word, and as we are then inspired to honor Him with the way we live. So that would be one of the benefits he talks of here, forgiving forgiveness of our sins. But he goes on to say, who heals our diseases?

See, that is, and I think this should be very clear, healing is a benefit from God.

It's not a right. It's not a demand. It's not an obligation.

But it's a benefit. See, we appeal to God whenever we're sick. We ask God for help. We do that because we hurt. Nobody likes to hurt. Nobody wants to hurt. You know, we all, and I certainly, as I think back over the last six weeks, I hurt for a couple of weeks.

But the last few weeks haven't been so bad. But I certainly wanted to get away from hurt.

And none of us want to hurt. So we all seek God's help. But I want us to understand the connection between what we say regarding the Passover and the bread that Jesus said represented his body in Matthew 8. Matthew 8, you see a verse that connects to this.

And actually, Matthew 8 and 9 are verses that I want to point out to you throughout the remainder of this sermon. But in Matthew 8, you see Jesus at Peter's home.

And Peter's mother-in-law was sick. It says in verse 14, when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a high fever. And he touched her hand, and the fever left her. So there's no doubt God can heal. God can heal instantaneously. Jesus clearly did that. He did that thousands of times during his ministry. And I know that all of us believe what it says.

It's just that we don't always focus on what it points out about us, about how we are to seek healing with an attitude of yieldedness to God, with an attitude of wanting to be forgiven, and wanting to be accepted by God, and wanting His mercy. Because all of those things are tied together here. But it goes on that evening. Verse 15, he touched her hand, the fever left her, and she got up, and she began to serve them. Wonderful! She was able to help out, like I'm sure she wanted to there in the home. But it says, he also healed those who were brought to him. He cast out demons, and he cured all who were sick. And it says in verse 17, this was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah, that he took our infirmities, and he bore our diseases. See, there's a direct connection there. The statement is connecting, making a connection with Jesus healing Peter's mother, and restoring her to service. Restoration, that's really what healing is. We're revived, we're restored, and then we can be about doing the work that God has given us to do. I won't take time to read in Isaiah 53, but I'll encourage you to do so. Isaiah 53, almost the entirety of the chapter, talks about the sacrifice of Jesus. And in verse 4 and 5, it talks about what was quoted here. He has borne our iniquity. He has carried our diseases.

He was wounded for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquity, and upon him was the punishment.

That has made us whole. So there's a connection between healing and our properly discerning the Lord's body. And as we take the bread, and of course also the wine, we want to take that bread with an awareness that this represents a connection with Jesus Christ, a connection that he wants us to have a connection, not that we can demand, or not that he has an obligation to give, but that one of the benefits of truly acknowledging God in this way is healing, being restored, being revived. And that, of course, I think should be very encouraging to us. You find this same thing mentioned in 1 Peter 2, and again I'll only reference this because of time, but in 1 Peter 2 you see a section about Jesus' suffering.

Jesus set an example.

In verse 21, 1 Peter 2 verse 21, for this you have been called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps.

And yet in verse 22, he didn't deserve any of it. He didn't deserve to suffer. He hadn't done anything wrong. It says in verse 22, he committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth. Now, Jesus was far away from sin as you could possibly be as far as his actions, his attitude, his closeness to the Father. He didn't deserve beating, bruising, wounding. He didn't deserve that. But it says he was willing to take that. He was willing to suffer in our stead. He was willing to suffer and then also extend healing to us as a benefit.

Amazing response here in verse 23 when he was abused.

He didn't return abuse when he suffered. He didn't threaten. He simply entrusted himself to the one who judges rightly. And in verse 24, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree so that free from sin we might live for righteousness. And by his wounds you have been healed.

See, these are very familiar verses that we almost always would cover. Almost always would go over in some way toward the time of the Passover and directly during the Passover service in connection with the bread that represents the body of Jesus Christ. But it's connected to healing. Again, not as a demand, but as a benefit. A benefit that we can seek. A benefit that we can appreciate. The one that we can be excited about. He goes on in verse 25, making a connection with healing and with forgiveness. For you, we're going astray like sheep, but now you've returned to the shepherd and guardian of your soul. See, he's extending the blessing of healing. He's providing that. He's making that available as we return or as we turn to God. And of course, that's a wonderful blessing to be able to realize. I want us to look in Matthew chapter 8 and 9 because what I read in verse 17 of Matthew 8 is again connected with these other verses that I had mentioned to you.

But you actually find in Matthew chapter 8 and 9, it reveals many factors and lessons in healing from Jesus because it clearly shows that Jesus healed people through the power of God. See, when we ask someone if someone is anointed, and of course we're not going over James chapter 5 right now, but it is important for us to know what it says there because it says if we're sick that we should be anointed and that we should come to God in faith. And yet, many times, you know, we often think, you know, well, I've got to have more faith or I need more faith or I wish I had more faith or I wish other people had more faith. I wish the ministry had faith, you know, so that we'd see miracles. We may at times, but we don't always, many of us, have experienced that, well, sometimes it's taken us some time to recover. That doesn't mean God didn't provide healing. Again, we don't dictate to Him when and how He does that.

But here in Matthew, actually it's in chapter 9.

Matthew chapter 9, if you read these two chapters, Matthew 8 and 9, you'll find there are numerous examples of Jesus healing. And here in Matthew 9, verse 28, as He interacts with two blind men, Jesus asks these men, verse 28, He entered the house, the blind men came to Him, Jesus said, Do you believe that I'm able to do this?

So that's the first factor. Do you believe that I have the capacity to change your sight? So belief is clearly one of the factors. I'm going to go through several of these here, if we can jump back to chapter 8. In verse 10, dealing with the centurion and his servant who was near death. See, the centurion, this whole example here, was one where he understood the authority that Jesus had. He understood the power that Jesus possessed. And that all Jesus needed to do was to say the word, and his servant would be healed.

And yet here in chapter 8, verse 10, when Jesus heard him, he was stunned.

He was amazed at what this centurion was saying. Because here in verse 10, when he heard him, he was amazed. And he said to those who followed him, truly, I tell you, and no one in Israel have I found such faith. To hear Adam to belief, he also is mentioning in this case, in this other example, faith. And actually, if you drop down to where we can find the example of the woman suffering from bleeding. This is in chapter 9. Again, there's so many of these. It's amazing that they're all here just in one section. Matthew, chapter 9, verse 22, a woman had come to Jesus. She had suffered for years. She was hemorrhaging. And she said, if I can just touch him, if I can just, I don't have to touch him. I have to touch his clothes that I know I'll be made well. In verse 22, Jesus turned and said to her, Take heart, daughter, your faith has made you whole. And of course, you know, again, that's reiterating not only belief, but faith. And if we back up to chapter 8, verse 1, here Jesus is dealing with the leper. Again, an outcast in the community, but he wasn't an outcast to Jesus. He says, I'm here to help. I'm here to serve. So in chapter 8, verse 1, Jesus came down the mountain. Great crowds were following. There was a leper who came to him and knelt before him. He said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Now, in the translation that I normally use here, it says, Lord, if you choose, if you choose, you can make me clean. And in verse 3, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him and says, I do choose be made clean. And of course, he was. See, clearly, this is talking about whenever we approach God asking for healing and understanding that it's connected to the broken body of Jesus, that we have belief, that we have faith, that we understand we are simply living with the will of God, whatever that is. In this case, he said, I choose to heal. I will that you be healed. And I think overall, God does want to heal us. But we often find that we linger sometimes, maybe because of not properly discerning the body, maybe because of something that we are not yet seeing, something we need to grow in.

And I'm going to say this about me. I mean, I understand that there are limitations to things that I understand or know. And I'm thankful that God continues to add some to that. But when Jesus mentions belief, when he mentions faith, when he mentions the will of God here in chapter 9, again, in dealing with the blind men, verse 27, Jesus went up to them. Two blind men followed him, crying loudly, Son of David, what did they say? Have mercy on us. Have mercy. See, healing is extended as a courtesy and mercy from God. It's something that we want to appreciate, something we want to be grateful for. We want to be thankful. But whenever you combine belief and faith and being subject to the will of God and mercy, you find all of these connected together. You find them connected together in regard to healing. And there's another one here that I also want to point out in chapter 9. Chapter 9, this was a, I know, a familiar example to many of us because it's the paralytic who was brought to Jesus, verse 2 it is, just then some people were carrying a paralyzed man lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, take heart, son. So in this case, he was going to heal him. He did heal him. But he says, take heart, son, your sins are forgiven. Clearly, you know, that wasn't something, you know, there clearly is a connection between a yielded attitude, between a desire to honor God, a desire to praise God, or please God, a desire to come to God, to be desirous of forgiveness.

So he said, take heart, son, your sins are forgiven. And when some of the scribes said, why are you even telling him that? You can't tell him that. Well, in verse 6, he says, so that you know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sin. He said to the paralytic, stand up and take your bed and go home. Clearly, in that case, not only was he connecting healing with forgiveness, but he was always claiming who he was because, you know, he was God. Jesus was the Son of God. He was connected to the Father. He was able to extend healing. He was able to extend mercy. And he was able to teach all of these different things in connection, even with understanding, properly discerning his body, the broken body of Jesus. I'm going to look at one other example here, and then we'll conclude so that we won't be too long here today.

In 2 Corinthians, you see an example, 2 Corinthians 12, you see an example of Paul. Paul had a lot to boast about because he was quite an impressive scholar. He had the lineage.

He really had everything going for him, but he also had a few drawbacks. He'd been killing the church. That was a disadvantage. And, of course, he had a lot of conflicts with the Jews. Those were difficulties that he had to work through. But here in chapter 12, Paul's saying, you know, God has given me more spiritual gifts than almost anybody else. He could say that because he had different gifts that not everybody had. And yet we also see in verse down in verse 8. Let me see if that's right. In verse 7, he says, therefore to keep me from being too elated. A thorn was given me in the flesh. He says it was a messenger of Satan. So apparently God may have allowed Satan to afflict him. But you know exactly what that means. I'm not sure. But he calls it a thorn in the flesh. It has been conjectured that it was his eyesight. I don't know if it was. Maybe it was something else. Maybe it was a physical infirmity that didn't take his life, but he just struggled with it. And see, many of us have those kinds of difficulties.

But he says, to keep me from being too elated. A thorn was given me in the flesh.

And three times I appealed to the Lord to take it away that it would leave me. But he said, "'My grace is sufficient for you.'" So he told Paul, don't worry about it. It's my choice as to whether or not I remove this thorn in the flesh from you. Because it may be to your benefit that you have it. Because he would go on to say, "'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' My power is made perfect in weakness, so that I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.'" And then Paul says something in verse 10 that's just kind of hard for me to understand. Therefore, I'm content. I'm content with weakness.

See, I don't like to be weak. I don't like to be limited. I don't like to not feel like I have the energy to travel to Fulton and back and be here in church on the Sabbath or to do other things that I need to do during the week. But Paul says, I'm content with whatever weakness God allows me to be afflicted with. But he says, I'm content with weakness, and I'm content with insults, and I'm content with hardships and persecution and calamity for the sake of Christ. And see, he had, I think, been through enough to be able to realize that, well, God was with him.

God was working with him. God rescued him many times. God raised him from the dead, what it would appear, at least, when he was stoned. They didn't stone people just to injure them. They stoned them to kill them. But it says he rose from having been stoned. And, of course, being shipwrecked probably wasn't too simple or easy. All the stripes that he received in different torture areas, by the Jews or by the Romans, see, he said, I'm content with weakness and insults and hardship and persecution and calamity. For he says, whenever I'm weak, whenever I am allowed to linger with something that causes me to be weak, then am I strong.

Then is the power of God able to work in me in a much more powerful way.

And so he could write about this. He could tell us that, yes, healing is available. Paul is talking about, he's writing this in 1 Corinthians about how it is that we need to discern the body of Christ. We need to discern and be able to seek the benefits of the healing of God.

We don't demand those benefits. We seek those benefits because God holds them out before us. But see, brethren, we want to properly discern the body of Christ. And that is, you know, the message that I want to leave with us today. We want to properly discern the body of Christ. That's a part of our evaluation. And I feel that I understand some of the connections that Jesus makes about it more than I have before. And I hope that all of us can come to more properly discern the body of Christ. That it will enable us to draw closer and closer to God. To acknowledge His lead in the church, because we always have to be looking to Christ as the head of the church, but not only leading in the church, but leading in each and every one of our lives. And certainly to thank Him. That's what I started out with. You know, Hezekiah said that, well, I really see the benefit of being healed, because as a living being, I'm able to thank God. I'm able to praise God. I'm able to hope in His faithfulness, because He is the one that I fully trust. But see, I want us to be able to thank God for the privilege, the privilege to grow in belief, to grow in faith, to grow in being subject to the will of God, to grow in asking for His mercy, to grow in seeking His forgiveness, because they all tied together according to Matthew 8 and 9. And that His marvelous healing, both physically and spiritually, can be extended to us.

See, that's what each and every one of us can think about as we prepare here in the next few weeks to enjoy the spring holy days. Where we're not only rededicating ourselves to God, but we are coming to understand more fully, coming to understand more fully what it is to properly discern the body of Christ. So please take this 2015 Passover with a renewed devotion to Christ, and perhaps even an enhanced understanding of His sacrifice. What He endured, what He went through, not just that He died and His blood was shed, but that He suffered a great deal. He was wounded and bruised, and His stripes are offered to us so that we can seek the benefit of divine healing.