My first introduction to the important subject of
the Lord for the Body, or Christ our
Healer, came when I was a student here
in Minneapolis at Northwestern School.
I was sick.
I was, had been sick for some time,
I couldn't get my strength back, and so
I went in to see my good pastor
and president of the school, Dr. Riley.
Told him what I was, asked him if
I thought I should, he thought I should
quit school or what, and he looked at
me and smiled, I'd known him, and he
said, well, the first thing you're going to
do is next Sunday afternoon go down to
Jackson Hall to Charlie Ingersoll's meeting, and you're
going to go in and ask Charlie Ingersoll
to pray for you, and you tell him
I sent you.
Well, I inquired a little bit about Charlie
Ingersoll.
In the book by T.J. McCrossan entitled
Christ's Paralyzed Church X-rayed, you find reference
made to Charlie Ingersoll.
Mr. Ingersoll was an elder in the Oliver
Presbyterian Church, and Dr. McCrossan was pastor there.
And Dr. McCrossan had been examiner in Greek
and Hebrew for the Manitoba Presbytery and for
the Minnesota Presbytery, and God had, through the
marvelous workings of his grace, brought Dr. McCrossan
to the conviction that the Lord Jesus is
both able and willing and desirous of healing.
And so this had become part of his
ministry, and one of his elders, Charlie Ingersoll,
had been greatly blessed of God and had
obviously been given this ministry of encouraging people
to lay hold of the Lord.
Well, I do not know just what happened,
but it so fell out that when Dr.
McCrossan left, apparently there was a change in
emphasis at the Oliver Presbyterian Church, and Dr.
Riley had been greatly influenced by A.B.
Simpson back years before at Old Orchard, Maine.
And apparently he had gotten vision and burden
that made him a friend of what McCrossan
stood for and of Mr. Ingersoll.
And so he'd opened Jackson Hall, one of
the rooms there in the Sunday School building,
to Dr. or to Mr. Ingersoll.
And I went down, and Mr. Ingersoll gave
a lovely exhortation and prayed for me.
And the Lord touched me and helped me.
But I left it there and soon was
out in the pastures.
The next encounter I had with the subject
of healing was when I was pastor in
Little Falls, Minnesota, at the First Baptist Church.
Someone was ill, and I went to the
hospital, and the doctor met me in the
hall, and he said, Brother, if you, Mr.
or Reverend, or whatever it was, if you
know anybody that knows how to pray, you
better call on them.
Because unless something is done that I can't
do, this poor party's going to die.
Well, I'd already talked with him about this
subject, somewhere he'd gotten interested in it, and
gave him my unbelief and told him that
I did not believe that healing was for
today or part of our heritage in Christ.
And so in this particular situation, remembering our
conversation, he said, if you know somebody that
knows how to pray, you better get them.
And it was something of a rebuff to
me.
One of the deacons in that church came
to me and said, Mrs. So-and-so
wants us to come and to anoint her
and to pray for her.
And so in characteristic temerity and effrontery, in
a sense, I said, Oh, I'm awfully sorry,
I can't do that.
Well, why not?
She asked for it.
Oh, I said, You know very well that
James was written to the Jews in dispersion.
Now, if you can prove she's a dispersed
Jew, I'll be willing to come, but otherwise.
And spent 45 minutes explaining to him why
I wasn't going to go.
He said, You don't believe that?
Oh, yes, I said, I believe it, but
it's not for us.
And so he said, Well, I better see
if there isn't some preacher in town that'll
do it, because she wants someone to come
and to anoint her.
And so it went on.
Very little happened until I got to Africa.
And I used to get terribly angry with
the Lord that he sent me to do
Paul's work and he didn't give me Paul's
equipment.
That seemed sort of small of him, if
you ask me, because these people didn't know
whether Paul had lived 10 years ago or
2,000 years ago.
They had no concept of time.
And I had been, when I went to
Africa, my Bible was really, all it was
about the size of a Sunday school quarterly
in a 12-Sunday month.
It was a period, you know, it wasn't
very big.
I'd chopped it up, this to the Jews,
this to the tribulation, and I ended up
with a cover and a little bit in
between, but I had distributed most of it.
And the consequence of that was I used
to feel that it wasn't quite fair of
the Lord to send me out to do
what Paul was supposed to do, but not
to allow me to have Paul's equipment and
provision.
And I remember coming back from Kosti on
a steamer where I was a guest of
a Sudanese official, Moslem, Moslem, and we were
talking.
And I finally came around to the point
where I witnessed to him of Christ and
this Moslem who told me that he was,
didn't believe in the religion of Islam, but
he was socially and politically and economically a
Moslem because it was his culture, but not
religiously.
And so I told him of Christ and
he sat there and just wept.
And then just about the time I thought
surely he was going to open his heart
to our wonderful Lord, he left.
And I didn't see him till the next
day when I came to talk with him.
He was quite aloof and indifferent, and I
was disturbed.
Well, we got to talking and I pressed
the claims of Christ upon him and asked
him to receive our Lord.
And I'll never forget his looking at me
and saying, Mr. Reed, you want me to
receive Christ.
Do you know what that's going to cost
me?
That's going to mean I'll get lose my
job, for if I witnessed to him I'll
certainly lose that.
It's going to mean I'll lose my house
because the mortgage is held by my father
-in-law who's a fanatical Moslem.
It means my wife will be taken away
from me, my children will be taken away
from me.
And it furthermore means that my mother is
going to take a vow down at the
mosque that she will not rest until she's
killed me.
Because this is one of the five pillars
of our faith, to kill the infidel.
And she's not, she's going to swear a
curse on anybody's head that kills me because
she's going to say it's her responsibility to
do it.
She bore me and she should kill me.
Now I, he said, you're asking me to
do that on the basis of what you
presented.
I said, yes, I am.
I know that.
He said, let me ask you something.
You say that Jesus Christ is alive, and
I say that Muhammad is dead.
We know he's buried in the Kaaba and
Mecca.
We go there to go around the tomb
of Muhammad.
Now I want to ask you one question.
What can your living Jesus do that our
dead Muhammad can't?
And I said, now he's opened the door.
I said, he can take you to heaven.
He said, I understand that's what your faith
believes, but let me ask you one thing.
Has anyone ever come back, having gone your
way, and said he made it?
Our people believe that Muhammad will take them
to heaven.
How, what proof do you have that your
way takes people to heaven?
Don't they all die?
What happens to them afterwards?
What, how do you know?
Other than what the Bible says.
Well I said, we, we don't.
We just know that's what happens.
He said, good, but that's what our people
believe.
What else can Jesus do?
Well, I said, he can make people holy.
Oh, he said, like those people that go
to the cathedral on Sunday, but they've been
drunk at the club on Saturday night.
Holy like that, you mean?
Well, I mean, no, you've got to distinguish
between Christians and Christians, you understand.
Oh, like the missionaries that come and stand
up in front of my counter and, and
hammer on the desk when they don't get
service fast enough.
Is that what you?
Well, I said, I'm sure there are some
of those.
No, he said, I know there's a difference
between them, but I'm just not satisfied.
We have some people that live very abstemious
lives also.
I'm not satisfied with that.
What else can he do?
Well, I said, after all, he's the one
that, that sent the teachers to carry education
and medical help to lands like the Sudan.
Oh yes, I know.
He said, also slavery and the atom bomb
came from your country.
What else do you have?
By this time, I didn't have much to
say.
He said, I'd like to know what your
Jesus can do for our people that are
in need.
And I hadn't been taught very much about
that.
So I left Africa and I, we talked
more, and I left Africa ringing in my
ears, what can your living Jesus do that
our dead Muhammad can?
You see, nine people are being one to
Muhammadanism, for every one being one to Christianity.
And missions in North Africa have been there
for 150 years, and we have recorded so
far 300 converts.
That is, we have record of two converts
a year for 150 years from Islam.
And nine people are being one to Islam,
for one being one to Christianity.
This is the greatest challenge to church she's
ever faced.
And the answer came back to this, what
can your living Jesus do that our dead
Muhammad can't?
Now, this drove me to the word.
I returned from Africa, was made a deputational
secretary for a mission, and worked myself to
the place out of sheer frustration.
And I sometimes think out of a death
wish, just to try and escape from myself
and the world.
I worked myself down so that in three
years of deputational work, I had acute sinusitis,
which the doctor said there was no cure.
Early arterial sclerosis with vascular collapse, so that
most of the time my hands were numb
to my elbows.
I'd had a hemorrhoid condition, so that I'd
had to have an operation which was only
of temporary relief.
And the doctor told me that the total
condition was such that unless there was immediate
relief, I probably would could expect death within
months.
And I was just about 30 at the
time, maybe a little older.
And I was desperate, because I knew of
nothing else than just the pressure of human
enterprise and human activity.
One day down in a little hotel in
Georgia, I'd been praying for a long list
of needs totaling a quarter of a million
dollars, and crying out to God for the
supply of these needs.
And all of a sudden it dawned on
me that God had sent in about half
of that amount, and it was the same
sum last year.
And this seemed like we were running up
hill, we weren't getting anywhere.
Quarter of a million dollars last year, God
sent in 125,000, and we were up
to a quarter million again.
How would you ever finish?
And all of a sudden the futility dawned
on me, and I slipped off the edge
of the bed where I was kneeling, and
fell straight out on the floor, and sobbed
like a baby.
And I can remember saying this, Lord, I'm
through.
I'm finished.
It's absolutely wrong for you ever to have
called human beings with nothing but nerves, and
blood, and tissue to serve you.
You ought to have made some robot that
had copper nerves, and aluminum tubes for veins,
that wouldn't break down.
A human being can't stand this.
It's too much.
And I told the Lord what I thought
of him, and I thought of his work,
and that I was utterly finished, and absolutely
through, and I wouldn't go any further.
And as soon as the merry-go-round
stopped, I was going to get off.
And when I'd finished, and was too tired
to cry, or to sob deep down in
my heart, I thought I heard him say
something like this, You mean you're really through?
Well, that's what I've been waiting for.
You know, you've really run me a chase.
You mean you're not going to just rest
a little, and get up, and tear off
again?
You're through?
Well, that's the best news I've heard.
I've got something far better for you than
what you thought I had.
And it wasn't long after that, until I
discovered the wonderful truth of our union with
Christ, and our identification with Christ, and victory
through that identification, that when Jesus died, we
died.
Oh, it was like springtime in midwinter.
My heart leaped with delight and joy to
think that there was victory over our personalities,
and deliverance from this slavery to our traits
and nature.
And then the next thing I learned was
down in Louisville, Kentucky.
A dear woman in a little church there,
where my brother Wallace Cobble was pastor, it
was in a morning meeting.
I had been expounding on identification with Christ,
and she came and stood there, so sweet
and smiling, and said, Oh, that was rich,
that blessed my heart.
But you know, I do wish that you'd
known the baptism, knew the baptism of the
Holy Spirit, and the fullness of the Spirit.
Well, I went pouting off into a corner.
I knew one thing, I wasn't going to
get very near her after that.
She just couldn't appreciate the fine things of
life, and that was, and I wasn't, but
you know, those words just stuck in my
heart.
And finally I began to see that God
did have something more than just victory, that
the normal Christian life wasn't our just trying
to live for him in our energy, even
delivered from our traits and tendencies, but the
normal Christian life was given to us in
the words of Paul.
I am crucified with Christ, that's identification, nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me.
And I had to realize that I knew
very little of his indwelling life.
So there came a time in February of
1953, when after months of searching the word,
meeting and seeking him, I actually knew for
the first time the fullness of his presence,
and his covering anointing presence.
And that same time, dear friends with whom
I was praying said, let's ask the Lord
about your other needs.
He said, you have very cute eye trouble,
and I did.
And so he prayed for my eyes, and
he said, and your sinus is very bad,
let's ask the Lord about that.
And said, and your circulation is very poor,
let's ask the Lord about that.
And you know within just days, my glasses
didn't fit, they weren't quite right, but they
were much better than they'd been.
And my sinus had cleared up, and my
circulation was better.
And it wasn't long until I'd just known
the healing life and the restoring life of
the Lord go through my body, and I
was rejuvenated, and how I rejoiced.
But there was one area that didn't respond.
I'd been anointed, I'd sought the Lord, he'd
done such wonderful things for me, I didn't
have any question as to what he could
do.
But why about this?
Why not this?
And gradually it began to dawn on me
that there was something more the Lord wanted
to teach me.
And so I went into the Word, went
studying it and seeking it, continually asking God
to show me what it was that he
wanted to use.
And I can't tell you what train of
suggestion or influence came, but all at once
I began to be greatly concerned about the
verse in front of us.
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of
the law, having been made a curse for
us.
I went back to some notes I'd made
in school, went to some commentaries I had,
and almost invariably they said the curse of
the law is death.
The curse of the law is the same
as the penalty of the law.
And to be redeemed from the curse of
the law is just the same as to
be redeemed from the penalty of the law.
Now the penalty of the law is clear,
the soul that sinneth it shall die.
And so I said, now is the curse
of the law synonymous with the penalty of
the law?
Whatever the curse of the law is, I've
got to find out, because Christ was made
a curse for us.
Now we know that there's no remission of
sins but by the shedding of blood.
But if all we get out of the
death of Christ is the remission of sin,
why did he have to go to the
cross?
Why, the spear could have pierced his heart
on the God's garden path, and he could
have died and shed his blood.
And you mean then that all these hours
of agony that he had on the cross
had no other purpose than just the remission
of sin?
And so I remembered that back in school
I'd been taught a principle called the first
mention principle.
And you go to the scripture to find
out the first mention of a word.
And there you usually find how God uses
that word and how he wants you to
understand it.
So the word involved in a question was
curse.
Well that meant I had to go back
to Genesis, the third chapter.
And this was the first mention of the
word curse.
It was the time when Adam and Eve
had sinned and God called the pair before
him and Satan as well.
We find it here in the 14th verse,
God speaks first to the serpent and then
elsewhere.
This is the first mention of this word
curse.
Now remember penalty is clear.
The soul that sinneth it shall die.
Die, death is the penalty.
And the question to be established was, is
curse and penalty synonymous?
So let's look.
And the Lord said unto the serpent, because
thou hast done this thou are cursed.
Does this mean that he died?
Or was it a change in his condition
from pleasantness to unpleasantness?
I think you'll see that that's what it
was.
Thou art cursed above all cattle and above
every beast of the field.
Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and thus
shalt thou eat all the days of thy
life.
And I will put enmity between thee and
the woman, and between thy seed and her
seed.
It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt
bruise his heel.
Now unto the woman he said I will
greatly multiply thy sorrow, change condition.
And thy conception in sorrow shalt thou bring
forth children.
And thy husband shall be to the shall
be to thy husband, and thy desire shall
be to thy husband.
And he shall rule over thee.
And unto Adam he said, because thou hast
hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and
hast eaten of the tree of which I
commanded thee saying, thou shalt not eat of
it.
Cursed is the ground.
Now does this mean it died?
Or did there come a change of condition?
Well obviously it became a change of condition.
Cursed is the ground for thy sake.
In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all
the days of thy life.
Thorns also and thistle shall it bring forth
to thee.
And thou shalt eat the herbs of the
field.
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou
eat bread till thou return unto the ground.
Now here is the first use of the
word curse.
A change condition from pleasantness to unpleasantness.
So obviously the first mention of the word
curse indicates that it is something that results
from sin, but seemingly is an intermediate experience
between the time the penalty is pronounced until
the penalty is carried out.
Now let's see if that is sustained.
If you'll turn to Deuteronomy chapter 28, we'll
have an opportunity at great length here to
check and see whether our definition of curse
is correct.
The first 14 verses of Deuteronomy 28 have
to do with blessings, which mean the improvement
of condition, pleasantness, satisfaction, supply, joy, blessing.
But beginning with verse 15, you have another
thing introduced.
And if this is the proper use of
the word curse, we ought to see it
here.
That curse therefore has reference to a condition
imposed upon those that are under the penalty
of the law, previous to the exercising of
that penalty, for the purpose of persuading them
to return in repentance so as to escape
the penalty.
Do you see?
Now let's see if this is sustained.
But it shall come to pass if thou
wilt not hearken unto the voice of the
Lord thy God, to observe to do all
his commandments and his statutes, which I command
thee this day, that all these curses shall
come upon thee and overtake thee.
Cursed shall thou be in the city, cursed
shall thou be in the field.
Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store.
Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body,
the fruit of thy lamb, the increase of
thy kind, and the flocks of thy sheep.
Cursed shall thou be when thou comest in,
cursed shall thou be when thou goest out.
This doesn't sound like death, does it?
It sounds like a foretaste of it.
It sounds like a condition that results from
the penalty having been pronounced but previous to
the exercising of the penalty.
Now notice what it says about the body.
The Lord, in verse 21, shall make the
pestilence cleave unto thee until ye have consumed
thee.
Verse 22, the Lord shall smite thee with
a consumption, with a fever, with an inflammation,
with an extreme burning.
Then we'll go down to, uh, verse 27.
The Lord will smite thee with the botch
of Egypt.
I don't know, when I got to Egypt
I got sick after there three days.
I kind of figured that's what it was.
I don't know.
First I thought I'd be sick, then I
was afraid I was sick.
First I was afraid I'd die, and then
I was afraid I wouldn't die.
And it's encouraging.
When you come to the place that you're
afraid you won't die, you're almost through with
it, then you get better.
But this must be the botch of Egypt.
Whatever it was, it certainly changed my plans
for me.
The Lord will smite thee with the botch
of Egypt and with the hemorrhoids, another word
for hemorrhoids, with the scab and with the
itch whereof thou canst not be healed.
And the Lord shall smite thee with madness
and blindness and astonishment at heart.
And thou shall grope it noonday as the
blind grope it.
Verse 35, the Lord shall smite thee in
the knees and in the legs with a
sore botch that cannot be healed from the
sole of thy foot under the top of
thy head.
Now do you understand, and we could read
further, but this is sufficient to enable us
to understand that the curse was given by
God after they had participated and come under
the penalty.
So that getting a good taste of the
penalty, they changed their mind about how smart
it was to sin.
So that there would be reason within and
without to drive them to God in confession
to no forgiveness and pardon.
And so it was a foretaste of the
penalty, but it wasn't the penalty.
The penalty was death always.
But God in being gracious had a little
time of probation when he would put on
them a sample of the penalty.
And this was to induce them to flee
back to him to no forgiveness and pardon.
Now this is the curse, that which came
upon the earth, came upon man, came upon
woman, came upon Satan, and then came upon
his people because of sin.
Now if you'll stay with me then we'll
go a little further.
God had as his great purpose to secure
people for himself.
We're already in Deuteronomy 28.
I'd like to have you go back to
Exodus the 12th chapter with me and see
what happened.
Now you remember God wanted to have a
nation and he allowed this nation to go
down into Egypt to 70 of Jacob's family
and stay there 400 years.
And then Moses was called of him to
draw his people out of Egypt and unto
himself that he might have this testimony that
this nation that would know him and understand
him and be his witness.
Now they were slaves, they were forced to
live on an absolutely inadequate diet, they were
brutally treated, there was no unions to protect
working conditions, and you can see them building
the pyramids and other things can't you?
And they're rolling a big block up and
somebody lets go of a rope and it
runs back over a chap's foot and he's
kicked with the horses and he's hurt and
he's bruised and he's crippled and he's suffering
from all these diseases.
I used to think that when Israel went
out of Egypt they had 12 tribes and
then the ambulatory, then the litter cases that
they carried along with them.
And so they had to take along all,
they weren't going to leave the sick there,
they weren't going to leave all of these
people in Israel in Egypt, they were all
of Israel, all of the delivered line.
And so we have to go back, let's
find out what happened.
We're back at Exodus 12 now and this
will give us a little insight as to
what God is doing in deliverance of his
people.
These things are for our example.
Speaking unto all the congregation of Israel, saying
in the tenth day of this month, they
shall take to them every man a lamb
according to the house of their fathers, a
lamb for an house.
And if the household be too little for
the lamb, let him and his neighbor next
unto his house take it according to the
number of souls.
Every man according to his eating shall make
your account for the lamb.
Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male
of the first year.
He shall take it out from the sheep
and from the goat and he shall keep
it up until the fourteenth day of the
month.
As a whole assembly of the congregation of
Israel shall kill it in the evening.
And they shall take the lamb and nail
it to the top of the door.
Is that what it says?
No.
They shall take of the blood and strike
it on the upper two side posts and
on the upper door posts of the houses.
And then when the angel of the Lord
goes through at night, he will see the
blood and will pass over you.
It is blood that makes atonement for sin.
And it was the blood that the angel
looked for.
And so the lamb would be slain, the
blood caught in the basin and the bunch
of hyssop broken off the wall and made
into a little brush, dipped into the basin
and sprinkled plainly on the upper post and
the side post, speaking to us incidentally of
a cross.
For if you move those two posts together
and put the one, the little down a
little further, you have a cross.
And it was the blood of his cross
where he died and shed his, poured out
his life that he might redeem us.
And without the shedding of blood, there's no
remission of sin.
So it's the blood that makes atonement for
the soul.
But what about the body of the lamb?
Did they just say, well, it's not important,
let the dogs eat it?
What'd they do with the body?
Well, the first thing they did was to
make a cross.
Well, they're going to have to roast it
over the fire.
And I've been enough out in the East,
the Near East to know how they do
that.
They take a long stick, often a green
sapling that won't burn, and they will put
it through the lamb in such a way
that it will turn more or less smoothly
on the crotch sticks that they stick in
the ground on each side of the fire.
Then in order that the fire can penetrate,
they'll often cut the breast and put another
stick crosswise so as to open the body
of the lamb up that all might have
the same penetration of heat and all might
be done and ready to eat at the
same time and some wouldn't be burned.
So can you see this lamb now put
on a long stick with a cross straight
opening up the breast so that the fire
could get in?
And there it is over on a cross
over the fire.
And notice we begin with the eighth verse
and they shall eat the flesh in that
night, roast with fire and unleavened bread and
with bitter herbs shall they eat it, eat
not of it rawn or sodden at all
with water but roast with fire his head
with his legs and with the pertinences thereof.
And ye shall let nothing of it remain
until the morning and that which remaineth of
it until the morning ye shall burn with
fire and thus shall ye eat it with
your loins girded, your shoes on your feet
and your staff in your hand and ye
shall eat it in haste.
It is the Passover for I will pass
through the land of Egypt this night and
will smite all the firstborn in the land
of Egypt both man and beast and against
all the gods of Egypt will I execute
judgment I am the Lord and the blood
shall be to you for a token upon
the houses where you are and when I
see the blood I will pass over you
and the plague shall not be upon you
to destroy you when I smite the land
of Egypt.
Now see then what is happening it says
and you shall all eat it with your
loins girded your shoes on your feet and
your staff in your hand.
I want to take you into a home
in Egypt just one of the slave homes
there's a young man in that home about
22 or 23 he was working when he
was a lad at 14 on one of
Pharaoh's projects there near Luxor he was trying
to build one of those big buildings and
they were moving some blocks up on rollers
and the block slipped the chuck block slipped
and the block rolled back and hit him
in the thigh and it crushed him and
it crushed his leg and crushed his hip
pocket and his left or his right thigh
and leg had withered he couldn't walk and
because of sickness and disease resulting from it
in proper care he was unable to walk
at all and so here he was with
one side of him crushed his leg crushed
and hopelessly deformed and the other through malnutrition
and disease so that he couldn't move and
he's in this house they've been caring for
him he has no allotment of food from
Pharaoh's store because he can't work according to
the utilitarian idea they should have let him
die but instead of that the family's watched
after him and now he's been hearing that
Moses is going to lead the people out
to worship and deep down in his heart
he wants his people to go because he
wants them free from slavery but there's a
deep fear because it's been now some 10
years since he's walked and he knows that
his family couldn't carry him he's too old
he's too heavy and they're too old and
he knows that his neighbors will have more
than they can carry and so in his
mind he's resigned to the fact that he's
got to stay there he's just got to
stay there in his in Egypt and be
hated and be the point of all the
anger of the Egyptians after Israel is gone
and this isn't a very happy lot and
deep in his heart he hopes to die
but the afternoon comes and he's beginning to
think about it and he says mother does
father have the lamb and she says yes
son it's out there you can hear it
bleeding and he gets toward evening and he
says mother is the father killed the lamb
yeah so why are you so concerned well
mother's even as crippled as I am I
know that tonight the angel of the lord
is coming through and I'm the firstborn in
this home and I the blood isn't there
I'll be destroyed with the Egyptians and she
says well son father's just taken the lamb
out now and he's killed it what's he
doing with it what's he doing well he
caught the blood in the basin what else
is he doing mother well he's gone over
and he's taken some hyssop off the wall
and he's making a little brush out of
it well mother what else and and he's
putting it up on the wall is it
plain mother can you see it or is
it just a little oh no son it's
plain it's it's quite large on both side
posts and over the top you sure it's
plain enough so the angel of the lord
can see it oh yes son I'd like
to see it but I don't want you
to I don't want you to have to
take me out are you sure it's there
you're satisfied mother oh yes son it's there
there's no question I can see it and
so he waits father comes in and says
son can you smell the lamb roasting in
the yard yes yeah I can smell it
but I'm not hungry I'm sorry I I
don't think I have any appetite father I'm
not gonna eat tonight well we'll see about
that boy a little while later his father
comes in says you know I got this
out of the case yes say that's my
old cloak isn't it that's the one I
wore the week before I was hurt I
haven't seen it for a long time I
didn't even know you kept it oh yes
we kept it and here put it on
oh no father I'm not going out it'll
be warm in here I won't have any
chill with it put it on son well
why should I put it on because Moses
said we were to eat with our coats
on oh but I told you I wasn't
going to well you just do what Moses
said well you said put your arm out
now now put your other arm out now
let's tie it around you that's fine see
dad well father what are those well those
are your sandals oh you kept those too
yes I kept them what are you gonna
do with them I'm gonna put them on
your feet father I haven't had a sandal
on my feet for 10 years no use
putting it on I'm not gonna walk anywhere
son I'm gonna put it on your left
foot that's the better one there's tied now
the right see that's been badly twisted hasn't
it well I've forgotten how badly that was
hurt but we'll tie it on anyway but
I don't know why you're doing this then
father what's that that's my staff over there
I didn't know you'd kept these things well
we've been going to throw them away many
times to give them away but we just
kept them and I guess it's good because
Moses said you're to eat with your coat
on and your shoes on your staff in
your hands but I'm not really hungry father
well we'll see a little while later they
come in they pick up his bed and
they carry it out just post four posts
and some side posts and rope across it
where are you going you're coming out and
eat oh I haven't any any hunger at
all well are you all you come out
and watch the rest of us eat then
you're coming out Moses said we're to eat
of it so they set him out in
the courtyard by the fire and his father
goes over to the lamb when they're starting
to eat and he takes a little piece
of it puts it on a leaf and
another plate dish and he brings it over
with some unleavened bread and he said here
son oh I don't think I want any
father well son I'm going to ask you
to eat it for my sake whether you
want it or not you see Moses told
said that all of Israel was to eat
of this lamb and if you don't mind
I'm going to ask you to do it
for me if not for you well all
right father I'll take one bite if you
insist and your father says here this is
a nice piece say father that does taste
good I didn't realize I was hungry I'd
have another piece please if you don't mind
that's the best I've eaten father look see
what happened say wiggle my left toe I
haven't wiggled it for a long time that
that meat's so good I'd have some more
please look at that father there's my right
foot and it's moving and uh father if
you don't mind I'd like to sit sit
up I haven't sit up for 10 years
sit me up father and I'd have some
more of that lamb please that's good hey
something's happened to me father I just feel
that that this life father I know this
sounds foolish but I think if you and
mother would get one on each side of
me I could stand up you see what's
happened to my foot you remember how twisted
it was straightened out while I've been eating
let's see if I can't stand up look
father I'm standing I wonder if I couldn't
just lean on my staff and have some
more of that meat that's the best I've
ever eaten tell you look what it's done
father just get over here with my staff
here I think I could take a step
look I can do that father I can
walk and then tears gotcha father I won't
have to be left behind now will I
I can go with you out of Egypt
you see I've been so afraid that when
you went you couldn't take me you'd have
to leave me and all the sick people
but since I've eaten that lamb I'm not
sick anymore and somebody's looking at me and
saying you're making that up well I wouldn't
have the effrontery to make it up you
turn to Psalm 105 verse 37 see if
I made it up I want you everybody
to read it with me you're going to
read it out because I don't want to
be the only one to say that I
didn't make it up listen everybody now together
first word in the whole verse Psalm 105
and 37 everyone now in unison he brought
them forth also with silver and gold and
there was not one feeble person among their
tribe two and a half million people are
not a sick one among them why the
blood makes atonement for the soul and when
I see the blood I'll pass over you
but he said eat the lamb and the
lamb was over the fire and the lamb
was on a cross and every time you
come to the communion table you say this
is his blood shed for the remission of
sins and this is his body which was
given for us for us now
I want you to go back to my
text in Galatians chapter 3 Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law
and that is not the penalty that is
that which the penalty deserves and the penalty
earned and those under the penalty received but
for the purpose of inducing them to repent
it is not the penalty and Christ has
redeemed us has bought us out from under
the curse that was pronounced upon those that
broke the law for cursed is everyone that
hangeth on a tree now if this is
true then we've got to find somewhere that
our Lord Jesus not only was crucified but
while he was being crucified the curse of
the law came upon him and he endured
in his body that which we have found
or something of that which we have found
associated with the curse of the law and
so I'm asking you to turn now to
Psalm 22 in
verse 5 he says verse 6 I am
a worm and no man the reproach of
men and despised of the people all they
did see me laugh me to scorn they
shoot out the lips they shake the head
saying he trusted on the Lord that he
would deliver him let him deliver him seeing
he delighted in him and then in verse
12 many bulls encompassed me strong bulls ovation
have beset me around they gaped upon me
with their mouths as a ravening and a
roaring lion I'm poured out like water all
my bones are out of joint my heart
is like whack I asked the doctor once
what happens with heart disease it was as
though your heart became like wax it sort
of gives up and our Lord Jesus said
I had what you had my strength is
dried up like a potsherd my tongue cleaveth
to my jaws for dogs encompassed me the
assembly of the wicked have enclosed me they
pierced my hands and my feet I tell
all my bones they look and stare upon
me save me from the power of the
dog save me from the lion's mouth our
Lord in those hours of agony and this
is the psalm of the cross endured the
curse of the law he was despised they
abhorred him he was attacked by Satan his
bones were out of joint his heart melted
within him and then if you'll turn to
psalm 38 where he has another messianic psalm
and we know it's the messianic psalm because
he said in verse 11 my lovers and
my friends stand aloof from my sword my
kinsmen stand afar off there's the messianic key
and here our Lord Jesus has identified himself
with me and because I have under both
the penalty of the law of death and
the curse of the law the only way
he can redeem me from the penalty of
the law is to die and the only
way he can redeem me from the curse
of the law is to be made a
curse for me take the curse and so
here he identifies himself with me and he
so claimed me and brought me to himself
that he makes my sin his and yours
is there is no soundness in my flesh
because of mine anger neither is there any
rest in my bones because of my sin
it was not his but it was mine
that he made his and since he identified
himself with me and the Gethsemane when he
kneeled over the stone from the moment that
he arose from that stone he was under
the sentence of death and thus from three
in the morning or if you please six
in the morning he was taken into the
presence of the Caiaphas and the high priest
and then the pilot he was there scourged
buffeted beat the crown of thorns pressed on
his head and his hands nailed to the
cross hear me my dear that of blood
which was shed by the cat and nine
tails that tore his flesh from his back
was not the blood that makes atonement for
the soul the blood that run they ran
down from the spear points of the crown
of thorns was not that blood with which
his life was poured out that was just
the agony that came as he endured the
curse of the law so from six in
the morning at the latest until three in
the afternoon our lord jesus was undergoing this
which came upon man because they were under
the penalty until they paid the penalty so
we find it here in this this 38th
psalm my wounds stink and are corrupt because
of my foolishness i am troubled i am
bowed down greatly i go mourning all the
day long for my loins are filled with
a loathsome disease and there's no soundness in
my flesh i am feeble and sore broken
my heart panted my strength fail me as
for the light of mine eyes it is
gone from me in verse 13 i as
a deaf man heard not i was as
a dumb man that opened not his mouth
in verse 17 i am ready to halt
to stumble and my sorrow is continually before
me and our lord has in this 38th
psalm so identified himself with it that he
has told us that in those hours of
agony on the cross he was enduring the
curse of the law and so if you
understand then what we've been setting forth it
is this that the penalty of sin is
death the only way he could redeem us
was to die to have his life gush
forth and he poured out his soul unto
death that the penalty of our sins might
be remitted but his purpose was not only
to save us from the penalty of what
we've done but to save us from the
curse of the law as well and so
he was made a curse for us and
this is symbolized by his by the word
hanging on a tree and then we find
the statement made in isaiah 53 if you
care to turn to it by a stripe
to your heels why because the stripes were
the cat and nine tails the executioner used
upon the back of our lord a leather
thong tied around his wrist pulled down to
his ring in the stone in the courtyard
and with his back arch then the cat
and nine tails would come and tear the
flesh from the back from the body of
our lord and this was not for the
purpose of releasing his life this was that
which was put upon those that were condemned
as a foretaste of the penalty in order
that they might be induced to repent and
to confess that it might save the court
the trouble of having to have a trial
it was the curse of the law and
our lord jesus therefore has declared by his
stripes we are healed his blood was shed
for the remission of our sins but he
gave himself up to the agony of the
cross in order that he might deliver us
from the curse of the law by being
made a curse for us now come with
me then to our text again in galatians
the third chapter what are the implications of
it i think this will help you to
see it here is a man who has
had a mortgage placed upon him and the
strange terms of this mortgage are as follows
as long as until the mortgage is paid
every monday morning absolutely every monday morning a
railway express delivery man is going to come
to his door with a box this is
a box of snakes there are vipers and
cobras and puff adders there's just coral there
are coral snakes and water moccasins and rattlers
just different snakes but every monday morning a
box full of snakes are brought to his
front door and the man says here's your
snake sign for him and because he knows
his mortgage is on him and he knows
the terms of the mortgage are such he
signs and takes it and the door opens
and the man opens the door and slams
it shut and so all week long the
fella has to fight snakes well then somebody
hears about this and decides that he ought
to do something so he goes and says
what is the well you see i have
a debt and the only until i pay
that debt as long as i'm under that
debt this i those terms are that i
i knew about it i knew what it
was the terms are that i have to
take these snakes well i'm going to do
something about that so he comes back a
little later and he says here i've paid
your penalty i've paid your mortgage and here
is the absolution you're free oh that's wonderful
the debt is paid isn't that wonderful the
debt has been paid but the next monday
morning the bell rings and he goes to
the door and there's the railway express man
what are you doing here my debts pay
i don't know anything about your debt being
paid i just know that and everybody in
this block gets a box of snakes on
monday morning and you're in this block and
here's your snake as long as you live
in this block you're going to take snakes
all right my debts paid i don't have
to i don't know anything about that i
just know you live in this block you
get snakes move if you don't want snakes
but if you live here you get them
you mean i gotta take them you gotta
take them that's my orders leave them here
you mean i gotta sign for them you
gotta think i thought when i had the
debt paid that these snakes wouldn't come anymore
well here's sign i don't know what use
it is to have the debt paid still
fighting snakes so door opens and the box
is empty and times it's all week long
he fights snakes and so week after week
the express man comes with a snake and
finally well the man who paid the mortgage
comes around say wait a minute what are
you doing well i'm just fighting snakes get
out of the way there's one over there
what do you mean don't you know that
i not only delivered you from the penalty
of this mortgage but i delivered you from
the interest you don't have to keep paying
the interest on it well why you see
the only way i could possibly deliver you
was to let every one of those snakes
bite me and i have been bitten by
every snake that they'd ever put in and
because i not only paid the penalty but
i also took the bite of the snakes
and i did it for you you don't
have to take it anymore you mean that
yes i mean it and the next sunday
morning next monday morning the bell rings and
he goes he doesn't open the door this
time he shouts through the keyhole he says
take your snakes away the man who paid
the penalty has told me that he's the
obligation for the interest and i don't have
to take them any longer take them away
say is that what it means well that's
what it means to me and when i
saw that truth i said thank you lord
for letting this thing that you didn't remove
stay long enough to show me this truth
and god began to gently and graciously graciously
lead me into the place where i saw
that christ hath redeemed us from the curse
of the law having been made a curse
for us and it opened up a biblical
ground for believing the lord for the body
it opened up a theological ground it opened
up a scriptural ground it put a foundation
under it and it's meant delight and joy
and peace and blessing and a measure of
health i've never known before and not only
to me but to others and today this
sunday afternoon i'd like to have you take
this verse ponder it and meditate upon it
until the truth of it grips your heart
and i trust it appears to you the
same way as it does to me that
christ gave his blood for the remission of
our sins and he gave his body for
us for us and you know could it
be that this is what the scripture means
when it says many are sick and some
sleep not discerning the lord's body not realizing
its importance and its place and its meaning
and its significance do you think so let's
take the text shall we christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law being
made a curse for us for it is
written cursed is everyone that hangeth on a
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