Can parents help their children, who are saved,
discern what their gifts are?
Can parents help their children, who are saved,
discern what their gifts are?
The answer is yes, especially after the children
mature, I would say.
But in the meantime, they can help them
by teaching them to be students of the
Word of God, by reading widely good Christian
literature, by praying for them, and by introducing
them to practical Christian service.
There are many ways in which parents can
do that, especially, I think, after the young
people come into their maturity.
But they can be laying the coals on
the fire during their early youth, so that
the Holy Spirit can come and light them
afterwards.
There are two questions here about gifts of
women.
I mean, what spiritual gifts do you usually
see in women?
How can they be developed and used in
our meetings, other than Sunday school teachers?
Are there particular gifts given by the Holy
Spirit that are given to women only, or
to men only?
Well, I looked over the list of gifts
today, and I found that most of them
could be given to women.
The only thing is not to be exercised
in the local church.
That would be the difference.
For instance, a woman could have the gift
of teaching, and many women do.
I know assemblies that grow largely through ladies'
Bible classes taught by ladies.
Teaching, no problem there at all.
Exhortation, I can see how a woman would
have the gift of exhortation.
No problem.
Giving, showing mercy.
That's a good gift for a nurse, isn't
it?
Showing mercy.
Faith, a gift.
Word of wisdom.
I think of some older women whom I've
known, mothers in Israel.
And what a help they were to younger
believers with their words of wisdom.
I think a woman can have the gift
of discerning of spirit, certainly of help.
Gift of evangelism.
Maybe the woman of Samaria had the gift
of evangelism, huh?
She was no sooner saved than she caught
a net full of fish herself.
I think of Mrs. Logan from Zambia.
When the Logans used to come back to
this country, they'd travel across the country and
they'd leave a trail of saved souls.
And Mrs. Logan was part of that too.
Anybody here saved through the Logans?
I'm kind of surprised because everywhere I go
I meet people who were.
Ministry, gift of ministry.
Remembering that ministry means service.
So, my answer is yes.
I think most of the gifts.
I don't think that a woman can have
the gift of apostles.
I don't think a man can either.
Today.
I don't think a woman can have the
gift of prophecy in the primary sense in
which it's used in the New Testament.
But neither can a man.
Today.
And I don't think that God has given
the woman the gift of government in the
church.
In the church.
It seems to me that God has given
women very wonderful ministries.
But not in connection with a public place
in the local assembly.
You might like to turn to, I wasn't
planning to get off into this.
You might like to turn to 1 Timothy
chapter 2.
Let me just point out something to you.
Part of the problem is.
And part of this is because of the
women's live movement.
Part of the problem is that people think
today that public ministry in the church is
the greatest ministry.
Oral ministry in the church.
I don't think it is.
I think a woman raising a family for
God.
Means a lot more to God.
I think of a woman like Susanna Wesley.
Don't think ladies.
She raised 19 children.
She spent an hour every night with one
of those children.
John Wesley.
The great Wesleyan revival.
Saved England from the ravages of the French
Revolution.
I mean England was ripe for a revolution
just like France.
Generally credited to the Wesley revival.
Charles Wesley.
Whose hymns we sing all the time.
How did God appraise that?
And I think that's what it says in
1 Timothy chapter 2.
And I'm just going to take a minute
to speak on this.
I'm going to begin reading in verse 8.
I will therefore that men pray everywhere.
Now there are two words for men in
the New Testament.
One is mankind in general.
The other is male not female.
The word that's used here is male.
Not mankind in general.
I will therefore that the males pray everywhere.
And incidentally it's generally accepted that this chapter
has to do with order in the local
church.
Generally accepted.
By commentators of all schools.
Okay.
Here's the word of God.
I will therefore that the males pray everywhere.
Lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.
In like manner also that women adorn themselves
in modest apparel.
With shamefacedness and sobriety.
Not with broided hair or gold or pearls
or costly array.
But which becometh women professing godliness with good
works.
Let the woman learn in silence with all
subjection.
But I succor not a woman to teach
nor to usurp authority over the man.
But to be in silence.
You think from this that woman is just
reduced to a cypher.
That she's just reduced to a non-person.
Paul bases this on creation.
This isn't a cultural thing for the day
in which Paul lived.
That's what people say today.
That was just for Paul's culture.
It has nothing to do with us.
Listen to the next verse.
It says.
For Adam was first formed.
Then Eve.
And Adam was not deceived.
But the woman being deceived was in the
transgression.
This is given as a reason why the
foregoing instruction.
Right?
Public ministry in the church.
That's what it's talking about.
But notice verse 15.
Notwithstanding, she shall be saved in childbearing.
As they continue in faith and charity.
Faith and love.
And holiness with sobriety.
When it says she shall be saved in
childbearing.
It doesn't mean the salvation of her soul.
That would be a different gospel, wouldn't it?
Somebody being saved through bearing children.
It doesn't mean that.
It refers to her position in the church.
From the foregoing verses.
Because it might seem that woman is given
no place at all in God's economy.
But that's not true.
The salvation of her position is found in
childbearing.
Let me put it this way.
Woman is not given a public place of
leadership in the church.
But she's given a more important ministry.
That is raising up godly leadership for the
church.
Notice the next verse.
Here's another case where chapter breaks are rather
unfortunate.
Nevertheless, she shall be saved in childbearing.
Verse 1 of chapter 3.
This is a true saying of a man
desires the work of a bishop.
Overseership.
He desires the good work.
So it's right on to talk about leadership
in the church.
And this is one of the great ministries
that's given to the woman.
Not a public place of leadership in the
church.
But preserving a godly seed.
And raising up godly leadership for the church.
Now you might still think that it's far
more important to be on the platform teaching
publicly.
But the way we see things and the
way God sees them is quite different.
Even in our own language we have that
saying.
The hand that rocks the cradle rules the
world.
And it's true.
The hand that rocks the cradle rules the
world.
It's a mother's hand that rocks the cradle.
And whenever God has a great work to
do.
He brings a mother onto the scene and
she gives birth to a baby.
Moses' mother.
And so many others down through the history
of the years.
How did I get off on that?
Well those are having to do with the
gifts.
I told you that most of the gifts
listed in the New Testament.
A woman can exercise them but not in
a public way.
Here's another one somewhat similar.
In other words, to what extent do you
carry the command in 1 Corinthians 14.34.
Let's turn to it.
1 Corinthians 14.34. Let your women keep
silence in the churches.
For it is not permitted unto them to
speak.
But their commandment to be under obedience has
also set the law.
The question is, to what extent do you,
and you as underlined, carry the command in
1 Corinthians 14.34. Especially in regard to
women singing solos, asking questions, and giving songs.
I imagine that means giving out a hymn
to be sung.
First of all, let me say that I
don't know any place in the history of
the church where women have been forbidden to
sing congregationally.
Doesn't seem to be even an issue, does
it?
With regard to these other things that are
listed here.
Women singing solos, asking questions, giving songs.
Well, the scripture says about asking questions.
There doesn't have to be any doubt about
that.
But there are other gray areas, aren't there?
My attitude is that the leadership of an
assembly should adopt a policy on that.
Make the policy known.
A lot of the confusion in local churches
today arises because the people don't know what
the policy of the assembly is.
And I think the elders should be before
the Lord in the fear of God.
Let the people know what the policy of
the assembly is.
Draw it up in the fear of the
Lord, and I don't think you'll have any
trouble at all.
Please explain 1 Corinthians 14.13 in regard
to not praying for a gift.
I said that you don't pray for a
gift, that the Spirit of God gives sovereignly
a gift.
Well, it says in 1 Corinthians 14.13,
You all know that the word unknown is
not there in the original language.
That last he could just as well have
been translated one.
Pray that one interpret.
It doesn't mean that the one who speaks
in the tongue has to interpret, but he
can pray that there be someone there in
the meeting to interpret.
And I believe that's the meaning of that
passage.
Let me just read it that way.
He may not have the gift of interpretation
at all.
There are two questions.
Exactly what do we mean by repent in
this context?
I don't know what the context is, but
in Acts we read, I
illustrate it this way.
The gospel coin has two sides to it.
Repentance and faith.
Repentance toward God and faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ.
What is repentance?
Repentance is a change of mind resulting in
a change of action.
It's a change of mind with regard to
sin and with regard to God as well.
And it affects the moral part of a
person's being.
It's not just intellectual, it affects his whole
moral being.
And in repenting, he turns to God from
sin and from idols to serve the true
and living God.
And then he puts his faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ.
You can't really believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ in the scriptural sense without first repenting.
They're the two sides of the gospel coin.
Okay, in 1 Corinthians 14.38. Another question.
1 Corinthians 14.38. I'll have to read
37 for the connection.
And the question is, in 1 Corinthians 14
.38, that it means other than I think
it means.
Well, to be ignorant here means to refuse
what Paul said in verse 37.
Paul in chapters 12, 13, and 14 has
just gone over this very broad subject.
He says, now, this is not something cultural.
This is not just something from the day
that I'm living in.
He says, these things that I'm writing to
you are the commandments of the Lord.
Now, if you want to reject that, you're
ignorant.
And if you want to be ignorant, be
ignorant still.
That's really what it means.
That's the context there.
Okay.
In reference to your statement yesterday, individuals should
not pray for a specific gift.
And I did say that.
But local assemblies can earnestly desire the greater
gifts with a support for this in Scripture.
1 Corinthians 12.31. This seems to be
a commandment from the Holy Spirit that we
desire the greater gift.
1 Corinthians 12.31. How
can it be that what's good for a
local church is not good for the family
or individual?
Since God created individuals and family first, then
the church second.
Well, the point in verse 31 is he's
speaking not to an individual, but he's speaking
to people collectively.
In this case, to the assembly in Corinth.
He's saying, but you all desire earnestly the
greater gifts.
Not you as an individual, but if you
as an assembly, for instance, feel the lack
of a gift of administration, you're entitled to
ask the Lord to send somebody along like
that.
But not that individuals should pray for an
individual gift.
That's not the meaning of the passage at
all.
He goes on to say, for example, if
a person is stranded on an island, is
weak and dehydrated through lack of food or
water, he should not desire or pray for
the gift of personal edification, as Paul himself
claimed in practice often, through the gift of
a tongue prayer language.
There's a question, should he not?
Should he accept defeat and death as God's
will when the Holy Spirit could intercede for
him and help him to the victory?
Well, this is really not clear to me,
and I'm not trying to avoid it either.
If I was stranded on a desert island
and I was weak and dehydrated, I would
be entitled to pray for food and water.
But I don't see how praying for the
gift of personal edification would help me.
And I don't see that personal edification is
a gift.
I don't see it listed as a gift.
Maybe I should turn to that verse in
1 Corinthians chapter 14.
It says in verse 3, why don't you
turn to that, 1 Corinthians chapter 14.
I'm going to begin with verse 1, but
it's verse...
I'm going to read through verse 4.
4.
Follow after love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts,
but rather that ye may prophesy.
Rather that ye may prophesy.
I think this is saying that the gifts
that edify are greater than the spectacular gifts,
the signed gifts.
He that speaketh in a tongue...
Now you have to supply some words here
to get the meaning.
It means he that speaks in a tongue
without interpretation.
That's what he's speaking about.
He that speaks in a tongue without interpretation
speaks not unto men, but unto God.
For no man understandeth, howbeit in the spirit
he speaketh mysteries.
You see, the context shows that in that
verse, in verse 2, it's speaking in tongues
without an interpreter.
What is the result?
Nobody knows what he's saying.
He's speaking in a foreign language, but nobody
can understand what he's saying.
But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to
edification, and exhortation, and comfort.
Why?
Because he's speaking in the language that they
understand.
The man that prophesied, he's not speaking in
a foreign language, he's speaking in the then
present language.
And that's why it results in these things,
edification, exhortation, and comfort.
That's not a definition of prophecy.
A lot of people think that's a definition
of prophecy.
It's not.
It's merely saying that the prophet getting up
and speaking in the language that people understand,
people can understand what he's saying, and they're
helped by it.
Verse 4, he that speaks in a tongue
edifies himself, but he that prophesied edifies the
church.
There again, he that speaks in a tongue
without interpretation edifies himself.
He that prophesied edifies the church.
They know what he's saying.
That's why I emphasize that in chapter 13,
Paul has just labored the point that we
should exercise the gift in love.
Remember when I said, love thinks of others,
not of self.
I don't think that in verse 4, Paul
is justifying self-edification.
I think he's saying that's not the way
to go.
That's not why the gifts were given, for
self-edification.
They were given to help others, and not
self.
That's the whole context of 1 Corinthians chapter
13.
And so, if I were on that desert
island, I wouldn't pray for the gift of
personal edification through the gift of a tongue
prayer language.
I would pray that the Lord would miraculously
send me food or water.
And if it wasn't his will, then I
would accept death as his will for me.
Okay, now I'm just going to review a
couple of things that came up last night,
not very much.
Control of the use of tongues, because that's
what chapter 14 is largely about.
Abuses had come in the assembly, in Corinth,
and Paul lays down certain controls for the
use of tongues.
And I say again, Paul never said anything
against the use of tongues, it's the abuse
that is in mind here.
Paul, by the Spirit, lays down these controls.
One, do not forbid to speak in tongues,
1 Corinthians 14.39 says that.
But he also says, not more than three
may speak in tongues in any one meeting.
And they must speak one at a time,
and that in turn.
That means one at a time, not everybody
speaking in a tongue at the same time.
There must be an interpreter present.
The women must keep silent.
These are the commandments of the Lord, they're
not my commandments, they're the commandments of the
Lord.
What is said must be edifying.
And the meeting must be conducted properly, in
an orderly manner.
Now those are the controls that are given
in 1 Corinthians.
We just had a few additional points.
Additional points.
These signs, wonders, miracles, and gifts of the
Holy Spirit were given to confirm the gospel
message when it was first preached by the
apostles.
It says that distinctly.
God also bearing them witness, both the signs
and wonders and divers gifts of the Holy
Ghost.
Hebrews 2.4. The need for signs may
have passed when the New Testament was completed
in written form.
Some believe this is the meaning of 1
Corinthians 13.10. When that which is perfect
is come, then that which is in part
shall be done away.
That which is perfect, the complete word of
God.
Let me just pause here to say something.
I make a difference between conditions in the
United States, in a way, and conditions in
other lands where the Bible is not available.
Here we have the word of God, you
can buy it in any city in the
country, and no problem in getting it.
But you go to a country like Turkey,
and that's not true.
And I think that God works in miraculous
ways in some of those countries where the
Bible isn't available.
Let me tell you what.
Very few Muslims ever come to the Lord
without having first seen Jesus in a vision.
Now that might startle you, but it's true
just the same.
In other words, you go, here's a Muslim,
and he comes to you, and you're going
to witness to him, and in the purposes
of God, he's going to get saved.
And you start talking about Jesus, and he'll
say, oh, I know Jesus.
And you'll say, how did you know Jesus?
He appeared to me in a vision.
Now, God reserves to himself that ability, especially
in lands where the word of God is
not readily available.
He reserves that privilege of appearing to people
and giving them a manifestation of himself.
And then later, they hear the word of
God and are saved.
Something like Cornelius in the book of Acts,
isn't it?
He was a God-fearer.
He was seeking after God, and the word
of God came to his prayers and alms
or come up as a memorial before God.
And then God says to Peter, go and
tell him words by which he might be
saved.
And I think that's going on today in
various parts of the world.
I believe God can use miracles today in
countries like that to attest, but I don't
think there's any need for it in the
United States, in the same sense.
Because we have the word of God, and
he wants us to use the word of
God.
The Lord is not pleased by the kind
of faith that requires a sign.
We went over that last night.
Blessed is he that hath not seen and
yet hath believed.
He wants us to believe without seeing, to
believe just because he said it.
Now, I'd like to say a few words
this morning on the subject of healing, because
one of the gifts that was mentioned was
the gifts of healing.
Well, spoken of in the plural, as I
mentioned before.
And this is a big subject today, because
you turn on the television and you see
purported healing.
And you turn on the radio and you
hear the subject of healing a great deal.
What is a balanced view of this subject
from the word of God?
Sorry I don't have this in the transparency.
Maybe Jim needs to shut that off, there's
no use in wasting power.
That's the Scott kidney coming out.
First of all, first point, in a general
way, in a general way, all sickness is
a result of sin.
Not individual sin.
What I'm saying is, sickness would never have
come into the world unless sin had come
into the world.
Sickness is one of the results that follows
the entrance of sin.
And incidentally, I personally believe that all sickness,
tragedy, death come from the devil.
I really do.
God does not originate them.
God permits them and then overrules them for
his glory and for our good.
God doesn't originate.
Sometimes the Bible seems to say that God
originates them.
Job, Job says, the Lord has given and
the Lord has taken away, blessed be the
name of the Lord.
Well the Lord didn't take away, the devil
took away.
But God is often said to do in
the Bible what he only permits to be
done.
To me that's a great key in solving
a lot of Bible riddles.
God is often said to do things in
the Bible that he only permits to be
done.
And that's a good illustration of it.
The Lord has given, the Lord has taken
away, blessed be the name of the Lord.
The scripture distinctly says it was Satan who
brought all of these afflictions on Job.
Number two, sometimes, sometimes, sickness is the direct
result of sin in a person's life.
Sometimes.
However it's not for us to go and
tell them that.
In fact I might know it in my
own life and you wouldn't know it.
Which I'm glad.
And it ill behooves any of us to
go to someone who's suffering and say what
Job's comforter said to him.
Because you're not righteous.
1 Corinthians 11.30 For this cause many
are weak and sickly among you and some
sleep.
What?
Because they were coming to the Lord's supper
with unjudged sin in their lives.
And the sickness was a result of unjudged
sin.
Of course we know that's true today.
We know that alcoholism sometimes causes cirrhosis of
the liver.
We know that smoking can cause cancer of
the lungs.
Sometimes emphysema, heart disease.
We know that sexual immorality sometimes causes venereal
disease.
We know that emotional stress can result in
high blood pressure, migraine, headaches, arthritis, heart trouble
and ulcers.
I was at the doctor's once and I
had some crazy thing, I still don't know
what it was.
I said to him, could tension cause this?
And he looked at me and he said,
Mr. Tension can cause anything.
Number three.
But not all sickness is a result of
sin in a person's life.
Boy that's important.
Not all sickness is a direct result of
a person's own sin.
And I'd like to give you six proofs
of that from the Bible.
Six proofs of it from the Bible.
Luke chapter 13, verse 16.
A woman had curvature of the spine.
Let's see what it says.
Luke chapter 13.
And Luke was a physician, wasn't he?
Luke chapter 13 and verse 16.
It says, ought not this woman, being a
daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound, lo
these 18 years, be loosed from this bond
on the Sabbath day, whom Satan had bound.
It was a satanic attack.
Second proof.
Paul's thorn in the flesh, 2 Corinthians 12
.7. 2 Corinthians 12.7. It's described as
the messenger of Satan to buffet me.
Why did Paul have a thorn in the
flesh?
Because of some senior.
Who was more tireless in the service of
the Lord than the apostle Paul.
This was an attack from the evil one.
The messenger of Satan to buffet me.
Job's illness.
Job chapter one, verse eight.
God said he was the most righteous man
on the face of the earth.
How do you like that?
God said that.
And yet, look at all the trouble that
came upon him.
The blind man in John chapter nine.
The disciples came with that idiotic question to
the Lord.
Who did sin, this man or his parents,
that he was born blind?
And the Lord said, heed him.
But just that the works of God might
be made manifest in him.
He was born blind as a springboard for
me to show the mighty power of God.
I want to tell you, dear friends, that
was a wonderful miracle.
Because if you're born blind, you need two
new optical nerves.
That's what the creator did that day.
He created two new optic nerves for that
man.
But there was more miracle than that, too,
because when the man got his sight, he
immediately recognized everything.
He didn't.
Somebody didn't have to say that is a
tree.
The knowledge of everything went along with it.
An awful lot of miracles took place that
day.
The blind man.
Philippians two, verse 30.
Epaphroditus.
Epaphroditus had been critically ill.
Why was he ill?
Well, it was, again, as a result of
his untiring service for the Lord.
Not because of sin in his life.
Maybe we should look at that one.
It's not so well known.
Philippians chapter two, verse 30.
Because for the work of Christ, he
was nigh unto death, not regarding his life
to supply your lack of service toward me.
And then Gaius in 3 John, 3 John
2.
Gaius was spiritually healthy, but physically unwell.
John prayed that he might prosper in body
as he did prosper in spirit.
So those are six illustrations from the New
Testament or from the Bible, I should say,
where sickness is not a direct result of
a person's own sin.
Point number four.
God can and does heal.
Three ways.
Sometimes he heals by natural bodily processes.
You know, the human body is a wonderful
mechanism, and God has put right within the
body wonderful restorative powers.
You know that.
Lewis Thomas, a doctor, reveals in his book
The Lives of a Cell.
He said, the great secret known to internists,
but still hidden from the general public, is
that most things get better by themselves.
That's why the doctor says, take two aspirins
and call me in the morning.
In fact, Lewis says that he said most
things, in fact, are better by morning.
Interesting, isn't it?
A couple of years ago, I broke my
foot, the fifth metatarsal.
It happened at a prayer meeting of all
places.
And I went to the doctor, and he
just put a wet bandage on it, no
cast or anything.
And I want to tell you something.
Every morning, I woke up and I'd move
my foot, and I thought, it's better.
Every morning, I could tell it was better.
And just the body, as it were, under
the power of God, of course, taking over
and healing.
It was a great experience.
It was, really.
Second, God sometimes heals through physicians.
Medicine and surgery.
No question about it.
He uses these things.
Physicians.
Luke is referred to as the beloved physician.
Colossians 4, verse 14.
And I don't think the Bible would refer
to him as a beloved physician if we're
not supposed to go to the doctor, do
you?
Medicines.
Paul prescribed a medicinal use of wine for
Timothy.
He said, use no longer water, but take
a little wine for thy stomach's sake and
thine often infirmities.
1 Timothy 5, 23.
And you must understand what the water supply
was like.
Timothy was traveling around the service of the
Lord, and he was drinking some of the
water out of the wells, and he was
getting the golly wobbles.
And Paul said, look, lay off on the
water and drink some wine.
A little what?
This is the medicinal use of wine.
That verse has been completely overworked in other
regards.
And then God uses surgery, too.
Du Bois, the famous French surgeon, said, the
surgeon dresses the wound.
God heals it.
But God uses surgeons.
We're grateful for them.
And then the third way in which God
can and does heal is miraculously.
Miraculously.
The Gospels are full of illustrations of miraculous
healing, and so is the history of the
Christian church.
And I'd be the last one in the
world to deny miraculous healing.
Because I myself have been healed miraculously.
I'll tell you how.
There was no healer involved.
Just God.
When I was five, my parents had taken
us over to an island up off the
northwest of Scotland, where they came from.
We were far from medical help.
And I developed diphtheria.
I had diphtheria in my throat, and diphtheria
is a very, well, it's usually fatal.
What happens is a mucous membrane forms across
your throat and strangles you to death.
That's where I was.
I was strangling.
I was so low that my mother turned
her back so she wouldn't see me die.
That's pretty low.
As soon as she turned her back, a
knock came on the door.
It was my uncle.
It was my father's brother.
And she said, what is it?
He was really distracted.
And he said, well, I've just come to
tell you that he died.
He's going to live.
Someday God's going to save his soul.
Well, my mother was really beside herself, and
she really didn't appreciate it, I must tell
you.
Because she knew I was going to die.
But being a good Scottish lady, she put
on the kettle and made a cup of
tea for him.
And he sat her down at the table,
and he explained to her.
He had been in the next village where
he lived, and he was reading his Bible.
And he was reading Psalm 91.
The Lord gave him a promise that I
would live.
And that my soul would be saved.
The promise is at the end of Psalm
91.
It says, verse 15.
He shall call upon me, and I will
answer him.
I will be with him in trouble.
I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life will I satisfy him and
show him my salvation.
With long life will I satisfy him and
show him my salvation.
Well, he's performed both.
69 isn't bad.
He can take me home any time, and
the promise is fulfilled.
And 13 years later, he saved my soul.
Now, dear friends, that's divine healing, isn't it?
I was far away from any medical help
at that time.
Humanly speaking, there's no reason why I should
be alive today.
The Lord's in it.
And so many times, even today, we hear
of cases where the doctor gives up.
He says, well, I've done all I can
do.
He says, it's up to the man upstairs.
You know, you've heard all of this.
And yet God, God healed.
God can heal miraculously.
We know that.
We don't deny it.
But number five, it's not always God's will
to heal.
Three proofs of that, three reasons for that.
First of all, 2nd Timothy, chapter four, verse
20.
Paul says, Prophemus, have I left at my
need him sick?
Prophemus, have I left?
Oh, why didn't you heal him?
Didn't he left him at my need him
sick?
Second, 2nd Corinthians, chapter 12, verses 7 through
10.
Paul had the thorn in the flesh.
Three times he begged the Lord to remove
the thorn in the flesh.
God said, no.
And whatever it was, it was physical.
You can argue about what the thorn in
the flesh was, but it was in the
flesh.
It was physical.
And God said, no, I'm not going to
remove it, Paul.
My grace is sufficient for you.
My strength is made perfect in thee too.
What did Paul say?
He said, most gladly will I rather therefore
glory in my infirmities that the power of
Christ might rest upon me.
It's not always God's will to heal.
If it were always God's will to heal,
some would never grow old and die.
But everybody does.
And everybody's going to die if the Lord
doesn't come.
Number six, God has not promised to heal
in every case.
Therefore, healing is not something we can demand
from him.
Not true that we can go to the
Lord and demand healing from him.
Paul speaks of it as a mercy from
the Lord.
It says in Philippians chapter two, in connection
with Epaphroditus, the Lord had mercy on him.
It's one of the mercies of the Lord
when the Lord does heal us.
But some people say, but healing was in
the atonement.
When the Lord died on the cross of
Calvary, part of the value of that death
was healing.
By his strikes, we're healed.
Well, there are two different ways of looking
at that.
One says healing was not in the atonement.
I say, well, supposing healing was in the
atonement.
We don't have all the fruits of the
atonement yet.
I went over that yesterday.
We don't have the glorified body yet, do
we?
That was in the atonement.
The glorified body was in the atonement, but
we don't have the glorified body.
And yet it was purchased for us by
the redemptive work of Christ.
Number eight, failure to be healed does not
indicate a lack of faith.
Otherwise, unconscious people could never be healed.
But Acts 20 records the case of a
man who fell, went unconscious, and he was
healed.
He wasn't healed through his faith, was he?
Eutychus?
And Jesus raised the dead, and they had
no power to exercise faith.
It just doesn't fit the facts.
Now, James 5, verses 13-20.
Maybe we should turn to that.
James 5, verses 13-20.
It has to do with healing, and I
think it's worth looking at.
It says, Is any among you afflicted?
Let him pray.
Is any merry?
Let him sing psalms.
Is any sick among you?
Let him call to 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 shall save the
sick.
The Lord shall raise him up, and if
he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven
him.
Confess your faults one to another, and pray
one for another, that he may be healed.
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man
availeth much.
Elijah was a man subject to like passions
as we are, and he prayed earnestly that
it might not rain.
And it rained not on the earth by
the space of three years and six months.