Let's hear the Word of the Living Ghost from Proverbs 3 from 8 to 9 Spiritual Diseases and the Biblical Cure Proverbs 3 starting in verse 8 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your path Do not be wise in your own eyes Fear the Lord and depart from evil It will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones. This is the Word of God. We cherish health for our bodies, but most tolerate disease in our souls, minds and spirits. Holiness is to our spirits what health is to our bodies. Everyone wants to be healthy. Well, maybe not everyone. There are hypochondriacs who like being sick, apparently. But most people like to be healthy in their body. But most seem to be very willing to have a very high tolerance of lack of health in their spirits, minds and souls. Many people today are living far below their spiritual potential and failing to fulfill their purpose or to accomplish their destiny because of spiritual diseases. I've identified eight spiritual diseases that we should be alert to. Number one, sleeping sickness. A widespread epidemic, pandemic prevalent through large sections of the church is sleeping sickness. It results in members being inactive, passive, neutral, lethargic and apathetic. I've seen victims of sleeping sickness in the field, in the Congo, in Sudan. Well, we've seen more symptoms of this, of the spiritual sleeping sickness in Western churches, especially in Cape Town. Numerous blessings are lost. Countless opportunities squandered. Enormous dangers arise unnoticed. Proverbs 6 verse 9 says, How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, social poverty attack you like an armed robber, and your need like an armed man. Isaiah 56 verse 10 says, His watchmen are blind, They are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs. They cannot bark, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. John Calvin said about this verse that even a dog will bark when he sees danger for his master. But a minister of the gospel who cannot preach against evil and identify sin is worse than a barkless dog. A dumb dog, as he put it. So sleeping sickness, that's one problem, definitely afflicting the church. Number two, locked jaw. This condition paralyses the jaws of believers when the opportunity to witness arises. There's a time to speak, there's a time to stand up, there's a time to step out and to make a stand. But when these witness opportunities happen, in many cases, those afflicted with locked jaw remain mute, dumb, silent. Sometimes silence is golden. but other times it's just plain yellow. Always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that's within you. The Apostle Peter tells us in 1 Peter 3.15. Sleeping sickness, lockjaw and amnesia. This tragic ailment usually occurs in worldly company, when some Christians just forget who they are and what they're doing here. Amnesia. Consequently they act like they're part of the world. They laugh at the world's jokes, they listen to the world's music, they repeat the mantras of the world and they behave as if they are the world. James 4 verse 4 says adulterers and adulteresses. Do you not know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God? Anyone therefore who wants to be the friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. sleeping sickness, locked jaw, amnesia and, fourthly, deafness. Some people are so spiritually deaf they do not even know if God talks. They are deaf to God's commands. They are deaf to the Bible's warnings. They do not hear the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit speaking in and through their conscience. They do not recognize the clear words of God as recorded in the Bible. And when God speaks, they look blankly and say, I didn't hear a thing. Hebrews 3.15 says, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart as in the days of the rebellion. And in blindness, sleeping sickness, locked jaw, amnesia, deafness, fifthly, blindness. This affliction affects an unexpectedly large amount of churchgoers who are blind to the dangers around them, blind to the traps and snares of the devil right in front of them. In fact, they've got a great difficulty telling the difference between the lies and traps and deceptions of the devil and the will and word of God. In 2 Corinthians 4 verse 3 to 4 we read, But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the God of this world has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the glory of the gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. As our 59 verse 10, We grope for the wall like the blind, we grope as if we had no eyes, we stumble at noonday as if it is twilight. We are as dead men in desolate places. And then there's lameness. Sleeping sickness, lockjaw, amnesia, deafness, blindness, sexually lameness. Those lame disciples have experienced some kind of inexplicable paralysis of the legs when there's any activity to be undertaken for God's kingdom. When Jesus leads, they don't follow. It's as though they're lame, they can't get their feet to move. We have these people who are, as the Lord speaks of those who are lame, whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. Jesus suffered for us and left us an example that we should follow in his footsteps. Then there's, secondly, spinelessness. There's an incredible lack of moral backbone amongst all too many. Instead of being evangelicals, they act like evangelical jellyfish, filleted off-spine. These spiritual jellyfish do not stand for the principles of scripture, so they flop and fall in whatever direction the world wants to mold them at that time. Ephesians 6 verse 10 says, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth." So much of the scripture calls us to stand, to make a stand, to stand firm, to withstand. Eighthly, you get scurvy. In fact, that's one reason why Cape Town was founded. Cape Town was founded as a halfway house refreshment station to provide fresh vegetables and good fruit for the sailors of the Dutch East India Company sailing from Europe, all around the Atlantic, around the coast of Africa, up through the Indian Ocean to get to the Far East, and made them develop scurvy on board ship because of a lack of fresh vegetables and fruit, and so scurvy, also a lack of good fresh meat, You can see the analogy here. Many Christians today have scurvy because they're neglecting the meat of the Word of God and the spiritual fruit and vegetables, faith and obedience, and with an over-dependence upon spiritual ice cream of blessings and sweets, benefits, and these spoiled, undernourished, self-indulgent believers without a balanced spiritual diet develop a scurvy that rots away their spiritual life. 1 Corinthians 3, the Apostle Paul says, And brethren, I could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I feed you with milk, not with solid food, for until now you were unable to receive solid food. Even now you're still not able, for you're still carnal. For where there is envy and strife and divisions among you, are you not carnal, are you not behaving like mere men? Now the scriptural cure for all these spiritual diseases is a healthy dose of daily obedience to the Word of God. Trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths. I think that's the first verse I learnt, memory verse I learnt in Scripture Union, Proverbs 3 verse 5. Trust in the Lord with all your heart We must love God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind, and with all of our strength. We need to be wholehearted, not half-hearted, not heartless. Wholehearted, love God with all our heart. And we need to be Bible-based. Lean not on your own understanding. We must never trust in just what we think we know. We're not to follow our heart. The Book of Proverbs says, only a fool follows his heart. We are to follow the conviction of the Holy Spirit as our conscience is captive to the Word of God. Lean not on your own understanding. We are meant to be Bible-based, not feelings and emotions based. There's an excellent book here on our shelves by James Dobson, Emotions, Can You Trust Them? Excellent book, well worth reading, but the short answer is no, you cannot trust the emotions. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths. We need to put first things first. First ministry I was involved with, Scripture Union, they had a slogan, Bible before breakfast. And we could add scripture before supper. And humble prayer and seeking God's guidance through diligent study of the scriptures before making any important decisions. And the more important the decision, the more we need to study the scriptures and apply it. We get wisdom from Proverbs. The book of Psalms is a book of worship. Proverbs is a book of wisdom. Do not be wise in your own eyes. The fear of the Lord is a beginning of wisdom. In fact, I don't know how many people have noticed, that's the verse on the wooden clock as you come in through reception. That clock is on the wall, a gift from people across the bunch of mission. Had it there since we opened up here at this mission station over 18 years ago. In all your ways acknowledge Him. Do not be wise in your own eyes. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. God alone is all-knowing. God alone is everywhere present. God alone is all-powerful. He knows our future better than we know our past. We need to study the Word of God daily. And there's 31 chapters of Proverbs. That's one chapter of Proverbs for every day of the month. Then we can start again the next month. Because we can't get enough wisdom. The decisions we make on a daily basis, if they are fed by reading us Proverbs, Proverbs is packed full of wisdom. It's wise to begin our days with readings from Proverbs, wisdom for the decisions of each day. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. We must not fear man. We're living in a man-pleasing, craven, fear-of-man generation and population. But we must fear God, and when we fear God, the one true God, we flee from the fear of man. Man is a tyrant, and the fear of man is a snare. Either we fear God and not man, or we fear man and people's opinions, and then we're not really fearing God. It's either or. We must choose. Either we will seek to please God, or we will seek to please man. Either we will fear man, or we will fear God. If we fear God, we will discover this is the beginning of knowledge. It's the beginning of wisdom. And this will enable us to choose wisely and to depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones. Holiness is to our spirit, but health is to our bodies. The body, the mind and the spirit are all intricately interconnected and linked. Our spiritual health always has an effect on our physical, mental and emotional health. Proverbs 17.22 says, A cheerful heart does good like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones. Attitude is everything. There is something to the power of positive thinking, although I probably went too far in that book, but the point is there's a lot of scriptures in it that guide us. Great is He who's in us and whom is in the world. We are more than conquered through Christ Jesus who loved us. Submit to God, resist the devil, and he will heal us. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. There is a lot in the Bible that directs us in a positive way of thinking, in a positive biblical way. not faith in faith, faith in the facts of God's word. As a critique on the shameful plight of all too many Christians in church today, one believer wrote this scathing adaptation of a famous Christian hymn, Onward Christian Soldiers. This is how it reads. Backward Christian soldiers fleeing from the fight, with the cross of Jesus nearly out of sight. Christ, our rightful master, stands against the foe. Others have been battling, must we also go? Like a mighty tortoise moves this church of God, brothers, we are treading where we've often trod. We are much divided, many bodies we, having different doctrines, not much charity. Crowns and thrones may perish, kingdoms rise and fall, but the church of Jesus neutral does remain. Gates of hell should never against that church prevail. We have Christ's own promise, but we think that it will fail. Sit here then, ye people, join our useless throng, lend with ours your voices in a feeble song. Blessings, ease and comfort ask from Christ the King. With our modern thinking, we won't do a thing. It sounds terrible, but unfortunately it's quite an accurate critique on all too many. In Revelation 3 verse 15 to 19, our Lord Jesus Christ says, I know your works. I know that you're neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were either cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. Because you say I'm rich, I've become wealthy. I've need of nothing. Sounds like health and wealth, name it, claim it, scab it, and grab it. You do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. As many as are loved are rebuked and chastened. Therefore be zealous and repent." That's Revelation 3, verse 15 to 19, a letter to the church at Laodicea. If there ever was a Laodicean age, Western churches in the beginning of the 21st century fit that bill. Repentance deals with the roots of our problems. dryness, our failure. Because repentance deals with sin. We are not helpless victims needing deliverance as much as guilty sinners needing forgiveness and mercy and grace and deserved favour. God resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble. Sin is death. Sin separates us from God. Isaiah 59 verse 1 to 3, Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, nor is he as heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God. Your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue has muttered perversity. It is this disgusting habit of tolerating and excusing and justifying our sins and using all kinds of nice, soft terms to overwhelm the wretchedness and the seriousness of our sins. That's what keeps us in this half-dead, disgusting condition. Our sin needs to be rejected, it needs to be confessed, it needs to be forsaken. Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. We have been made in the image of God. We were created for fellowship with and union with our Creator, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Eternal Judge. Therefore, unless we are enjoying constant contact and communication with God, then we are inwardly restless, frustrated and unfulfilled. Thou hast made us for Thyself, and restless are we until we find our rest in Thee. Wrote Augustine. He is the vine, we are the branches. Now, it is our personal guilt that has caused this rift, and which constitutes the root of the problem. It is because of our sin that our fellowship with God has been disrupted, and our Christian walk has been hindered, and our Christian service has been frustrated, our moral judgments have been corrupted, and our principles have been corroded. Our prayer life has been wrecked, and our worship has been made ineffective. Our witness has become impotent, and our spiritual life has been polluted. We need to recognize the irreconcilable, destructive nature of this poison of sin. We are far more tolerant of sin than we would be of dirt and pollution and litter or a snake or an unexploded bomb or these things which are absolutely insignificant compared to the destructiveness of sin. What has sin done? Sin has made man a transgressor and he made you alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. Sin makes us dead in trespasses and sins. Sin has made Satan the master of unrepentant sinners. 1 John 3 verse 8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. It is for this reason that the Son of God was manifest, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Sin made punishment a necessity, for the wage of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ the Lord. Romans 6 verse 23 Sin made hell a reality. Then death and Hades were cast in the lake of fire. This is the second death. Anyone not found written in a book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Just as sugar in a petrol tank interferes with the running of a vehicle engine, so too sin in our lives adversely affects us. It affects us spiritually, emotionally, mentally and physically. Doctors say that most of the illnesses they deal with have psychosomatic causes. In other words, they might be physical symptoms, but it's got a spiritual, emotional, mental cause. The inevitable result of sin includes an uneasy conscience, unsettled emotions, emotional and physical exhaustion, from seeking to suppress guilt and fear and despair and depression. Repentance can be compared with a demolition work on a condemned building and the excavations that followed for the laying of a good, new, solid, firm, rock-solid foundation for a new building. The taller the building needs to go, the deeper the foundation needs to be. According to the grace of God which was given me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another build on it, wrote the Apostle Paul. But let each one take heed how he builds on it, for no other foundation can be laid other than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if anyone builds on this foundation with gold or silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear when the day reveals it. Because it will be revealed by fire, and fire will teach each one's work of what sort it is. And if anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss. Do you not know that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit dwells in you? So 1 Corinthians 3 makes it crystal clear what we are involved in. We are meant to be building a life of worship and witness for God. Repentance is separating ourselves from that which separates God from us. We must do a thorough work of repentance. A hasty or half-hearted repentance makes a shallow, unstable foundation for spiritual life. The joy and freedom of forgiveness is well worth the cost of repentance and restitution. Now, just examining some of the battlefields of Flanders and Belgium, you can see those who built just trenches with maybe some wooden planks to keep it up. Well, when the bombardments came, they didn't do too well. Those who built concrete bunkers, deep down, with a thicker muscle, well, they're the ones who could do the bombardments the best. And in this world, if we think building on sand is going to be good enough for what's coming, the storm rages, when the wind blows, when the floods rise, the house built on the sand collapses, the house built on the rock stands firm. In Revelation 21, in verse 8, we read of those who will be condemned in eternity. The Word of God warns of eight categories of people whom God will condemn. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderous, sexually immoral, sorcerous, idolatrous in all eyes, shall have their place in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." Those are the ones who will be condemned. The joy of forgiveness and the freedom that comes from repentance is well worth the cost of repentance and restitution. As you therefore have received Jesus Christ the Lord, so walk in Him rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith. The Lord Jesus began his earthly ministry with these words, Matthew 4 verse 17, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. This is the message of the early church, Acts 3 verse 19, the apostle Peter declared, repent therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out so that times are refreshing that come from the presence of God. Now most people don't understand what repentance involves, but repentance has three aspects. Conviction, contrition, conversion. Conviction, a change of mind. Contrition, a change of heart. Conversion, a change of life, change of lifestyle, change of behaviour, change of habits. Head, heart and hands. A change of mind, a change of attitude, a change of conduct. From the head we stop justifying our sins, we recognise what is from our heart, we stop loving it, start to loathe it. Our habits, we stop doing it, we change our behaviour. God now commands all men everywhere to repent. We need to recognise sin and we need to recognise temptation for the poison and the deadly dangers they represent. We need to reject the world's ways, the social pressure, the peer pressure, the public opinion. A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet, Proverbs 10.9.5. In Pilgrim's Progress, it speaks about this dark man who was the great flatterer. And before you knew it, Pilgrim and his companion were trapped in a net. And it was immediately said, do you not remember what the scripture is? A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet. and flattery is a great threat. Psalm 1 says, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by streams of water that brings forth its fruit in season. Its leaf also does not wither. Whatever he does shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but they are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the day of judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. And Psalm 1 in many ways summarizes all the Psalms. There's two ways, there's two foundations, there's two destinations, there's two types of people, the wise and the foolish. There's two types of trees, the good tree and the bad tree. There's two types of fruit, good fruit, fruit of the spirit and fruit of the flesh. And there's two destinations. The broad way leads to destruction, the narrow way leads to life. This is the message which we have heard from him and declared to you, wrote the Apostle John. God is light and in him there's no darkness at all. If we say we are fellowship with him, but if we walk in darkness, We lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with Him and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we lie and we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar, and his word is not in us. That's 1 John 1, 5-10. Awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. Therefore let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and let us be sober. He gives more grace when the burdens grow greater. He sends more strength when the labors increase. To added affliction, he adds his mercy. To multiplied trials, his multiplied peace. When we have exhausted our store of endurance, when our strength has failed before the day is half done, when we reach the end of our hoarded resources, our Father's forgiving has only begun. His love has no limit, His grace no measure, His power no boundary known unto men, for out of His infinite riches in Jesus He gives and He gives and He gives again. Let us pray. Let's just be silent for a moment and think, what is God saying to me this day? What does God want us to do? Let's respond quietly in prayer to the Lord. Is there sin we need to repent of? Is there command we need to obey? Is there prayer we need to pray? Lord God, we pray that we would not be like those who have their understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts. Lord, protect us from these spiritual diseases. May we not be guilty of sleeping sickness, or lockjaw, amnesia, or deafness, or blindness, or lameness. We pray, Lord God, that you would have mercy upon us, that you'd enable us not to develop spinelessness or scurvy, but when the day comes that we would be able to stand, and having the Lord to stand. be able to stand up for you, to speak up for you, to step up in faith, to fight the good fight of faith. Give us, we pray, a hunger and a thirst for your word. Help us, Lord God, to be trained spiritually, that we will have strong faith. Give us spiritual backbones of doctrinal steel. May the fire of your Holy Spirit ignite us in our hearts and minds, we pray it in Jesus' precious name. Amen.