We could return in our Bibles once more to Genesis chapter 3. Genesis 3. I want to read with you from verse 9. Genesis chapter 3 and reading from verse 9. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dost 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. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, 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 for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken. For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." And we know that God will add His blessing to the reading of His own infallible truth. Now, we'll bow in prayer together, please, and let us just again look to the Lord as we come today to deal with the subject of the Christian and healing. I've been doing a series, as you know, prior to the holiday time and then, now again, these last few weeks, topics I didn't get to at that point and I want to cover them, matters I believe are very important for God's people to consider and on which we need to know what the Bible says. And we come to this subject today. We want to just bow together and look to the Lord for His help. O God and Father, we pray that thou wilt bless us and meet with us here around the Word. And as we consider what it teaches on this matter that's before us, may the light of Scripture and may the enlivenment of the Holy Spirit be our portion that we might have a grasp of thy truth concerning these things. And thereby, Lord, safeguard us from wild theories and from notions that are hurtful and harmful to the heart and to the being of the believer. Come today and bless us and meet with us, we ask, as we continue now in Thy presence. We'll give Thee the glory and the praise, we pray in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen. So, we're turning to Genesis chapter 3 and if I were to take a text, it would be verse 19. In the last words of that verse, where the Lord says to Adam, For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Genesis 3.19, For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Men instinctively cling to life. In every rational mind there is the knowledge that life is precious. and that life should therefore be preserved. And there is within the heart the natural desire to enjoy, yes, a lengthy and a healthy life. In the Old Testament we read of King Hezekiah, that godly king of Judah, who found himself on one occasion at the very doors of death. And when you read the story of Hezekiah, you find that he immediately pled with the Lord to spare his life, and the Lord did so. Now, it was not that Hezekiah was afraid to die, or afraid of what would come after death, because, remember, he was a man of God. But it was because he was still, relatively speaking, a young man. He had not reached 40 years of age. and therefore he felt that there was much more that he could accomplish for God in the matter of being spared and of course the Lord did spare his life and he lived for another 15 years and he served as God and as master. But we learn from Hezekiah that there is instinctively within the human heart a desire to live as long as possible and as believers to serve our God and our Savior. In the New Testament We read of the apostle Paul and the physical affliction that he had in what he calls the thorn in the flesh. And I believe it was some kind of a physical affliction. He asked the Lord were told three times that it would be taken away from him. Now while the Lord did not answer Paul's prayer in the form of removing whatever it actually was, He did give him the grace to bear with it. But it is apparent that Paul would have appreciated it. a life free from that particular affliction, teaching us that it is natural, it is instinctive to man to desire life and to desire health and indeed to enjoy health and well-being. That is a natural instinctive desire right in the heart of every human being. Now the reason why it's there, is because originally man was not made to die. When he came forth from the hand of God at creation, man was not subject to death. That means that he had a perfect body. That means that he had perfect health. Therefore, man's subjection to death and all that causes death is not natural. Not natural in the sense that it was not within the confines of the Lord's original scheme of things when He made man, when He created man. According to the manner in which He was made by Almighty God, man would have enjoyed and would have counted a great privilege the life that he had been given. And therefore, Even though man has fallen now, even though he's sinful, even though he is a creature who may have no time for God even whatsoever, yet there's a natural instinctive desire remaining within his very being to enjoy life, to have a long life, to be free from the ills of life. That is still naturally there in us all. whether saved or unsaved, simply because of how man was originally made. And how he was made with that particular characteristic in him and about him has not been erased, even though he has fallen and has entered into sin. But it is true, as we are all aware, man is subject to death. And he's subject to death because of the fall and because of the influence of sin. And therefore he's also subject to what we might well call all the aberrations, all the problems that are within the human body that eventually lead to death. Disease and death and illness and sickness of every kind are the lot of this earthly life. And of course, we are fully aware of that situation and are constantly reminded of it by the taking away of our loved ones, one by one. That awareness of that situation that we're subject to death, we're subject to all that leads to death, is the reason why, of course, the medical battle rages on in the sense of the world of medicine seeking to find cures and find ways of delivering people from pain and all their illnesses and so on. That is part, you see, of that instinctive desire to live. And that instinctive repulsion that we feel When we think of death, and we deal with illness, and we deal with disease, that is the reason why there is medical help, a medical world out there that is constantly battling with these things and trying to find help for people. And let me say to you, that is also biblical. It is scriptural. It is taught in the Bible that it is a legitimate pursuit. When there is this matter of seeking to preserve health and well-being, that is taught in the Bible and that is commended by God in as far as it is able to go. But in referring to this matter of the issue of preserving our physical health and our well-being, there arises the question then of what the Bible actually teaches on this whole question of healing. And that question, that topic is one, of course, that has an incredible interest placed in it in many religious circles. I commented last week when I was dealing with the subject of New Testament tongues that within the circles where there is a great emphasis on tongues speaking as they see it, there's also a fascination with this issue of healing. And let me say right away, that's the point I want to get to right away today, may I say immediately that in those circles where there's such an emphasis on healing, there are many errors promoted. There is the error that sickness is never the will of God for His people. There's the other error that all sickness is from Satan, from the devil. And all of this, of course, and those are the two main approaches that are made. First of all, sickness is never God's will. And secondly, all sickness is from the devil. My friend, I want to tell you right away, that's a denial of the doctrine of the fall of man. That is a denial of the placing of the curse on creation. as we read of it right here in Genesis chapter 3 and especially in verse 19, where the Lord says to man, Thus thou art, and unto thus shalt thou return. Now, ponder those words carefully. They are the announcement by God that man's disobedience and man's sin introduced the situation where physical life in this world for every human being would cease. at a certain point. But think also of another import of those words, namely this, that as a result of a certain process, Death would result. And what is that process? Well, in one way or another, it involves the experience of sickness and disease and ill health finally culminating in our deceit. Because the Lord says right here, "...thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." There's a process there. We are returning to the dust. We are dying people. As has often been said, and how true it is, from the very moment of our existence, from the very moment when we receive life, we begin to die. And we are marked for death. And die we will, because we are dust in the sense of being made from it originally by God, and because of sin in the fall, Our frail, feeble being is then also crippled with the awful curse that has come upon the human race because of sin. And therefore, we are headed toward the dust again. Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return. There is a process here in view of sickness and decay and then death. as the final culmination of all of that. May I point out to you some thoughts that arise here as we read these words. May I say to you to begin with that man's subjection to sickness and death was not imposed by God, or sorry, was imposed by God because of man's sin. His subjection to sickness and death was imposed by God because of his sin. I say that because there are those who will tell you, as I've already intimated, that the devil placed the curse on the world, including sickness and death. But when you read this chapter carefully, you will find that it was God who withdrew, for that's what was involved. God withdrew the special blessings that man had in Eden, in the Garden and Paradise before he sinned. And as God withdrew those special blessings, the whole course of life was changed for man by a single pronouncement that we have in these verses 16 through to 19. Commuting that very solemn pronouncement, the end of verse 19, by a single pronouncement, we find here that God changed the whole course of life. Now, while the devil instigated the fall, in the sense of placing the temptation before man, always remember that the curse, the sentence in other words, that followed on from that disobedience was God's judicial act. It was God in His righteous judgment bringing on mankind what He had earned and what He had brought about as a result of His disobedience. We're read here in our reading today that the Lord reminded reminded Adam of what he originally said. Look at verse 17, Because thou hast heartened on to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I command it be, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it. Cursed is the ground. And on and on it goes. The Lord reminds Adam of what he had said originally when he met him. Don't eat of this tree. And remember something. The test under which Adam was placed was a test of obedience to God, a test of love for God. It wasn't merely a matter of a test that had to do with eating the fruit of that particular tree. The test was, Adam, do you love Me? Will you obey Me implicitly and altogether? And Adam failed the test. And we failed the test in Adam. And therefore, the whole human race, came under the sentence that Almighty God had originally stated. And it is therefore very important, but a very basic point, that our subjection to sickness and death was imposed by God because of sin. May I also say that the whole human race is subject to this curse. The sorrows and the trials and the sicknesses and the calamities of this life all stem from the fall and they are experienced by all men, saved and unsaved. All of us, saved or unsaved, we share the same fallen earth. We experience the same altered physical life. We have the same inclination, propensity to sickness and to disease. We all live in the same hostile environment where disease and illness are everywhere. This is the world in which all men are living, and we are all susceptible to death itself. Remember the great words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, In Adam all die. Whether saved or unsaved, we are in union with Adam, our first parent, and therefore we are joined to him in his disobedience. And in Adam, therefore, we all die. Saved or unsaved, we all face death. We all face the end of life. And those in this gathering today who are not saved would do well to think about that. because you are as much subject to death as the Christian sitting beside you. The one who knows the Lord, yes, he or she is subject to death, but so are you who are yet without Christ. So, we find that man's subjection to death and to disease is all because of his sin, and that that curse has come upon the whole human race. Now, in the light of that, it is wrong to teach that the Lord gives the promise of indefinite health to His people. I'm moving now more into the realms, and what I want to say from this point onwards, where this kind of teaching goes forth. And it is taught by many that God promises the Christian indefinite health. And many say those kinds of things. They will try to find support in the Bible for such a statement. One of the verses that they will go to, I want you to turn with me to it right now, Exodus 15 and the verse 26. It says there, and he said, well, let's just read the end of the verse first. And then we'll read all the verse in a moment or two. Exodus 15, verse 26, the end of the verse, "...I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord that healeth thee." And these words are taken and used by many in this particular realm who claim that there is indefinite health for the believer and they will use them or try to use them to that effect. It is taught on the basis of these words that since it was God's will to give health here to Israel, well then it's His will to do so today. And therefore they will say, here you are believer, It's the Word of God that you should be in good health. And they'll use these words to try to promote that in your mind and have you think that way. And we're going to come a little later here to where that leads. But right now, this is the kind of verse they will use. Well, they haven't, you see, dealt with the verse honestly, because we need to read the first part of the verse. If I will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and will do that which is right in His sight, and will give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord that healeth thee." Notice that they leave out the opening words where God speaks. to Israel, just taking the context here, he speaks to Israel as a nation, and he commands Israel to keep his commandments and his statutes and judgments, and on that basis he says, I will preserve you from the diseases that have come upon the Egyptians. I will give you health, in other words, if you obey me. And what I'm showing you therefore is that this promise, now listen very carefully, this promise of health was given to Israel as a nation on condition of their obedience. Furthermore, it was a promise that the Lord would not allow them to fall into or become subject to the diseases that had come upon the heathen Egyptians. It is not, it is not, A blanket statement in which God says to His people, you are going to be indefinitely healthy. You're going to enjoy lifelong health and never be sick at all. It's not saying that at all. It's simply pertaining to the awful diseases that came upon the Egyptians for their immorality. This is talking about. Because when you study the Bible carefully, you will find that Upon nations that forsook God, that lived in the most awful forms of immoral behavior, they suffered terribly with regard to the diseases that came upon them. And that's what God is talking about right here. He's not saying to His people, you will be free from sickness altogether. He's saying to them, I will keep you from the diseases of the heathen so long as you do My will as a nation. And it is true, men and women, in our own day and generation, that if a person is free from the immoral lifestyle of the world, that individual is not going to become subject to the awful diseases that still prevail and that are still a plague in our society. upon those who live in a fashion that is grossly immoral. That kind of situation still exists, and many of us who know anything about society are fully aware of that. And yet, therefore, the man, the woman who loves the Lord and walks with God and keeps himself or herself pure with regard to moral things is not likely ever to become subject to those awful diseases. I said, what's he talking about there? And therefore, for any preacher to take these words and use them and say to God's people in general, it's the Lord's will for you to be healthy always is to be guilty of the most gross misinterpretation and misapplication of Scripture. Going on from there, it is therefore wrong to teach that it's always God's will to heal. I mentioned that a little while ago, and I come to it now more to take your emphasis. It is taught that it is always God's will to heal. Now, I will grant you that there are times when God does give a healing touch. Yes, that's true. But let me tell you something. When you read Genesis 3, 16 through to 19, It is very, very clear that any healing in this life is limited, and it is only temporary. Man is destined to decay in death, and therefore it's misleading to teach that it's always God's will to heal. Because man is going to die eventually. If it's always God's will to heal, no one should ever die. Let's look at what our Lord did, turning to John chapter 5. How did He deal with people who were sick? Did He heal everybody? And therefore we are dealing here with the master healer, the one who could heal with a word. In fact, one who could heal merely by willing it. He never had to speak. And many a person in the Gospels you'll find was healed. The Lord simply willed it. He never said anything. He simply willed it and He healed various individuals. But look here at a classic passage with regard to our Saviour's ministry. It deals with this point. That is, it's always the Lord's will to heal. What is it? Why not go to the Lord's own day when He was on this earth and notice what He did, or what He didn't do, rather. John 5, verse 3, talking about the five porches there at the pull of Bethesda. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, weathered, waiting for the moving of the water. Now you imagine that scene. A great multitude of, it says impotent folk, it simply means people who were terribly ill. And it gives you some of the illnesses. Blind, halt, that means lame, weathered, couldn't move a limb, couldn't see, so on. Just a sample of what was wrong with these people. The Lord came by. Verse 5, a certain man was there. Verse 6, Jesus saw him. Verse 8, Jesus said unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. What do you notice? A great multitude of sick people. The Lord only healed one of them. And he walked on And he left the rest lying there. Now, I defy any preacher in this healing business to say in the light of that verse or that passage that it's always the Lord's will for His people to be healed. It just is not true. That Scripture teaches that. What about Paul again? Remember, I referred to his scorn in the flesh. He sought the Lord about it, and he was not healed. Or it didn't heal Paul. What about Paul and Timothy? Timothy, it would seem from when you read about him in the epistles, Timothy was a kind of a delicate young man. In fact, we're told that he had many infirmities and the references to many sicknesses and so on. And whenever Paul dealt with Timothy, he simply said to Timothy, listen Timothy, take a little wine for your stomach's sake and for thine many infirmities. Now here's the point, the apostle Paul could have healed Timothy being an apostle. He had the power, he had the authority to do it, but he didn't do it. And why did Paul write later in 2 Timothy 4, verse 20, "'Trophimus, a man of God, a faithful servant of Christ, Trophimus have I left at my Lecham's sake.'" Now, what do you think about that? If there ever were genuine miracles of healing, oh yes, they took place in the days of our Lord and his apostles. But they most certainly did not heal everybody. Indeed, there's Paul, and you can almost put it this way, he walks away from Miletum, or he sails away from Miletum or Miletus, and he leaves Trophimus there. He leaves him the sickness. Now, was Paul a callous, cold-hearted individual who didn't care for Trophimus' well-being physically? No, he wasn't. Paul, while he was an apostle, was a man who was subject to the mind and the will of the Lord, and it simply was just not the Lord's mind or will that Trophimus would be healed, or that Timothy would be healed, and therefore Paul dealt with him as is recorded in these verses. It is not always the Lord's will to heal. Let me put it to you this way, for I think it needs to be put this way. Very seldom Is it the Lord's will for anyone to be raised up completely free for a period of time from sickness? Very seldom. We need to face those facts. I often talk to believers, and maybe they're sick, maybe someone else is sick, or whatever the case might be, and the question is there quite often. Why is this? And furthermore, I've prayed and nothing has happened. I ask you, my friend, to consider very carefully. It's not a matter of when you and I, or if you and I will get sick. It's when. That's what it is. When we will become ill, when we will have some sickness, And when we might be taken with a life-threatening disease, that's the way it actually is, because that's the way of life in this present state. And therefore, it is not God's will. For believers, just taking God's people always to be healed. We see it from these examples, and we could give you many more. And therefore, it's wrong to teach And this is following on from this, and this is very important. Listen carefully. It is entirely wrong to teach that sickness is the immediate consequence of some particular sin. Let me repeat that. It is wrong to teach that sickness is the immediate consequence, result, of some particular sin. You see, these people in the healing circles have to recognize that sickness does come upon God's people. But to try to defend their erroneous notion that it's always the will of God for His people to be healthy, they then account for the sicknesses of the saints by saying, well, their sicknesses are always due to sin. That's how they get out of it. And let me tell you something. That is the most cruel philosophy. There's some poor old woman, whoever it might be, and that dear saint of God is suffering terribly in her body, and some character comes along and tells her, this is upon you because of your sin. That is some particular sin, I mean. I've already, of course, dealt with the fact that All sickness is in the world, generally speaking, because of man's original fall. And there are cases, of course, in the Bible where even the Lord smoked people because of their disobedience. That is, directly and immediately you think of Miriam. Miriam murmured against Moses, and God smoked Miriam with leprosy. And then, of course, she was healed again. Or you think as well of King Uzziah, he wanted to become the high priest and God smote him with leprosy. There are cases, even in the New Testament, the church at Corinth, Paul says to them, there first comes the Lamb, because of your behavior or your attitude concerning the Lord's Supper, some are weak and sickly among you and many sleep. Oh yes, there are cases. where in the chastening of the Lord he does lay on the rod, even in that way. But I'm talking here about believers who are walking with God, seeking to do His will, and sickness comes, and then somebody comes along and says, well, you must ascend in some certain way, in some particular manner. And you see, it's just not true to say such a thing. It's not true at all. What about Job? Now, Job was a big problem for these healing folk, because you look at Job and what suffering he had. What terrible suffering Job had. And one of the charismatic leaders, who's now actually himself dead, John Wimber, said this, in order to try to support the error that sickness is always due to sin, he said this, Job is the one exception. And, of course, he had to say that. How could he dare to say that Job's affliction was due to his sin when it was due for the very opposite reason? Job's sickness came on him because he was a godly man. If you know the story, you know what I mean by that. He was such a godly man that the old devil challenged the Lord concerning Job. And God permitted Job to be smitten with that awful affliction. It came on him not because of sin, but because of godliness. And I think there's something to think about there as I pass by here. It lets us see that sometimes even the Lord may allow the devil to smite someone. as a means of that person being tested and it being proved that the grace of God is sufficient to keep that soul and bring that individual through. I just say that in passing, but what I'm showing you here is this man, Job, was a man who went through a most terrible season of physical suffering and mental anguish. But it was not because he had sinned. It was because he was being tested for his godliness. And you could go on with me if you had time today. I don't want to take up the time. Look at another one case after another of individuals who were godly, who walked with the Lord, and who were terribly afflicted in various ways. And therefore, they all prove the fact that sickness in a believer's life is not always due to sin at all. What about Lazarus? Turn to John 11 with me right here, John chapter 11, and listen to what you read about Lazarus and what the Lord thought of Lazarus. I've left out many examples. You can look up those for yourselves, but why don't you look at this one, John 11, verse 3. Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold he whom thy lovest, is sick. Now go down to verse 36 of John 11. Verse 35 as well, Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, behold how he loved him. Lazarus was sick. so sick that he eventually deceased, as we read the story. And yet standing out in this marvelous passage is language, listen carefully, language that underlines the Lord's love for Lazarus, not his displeasure with Lazarus. He whom thy lovest is sick. Behold, How He loved them. Wasn't it wonderful, men and women, that our sicknesses, our illnesses, and even our death do not change our relationship with the Lord? Do not alter His love for us. Do not undermine it. The Lord loved Lazarus still. The Lord loved Lazarus through his sickness and into his death. He loved him deeply. He loved him greatly. In other words, he was not angry with Lazarus because he loved him, as emphasized over and over again. Paul's physical suffering again, the thorn in the flesh, was given to him by the Lord not because he had sinned, but in order to prevent him from sinning. Why did Paul have that thorn in the flesh? He tells us himself, "...lest I should be exalted above measure, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh." Paul saw that what he had by way of that thorn, and again I say, whatever exactly it was, no one really knows. It was some kind of a physical affliction. And the devil exacerbated it and made it even worse. Well, it was given to Paul to keep him from being proud. It was given to him to keep him from sinning, not because he had sinned. You take that to heart when you are lying maybe in pain, when you are languishing in a bed of sickness, and you're saying to yourself, why Lord is this upon me? Oh dear believer, go to the Scriptures and read the experiences of the saints and get your questions answered. And certainly one of them is this. The Lord allows His dear saints to suffer and be afflicted, even sometimes terribly, for their sanctification, to keep them from that which would be sin or become sin in their lives. The Bible makes that absolutely clear in Scriptures like these. But let me say to you today, as we draw near to an end, for our time is running on, but this is the main thing I want us to say today, and that is that deliverance from sickness and death is promised in the Gospel. I want you to go back to Genesis 3 with me here, Genesis chapter 3. I know there's an awful lot of stuff, material, that could be covered in a study like this, but I take you back to Genesis 3 right here to show you this very important matter. that deliverance from sickness and death is promised in the gospel. You see, back in verse 15, The Lord already had stated the great promise, 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. There was a promise of Christ and furthermore a promise of the reversal of the curse that had been instigated by the devil. Oh yes, the devil was the instigator of man's fall. The curse fell on man in divine displeasure. But now there's a great promise. One's going to come, and he's going to bruise the serpent's head. And contained in all that, there is the great promise of a reversal of the curse, including deliverance from sickness and death. Now go with me into the New Testament, to Romans chapter 8 and verse 23. Romans 8 verse 23. And the apostle Paul says this, not only they but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit. Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit, the redemption of our body. What is Paul saying? He's talking to the believer, he's talking to saints who've got the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, and we groan within ourselves. And that's often the way it is for the Christian, isn't it? Many a day goes by, and because of pain or sorrow or affliction or trial or heartache, you're groaning within yourself. And you're saying to yourself, oh, I long for deliverance. Well, let me tell you something, dear Christian. Though the Lord sometimes does give temporary relief, it's only temporary. You never forget that. You never forget that. It's only temporary. Because the day will come when you will succumb to your final sickness, your final disease, your final time of ill health, and you will pass away. But here is the hope of the gospel, the redemption of the body. And what the Apostle Paul is teaching here is very, very clear and very important. That is, that the deliverance of the body from death and the effects of death, that deliverance comes as a result of the atonement made by Jesus Christ. Because He uses the word redemption and He speaks of the body and He is telling us that our Lord has redeemed these bodies of ours. And one day we are going to experience the benefit and the result of that redemptive work of the Lord with regard to our bodies. Quickly, Isaiah 53. Look at verses 4 and 5. Isaiah chapter 53, verse 4. It says there, "...surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." It goes on to verse 5, and it says, "...he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The testament of our peace was upon him, and with the stripes we are healed." Now in verse 4, where it says, "...he hath borne our griefs," the word for griefs there in the Hebrew language is the Hebrew word for sickness. It also speaks in verse 5 of being healed as a result of the stripes. Now, I know that including that there is our spiritual healing, but let me tell you, believer, there is far more there. We are being shown here that when our Lord went to the cross and He gave Himself and He made the atonement and He redeemed us, He not only made the atonement for the soul, He made the atonement for the body as well. He has bought, He has purchased redemption for the whole person, for the whole man, for both the body and the soul. And it is true. that contain within the merits of the atoning death of our Lord Jesus Christ, there is this great redemption that is promised to the believer for both the body and the soul. But you see, here's the question, or here's the point. As far as our bodies are concerned, that redemption is not experienced in this life. Oh yes, it's bought for us, and one day we will have it. But you are not going to have that experience of the release of your body from the effects of the curse, the fall, in the form of sickness and disease in this life. You're just not going to have it. It's for the future. But you see, the point is, it's still there. In fact, if you put it this way, not everything the Lord has bought for us, even for our souls, do we get in this life. Isn't that right? Everything the Lord has bought for your soul in redemption, you do not receive in this life, because you're not yet in the state of bliss and glory in heaven. Your soul is not yet made perfect, is it? No, it's not. And you won't receive that part of what the Lord has bought for you until you actually die and are taken to heaven, and then your soul will receive that perfect state. So not everything the Lord has bought for us with regard to our souls, we have in this life. And certainly with regard to the body, we do not have this redemption now. But my friends, here is the glorious hope of the Gospel for the one who is sick and the one who is suffering. There is a day. There is a day of redemption. A day when the human body of the Christian is going to be delivered altogether from the curse and from the corruption and the fall and the sin of man. And that day is the day of the coming of our Lord. And when that day dawns, Then there will be deliverance from the power of death. Never again will death have any hold upon the bodies of the sins. Never again will disease afflict them, and illness trouble them. Never again will these earthly calamities come upon us, because death will have been destroyed forever. at that great day. What a glorious prospect that is for the people of God as we think of that marvelous day. And therefore, deliverance from death's power and deliverance from any thought of death whatsoever, it's all contained here in this statement, the redemption of the body. And let me tell you, there is the ultimate result of the gospel and the work of Jesus Christ. Well, yes, that's why God's people are to look on their bodies as being precious. Jesus Christ thought so much of your body as well as your soul that He suffered the agonies of His passion. He died in excruciating pain. He came under the curse. that you, not only in your soul, but in your body as well, would be delivered from that curse. And my friend, that is the ultimate form of healing. That's what it's all about. I've already stressed to the point of being repetitious. You're not, and I'm not, going to have a life of perfect health, free from sickness. It's not God's will. It's just not going to be the case. But that does not mean that we don't believe in healing. Oh yes, the Lord could touch someone and raise that person up. As I said a while ago, I believe that happens very seldom. But when I say that does not mean we don't believe in healing, here's what I mean. I'm looking forward to the day when this vile body shall be made like unto His glorious body. When this earthly frame thereby will be fitted for the everlasting habitations. Because flesh and blood, as we now are, cannot inherit the kingdom of God. There has to be a change. There has to be a healing. And thank God Christ purchased that healing in His redemptive work. And one day that healing is going to be experienced. That's the message to take to your suffering loved ones who know the Savior. I cannot go into anybody's sick room and sit down at that bedside and say to that individual, God's going to heal you. Because then I'd have to say something like this, God's going to heal you if you had enough faith. That's where they always go, these healers. And when people aren't healed, as they put it, the blame's always put back on the individual. You didn't have enough faith. Or there's sin in your life. Or you've disobeyed God. My friend, there are a bunch of charlatans and deceivers when they say those things. I can go into the sick bay, and I can say to the suffering saint, God's grace is sufficient to bring you through your pain and your suffering, and one day His grace will give you a new body. That's the gospel. That's where the hope is. Not in this deceitful nonsense that's so prevalent in our day, with believer after believer dismayed and discouraged and even driven into despair. That's not the gospel. The gospel is. There's a day of redemption. There's a day of deliverance. And maybe you who sit in this very service right now, and you are suffering pain and discomfort constantly because of some illness. Oh, dear believer, set your eye on Christ today and see what you have in Christ, and see what's ahead of you. May God write His Word in our hearts, and may He bless it to us for His own glory. Let us all bow together in prayer. as we are at the end of our service. And may the Lord use His truth. O God, our Father, bless Thy Word, we pray. Write it on every heart. Deliver us, Lord, from the follies and the deceits of this day. And Lord, give to Thy people an understanding of the Word that will guide them through such times as when affliction comes. And Lord, help us to prove Thee and glorify Thee. Help us, O Lord, to walk with Thee in the center of Thy will. And, Lord, we pray today for the healing of the soul of the one who needs the Lord. And there are some like that in this gathering, Lord. Remember them today and have mercy upon them, we ask. And I may the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Spirit be with every child of God. both today and forever. Amen.