Proverbs 17 and 22, this is a
proverb that I've been extra familiar with for years because
Vicki and I learned a song, a little song, that is pretty much word
for word, this proverb, many years ago when our children were
very young. It helps you to remember very much. Verse 22 says this, a merry heart
doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dryeth the bones. Now the word merry is joyful. We know what merry means, merry
Christmas, joyful. A joyful heart doeth good like
a medicine. But a broken spirit dries up
the bones. Another way to say dries up the
bones is withers the strength. It depletes you. It sucks the strength out of
you. If you've ever wondered whether
stress and grief, mental anguish affects you physically or not,
there's no doubt about that. It very much does, and probably
more than just about anything. Your heart, in this sense, and
spirit, are not physical parts of you. The heart here is not
the internal organ that pumps your blood. And of course the
spirit. These are not physical parts
of you. But the bones are. The bones
are. And medicine works on the body. Even medicines that are for mental
troubles or disorders are helping those things by some
physical effect on your body. A chemical adjustment of some
kind or whatever it is. It's a physical thing. So we
have the two tied together here, the spiritual and the physical.
You have a direct relationship between the two with regard to
health and well-being. And notice, first of all, that
it doesn't work the other way. It's good to take care of your
body. It's good to eat the right things and to exercise in a healthy way and even take vitamins, getting
some sun I think is important, getting out. But those things won't help your
spirit. It won't hurt it. And I'm not
saying that it won't have some good effect on your attitude
and even relieve stress maybe to do some physical things. but
that's still physical. It's physical exercise having
a positive physical effect. It results in mental, but it's
doing something physical to your body, endorphins, I'm not an
expert on all that, whatever it is, that causes you to feel
better in a mental way too, but it won't cure a broken spirit. No, the great physician knows
us really well. That's one of the most important
things about a doctor. I feel it's important, and y'all
know how I feel about doctors, generally speaking. But if you're
gonna have one, and you are, sooner or later, get to know them, and more importantly,
have them get to know you. Our great physician knows us.
Very well. The one who knit us together
in our mother's womb prescribes something that only he can perform. A work of grace on the heart.
A joyful heart is a heart that's given by God. And a joyful heart
is not In our text, this one just describing
someone that's happy-go-lucky and through life. And I think
that may have some medical benefit as well, but the sinner has a
great need and it's a spiritual need. It starts with the spirit,
doesn't it? And everything else is affected.
The heart of man by nature is sick. Isaiah 1.5, why should
you be stricken anymore? The whole head is sick, the whole
heart is faint or weak or sick. God opened Lydia's heart, and he's the only one that can
do that. And I want us to notice, if you'll turn with me to Acts
chapter 16, You know, you hear that quoted
a lot. The Lord opened Lydia's heart. What does that mean? What
for? What did it do? Do you remember
before you turn over there? The result of God opening her
heart, Acts 16, 14. A certain woman named Lydia,
a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped
God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended
unto the things which were spoken of Paul." If you're even gonna
hear a word I say this morning, God has to do a work on your
heart. Spiritual things are not like
earthly things. God has got to operate on your
heart. And when he opened her heart,
she heard the gospel that Paul preached, the gospel of the Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and how God, by grace through faith in
the person of Christ, saves sinners like her. And she didn't want
him to leave. She was happy. She rejoiced in
that message. Turn with me back to Acts, if
you're still in Acts 16, Acts 13, let's look at Acts 13, 44,
and I think this will help us to see something, too. Again,
it'll confirm what we just read, that the Lord opens the heart,
and then this has everything to do with the gospel, with the
word preached by God's messenger, the apostle Paul in this case.
But look at Acts 13 and verse 44. And the next Sabbath day came
almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. But
when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy. What a terrible thing. That's
a condition of the heart too, isn't it? Everybody's gathering together
to hear the word of God preached and they saw the crowds and they're
saying, we don't get crowds like that. That was their reaction
instead of rejoicing or just being interested enough to not
be thinking foolish things like that. and spake against those things
which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming." Now, these
are the religious Jews. These are the ones that supposedly
spoke for God. But you see, the ones that supposedly
speak for God, what they say contradicts what we say. It's
not just a little different idea about some things. It's not just
a different brand of gospel. It's a false gospel. They contradict
what we say. We say salvation is by grace
alone. That God just saves sinners because
he wants to. They say grace is God giving
you a chance. That's a contradiction. Grace
is either God saving you or it's him allowing you to save yourself
if you will. It can't be both, it's a contradiction. We preach that Christ, the son
of God, when he sheds his precious blood to save a sinner, he saves
that sinner. They don't preach that, they
contradict that, blaspheming, by saying that Christ's blood
is just as effective for everybody as it is for anybody. That's
blasphemy. They're still doing it. They're
still contradicting us. They're still blaspheming. Verse
46, then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold. In other words, it ticked
them off. They came there to preach the
gospel and these idiots are saying the opposite. They're undermining
the truth of God. And they said, hold on a second
here. They didn't come here, these people didn't come here
to hear you. And he said, it was necessary
that the word of God should first have been spoken to you, but
seeing you put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of
everlasting life, well, we turned to the Gentiles. That's just a nice way of saying
bug off. We have no use for you. Not gonna preach to you anymore,
done with you. If you want to openly reject
and oppose and blaspheme the gospel of Christ, you're not
welcome. For so hath the Lord commanded
us, saying, I've set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that
thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And
when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad. They had a completely
different attitude. It was what God did in their
heart. The Lord opened their heart that
they didn't gripe about or oppose what was being preached. They
listened to it. And it made them glad. You know
how I know that? It wasn't just that Paul was
favoring the Gentiles. They might've just been, yeah,
you Jews get out of here. You know, this is our show. Look
at the next word. They glorified the word of the
Lord, not themselves. And as many as were ordained
to eternal life, believed. And you can't read that any other
way. You can't reverse that. It doesn't
say as many as believe were ordained unto eternal life. It says those
whom God had chosen from before the foundation of the world to
salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief in the
truth, they believed. It's just the opposite of what
he told those Jews in John chapter 10. You don't believe because
you're not my sheep. These ones did believe because
they weren't his sheep. It is this rejoicing, this gladness
that our text is talking about. There's nothing else like it.
This is joy, how does the scripture describe it? Joy unspeakable. and full of glory, joy unspeakable. If somebody asks you, what is
it that, you know, about that church? That's what they'd say
when it's the gospel that we rejoice in. But they'd say, what
is it about that church that, you know, makes you so happy
that you couldn't explain it to them? There's no way, you
can't speak it. They're gonna have to experience
it for themselves, the forgiveness of sin. Having the Son of God, he that
hath the Son hath life. How are you gonna explain that
to somebody that doesn't have the Son? Philippians 4.4, rejoice in the
Lord always. Rejoice in the Lord, in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. David, it says, when he was at
the bottom, encouraged himself in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. Philippians 3.3, for we are the
circumcision, that is, we are the covenant people of God. Circumcision
was the symbol of the covenant, which worshiped God in the spirit. That's where the healing takes
place. And it affects everything you
are, everything you do, everything you say, everything you think. And rejoice in Christ Jesus. and have no confidence in the
flesh. What do you need when you're
sick? What would you say when your body is physically sick?
You get the flu or whatever it is. What does everybody say,
really? Even doctors, they'll say the
most important thing is what? Rest. And then you go in the hospital
and the last thing you can do is rest. That's another story. Oh, come unto me, all you that
labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find
rest unto your soul. Keyword, soul. What is it that we need? After
you nine, Verses one and two, just close
with this final thought. This is so interesting. That
this man, his friends were so determined that the Lord should
bless him. I tell you what, they couldn't
force the Lord to to bless their paralyzed friend. But they were gonna find out
whether he would or not. If it killed them all, they were
gonna find out whether he would. They were gonna get him in front
of them, in front of him. He entered into a ship, the Lord
Jesus, and passed over and came into his own city. And behold,
they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed,
and Jesus seeing their faith, It said unto the sick of the
palsy, son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee. And we know from other accounts
of this, what they went through to get that man in front of the
Lord. And here he is, what's his need?
Well, he's paralyzed. He's so sick that he can't even
move. And what's the remedy? Your sins are gone. And notice
the Lord said, be of good cheer. Not be of good cheer, I'm gonna
give you all your strength back. If he had stayed on that bed
the rest of his life, he could have still been Mary in his heart
because his sins were gone. That's what we need. And it affects
everything else, doesn't it? Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and all these things shall be added. Unto you, let's pray
together.