Good evening and welcome again
to our study of the book of Malachi, the gospel according to Malachi,
and we're in chapter four. We're in chapter 4 and we'd like
to look at a portion of verse 2. Malachi chapter 4 and verse
2 and the title of our message tonight is, With Healing in His
Wings. With Healing in His Wings. Truly
this passage of scripture, this verse 2 of chapter 4 of the book
of Malachi shares with us some great blessings about our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. It is He who is the Son of Righteousness,
S-U-N, of Righteousness. He depicts and glorifies Himself
as much as the sun does for our earth. It is our only source
of heat, it's our only source of light, and on and on the list
goes, and our Lord is compared to that in this verse of Scripture.
It also tells us, as we read this verse, but unto you that
fear my name shall the Son of Righteousness arise. with healing
in his wings, and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of
the stall. This great one, the Lord Jesus,
the Son of Righteousness, he shall arise, and we find that
in his mercy and his grace to his people, it does not decrease,
it is always increasing. grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It's an increasing, there's
a growth that is used in comparison with that. So the blessings of
our Savior are never diminishing They're always increasing. Now,
He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He changes not,
so we really find out more and more of what He has for us, what
He has done for us. We find out more and more about
ourselves, but in the same respect, we find out more and more about
the grace of God, and that it covers all sin. Well, in this
passage of scripture, with healing in his wings, this phrase tells
us of the spiritual healing in the person and work of our Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. I would direct your attention
for a reading in the book of the Psalms at this moment. Would
you turn there with me? Psalm 103. We like to look at
the passages of scripture that and compare scripture with scripture
and see what other places have to say about the same subject.
And here in Psalm 103 and there in verses 1 through 5, would
you read those with me? Bless the Lord, O my soul. And that is truly the privilege
that God's people have. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
may it go that deep, because if we've been regenerated, we
have a part of us that truly can bless the Lord. And all that is within me, bless
His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all his benefits. Notice verse 3 with me here.
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction,
who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfieth
thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like
eagles. How many blessings do we have
in that passage of scripture, those five verses poured out
upon God's people, upon the ones that he intended to save from
eternity past, and here it tells us in verse three, if we had
nothing else, who forgiveth all thine iniquities. My goodness,
to realize that in our soul, to have some comprehension and
understanding that the salvation of the Lord is so complete that
he forgiveth all thine iniquities. We'll not be answering for our
sins and iniquities before the throne of grace. We will be there
and complimented, oh, welcome thou good and faithful servant,
and we'll be saying, or we do today when we hear that, when
was I faithful? Well, it's not our faith, it's
his faith, and it's not our faithfulness, it's his faithfulness to us that
brings us along. who forgiveth all thine iniquities,
and then who healeth all thy diseases. I'd like to notice
several verses of scripture, particularly in the New Testament,
that tell us of the physical healing the Lord Jesus did during
his earthly ministry, and especially as the physical healing is a
picture, type, or shadow of the spiritual healing the Lord does
in the new birth, or gives us in the new birth. When we look
at these pictures, he actually physically healed folks. He did
that. They went away healed. But there
are types, and there are shadows, and there are pictures of what
he intends to do spiritually for every one of his sheep. He intends, as we read here,
to heal all thy diseases. and we have a plethora of diseases. We have not come to the conclusion
of all the diseases that we have. We don't know, I wouldn't even,
couldn't even dare to guess how many diseases, physical diseases
there are in this world. But we find that with the Lord
Jesus, when it comes to our spiritual diseases, he has promised that
he would take care of every one of them, and he does. who healeth
all thy diseases. Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of Luke chapter 9. As we move to the New Testament
and see our Lord Jesus as He ministers during His earthly
ministry, as He came down on purpose to deliver his people
from their sins to deliver his sheep from their sins he spent
about thirty three years prior to him going to the cross and
at twelve years of age he's in the temple and about thirty years
of age we find him again being baptized by John and he begins
his earthly ministry and does so much in those three short
years as we read here in in Luke chapter nine and there in verse
nine The scriptures say, And Herod said, John have I beheaded,
but who is this of whom I hear such things? And he desired to
see him. And the apostles, when they were
returned, told him all that they had done. And he took them and
went aside privately into a desert place belonging to the city called
Bethsaida. And the people, when they knew
it, followed him, and he received them, and spake unto them of
the kingdom of God. Now, he preached the gospel. This, our Savior, preached the
gospel. And then it goes on and says,
he also demonstrated that he has power over sin. He has power over the influences
of sin. He has the power over the results
of sin. And it tells us there in that
verse of scripture, verse 11, he said, and healed them that
had need of healing. He healed them who had need of
healing. What a telling statement. We
find there that it is the Lord Jesus that came to heal those
who need healing. Those that he reveals unto in
the new birth that they are sinners. Only then do we realize it as
in a sense that God sees it. Before then, we've done a few
wrong things. We've probably had a religious
experience after we did the wrong things. It depends on how serious
they were. That's where most religious experiences
come from is we've done something really, really, really terribly
wrong and so we try to atone for it, to make up for it, to
repent of it and have some sort of a religious experience that
makes somebody happy. make the preacher happy, make
our parents happy, make our spouses happy, whatever. Well, religious
experiences will not do. It must be the new birth. So,
he healed them that were in need of healing. Now, Jesus prefaced
his healing with these two verses. Back up with me to the book of
Matthew, if you would. The book of Matthew, chapter
9. Matthew chapter 9 we have the Lord prophesying his healing
and the things that he did as a physician here in Matthew chapter
9 and also in the book of Mark we're going to look at chapter
2 but when Jesus heard that Matthew chapter 9 verse 12 but when Jesus
heard that he said unto them now We look through the scriptures
and we find those folks that say, I am glad, I thank God,
I'm not like other folks. Jesus is making reference to
those folks right here. They have not been shown the
terrible, awful plight of the fall. They are still in that
good category, or fairly good category, or in the lower good
category, You know, I'm doing better than most people are.
That's, there it is, there it is, right there. And so he says,
they that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. Now if
we back up, we find out that there's some comments about him
eating with publicans and sinners. And we are thankful, the church
is thankful that he eats with sinners, because that's who the
church is made up of. that we uh... we're going to
look at some of the of the healings that the Lord Jesus did and they
typify and they picture what the Lord does for us from a spiritual
standpoint so he healed them that had need of healing but
he prefaces all his healing by saying those words the whole
need not a physician those that don't see themselves in the revelation
that God gives in the new birth If they have never been born
again, they don't see themselves as the sinner that God declares
throughout the scriptures, and they don't need any healing.
They do, but it's only God that can give it to them. Alright,
in Mark chapter 2, here in verse 17, The scriptures share this. When Jesus heard it, he said
unto them, They that are whole have no need of a physician,
but they that are sick I came not to call the righteous the
self-righteous, the own-righteous, righteousness which is of the
law righteous, but sinners to repentance. Repentance is a gift
that God gives sinners. And that is to turn from worshiping
idols, and our worst idol by nature is ourself and our free
will. And we repent, we turn from that
and trust Christ. We trust Christ's blood and we
trust his righteousness for all our salvation. Well, as we go
on, we find in the book of Matthew, Go back to the book of Matthew
with me there in the book of Matthew chapter four, Matthew
chapter four. We read these words about God
through Christ healing folks, the son of God doing this as
he came down to be the sacrifice, the redeemer of his people, just
like he had promised in the covenant of grace. And it says here in
Matthew chapter four and verse 24, And his fame went throughout
all Syria, and they brought unto him all sick people that were
taken of diverse, or all kinds of, diseases, and torments, and
those which were possessed with devils, and those which were
lunatic, and those that had palsy, He healed them. Now every one
of those things that are mentioned in that verse of scripture have
something to say about how thorough the Lord Jesus Christ heals us
of all our spiritual diseases. The sick, that sums it up. They
had diverse diseases, that sums it up. We have a whole lot more
wrong with us than we could ever think about. The Lord shows us
in the new birth just how far fallen we are and God is right
and we agree with it. Diverse diseases and torments
we cannot count the torments that we have by nature in the
fall seeing sin torments and Those that were possessed with
devils our worst devil is our own heart our worst Offense is
our own heart. It is desperately wicked who
can know it it is Deceitful above all things and desperately wicked
who can know it. I remember a preacher talking
about that maniac of Gadara, and the Lord cast out his demons,
and this preacher was preaching and said that that's what the
Lord does for us spiritually, casts out our demons. And a lady
came to him after the services, I've never had any demons. She
just doesn't know how much she has. Anybody that says that is
just full of themselves, full of themselves, full of their
own demons. Those which are lunatic, crazy. We are insane without
the Holy Spirit's new birth. We are insane. Well, it just
tells us. We know nothing about God. We
are crazy. We will set up our own little
power, our own little entity, and we'll just say, God is sovereign
if we let him. My free will reigns. And we're
just stupid to the core. We are lunatics when we do that.
Those that had palsy fall down. We fell on Adam. It's a serious
palsy. And he healed them. How great
is the healing of the Lord Jesus Christ to cover all the sins
that we have in every aspect of our nature and our sin. And the fall, the Lord Jesus
takes care of it. In Matthew chapter 12, would
you turn there with me? He has healing in his wings.
He's rising with healing in his wings. And this healing is good. He healed a bunch of people and
they no longer were tormented by that disease. It doesn't mean
they didn't go on and die. It just means that they, at that
moment, the Lord took care of that. Here in the book of Matthew
chapter 12 and verse 15, it says, but when Jesus knew it, he withdrew
himself from thence, and great multitudes followed him, and
he healed them all. those that follow him he heals
my sheep hear my voice and they follow me what a demonstration
of that what what a picture of that that there's a whole host
of people in jerusalem that won't follow him but there is some
folks that will follow him my sheep hear my voice and they
follow me that's what the scriptures have to say in matthew chapter
in matthew chapter uh... of 15 and verse 30. Matthew chapter
15 and verse 30. We read these words about his
healing, folks, as he says there in the book of Malachi chapter
4 and verse 2, the Son of Righteousness rising, the Son of Righteousness
with healing in his wings, and he'll heal us of all our spiritual
infirmities. Here in the book of Matthew chapter
15 and verse 30, and great multitudes came unto him, having with them
those that were lame, It doesn't take us much to figure out what
that means when it comes to a spiritual application We can't walk straight. We got one foot that's shorter
than the other. We're just spinning circles and blind Blind we can't
see what God has for us. We can't see the Lord until he
gives us sight Dumb we can't say a glorifying thing about
God until he gives us the voice to say that and maimed We're
just all tore up. We have nothing to present to
God. We have no Ability to present
to God our works our righteousness our ass filthy rags our dumb,
blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at
Jesus' feet, and He healed them. The Lord does a perfect work,
spiritually speaking. He does a perfect work to heal
us completely. There is nothing undone. Now,
He restrains our flesh at times. He restrains us. We're thankful
for that. But we find out that he did very
little else for our flesh. It is dying. It's dead and dying. Our flesh is on the way to the
end. The flesh profiteth nothing. There's nothing about our flesh
that will be a benefit to the Lord Jesus Christ. But there
is benefit in the Lord Jesus Christ when he saves us and gives
us the new birth. When he gives us a new birth
and we're saved. when we recognize Him, we see Him, we hear Him,
and all the other blessed things. In Luke chapter 17, Luke chapter
17 is an interesting passage of scripture about ten, there
were ten lepers. Luke chapter 17 and verse 12,
turn there with me, Luke chapter 17 and verse 12, and as he entered
into a certain village, The Lord Jesus Christ never took one step
that wasn't on purpose. And when He went to a certain
village, He went there on purpose. There was a reason for His going.
He doesn't waste time. He is going to accomplish His
eternal purpose. As high as heaven is above the
earth are His ways above our ways. We may not think that this
is the right thing to do, but God had purposed it in the covenant
of grace before the foundation of the world. And he is going
to carry it out to the very last jot and tittle. There's a certain
village. There met him ten men that were
lepers. Now, that's not a coincidence. That's on purpose. God never
did anything by coincidence. He does all things on purpose. And we find that He works all
things after the counsel of His own will. It was His counsel,
it was His will that He meet with these ten lepers this day,
there in this certain city. There were ten men that were
lepers now. This is about as far as we go
when it to the bad When it comes to having a disease, this is
serious. This is cancer of the lungs This
is cancer of the pancreas. This is cancer of the brain.
This is about as difficult as it comes. And we have here these
10 lepers. The Old Testament is filled with
people that have leprosy. It's still, in certain places,
a problem. Leprosy has been a reminder of
sin and the fall. Well, here are 10 lepers. And
they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy
on us. And when he saw them, he said
unto them, go, show yourselves unto the priests. Now the priest
under the law, and at this time we still have the priest, the
priest under the law was the only one that could declare them
clean. The priest had to declare that. So he sent them, go, show
yourselves unto the priests. If the priest declares you clean,
then you're clean indeed. When it came to pass that as
they went, they were cleansed, the Lord healed them on the way.
And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back
and with a loud voice glorified God. Now we see in this a picture
of the benefits of the Lord Jesus Christ to the natural world.
We, by nature, are so unthankful for the blessings that God gives
us. We have people, we've maybe done
that very same thing. We have a terrible disease and
we just mourn and we get people to have a prayer chain and they
pray for us and something happens and we don't have the disease
anymore. Do we thank God for it by nature? No. It's like foxhole conversions. I had a dear, dear, dear World
War I veteran, and he was in France during World War I, and
he was in a foxhole, and things were really tough. And he said,
God, if you ever get me out of this, I'll never bother you again.
And guess what? Jim never bothered God again. It wasn't anything. And so it
is with us. By nature, we have food. God
supplies the food. We don't even thank Him for it.
God gives us a job. We got that job. God gives us
a raise. We got that raise. Well, it's
just like these folks here, these ten lepers. Nine of them could
care less. It was like feeding Israel the
manna, feeding Israel the quail, all the miracles. It didn't change
one heart. Now, what happened here to the
one? God worked a work of grace. There was one. There was one. It's said here in Luke chapter
17. It says, and when he saw them,
he said to them, go show yourself to the priests. And then in verse
15, and one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned
back and with a loud voice glorified God. and fell down on his face
and at his feet, giving him thanks, and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus
answering, Where? Were there not ten cleansed,
but where are the nine? There are not found that return
to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him,
Arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. What a
picture we have here of the Lord Jesus Christ's great healing. Now, if gospel goes out, people
like the parable of the sower, oh my goodness, I finally found
it. and we just work and work and
work and we've got all our own righteousness and we're trying
to please God with our righteousness and there's no root in our self. No root in our self and we dry
up. If it isn't for a work of God,
a work of grace, a work of mercy, a work of the Holy Spirit, we're
just like these ten lepers. They went on They had physical
healing, but they really never recognized the Lord Jesus as
the Lord Jesus Christ. Many times the Lord healed the
sick, the disabled, and possessed. They each one represent some
aspect of the spiritual blessing of the new birth. I just made
a list here, and I'm not going to quote any scripture. You can
look them up, but we find that the Lord Jesus cast out unclean
spirits many times. He did that very thing. He cast
out unclean spirits. The most unclean thing that we
could have is our own pride and our own self-will. That is an
evil spirit, a spirit that does not worship God, an antichrist
spirit. And God takes care of that. He
casts that out and gives us a heart that loves Him. gives us a new
heart. He healed a fever. By nature,
we're burning up. By nature, we have a fever. By
nature, we are not at peace. There is nothing. We can't settle
down. If we get one more thing, we'll
be happy. Well, we get it and we're not happy. Healed several
lepers. Boy, the work of healing a leper. We just think that is the great
work. That is the great work. Well,
we'll find out that it was not the greatest. Healed a man that
was paralyzed. By nature we're paralyzed and
we can't get out of a pit. By nature we're paralyzed and
we can't get to the Lord. It reminds us of Mephibosheth.
He was broken in his feet and had to be carried. Go fetch him. Go fetch him. That's what the
Lord says. We're paralyzed and we can't move. Heal the demoniac. this possession of self, the
possession of free will, possession that I'm the most important.
And he healed a woman with an issue of blood. We truly have
an issue of blood. We inherited a blood from Adam
that is just killer. It is a killer blood. And we
pass it on to our children, men. We pass it on to our children.
We pass on the same, excuse me, It's the same DNA. It's a killer
DNA. It kills. And we have, He healed
a man that was dumb. We can't even say good things
about God. Oh, we might read the scripture,
but our heart is far from Him. I remember going home after preaching
in religion and wondering if there was even a God. Wondering
if there was even a God. That is dumb. I mean, that's
the true meaning. Can't say a good word. Can't
say a word. Healed a man that was a lunatic
and by nature we're spiritual lunatics. We don't know the sun
and we don't know the moon. We don't know the son of righteousness
with healing in his wings and we don't know the church, the
moon. He healed one that was deaf and
he was a mute man. Why can't people hear the Word
of God? Why can't they hear the Gospel?
Because they're deaf to it. And we need new ears. We need
the ears of God. Heal one that had dropsy or abnormal
swelling of his body. We meet people and we're the
worst. By nature, we're the worst. We're
just swollen up on ourselves. We have so much pride. We're
just so proud of ourselves. As the one man said, I'm so humble
and proud of it. We're just all swollen up. Well,
you know what? The Lord takes care of that.
He gives us humility. He gives us pride. We're not
in it for the glory, our own glory. We want Him to be praised.
And then he restored an ear to a high priest servant. Peter
whacked it off with a sword. I don't think he was aiming for
the ear. I think the servant moved. And the Lord put it back. And what he does for us, to take
care of our ears, and our eyes, our mouth, our feelings, our
body, our feet, our hands, they all take a new light when the
Lord heals us from all our diseases, spiritually speaking. Modern
charlatans have attempted to mimic the Lord, and they say
they have the ability to heal. Charlatans. Charlatans. They're in it for profit. They're
in it for profit. The Lord Jesus never condones
this behavior. But he, being God, was to go
to a step further than healing. He's going to demonstrate something
these charlatans won't try. He stepped up to people that
no longer were among the living, and he raised them from the dead. Those folks in Moses' day, those
wizards that the Pharaoh had, they could go so far, but they
couldn't go any further. And these charlatans, these fakes,
these in-it-for-the-money, these fancy folks that don't have a
word to say about the gospel and their whole gospel is in
a social gospel, they have no hope in themselves and they don't
give it to anybody else. Here we find these folks. They
will not step into a mortuary. They will not step up to a grave. They will not do that. They know
they wouldn't prosper there. And they trick people and all
sorts of things. There's three people in the scriptures
that the Lord healed. excuse me, that raised from the
dead. There was a young lady that had just died. She was just
minutes dead when the Lord came and raised her. And there was
a widow's son. He was just short hours, just
short hours. And then there was Lazarus who's
four days. But when we compare them, they
were all dead. they were all dead. We don't
compare dead. We don't say dead, deader, and
deadest. We say dead. That's enough. In John chapter 11, we read about
Lazarus being in a tomb, and the Lord Jesus said, take this
stone away, and his sister just, oh, she got involved in that
and says, by now he stinketh. Oh, by now, this heat and the
time that he's been in the tomb, I would advise against that.
Well, it tells us here, In John chapter 11, I want to read just
a couple of verses there about the One who has healing in His
wings, the One who takes care of all of our spiritual diseases,
the One who forgives all our iniquities, this One, the Lord
Jesus. has demonstrated throughout the
New Testament scriptures in particular, but also throughout the Old Testament
scriptures, has demonstrated that he is in charge. And all
of these are pictures and types and shadows of what he does spiritually
when he gives us the new birth. Jesus said in John chapter 11
and verse 39, take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of
him that was dead, said unto him, Lord, By this time he stinketh,
for he hath been dead four days. Jesus saith unto her, said I
not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the
glory of God? Then they took away the stone from the place
where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his voice,
said Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard my voice. And
I knew that thou hearest me always, but because of the people which
stand by, I said it, that they may believe that thou art, that
thou hast sent me. And when Jesus had, when he thus
had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. Now he was very specific in who
he called, very specific. There were other Lazaruses who
probably were dead by now, but this is, the Lord was specific
about this Lazarus. And notice verse 44, and he that
was dead. It doesn't say Lazarus came forth,
but he that was dead. This is truly the Savior with
healing in his wings. healing in His nature, healing
in His purpose, to save a people from their sins and all their
sinful diseases, the disease that sin has caused in all of
us, to be so blind we can't see Him, to be so deaf we can't hear
Him, to be so dumb we can't speak of Him in a good manner, to have
our feelings seared, everything seared about him. The fool says
in their heart, no God, no God. Well, this is the one that comes
and through the new birth raises us. Read with me in the book
of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter two. Ephesians
chapter two, there in verse one it says this, and you hath he
quickened. Now those words are into italics,
but we go down and it says the same thing, and you have he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins. And we go down to verse
five, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together. Now, it'd be great If those charlatans,
those preachers that we have around today, if they learn the
lesson, they can't raise the dead. They can't raise the dead. That takes God. God must raise
the dead. He did it in Lazarus' case. He
did that in the young lady's case, in the young man's case.
And in everybody that has ever been born again, He's the one
that raised the dead. And when we were dead in sins,
hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace ye are saved. Quickened us together with Christ
Sometimes God purposes to relieve us from some physical illness
and sometimes he does not purpose to heal us Physically, but all
of his lost sheep shall be quickened raised from the spiritual dead
good health or bad health physically Christ came as a physician to
heal the diseases of men. He healed the bodily diseases
of many during His ministry. He heals the spiritual diseases
of all His people for eternity. So he truly has healing in his
wings. He is the great physician, the
great physician, and he heals those that are sick. Well, we
thank you for listening again to this series and may we just
thank God for his great purpose of healing us, of delivering
us, of saving us out of the plight we're in. So many diseases, natural
diseases and spiritual diseases. But he takes care of the spiritual
ones. And eventually, he'll take care of the physical ones. And
per adventure, from time to time, he might take care of, if it
is pleasing to him and in his purpose, he might take care of
a physical disease that we have. But more often than not, he leaves
us with it. What? Why? Paul shared this,
he always revealed him, he says, my grace is sufficient for thee.
My grace is sufficient for thee. Thank you, have a good evening
and God bless you.