He Sent His Word and Healed Them

I wonder if I ask the question
tonight, when you came to the house of
God, did you come expecting a blessing? Did you come expecting God to
speak to your heart? To give you a revelation of himself,
of yourself, to deal with you spiritually? I think maybe this
might be one of the reasons why we come empty and go away empty.
We don't expect anything. It would be insulting for me
to come to the table at my home on Sunday to eat our Sunday dinner,
which Darcy works hard to prepare, not expecting anything. And if
I came with that attitude, wouldn't many Sundays pass, I probably
wouldn't get anything. When we approach the Word of
God, when we come to hear a minister, It's not the fault of God, nor
the Word, nor the minister, many times, that we don't get a blessing. We didn't come looking for a
blessing. Perhaps we brought our cares
with us. Perhaps we brought our troubles with us. Perhaps we
brought our prejudices with us. Perhaps we brought our traditions
with us. Perhaps we brought our opinions
with us. We didn't come with the vessel
holding it out to God, empty, and saying, Lord, now feel it.
I'm waiting. I'm waiting. Try me, he said,
and prove me. Expect great things from God,
and he'll give them to you. When you pray, believe, and you
shall receive. But we're so dead. We're so dead. We're so indifferent. We're so
unconcerned, and God passes us by, and we complain and murmur
and grumble. I just believe tonight, not being
boastful in any manner, God forbid, But if God gives you ears to
hear this message, I believe that you'll hear the very message
of redemption. I believe you'll hear the very
message that is able to speak peace to a troubled soul. I believe
you'll hear the word of the living God. It says here in Psalm 107,
verse 20, he sent his word and he healed them. And he healed
them. He sent his word and he healed
them. Now the healing of natural sickness, the healing of this
body, is by the power and will of God. If you ask me tonight,
Brother Pastor, do you believe in divine healing? I would reply,
I certainly do, very strongly. If any man is healed, God heals
him. If any man is healed in any way
of any physical discomfort or illness, it's God who heals If
any man dies, he dies by the will of God. Now that's so. God may use means and he may
not use means, but God heals. Life and death is in the hands
of the Lord. The Word of God says in 1 Samuel,
the Lord kills and the Lord makes alive. But our text tonight is
not talking about physical healing. That's not what we're talking
about at all. Psalm 103 is. He says, Bless the Lord, O my
soul, and all that's within me, bless his holy name, who forgiveth
all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases. I think we're
talking there not only about spiritual diseases, but physical
diseases. He heals. But this is not talking
about physical healing. It's talking about diseases of
the mind and the soul. Now, there are people here tonight
who have the worst illness. You don't have heart trouble.
You don't have cancer. You don't have high blood pressure.
You don't have any of the dread diseases. You think that you're
physically strong and well. There are people here tonight
who have the worst kind of disease. You have a sickness of the mind.
You have a sickness of the soul. And some of you here tonight
have experienced the greatest healing of all. I turn on my
television occasionally and I see people just go into frenzy because
some fella walked in with a crutch and walked out without the crutch. But the greatest healing of all
is the healing of the heart. The greatest healing of all is
the healing of the mind, the soul. It's setting the thinking
of a man toward God in right order. That's healing. It's setting
the soul in right order with God. It's bringing us a person
into a living union with God. That's the greatest healing there
is. That's what he's talking about here. Let me give you a
brief sketch of the patient here. You see the text in verse 20
says, "...send his word and heal them." Well, go back to verse
17. I'll give you a sketch of the
patient. In verse 17, the writer of the Psalms calls us fools. Fools. Now listen to this. It's
insulting to call a man a fool. You wouldn't like it if I called
you a fool tonight. But I question whether any man
has been saved or any woman has been brought to knowledge of
God who has not called himself a fool. Huh? I question whether
any person has been saved who has not pronounced himself a
fool. I've been a fool. I've played
the fool. I've acted like a fool. We've
heard the statement, a born fool. That's the way we were born.
We were born fools. We were born with the disease
of the mind and of the heart and of the nature. Our nature
is foolish. We call bitter sweet and we call sweet bitter. We
reach for things that we don't need and we reject things that
we do need. Whom shall I release unto you?
Jesus Christ or Barabbas? Give us Barabbas. Man's a fool. He's born fool. He's acted like
a fool. Listen to it. It says fools,
verse 17, because of their transgression. What is transgression? Well,
transgression means trespassing. That's what transgression means.
It means trespassing. And he who trespasses on God's
field is a fool. God who is strong and mighty
and just to smite and to destroy, and a man deliberately and willfully
trespasses on God's field, he's a fool. Fools because of their trespassing,
because of their transgression. We walked under our feet the
holy law of God, the holy day of God, the holy son of God,
and everything holy about God. We're foolish. Fools because
of their transgression, fools because of their iniquities.
What is iniquity? It's without equity. It's without
righteousness. It's without truth. And surely
he who tries to cheat God is a fool. We're born fools. We act like
fools. We've got the attitude of a fool.
Now I know it's not to call a man a fool. is insulting. But now I'm reading what the
word of God says. Fools because of their trespassing,
fools because of their iniquity, and fools because, look at verse
18, their soul abhoreth all manner of meat. Here's a man starving
to death. He's dying. He's dying of malnutrition. You try to feed him, you get
the best kind of food, you get milk and bread and honey, and
you try to feed him these things, and he pushes them away, he refuses
to eat. He's a madman, he's a fool! And
here we are perishing because of our sins, and perishing because
of our rebellion against God, and perishing because of our
pride. haughtiness and lofty looks,
and because of our rebellion against God, and a minister stands
up and opens the Word of God and says, will you listen to
God speak? I don't want to hear that. I don't want to be bothered
with that. I don't want to hear the milk
nor the meat of God's Word. I hate it. They reject the Word of God.
They reject the food that God's provided for the soul. They're
fools. Fools, fools because of their
transgressions, fools because of their iniquities, fools because
they abhor all manner of meat, and they draw near unto the gate
of death. How near is near? I ask you tonight personally, how
near are you to the gate of death? How near am I to the gate of
death? One thing's certain, I'm drawing near. Surely, one thing is certain,
it's appointed unto men once to die. And a man is a fool who
makes sport on the brink of eternity. You say, Preacher, you don't
know what's ahead. You don't either. And I've made some preparation. I like that story about the old
king who had a jester. A jester is a is a fella that
entertains folks, you know, you've seen the pictures and all the
cartoons of the jester with the bells on his feet and the clown's
suit and the pointed hat and painted face and he used to cabort
around in king's palaces and castles and entertain the king
and entertain guests and tell jokes and make foolish talk and
this king had a jester who was especially good, he was one of
the best And he told him one day, he said to the jester, he
said, Sir Fool, I have a present for you. You're the world's biggest
fool. And I'm going to present you with a gold-headed walking
stick. It had a beautiful walking stick
with a gold head, a beautiful thing. And he presented it to
him and said, to the world's greatest fool, and he said, on
one condition, I give you this on one condition, that if you
ever find a bigger fool than you are, you give, the walking
came to him. And he thanked him, made a cute
remark, and bowed and went out. And years passed, and the old
jester and the king were together for years and years and years.
Finally one day someone came to the jester and he said, the
king wants to see you. So he went up to the king's bedroom. The king was very seriously ill.
He was an old man now, and he was dying And the jester came
in with his walking cane that had been given to him by the
king, and he sat down by the king's bed, and the king was
very subdued and very serious, and he said, Sir Fool, we've
been together many years, and he said, I want to thank you
for the way you've entertained me, and you've entertained our
guest, and you've been a faithful, loyal subject, and I want to
tell you goodbye. And the fool said, my lord is
leaving. Well, he said, yes, he said,
I'm going on a very, very long journey. And the fool said, well,
when is my Lord coming back? And the king said, well, I'm
not coming back. My Lord's going on a long journey
from which he will never return, never return. King said, no,
I'll never return. Well, he said, my Lord, he said,
what preparation have you made for this journey? And there was
a long silence and a tear came in the eye of the old king and
he looked at the jester and he said, none whatsoever. And the jester said, my lord
is going on a journey and he's never coming back and he's made
no preparation. He said, no I haven't. He reached
down, picked up the old walking stick, and handed it to the king,
handed it to the king, and he said, My lord, if you'll pardon
me, the walking cane is yours. You're a bigger fool than I am. Fools, because of their trespasses. Fools, because of their iniquities. Fools, because they abhor and
reject all manner of meat. fools because they draw nigh
unto death, the gates of death. But here's a ray of hope. It
says in verse 19, here's a ray of hope. Then they cry unto the
Lord in their trouble. There's a ray of hope, there's
a mark of hope about this sick man, about this fool, because
he's begun to pray, he's begun to call on God. I was reading
a few moments ago, over in the book of Acts, chapter 9, verse
11. Turn over there just a moment.
You know, Saul of Tarsus was a highly educated man, educated
in religion, educated in government, educated in politics, educated
in history, educated in everything but grace. He knew theology,
but he didn't know God. He knew philosophy, but he didn't
know God. In fact, one high-ranking government official said, you've
studied so much, you've lost your mind. That's what he told
Paul after he came to tell him about Christ. But this man Saul
of Tarsus had no knowledge of Christ at all, and one day on
the road to Damascus, breathing out threatenings and breathing
out cursing against Christ in his church, and breathing out
swearings and cursings against the way of salvation through
Christ, God stopped him. God stopped him in his foolish
journey. God stopped him. Fools because
of their trespasses. Fools because of their iniquity.
Fools because they hate the truth and reject the truth. Drawing
nigh unto the gate of death. And God stopped him. And then
God said to this man Ananias. He said, go down and preach the
gospel to Paul, Saul of Tarsus. And Ananias, look at verse 11. And the Lord said unto him, Arise,
and go into the street which is called straight, and inquire
in the house of Judas, for one called Saul of Tarsus. For behold,
he prayeth." Oh, my! He prayeth. Behold, he prayeth. He's calling on God. There's
a ray of hope when a man lifts his head, when a man opens his
ears. When a man realizes his condition,
when a man knows the inability of the flesh and the insufficiency
of humanism and religion, and he just is a ray of hope when
he just begins to tune his ear toward God, is a ray of hope. No use to call on Mary, she can't
help you. No use to call on the saints,
St. Christopher, St. Jude, St. Patrick
and the rest. No use to call on the No use
to call on the church, but there's hope for a man who calls on God. There's hope. What an awful condition
we have here, what a bad case, incurable by human power, a fool. But there's a remedy. And the
hope begins when a man turns his cry toward God. Then they cry unto the Lord.
You go back a few verses, let's look back here a few verses In
verse 4, he's talking about the redeemed of the Lord. He says
in verse 4, they wandered in the wilderness in a lonely way.
They found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their souls
fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble. Before a man will ever be lifted,
he has to be brought down. The difficulty is not lifting
the sinner, the difficulty is bringing him down. We entertain
high thoughts of ourselves. We entertain high thoughts of
our ability, of our worth, of our value. And there's no problem
to lift a man. The problem is to bring him down.
The problem is to shut his mouth. What the law says, it says to
them that are under the law that every mouth may be stopped. and
the whole world become guilty. There's the problem. God has
to bring us down. He has to strip us. A man's not
going to be clothed until God strips him. Takes off his own
righteous rags and fig leaf aprons of human merit and lays him bare
before God's all-seeing eyes. God's got to bring us down. We're
so proud. We hate authority. We hate We
hate absolutes, we hate truths, we will not have this man reign
over us, they said. He can heal our sick, he can
raise our dead, he can feed our children, he can give us a place
in heaven, but he will not reign over us. That's what I was talking
about this morning. Proud sinners have got to be
broken. No other way. There was no healing power in
the waters of Jordan. But old Naaman had to be stripped,
he had to be humbled, he had to go in that muddy river. No healing power in the waters
of Jordan, but the Pharisees had to submit to the baptism
of John. They wouldn't do it. God will
meet every sinner at his point of rebellion, and that's where
you'll break him. He has to break him. God has
to have all the glory, not some of the glory, not part of the
glory, not most of the glory, but all of the glory. is this
one area in which I can still glory, in which I can still take
pride, then I'm not giving God all the glory. He has to meet
me where I rebel, my point of rebellion. And that's the most
difficult place, and everyone doesn't have the same point of
rebellion. And then on down here in verse
In verse 10, they sit in darkness in the shadow of death. This
is that old prison, the pit, you know, with only one hole
at the top. And down there sitting in darkness in the shadow of
death, bound in affliction and iron, they rebelled against the
words of God and they contemned or rejected the counsel of God. This is our trouble, rejecting
God's counsel. And he brought them low. He brought
down their hearts with labor. They fell down. They didn't find
anybody to help. And that day will come. It'll
come here when it leads to salvation or it'll come at the judgment
when we'll cry for the rocks and mountains to fall on us and
hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne. But
God brought down their hearts. They fell down. There was no
one to help. Then, then, they cried to the Lord in their trouble. God gets a man in trouble. And
this is where we are here. He said, The fools, I've acted
the fool, I've played the fool, I was born a fool. But there's
hope when the fool realizes he is a fool. When the man sick
in heart and sick in mind and sick in soul and sick spiritually
begins to cry, Oh God, have mercy on me, a sinner. When the man
begins to cry, Oh God, thou son of David, have mercy on me."
When a man begins to cry, Lord God, you're not going to stay
dead, you're coming into a kingdom, remember me when you come into
your kingdom. And then it says, when they cried
to the Lord in their trouble, he sent his word and healed them. Now there are three things here,
three very important things that our text is teaching. God sent
his word And this is important enough for you to remember it,
if you will. Like Brother Richardson said, I don't say too many profound
things that are worthy of remembering, but this is worthy of remembering.
He sent his word, the incarnate word, and healed them. That's
Christ. He sent his word, the revealed
word, the Bible, and healed them. He sent his word, the word of
power, by the Holy Ghost and heal them. And I say unto you,
there is no spiritual healing without this threefold visitation
of God through his word. Now you remember this. The whole
thing starts back here though. Fools, fools, because of their
transgressions, their trespasses, they ventured unto the fields
of God where they are forbidden They're without equity, they're
without righteousness, they're without truth. Fools, because
they've rejected the counsel of God and rejected the nourishment
of the milk and meat of God's Word, and they're slowly drawing
to the gates of death. But before they die, they cry
unto the Lord in their trouble. And a man won't cry until he's
in trouble. Blind Bartimaeus was in trouble. The Republican
was in trouble. The Canaanite woman was in trouble.
The woman at the well was in trouble. The harlot was in trouble. The thief on the cross was in
trouble. Everybody who cried unto the Lord cried in their
trouble, spiritual trouble, spiritual trouble. And everybody who cried
unto the Lord in their trouble, everybody was delivered. And
the way he delivered them was this way, he sent his word and
healed them. This miraculous healing. Healing
of the soul, that's what I want. My body, if I have a problem
in my flesh, and God is pleased tonight to heal it, that's good. It'll just give me a few more
days, a few more years, but it's got to come. I've got to die. There's no permanent healing
of the body. We just get all up in the air and all excited.
If somebody's healed physically, well, praise the Lord! Praise
the Lord! God healed him! Oh my goodness, he's going to
die next week anyway. Just a matter of postponing the
inevitable. It's just letting him live a
little longer in this mess down here, letting him live a little
longer in this corruption, in this cesspool of iniquity. That's
all. Just preserves his days for a
little longer. But whether I have a sickness
that's unto death or a sickness that's not unto death and God
heals me, it's just postponing that which is certain. But oh,
when God heals my mind, it's healed eternally. When God heals
my soul, when God heals my heart, when God moves the enmity and
the corruption of sin and the evil out and restores my soul,
He restores my soul. But it doesn't matter what happens
to this body anymore. It doesn't really matter at all.
It doesn't matter whether it's clothed in silk, satin, cotton,
or denim. If it's healed, you can dress
up a corpse in anything. You can put him in a $10,000
casket, but he's dead. And you can put this human soul
and heart and nature in the finest surroundings known to man, in
the strongest, healthiest, most beautiful body, but it's still
dead. God says you appear beautiful
to men, but on the inside you're full of extortion and excess,
full of dead men's bones. I'd rather be looked good on
the inside than on the outside. Had you honestly, honestly, had
we really? rather be healed within or without. If God gave you your choice tonight
of being healed within or without, which would you want? Well, if
we're not fools, we want to be healed within. All right, he
sent his word. First of all, he sent the incarnate
word. Turn to John 1. John 1, he sent
the incarnate word. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
When God heals a sinner, He does it by His Word. Who is His Word? Well, it says here in John chapter
1, verse 1, "...in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God, and all things were made by Him, for without Him
was not anything made that was made, and in Him was life." In
Him was life. That's what I want, life. Eternal
life. I'm born dead in sins. I want
life. I want the life of God. I want
spiritual life and spiritual understanding and spiritual emotions
and spiritual mentality, don't you? I want life, and it's in
Christ. Look at verse 14. And the Word
was made flesh and dwelt among us, right here on this earth,
in the flesh, the incarnate Word. That's what incarnation is, the
word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. There's his word, he sent his
word and healed them. Turn to 1 Corinthians 1.30, 1
Corinthians 1.30, listen to this. He says in 1 Corinthians 1.30, but
of him Are you in Christ Jesus, of God? It's of God's will, it's of God's
purpose, it's of God's power, it's of God's direction. You
are in Christ, who of God, by God's will and purpose and power,
is made unto us wisdom. Now listen to these four things
right here. I may still be in my own sight and in the sight
of others, the opinion of this world a fool. And in many cases
we make foolish statements, we make foolish decisions, we think
foolish thoughts, we say foolish things, don't we? We're not wise,
we're not perfect, we've not arrived, we're not apprehended,
we're fools still. But in Christ I'm wise. And that's
not boasting at all, because Christ is my wisdom. What does
this wisdom mean? Well, first of all, in Christ
we understand how God can be just and justify fools. I understand that. Do you understand
that? Do you understand how God can be just and justify the ungodly? Do you understand how God can
be righteous and merciful, truthful and love? You understand that,
how that Christ came down and took our place and bore our sins
and satisfied God's righteousness and justice? Most people don't
understand that. That's wisdom. That's wisdom. And in Christ, we have wisdom
committed to us. We have it imparted to us. We
have it, Christ our counselor, God's our pastor. We choose the
good. We choose that of heavenly spiritual
value. Now, you don't do that on your
own. If I left to yourself, you'd be just like anybody else. Why
are you here tonight? You had several choices. You
could have stayed home. You could have gone out somewhere.
You could have come here. You made a choice. But that choice
was made in spiritual wisdom because of your relationship
with Christ. That's right. Christ is our wisdom. He is our
wisdom representatively. He is our counselor. He guides
our path. He pleads for us before God. And then notice the next word.
He said, Of him are you in Christ Jesus who has made unto us wisdom
and righteousness. Now we may be the chief of sinners,
yet Christ is our righteousness. Nobody here tonight will claim
to be righteous, would you? You wouldn't let anybody get
away with calling you a holy man, would you? Wouldn't it kind
of offend you a little bit if somebody called you a good person? You know better, and I do too.
But yet in Christ I am good. In Christ I am holy. He is my
righteousness. He is my righteousness objectively. He is my righteousness subjectively. He is my righteousness imputatively. Christ is my righteousness. In
God I am holy because I'm in Christ. Not only that, but look
at the next word. He is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
and sanctification. Now we may be engaged, and anybody
here that's truthful, you're truthful or you're an honest
person. Every honest person here is engaged in a constant battle
with thoughts and motions of sin. If anybody said to you tonight,
you are a saint, I don't know, there's something about that
that kind of causes you to kind of, you know, reject such a statement,
but you are in Christ. Somebody says you are sanctified,
you are sanctified holy. You mean with my thoughts, with
my attitude, with my inner conflict, with my depression, with my digression,
with my depravity? Yes, sir. By one offering, he
has perfected forever them that are sanctified. By his blood
we are unblameable and unreprovable in God's sight, and we are holy
and without sin. We are sanctified in Christ Jesus. He's the cause, we're the effect.
He's the fountain, we're the stream. In him our sanctification
is perfected, in us it's imperfect at the present. But we're sanctified. We're sanctified. And then fourth,
look at the fourth word, and redemption. And we may be fools
in our opinion, and I imagine for the weeks out you're going
to say, that was a foolish thing to do. That was a foolish thing
to say. I wish I had some wisdom. Well,
in Christ you have perfect wisdom. That's right, perfect wisdom.
Because you know the things that kings have not understood and
princes have not understood, else they would not have crucified
the Lord of Glory. You know mysteries that angels
desire to look into, and that's the mystery of God's revealed
redemption in Christ. You're wise, and you may be engaged
in a constant battle with the motions of sin and the thoughts
of sin, but in Christ you're sanctified, and you may be guilty
before the law, and condemned by the justice of God in yourself,
rightfully so, but in Christ you're redeemed. Turn to Romans
chapter 8 verse 1 and listen to this. Romans 8 verse 1. There
is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ. No condemnation. In Christ I'm
redeemed. You see that? Fools by birth, fools in attitude,
fools in action. fools in thought and imagination,
abhorring all manner of me, turning from that which would heal, at
the very gate of death, and then he cried unto the Lord, and God
sent his Word. What Word? His incarnate Word,
his beloved Son. And his Son came down here and
brought me wisdom God's wisdom, which I can't understand except
in Christ. Philip said, Show us the Father. He said, He that
has seen me has seen the Father. I have seen the Father. Believest thou not that the Father
is in me, and the works that I do are not my works, but the
works of him that sent me? Wisdom, righteousness. I have
a perfect holiness, a perfect righteousness. And though I have
a conflict and battle with the motions of sin, I'm sanctified. And though by all rights the
law of God could say, bind him hand and foot and cast him into
hell, by all natural rights it can't because Christ has already
been bound and already been punished for my sins. He sent his word
and healed him. Now secondly, quickly, he sent
his revealed word. What is that? That's this book.
Now let me give you an illustration. It is not the Bible that heals. It is Christ. The Bible, and
I hope you'll understand this illustration. I hope you won't
mistake it. The Bible is like the label on
a medicine bottle. I go to the doctor and he diagnoses
my problem, my illness. And he writes a prescription.
I take it to the druggist, and he fills it, and he fills this
bottle. And he puts a label on here. This bottle, depending
on that label, is able to heal me. That label tells me what
it is. That label tells me when it's
to be taken. And that label, Cecil, tells
me how much to take, in what manner to take it. And without
that label, I could kill myself just like that. I could destroy
myself. This is what I'm troubled about. Modern preaching is not reading
the label. This bothers me. Now, this Bible
is the label. The power of Christ is potent.
Christ can save you. He not only saves, but he damns
also. That God the Father judges no
man but has committed all judgment to the Son. And Christ can save. Christ is potent, powerful, healing
medicine. But now wrongly taken, and misunderstood,
and misused, and blindly, blindly, those people when he came into
Jerusalem, they threw palm leaves in front of him. Hail Hosanna
to him that cometh in the name of the Lord. Didn't have the
faintest idea who he was. Not the faintest idea. He said,
you need to know me nor my father. They were religious. They were
theologians, they were orthodox, they were worshipers of God,
they were taking the medicine. But this Bible, now, and Christ
said to them, He said in John chapter, you search the scriptures,
in them you think you have life, there they which testify of me.
This Bible tells me who Jesus Christ is, who He is. He is the altar. He is the sacrifice. He is the tabernacle. He is the
priest. He is the intercessor. He is the lamb. He is the blood
offering. He is the atonement. He is the
Son of God. He is God and man. He is the
prophet, priest, and king. This Bible tells me who He is.
It tells me who He is, what this is that I'm about to take. And
the Bible tells me what He did. And the Bible tells me why He
did it. that God might be just and justify.
The Bible tells me where he is. You can't trust an unrevealed
Savior. It said, Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, but how shall they
call on him in whom they've not believed, and how shall they
believe in him of whom they've not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? Here's an unlabeled bottle. The
preacher said, Jesus or he, you just trust Jesus. And so that
person trusts whatever Jesus that preacher talks about. Whether
it's the man upstairs, or the superstar, or the reformer, or
the healer, or the preacher, or the defeated Jew, or whoever
it is, he just trusts that, well, that Jesus, he's taken him a
bottle of poison. The wrong medicine. But when
I come to the Word of God, and I find out, Dr. Mann said somewhere
in this book salvation is to be found. And I'm going to bury
myself in this book until by God's grace I find it. It won't
be found anywhere else. It'll be found here. God sent
his word and healed him. Always, when there's a healing
of a sinner, the word of God is involved. Always. Without exception. The gospel
is the power of God on the salvation. So what I want you to do, and
what I advise you to do as your pastor, I advise you to make
much of this book. Make much of this Word. Find
out who Christ is. Find out who you are. Find out
what Christ did and why he did it and where he is now. And find
out about his mercy and his grace. And that's about all that makes
any difference anyway, any more. The third thing is this. He sent
his Word of Power by the Holy Spirit. Now, Jesus Christ does
say Wait a minute, now here's the medicine. Here's the label.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the incarnate Word of God, the
eternal, almighty, sovereign God who created all things, who
came to this earth and bled and died for sinners and can save
and redeem and make whole. I don't want it. I don't want it. Now, he can
save, but he can't save a man who refuses him. The medicine will not heal if
it's not taken, if it's not received. This label here tells the truth.
He is able to save to the uttermost them that come to God by him.
He is able to keep us from falling. He is able to do all that he
promised. He is able to raise our vile
bodies and make them like his own. I don't want it. Turn to John chapter 6. I don't
want it. I don't want it. In John chapter 5 verse 40, and
you will not come to me that you might have life. God sent
his word, the incarnate word, God sent his word of revelation.
Before man will take Christ, God has to send his word of power,
convicting power, convincing power, converting power, the
Holy Spirit. He will not come to me. Somebody
will. Look at verse 37 of John 6. Look
at John 6, verse 37. All that my Father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I'll
in no wise cast out. But verse 44, no man can come
to me except my Father which sent me. Draw him, and I'll raise
him up at the last day. Oh, here we are. Here we are. Here's what I'm preaching. When
the Holy Spirit is present, it is truly the Word of God. A man
reads the label with understanding. A man reads the label with desire.
A man reads the label with intention. When the Holy Spirit is present,
Christ is then the revealed Word. Turn to 2 Thessalonians 2.13. Let me read you a verse of scripture
here and I'll close. 2 Thessalonians 2.13. We are bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. We have to be persuaded
to come to Christ. Our nature loves darkness, not
light. Our nature loves sin, not holiness. Our nature loves self, not God. And the only man that will pick
up the medicine and read the label and take it is the man who wants
it. And that will and that want and
that desire is God-given, the word of power by the Holy Spirit.
Now, you may not know that it's the Holy Spirit that makes you
willing. You can't explain your interest
in Christ, your interest in salvation, your interest in the Word of
God. I can explain it, and you will
be able to someday, if God, who works upon you, both to will
and to do his good pleasure. And maybe there's somebody sitting
here tonight, to you, to them that are perishing, the preaching
of the cross is foolishness. It's foolishness, it's nonsense,
it's sheer nonsense, it's a stumbling block. Well, the only way I can
explain that is this way. God has passed you by, God has
left you alone. Because the preaching of the
gospel is to them who are being saved the power of God. It's
the power of God. And to them that are perishing,
it's foolishness. That's the difference. It's God the Holy
Spirit must do the work. He must open the heart. He must
give a desire, an interest, a hunger. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst, they shall be filled. I'm sick. I want that medicine.
And all I want to know, Lord, I can't heal myself. Nobody else
can. All I want to know, Lord, is how to take it. That's all
I want to know. And if some faithful minister
will come along and read the prescription and read the label
and tell me in the truth, they close with Christ. They close
with Christ. Our Father in Heaven, we're thankful
for the interest that we have in Christ Jesus our Lord. We're
thankful you've not passed us by, not left us alone. You've
not left us in our darkness and our rebellion, but you've opened
our eyes to our inability and our disease and our certain condemnation,
our foolishness. You let us decry unto you in
our trouble, and by your word which you sent you healed us.

He Sent His Word and Healed Them

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He Sent His Word and Healed Them

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