shall we turn our Bibles over to Matthew chapter eight Matthew chapter eight taking up this subject quite thoroughly because a few have asked to have the whole set of faiths and so we're going to try and take them up as thoroughly as we can as far as I know be the last message on the subject of healing divine healing and pertains to the system's body. In other words, some of the so-called healers even believe that the body, the healing of the body, is in the atonement. Now, I think this is one of the foundation arguments they have. It's a very subtle one. At the same time, if you destroy the foundation, you destroy the whole theory of bodily healing. That is, they claim that healing of the body is in the atonement, just like healing of the soul. Well, nothing could be further from the truth. There's not one verse in the Holy Testament that indicates that healing of the body is associated with the gospel. I don't know of one. And yet there are those today who will try and say that the body is in the atonement and then all you have to do is have enough faith and your soul, your body will be healed just like your soul gets healed when you accept Christ as your Savior. To claim that healing of the body is as much to be received by faith as the salvation of the soul is actually to charge God with unfaithfulness. That's a very solemn thing. In other words, is it not true that when a believer, a person accepts the Lord Jesus Christ as his or her Savior, that very minute, all his or her sins are put away? Every one. That person is born again. Yes, that's true. Fairly true. The Bible declares. Well, a feeling of the body is also in the atonement brought by Christ upon the cross. Then wouldn't the body be healed at the shame moment? Would the body not be healed the moment the person, except Jesus Christ as his savior, and also as the healer of his body? It would be instantaneous. But that's not the case. The healing of the body is certainly not found in the atonement. At least I haven't been able to find it, and I know a lot of better students, but I haven't found it. Since it does not, this would imply that God is not true to his word. He forgives sin at the very moment a person accepts his son. But he doesn't heal the body. He just doesn't. He differentiates between the two. I want you to notice this text in Matthew eight. And this is their favorite text, Matthew eight and verse six, too. When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils, and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick. Now notice that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses. This is his life, not the cross. In his life, the Lord Jesus Christ did bear people's sicknesses and infirmities. Many an unsafe person has his body healed, no doubt about that. He healed all kinds of people. And so Isaiah speaks of him healing people's bodies, and it's in his life who was fulfilled that very day, even before he went to the cross. And so this is the argument a lot of these people use who try to say that bodily healing is in the atonement, and it certainly is not. And some of their favorite texts is the one over in First Peter, two and twenty-four. And the one that's a reference to Isaiah fifty-three and five. It tells you over there in that text, Peter, first Peter, two, twenty-four, who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness by whose stripes he were healed. Now here you find them bearing our sins and where did he bear them, in his body on the tree, over in Matthew eight, He bore their iniquity, they bore their sicknesses in his life. In other words, he was sympathetic with them in his life. Many a time, did he not relieve the hungry? He did lots of things during his life, not involving the sins of the soul, but for the body. And this is their argument they use over here in Matthew chapter eight. And it's a very subtle argument, but it's very plain that the Lord Jesus, he did sympathize with them in their physical infirmities in his life, but when it came to the cross, he bore our sins in his own body on the tree. And this is where we get saved. And by his stripes, the stripes that fell upon the Lord Jesus' stripes of the cross, I am healed spiritually. He's not talking about physical healing here, not a moment. He's talking about spiritual healing. For instance, listen to these verses that David speaks of in Psalm forty-one four. I said, Lord, be merciful unto me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee. Psalm one forty-seven three, he healeth the broken in heart, bindeth up their wounds. So you see the difference. In the past sense, he bore our sins in his own body on the tree. Where did he bear my sins? When he was on the cross. That's when he suffered for my sins. And that's the past sense. That's an act that he performed in our very heart when we took him as our tree. Something took place. Our souls were healed. But our bodies were. Our bodies were still sinful. We still have our aches and pains and tell anybody that the healing of the bodies in the atonement is an absolute contradiction. I've never known anybody whose body's got healed the same moment his soul got healed. I know they get quite a lift. Psychologically, life psychological. When they get saved, it seems to give them a lift. They've got a new life in Christ. But healing of the body... is not in the atonement. I think that's very place. And so that text, he was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement was a view to our having peace. He's talking about peace for the soul. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his strength we are healed. Now Peter makes his claim, he's talking about the salvation of the soul. Remember the Ethiopian eunuch? in chapter eight of Acts, he was reading this very portion when Philip joined himself to the church. And he asked them if he understood what he was reading. He said, how can I accept some man should so me or explain to me or help me? And Philip got up into the church and he began at the very same scripture, and I there, and preached unto him Jesus. And what happened to that man? They came to water, for the water. Philip said, now, do you want to be baptized when he brought it up? He said, here's water, what does him do you need to be baptized? Philip said, if thou believe, with all thine heart thou mayest, he said, I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the chariot, the posit, and he got down and Philip baptized. And he's another way of doing it. Nothing is said about the man's body, the unique body. His soul was saved. And Philip used the very passage in Isaiah that they, he was used to refer to the body. It refers to the soul, not the body. And here are some other things I believe it does well to remember. The body, the Bible now, the people. that the Christian will be in a sickly condition, in a groaning state, until the redemption of the body. Why they go about emphasizing the healing of the body? Because it's a big long time. They'll come from all over the country, in Hearst and everything else. You get their body healed, but they won't walk the cross and speak to hear the gospel, but their souls are there. It's a big long time. And yet the Bible makes a play that the Christian is in a sickly condition, as far as the body can go, in a groaning creation. Here's some text for it. Over in Romans chapter eight, verse twenty, for the creation was made subject of vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him that subjected the same in hope. because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, and not only they, but ourselves, we Christians, we also, why we groan within ourselves. And we have the first fruits of the Spirit. Even we ourselves go within ourselves waiting for the adoption, that is, to wit the redemption of the body. I'm not waiting for the healer to come along. I'm waiting for the healer, the Lord Jesus Christ, not a man. And only then will we have the redemption, all pain gone from our body. In this case, you have the redemption of the body. instantaneous like the salvation of the soul is now. When I accept Christ at that very moment, my faith is saving faith, my soul is saved. But I still have my body. But when the Lord comes, it too will be instantaneously changed into his likeness. That will be the end of our sinful, hailing body and not the last. The other text of Scripture I want you to notice over in second Corinthians five. For we know, this morning we're speaking about things we know. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, now you can get around some other way, but this earthly house of our tabernacle, our body is dissolved. It's not getting better. We have a building of God and house not made with hands eternal in heaven. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened, not for that will be the unclothed, but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Another text in Philippians what our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, or the body of our humiliation, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able, even to subdue, all things unto himself. And the last one in First Corinthians, fifteen, fifty-three, for this corruptible is what we're talking about, our body. For this corruptible must put on in corruption, and this mortal, our bodies are mortal, must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on in corruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that his written death is swallowed up in this way. Here you have text in the Bible showing our bodies are corruptive, the bodies of our humiliation. He even used the word vile boss. And your body, I don't know, won't care how beautiful it is before you die, but a few days after you die, you don't want to see it. Like Shakespeare said, bury my bed out of my sight. And that was a loved one he did. Of course. And our bodies are in this sickly dying, decaying condition. And you can't stop. And yet we have these who come along and say that healing is in the atonement. I haven't seen anybody yet get healed of a real disease. Just because they accept Christ as their savior and believe that the healing of the body is also in the atonement. Being saved by grace and having your sins put away as one thing that pertains to the soul. But when Christ comes, then we'll get our new bodies and not to lend. because we're living in a golden creation and we're also in a state of corruption constant corruption day after day day after day we're declining we're decayed a lot of other scriptures too and relative to this the divine healing very significant because of the sensationalism of healing and miracles To me, that's a mark of the last day. It certainly should be a bright mark of the Christian, the coming of the Lord. I'll soon have my new body. As we see all this going on around in this supposed to be supernatural healing and carrying on men performing miracles, this is an indication of the last days when the great deceiver will come, the false prophet, the running mate of the coming week. But I start to think of what kind of body we have then as it fills our heart to know that we're going to have a body like unto his own glorious body. And day after day, when you visit Sickful, how you anticipate that day, a body without sin, without groaning, just a body like this. And we're not going to get our new body still there. do all we can to try and hang on to the one we've got, but nevertheless, it's a day and all the time. Let me think of this healing business. In the Bible, all these cases were immediate, not gradual. I've heard people talk about they got healed, and when they're supposed to get healed, the healer told them to watch their diet, and you may have to use a crotch or a wheelchair. In other words, this is just going to be a gradual process. Not so in the Bible. Whenever the Lord Jesus or the Apostle or the Disciples healed the person they were healed immediately, it was done to demonstrate the fact that the gospel was of God, and they were the servants of God. This is a little amusing, and yet it's very sad because I was in on this. Fred Luther was one of the most godly men I ever knew. I came south of him. He claimed his wife Gladys was more godly than he was. I questioned that. Fred took six when he was about sixty-five. I went up to Canada and I saw, in fact, I flew up from here to this funeral a little while after. When I took one look at Fred, I could have turned this side and went. Yet they clung, they clung, they clung. They got a healer to come. The healer came and the anointed, fed with oil and had prayer. And about eight hours later, they died. Well, he had cancer, but he died really with a heart attack. And Gladys' wife said this. She said it to Peter Pell, Bill Pell. She says, wasn't it one before that the Lord should have healed Steadgate before he died? Well, now, which was it? He died of the heart attack, the doctor said he did. Then the Lord healed them with cancer eight hours before he died. Does that make sense? It does. But she was so convinced that the Lord had healed her husband that was for exactly his rest. Sadly say, Gladys has been in an institution just about ever since. Poor girl. People get so carried away with it. And yet the Bible is very plain on these matters. As to the soul, it's immediate. And so as to the body when the Lord comes, the redemption of the body will not be gradual. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump, then will be changed. We change in a moment in the faith in all the night. Now as to what I want to close with these meetings with is the Christian body. There's no promise in the New Testament that God will bless us with all physical blessings. I can't find that. When I came south to Fred, we were in Asheville. The very first meeting I went to in a tent meeting. Fred said, I want you to come over and see how they preach. down here in the mountains. We went there, that was a healing meeting. And this, the lady, the priestess wife, she spoke from Isaiah fifty-three five. If they strike, you're healed. And she labored away for half an hour about the healing of a mother. She looked right then, though she was a doctor, bad. And after she got through that, her husband got up and preached. And the girl, the girl about eight or nine ran across the aisle from us, two smaller sisters, looking at the other, laughing, the oldest one was chewing the gum, and he gave the altar call, and she went down laughing all the way. I said, but then I didn't see any conviction of sin in that girl, and I didn't feel any of the presence of God in the whole meeting. And yet here they were demonstrating a kind to... the power of God paints, goes, and heals off. Of course, they've long since passed off the sins. But I don't find in my Bible where God has promised us as Christians any physical blessings at all. But I do find this in Ephesians one three. Blessed be the God and power of our Lord Jesus Christ who have blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in heaven. We have spiritual blessings. And there are many. And in the measure we're taken up with these spiritual blessings, the happier we're going to be. And we've already mentioned in Romans eight and twenty-two and three about this groaning and prevailing pain until now, a groaning creation. When are we going to enter into the fact that as for these bodies, now I know they're the temple of the Holy Spirit. and that filled me, but I've got a frame with flesh and bones on it. Like Job says, I was sent me in, sent me in with skin and flesh, and also filled me with bones and sinews. He's speaking of himself, the ego, his personality, inside a packet of bones and sinews, flesh and bones. All this is just the outwardness. And you have a remarkable texture. Though the outward man perishes, the inward man renews day by day. And you can't stop that process with those. Though the outward man perishes, the bodies perishes. The undertakers are doing a great business. What's the flu shot for? The swine flu. To try and stop the process of dying in human bodies. but the human body we get out of one sickness or into another because the Bible says though the outward man perishes the inward man is renewed day by day this is the peak of the flight although we've got to give up these thoughts a lot depends too on how we take care of it but the inward man all the time the inward man is renewed You get up every morning, and spiritually you're happy. You're joyful. That's it. The outward man is petishing. The inward man is renewed day by day. And we won't worry so much about the outward man petishing if the inner man is renewed by day by day. We can get very melancholy if we're not in a good spiritual state of soul. If the soul is happy, in fact, you have a case here in Sir John, here's the Apostle John. He's writing to the elder, unto the well-beloved Gaius. He speaks elsewhere of Gaius, mine hope. Why didn't Gaius have a privilege to entertain the Apostle? And Paul speaks of Gaius, mine hope. But this is what he says. Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved, I wish, above all things, that thou mayest prosper, and be in health, even as thy soul prosper. Here the man had a healthy soul, but a sick body. And Paul craved for him had better have. Oh, he said, I wish your body were as healthy as your soul. Well, Paul, Dr. Paul, why didn't you heal him? You're the great apostle. Paul said, what are you talking about? I have to have a doctor traveling me all the time, Dr. Luke. In other words, Luke wasn't just going long for a conversation. I don't doubt what Dr. Luke had his little bag, whatever pills they used back in those days. I don't know, but I believe he had his little bag going long to try and keep the Apostle going so that he might lengthen his life with the gospel. All these are very plain. They're in your Bible. Now I must tell you something that's not in the Scriptures. It's right here. Paul had his affliction to find this over in Acts or Galatians, for ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first, and my temptation which was in my flesh. Ye despise not nor reject it, but receive me as an angel of God, even as Christ used. Yes, the Apostle Paul had his infirmity in the flesh, and he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in mine infirmity, that the power of Christ may rest upon thee. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmity, in reproaches, in necessity, in persecution, in distresses for Christ's sake. But when I'm weak, then am I strong? And here's a remarkable text to use. In greediness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fasting often, in cold and nakedness. This is the Apostle. going to all these physical difficulties. Sick boss. Contacting sick companions. And there's both even done right here. And here you have the assistant. And God is teaching us. There's a lesson for us to learn. Because this is one of God's greatest institutions for teaching his children. That word... in the hospital called a Christian war, where Christians are. And they're sick. And lost to the misery. Why does God permit this? He has a purpose, and he tells you this, and this is the last text I think I'll read you, over in Romans, or Hebrews rather, chapter twelve and verse five. and ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor think when thou art rebuked of him, for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, go dealeth with you as his son. For what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, for of all our partakers, that is his children, then are ye bastards and not sons. You are not proper children, after all. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Yes, and a hard look now and again, too. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and live? subjection, not my will, but I'll be done. That's the greatest expression of subjection. A man who did me, says, yet he was subject to his father's will and suffered like no one else suffered in the body of truth, a man of sorrow, acquainted with grief. The only man had a right to be healthy, became sick. Yes, he did. Our sins were laid upon him. Our sins were put upon him. The only man who had a right to live, he died, that we who had no right to live might live. He died for us when he suffered for us upon the cross. And in verse ten, for they verily for a few days chastened up after their own pleasures. Can you imagine, earthly father, gripping his child out of his own pleasures I don't know the father. He would take pleasure in living his child. Well, God got no measure of delight on what he did. He was on it. Please, Jehovah, the bosom, he had a purpose. It was a purpose he had in mind that he took any pleasure in laying our sins upon him, that the Lord Jesus might see of the travail of his soul. and be satisfied. When he sees all those sick bodies and sick souls in heaven, all like himself forever, that will be the great harvest of his death and his suffering on that cross. He knew who he is. Now no chastening for the present. Thank God it's only for the present. He for our prophet, I want you to notice that then, verse ten. For they verily for a few days chastened for our prophet. chastened us with after their own pleasure but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness there's the object God has in mind for Christians getting sick that we might be partakers of his holiness are we profiting from this lesson in the school David says before I was afflicted I went astray but now I accept thy word before I was afflicted I was a wandering sheep. Now he said, I've returned. I've learned my lesson. Now I'm in fellowship with the Lord. That sickness is well worth it. Now that's what the Bible says. No chastening for the present. Seemeth to be joy but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward, it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness. unto them which are exercised thereby. Here's the whole thing about Christian sickness, being exercised. Exorcised. I know you remember a number of years ago, Billy Graham, in one of his early days, he and his party were going over to England, I think, for their first big revival, which turned out to be a remarkable one. And he got sick on board a ship, and they had to call off the big campaign. Do you remember that? Billy Graham felt he was in the mind of God. Why should this happen? All his plans be upset. Billy Graham needed a rest. And when he got there, he had one of his most fruitful cantees. God has purpose. We don't understand. But this is a thing to keep in mind. The peaceable fruits of righteousness. The them that are exercised by. The exercise of us. In this passage in Hebrews, there are three things you can do about being chastened by the Lord or friction of your body. In other words, it tells you very plain, free reactions. You can despise it or take a don't-care attitude, or you can paint under it, or you can be exercised about it and profit from it. I think someone has lined it up this way. You have all these illustrated in a duck. In the chicken and in the bird. The duck out in the rainstorm. Shed this. He's not worried. So what? Some Christians are just like that. They're brushes aside. They're spiders. I'm not worried about that. The rainstorm means nothing to a duck. But let the chicken get out in the rainstorm. If ever you saw a woe-be-gone character, look at a chicken. It's under depression. He doesn't like the atmosphere. He looks at you with one eye and looks like, why'd all this come on me? But then you find the little bird and you hear it singing. You can't sit. It's going to where it is. But you hear the robin sing. And he's tucked up under some hide place out of the rain, hidden variations, singing during the storm. There's the three. Are you going to despise it? Are you going to paint on it? Is it going to be like the duck? Or is it going to be like the chicken? Moping around there? The world's coming to an end? Or are you going to be like the birds in the midst of the storm? Find a little perch somewhere up under your knees and sing your honor? That's being exercised about your circumstance. God using our body to speak to our soul. And I don't know how many Christians in my life have told me that their ticker was the best sermon they ever heard, God told them. He'd get pretty close to us when he gets to our body, because we love that body. And when he begins touching our body, he's touching a pretty sensitive spot. But that's the spot he has to touch sometimes, or leave it, a naked ear, naked little. I took this out some time ago. I'm going to read it exactly as it is. A godly old lady was asked, suppose the Lord stood here by your bed and told you that he would grant you whatever you requested. Whatever request you made, what would you say? My answer, dear Lord, I don't want to ask. you know better than i do what's good for me you decide for me isn't that it lord you know that whether i should get well or whether stay here i'll depend on your decision i know to do that these are things god is teaching us in this school we haven't time to go over the job where god uses the body and brings it down, I was reading this to somebody the other day, how God deals with the body. He brings man nigh onto the grave. He's emaciated. What? To bring back his soul from the pit. And at that moment God says, I have a messenger that will show on the man my life. God is bringing a healthy man down to the very grave. He's lost appetite. He's a nation, his bones stick out, he's in strong pain. He says these things work with God oftentimes with man to bring back his soul from the grave. And his life from perishing by the cross. That's when he grows thirty-three. Oh, God has something for that body. He wants it. And it's a very sensitive nerve. And he can teach us lessons through that body. He can put us on our backs and we have to look up there and no one else to look. He can teach us lots of lessons there. He can't teach us otherwise. Depends on our reaction as to whether we're going to profit. Are we going to stop, pout, complain? Or are we going to be exercised and thus reap those wonderful fruits of righteousness and to them that are exercised thereby? I believe in dealing with this subject of healing. God uses methods. He uses methods. Go to a good doctor. I believe God uses men. And many a time, they've helped me. And don't go to the extreme and say, well, I'm going to believe God. I'm just going to keep on believing. I'm going to keep on believing. Yeah, and you're keeping on dying, too. You better use methods. Paul said, Timothy, take a little wine for thy stomachs, please. Be sure you've got stomach troubles. Remember Hezekiah. Remember Hezekiah. He was sick unto death. God said, God, the great physician, said to Isaiah, go and tell Hezekiah to take a lump of figs and put upon the carbuncle and heal the other. Even God using a bunch of figs. Why couldn't God spoken the word God using means method? And so don't be afraid when they get sick. Go to a doctor. That's strange. Some Christian, they're all right. I'm ready to go to heaven. My, we want to go to heaven. I wish the Lord would come. They'd get a stomachache and go and take a pill. They don't want to go to heaven. Oh, no. But these are lessons I hope we'll prosper. I know the Lord can get pretty close to me sometimes when this old friend begins to crank a little bit and creep. He likes to have good health. It gets bad. Well, I go to a doctor, take medicine, be exercised about what you're to take. And I think the Lord will lead you to the right doctor and ask God to give the doctor the wisdom, the discernment that he needs. So it would form the operation of prescribed medication. Use these things. Even the Lord Jesus knew what it was. He got tired. Being weary with his journey, he shapped us on the well. He knows our frame. He knows we're but dust. He said to the disciples, Come ye yourselves apart. unrest the while, for many were coming and going, come ye yourselves apart and rest the while. And if you don't come apart, you really will come apart. Your body will. So be sure you take that rest and give attention to your body. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. God can do things through your body. But a marvel. He wants His Holy Spirit. that dwell in a healthy body. Don't abuse it. If you're not a Christian, your soul is lost and sick, and your body's dying too, you're in bad shape. Far better, if you have a sick body all your life and have a saved soul to go to heaven, because God will give you a new body on the resurrection morning than to have a healthy body, one bursting with energy and strength, muscles bulging out all over healthy bodies. and your soul's wound ahead. That's a sad thing. God wants us to save your soul. What shall it happen to man? He'll gain the whole world and lose his own soul. Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we commend to thy servant. We ask thy blessing upon thy word. We thank thee for it in the light that shows upon our pathway. Father, we thank thee for these two. Here we profit from them. Sometimes when we fail to hear thy voice through the word, thou dost use circumstances. Thou dost pick up the rod and smite our body. We have this warning in thy word for this cause. Many are weak and sickly among you and many sick. May we be concerned about whatever befalls us. we might lengthen our days and finish our course according to the will of God. He asked it in our Lord Jesus' first name.