Jehovah Ropecha, the Lord who heals, is revealed in Exodus 15:26 when God provides sweet water after the bitter experience at Marah. This passage highlights God's provision and His desire to heal His people, contrasting their murmuring with the song of redemption. The sermon explores the nature of divine healing, distinguishing between genuine biblical accounts and modern extremes, emphasizing that while God can and does heal, His will and timing are sovereign, and suffering does not always indicate a lack of faith.
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some of you together this morning in the book of Exodus chapter fifteen. Exodus chapter fifteen. And we'll read from verse one. Then sang Moses and the children of Israel, this song of the Lord, and spoke, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and the rider had be cast into the sea. The Lord is my strength and self, and he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will prepare him of habitation, my Father's God, and I will exalt him.
Now I got him pleased to verse twenty-two. So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and of a doubt into the wilderness of Shur, And they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. And when they came to Mara, they could not drink of the waters of Mara, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Mara. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he tested them, and said, If thou wilt diligently ark unto the voice of the Lord thy God, and will do that which is right on his sight, and will give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians, For I am the Lord, healeth thee, Jehovah the Fecha.
And from the country Elam there were twelve wells of water, and three scored on ten palm trees, and they encamped there by the waters. Yesterday morning we intimated that what we had in mind to speak about during these morning sessions was the different names of Jehovah. The compound names that we find concerning Jehovah in the Old Testament, there are seven of them altogether. And yesterday we started off by speaking about Jehovah Jireh. The Lord saw and the Lord provided us.
Beautiful, beautiful title of Jehovah. We had submitted yesterday morning that God reveals himself in four different ways. First of all, in creation. there that he received the works of Almighty God. And he reveals himself in that. And then he reveals himself in his words. And then thirdly, he reveals himself in the names that we find of God in the Bible. In the book of Genesis, there are four outstanding names. And each one of them gives us a different revelation of Almighty God. And then the final way that he reveals himself is in his son.
the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Now these beautiful titles of God that we find in the Bible bring before us in a consecutive way many great truths, and I have been delighted in looking at them and applying them to myself and my own testimony for the Lord. And the great basic one was the one that we read yesterday, Jehovah Jireh the Lord saw and the Lord provided. not only is it applied on the Bible to the great work of atonement of the Lord Jesus upon Calvary's cross, the Lord in eternity passed, could see the condition of mankind.
Not only did he see it, but he also provided for it. And that provision was that one who was born in Bethlehem, lived a holy life, and then died a sacrificial, atoning death upon Calvary's cross. The second time that we get the term here in the book of, we get it in the book of Exodus. And the title here is Jehovah Robeka, the Lord that healeth thee. I want to speak of a brother, a difficult subject here this morning in connection with the healing of the body. But before we do that, it might be as well to point out that this beautiful chapter commences with a song.
It's the first song in Holy Scripture. and as the star of redemption. You know, the book of Exodus is the book of redemption. God had redeemed his people from the land of Egypt, lived in there for four hundred and thirty years in that captivity. But in a marvelous, miraculous way, God delivered them and he brought them out into the wilderness and revealed himself to them. And here, as believed Egypt, we get this song. It's a basic song. beautiful song, the song of redemption. There are but think a good deal of the music and the song that we find in the Holy Scripture.
In every part of the Bible we get it. First of all, Moses' songs. This is about the Malik of Moses where we find praise and thanksgiving to God. At the end of his life, we remember that the song of Moses in Deuteronomy thirty-three, a beautiful outline not only of the history of Israel but praise and thanksgiving to God. And then you think of David and the Psalms of David, the Psalms. These are things that we rejoice in and how it draws us near to the Lord and lifts our heart up when we think of the Psalms that we find in the Psalms, the Psalms of David.
You turn over to the New Testament and it's a remarkable thing that when the Lord was born He was introduced by four Psalms. First of all, we get the Song of Heaven. Glory to God on the house, on the earth, peace, goodwill toward men. That was the doxology that came from above. But in Luke's beautiful Gospel, we get four Psalms in reply to it. We get the Song of Mary, we get the Song of Elizabeth, we get the Song of Zechariah, and also we get the Son of Simeon, four of them altogether, the reply of Spirit to heaven.
And then when we turn over to the epistles, it's full of dopsologies and it's full of psalms. We read about Psalms and hymns and spiritual Psalms. And then over to the book of Revelation, there are seven of them all together, and it ends up with a four-fold hallelujah. Give us a wonderful thing to think that we would say. There's only two parts of God's creation that can sing. And one is man, and the other is the birds. As far as creation is concerned, it's a groaning creation. And when you think of the different animals, we read about them roaring and moaning and groaning, and we find about them grunting.
As far as the Lord creation is concerned, there's no song there. but all the sound that God has placed in our mind. And as all there is a joy and a delight to hear sounds well sung. So the passage here, it opens with a song, and it is the basic song in Holy Scripture, the song of redemption. But it's rather pathetic to think that in these two chapters, chapter fifteen and sixteen ten times over, we read about murmuring. Now that is very pathetic. The people had been redeemed from the land of Egypt, and ten times over we find that murmuring. You know, there's an awful lot of that among people today.
Murmuring. The first murmur was concerning water, and the second was concerning bread. Murmuring, murmuring, God. And God had to lay His hand upon them and discipline on the count of that. It would be interesting to look at the different periods where they've murmured against God. And we can find it duplicated at the present time. I don't know of any country in the world that has been more blessed by Almighty God than this beloved land. And I think we can say as we look at and think of all that God has done for us, instead of working the shoot of the song that was up to God. But oh, today it's not recognized.
And all we need to do is to look at some other parts of the world and see what's happening there. to realize the blessings that we have had from God. So the passage here is, first of all, it opens with praise and thanksgiving. It opens with the song of redemption. But then we find the murmurs. Now, towards the end of the chapter, we find that that murmuring took place in connection with water. They came to Mara. And when they came to Mara, the water that was there, it wasn't fit to drink. It was bitter water. You know, you find that in many places today. Water is one of the greatest blessings that God has given to man.
We're dependent upon it for so many things. Yet in so many places it's polluted. I understand that Lake Erie has been so polluted that absolutely nothing alike can live in it. The pollution of mankind. And it's so, in so many places, polluted water, not fit to drink. So the first difficulty that they ran into, when they came to Mara, the water was bitter. And they took it to the Lord. And the Lord told Moses, take a tree and cast it into the water. And when he cast it into the water, it became sweet. You know, there's a lovely picture there.
I think that that tree would represent Calvary's tree, the cross of Christ. Put that on the bitter water. and it certainly becomes sweet. Now, after that, there is a warning here. And there's a myth connected with it. And about four or five times, Moses warns the people that if they do this, do that, and do the other thing, observe the commandments and the standards, and so on, that all the diseases of Egypt would not be based upon them. Because he said, I am the Lord that healeth thee. Some little time ago, I looked at every commentary that I had, and I've got quite a few.
The most valuable thing in the world that I have is a good library. The fact that we're isolated from a fellow man, these people that speak our own language for many, many years, are trying to accumulate books, and have been very selective. I have about five thousand books. And over my life, I've tried to be very selective in the books that I have bought. They're very expensive today, and they need to be selective. But I went to my library and tried to find out what this verse meant. And in practically every county that I read, it was spiritualized. I am the Lord, Jehovah, Robeka, the Lord that healeth thee.
And it was applied in a spiritual way. not in a physical way at all. I don't know whether the different commentators were a little bit afraid of the text. I am the Lord that heal a day, and they apply it in a spiritual way. That may be a legitimate way to apply the passage. I believe that any servant of God, and moving around among the people of God, if he sees something that's wrong, something that is infiltrated into the church of God, or into the hearts and minds of people, it is this burden responsibility, faithfully, to witness and to try to correct whatever is there.
He needs to be a good physician, unable to diagnose trouble and difficulty and problems among the people of God. And I believe that it is a legitimate way to apply the passage, Jehovah, O faith, I, and the Lord, as He will be. There were three controversies. in the life of the Apostle Paul. First of all, it was egality in Galatians. And then in Corinth it was licensed, the other swing of the pendulum. And then at the end of his life in Colossae, it was something derogatory to the person of Christ. And all of Paul's life, he was a good physician. He was able to diagnose the trouble that was in these different assemblies that were in existence at that time.
and he was able to apply remedy. That is a perfectly legitimate way to apply the magic. But I think that the commentators are a little bit afraid of it to apply it in a practical way. That is the healing of the human body. I want to speak about it just for a few minutes this morning. I think that there are two extremes. First of all, there are people who talk about healing in the atonement. And they would say, it's a sin to be sick. And therefore, if we only have proper faith in God and claim the promise, that we will be healed.
That is the one extreme. And on the other extreme, there are people who avoid the passage completely. And never think that God is able to lay his hand, his hand of power, upon a person when they are sick. You know when we think of the condition of things, both in the Bible and in the world today. I think there's a great big problem here that we need to face up to. And it's something that many people's minds at the present time. We call it the Charismatic Movement, or the Pentecostal Movement.
And there are certain claims being made today about the healing of the human body, and I believe that we have to face up to it. And find out what the Bible says. teaches concerning it. We can go to the one extreme or the other. We can ignore the thing completely or we can go along with some of the very fantastic claims that are made at the present time and say, healing is in the atonement and therefore it is a sin to be sick. These are the two extremes, but they're at the middle pass. I believe that the Bible has some very definite teaching concerning the healing. of the human body. When we look at the scriptures there are four periods where we find miraculous healing.
Now the first one we find in connection with the life of Moses and if we were to turn over to various passages in the Old Testament we find especially in this book that we have been reading from this morning the book of Exodus it was a period of miracle and when Moses was called by God to lead the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt. He was given authority and power by God himself. Remember the rod that he had and sang? And when God spoke to me, he said, cast it on the ground. He cast it on the ground and it became a circle. And then he was told to pick it up. I think I can see him looking at that snake on the ground.
We've had a good deal of experience with snakes. And I'm not here. to tell stories. But I think there's a very, very great lesson to be found in that rod cast upon the ground under the king of snakes. And then the Lord said, take it by the tail. He was going to deal with his head himself. Take it by the tail. And I think that very, very carefully he would go along and catch the snake by the tail. And it turned again into a rod in his hand. Do you think there's a lesson in that? I believe there is. There were other miracles that God gave to Moses right at the commencement of the service, but I think that this is the first one on the very important one.
I believe that that rod, it speaks of authority, delegated authority, cast it on the ground that became a servant. The first man who had that rod in his hand was Adam, and he was given to me. but on part in his leg that rod was cast upon the ground when he sinned against God. But then Moses was told, take it by the tail. And you know, if you take a snake by the tail, it's absolutely healthy. We know that experience. Take it by the tail. And if you hold it by the tail, the thing is absolutely healthy. If you give it a shake like that, you'll break its back. That's only by the way.
But the lesson that we get here in connection with the rod, I believe, is the rod of authority that was placed in his hand. And as Moses went down to Egypt and performed the miracles before Pharaoh, there were a couple of men there that were imitating what he was doing. John is in January. We find the mention in the second epistle of Timothy. Moses was doing the work of God. He had the authority, the delegated authority of God in his hand. that rod that was given to him. And it would be interesting to notice the different places where it was exercised. That rod, possibly tomorrow, we'll be able to speak about another exercise of the rod.
The rod of delegated authority that was placed in his hand. And miracles were performed before Pharaoh, done in Egypt, and it was done by the power of God himself. But there was the imitation. There were men there that were imitating at Jannies and Jambries, and they were able to do a certain amount of miracle. But when it came to a certain point, there they stopped. They weren't able to go any further. So that is the first period in the Bible, where we find our miracles perform. Now the second period was in the time of Elijah and Elisha. And again, if we were to turn over to that passage, you would see there is the commencement of a period of the prophets.
And again the work that Elijah and Elisha was doing, it was authenticated by miracles. It would be interesting to look at the different miracles performed by Elijah and how the double portion was given to Elisha, and he did a double portion of miracles as well. But it was the prophetic area. And the work that those two men were doing again was imitated. They were the prophets of Baal. Alongside of the genuine thing, there was the counterfact. the prophets obeyed, and those were the greatest enemies against the men that were working according to the power of God. Now the third period of miracles was when our Lord Himself appeared as His incarnation, and the Lord Himself and as Apostles were given authority to perform miracles.
Marvelous period. In the Gospels we find thirty-five miracles that the Lord performed. There were then four different spheres. First of all, the healing of the human body. And we find many, many miracles that the Lord performed along that line. There's some things about those miracles that the Lord performed in connection with the healing of the human body that we do well to take notice of. First of all, it was organic. The diseases that he healed were organic, not psychopathic. but were organic. And secondly, when the healing took place, it was instantaneous.
And thirdly, it was permanent. And the need to observe those three things in connection with the power of our Blessed Lord in working miracles in connection with the healing of the human body. First of all, organic disease, an instantaneous healing, and a permanent healing. And if you compare that... with some of the ten that are meant today to come very, very far short. But in any case, that was the first sphere of Lyrnego, where our Lord worked. So he came in the sphere of nature. He was able to walk on the water. He was able to turn water into wine. He was able to take five loaves and feed a multitude of five thousand.
These were in the sphere of nature. and then thirdly in the sphere of satanic power we read about him casting out demons he was completely superior to the part of the devil and again and again he was able to cast out demon possession demon demon power and he was superior to it and then fourthly in the sphere of death three times over we read about the Lord raising someone who has died now if you compare the miracles brought by our Lord and later by the Apostles in the Acts of the Apostles and compare them. But some of the change that are made today, I think, will come very far short.
But not only do we find miraculous healing, the fine healing taking place when our Lord was here and there. Well, at that time, and then the Apostles later, we find that there was the counterfeit along with it. In the Acts of the Apostles, we read about A man who is a sorcerer. Elements a sorcerer. And always alongside of the genuine, you get the counterfeit. You get the false. Now, the final time of healing, I believe, will be in Tribulation Days. Read about two witnesses. And those two witnesses, again, were given cards before miracles. And again, alongside of a potential counterfeit.
And we read about the Antichrist and the Beast. We read about... wonders, unsigns, blind wonders. Fars, unsigns, unsigned wonders. A long sign of the genuine, he did the contrary. I think when we compare these four periods, there were long periods in between when we find that miracles were not performed, and I believe that that is the period in which we are today. I believe that with the apostles, I believe that these miraculous things that took place in the time of our Lord and the Apostles, I believe that the gladhead is tapered off. You take the Apostle Paul, that he have the power of working miracles, he did.
But at the end of his life, you remember, he said, Trofimus, of I left with Melitim sick. If he had the power of laying his hands on him and healing him, why didn't he do it? On his dear friend that worked with him for twenty years, Timothy, He told him, he said, take a little wine. I noticed that word, a little wine. Take a little wine for thy stomach's sake, and thine often infirmities. You know that he had a stomach ulcer, or had some other disease, which apparently he had. He had a weak, frail body. We didn't call him.
I believe that at the end of Paul's life, and at the end of the apostolic period, These miracles and signs and wonders, they crunchily tapered off. And I believe that we are right at the end of the dispensation. And I believe there's an awful lot of false claims being made today. I don't want to say anything hard or bonkind about some people. I believe that are truly born again. But I've fallen into the trap at the present time of believing that we're in a period exactly the same as the time of the Lord and the Apostles. I believe that it is tapered out, and today we walk by faith. I'm not by sight.
But does the Lord heal? I believe he does. I believe there's such a thing as a divine healing. But I believe that at the same time, professional faith healing, there's something false and concrete about it. I could tell a story this morning with my chap, of something that I've seen in my life. people who have made plans of that kind. Just one instance. There's a very young couple who came to Langola many years ago. They came from Tennessee. Fine, upstanding young fella, twenty-six years of age. He and his wife, they believed in faith healing on the believed in tongues.
They came out to Langola for the object of finding a new mission. And they were absolutely sincere. Lovely, lovely couple, I believe, truly born again. But they had that idea. They came to one of our stations, and a brother there offered them entertainment, offered them hospitality, because they couldn't get permission from the Portuguese to find the nation. And then brother went home in furlough, and the couple were left with a young girl who was a nurse on the place. And after six months, this brother, he came down with malaria. Now we had to take five grains of quinine every day.
It was a prophyletic for malaria. And practically everybody had it. I have had it more times than a good time. And after six months, that dear fellow, he had done with malaria. The nurse came to him and offered him quinine poison. We don't believe in that. We don't believe in medicine. She tried to persuade him that that was the proper thing to do. He wouldn't take it. But finally he became desperately ill. And while he was ill, and lapsing into a coma, the nurse sent for a doctor. And the doctor, that lived forty miles away, he finally came. And when he entered the room, he just wasn't time to see that dear fellow, I said in the presence of the Lord.
And the doctor stood at the head of the bed, and he went like a child. He said, there's a young life just along the way by sheer stupidity. He didn't believe in medicine, the medicine that God had provided for the disease. He didn't believe in that, and he lost his life. He's buried there at a place called Jiktau that we know very well. His wife remained in the country for eighteen years after that. She believed in speaking in tongues. But at the end of the eighteen years, she had never learned an African language, that she was able to speak intelligently to the women and give them the gospel of the people that she lived among.
Do you understand that? I believe tongues in the Bible are languages. Read languages that were spoken. Now, here's a dear girl. I'm not saying anything hard or unkind about either of them. I believe you'll understand. I believe that Edmund Stark was his name. I believe he's with the Lord. Dear, dear fellow, but I believe that it was completely mistaken as far as this question of the healing of the human body is concerned. And somebody might say, do you believe in healing? I believe in divine healing. And I can say this from the bottom of my heart, that again and again we have gone up against a stone wall as far as sickness is concerned.
and at least on five occasions in our life if we had a doctor there we would gladly have come to the doctor but there was no doctor or medical help of any kind and we were completely thrown upon the Lord and on five occasions in our life both my wife and myself we just cried to God and God in his mercy he laid his hand upon us and he had a true place as a matter of fact we were married fifty seven years ago And the day that we were married, there was a lady doctor there. And I had up in the north part of the country evangelizing and building a house. And when we came back again, absolutely chock full of malaria.
Running temperatures of a hundred and five. And the doctor loaded me up with medicine to get me under my feet to go and get married. And the day that we were married, the doctor wrote a letter to my wife. And she said, well, I want to congratulate you on your wedding. But she said, I want to tell you, you're marrying this man to bury him. He's full of malaria. Well, that's fifty-seven years ago. And that dear lady, that lady doctor, she's with the Lord long ago. And I'm still wandering around. Why? She woke her up vacant. I'm the Lord that healed me. You know, beloved friend of you this morning, there is such a thing as divine healing.
And we have proved it up with health. We don't believe in professional faith healing. There's an awful lot of sacred, and I suppose that comes in ridiculous terms that people make. I'm not going to go on any further. I would love to speak about that passage this morning in James chapter five, possibly just a word of connection with it. James five, we'll read there, if any of you mistake, call for the elders of the church and anoint him with oil and the prayer of faith shall heal the sick. Many years ago I was in Cape Town. I was a dear brother there, but his name is well known to possibly some of the older brethren here.
His name was C. Ed Hogg. Mr. Hogg was an outstanding teacher among brethren for a lifetime. It was the last year of his life. He was eighty-two years of age and he was in Cape Town. He had come from New Zealand. and wasn't able to proceed in Missouri in the time of the war. And we had come down to Cape Town to get passage home. I'd had a breakdown in hell. And I had the great privilege of going to Mr. Hogg's room and sitting there at his feet. I was young at the time, and he gave me an awful lot of advice, advice that has remained with me through life. But Mr. Hogg was one of the early pioneers in China.
As a matter of fact, he was one of the senior members of the China-Indon mission in his early life, along with Hudson Taylor and Stud. And they were evangelists. Mr. Hobbes told me, they were evangelizing away up in the north of China, apart, away from any medical health at all. And Stud had skin to heal. And it had become infected. and there was a red line climbing of his leg as it turned into irrecipitous and he was in real trouble. And he went to Mr.
Hav and he asked him to anoint him with oil and lay his hands upon him, pray and heal. I was with Mr. Hav in a bookstore in Cape Town and I saw a copy of a book there, C.T. Stutt's Cricketer. and Pioneer Missionary, and I pulled it out. And I opened it at random, and the first thing I saw was Mr. Hogg's name. And this incident of what had happened in those early days in China. And I read the plan, and then I took it over to Mr. Hogg. He was on the other side of the room. I said, Mr. Hogg, he said, if you believe. And I could see a twinkle in his eye.
And he cleared the book like that, and he handed it back to me. And he said, that's when I was young and foolish. I said, now look, Mr. Hogg, I want you to tell me what you believe about that passage in James chapter five. He says, come on over here and we'll have a cup of coffee. And he said, down there, and he told us a lot of stories about Stutt in the early days in China. I said, Mr. Hogg, forget it. I said, tell me what do you believe about James five. He said, there are two words there for a mountain in James five. The first one is Creole. And the second one is Alifo. Now he said the word Creole, that Greek word Creole, it means to anoint as a ceremony.
The prophet and the priest and the king would anoint it as a ceremony. And he said the word that used in James five is not Creole, but he said it was the second word a lipo. And he said that word a lipo it means to anoint or to massage as a medicine. And he said in those days the means that were used in practically every kind of sickness was on the water. Either as massage or internally. He said it was a general thing that was used at that time. What I believe about it is this. He said, what I believe about it is this. He said, it is the prayer of faith that the Lord hears.
And it is the Lord's will that the person will see it. He said, as far as the anointing is concerned, he said, that was done as the sand. He said that was the means that God used in those days for the recovery of a person who was sick. He said, that's what I believe today. And I believe there's something in there. First of all, the prayer of faith. And then secondly, the means under disposal to be used. And if I was sick, I would go to a doctor the best doctor I could find. Especially if it was a Christian. We've done that again and again. The means. along with prayer. I have a little trend this morning.
These are things I think that are very much in people's minds today. But we must never, never think that if a person is sick and they're not healed and possibly to go on to a point where the past awaitable with the Lord, never, never allow it to pass through your mind. That is because of a lack of faith. God is his own ways of working. And sometimes he says, no, he did that to Paul. Paul had something in his life. He calls it a thorn in the flesh. And probably it was something physical, very likely some form of eye disease. And it was not the Lord three times that he was healing.
The Lord said, no. He said, my grace is sufficient for you. And I believe that very often the godly people, people with a... gracious, kindly testimony by the people that we suffer today. Oh, the mystery of suffering. Many think about it that we don't understand. But thank God when it is his will. Prayer to faith, to commit to the Lord's presence, he can lay his hand upon us in the gracious, timely way, and we can have healing if it is his will. May the Lord bless his will. May the Lord bless his will. Our Blessed God and Father, we do thank the Athea for Christian fellowship, the opportunity of gathering together in this quiet way, an opening thy word that seems to be a help and a comfort in the blessing to one another.
We thank thee for this very, very great time. Lord, bless thy people, we pray. We think of so many that we know of the sufferer of the present time, going through times of trial. And our Father, we thank thee that thou canst lay thy hands upon them, and heal them that will be thy gracious will. But we know that sometimes it is thy will to take them home to all of thyself. And our Father, be either one or the other. We do pray that it may be sufficient to thy gracious will until that day when life is passed, and we see our Lord face to face. We commend each one to thee this morning.