Gillespie, J Stewart: 1 John 4:1+1Kings 17-Miraculous Healing-2

It's nice to see everyone that's joined with us tonight. Um, shall we open our Bibles, please, in First John? First John, to the now familiar passage of First John chapter four. Just a reminder that we meet again on Sunday evening, half past six— or so half past five for prayer, six o'clock for the gospel, and we expect Bill Houston from Kilmarnock to be with us on Lord's Day. And then the next Tuesday, eh, God willing, we meet again for the Ministry of the Word of God, and next Tuesday, eh, should be our final evening in the Charismatic Movement, and then you'll be glad to hear you're getting a change of face. You'll hear somebody else for a wee while after that, and I'll get a break as well. That'll be, that'll be good. I'm a wee out without my glasses tonight. The sad thing is I can remember as a wee boy about Sam's age, my father, as his hair got grayer and he couldn't find his glasses and he was forever losing his car keys, and we used to laugh at him. I now see that I've reached that stage as well. It's very sad, isn't it? So there you go. First John and chapter number four, and eh, we'll read those first six verses again together. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try or test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that confesseth not Jesus is not of God. And this is that spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now already is it in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. So we have used that, eh, section there, First John chapter four, each evening as we thought about the charismatic movement, and we, I'm sure, are very familiar with these verses now, but there were these two great tests, and they are worth re-emphasizing each evening, Two tests that the Word of God gives us to test any spiritual phenomena, to test any teacher or preacher or prophet or spirit. The first test there in verse number two and three is what do they do with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ? Where exactly is Christ in it all? Uh, for if the phenomena is genuine, then Christ will be at the very center of, of what is taught. They'll be right in what they say about the Lord Jesus. That's verse two. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. So they'll, they'll be true in what they say about the, the person of the Lord Jesus. But more than that, verse number three, and every spirit that confesseth not Jesus is not of God. Now, the, the, the, the verses that appears in the authorized version, if you're reading it, eh, as I am, is a little bit longer than, than the one I've just read out, but the, the, the simplest version of verse three simply reads like this, every spirit that confesseth not Jesus is not of God. I- in other words, any spirit that, eh, hasn't put their faith or trust in Jesus, any preacher or teacher or prophet that, that hasn't confessed Jesus, not just the facts about Jesus, not just that Jesus has come into the world or that Jesus is the Son of God, they haven't just confessed the facts about Jesus. That's easy to do. Anybody can recycle facts, but the, the Apostle John here is thinking of a prophet who has actually confessed Jesus in the same way that the Apostle Paul would, would speak of that in Romans ten and nine, that if we confess with our mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in our heart that God has raised him from the dead, then we're saved. So we're thinking about people, preachers, teachers who have really put Christ at the very forefront of their life and of their teaching. So test number one, where is Christ in it? What do they say about Christ? And test number two, uh, verse number six, eh, whatever comes out of any new preaching or preaching, it must be the same as what we find in the Word of God. It must be the same spirit, the spirit of truth. Second passage we'll read this evening, and we'll come back to later on, is found in First Kings. First Kings, it's, it's of course in your Old Testament, First Kings and chapter number 17, and we're going to read from verse number eight. First Kings, chapter seventeen and verse number eight. um And the word of the Lord came unto him, that's Elijah saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks, and he called to her and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel that I may drink. And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. Now, just to remind you of the background of First Kings seventeen, that these verses are written during a time of drought and of famine. So whilst he's asking for something very, very minor, a drink of water, uh, and just something to eat, that's actually something quite major because nobody has this, but, but that's what he's asking for. Verse twelve. And she said, as the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruise. And behold, I am gathering two sticks that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die. And Elijah said unto her, fear not, go and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little cake first and bring it unto me, and after make, uh, for thee and for thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the crews of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah, and she and he and her house did eat many days, and the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the crews of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord which he spake by Elijah. And it came to pass after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick, and his sickness was so sore that there was no breath left in him. And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God, that thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my son? And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom and carried him up into a loft where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed. And he cried unto the Lord and said, O Lord my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourned by slaying her son? And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come unto him again. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came unto him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down out of the chamber into the house and delivered him unto his mother. And Elijah said, Thy son liveth. And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth. And we do look to the Lord for his help. Tonight we want to progress a little bit as we think about the charismatic movement round about us, and we want to do two things. We want to think about the subject of healing, eh, and eh, we want to do it, uh, at least in part from First Kings chapter seventeen. and eh, possibly you'll never hear healing, eh, eh, being spoken of from First Kings seventeen again, but we're going to try and do that this evening. Now, let's just be quite clear about what we are speaking about tonight, uh, for the thing gets a little bit clouded and confused. Uh, I want to say this, that what I'm not speaking about, I'm not speaking about, um, miraculous healing, for I'm quite happy to accept miraculous healing. I'm quite happy to accept supernatural healing, for I believe that my God is a God who is able to heal. I believe that. He always has been able to heal, and I believe that still today my God is able to heal. And if you want to go to the book of James, we'll p- we'll turn to it later, so you may have a little look at it just now. The book of James, which is towards the end of your Bible. James's little epistle, just before, eh, John and Peter, and the very last chapter of James, chapter five, a chapter written really towards the end of the Bible, eh, as the books of the Bible were being brought together, this was one of the last that were written. And verse fifteen of James five says this, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. So we're not speaking simply about supernatural healing, for that little verse there in James chapter five tells me that God is able to heal the sick, and I believe that, and I believe that God can heal supernaturally. So I'm not speaking just about supernatural healing. Neither am I speaking simply about men who are able to heal, for many men are able to heal, and some of you will perhaps frequent the doctor on occasions, and you will go there perhaps in the hope that that man will make you better. Sometimes he'll make you better, and sometimes he won't. And he might use certain things that the Lord has provided round about, things that perhaps are not much short of miraculous. If, for example, you have a heart attack and you phone your doctor, he'll come out, and one of the things that he ought to do is he ought to go into his bag and take out of his bag an extract of the bark of a willow tree called salicylic acid, and he ought to put that into your mouth, and you'll chew the bark of the willow tree, and eh, that will reduce your chance of dying from a heart attack by approximately twenty five percent. And it just so happens that in the bark of the willow tree, for some reason that nobody understands, there is the substance that we commonly call aspirin, and we've used it for, well, I don't know, at least a hundred years, uh, and it's been used for all sorts of things, and it has all sorts of therapeutic properties. And for some reason, there it is, and men can use it, and and we can heal. And eh, if you have a foxglove plant in your garden or in your fields round about you, and eh, if you have any heart problems, I don't, I don't advise you to take the foxglove and chew it, but if you have a certain kind of heart problem, you may be prescribed a tablet by your doctor called digoxin, and digoxin comes from the extract of the foxglove flower. And for some reason, uh, unbeknown to man, it just so happens that in the foxglove flower there is this substance called digoxin, which has an effect on the heart rate, and it's able to cure a problem called atrial fibrillation. And so the list goes on, uh, and so forth. So we're not speaking about supernatural healing. We believe God can do that. And we're not speaking about ordinary healing, for men can do that, uh, and with the help of God, of course, they can do that, for God has provided the equipment to do it. Uh, but we are speaking about something quite specific. We're speaking about the subject of men who claim the supernatural gift to heal. That's what we're speaking about tonight. Now, that's quite specific. We are speaking about men who claim that they don't just have the natural ability to know what to do when somebody's ill, uh, but they actually claim that, like God himself, they too have a supernatural ability to heal you. That's what we're claiming. There are men today who claim to have that kind of gift, and we want to have a look at the word of God, and what we want to see from the Word of God is that they do not have that gift, and we can be quite categorical about it. Now, one of the things that, eh, you will be told by people who believe that some folks have a supernatural gift of healing is this. You will be told that if you open up your Bible, uh, and you open up your New Testament, for example, and you read through those gospels, you will find that it was common, that it was ordinary, that people were healed, especially in the days of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we certainly do in the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We have a whole list of, eh, events when people were supernaturally healed. They were miraculously healed by the Lord Jesus, and you'll remember some of them, perhaps particularly from John's gospel, which we've had occasion to look at a number of, eh, eh, of times over the past year or so. Eh, you might remember the nobleman's son in John chapter two, wasn't it? Uh, and he was healed. You remember the man at the pool of Bethesda, chapter five. He was laying there for many years by the pool, and the Lord Jesus gave him the power again in his legs. You remember the the blind man of John chapter nine, and the Savior healed him miraculously. And you'll think of other events as well in the other gospels when the Lord Jesus Christ performed miraculous miracles of healing, uh, perhaps, eh, a few spring to mind. The resurrection of Lazarus, of course, in John's gospel. You have Jairus' daughter who's raised from the dead. You have the woman with the issue of blood. You have various lepers and a number of blind men. And so it seems that, as you open the word of God, that, well, i- it's almost the expected thing, it's almost the normal thing that if somebody is is unwell, that, eh, that they get healed miraculously and supernaturally. And so today, the folks in the charismatic movement, they would say that today we ought to expect exactly the same thing. We ought to be looking for it, and if we don't have that miraculous gift of healing, then really there's something wrong with us, there's something abnormal. Now, when we think about the, uh, miraculous gift of healing, we're going to be building on one or two things that we've learned in the past from the Word of God. And one of those things is this, and you maybe remember when we thought about miracles in general in the Word of God, you'll remember that we did notice that, um, the Bible is quite, uh, quite interesting in the way that, that, that we find miracles. It's not really as if we open up a Bible and we flick through pages and scattered right the way through the Bible there are various miracles, various gift miracles or various miracles of healing. But we don't find miracles of healing scattered randomly through the Bible. We don't really find that. We don't find men with the miraculous gift of healing, uh, just peppered through the pages of scripture. But you'll remember that we did notice in the past that there are only actually three occasions in the whole of the Bible, in all of the history that is recorded there, uh, for us, uh, maybe about six thousand years or so worth of history. In all of that, there are only actually three occasions during which God ever gave men the miraculous ability to heal. God himself healed on many occasions directly, usually in answer to prayer, in fact, but only on three occasions did God ever give anybody the miraculous ability to heal. And maybe you remember those three occasions. The first was during the days of Moses and Aaron. The second, which is why we read in first Kings seventeen, was during the days of Elijah and Elisha. And the third of those occasions were during the days of the Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles. But out with those three occasions, we don't read about individuals who possessed the ability either to perform miracles or to perform the miraculous gift of healing. So we notice, first of all, the pattern, the pattern, that miracles and the miraculous gift of healing, they don't appear randomly through the word of God, but they're grouped together in three distinct groups. Now, the second thing I want to think about is this, it is the purpose of healing, purpose. Now, I remember as a medical student at Glasgow University, a very, uh, smart aleck, um, professor came to us, and he asked us the question at the time, why do people go to the doctor? And of course, everybody gave the same answer, people go to the doctor because they're not well. Uh, and of course, he was being quite clever, and he told us all that people don't go to the doctor because they're not well. They go for a whole variety of reasons, and those people who are not well won't go near a doctor, and most of the people you get in are quite well, in fact. Well, he was right, and things just weren't as obvious as maybe at first they seem. And we want to think about the purpose of healing, and maybe you would, you would think, as as we think about that, the purpose of healing, maybe you would just think, well, it's obvious why people are healed. They're healed because they're not well, and and God wants them to be better again. So it's fairly obvious God heals, and God gives the miraculous gift of healing to make people better. Well, I want to suggest this to you, that that is not the purpose of healing in the Word of God. God does not just give the gift of healing so that people can get better. But on each of the occasions that we read about healing, there is something else going on, and that is very important, because the charismatic movement today misses that point, and they assume that God gives the gift of healing so that people can simply get better. Therefore, God should always give the gift of healing because people are always ill, and God should always want people to get better. But on the occasions that God moves and God give the- gives these gifts, something else is going on in the background, something very important, and I want to show you what it is. If you'll turn, first of all, to the days of Moses and Aaron, into the book of Numbers, during this first period of miracles and healings. Numbers chapter twenty one. Numbers twenty one. Now, in that chapter, some of you will be familiar with it, some won't. The people of Israel are going through the wilderness, and eh, they begin to, they begin to murmur against God. Verse number four, we'll break into the chapter. And they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom, and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way, and the people spake against God and against Moses. And as they begin to murmur and groan, verse six, the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of Israel died. Verse eight, and the Lord said unto Moses, make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, put it upon a pole, and it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. So we have the situation here of people being ill. In some ways, it doesn't precisely fit the case of miraculous gifts of healing, but in other ways it does. Uh, and here people are ill, they're being poisoned by serpents, and Moses intercedes for the people, and God shows him how he might heal the people. He has to make a serpent of brass, he's to put it on a pole, and if anyone shall look in faith, then they'll be healed, they'll be cured of their disease. Now, that seems really straightforward. The people are ill, and therefore God heals them. But turn into the book of John, would you? A book that we're very familiar with, book of John, uh, in chapter number three. John's Gospel, not the epistle that we just read from, but John's Gospel, chapter number three. Verse fourteen. that's the chapter you remember that deals with the Lord Jesus speaking to Nicodemus by night. Verse fourteen says this, John three verse fourteen: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. As Moses was making that serpent in the wilderness, men and women were lying about, and they had been bitten by the serpent. They were facing death. They had a poison in their body, and Moses was instructed to do something very specific. Make a serpent, put it in a pole, raise it up between heaven and earth, and if you look, you'll have. The Savior explains what all that meant, doesn't he, in John chapter three. He explains to them that when Moses did that, and when men were healed, there was more to it than just men being healed, but God was giving a picture of Christ. That miraculous gift of healing, in fact, was pointing somewhere. It wasn't just a miraculous gift of healing, but it was actually pointing forward to the Lord Jesus Christ. You, you remember First John four that we thought about earlier on and that we've been thinking about over the weeks, but those two tests of whether a thing is authentic or not, what does it say of Christ, and is it true? And interestingly, when we come to the gift of healing, we find that the miraculous gift of healing in the Bible has something to say about Christ. That's very interesting, isn't it? Here these men are healed, and they're healed by looking to something upon a pole lifted between heaven and, uh, and earth, and they need to look and live because they, they have the serpent bitten into their flesh. Speaks of Christ, speaks of the Savior, lifted up between heaven and earth. It speaks of men who are dead in trespasses and sin. It speaks of men who are dead before God, and they need a savior. They need to look and live. Over to First Kings. First Kings. That little chapter, that chapter that we, we read earlier on. First Kings seventeen. First Kings seventeen is an extract from that second period of miracles that we have in the Word of God. The time of Elijah and Elisha, the second occasion in which God gives the miraculous gift of healing. Now, you might remember that sometime in the past we spent an hour or half an hour or so looking down just at that section. And do you remember that when we looked at the miracle of healing that was in there, a- a- and the other miracles that were in First Kings seventeen, we saw something very interesting. Do you remember that? As we looked down through that miracle that Elijah performed, and we compared it to the miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ which he performed in John's gospel, we found that there was something of each of Christ's miracles in this chapter. There was something from each of those seven miracles. Remember that the Lord Jesus Christ performed seven miracles in John's gospel. As we looked at first Kings seventeen, we found that there was something, just a hint or a flavor or a quotation or an event that paralleled the seven miracles of John's gospel. For example, you remember the very first miracle that the Lord Jesus Christ performed in John's gospel. It was the the changing of water into wine. It was the problem of empty water pots, and these water pots were empty, they needed to be filled, and Christ filled them, and he filled them miraculously. What we have here, of course, in First Kings seventeen is a very similar problem. We have a problem of an empty pot, and and one of the things the Lord Jesus Christ says in John chapter two, he says this, he says, eh, fill the water pots with water. In First Kings seventeen verse ten, we read something very, very, very similar towards the end of verse ten. It says Elijah, fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel that I may drink. And some of the statements that are made in First John two we find here in First Kings seventeen. And you remember the second miracle that the Lord Jesus Christ performed in John's gospel. You remember what that was? That was the healing of a sick boy, the healing of the nobleman's son. Do you remember that? And what do we have here in First Kings seventeen? We have the healing of a sick boy, uh, uh, towards the end there, don't we? A young boy is, is raised again. You remember the third miracle, eh, that the Lord Jesus Christ performed in John's gospel. That was the healing at the pool of Bethesda. And there is one seemingly trivial detail about that healing at Bethesda, which appears here in First Kings seventeen. You remember something that appeared very insignificant in John chapter five when the Savior healed that man, something that you or I would just completely have ignored, but other people picked up on it. Do you remember what that was? That he was lying in his bed. Seemed totally unimportant. And the Lord Jesus Christ healed the man by the pool of Bethesda, and he instructed him, take up your bed and walk. And you remember it was that that caused all the problems because it was the Sabbath day, and the Jews picked up on it. And they couldn't fault Christ, and they couldn't fault his miracle, but they faulted the man for carrying something on the Sabbath day. And the interesting thing is here that in First Kings seventeen, when this boy is healed, he's laying upon a bed. And so we have the healing upon a bed, just as we did with the, the, the, with the third miracle. You remember the fourth miracle in John's gospel? It was the miraculous supply of bread, the feeding of the five thousand. Five thousand men and other women and, and, and children over and above that, and they were going hungry. They just had five loaves and a few fishes, but the Lord Jesus Christ provides miraculously for their needs. And the miracle here in First Kings seventeen at the beginning, what is it? It is, of course, the miraculous supply of bread. There was no bread, but Elijah supplies it miraculously. The s- the the fifth miracle, you remember the fifth miracle was, uh, where the Lord Jesus Christ in John's gospel, he approaches his disciples. They are in a boat, they're tossed in the storm, uh, they're afraid, and the Savior comes walking upon the water towards them. You say, well, there's absolutely nothing in First Kings seventeen that even vaguely resembles a boat or a storm or, or water. Y- your, your argument has fallen down here, Stuart. Well, there is one thing that resembles it. In, in John chapter six, when the Lord Jesus Christ walks towards them in the water, there is only one thing said i- in all of that miracle. There's only one statement that is made there that's recorded by John. Verse twenty, the Lord Jesus Christ says this, it is I, be not afraid. Those are the only words the Savior speaks in the whole of that miracle. And if you look down here at verse thirteen of first Kings seventeen, you will find that Elijah, amongst the things that he says to this woman, one of the very first things he says is this. And so the only words of the fifth miracle are found here in First Kings seventeen. The sixth miracle is a healing. It's the man born blind. And the story revolves, you remember, around the question of why the blindness came upon the man. And you remember maybe the disciples are discussing, and they ask the Lord Jesus, why is this man blind? Is it because he has sin, or is it because of his parents' sin? You remember that? Well, here, when this young boy falls sick, uh, the woman's immediate reaction is exactly the same as the, as the disciples asked, uh, via verse 18 of first Kings seventeen. Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance? Is it my sin that's caused this problem? Just the same as in the sixth miracle. And the seventh miracle of John's gospel, what was that? Well, that was the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead. And what do we have here in First Kings seventeen? We have a resurrection of a child. Now, you'll see the pattern in the ordering. I'm sure you can see it. When God gave the miraculous gift of miracles during that first period to Moses and Aaron, he gave it for the purpose of speaking of Christ, and he pointed people forward. When God gave the miraculous gift of miracles and healing miracles amongst them here in First Kings to Elijah and Elisha, they pointed forward, they spoke of Christ. And you find in that little section there that we read, a condensation of all of the miracles of John's gospel, all kind of compressed into just about sixteen verses. Something of each of those miracles appears here. And what is happening, of course, is this, that the Word of God is doing what the New Testament says. It's speaking of Christ. It's pointing forward to the person and to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when we come into the New Testament and we find the Lord Jesus Christ performing miracles, and we find later on his apostles performing healing miracles too, uh, not as many as the Savior did, but we find those healing miracles performed. Again, we find that they're not just arranged randomly. Uh, they're not just meaningless or haphazard miracles, but when the Savior performs a healing miracle, there is always something behind it. There there's some kind of revelation behind it. You say, what do you mean? Well, f- for example, there there there's hardly a funeral that you and I have been at that we have not heard the words of John chapter eleven quoted. Do you remember those words? When the Savior spoke to Mary and Martha, and he told them, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and he that liveth and believeth in me shall never die. You remember that the Savior said that. Now, I, I would strongly suspect that if that was all the Savior ever did, that he only ever said that, I suspect you would never ever hear those words quoted. But you remember that not only did the Savior say it, but the Savior did it. He performed it, didn't he? And having said that, I am the resurrection and the life, he went up to the tomb that Lazarus had lain in, and he, he just uttered a few words, Lazarus, and in performing that healing miracle, the Savior established his character and his identity. And in that miracle of healing, there was a revelation of Christ. And that's very important. It's consistent right the way through the Word of God, that God does not just give the gift of healing simply so that people can get better. He doesn't do that. But wherever we have the gift of healing, there is something else going on. God is pointing forward to Christ. He's speaking for, speaking of. That's why we don't actually have them today, because God has spoken, and God has finished speaking, and God has given. So you notice then something of the pattern of the miracles, and you notice something of the purpose of the miracle. And I want you to turn to your New Testament now, and I want to just point out one or two verses there that would speak of the passing of the gift of that of his healing. And we'll turn first, though, to First Timothy. First Timothy. For as you begin your New Testament and and you read through the Gospels and you read into John's Gospel, you do get the impression that it was a common, almost everyday thing for people to be miraculously healed. And if you were unwell, you came to the Savior or you went to an apostle, and your your problem was was taken away. But the interesting thing is that as you read through the New Testament, and as you read books that were written a little bit later on, after the Lord Jesus Christ had died and been raised and ascended to heaven, and after those early days of Acts, and as you begin to read into some of the older or some of the later books of the New Testament, you begin to see that that something different is happening, and it's not just the same way as it was in the early Gospels. So if we are in First Timothy, chapter number five, and we're going to read there about a young man, Timothy, and Timothy has a problem with his stomach. So he does. And then... First Timothy is written to Timothy by the Apostle Paul, and we might just wonder exactly what the Apostle Paul is going to do about Timothy's stomach. Is he going to advise him to seek miraculous healing? Is he going to miraculously heal him himself? For in Acts of the Apostles, Paul does do that kind of thing. Well, here is what Paul writes to Timothy about his bad stomach. First Timothy five verse twenty three: Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities. Now, we just do, in passing, emphasize the little aspect of it. Mm. It's not bottles and bottles and bottles of port or portfast of whiskey. It is a little wine, and a little wine does, in fact, if you're interested, have proven value in sterilizing water. In fact, the American army did an experiment once, and instead of using their usual water purification tablets, they diluted wine something like one in ten, one in twenty with the the local water, and they found that, uh, wine diluted by about one in twenty in water was as effective at getting rid of, eh, E. coli and, eh, all of these kind of things that give you diarrhea as a lot of purification tablets. So this is sound medical advice. But the important point is this, that here, when the apostle is faced later on, after the early days of Acts, with practical medical problems, he doesn't reach for the gift of healing. He gives ordinary, very mundane, practical advice, the kind of advice that you and I would get. Second Timothy. Second Timothy. A, a, a section that is, eh, written later than First Timothy. In fact, one of the very last books that Paul wrote, probably the last book that Paul wrote, or at least the last book that we've got that Paul wrote. Second Timothy chapter four and verse twenty, Paul speaking says this, Erastus abode at Corinth, but Trophimus have I left at my lutum. So not only is it Timothy who gets some practical advice now rather than the gift of feeling, but we learn more than this. Uh, here in second Timothy, when the Apostle Paul was faced with a disciple who was sick, he had to leave him, and he seems to have been either unable or unwilling. I presume unable because I'm sure if he had the ability to heal him, then he would have done it, but it would appear that he was unable to heal this dear believer, and he has to leave him behind. So what has happened to the gift of healing? Something has happened, something has changed. This is different from the early days of the apostles. It's different from the gospels, but here's a man, and they seem unable to heal him. More significantly, if you go to second Corinthians, we're going back now. second Corinthians chapter twelve, and we're getting closer and closer to the apostle, as you can see, and in verse number seven of second Corinthians chapter twelve, the apostle speaking about his own experiences this: And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me, and he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I will rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Now, we learn at least two things from that section. The first thing we learn is this, that miraculous healing was not an option for the Apostle Paul, and that's important because that's really what our study this evening is about, following the miraculous gift of healing through the scripture. And we've seen that miraculous healing wasn't an option for Timothy, who was known to the apostle. It wasn't an option for those that even accompanied the apostle, who had to be left behind sick. And here the apostle himself, when he is faced with illness and disease, infirmity, whatever it might have been, he has to accept it, and there's no, there's no miraculous healing. But even above and beyond that, there's something very important here, and again, it's something that the charismatic movement missed, and it's this, that not only, not only has it been the will of God at times to heal and to take away sickness, but for some strange reason, it is often the will of God to allow sickness and to allow infirmities, and sometimes God works through that. Now, that's a strange thing, but many that have been down that path have found that to be true. I- I often think about the two times the Lord Jesus Christ ministered to the disciples in the storm in Matthew's gospel. You'll read about two storms in Matthew's gospel. In the first occasion, the Lord Jesus Christ is with them in the boat. He's asleep, and the storm comes, and they're frightened. And the Savior does on that occasion what you or I would want the Savior to do when we're faced with problems and difficulties and storms. The Savior rebukes the wind and the waves and he stops the storm. That's the kind of thing that that I would be praying for in a storm, that it would be stopped and they get what they want. There's a second occasion, though, that the Savior ministers to the disciples in the midst of a storm in Matthew's gospel. And on that second occasion, in Matthew chapter fourteen, the Savior isn't with them in the boat, but he comes towards them walking in the water. And he doesn't stop the storm right away, but he does something quite amazing. For a few brief moments, he gives Peter the strength and the faith and the grace to walk on top of the storm. Now that's amazing. I wouldn't ever have asked for that because, to be quite frank, I wouldn't have thought it was possible. But Peter does it. And, you know, sometimes the Lord works like that through infirmities. Sometimes, James five, uh as we've read, maybe have a quick look at it. Sometimes God will, in his grace, take away, and he'll heal, and he'll remove. But sometimes, as was the experience of Paul here at the end of second Corinthians, sometimes he gives us the grace to walk on top of it and to get through it and to learn and to be changed and to be molded from it. Some of the most gracious people I- I have met in my life have been people that have gone through that path, and it's been a path of suffering and difficulty. But, you know, their character has been completely different because of it. It's been molded and changed. The passing of healing, and in James chapter five, very briefly, we have what the Word of God has for you and I today. We have the prescription for healing. Here is what is ordinary and usual and normal. Let's say there is somebody sick and they wish to be healed. What should we do? Well, James five tells us, do we look for the local healer? Do we find somebody with a miraculous gift of healing? Should we expect there to be somebody in our assembly with that gift, or do we look somewhere else in another church for somebody with a miraculous gift of healing? Well, if somebody's sick, here is what we have to do. Verse number fourteen of James five: Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church, so not the healer, but the elders, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. Now that, there's two words in in the New Testament for anointing. There is a word that is often used in a religious context, the priest would be anointed, and then there is another word for anointing, which literally just means oiling. You know, if you had some oil and you wanted to put it in the engine of your car, you wouldn't anoint your car, you would oil your car. Well, there's an ordinary mundane word, eh, for oiling, and it's the ordinary and mundane word that's used here for oiling. So you have to come to this man who's sick, you have to pray, and you have to give them the necessary medical help that they need, oil in this occasion. Let them pray over him, let them oil him with oil, uh, in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. And if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. You notice in all of this, number one, the priority of prayer, verse fourteen. prayer comes first, and secondly, the power of prayer, verse fifteen. and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall save them up. So, when we are faced with sickness today, we don't look for men to heal us, we look to the Lord to heal us, if we're looking for healing. And it would be right and appropriate in those occasions to call here for the elders of the church, and it would be right and appropriate to pray, for everyone to pray, and it would be right and appropriate too that if there was some medical treatment that was needed, that we give that. We don't just pray and say, well, on you go now, you go on with it, I've done my bit. But i- i- if somebody needs a wee bit help to, uh, to eat, or somebody needs a bit help to take their medicines, or somebody needs some help just to get dressed, or these kind of problems. We deal with the practical problems, and we offer the help that is required. We do that in the name of Christ, a- a- and, and we pray, and we look to the Lord for healing. So that's quite different, isn't it, from what happened in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It, we're not looking now for miraculous gifts of healing, but we're turning to the Lord, and we're looking to the Lord to heal, and that is the usual and the normal, as it always has been right the way through the scripture, and that is what has been left for us today. Two minutes. What about the healings that appear to happen round about us? It would seem that round about us, everything I have just said is contradicted, but if you turn on the television or you read a book, that there are people who would claim the gift of healing. Now, time has escaped me, but I will say this, that over the years, many people have looked at the charismatic movement, and they have examined the healings that are performed in those movements, and to say the least, they have found them wanting. I'll read you just one or two extracts from a book, a book written by Peter Masters. He is a, a Baptist pastor down in England, and in his book, there is a section of his book, and it's written by a Professor Wright, who's a rheumatologist, and Professor Wright chronicles a number of occasions when the charismatic healing, eh, eh, ministry has been subject to some analysis. For example, eh, a Duncan Layton, who was an ev- who was an evangelist. Duncan Layton, in uh, nineteen eighty four, he followed a charismatic healer by the name of Derek Prince around Zambia, and Derek Prince was claiming to have the gift of healing. Well, here's what Derek, here's what Duncan Layton found. In Africa in nineteen eighty four, I followed the Derek Prince team through Zambia, where they claimed thousands of miracle healings. We found none. Dr. Eric Ray examined one miracle leg length and pronounced it a hoax. My letter asking Mr. Prince for detailed information was passed down the line until it reached Brian Bentley, who knew someone whose sinus was cured. John Whymper, who was a very famous charismatic healer. John Whymper visited Leeds, uh, a number of years ago now. A girl with deep psychiatric problems fell down screaming, and she was declared to be healed. Three months later, she was in a psychiatric hospital. Don Double, he was a famous healer. At Horsforth on the edge of Leeds, Don Double conducted a healing crusade. Mr. Double heals different ailments on different nights, and it so happened one night he was healing the deaf. A friend of mine who is deaf in one ear thought he would have have a go at being healed. Hands were laid upon him, and he was told that he was healed, but he said, I am not. The healer said, yes, you are. My, my, my friend insisted, no, I'm not. Only to be told, well, it must be that you have got no, you have not got sufficient faith. After a brief altercation, the, the healer went on down the line of deaf people, but when the healing activities had finished, my friend turned to the lady next to him and said, what did it do for you, love? And she replied with her hand cupped to her ear, what did you say? William Nolan, he he was a surgeon, eh, quite a a famous surgeon in in America, and he was involved with a a charismatic healer by the name of Catherine Kuhlman. Now, Nolan believed in healing. He followed around Catherine Kuhlman in her eh healing ministry in the United States, and eh, having followed her around, he eventually wrote a book. The book was entitled Healing: A Doctor in Search of a Miracle. And in that book he writes this: I could ne- not get those crippled and idiot children, that's his words, not mine. I could ne- I could not get those crippled and idiot children and their weeping, broken-hearted parents out of my mind, and all the others. You see, it is a well recognized, uh, phenomena that there are certain things that can be healed very easily, uh, without the need for miracles. Certain illnesses respond very well to suggestion, to hypnosis, and various other things. But it would appear that there are very few, if any, actual recorded and proven cases of healing of what we would call organic disease. That is real, genuine illness, eh, physical illness, illness that involves tumors, illness that involves broken legs and broken arms, that kind of thing. It just does not seem to be recorded that people have managed to heal that, uh, and prove it. Well, we'll leave it there. We have had a little look at the Word of God, we've had a look at the pattern of healing in scripture, and eh, we have looked indeed at the purpose behind that, and I hope we have seen that we worked our way through the scriptures, but really healing, and the way it was performed in the days of the Lord Jesus, it's not to be expected today, and it spoke, it pointed forward to Christ. That has been finished now, and today we don't rely on men for healing, but we come directly to God in prayer and look for him to heal. Shall we pray? Our Father, we do come before thee. We thank thee for thy word. We thank thee, our Father, for the scriptures. We think of so many difficulties and challenges that we come across, but we are constantly, uh, our Father, surprised and relieved to find that the answer of these, uh, problems are to be found there in the word of God. We pray that thou preserve each of us, uh, guide us, and, uh, help us, and and let us be, uh, close to thee, our Father and our Lord. We give thanks for these times we have together around thy word. Pray for thy blessing on the scriptures read, and we give thanks now, Father, for the food that's been provided as we return thanks in Jesus' name. So one evening left on the charismatic movement, and I think next week what we'll maybe try and do is bring the thing together and just look at some of the scriptures that tell us that the miracles and tongues and healings have come to an end and that God now works by different means. Try and do that maybe next week.