What does the Bible say About Sickness?

Well, like I said in our scripture reading earlier, we're not going to have a particular verse where we are going to Land or stay this morning. I did say that my desire was to be in James chapter 5 verses 13 to 17 and 18 But because of time and some things that I felt like we needed to see we're going to look at James next week So as we progress through the message, I'm going to refer to quite a few portions of scripture read a few mention a few You can get those and make that a part of your own study But sometimes in a message like this is it's just best to sit there and listen and absorb it all and then be a good Student and go study on your own a little later Now in our message this morning.

I want us to ask and answer a question or two As God's people and more specifically as Grace Life Church of Brookhaven. How do we understand sickness? How do we view sickness and how do we deal with sickness now? I am NOT referring to what I see as common or every day sickness. We all get colds and we all get the crud I Was not here last Sunday.

I'm thankful that Keith could fill in for me I had a cold I had the crud and I thought it would be best just to stay home and be sick and not come and Spread all that you know, we all get things like the dreaded stomach virus now I have said this in the halls I'll say it from the pulpit I'd rather you come to church with Covid then to come to church with the stomach virus. I Think you understand where I'm going But I'm not speaking of that kind of sickness.

I am referring to what could be called as serious sickness Now I know it sometimes it's hard to distinguish between the two now I think you all know where I'm headed We all know that we have one in our church that has a serious sickness Evan and Devon's precious little girl Allie Jane as cancer now. She's doing well She's receiving treatments and if I were to get into too many of the details I would get them wrong Evan and Devon are in the back there and you can peek through the door and get the latest report They're doing well and they're getting ready for another round of treatment.

But before I continue I Want to say that I am proud of how you have how we have reacted as a church We have loved and supported Evan and Devon and Ali Jane We have taken them meals. We have given them money to help them with expenses We have and we are giving them lots of love and lots of support and we should do all of these things in more And as other needs arise, I'm confident that we will rise to the occasion and meet those needs But as your pastor I believe we need to ask and answer a couple of questions as a church How should we view this kind of sickness and how should we deal with sickness like this?

Now before I jump into the message, I want to draw draw a line in the sand before us all think you know what that term means After we see what God's Word says about sickness, are we willing to change our views in any way? After we see what God's Word says about sickness Are we willing to do what God's Word says James? 122 says that we are to be doers of the word and not only Hearers of the word that means we are to hear what God's Word says and then we are to do what God's Word says Matthew Henry says and I'm quoting if we were to hear a sermon every day of the week and An angel from heaven were the preacher yet If we rested in bare hearing it would never bring us to heaven therefore the Apostle Insists much upon it that we practice what we hear Of course, Matthew Henry is commenting on James So as you pastor, I'm calling us as individual believers, but also as a church I'm calling us to evaluate how we view sickness serious sickness by getting into God's Word and by seeing what God says about these Things and then I'm calling us off to simply do what God says and expects us to do Now when we come to the scriptures to see what God says about the subject we must start with God We did not start with what God's Word says about sickness No, we start with the person of God and some of you need this more than you know More specifically I believe we need to start with the fact that God is in total control of all things at all times Even more specifically we need to start by looking at the sovereignty of God and the providence of God Now to understand God's sovereignty to me.

There's no better place to start than Colossians 1 15 to 17 Paul says in Colossians 1 15 to 17 he this is Christ is the image of God The firstborn of all creation for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth Visible and invisible whether Thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things were created through him and for him And he is before all things and in him all things hold together Now here in these verses Paul gives us three facts about God which speak to and speak of the sovereignty of God First Christ Jesus existed as the eternal God before creation Now this word first born in verse 16 does not speak of time or birth as we understand Or think of time and birth this simply speaks of place and position So Jesus was not the first created being in the creation because he is the eternal God in Verse 17 says that he is before all things Which is in the present tense in the original language?

This speaks to the fact that Jesus always has been and always will be before all things So Jesus is always has been and always will be the eternal God And then second Christ Jesus created all things Verse 16 says that by him or through him all things were created all things in the heavens all things on earth all things unseen and seen all Powers all rulers and all authorities so all things were created through him And notice we see the same two facts in John's gospel John 1 verses 1 2 & 3 says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God he That's Christ Jesus was in the beginning with God all things were made through him and without him Was not anything made that was made But then the third fact Christ Jesus does in fact hold all things together verse 17 of Colossians Chapter 15 says that any of all things that have been created consist or all things are held together This speaks to the fact that in Christ Jesus all things are sustained in him all things are kept into place So all things are upheld or they are kept in place by and in Christ and notice in the book of Hebrews We see this same fact repeated Hebrews 1 3 says he is the radiance of the glory of God That's Christ Jesus in the exact imprint of his nature and he that's Christ upholds the universe by the power of his word So simply in these verses we see the sovereignty of God He is in complete control of all things and this should not be a surprise to us at all because he created all things And if God can create all things and he did then he surely can be in control of all things all the time because he is But what about the providence of God?

I? Said that we must start with the fact that God is personally involved in and in total control of all things All the time. I said that we start with the sovereignty of God and the providence of God Well when we understand that God is the sovereign creator and he upholds all things Which is what Colossians 1? 15 and 17 and other scriptures tell us then we can move to the fact that at the same time God preserves and purposes everything according to his will We could say that he governs all things According to his will and that would be right But I want us to see that God preserves all things and he purposes all things according to his will Now to see the preserving and the purposing work of God we need to look at two places in Scripture I will mention a couple of others along the way here as well one place.

We've already been Hebrews 1 3 Verse 3 says he thus Christ is the radiance of the glory of God in the exact imprint of his nature And he thus Christ upholds the universe by the word of his power Here the writer of Hebrew is Hebrews is telling us that Christ Jesus upholds the universe We've already seen what it means for Christ to uphold or to sustain all things But there is more that we need to see here This word translated upholds simply means to carry it means to bear in this word was used all throughout the New Testament For carrying something or bearing something from one place to another In Luke 5 18 some men were carrying they were bearing they were upholding a paralyzed man to Jesus But here in Hebrews 1 3 this means much more than simply carrying or upholding something the fact that Jesus upholds the universe carries with it the meaning of being active of being purposeful of being in control over the things that are being carried and upheld and The construction of the language tells us that Jesus is Continuously carrying he is continuously upholding these things out by the word of his power the amplified says upholding and maintaining and Propelling all things the entire physical and spiritual universe by his powerful word carrying the universe along to its predetermined goal So Jesus is sustaining He is carrying along he is propelling all things He is active in all things He is in purposeful control of all things as he upholds as he carries all things where to its predetermined goal Another place that we've been already Colossians 1 17 verse 17 says for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or rulers or Authorities all things were created through him and for him Now here Paul is telling us that Christ created all things and that all things were created through him and Paul tells us Why all things were created?

We can miss this but it's right there at the end of verse 17 Paul says that all things were created through him and for him By saying that all things were created for him Paul was saying that all things were created for Christ's pleasure for Christ's purposes and for Christ's glory All things were created by the Creator to be his all things were created to be his property With purpose and for the purpose of displaying his purposes and his great glory We see the same thing in Romans 11 verse 36 That verse says far from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever Amen Here Paul is saying that God is sovereign over all things and he works his purposes in all things And in every event that happens and we see why he does these things for his glory So Jesus is sustaining He is carrying to quote the amplified.

He is Propelling all things along Christ Jesus is purposely active in all things and he is in purposeful control of all things and he carries all things to their predetermined plan to their predetermined destination to their predetermined end and we see why Everything is for him. Everything is for him Simply Christ Jesus upholds the universe by the word of his power for him and for his glory What a question How does this relate to sickness and especially serious sickness? But more specifically and personally, how does this relate to?

Allie jane and Evan and Evan as God's people Either we believe that God upholds the universe by the word of his power or we have no hope no peace No sanity and no healthy understanding of life You hear that? Some of you need to hear that as God's people Either we believe and accept the fact that God upholds the universe by the word of his power or we have no hope no peace No sanity no healthy understanding of all things in life folks. Why do you think so many people are worried to death?

The Apostle Paul believed that For from him and through him and to him are all things let that sink in Paul said for from him through him and to him are all things And even though it may be hard for some to accept the all things that are from him include what we would see as the bad things in life as well as the good things in life and Because Paul understood and accepted these things He then understood how it applies to God's people in Romans 8 28 Paul says we know that for those who love God all things work together for good For those who were called according to his purpose and look church in a very personal way notice how this applies Evan and Devon love the Lord They profess to love the Lord they demonstrate that they love the Lord Evan and Devon love God and the circumstances that they are living are from God and through him And these things are being worked out by God and for good Evan and Devon are called according to his purpose and the things they are going through are according to his will and his purpose They understand these things and we should too And look at what happens when all of us I'm speaking to God's people now Look at what happens when all of us see these things embrace these things now.

We might not fully understand all of them But notice what happens when we see these things embrace these things and embrace these types of circumstances properly We get to get in on God's plans But most importantly in all of these types of circumstances we get to see God's glory And let me show you something folks We will either see God's glory By walking in these circumstances in obedience or we will see God's glory on the outside of these things kicking and screaming We get to see God's glory.

So in all of these things we start with God Next I want us to move to what the Bible says about sickness But where we must start may surprise some of you We need to make sure we understand where all sickness has come from Sickness came into the world and into the human race as a result of sin Before Genesis chapter 3 all of God's creation was complete. It was perfect in every way That means that nothing in the creation was marred by sin Adam and Eve were perfect all of the creation was perfect.

Nothing was touched by sin corrupted by sin or marred by sin But in Genesis 3 we see that Eve and then Adam sinned and because of their sin they both had to suffer certain consequences, which we see in Genesis 3 16 to 19 and We will see the consequences of their sin had and do have far-reaching Effects Eve was sentenced to suffer in giving birth Also, she would be under the subjection of her husband Adam was sentenced to suffer in his work because the ground was then cursed and then in verse 19 God said that both Adam and Eve would return to the ground from which they came which spoke of their physical death But earlier in chapter 2 after God had put Adam in the Garden of Eden God gave Adam a very specific command in chapter 2 verses 16 to 17 The Lord God commanded the man that's Adam saying you may surely eat of every tree of the garden But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat of it You shall surely die So as a result of their sin against God both Eve and Adam died They both died instantly and gradually When they sin spiritually they died instantly, but they did not die physically instantly when they sinned physical death set in and they died gradually and A part of this physical death was that physical sickness entered into their lives Well, that was Adam and Eve Next we need to see how this relates to all of mankind and that would include us Pashos this in Romans 5 12 that because of the sin of Adam Sin and death entered into the world and because of Adam sin and death sin and death spread to all men And that would include physical sickness Romans 5 12 says therefore just as sin came into the world through one man That's Adam and death through sin and so death spread to all men because all sin now we see a glimpse of these things in Genesis 5 in Genesis 5 verse 3 God shows us that Adam had a son named Seth But instead of Seth being born in the image and the likeness of God we see that Seth was born in the image in The likeness of Adam listen to verse 3 when Adam had lived a hundred and thirty years He fathered a son in his own likeness after his image and named himself now listen to how the spiritual truths of Romans 5 12 are seen in Seth in Genesis 3 I'm gonna blend the two When Adam had lived a hundred and thirty years he followed a son named Seth who was born into his own image and likeness Sin and enter the world through Adam therefore Adam passed down sin and death to his son Seth Sin and death spread to Seth because of Adam and because Seth sin as well So as a result of Adam sin and death sin and death spread to all men and a part of physical death is physical sickness Well, how does that relate to us?

You might not know it but we are all dying physically as we sit right here even the youngest of the young Now some of us who are a little older We realize that more just think if you're as 130 like Adam was you you would really know it But we are all dying physically in a part of death and dying is physical sickness No one can escape sickness.

No one can escape death And you know, sometimes we see these facts in small ways Yeah, we have colds and we have the flu all that kind of stuff look folks All that does is show us that sin and death enter the world But then sometimes we see this in a very big way Like when we see cancer like when we see cancer in a beautiful baby girl That we would look at and say why her she doesn't deserve that why her? But notice what else sickness and physical death shows us First sickness and death show us and remind us that sin has affected us all we have all Inherited sin which leads to sickness and death from our father Adam.

Thanks Adam We really appreciate it But then second sickness and death show us and remind us of our great need for a Savior See folks listen Sickness and death is a wonderful opportunity to remind you and us that we all need Christ And I want to ask you if you're here this morning Have you come to faith in Christ? If you come to saving faith in Christ have you come to that place where only God can bring you where you could repent of your Sin and cry out to Christ Jesus Have you come to that place like the thief on the cross when he came to that place and he just said Lord Have mercy on me. Have you come to that place?

Look, you need to realize that your life is fleeting Sin and death is entered into your life. Look next time you get a head cold You need to think about the fact that shows you that you need Christ You need Christ So I take advantage of this opportunity to say to you you need Christ come to faith in Christ today What would hinder you from coming to faith in Christ?

Holding on your sin holding on your rebellion holding on to your pride the list can go on and on So second sinner they have show us and remind us of our great great Need for a Savior so physical death physical sickness, excuse me came into the world through Adam's sin Now at this time I want to offer some general teaching from the scripture about physical sickness And right here I believe I'm gonna answer some questions for some of you Maybe some questions you didn't know you had and I think in bringing all of these things together.

It's gonna give us a better holistic view We need to see that there are times when sickness is a direct result of someone's sin and sinfulness In first Corinthians chapter 11 we see Paul giving some very important teaching about the Lord's Supper And in this teaching he was addressing a major problem in the Corinthian church Many in that congregation were abusing the Lord's Supper in various ways Some were getting drunk at the Lord's Supper. You see in that day when they had the supper They also had a fellowship or a feasting meal.

There were some they were getting drunk literally at the Lord's Supper Some were eating and drinking at the expense of others so much so that all the food was gone and others were going hungry But one major problem was that some were partaking in the supper with serious sin in their lives So much so that Paul says that some of them were sick and they had even died as a result Listen to verses 27 to 30 first Corinthians 11 Paul says Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner Will be guilty concerning the body and the blood of the Lord What is he saying if you take the supper in an unworthy manner you sin against the supper you sin against the Lord? verse 28 let a person examine himself then and So eat of the bread and drink of the cup for anyone who eats and drinks without Concerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself what we see here is this is if we eat with sin in our life We partake with sin in our life.

We bring judgment on self verse 30 That is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died So sometimes physical sickness can come from sin in one's personal life. They bring that upon themselves But not all sickness is a direct result of personal sin if we look for a biblical example There is none better than the Old Testament character of Job Joe was seriously sick Even though he was a blameless and um, right man according to Job 1/8 One example I remember from our time when we went verse by verse through the gospel of John the man who was born blind Was not sick because of any sin he had committed or because of any sin his parents had committed John 9 verses 2 to 3 the disciples asked Jesus who sinned because of this man's blindness his parents or the man But Jesus answered that no one sinned to cause this sickness Jesus went on to say he was born blind so that the works of God may be made known in him and through him That sounds like God sovereign providential plan because it was and he is so not all sickness is a direct result of sin in someone's life and One that may be surprising Sometimes sickness is a direct result of satanic activity If we remember the rest of Job's story We remember that it was Satan who caused Job to be covered all over his body with boils Job 2 7 says so Satan went out from the presence of the Lord see Satan had to ask permission before he could touch Job Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and he struck Joe with loathsome swords From the soles of his feet to the crown of his head Of course Satan could never have struck Joe with sickness if he had not gotten permission from God So some sickness is a direct result from satanic activity Now question why do I give you this information?

Yes sickness can be Caused from sect and satanic activity and sickness can be caused from someone sin But here in Evan and Devin's case we have a Christian family. I love the Lord Evan and Devin are living upright Christian lives So we see that there is no human cause for this sickness. That's what I'm getting at here Now if we study the scripture and especially the New Testament We can see that God heals sickness and can heal sickness and there are many times that he does Heal sickness first of all God can heal miraculously and at times he does and he did If we look at the gospel accounts, we can see many examples when Jesus healed Immaculously all the gospel accounts show us that Jesus healed many people in many different circumstances and many times They did not even believe or come to believe in him And if we study the gospel accounts in the book of Acts We will see that the apostles were gifted supernaturally to heal The first account of the apostles healing in the book of Acts is seen in Acts 3 in verse 1 We see that Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer and there they encountered a man Who had been lame from birth and as he was begging at the gate of the temple Peter called the lame man to get up and walk and he did Simply he was healed by Peter's command but a question Does God heal miraculously now?

The Bible does not say that God has ceased Healing miraculously. Let me say that again The Bible does not say that God has ceased to heal miraculously Of course, we do not believe in apostolic succession and we should understand that the apostolic healed have ceased They ceased when the apostles died But the Bible does not say that God has ceased to heal miraculously and the scriptures do not forbid us to pray That God would heal miraculously Look folks if it's on your heart to pray that Ali Jain would be healed pray Nothing wrong with that If God has put that on your heart to pray pray pray that God would heal her I really believe that if God healed her miraculously We just might get a little unbaptist shout hallelujah Some of you I know your background you came from some charismatic backgrounds Some of that just kind of lingers in your mind and in your heart if God were to miraculously Heal Ali Jain, I think some of you would get up and just run around the room and shout hallelujah.

I wouldn't say stop But the Bible does not say we should not pray this way But then next we need to understand that God does not always heal miraculously He does not always heal miraculously in our study of the book of Philippians on Wednesday night We have seen how the Philippian church sent one of their best men of Papadontas to minister to Paul when he was in a Roman imprisonment well Paul tells us in Philippians 2 26 that a papparditis became seriously ill This was either on the journey to Paul or when he got there and was with Paul and in verse 27 Paul says indeed He was ill near to death But God had mercy on him and not only on him but also on me least I should have sorrow upon sorrow Some of us might pause and say a papparditis should have asked him to heal him He might have said Paul you healed others.

Why can't you hear me? He'll mean But here we see that God does not always heal miraculously, but notice what Paul says He says that God had mercy on him Look folks any healing any healing Is straight from the hand of God from the mercy and the grace of God notice that what did Paul say? But God had mercy on him. That's what we're praying for for the mercy of God. Why the mercy and not the grace?

Because we all deserve death and Judgment all men and mankind deserve death and judgment folks So any healing of any kind comes from the mercy of God But then third many times God chooses to heal through natural means The example I have just mentioned is one Paul says that a papparditis became sick and he almost died But Paul said that God had mercy on him and that he was healed and it appears that he gained his health through natural means Now then forth many times God chooses to heal through medicine Some of you may not realize it but at times Paul traveled with his own personal physician Paul called Luke his beloved or much-loved physician in Colossians 4 14 Yes, Luke was a physician and in 1st Timothy 5 23 Paul called Timothy to and I'm quoting the verse no longer drink only water But use a little wine for the sake of your stomach for your frequent ailments.

What was Paul doing? He was calling Timothy to use wine as a medicine. It had medicinal purposes So we see that doctors and medical care in the scriptures can heal now I ask you a question if Ali Jane is healed through chemotherapy and modern medicine. Are we gonna rejoice? Of course We're gonna praise the Lord God uses medicines God uses hospitals. He uses nurses.

He uses those educations Those are grace gifts and I'm thankful for those and we should pray for doctors and for their care and for all That Ali Jane is getting there But there are two more things we need to see here with this list Fifth we have already touched on this some sometimes it is not always God's will to heal It's not Think about it. If it was God's will to heal all sickness, then no one would ever get old and no one would die If all sickness was healed then we would live forever in this earthly body folks.

We don't want to live forever in this earthly body We don't and for us the brutal reality is this there are times when we want healing But God does not give that healing. I Can't help but think about someone who was with us who is now in heaven and glory Our friend George Crosby our brother George stood right here professed his conversion was baptized We walk with him through his sickness. We prayed for physical healing, but God didn't grant that healing But instead of giving George healing he gave him something better. He graduated and went on to the other side He's not struggling with physical sickness anymore.

He's worshiping the Lord unhindered unhindered but then six Six a failure to be healed does not reveal a lack of faith This is where so many of our charismatic friends error You see if you believe and some of you do That Paul's thorn in the flesh was a physical malady Then you understand that a lack of healing for Paul does not reveal a lack of faith Because that thorn in the flesh was never taken away When Paul wrote about a papparditis in Philippians 2 25 to 27 He never said his sickness or his near death was from a lack of faith.

He commended him wonderfully We see the same thing in 2nd Timothy 4 20 there Paul said that when he left Corinth He left a man named through freemus there who was sick and he never said that his sickness was from a lack of faith See if you study these things in light of the sovereign providential work of God It just seems like it was God's providential plan that a papparditis be sick But yet by his mercy he was healed now. What is my point here besides some general teaching on sickness and healing What is my point here?

Understanding all that we have just heard enables us to have a healthy understanding of sickness and healing and of course we're not done yet Understanding these things enables us to be right or more biblical in how we view these things now look folks Notice if we're out of balance here notice what happens If you have a child that gets sick or your wife gets sick or family gets sick you might think that you've done something wrong Imagine that that horror of thinking that it's your fault now sometimes it can be someone's fault You might not realize it but the disciples asked Jesus about the man who was born blind who sinned him or his parents it was a common Jewish belief that if someone was born with the sickness, it was the parents fault and that wasn't the case and Sometimes understanding these things will prevent someone from going off the cliff thinking that their child is sick because of them Also the one who doesn't think that they have enough faith for their child or their parents or someone to be healed think about the Misery they're living in they just can't whip up enough faith.

They can't buy enough faith. They can't get enough faith Many times people if they're out of balance here, they'll panic they'll worry they will just careen off the cliff of Sin and self there's so much more I could say there But as I close I want to give us one point of instruction and some encouragement In Galatians 16 Paul says and I'm quoting the verse so then as we speaking to brothers sisters believers So then as we have opportunity let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are of the household of faith Here we see that if we as believers if we have the opportunity to do good we should For who well Paul says everyone Maybe you have someone you work with There's an opportunity for you to do good by them if you have an opportunity do it Maybe there's some of you who have extended family and they go through a trial or a difficulty Maybe there's an opportunity for you to do good by them.

Well, you do it Maybe you have a neighbor and they have a need and there's an opportunity for you to do good by them Well, if you have the opportunity you do it. Well, what does it mean to do good by everyone? Well, that's that's billions of things But look church as individual believers and families within the church If you do good to those in the church add you as you have opportunity You're gonna be very busy Now think about the context of our church think about this How many opportunities do you have to do good by others in your small group? How many opportunities do you have to do good by those in the life of the church?

I think about how many babies we have how many young mothers we have how many young mothers need some of you to do good by them See if you get that in your mind that you were to do good by those of the household of faith You might not do quite as much good out there because you're busy doing good in here And look church Specifically, here's the instruction. We have the opportunity and we should should do good by Evan and Devin and Ollie Jane you might say pastor. What is that?

I don't know Look around I Give you a good example As a family that I know that attend Grace Life Church of Muscle Shoals, Alabama They had a little girl a little older that went through cancer She told the testimony Going to treatment spending hours days weeks months in hospitals And she said, you know, our family is rather large and we homeschooled. She said my kids never missed a class She said while I was walking out the door an army of women were coming into my home from our church to school our kids She said while I was at the hospital fighting for my daughter's life People from the church were coming over cooking meals washing clothes.

My husband and my other kids didn't miss a pair of socks or a meal She wanted to describe all the good that those in the church did what for a brother for a sister for a family in the church So what I'm showing you is this you have an opportunity to do good by them and you might say pastor What do I do? Look around? I Ask the Lord he will show you Now I said I had a little encouragement well, here's the encouragement you have been doing good by them You have I'm thankful just keep doing good and keep doing more good now At this point I want to conclude the message by giving you the time of the message and telling you what will be next I've already spoken to some of this.

I called this morning's message What does the Bible say about sickness and next Sunday morning? We're gonna get into James 5 verses 13 to 17 and what I call what does the Bible say about praying for healing? So let's pray. Let's commit these things to the Lord and let's look forward to what God is doing and continuing to do and what he is going to do through the Circumstances that he has brought our way. Let's pray