Modern Faith Healers?

Sovereign Grace Family Church

2 views

January 7, 2012

00:00: As most of you know, prior to leaving on our break, we were discussing the subject of spiritual gifts last Sunday.
00:11: I used that as an opportunity to, again, remind us all of our responsibility of being not only members of the church, but active members serving together as one body, using our individual spiritual gifts as a unified diversity, so that all of the various things that are supposed to be going on within the church are actually being done.
00:40: One of the things that I've mentioned multiple times, and most of you have said it or heard me say it, or you've said it yourselves, is that oftentimes what we see is that in any church we have an 80-20 situation.
00:56: That is, 20% of the people do 80% of the work.
01:00: And we see that in so many churches, and we see that from the small churches even to the bigger churches.
01:05: The only difference is, when you go to a big church, 20% of people is a lot more people than in a smaller congregation, where 20% is a very small number of people.
01:17: And we not only want to encourage people to utilize their spiritual gifts so we can spread the work around, that's really the least important thing.
01:26: The most important thing is that we be doing what God has gifted us to do, because God has not gifted anyone the ability to do everything.
01:37: So that's the key to all of this, is that if we're not doing what God has called us to do, something is either getting left undone, or it's not being done as well as it could be if the person whom God has gifted were doing it.
01:53: So that's what we need to consider.
01:56: Now, tonight we are going to begin a multi-week study on the same subject of spiritual gifts.
02:08: But I've been promising I was going to do this, and I said, well, right after the new year I would do this.
02:13: We're going to take a couple of weeks and look at what we would call the miraculous, or what we would call the sign gifts.
02:26: When the subject of spiritual gifts come up, inevitably people begin to discuss those gifts which manifest themselves in miraculous ways.
02:37: The gift of healing, the gift of tongues and others, are often the most disputed of the spiritual gifts because there is disagreement as to whether or not those gifts are still active in the church.
02:56: Those who argue that they are active claim that the events of the early church were simply a pattern that the entire church was supposed to follow for all time.
03:07: Those who argue that they are not to be used today or not in something that God does today claim that the events of the early church were given to provide the early church with signs to accompany the early leaders of the church, similar to how God gave Moses signs when he presented himself before the Hebrew people as their God-given leader.
03:35: Often those who say that the gifts have continued argue that the church still needs the miraculous signs to accompany the preaching of the word.
03:44: Those who say that we don't need the miraculous gifts say that the word alone is sufficient.
03:50: That's the big separation.
03:51: There are those who say, no, we need the gift of tongues.
03:53: We need the gift of healing.
03:55: These miracles must accompany the preaching of the word.
03:57: And yet there are those who say the preaching of the word by itself is sufficient to save souls.
04:04: And change hearts.
04:06: Almost always the debate centers on one specific question.
04:11: Does the Bible say that the miraculous gifts will stop at any point in time? Does it say that they would cease? However, I want to say that I do not believe this is the issue, even though that's often the question that people start with.
04:27: Well, does the Bible say that the gifts would cease? That is not the issue.
04:32: I think that the Bible does give indications that certain gifts will cease, but that is not where I want to go to make my point.
04:39: Instead, I want to allow history to be the arbiter.
04:44: The question is not, does the Bible say that certain gifts will cease? But rather, the question is, does history show that certain gifts continued? That's the question.
04:55: It's not does the Bible say they're going to stop, which it does.
04:58: The question really is, when did they stop? And when does history show that they stopped and that they did not continue after that? If it can be demonstrated that certain gifts did not continue after the first generation of the church, then reason demands us to conclude that these gifts were for a certain time, for a certain people, for a certain purpose, that being the establishment of the church.
05:21: So over the next few weeks, we're going to examine some of the gifts to see if they were to continue or if they were given to the early church for its establishment.
05:31: Now, there are two gifts, as I mentioned earlier, there are two gifts that really are the gifts in question.
05:37: The first is the gift of healing, miraculous healing.
05:43: And then is the gift of tongues.
05:49: We have the gift of miraculous healing and the gift of tongues.
05:59: Now, tonight, and I want to tell you, it took me a while.
06:02: I was going back and forth with this.
06:04: I was trying to decide which one I wanted to begin with.
06:07: I said, which one of these would be the most interesting? Which one would would really capture our attention? Which one did I want to focus on? And I have to say, it was really difficult to make that decision.
06:20: So I decided on healing.
06:22: We're going to begin with the miraculous healing.
06:25: We're going to talk about this.
06:26: We're going to answer some questions about this.
06:29: Whether or not we finish tonight doesn't matter, really.
06:32: I mean, what matters is that we get the lesson through, not that we get through with the lesson.
06:36: That's very important little little thing to remember.
06:39: And we're going to talk about healing now in the weeks to come.
06:43: We're going to deal with the tongues and we're going to.
06:45: Now, I want to tell you, this lesson will be a couple of weeks.
06:49: This lesson has the potential of being very long.
06:53: So I'm going to try to cut it down because the gift of tongues and the question about the tongues can become and it can stir a lot of debate.
07:01: And I'm not I'm not really I'm not trying to debate.
07:05: I'm not trying to create an argument.
07:07: What I'm saying is that as a church, we have as for as long as I've been here is for as long.
07:13: I'm sure we have not practiced the gift of speaking in tongues.
07:16: Is that right, Jack? Is there ever been anyone who's tried to stand up and practice to get to speak in tongues? Never.
07:22: OK, so we would then be what would be classically determined or classically defined as cessationists.
07:31: That simply means that we believe that certain gifts ceased after the first century church or the first generation of the church.
07:38: That's called a cessationist, somebody who believes that certain gifts ceased.
07:42: Now, other congregations, other churches such as the Pentecostal movement are what are called they are called charismatic.
07:52: They mean that that means they believe that all of the gifts not only were for the first century church, but were for the whole church for all time.
08:00: So you have cessationists versus the charismatics.
08:04: And I'll go ahead and tip my hand.
08:06: I am a cessationist.
08:07: I do believe there were certain gifts that were given to the early church for the specific purpose of establishing the church.
08:13: As I already said, just like Moses was given certain signs so that he could establish his authority among the Hebrew people.
08:20: So, too, was the early church given certain signs to demonstrate that they were truly the body of Christ in the world.
08:27: And once the word of God was codified and was canonized, the need for a continuation of miraculous gifts to establish the word was no longer there.
08:37: Rather, they had the inspired and inerrant word of God to be their infallible source.
08:44: So that that being said, we're going to look at the subject of healing.
08:51: And let's just begin by looking at one of Christ's healings.
08:55: Let's turn in our Bibles to Luke chapter four.
09:20: Luke chapter four, verse 31.
09:29: And we will read verses 31 and following.
09:37: It says, And when he went down, talking about Jesus, to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and he was teaching them on the Sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching for his word possessed authority.
09:53: And in the synagogue, there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, Ha, what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the holy one of God.
10:13: But Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be silent and come out of him.
10:19: And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm.
10:26: And they were all amazed and said to one another, What is this word? For with authority and power, he commands the unclean spirits and they come out and reports about him went out into every place in the surrounding region.
10:43: And then it goes on in verse 38 to talk about other healings of Jesus.
10:46: It says, And he arose and left the synagogue and entered Simon's house.
10:51: Now, Simon's mother-in-law was ill with a high fever and they appealed to him on her behalf, and he stood over her and rebuked the fever and it left her.
11:01: And immediately she rose and began to serve them.
11:04: Now, when the sun was setting, all those who had any were who were sick with various diseases, brought them to him and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them.
11:15: And demons also came out of many crying, You are the son of God.
11:20: But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ.
11:29: Finish our reading there and begin our lesson.
11:39: Healing is a very sought after profession.
11:49: Not one of us enjoys being ill.
11:54: None of us enjoy having to cope with disease.
12:00: The last few months I've had to spend a lot of my spare time in doctor's offices talking about issues that I have.
12:10: Nothing that is life threatening, but things that are that have just kept me having to go.
12:15: I've had to have tests from head to toe.
12:18: It seems like over the last few months about some issues that happen have been happening in my body.
12:23: And I got to be honest with you, I don't enjoy it.
12:26: I don't enjoy being sick.
12:28: And I know that those of you who have experienced serious illnesses, those of you and all of us have experienced illness on one level or another.
12:36: No one enjoys being sick or having to cope with disease.
12:41: And most everyone, when they are hurting or ill, want to seek treatment.
12:46: If we're hurting, we want to go to the doctor or we want to we want to go to the pharmacy.
12:50: We want to get some medicine.
12:51: We want to get something that's going to make us feel better.
12:57: And some will seek after miracle healers even before they seek out medical doctors.
13:04: Some people go right to the shaman or right to the whatever kind of therapist, hypnotherapist or whatever.
13:11: Anything that they think that might bring a miraculous cure, some kind of faith cure, rather than going and simply seeing a doctor.
13:20: In fact, the American Cancer Society's website, if you go to the American Cancer Society's website, they have an entire section on the evidences and possible problems associated with faith healing.
13:35: They're on the website.
13:36: They talk about things that have happened as a result of people who have gone and visited certain types of faith healers.
13:45: Through the various activities of my life, especially where I have studied Eastern philosophy and the martial arts, I have encountered many different types of so-called healers.
13:55: I've experienced people who teach that all illnesses and sicknesses come from a result of cosmic energies that are out of balance.
14:04: And they teach how to channel this energy into healing power to remove negative energy and throw it away.
14:10: I remember one man very, very I remember this very clearly.
14:17: He was doing this on another person who was sitting in a chair.
14:21: He wasn't touching them.
14:23: And he was explaining what I'm doing is I'm taking the aura and I'm pulling all the badness away.
14:30: And then he had a little bucket of salt.
14:34: And he was taking the aura and he was dipping it in the salt.
14:38: And he said, what I'm doing is I'm throwing the bad energy into the salt.
14:41: He said, because you don't want to just throw it out in the air.
14:44: You don't want all the bad energy out in the air.
14:46: You throw it in the salt because the salt, it absorbs it.
14:53: Right now, as much as I may disagree with that, the person sitting there was just, you know, the person experiencing this, this nirvanic experience, you know, where, you know, they were just living it up, you know.
15:15: And in my studies of comparative religion, I see many claims that are just as difficult, just as absurd.
15:28: One of the most famous healers, if you want to use quotation marks, healers in history is a woman.
15:36: And most of you know this name from our comparative religion study, a woman named Mary Baker Eddy.
15:45: Eddy was the founder of the Christian science movement.
15:50: And most of you are somewhat familiar with Christian science.
15:53: They've got a, you know, different organization, Christian Science Monitor, things like that.
15:57: They've even got a Christian science reading room over off of Atlantic Boulevard.
16:00: If you're driving by and you if you're going east, north, south, if you go east and you look to your left as you're driving on Beach Boulevard, you'll see a big Christian science reading room.
16:11: And this group claims a power of divine healing.
16:15: She claimed herself a power of divine healing.
16:18: She taught that all illness is in the mind and the mind has the power over the body.
16:24: Thus, the mind has the power to heal the body.
16:27: And actually, she taught that healing comes from the realization that you really cannot truly become sick or hurt.
16:34: You can't become sick or hurt unless you allow it to happen, unless your mind allows it.
16:40: Actually, she taught that again, that she is claimed by her followers to have healed countless individuals, even though there's never been any medical evidence provided for any of her healings.
16:51: She also taught her unique brand of divine healing in seminars, which cost $300 for 12 sessions.
16:59: So and this is 1910 dollars.
17:03: So you figure she died.
17:06: Actually, she died in 1910.
17:08: She died as a millionaire and a millionaire in 1910 is different than a millionaire today.
17:16: Now, just bringing up all these things, talking about all these things, I'm often asked because of all the false religious so-called faith healers that are out there, people often ask me, well, Pastor, do you believe in divine or miraculous healing? And my answer is, yeah, I do believe in divine miraculous healing because I just read it in the Bible.
17:41: I mean, we started today.
17:42: We started reading at verse 31.
17:44: We read all the way to verse 41.
17:47: And what we read is that Jesus Christ, when he walked the earth, he did do miraculous and divine healing.
17:54: And, you know, I can only take that one of two ways.
17:56: I can say, you know what? I believe what the Bible says.
17:59: Thus, I believe in miraculous healing.
18:01: And I have to take it at face value that that's actually what happened.
18:04: Jesus really did take that demon out of that man.
18:06: Jesus really did heal Peter's mother-in-law.
18:08: Jesus really did heal all these different sicknesses that came to him.
18:12: And he really did do that.
18:13: I can take it at face value because that's what the Bible says.
18:16: And because that's what my faith commands me to do, that's what I do.
18:18: I believe it.
18:19: I trust in it.
18:20: That's what it says.
18:21: That's what I believe.
18:22: But there's another way.
18:24: You could simply say, oh, well, that's just a myth.
18:27: But again, what do you do then? You have to look at the whole Bible and say, well, the whole Bible, then you begin to everything is suspect.
18:33: Everything is a myth.
18:34: Everything is just a story.
18:37: So if you believe the Bible, you do believe in miraculous divine healing.
18:44: It's just that simple.
18:46: Anyone who claims to not believe in divine healing has to claim that the Bible is false.
18:51: And all who know me know that I'm not going to do that.
18:56: But I think the more important question is not the one that usually comes past.
19:01: Or do you believe in divine healing? And I say, yes, but that's not the question you're asking.
19:08: I people sometimes get frustrated with me.
19:09: I say, let me tell you what you really want to know, because that's not what you want to know.
19:14: You don't want to know if I believe in divine healing.
19:16: What you want to know is, do I believe if today's faith healers are real? That's what you want to know.
19:24: You don't want to know.
19:25: Yes, we all believe in divine healing because it's in the Bible.
19:28: Jesus healed.
19:29: Peter said to the man who sat outside the gates of Jerusalem, he said, silver and gold have I none, but this I give to you.
19:36: But in the name of Jesus Christ, rise and walk.
19:38: And that day, the man rose and walked.
19:39: No faith on his own.
19:40: He didn't know who Jesus Christ was.
19:41: But at that moment, because of the faith of Peter, a lot of people say, well, the guy didn't get healed because he didn't have any faith.
19:46: You know, that's what a lot of these faith healers today will say.
19:48: Oh, well, he didn't have enough faith.
19:49: That's why he didn't get healed.
19:50: But the guy at the gate didn't have any faith.
19:51: He didn't know anything.
19:53: All he knew was he wanted money.
19:54: Silver and gold have I none, but this I give to you.
19:56: Jesus Christ, in the name of Jesus Christ, rise and walk.
20:00: Boom, he rose and walked.
20:01: Why? Because it was the power of Christ, not the power of the man's faith.
20:05: That's a little important little side issue there.
20:09: But that's just again, the issue is we believe in divine, miraculous healing.
20:16: The question is, do we believe that today's modern faith healers are real? My answer is simple.
20:26: Drumroll, please.
20:27: Just kidding.
20:30: Now, I do not believe that the vast majority of today's faith healers, including those who claim to be Christian, are genuine healers.
20:45: I do not believe that.
20:48: Now, people ask, why do you hold that position? The reason why I hold that position, and it's not simply because of personal prejudice or because I grew up in a church that was a cessationist church and we didn't practice divine miracles here.
21:03: That's not the reason.
21:06: The reason is because I do not see anyone and I've never seen anyone who performs the same types of miracles that marked the ministry of Jesus or his disciples.
21:21: There were five individual specific things that marked the ministry of Jesus's healing and his disciples healing that I have never seen matched out of today's faith healers.
21:35: Five different things.
21:36: And now we're going to get to my little board.
21:38: You notice my board shrank.
21:41: Hopefully this will still work.
21:44: I wanted something easier to carry.
21:46: It's now the size of a suitcase when I grab it and pick it up.
21:50: The first thing, the first thing, there are five of these.
21:54: Whether we get to all five tonight, I don't know.
21:56: We'll just keep an eye on our time and we'll see.
21:59: Because I don't want to belabor it, but I don't want to go too fast either.
22:03: And if you have questions, feel free when tonight's time to ask.
22:06: The first thing, number one, they healed.
22:10: And this is speaking of Jesus and his disciples.
22:15: They healed instantly.
22:19: They healed instantly.
22:20: That is number one.
22:22: There is not any case in the Bible of Jesus and his disciples healing someone where it was what we might call progressive healing.
22:38: Matthew 8, 13 tells us that the centurion servant, remember when Jesus said to the centurion who came to him, he said that centurion servant, when Jesus made that command, was healed that very hour.
22:51: It happened right then.
22:52: Mark 5, 29 says that the woman with the issue of blood, remember when she touched the hem of Jesus's garment, that the issue of blood dried up instantly.
23:03: Jesus healed ten lepers on the road.
23:05: Remember, they came to him, they asked him and he said, go to the priest to show yourself.
23:09: Immediately upon going down the road, they recognized that all ten had been cleansed.
23:14: And then the only the one came back to give thanks.
23:16: We talked about that this year on Thanksgiving.
23:19: That's Luke 17.
23:20: John chapter five, verse nine tells us that the cripple man at the pool of Bethesda immediately became well, even the blind man who Jesus sent to wash his face immediately came back seeing John nine and seven.
23:37: No question.
23:37: Yes, ma'am.
23:42: Yeah, absolutely.
23:47: Well, the centurion earlier, it was his servant.
23:51: Yeah, the centurion who came to him, Jesus, that's the one that's in.
23:54: Yeah, Matthew eight, 13.
23:57: And when he came back, he was healed.
23:58: When was he healed? When? And they said this hour.
24:01: Well, it was the same hour that Jesus had said it.
24:03: Absolutely.
24:04: Instantly.
24:05: All of these healings were instantaneous.
24:09: His apostles also, after being given the power of the spirit on the day of Pentecost, worked in the very same way.
24:15: Acts chapter three tells us about Peter and John healing the lame man at the gate.
24:19: Beautiful, which is the story we talked about earlier.
24:21: That healing was instant.
24:23: And the book of Acts is replete with stories such as that with instantaneous healing.
24:30: I have heard people.
24:31: Yes.
24:45: Yeah, the ability.
24:52: Yeah, the ministry of the early church and these miracles marked who they were.
25:08: These were Christ's representatives to the church.
25:13: I've heard people say.
25:16: And I try not to be coy or funny when I deal with this subject, because I know healing is a huge issue.
25:26: And some people get very sick and they're focused on on faith healing or some kind of healing going to see.
25:33: But this is what I sometimes hear.
25:34: I hear and I've heard this more than once.
25:36: People say, I got healed and I'm getting better.
25:44: Well, guess what? If you got healed, you don't need to get better.
25:47: You're right.
25:48: That's the key.
25:49: That's that's one of the huge differences between the ministry of Christ and the ministry of many modern faith healers.
25:55: Well, you got healed and you're getting better.
25:58: It's it's they're they're a divide there with Jesus and his apostles.
26:04: There was no need to get better.
26:07: The healings were not progressive.
26:08: The person was made whole.
26:11: There was no need for rehab.
26:13: There was no need for physical therapy.
26:15: Let me tell you one of the most miraculous things that I find so awesome in the Bible.
26:21: Jesus healed a man blind from birth and the man knew what he was looking at.
26:30: If you think about that for a minute.
26:32: I don't know how many a few years ago there was a movie that came out.
26:36: I don't remember the name of the movie.
26:37: I know you do.
26:38: What was it? OK, yeah, I know Val Kilmer was in the movie.
26:46: The movie was about a man who was born blind.
26:48: It's a fantastic movie to illustrate this point.
26:52: The man was born blind.
26:54: A doctor developed from what I understand.
26:57: It was based on a true story.
26:59: Of course, I always hate it when they say based on a true story, because you can base it on a true story to make up all kinds of stuff.
27:04: But but anyway, the story is supposed to be based on a true story.
27:08: And this was what happened in the movie.
27:10: Man born blind, lived his whole life blind, knew how to do everything, was very was was very active as a blind man in the world.
27:17: Just learned how to use his other senses and learned how to how to act in the world as a blind man.
27:22: A doctor came to him with a miraculous cure and was able to give him back his sight or actually give him this.
27:30: I never had it.
27:32: Well, he restored his sight.
27:35: And he didn't know how to live.
27:38: His entire life, up 30 years, he had lived without sight.
27:42: He had relied on the sense of touch, the sense of smell, the sense of hearing, and he had never seen anything.
27:48: He didn't understand depth perception.
27:51: He couldn't reach out and grab anything because he couldn't tell how far it was away by looking at it because he'd never seen anything.
28:02: And I thought that movie is a wonderful example because the man whom Jesus healed is blind from birth instantly.
28:09: He not only healed the physical eyes, he feel he healed the psychological boundary between non sight and sight so that he could act as a sighted person in the world instantly.
28:29: That's amazing.
28:31: And that's what Jesus did.
28:32: Not only was there instant, it didn't require any physical therapy.
28:35: It didn't require having to teach him the difference of what things look like.
28:38: He knew what things were because Jesus healed him physically and psychologically instantly.
28:45: The miracle was complete.
28:47: Miracle was divine.
28:48: The miracle was from God.
28:51: All right.
28:53: So they healed instantly.
28:55: That's number one.
28:58: Number two, they healed totally.
29:09: They healed totally.
29:12: Look at the story that we were just looking at, the story of Jesus going to Peter's mother-in-law.
29:20: Peter's mother-in-law was sick.
29:22: She had a high fever, obviously, before antibiotics and things like that, like we have today.
29:27: And, you know, fevers were things that could take people's lives very easily.
29:31: If you've got an infection, you've got a disease and there wasn't antibiotics to heal.
29:35: Obviously, people could die.
29:38: After Jesus healed her, she didn't have to rest a few days.
29:44: That's why I love the story.
29:45: She immediately got up and began to prepare for them a meal.
29:50: Jesus rebuked the fever.
29:52: She was totally healed and there was no recuperation, period.
29:59: Now, notice he didn't tell her, go put a little honey in some whiskey and drink it and you'll feel better in a few days.
30:09: Don't go, you know, go sip on some chicken soup.
30:12: Yeah, I said whiskey.
30:19: It's sharp.
30:31: Yeah, absolutely.
30:32: It takes time to get over it.
30:45: And notice he didn't tell her that she needed to claim her healing by faith.
30:50: If you read this, Jesus didn't say, now I'll heal you, but you've got to claim this by faith.
30:56: You'll receive total, instantaneous, miraculous healing, but you've got to want to receive it.
31:05: What's that? Lazarus.
31:09: Well, that's that's number five.
31:11: You're jumping.
31:11: You're bad about jumping ahead of me.
31:14: That's that's number five.
31:16: But that's the one thing that has yet to be repeated, except by the apostles.
31:23: Jesus is raising of Lazarus and Peter, raising of the disciple who fell out of the window.
31:29: You know, we see we see the apostles given that miraculous ability to raise the dead.
31:34: But again, that's number five.
31:35: Don't get too far ahead.
31:39: Again, the same can be said about the apostles.
31:42: Jesus healed totally and so did the apostles.
31:46: When they healed the lame man at the gate, beautiful, he began walking with them.
31:50: Every healing of Christ and the apostles was a complete healing.
31:53: Acts 934 is insightful because it says this.
31:57: And Peter said unto them, Anais, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole, arise and make thy bed.
32:03: And he arose immediately.
32:04: That's Acts 934.
32:06: No recovery time, no recurring symptoms, no slow movement, simply immediate and total healing.
32:13: And it was the only time that Jesus and his apostles ever practiced.
32:18: One of the saddest stories that I've ever read comes from a book by Dr.
32:25: John MacArthur.
32:26: It's actually in the pulpit.
32:28: I just I didn't even realize I'd left it there.
32:31: I tend to leave my books.
32:32: I'm not as I'm not as organized as Mr.
32:34: Richard is with my with my library.
32:36: I tend to borrow out books and I'll set a book somewhere.
32:39: And as I was looking through the pulpit today, I found this book.
32:42: It's called Charismatic Chaos.
32:45: It's a tremendous read.
32:47: It's one of my favorite books of all time, because I think I grew up in two churches.
32:53: Most of you know this.
32:54: I grew up in this church as my primary church.
32:56: But every once in a while I went down and I spent time with my mother in Stark.
33:02: And there she always was going to holiness churches, which are congregational Methodists, which are Pentecostal in their foundation, Pentecostal in their beliefs.
33:14: So I was exposed to this from a very early age, exposed to things like the belief in miraculous healing, the belief in tongues.
33:21: So I have somewhat of a of a lifetime investment in the subject.
33:26: And I was exposed to seeing these things.
33:28: So so so when I read Charismatic Chaos, it was very helpful for me.
33:33: John MacArthur's book.
33:34: But one of the stories he tells in the book, I always I always tell the story with it with almost a tear because he tells the story of a man he spoke to about miraculous healing.
33:45: And he said, yes, my wife, she was sick.
33:50: But we went to and he named the faith healer, he says, and she was miraculously healed of her fatal disease.
34:00: And John MacArthur said, that's that's wonderful.
34:05: Where is she now? Oh, she died.
34:09: How long after the healing? One year.
34:18: See, you can believe it in your mind all you want, but if it's not reality, it's not reality.
34:25: They believe it.
34:26: He believed that even after she had died of the disease.
34:33: Jesus didn't heal that way.
34:35: Jesus didn't heal partially.
34:37: He didn't have recovery time.
34:38: Jesus healed totally.
34:44: Make it to him all tonight.
34:45: We'll see.
34:46: Yeah, we got time.
34:48: Number three, they healed anyone.
35:00: They healed anyone.
35:02: Now, I don't say they healed everyone.
35:06: Because that would be a lie.
35:08: Jesus didn't just give a blanket blessing to Israel and say every sick person in Israel arise.
35:15: But there was never brought to Jesus anyone that he could not heal.
35:22: Luke 440 says, Now, when the sun was setting, all they had, all that had any sick and diverse diseases brought them unto him.
35:29: And he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them.
35:34: Now, I know some of you are probably thinking, yes, but aren't there those passages where Jesus couldn't do many mighty works there because of their lack of faith? Well, yes, there are passages like that, and they do have to be addressed.
35:47: But one thing I want to address first is simply this.
35:50: Jesus did not hold healing services where he scheduled and ended his services at a certain fixed hour.
35:58: He did not leave auditoriums full of disappointed people who returned home in their wheelchairs and with their sicknesses who had come with faith and yet returned still sick.
36:16: That's the difference from today.
36:18: Yes, there were people who had no faith and Jesus did not heal them, but never did someone come and fall at his feet in faith, as many do at these massive faith healing auditorium filling events.
36:30: And yet the vast majority of them are sent home with the same ailments with which they came.
36:38: The Bible shows that when the throngs came to Jesus for healing, he healed them.
36:44: He never met a case that he could not heal and he never met a demon that he could not exercise.
36:50: Jesus was not selective in his healing.
36:53: He could heal anyone he chose.
36:56: I want to read to you a story.
37:00: This is from Dr.
37:01: William Nolan.
37:03: Dr.
37:04: Nolan, back in the 1970s, did extensive research into faith healers and especially one prominent faith healer in the 1970s.
37:13: And many of you would probably know her name if I said her name, Catherine Kuhlman.
37:18: I may be saying that name wrong.
37:20: She wasn't around after I was born.
37:22: But if you I'd like to throw that out there.
37:29: But Catherine Kuhlman or Kuhlman or however you say her name.
37:32: She was sort of the predecessor, I understand, to our modern Benny Hinn movement.
37:39: So you got an idea.
37:40: If you don't know who she is, most of us know who Benny Hinn is and his quote unquote ministry.
37:47: This is Dr.
37:48: Nolan having gone to one of these faith healing services, gone there and watched the events.
37:54: And he is writing a narrative of what happened at the end of the event.
37:59: I want you to hear this, please, with your with your focus, because this this this is heart wrenching for me.
38:07: And I quote, Finally, it is over.
38:12: There were still long lines of people waiting to get on to the stage and claim their cures.
38:18: But at five o'clock with a hymn and a final blessing, the show ended.
38:24: Ms.
38:24: Kuhlman left the stage and the audience left the auditorium.
38:28: Before going back to talk to Ms.
38:30: Kuhlman, I spent a few minutes watching the wheelchair patients leave.
38:35: All the desperately ill patients who had been in wheelchairs were still in wheelchairs.
38:41: In fact, the man with kidney cancer in his spine and hip, the man whom I had helped to the auditorium and whom had his had his borrowed wheelchair brought to the stage and shown to the audience when he had claimed a cure, was now back in the wheelchair.
38:56: His cure, even if it was only a hysterical one, had been extremely short lived.
39:04: As I stood in the corridor watching the hopeless cases leave, seeing the tears of the parents as they pushed their crippled children to the elevators, I wish Ms.
39:13: Kuhlman had been with me.
39:17: She had complained a couple of times during the service of the responsibility, the cured, but I wondered how often she really looked at them.
39:32: I wonder whether she sincerely felt that the joys of those cured of bursitis and arthritis compensated for the anguish of those with withered legs, their imbecilic children, their cancers of the liver.
39:48: I wonder if she really knew what damage she was doing.
39:52: I couldn't believe.
39:55: That she did.
39:57: And this is sad, very sad.
40:06: But it is an all too common occurrence.
40:18: They healed anyone.
40:20: Number four.
40:21: They healed anywhere, they healed anywhere.
40:35: Jesus and his apostles walked about in their ministry.
40:38: They did not perform their work in tabernacles or in tents.
40:41: They did not have an entourage selectively leading people to them to receive their healings.
40:46: There was no special environment.
40:48: There were no theatrics.
40:51: Jesus even healed a soldier who was coming to arrest him in the garden of Gethsemane.
40:58: Remember, his ear was cut off and Jesus healed him miraculously, instantly, anywhere, anytime, any person.
41:05: There was no opportunity for collusion.
41:07: There was no setup.
41:08: There were no theatrics.
41:09: There was no tricks.
41:12: It was just Jesus, a man and an ear in the middle of a group of unbelievers.
41:21: Jesus didn't need everybody in the room to shoot their faith energy onto the stage or to grasp their healing by faith.
41:32: I've often wondered why those who boast the ability to heal do not go to hospitals and clinics to use their power.
41:37: Jesus went to a group of lepers.
41:39: Why not go to St.
41:40: Jude's? Why are they so bound by their environment? Why are why do they not go and seek the hurting and heal the sickly openly as Jesus and his apostles did? They don't.
41:58: You must come to them.
41:59: You must be under their specific rules and settings and their theatrics govern the show.
42:06: The emotions must run high because the emotions drive the healing, because most of us know when our emotions are at their highest, we are at our strongest physically.
42:17: That's why women, when their children are trapped, can lift cars because that adrenaline rush is so powerful, can cause a person with weakened legs to be able to stand, even if it's only for a short time.
42:33: Jesus didn't use tricks.
42:34: He didn't use theatrics.
42:37: He healed anywhere.
42:39: I lied.
42:39: I thought there was five.
42:40: I have six, but I have time, too.
42:42: So we'll do we'll get them all done tonight.
42:46: Number five, most important.
42:48: This is absolutely the most important.
42:49: This is the one I keep in my in my response bag.
42:53: When somebody says, why do you have a problem with modern faith? It was number five.
42:56: This is it.
42:59: That's a T.
43:00: Let's try five.
43:05: My mind is not working correctly, I guess.
43:08: All right.
43:09: Number five.
43:11: They healed organic disease.
43:22: They healed organic disease.
43:28: There is a difference.
43:29: There are two types of diseases.
43:30: If you ask any medical doctor, if you go and you talk, there are two two categories of diseases.
43:38: There are diseases which you would call functional disease, and there are diseases which you would call organic disease.
43:44: An example of functional disease is my arm is hurting.
43:49: That's functional disease.
43:51: An organic disease would be my arm is broken.
43:56: You see, or my arm is withered or my arm is missing.
44:03: That's organic disease.
44:05: And the difference is very important because one is verifiable and one is not.
44:11: Also, one can be psychosomatic.
44:14: The other cannot be.
44:16: You can psychosomatically believe you have back pain or you can have a broken back.
44:22: You can't imagine that.
44:24: You can't imagine a broken back and cause it to be so.
44:27: Now, you make it happen by virtue of jumping off a roof, I guess.
44:31: But you can't.
44:33: You can't imagine it to be so.
44:38: Jesus and his disciples did not go up and down Palestine healing lower back pain.
44:49: He did.
44:50: That is funny.
44:51: But he did not go around up and down Palestine healing heart palpitations, headaches, ringing ears and other invisible ailments.
45:00: I remember so, so vividly, I don't watch the channel very much, but there's a channel on television.
45:07: Ladies got really pink hair and her husband has a little cheap mustache and not cheap.
45:12: What's the word I was looking for? Cheesy.
45:16: That's the word.
45:19: I've made no names.
45:21: But he's he's announcing to the congregation, you know, they're having this big emotion thing, the congregation is all excited and he's he's announcing he's doing his thing.
45:29: And he says to the congregation, he says, I have had a ring in my ears for three years.
45:35: And this man on the stage and the guy with him, the name rhymes with Lenny Benz and Lenny Benz was there and Lenny, he said, he said, and this miraculous healer just healed my ringing ears, three years of ringing ears.
45:50: And it was gone just like that.
45:54: Now, I realize ringing ears is a it's a serious medical condition.
45:57: I think John is here tonight.
45:59: You've had that issue and John's a musician.
46:02: Ringing ears can be a serious medical condition.
46:04: But John, you're the only person in the world that could verify if it went away.
46:10: Right.
46:11: It's a functional illness.
46:12: It's something that only you know about.
46:14: Nobody can look at your ears and see a bell shaking in there.
46:16: You are the only one who knows and you're the only one who knows if it goes.
46:22: So it's very easy to demonstrate such a thing.
46:26: However, Jesus healed obvious organic disease, crippled legs, withered hands, blind eyes, palsy, leprosy, things that were not brought on by the mind and things that could not be forged.
46:43: Love the blind man that Jesus healed in the Gospel of John.
46:46: His parents were brought before the Jews and his parents were asked, is this your son? Yes.
46:51: Was he born blind? Yes.
46:52: We don't want to ask any other questions, though, because we don't want to be in trouble.
46:55: So ask him the question.
46:56: Remember the story? You know, they didn't want to be involved, but they were involved enough to say, yes, this is our son.
47:02: And yes, he was blind since birth.
47:08: All of the healings of Christ, undeniably miraculous.
47:11: Even the Pharisees who did not believe in Jesus could not refute the miracles he performed.
47:17: Remember, the blind man is brought to the Pharisees and they argue with him.
47:21: And what is his response? I don't know anything about him, but this I do know.
47:25: I was blind and now I see and nobody could argue with that fact.
47:30: Whether they believed in Jesus or not, that was indisputable.
47:34: He was blind one moment and he could see the next.
47:39: An organic illness healed.
47:42: And that's, again, not something you could fake.
47:43: All you have to do is throw a ball at him.
47:45: You know, if he's telling the truth.
47:53: Finally, and this is number six.
47:58: But again, Mr.
48:00: Irving beat us here.
48:06: They raised the dead.
48:10: They raised the dead.
48:18: Death was no match for Christ.
48:20: Christ, we know of three miraculous times where Jesus took the power of death, turned it on its head, and he gave a person back their life.
48:33: One was when the widow's son was passing by at Nain.
48:38: And there at Nain, Jesus came to her and he saw the widow and knew this man.
48:44: It was the only one who could take care of her son.
48:46: And so he gave her back her son in life.
48:49: Him who was dead and being taken by in the funeral cart.
48:52: We know that story, the widow's son at Nain.
48:54: He raised Jairus's daughter to life.
48:57: We know Jairus was the one who came to Jesus when the woman with the issue of blood touched his garment.
49:02: Jesus was on his way to see Jairus's daughter.
49:05: And then what did the servants of Jairus come and say? Do not bother the teacher anymore for your daughter has died.
49:11: And Jesus said, just believe and she will be well.
49:15: And then, of course, the miracle of miracles when Jesus faced the tomb of Lazarus.
49:19: And he said, Lazarus, come forth.
49:21: And Lazarus came forth.
49:24: Jesus' apostles did this as well.
49:26: Peter restored Dorcas to life in Acts chapter 9, verses 36 through 42.
49:31: And Paul brought Eutychus back to life after he fell out of a window, having fallen asleep during one of Paul's sermons.
49:38: One of the greatest ironies that I'm not the only pastor who's ever put anyone to sleep.
49:46: I haven't never killed anyone.
49:48: I just love that story.
49:51: I mean, this is the greatest preacher outside of Christ.
49:56: And I guess you could say Peter and Paul had a different ministry, but both of them great preachers of the gospel.
50:01: They're one of the greatest gospel preachers ever.
50:04: But he's preaching all night long.
50:06: And even the greatest of all preachers, you know, it's time to go to bed.
50:13: But Paul brought him back to life.
50:18: Something you never see is a healer standing outside of a funeral home going.
50:24: I've never seen it.
50:25: Now, I have heard stories.
50:27: I have heard stories of people being brought back to life, but never three days dead.
50:33: Never three days dead.
50:36: I've heard people say person.
50:38: I heard one guy.
50:39: He said, well, a guy, you know, a guy, a pastor walked down one of these faith healers, walked down the service and he said, arise.
50:47: And the guy.
50:48: And he said he was dead and I just brought him back to life.
50:54: Who can argue with that? The guy's asleep.
50:56: He didn't know.
50:59: I mean, how are you going to how are you going to dispute? And he's very confident.
51:07: That's the scariest thing, folks, is confidence.
51:13: The confidence of these folks.
51:16: Because what happens is the confidence of the leader often inspires confidence among the followers and they all have confidence in this in this thing which is not real.
51:29: One of the scariest one of the scariest things I have ever witnessed, beloved.
51:35: And I've seen this.
51:37: I watched it happen.
51:41: The man, his name is Darren Brown.
51:44: He is a famous hypnotist and he is an atheist.
51:52: Darren Brown is a very gifted man, though he is an atheist.
51:55: He is very intelligent.
51:59: He has a tremendous memory.
52:00: He has a tremendous intellect.
52:02: He is he is he is tremendously gifted.
52:04: I don't know why God does what he does, but God does glorify himself even in the even in the lives of the wicked.
52:12: You know, he demonstrates that he is still God.
52:16: But one of the things that Darren Brown did, and I'll never forget it because it reminds me of the power of suggestion.
52:24: Darren Brown invited a group of people to a church.
52:27: How he got used to the church, I do not know.
52:30: This was overseas.
52:31: This was over in Europe somewhere.
52:32: It's liable that the church itself was has been long since unused.
52:36: There are so many empty churches over in Europe.
52:39: You would it would it boggles the mind.
52:41: And scary thing is America's going in that direction is that the churches are being emptied.
52:47: And there are so many empty churches over there, boggles the mind.
52:49: But the thing this is what happened.
52:51: He invited a group of atheists to a church.
52:53: He claimed to be an evangelist.
52:56: Obviously, he wasn't.
52:57: He was an atheist.
52:58: He claimed to be an evangelist.
52:59: He took the group of people.
53:01: He started preaching to them, but he was using his hypnosis.
53:05: He was using the suggested power that he understands how to do.
53:09: He caused about 75 percent of the people to begin weeping and crying, some crying out in repentance.
53:16: And it was all false.
53:18: And he demonstrated that he had caused he told him later.
53:21: He said, I did it.
53:21: It was all fake.
53:22: It was all in your mind.
53:28: Now, why do I tell you that? I tell you that because there is so much that people can do in their mind.
53:39: If there is a charismatic leader willing to lead them in that direction, every one of us knows somebody who believes in faith healing, because, hey, I know somebody who got healed by such and such and so and so.
54:14: I actually I'm not going to do it.
54:25: I'll scare him.
54:28: I'll scare him.
54:31: John is trying to get me to show you something.
54:34: And I don't know if I'm going to.
54:38: Your body and I've and I've actually done this.
54:42: I've done this demonstration to other churches.
54:44: I've actually done this demonstration on video.
54:46: And in fact, I have a video that has about one hundred and forty five thousand hits.
54:50: Your pastor is somewhat famous.
54:54: I have a video that has about one hundred and forty five thousand hits.
54:57: And it's where I demonstrate how the electrical system of the body, your body runs like a house, your body runs off electricity, your muscles, the heart muscle pumps as a as a reaction to electricity.
55:08: It's an electrical impulse, which is why whenever you start to die, they take an electronic thing and they put it up to you and they shock you because that beats your heart back into the rhythm.
55:18: That's what your heart needs is that electrical shock to get it to continue to go.
55:23: Our bodies run off of electricity.
55:25: Now, I cannot prove that Benny Hinn uses electrical impulses to influence people's bodies, but I have demonstrated how the body can be manipulated through the way it can be touched or the way it can be manipulated through.
55:40: Bobby, come here.
55:40: I'm not going to hurt him and I'm not going to I promise.
55:43: I'm just going to show you something.
55:45: I'm not going to hit him.
55:46: I promise I'm not going to hit him.
55:54: I'm not going to knock him down.
55:57: Right in his arm right here, there's a nerve.
56:00: If I touch his knees will bend.
56:02: You see his knees go.
56:05: If I touch this nerve like this, his knees will bend.
56:08: His back will bend.
56:08: If I touch them both, he'll fall.
56:11: Now, that's also joints operating.
56:14: If I touch right here, you feel that one.
56:18: Now, if I told you I was healing you and you felt that shock that just went across your head, what would you think? It's the power of God, right? And you fall down and you feel.
56:26: All I did was I tapped him on the side of the carotid artery.
56:28: If you do that, that's your body's natural blood pressure valve.
56:34: And it causes blood pressure to interrupt by hitting that.
56:36: There's a place right here on the top of his head.
56:42: If I touch that, there's an input.
56:44: There's a nerve cluster right on his forehead.
56:47: How many of you have ever seen him do this? Be healed and the guy falls down.
56:57: They're not going to do that.
57:00: Now, I'm not I'm not saying that's how they do it.
57:02: And I wasn't I didn't come tonight to put on a show.
57:04: But but I'm I'm glad you mentioned that because that is enough to me to demonstrate that some of this can be pulled off by Darren Brown can do it through his own hands.
57:12: Some people can do it because the body is wired a certain way.
57:16: If it can be done, if it can be pulled off in a hoax, we need to know it.
57:21: We need to watch what people are doing.
57:22: You watch Benny when he shakes people's hands and he's grabbing their arms.
57:26: He's touching nerves.
57:28: I kid you not.
57:29: I can I see it.
57:30: I saw him one time.
57:32: He's doing his thing and he goes up and he takes his jacket off.
57:35: It's a big thing.
57:36: And he'll wave his jacket and people fall down.
57:37: Now, a lot of people fall down without being touched because they're already under the suggestion that they're going to be hit with the spirit and they fall down.
57:44: Well, he went up to this guy pulled up off the stage, old country boy, and he did his jacket and the guy went.
57:52: So Benny just left and he went over to somebody else and he and he did them and they fell over and he came back to the country boy and he and the guy went.
58:02: So he went and he did his thing on another person.
58:04: Finally, he comes back and he goes and the guy didn't fall.
58:07: Damn.
58:09: And he hit him right on the common carotid artery with what is called a knife hand or a shooto strike, open hand shooto to the common carotid artery.
58:17: It can kill a person over 40.
58:19: If you have any plaque buildup in your carotid artery, it can cause it to break off and this stroke will happen.
58:28: But he needed that guy to fall down.
58:31: And he and the guy went, well, of course.
58:36: I would have fell down.
58:37: I'm 300 pounds.
58:40: Now, I've gone off subject, but you understand where I'm going with this.
58:46: This is how Jesus and his disciples healed.
58:49: And until and if I saw somebody doing this, if I would say, yes, this person has the power of God.
58:57: This is not what I see today.
58:59: I see things that are easily falsified.
59:03: I see things that are demonstratively not true.
59:07: And not only that, here's the scariest thing of all.
59:11: And if you hear nothing else, hear this.
59:14: Those people who are proclaiming the power to heal 99.9999 times out of 100 are preaching a false gospel message of prosperity.
59:27: And it's not a true gospel.
59:28: And that alone in itself tells us whatever they're doing is not of God.
59:41: I already said I do.
59:42: But what do I believe God heals today? Yes, you do.
01:00:00: You absolutely.
01:00:04: Absolutely.
01:00:05: And that's what I wanted to finish with.
01:00:06: Well, I just want to finish by reading James chapter five, verses 13 to 16, because that's the model we're given.
01:00:13: The model that you just mentioned is the model that we're given.
01:00:16: We're not given the model to hold healing conferences.
01:00:19: We're not told to have tabernacles of praise where people come in and they get their hands hit on their foreheads.
01:00:24: What we are told to do very easily is we're told that if anyone is among you is sick, they're to be brought for the elders.
01:00:31: They're to be anointed with oil.
01:00:33: They're to be prayed over.
01:00:34: And the fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
01:00:37: That's what the Bible says.
01:00:38: That's the model that we're to follow.
01:00:39: And we are to pray to God and trust him for healing and know that God is sovereign.
01:00:45: And God does as he pleases in heaven and on earth.
01:00:47: Now your second question.
01:00:58: Absolutely.
01:00:58: Okay.
01:00:59: Now, I believe my God could have healed him instantly.
01:01:05: Okay.
01:01:06: I believe my...
01:01:10: Oh, sure.
01:01:11: Sure.
01:01:11: One of the...
01:01:12: My dad didn't have to.
01:01:13: He died.
01:01:14: Yeah, absolutely.
01:01:19: Oh, sure.
01:01:19: When Jesus comes, he's...
01:01:27: There were so many things.
01:01:48: And I think you hit on a very important point.
01:01:51: Sometimes death is the will of the Lord.
01:01:55: We are all, unless Jesus returns, we are all...
01:01:59: The Bible says it is appointed on a man who wants to die and then comes judgment.
01:02:02: We have all been given an appointment.
01:02:05: And that appointment is not going to take God by surprise.
01:02:08: It is not going to be a day before or a day after it should be.
01:02:11: People tell me all the time, you need to lose weight.
01:02:13: I do need to lose weight.
01:02:14: I'm trying.
01:02:15: But they tell me, you need to lose weight so you live longer.
01:02:17: No matter what I do, I can't add a day to my life and I can't take a day away because God is sovereign.
01:02:22: Now, I know I should be healthy so that all my days are lived strong and all that.
01:02:28: And I know and I appreciate when people try to encourage me because I want to do that.
01:02:31: Just like all of us have things that we battle with.
01:02:33: Weight is one issue that I battle with.
01:02:35: But the issue is never I'm going to do this to prolong my life because the Lord, my life is in the Lord's hand.
01:02:41: But I want to feel better all the days I have.
01:02:43: So we do that, you know.
01:02:45: So I never chase anyone and say, oh, don't tell me that.
01:02:49: But know this.
01:02:51: God has fashioned our days for us.
01:02:55: And as long as he has a purpose for us, as long as we're filling that purpose.
01:02:58: And until that purpose is done, we're going to be here.
01:03:02: And then when it is done, he's going to take us home.
01:03:04: And that's, you know, sometimes it's real early for people.
01:03:08: And our hearts are crushed when somebody is called home early.
01:03:12: Young person, children.
01:03:13: We don't understand.
01:03:14: It hurts us.
01:03:15: Our hearts ache.
01:03:17: But we know God is still sovereign.
01:03:20: Well, I've got another sermon.
01:03:21: So I better be careful.
01:03:22: I'll go ahead and stop.
01:03:23: Yes.
01:03:23: Oh, interesting.
01:04:05: Which is why we always, we always, we always place within our prayers the understanding that it is the Lord's will and not ours.
01:04:14: We always pray that people are healed.
01:04:16: We never, I don't think any of us ever pray that somebody's going to get sick and pass.
01:04:21: I mean, you know, sometimes I guess we pray that people will stop suffering.
01:04:25: But I mean, we generally, we pray for healing.
01:04:27: We pray for fullness and wholeness.
01:04:28: But we also add that, you know, if Jesus said, if Jesus can say not my will, but yours be done, then so can I.
01:04:37: And even so much more.
01:04:38: Can I say it? Because my Lord, my will is often not in lockstep with the Lord's because I don't always understand his.
01:04:48: I have trouble with my brother.
01:05:35: Well, again, we always pray that his will be done on the issue of medicine.
01:05:38: One last thing.
01:05:39: The Bible in referring to anointing.
01:05:42: Anointing oil was a type of, had a medicinal purpose in the scriptures.
01:05:46: And I am one that understands James' call to anoint the sick as a way of using medicine.
01:05:53: Now, I know there's debate as to whether or not that's the oil was to represent the spirit or whether it was medicinal.
01:05:59: I can see medicine having its purpose in the healing of people.
01:06:03: Obviously, God, you know what the most, one of the most miraculous things in the world is the fact that the world creates things that fix our bodies.
01:06:12: You know, they talk about synthetic medicine.
01:06:14: All medicine comes from the earth, whether it's synthetic or not.
01:06:17: It's made from things that come from the earth.
01:06:19: There's nothing truly synthetic.
01:06:20: There's nothing truly manmade.
01:06:22: It all comes out of stuff that comes out of the earth.
01:06:24: And it's just so amazing that the earth produces medicine.
01:06:29: Food can be used as a medicine.
01:06:31: If you diet properly, it can fix so many of your illnesses.
01:06:35: Well, I have a liver problem right now.
01:06:37: That's what my doctor told me.
01:06:39: And she said, there's no medicine that I can use.
01:06:41: All I can do is change the way I eat.
01:06:46: There's nothing.
01:06:47: There's no medicine.
01:06:48: There's no there's no pill.
01:06:50: There's no drug that I can take.
01:06:52: All I can do is eat right foods and stop eating McDonald's because it's killing me.
01:06:58: But whatever.
01:07:00: She didn't say McDonald's, but I will.
01:07:02: It's don't you be ragging on my chicken wings.
01:07:09: Anyway, but you understand, it's amazing what it's amazing what the earth itself.
01:07:14: God has given to the earth to help us.
01:07:18: And yes, you can't do it.
01:08:36: So you sit down and present these six points.
01:08:39: To those believers.
01:09:06: Look, when I call my elders and I say, my son is sick, I need you to pray.
01:09:17: What I'm doing in God.
01:09:25: And if you go to any of these events and watch and you want to see it, get with me.
01:09:32: I'll take it and I'll show you what to look for.
01:09:36: The focus is not on God moving.
01:09:41: The focus is on a person, either the healer or the person being healed.
01:09:48: As Keith says, you don't have enough.
01:10:01: It's not just about healing.
01:10:06: It's a bigger issue.
01:10:08: Who is in control? Yeah, yeah.
01:10:15: We and we have to consider we don't have to change our mind.
01:10:25: If there's somebody I have a lot of people, as I said, I've got a whole portion of my family that goes to churches which teach and believe this.
01:10:33: I have no desire to change their mind.
01:10:36: I've had the conversation so many times.
01:10:38: I only proclaim what I proclaim.
01:10:40: All my sermons are available to anybody who wants to listen to them.
01:10:43: I don't sit there and beat him over the head with it, but I will say this.
01:10:50: I'm going to take a dangerous step and I may I'm going to offend.
01:10:57: No, I'm not.
01:10:58: I may make some of you downright mad at me because I'm talking about Tim Tebow.
01:11:06: I'm not I'm not going to talk about Tim Tebow.
01:11:10: I'm going to talk about Tim Tebow's pastor.
01:11:15: I think Tim Tebow is a great guy.
01:11:17: I think his homeschooling example is great.
01:11:19: I think the honor he gives Jesus Christ is wonderful.
01:11:22: I do not believe God is invested in football.
01:11:25: I think God is sovereign.
01:11:28: But but but I think the whole issue of football and all that, you know, I think I think what what what I want to mention, though, is if if if you make the argument with somebody about faith healing.
01:11:41: It doesn't matter.
01:11:44: Experience is often the best teacher.
01:11:49: Tim Tebow's pastor, Tim Tebow had won six games in a row.
01:11:54: Pretty strong feet.
01:11:55: You know, he hadn't won it.
01:11:56: The team had won it, but it was he had brought them back from losing a few games.
01:12:03: Tim Tebow's pastor decided he was going to go out on national television and tell the world that it was not Tim Tebow's gifted athletic prowess or the prowess of the team, but rather it was because he had the favor of God, which is why he won those last six games and he ain't won a game since.
01:12:25: I'm not talking about Tebow.
01:12:27: I'm talking about his pastor.
01:12:29: He had to make that statement because he had to he had to play out his belief system in a very public way.
01:12:39: Tim Tebow is winning because God is on his side.
01:12:41: God's on his sideline.
01:12:42: God kicking the ball and throwing the ball and doing all this for Tebow.
01:12:45: And then he lost.
01:12:46: Well, what did the pastor have to do the next day? He had to stay in his office because his phone was ringing so much.
01:12:54: What I'm saying is sometimes just let them have what they think.
01:12:59: It's no use in arguing.
01:13:00: There would have been no use in arguing with that pastor.
01:13:04: No use also sometimes is arguing.
01:13:06: But yet, if we're going to proclaim cessationism, we're going to say we believe that faith healing was a miracle given to the early church.
01:13:12: We need to know why we believe that.
01:13:14: And if I'm going to say I don't believe Benny Hinn is a gospel preacher, I need to be able to stand on my laurels and say I know why I believe that he is not.
01:13:21: I need to be able to stand on the facts and say I've heard him preach a false gospel.
01:13:25: I've seen him practice false healings.
01:13:27: And I've seen him demonstrate a lifestyle of decadence and unholiness.
01:13:33: And thus, I can proclaim without fear, I do not believe that he is a minister of the gospel.
01:13:41: And if you think I'm by myself, read your Bible where Paul talked about Alexander the coppersmith who had done him much harm and was not afraid to have his name listed in Scripture as somebody who had done those things.
01:13:59: I'm not afraid to proclaim error.
01:14:04: We shouldn't.
01:14:08: Father, thank you for tonight.
01:14:09: Thank you for this time of learning.
01:14:11: Thank you for all that you do through the ministry of the word.
01:14:15: And I pray that the next few Wednesday nights, Lord, as we continue looking at the different gifts, particularly the gift of tongues that we're going to begin next week, Lord, that you would just anoint this time for learning.
01:14:27: Keep us focused on it in Jesus name.
01:14:29: Amen.