MORE OBJECTIONS TO HEALING
1. If your only source of information about healing was the Bible, you could not come to any other conclusion than that it is always God’s will to heal.
a. From Genesis to Revelation we find God healing His people.
b. Not one instance in the OT or NT where God refused to heal His people.
2. Yet, many Christians are not healed and do not get healed.
a. These failures to be healed are due, not to unwillingness on God’s part, but to lack of knowledge and related problems on our part.
b. So, we are taking time to look at what the Bible says about this subject.
3. There are two key areas of knowledge about healing you must have.
a. You must know that God has already provided healing for you through the Cross of Christ. It is God’s will to heal you. He has already said yes through Jesus. Isa 53:4-6; I Pet 2:24
b. You must know how to take or receive what God has already provided. You take it by faith. Heb 6:12
4. In the last lesson, we began to look at arguments people say prove it isn’t always the will of God to heal. We considered these arguments.
a. Objection #1–Jesus healed on earth to prove He was God. Since the resurrection occurred and clearly established the fact that He is God, He doesn’t need to heal any more.
1. But, we found out that Jesus didn’t heal just to prove His power, He healed to demonstrate His love and the love of the Father for us.
2. Compassion moved Him to heal. Matt 14:14; 20:34; Mark 1:41; 9:22
b. Objection #2–The apostles had healing power to authenticate the message they preached. But now that we have the Bible, we don’t need healing and miracles. Healing ended when the last apostle died.
1. But, we found out that the apostles didn’t heal anyone — God did. And He’s still the same. Heb 13:8; Mal 3:6
2. The early church is not separate from the 20th century church. We are all part of the body of Christ. Eph 5:30; 1:22;23; I Cor 12:27
3. While on earth, Jesus began a work which we His body now are to continue. Acts 1:1; Matt 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-20; John 14:9-12
4. We, the body of Christ, continue His work, directed, empowered by Jesus the head, cheered on by those who’ve gone before. Heb 12:1
c. Objection #3–The Lord is glorified in sickness as we patiently submit to it.
1. We found out that in the Bible God is glorified when sickness goes and healing comes. Matt 9:8; 15:31; Luke 7:16; 13:13,17; 17:15; 18:43
2. God does not allow sickness so that He can heal it. That would be a house divided against itself. Matt 12:24-26
3. Sickness is here because of satan and sin. Jesus came to do the works of God and destroy the works of the devil. I John 3:8; John 9:3,4
6. In this lesson, we want to continue to look at other objections people raise.
1. Nothing in this passage gives us the right to call the thorn a disease.
a. v7–Thorn = messenger of satan. Messenger = ANGELOS = a being; an angel; used 188 times in the Bible; means a personality, not a disease.
b. v7–It came from satan not God. Remember the house divided! Matt 12
c. Thorn in the OT and NT means literal thorns or troublesome people. Num 33:55; Josh 23:13; Judges 2:3
2. v9–Paul calls thorn an infirmity = ASTHENIA = without strength, weak, sick.
a. You must determine meaning from context. II Cor 11:23-30 sets context.
b. Paul’s infirmities were obstacles and persecutions he encountered as he preached the gospel — not sicknesses.
3. Some say God gave Paul the thorn to keep him humble.
a. v7–tells us it came from satan to keep Paul from being exalted, not from exalting himself, but from being exalted. By who?
b. By those he preached to! Exalt = elevate by praise or in estimation.
4. Paul had tremendous revelation from God. v1-4;7; Acts 26:16; Gal 1:12
a. satan didn’t want Paul exalted or respected and believed by those he preached to, so satan sent a fallen angel to harass Paul.
b. Paul would preach, someone would stir up the crowd, he’d get mobbed, put out of town, or thrown in jail. Acts 13:45; 14:2-6;19
5. Some say Paul’s thorn was an eye disease. Gal 4:13-15
a. There is nothing in this passage to support such an idea.
b. Galatia = a province various cities including Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. The epistle was written to the churches of Galatia. Gal 1:2
c. Acts 14–Paul was stoned and left for dead at Lystra. The next day he and Barnabas walked 15 miles to Derbe. He then walked back and preached again at Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch. Acts 14:21
d. How did Paul look when he preached to the Galatians? Gal 6:17–When I preached the gospel to you the first time, I did so in bodily weakness, and you did not feel contempt for my physical condition which must have been
a real trial to you, nor did you show any disgust at it. (Bruce)
e. Paul’s eye troubles came from getting hit by rocks not having a disease.
f. Gal 6:11–Paul was so concerned about the Galatians, he took the time to write this letter himself in his own hand. Rom 16:22
1. We must read in context. We cannot impose an outside meaning on this verse:
I had a car wreck, I have cancer = the Lord is chastening me.
2. This epistle was written to Hebrew Christians who had grown weary under persecution. Some had rejected Christ; others were considering it.
a. Whole purpose of letter = give them reasons not to go back on Jesus.
b. To use this verse the way many use it, we’d have to say God is telling them: I sent this persecution to discipline you. That would be God persecuting His own body. Matt 12
c. satan is the source of persecution. I Thess 3:1-5
3. God chastens His people with His word. Chasten = PAIDEA = instruction, training. Acts 7:22; 22:3; Eph 6:4; II Tim 2:25; 3:16; Titus 2:12
a. v5–Chasten is defined as rebuke = verbal = with words. The context is stated for us in v9 as correction = making or setting right.
b. The purpose of correction is instruction = to tell you what you are doing wrong and how to do it right so you can do it right.
4. The letter to the Hebrews is a letter of chastening = correction and instruction.
a. In the letter, the writer says: listen to God! Don’t fall away!
b. Heb 13:22–suffer (bear with, endure) the word of exhortation. Exhort = admonish = to advise of a fault; to reprove.
5. v7–Endure (stay under; persevere) chastening. They had a choice to accept or reject the discipline. We have no choice about cancer or car wrecks.
6. What about scourging us? MASTIGOO = to flog (lit. or fig.)
a. God flogs us (whips us) with His word. Jer 23:29; I Cor 4:21
b. Either that or a big hand / whip must come down from heaven.
1. Context = Paul is rebuking them for the way they had communion. v18-22
a. There was division, drunkenness, and gluttony at their assemblies.
b. v20–So when you gather for your meetings, it is not the supper instituted by the Lord that you eat. (Amp)
2. Then Paul states what communion is supposed to be. v22-26
a. v23–Jesus Himself instructed Paul on communion. Acts 26:16; Gal 1:11,12
b. v26–For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup you are representing and signifying and proclaiming the fact of the Lord’s death until He comes [again]. (Amp)
3. The Corinthian communion service was irreverent. Unworthily = irreverently.
a. v27–So then whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in a way that is unworthy [of Him] will be guilty of (profaning and sinning against) the body and blood of the Lord. (Amp)
b. v29–Anyone who eats and drinks without discriminating and recognizing with due appreciation [it is Christ’s] body, eats and drinks a sentence — a verdict of judgment upon himself. (Amp)
c. Their irreverence and failure to recognize the value of the sacrifice of Jesus brought judgment on them in the form of sickness and death. v32
4. This sickness they were experiencing was totally preventable. They could have, should have, judged themselves = discerned their sin and repented.
a. This is serious sin. Why would they be condemned with the world? By their actions they were rejecting the Lord’s death.
b. Judgment comes to those who “deliberately outrage the grace and mercy of God”. (Gordon Lindsay)
c. Judgment = God allows you to reap the fruit of your sin and withdraws His protection. I Cor 5:1-5
5. This situation is a whole lot different from: “I have cancer. The Lord is chastening me. Why? I don’t know; as He sees fit, for His own purposes.
a. We need to understand that chastisement (punishment) went to Jesus so it would not have to come to us. Isa 53:5
b. He was punished so we would have peace. He was beaten so we would be healed. (New Life)
7. Because they didn’t discern Christ’s sacrifice, that chastisement came on them.
a. If failure to recognize and reverence the meaning of the breaking of the Lord’s body made the Corinthians sick, recognizing and reverencing what His body and blood did will keep us well.
b. Many Christians today are sick because they don’t recognize that the body of Christ was broken for their physical health. Gal 3:13; I Pet 2:24
1. We must read the Bible — especially the epistles (written to the church) and the gospels (show us God’s character in Jesus). Prov4:20-22
2. We must get good teaching — not just preaching, not just fellowship.
3. We must learn to read in context. Everything in the Bible was written to someone by someone about something.
a. Everything “fits” under the theme of God’s desire for a family.
b. It does not matter what the verse means to you. What does it say?
4. When we say it can’t always be God’s will to heal because so and so didn’t get healed, we are basing what we believe on experience not on the Bible.
a. Heb 1:1-3–God has spoken to us by His Son Jesus, not by Job or by that person in the church who didn’t get healed.
b. Jesus healed all who came to Him, made no one sick, nor refused to heal anyone. Then Jesus bore our sicknesses on the Cross to remove them. Everything else must bow to these facts if you are going to live by faith.
5. Some say it isn’t always God’s will to heal because Paul couldn’t get everyone healed. If we are going to say that, then we must say that it is God’s will that some backslide. II Tim 4:20;10
a. We are presuming Trophimus was never healed. Healing is sometimes gradual. We don’t know the end of the story.
b. Either way, we can’t base what we believe on Trophimus’s experience.
6. Yes, but I learned so much from my illness, and a nurse got saved at the hospital. This sickness had to be God’s will. After all, He allowed it.
a. What happened to you was Rom 8:28. God brought genuine good out of genuine evil. Ps 119:71
b. Sickness is not a teaching tool of God. The Holy Ghost is the teacher of the church and He teaches us through the word of God. John 14:26; 16:13; II Tim 3:16; Eph 4:11,12
c. If you learned something valuable in your sickness, you learned it from God’s word in the sickness. Ps 119:92;143
1. As long as the waters are muddied, you cannot walk in the kind of faith that receives healing every time.
2. Even the objections to healing, when read in the light of the rest of the Bible and read in context, still show us that it is always God’s will to heal.