Divine Healing Is God’s Will

DIVINE HEALING IS GOD’S WILL

Mt. 4:23-24

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR: THE REAL CHARACTER

1. It’s wild to see the real nature come out.

2. 2 ladies went out to a restaurant to eat lunch They know how big the portions are so they order only one dish of ‘fried fish pieces’ which they intend to share.

3. When the order arrives, the plate contains one big piece of fish and one little piece of fish. Jill and Vickie politely look at each other.

4. Jill says, "Vickie, you choose first." "No," replied Vickie, "I want you to go first."

5. Jill says, "OK, I'll go first," and picks the big piece of fish to put on her plate. Vickie’s surprised. "Why did you take the big piece? That's not very polite."

6. "Well, which piece would you have taken?" asked Jill. "I would’ve taken the small piece," replied Vickie. "So what’s the problem?” replied Jill, "Isn’t that what you’ve got?"

B. TEXT

“Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them” Matt. 4:23-24.

C. THESIS

1. The Garden of EDEN is the PATTERN of what God’s perfect will for humans is (Mt. 19:4-8;“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female….Moses permitted you to divorce…But it was not this way from the beginning”).

2. In the Garden, before their fall into sin, there was no sin, no sickness, no death, no crime, no doctors, and no taxes. They were perfectly healthy. This is God’s best will for us. It wasn’t until Adam and Eve sinned that sickness gained entrance. Sickness is an invader into God’s perfect world, through sin.

3. Sickness was not God’s will, nor did sickness originate with God; it originated with sin. So if God’s perfect will were to be restored, there would be no sickness.

WHY SHOULD WE EXPECT WE SHOULD BE HEALED?

I. GOD’S HEALING CHARACTER

A. GOD DECLARES HE’S OUR HEALER

1. God is by nature a healing God. Satan, on the other hand, has come to kill, steal, and destroy; but Jesus says, “I have come that you might have life, abundantly.” In Ex. 15:26, God says, “I am the Lord that heals you.”

2. Just days before, the Israelites ate the Passover Lamb which was equivalent to SALVATION. They then crossed the Red Sea, in which Paul declared they were BAPTIZED (1 Cor. 10:2).

3. Their very first experience after salvation and baptism was to know God as their HEALER (Exodus 15:26). God "showed him (Moses) a Tree" = symbolic of the Cross.

4. God called himself by a Compound Name – Jehovah Rapha. It is translated in the King James version as "heal." Compound names represent God's character, the kind of God that He is.

5. Rapha is the only word for "heal" in the O.T. (except Ezekiel 30:21). Rapha is used 58X in the O.T. Rapha also is the technical word for "Physician.” (Gen. 50:2; 2 Chr. 16:2; Job 13:4; Jeremiah 8:22). Yes, God is our Healer!

B. THE COVENANT OF HEALING

1. When God set apart the nation of Israel as His people, He gave them the priesthood and sacrifices to remove sin from being a barrier. With sin removed, its effects could be eliminated; blessing could flow.

2. God’s First Covenant with His people said that if they obeyed Him, He would take away sickness from them. “Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you” Ex. 23:25

3. “He will bless the babies from your womb and the harvest of grain, new wine, and oil from your fields; he’ll bless the calves from your herds and lambs from your flocks in the country he promised your ancestors that he’d give you. You’ll be blessed beyond all other peoples: no sterility or barrenness in you or your animals. God will get rid of all sickness. And all the evil afflictions you experienced in Egypt he’ll put not on you but on those who hate you” Deut. 7:13-15 Msg. Version.

4. The Bible says “and there was not one feeble person in all their tribes” Ps. 105:37 KJV.

C. GOD HAS ALWAYS BEEN A GOD WHO HEALED

1. 5X in O.T. God healed barren women;

2. 4X God healed plagues brought on by sin;

3. Healed Moses, Miriam, and Naaman the leper;

4. 3X raised the dead;

5. At least 6 other instances, two of them 1,000s of people;