Pt. 2 Fundamentals Series

Healing 2 Dr. Mike Fogerson October 24, 2012

A Any discussion of healing must start with the fundamental questions, “What is the origin of sickness & suffering?”

1 Why does . . .

a A four-month old die from SIDS, toddler get bullied, young student get hit by a car, teen die in an auto accident, girl in her 20's die of breast cancer, young man die in Afghanistan, eldery women killed during a car jacking.

b Biblically, all evil/suffering & their consequences are a result of Adam’s sin.

aa We came from the hand of God and His breath for His glory.

bb 7 Everyone who is called by My name, And whom I have created for My glory, Whom I have formed, even whom I have made." Isaiah 43:7 (NASB)

cc Paul elaborates,

11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. Eph 1:11-12 (NASB)

2 Jonathan Edwards, John Piper, & the Westminster Shorter Catechism all agree on what our purpose/reason we exist.

a “To glorify God and enjoy Him forever!”

b The reason we exist is to know God through Christ & take joy in that relationship.

aa 30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart , and with all your soul , and with all your mind, and with all your strength .' Mark 12:30 (NASB)

Jesus gives the greatest commandment is that we love God with our entire being/full capacity.

bb IL.

B We were created by His hands/from His glory breath . . . and created in His image.

1 We are the only part of creation that shares this unique characteristic.

a Mind to think, heart to love, and a will to choose.

b The reason He put the “Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil” in the garden is because God did not make us spiritual robots who have no will, ability to choose.

aa It was man’s wrong choice that brought suffering & its consequences into the world.

bb injury, sickness, & death, too!

2 The moment Adam sinned, he began to die. (Disconnected from fellowship with God)

a Being out of fellowship w/ God is the worst death.

b He died a slow, progressive death in his soul (mind, thinking).

aa The evidence of this was in his children. (Cain killing Abel)

bb That story would make the 5 o’clock news today: why?

cc We would expect that kind of depravity, evil to be demonstrated by adults, but not children.

3 Salvation reverses the curse that began in the garden of eden.

a His Spirit comes to live in you, your mind is renewed, ultimately his body will be raised from the dead.

b New body will be sinless, sick-less, and deathless!

aa As we stand, one of that last remaining remnants of Adam on earth is the human body.

bb We age, subject to injury & death.

cc Our bodies still carries earth’s cursed limitations;

29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; Romans 8:29 (NASB)

c Because God’s image is braking through, humanity can start the process of being like Jesus & health can come to us!

I Sickness & the Wrath of God

A It was the work of the Ol’Serpant that brought sickness, injury, and death in to the world through Adam’s choice to sin. (All punished because the actions of one)

1 In Scripture, sickness is often viewed as an expression of God’s wrath/judgement.

a Sickness, like rain, falls on the just/unjust.

b All physical sickness is a temporal judgement brought to the earth by Satan through humanity’s wrong choices.

2 How can disease be God’s judgement when children get cancer?”

a Legitimate question, usually the intent is misguided.

b (Paint a non-compassionate/fair picture of God.)

B Exodus 15.26 teaches that disease often comes as God’s judgement.

26 And He said, "If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the Lord, am your healer." Ex 15:26 (NASB)

1 The disease God brought on Egypt didn’t have to follow the Israelites out of bondage.

2 Disease/sickness was judgement.

II Some Temporal Causes of Sickness (and How to stay well).

A Wrong living can cause disease.

1 16 To deliver you from the strange woman, From the adulteress who flatters with her words;17 That leaves the companion of her youth And forgets the covenant of her God;18 For her house sinks down to death And her tracks lead to the dead ;19 None who go to her return again, Nor do they reach the paths of life. Prov 2:16-19 (NASB)