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Houston's First Baptist Church is a relevant biblical community where we gather our hearts, grow our souls and give our lives as we seek to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). This podcast provides weekly messages from Pastor Gregg Matte and others. Visit us at HoustonsFirst.org to learn more about HFBC, and visit us in person the next time you're in Houston!
Will you turn in your Bibles to the 15th chapter of Matthew, please? Matthew, chapter 15, verse number 29. In our journey through the book of Matthew thus far, we come tonight to a rather familiar scene from a day in the life of Jesus. In the 29th verse of Matthew 15, And Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the Sea of Galilee, and went up into a mountain, and sat down there. And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet, and he healed them. Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, they maimed to behold the lame to walk, and the blind to see, and they glorified the God of Israel. Now, I would like for you to turn back to Matthew 14, verse 11. I'm sorry, verse 14. And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick. I point out these two passages of Scripture from two adjoining chapters in the book of Matthew, simply to remind us, thus far through our Matthew journey, we have found in every single chapter, after the birth and public ministry at its beginning of the Lord Jesus Christ, of a healing through the ministry of the healer. Now, I cannot overlook this important topic, and want simply tonight to point out to your attention some things about the ministry of healing. This is not an exposition of the passage, because there have been passages all the way through, but simply a brief and sketchy suggestion to you, in the life of ministry of Jesus Christ, and that of his church today, that the Bible says many signs and wonders will follow them which believe, and one of them is the ministry of healing. I must, first of all, be very honest to say that it appears that one of the main things which were done to authenticate the life and the ministry and the validity of the claims of the Messiahship of the Lord Jesus Christ in those early New Testament days were healings. There were many things which happened in abundance in a far greater percentage than seemed to be happening today. I do not suggest that the church has lost its power or the message of Jesus Christ the same, but I say again that as is customary and the often found true experience on the mission field, to this very day, the more pagan the culture, the more often signs and wonders accompany the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is given, among other things, to help validate the authenticity of the preaching of the gospel of Christ. I would suggest also to you that all healing is divine. I do not believe that there are fake and phony healings today by the devil. I do believe that Satan counterfeits most of what Jesus does, but everything that he does has an ulterior motive. I may be in error because it could be that things lie outside of the knowledge of the experience of any individual, that one who lives hasn't seen everything, and maybe it just could be that these things happen and I've never seen them. But I think that I must logically say that because healing is a good thing, that it is dubious that Satan would counterfeit that particular gift. And I say, therefore, that all healing is divine, that all healing is of God. The third thing I would suggest to you is that God heals in many different ways. I believe one of the ways that God heals us is by leading men to so live in accord with prescribed preconditions of having good health that the body, when maintaining the laws of God for good health, experiences the progressive daily healing of itself and in essence keeping our bodies attuned with God keeps us in a condition in which we are always naturally being healed. Most doctors will tell us that many diseases are present in bodies all the time but the strength of a healthy body and the proper balance thereof causes the body to suppress germs which never in a 70 year span of life are able to come to the surface and take over us and control us the body simply throwing them off. So through the very act of normal good healthy bodily exercise proper sleep and living so that the body stays in tune with God the body is in effect actually daily experiencing divine healing through the natural laws of God of good health. God heals through medicine. Doctors are a gift of God. Medicine is a gift of God. Hospitals and nurses and x -ray and drugs are a gift of God properly used and every time a God blessed doctor goes in and prays for divine wisdom and insight and God gives him direction and understanding and analysis and in the administration of drugs God is in effect healing through the gift of sense and understanding that is medical science which he has given that man. I believe that God heals miraculously and instantaneously in what we often call divine healing. I believe in divine healing. I do not happen to believe in all divine healers but I do believe in divine healing. I have seen a few myself. In my study one night about a year ago after this service a woman came to me with carbuncles that were probably cancerous all over her arms and hands. She asked me to pray for her. I said I would have to give some time in prayer about it. I prayed with an open mind and felt that it was the will of God and with our associate pastor and two deacons went into the office. We knelt. We took some olive oil and anointed her brow symbolizing the presence of the Holy Spirit and prayed and they disappeared before our eyes. I saw my daughter with a 105 degree temperature after Dr. Hyman Appleman and I prayed about an hour immediately released from that temperature when she was only a few weeks old. I've seen a few healings. I've had the pleasure of being there when God did some only after I believe strongly impressed of God to be involved in what I believe to be the will of God for a divine healing on that occasion. I believe in divine healing. I believe that God heals the body through keeping itself right and in effect it perpetually heals itself. I believe in medicine that God heals through many different ways. But I want to say another thing. Sometimes it is a greater miracle for a person to bear their suffering and their sickness with such dignity to the glory of God that more good is done by living with the disease to the honor and glory of Jesus and that in itself is a greater miracle than instant healing. I've seen that happen too. I've gone into the sick rooms of some Christians that were dying of cancer and wondered why God didn't heal them. They were Sunday school teachers and deacons wives and wonderful beautiful people with so much of life to give and wondered oh God why can't you heal this person. And I've gone in there to empathize and sympathize and try to bring some condolence and some help and some understanding and contribute something. And I've seen them smile through it all and give God the glory and say with Job of old though he slay me yet will I trust him and rather than ministering I have come away with the sins of all that I myself have been ministered unto. And they have inspired me and they have lifted me and I have said Lord if I were not a Christian seeing that kind of faith in that kind of person I think I should want to know the Lord Jesus who gives power like that. It is not always God's will to heal because sometimes the greater miracle the greater good is done through the ability of the one to bear with Christian grace and dignity the problems that are theirs. If there's one thing I found about the Christian life it is that being a Christian was never intended to be a guarantee against problems. I found that Christians get about as sick and have about as many problems as non -Christians. If being a Christian were only a guarantee against problems, people would become Christians for selfish reasons, for the wrong reasons. It is the ability to have an inner composure to deal with the problems in spite of them that it means to be a child of God. Let me say this word. There's always another reason why it's not always in the scope of God's will to heal. Because if everybody that had ever gotten sick in this world would have been healed and kept on living and never died, and every time they got ready to die they got healed again and kept on living, the world would have been so overpopulated that life on earth could not have existed after 900 B .C. and it would have all been over nearly 2 ,900 years ago. Too many people. Folks, you see, just have to get sick and die and move on to make room for others to come along. In other words, I believe that the gift of healing is a bona fide New Testament gift of the Holy Spirit. The Bible gives many different gifts. I believe that every Christian has a gift. I'll tell you something else. I believe there are gifts that Paul did not necessarily say. I believe the gift of comforting, the gift of administration, the gift of making money to help finance the Lord's work. I believe the gift of music. I believe there are many gifts that Paul didn't list that he gives to men and every man has a church. Every man in the church has a gift. And I believe that healing is a gift. Now I want to say that it is a gift which is so obvious and so physical and so overt and so visual that it is one that is easily easy to malign and easy to misuse. And unfortunately, in many people's ministries, the gift of healing is more easily exploited than our other gifts. It distracts me to hear the names of prominent healers, of men well known in California, now deceased, who over on more than 400 radio stations as a famous healer was arrested by my own brother -in -law, highway patrolman in California twice for drunk driving. It disturbs me when healers leave their own denomination, which made them what they are, and jump out to other denominations who can better financially support them to build colleges. That disturbs me. But yet I do not deny that I see men and praise God for men and women who seem to be holding in sacred trust the gift of the ministry of healing. I think of the ministry of Catherine Kuhlman. I have attended and I have come away sensing the presence of God. I didn't used to like women preachers until I met Joe Shelton. But I tell you something. God has given some women beautiful and wonderful ministries. And I sense God's presence about her ministry and giving the glory, as does she. Another thing that I want to say is this. What healing that is done is on the basis of the atonement for the believer. Let me say this again. I believe that within the scope of God's will, if it is his will to heal in a particular case, that it will be done on the basis of the atoning blood of Christ. The Bible says he was bruised for our iniquities and by his stripes we are healed. Healing is in the atonement. And if the Christian is to have a miraculous divine healing, it will be on the basis of the shed blood of Christ. There are those even who suggest that it was the blood of Christ which provided for the salvation of our sins. It was the broken body of Christ which became the basis through which in the will of God, potentially the healing of the body can be experienced. But I must simply say to you that it is my experience that we cannot simply go around praying God heal this one and God heal that one. But that each believer from for himself must attempt, and frankly this is the most difficult thing I know anything about to do, the will of God with an open mind. And it may be that in God's will he will say to this one or to that one, my child this particular occasion it is within the scope of my will for a divine healing to occur and you can pray the prayer of faith believing and it will be done. And in another case that he may say no my child it is not within the scope of my will. In this particular case suffering to my glory can be of more value do not pray for a healing in this matter but again i say to you that when you know it to be the will of god deep in your heart when you claim in simplicity the healing of a body in faith that it is always on the basis of the atoning blood of christ alone in the salvation that he promised and provided on the cross and that basis alone through which the healing occurs when i come to the new testament i find two basic kinds of healing those cases in which someone brought the others as when jarius jarius interceded for his daughter as when four men brought a man stricken with a palsy who could not come for himself and listen very closely in every case when this occurred when someone brought someone else all that they ever received was a physical healing then i find another kind of healing where jesus not only healed the body but he forgave sins and spiritually healed their soul as well and in every such case the individual had to come to jesus for themselves there are some things that no one can do for you it may be that you will be healed in someone it may be progressively through medicine it may be instantaneously by divine intervention miraculously but it may be that someone was praying for you you never knew anything about nobody can get you saved for you but you and i want to say this one last word as wonderful as healing is it doesn't touch top side nor bottom of getting saved listen god raised lazarus from the dead but in a few years he died again everybody that ever got healed and got well and didn't die got sick and died again because what is a man profited if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul bodies come and go but he that doeth the will of god abideth forever and when jesus christ touches a man's soul and forgives his sins writes his name indelibly in the lamb's book of life in heaven he takes him to glory he takes him to heaven and no man can keep him out of the father's hand he'll never lose salvation don't ever forget that that's the main thing let me read a passage of scripture and close we talk about the purposes of god in the eighth chapter of romans paul informs us that there is but one purpose of god and that that purpose is to bring many sons into adoption for you see god loved jesus so much he just wanted a whole heaven full of little jesus's and when a man gets converted he is has a deposit in his soul of the holy spirit of the imprint and likeness of jesus christ and as he grows in grace he becomes more like the lord jesus and in heaven he is exactly like him in mind body heart soul and purpose and it is called being glorified and in his final state when we shall be like him for we shall see him is as he is when we have a perfect mind and heart and soul and body not susceptible to disease and sin and suffering it shall be a mind and heart and soul and body like unto that of jesus in his glorified body in romans 8 28 we know that all things work together for good to them that love god who they're called together according to his purpose and here is his purpose for whom he did foreknow them he also did predestinate not those that he didn't know how would choose but men that he knew would choose he predetermined to call because he knew they would respond them he did predetermined to be conformed to the image of his son there's glorification the final consummate confirmation to the image of the lord jesus christ so that he might be the firstborn among many brethren who are going to be exactly like him moreover whom he did predestinate he also called and whom he also called he also justified and whom he justified he glorified what shall we say into these things of god before us who can be against us verse 38 for I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. God is trying to bring many sons unto adoption of whom Jesus was the firstborn of many brethren. And when he finishes in heaven the work he has started on the cross and is now, which is now operative in the life of the believer, when that happens the final consummate state like Jesus shall be a state of glorification. The doctrine of glorification is simply this, that God having foreknown me did predestinate me to be conformed to the image of his Son and nothing but nothing shall separate me from the final accomplishment of that fact. Forgive me if I have not told this story to you, I think once in the last year or two, it bears repeating. A little girl was born deformed. Her legs were not straight, her face was not pretty, her arms were twisted. After about three or four weeks of her first grade in school receiving the pitiful criticisms and ridicule of other innocent playmates. She came home, crawled up in her mother's lap with frustration and fright and fear and said, Mama, why did God make me like this? To which her mother, the wisdom of the ages, responded, Darling, God's not done making you yet. And he's not. A glorified body, a perfect body, a perfect brain, a perfect mind, a perfect soul, a perfect personality, a perfect will, like unto the King of kings, the helper, the healer, the friend, to those who are in Christ. Let us stand.