Sunday English Service – 06 MAR 22

Transcript

Two weeks ago, we began a new series, and we called it, Redeemed, the series on redemption, or redeemed. And we talked about the revelation of redemption, talked about what redemption is and then we talked about the Redeemer, and what he did last week. From this week onwards, I’m going to talk about one of the things that he redeemed us from. Redeemed us from sickness. We’re going to spend a few weeks on this quite a bit of detail in the weeks to come. So we’re going to talk about redeemed from sickness. Now, the way we’ll start it is that we are going to ask three questions today and answer these three questions, and that will be pretty much the kind of thing that we’ll do every week when we come and look at this truth. We’ll go through the Bible looking at this redemption, and to see whether bodily healing is also included in this redemption. Last three questions and answer this regarding sickness. The first question we’ll ask is, what is God’s will regarding healing for our bodies? This is a very important question. There are those who believe that healing for our bodies is not part of redemption. So they believe that the God only heals on some occasions and not others. And that we cannot believe for healing based on redemption. So we’ll look at what God’s will is regarding healing for our body. Secondly, we’ll look at what is the source of all the diseases, we see and experience in this world. Thirdly, we’ll look at how to cut off our connection with the source of that evil. Let’s go through the first question, what is God’s will regarding physical healing? 

Now, we must start with Genesis chapter one. Because I believe whenever you want to know something better to start with Genesis one. So I always kind of go back to Genesis one. Some people like to start Revelation. But we need to understand Genesis first. And particularly the first three chapters of Genesis are of great significance, because that is where we have the record of what God originally intended for man, after that sin came and ruined everything. So the world that we see today is not the kind of world that God wanted. What God wanted, is seen in the first three chapters, and that is why, particularly the first two chapters, and third chapter is where everything changes as sin comes in. That is why the first two chapters or the first three chapters I would say, are most important in the Bible. So let’s go to Chapter One of Genesis, we find the God’s will regarding healing is clearly revealed in the creative work that God did. When God created everything, I believe that God revealed His will right there. God created man, the way he wanted him, but that gives me a great comfort really to know that God created man, the way that he wanted him to be created. Genesis chapter one, verse 26, God states, what he wants man to be like. He says, let us make man in our image, and in our likeness, and let them have dominion over everything. Let us make man in our image and in our likeness. Now, if man was made in the image and likeness of God, I can’t see him as having any kind of disability or disease, or tendency towards sickness, because in the image and likeness of God, you cannot really find any of these things, any deformities, any sickness, any disease or anything like that. Man was made in the image and likeness of God. 

Now you know that before God created man, God created many beautiful and wonderful things, such as the sun, moon and the stars, the trees, the beautiful plants, flowers, fish, animals, birds, all of these things were created, some of them really surpassing in strength, and the great wonderful models of grace and beauty really, if you look at them. But when it came to making man, God clearly makes a difference. And man is the masterpiece of God in creation. He is the greatest of God’s creation. He is the best. He is the choicest. And when it came to making man, he did not fashion man after any of these patterns. He did not fashion him after the fish, or the birds, or the animals, in their strength, and beauty and glory, and so on. What did he fashion man after. He fashioned man after himself. He said, Let’s make man in our image, and according to our likeness. So that would mean that before the fall, before man became what he is today, as a result of the fall, man was in some sense in the image of God, in the likeness of God. And there is no doubt that man was a glorious creature, really. We cannot even imagine how glorious he may have been. I think he must have been strong, beautiful, perfectly proportioned, magnificent in every way. Just imagine, man in the image and likeness of God. And he stood forth, as a majestic and a worthy head of creation. If you look at all the creation and looked at man, you could tell very clearly, who’s the King of all creation, who’s the ruler over all creation, who’s the best of all, who’s the masterpiece, you can tell, looking at man. I think that’s the way man would have been compared to all other creations that God had made, anyone can look and tell who the ruler is here, who the best is. 

Just imagine what man would have looked like when God made man, even to this day, after being marred by sin, and changed in so many ways, and diminished in glory, to a great extent, because of the sin that has come in, still, just like the Roman coins had the superscription of the Roman emperor, his image, printed on those coins, because he is the owner of the entire Roman Empire. Just like that, when you see man, even in this fallen state, you could see imprinted God’s image and likeness, you can see in many ways the image and likeness of God in man. That’s the way God has made man. Take a look at the brain, for example, or any other part of the body and how intricately made it is and how wonderful it’s wired and how wonderful it functions. The brain is something so fascinating, when you look at it. And when you think of all the thought processes going through that what an intricate thing it is and what an amazing creation God has come up with. Surely like just like the psalmist says, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. So in looking at the creation of man looking at man, looking at the parts of his body, and so on, you can see the perfection of the plan. You can see all these organs of the body functioning so well so beautifully, so intricately wired and functioning, cooperating with one another, functioning together as a whole. These are things that are fascinating. And if you see that you feel like you know you want to worship the Creator. Even people that don’t believe in a creator are awestruck, by the way these things function. So you see on the one hand, the perfection, when you see man’s creation. On the other hand, you see the imperfection today. That man is besieged by a lot of sickness, disease disabilities. And there are certain sicknesses that come and literally destroy Man, Man was made so glorious and so wonderful sometimes. He so changed by this evil called sickness and disease today. A great scientist, once said these words, when he commented about this particular contrast the perfection versus the imperfection that he saw. He says, I cannot understand how the consummate artist who found and painted a rose could also create a worm, to know that it’s fragmented art, and cause it’s pink flushed, velvet petals to turn the color of decay. He says neither can I understand how the creator of such a glorious being as man can bring into existence of fowl and voracious thing like cancer, to prey upon the masterpiece of beauty and perfection the human body.

How can I create who made the body so beautiful, so wonderful, glorious, such a glorious being as man he has created? How can that God, that creator bring into existence of fowl and a voracious thing like cancer to prey upon the body? Upon that masterpiece of beauty and perfection? This human body? He says how can these two things come from one person? How can the glory and the beauty and the wonder of this creation of man on the one hand, we see that and then we see a sickness like cancer and this horrible diseases that come in and totally destroys man, ruins man, you look at that, you see that something has terribly gone wrong. And the answer is found in the Bible. When you go to the Bible. That is where the answer is. Without the Bible, I don’t think you can come up with the right answer. When God created man, just like we said, was created beautifully and gloriously, perfectly and so on. And, there’s a verse in the Bible, Ecclesiastes, chapter three, verse four, what so ever God do us, it shall be forever. That’s the way it stated that whatever God does, he means for it to be like that forever. When God created man, He did not intend man to become like the way he is today, he meant for that condition to last wherever. He wanted man to be that way. That was his eternal plan and purpose for man. That’s the plan and purpose concerning man. But sin entered, Satan enter through sin. And just like Jesus said, the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy him. In 1 John 3:8 says, Jesus came to destroy the works of this one who’s stealing, killing and destroying. 

The devil comes to destroy, Jesus came to destroy the destroyer. That’s the way the Bible puts it. This is the story of the Bible. So what is God’s will regarding physical healing today? In light of the fact that it was made glorious and beautiful and wonderful. Now sin has come and brought this condition. What is God’s will regarding physical healing? Now in the minds of Christian people, there is a great difficulty today in believing that God wills for all people to be well, physically, that healing God wants for everyone. It’s a great difficulty. The same difficulty that the leper in Matthew chapter eight, remember, the leper that came to Jesus, back in those days, leprosy was considered as a terrible thing. If you had it, you’d be thrown out of town. And you just lived out in the woods, cannot come back to your family cannot see your children cannot see your wife cannot be with your family. You’re separated. You’re out there as an outcast. Even somebody came by you, near you anywhere near you. You need to shout and warn, saying, get away, leper get away. That’s the way that society treated lepers in those days. 

They thought it was an infectious disease and they just loathe it and hated people that had this disease and kept them as an outcast. Living in that society, one fella comes to Jesus, and he says he believes his problem is not whether Jesus can heal or not. Because he comes and says, if it be your will, heal me. If it be your will, you can make me clean. It’s the problem that he has with the will of God, whether God wills for him to be cleaned. That’s the thing. He didn’t have any problem with whether God can do it or not. He is like a lot of Christians today, Christians are ready to admit that God is all powerful. There’re ready to admit that God can do anything. But when it comes to healing, the biggest problem that people have is, is it God’s will for me to be healed? Does he want me to be healed? That’s the question. And he had the same difficulty. So he says, If it be thy will, make me clean. And Jesus without even thinking for a moment, without even going into anything. Simply outrightly replied to him, he said, I will be thou made clean. I will he says, it’s my will, he says. Never during His earthly life, did Jesus tell anybody that it’s not his will, or it is not God’s will, never. You can read the Bible. You can read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Never in his life, he told anybody that it’s not His will or God’s will for a person to be healed. Look at how the psalmist prays. The way the leper prays, if it be your will heal me is the kind of prayer that a lot of people pray when it comes to sickness. A lot of it’s your will heal me. They think that’s the way they ought to pray because somebody has told them it may not be it may not be God’s will sometimes. It’s not God’s will all the time they think. So they think it’s only decent to pray like that, if it be your will heal me. 

But look at the Old Testament, people praying with such confidence. David prays in the Psalms, chapter six of the Plasms. He says, have mercy upon me, oh, Lord, for I am weak. Oh, Lord, heal me for my bones are vexed. He doesn’t have any doubt about whether God will heal him or not. He says, heal me. He thinks God will heal him. And then in verse four and five, he calls on God to deliver him from death. And then in verse nine, as he closes the Psalm, He says, The Lord has heard my supplication my prayer, the Lord will receive my prayer. He is so sure that this prayer asking God heal him will be heard, God will answer, God will receive his prayer. What confidence he has, look at Jeremiah how he prayed. In Jeremiah 17:14. Jeremiah prays like this, he says, heal me, oh, God, I shall be healed, save me and I shall be saved. There’s no doubt in his heart, that God will heal him if he called upon God to heal him, that God will heal him. I think that’s the way to pray. That’s the way it should be. Somehow, whether it’s God’s will to heal has come into the picture. So that we read this several times this kind of thing. You remember the guy was born blind. In John chapter nine. When Jesus comes into contact with this person, immediately the disciples asked the Lord saying, whose sin is it? Is it this man sin or his parent’s sin? Why is this man born blind? So you can see that with such kind of people, how easily this theology of how it may not be God’s will to heal some could have spread in that time. They say is this man’s sin or his parent’s sin? Now, if somebody is going to be sick because of their sin, or their parent’s sin, then every single one of us will be sick. I don’t think anybody will be well. You think we’re all well, because our parents have been so good or something like that. I don’t think so. It’s only by the grace of God you’re all well. Amen. You should never look at a sick person and say, who sinned? You sinned or your parents sinned? It’s very crude and very nonsense really? There are some people like that. 

I’m not joking. I’m saying, I’m telling you the truth about what happens here. I’ve seen people like that here in this very town. They’ll talk about is it his sin or his parent’s sin? And for those kinds of people, it’s very easy to believe that God, of course does not want to heal them, and so on. But Jesus reveals the Father’s Will very clearly. Even in the Old Testament, there are redemptive names of God in the Old Testament such as Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah [inaudible 00:20:41] and so on, Jehovah Rapha and so on. These names that start with Jehovah and end with something else. They’re all called redemptive names, because they reveal something about redemption, they revealed something about what redemption does for us. Jehovah Jireh, for example, reveals that God will meet our needs, actually, that name was coined by Abraham, for that alter where he tried to offer his son Isaac, remember, God told him to go to Mount Moriah, and offer his son as sacrifice. God wanted to teach him something about the cross of Calvary, and he goes there, and he was ready to kill his son and God stops him. And then he finds a ram caught in the ticket, already there waiting at the top of the mountain when nobody is there. God has prepared this lamb for him, sacrificial animal for him. Some animal left its home early in the morning before Abraham left and got there to the very spot that Abraham was going to be and waiting there for him. So he named the place Jehovah Jireh. So the meaning is not simply the Lord will see to it as we read it in the Bible. Actually, the meaning should be like this, the Lord is one who gets ready to meet our needs, even before our need arises. 

He’s ahead of you all the time. Before you get to the place where God tells you to go, God has arranged for your provision to meet you there. Sometimes you don’t meet with the provision because you’re in the wrong place. Just imagine what would have happened to Abraham went somewhere else. Nothing would have happened, there won’t be any animal waiting for him, the animal was waiting for him because he went to exactly the spot where God told him to go and animal was waiting, already caught in the thicket for him. So God is a God who gets ready to meet our needs, even before our need arises. Think about that. So God meets all kinds of our needs like that, even just think about redemption, just think about our forgiveness of sin and salvation. Before God created anything, before God created the world, or man, God already prepared the Redeemer. That’s why he’s called the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. Before the foundation for the world was laid, God had already appointed one of the members of the Trinity as the Redeemer who would go down and die on a cross and shed his blood and provide salvation for men. Because he knew that if he created man, as a free being, there’s a chance of him sending in fact, he knew that he would sin, therefore he made the Redeemer ready even before the world was made. So God is very much ahead, he gets ready to meet our needs, even before our need arises. In fact, that is what Abraham was thinking when he named that place, Jehovah Jireh, because the revelation given to him there where he was supposed to offer his son Isaac is the revelation that God has prepared, not his son to be sacrificed, but God’s son to be sacrificed. 

God has prepared before the world began. God has made this preparation and is guarded ready, and God was conveying to Abraham, Abraham, I’m far ahead of you. I prepared my son, not your son, my son to be the sacrifice for the entire humanity. And this evening, that revelation really he named that place Jehovah Jireh meaning he is a God who gets ready to meet our need even before our need arises. Similarly, Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Rapha means the Lord our Healer. He is a healing God. The Lord is our healer. And the Lord is still our healer. He does not change he said, I am God and I change not. So he’s a healing health bestowing life giving Lord still today he’s like that. You need to believe Him as your Jehovah Rapha. He is our healer. When Jesus came into the world, the Bible says he was the perfect representation of God. In Hebrews chapter one, I think they stated the best way. Look at Hebrews chapter one. Let me read you from verse one. God, who at various times in various ways is spoken times passed to the fathers by the prophets. Hasn’t these last days spoken to us by his Son? Now, alot of people don’t realize the difference between God’s Son and God speaking through son in the last days, and God speaking through various methods in the Old Testament and through the prophets and so on. They think, well, God spoke through the prophets. And in the end, he spoke through his son, what difference does it make his son is another prophet. He is just like the other prophets of the Old Testament. What difference is there. There is a big difference. That is why it is written like that God who at various times in various ways, spoken times, passed to our fathers, by the prophets, has now taken a big leap. And he’s given a big revelation. 

In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, what is the difference between God speaking through His Son, and God speaking through the prophets, other people think there’s no difference, there is a big difference, what kind of difference? Look at this, has in these last days spoken to us by son whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds? Now look at verse three, who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of His person, the express image of His person. In Tamil a beautiful word, are beautiful phrases used for that for the express image. For those of you who know Tamil, [Tamil 00:27:13] is exactly what God is. That’s what it means. Whatever God is Jesus is exactly that there is no difference. If you took a picture of God and took a picture of Jesus is exactly the same. [Tamil 00:27:31, he is the express image. I wish I knew more languages. He’s exactly what God is. Whatever he is, in his essence, whatever he is, in his nature, whatever he is, that Jesus is, that is why Jesus when he came into the world, he said, he that has seen me has seen the Father. He said, that the works that he did, were not his own. It’s the father’s works. Whatever he sees the Father do that he does, whatever he sees the Father say that he says, he has no independent agenda he’s simply doing. He is the express image of the Father, whatever the Father would do if he was here, that’s exactly what he was doing. In other words, Jesus is no different from the Father. He is exactly like the father, in his nature and character in every way. And what did he do? He healed all those who came to him, only Nazareth in His own hometown, people couldn’t believe that this guy who grew up among them in Nazareth, as a carpenter son, is now the great healer, because of their unbelief, he could not do much there, not because he couldn’t do it. Or he didn’t want to do it. He wanted to heal, He’s the great healer, he’s there in Nazareth, everyone from Nazareth could have come and receive the healing, but because of their unbelief, they did not receive but usually heal everyone that came to him. He never, you cannot find one case where he said, It’s not my will to heal you or you can never find one case where he said that it’s necessary for you to suffer because God wants to teach you something. 

If it is by sickness that God teaches, then we should pray for more sickness. And we can learn faster, logically not right at all. A lot of people believe these things without thinking them through. God is a great teacher, he doesn’t have to teach us through sickness. Sometimes we learn through sickness, that’s true. Because we are so bullheaded,, we don’t want to learn any other way. We don’t want to listen to a person who says hey, watch out there’s a hole there. You will fall into it, be careful. We just go there, blindly fall into it. And then only we know after we break our legs. That’s our fault. God doesn’t have to teach like that, if you listen he’ll teach. He is the greatest teacher. So God’s answer is always I will and his son who’s the experts image of God, revealed God’s perfect will when he was here on this earth. So there needs to be no doubt in our mind, there should not be any doubt in the mind of the believers here, or anywhere. About whether God wants to heal us or not. If you ever doubt, then that makes healing impossible. When you settle the doubt, that is why I told you the story of AB Simpson, that wonderful story of how he left everything and went two weeks in a farm and look at the Bible just searched the Bible to know because he was going to die. The doctor told them in six months. He wants to know can I believe God for healing? Is healing for me? Should I claim healing as one of the blessings of redemption? He searched the scriptures two weeks and then he came out, saying, since He Himself bore my weaknesses and bore my sicknesses, then that means I am healed. If he himself took it. If none less than the Son of God himself took it, then I am healed. And he became one of the greatest evangelists to preach healing all over America. So we’re going to deal with a lot of it in the race to come showing you how it’s God’s will to heal. This is just today, we’re just going through it a little bit. You will see every week that it is indeed God’s will to heal, it is there in every page of the Bible. It is where everywhere you turn, that God is a healer. Secondly, what is the source of sickness? I never forget the story that I read from Lillian B Yeomans book. Lillian B Yeomans was a medical doctor, trained in America. She was a Canadian, worked as a doctor with the Canadian government. And later on, she was used mightily by the Lord in healing ministry, she traveled all over America and Canada and preached. This was about 100 years ago, a great teacher of the Bible also. She said that, while she was working as a doctor in Canada, she had a telegram. She received a telegram on time from a small rural community, asking her to come urgently. She went there, and she found that people young and old, of all ages are sick with typhoid fever. And she found a young man who was very strong and so on young about to die, because of the sickness. A lot of people were sick everywhere. And she started treating them and helping them and so on. And then she didn’t want to leave it with that. She wanted to find out what the reason is, why did everybody get sick? Why, from a child to an old man, all kinds of people are getting sick, why so many people are sick? You wanted to find out the reason, the source of the sickness, where does this come from? Why is it coming into this particular community? 

So she called the people of the community and asked them where is your water coming from? They said up from that mountain. That’s where our water comes from. He said, can you go and trace the passage where the water comes down the stream and see if there is anything gone wrong there. So they went and went up the mountain, trace the whole route through which the water came and they found on top of the mountain. The water is flowing from somewhere it’s coming and at one point there is a big pool like thing. A lot of water stagnating there. And there were four pigs dead there. She says it was like a pig’s soup. And what was flowing through that and coming down, though diluted, still it’s infected and people drink that water. No wonder a lot of people were getting sick. All they had to do was to remove the pigs and clean up the place. And then everybody got well. She went there after some time to the same community and found that no one was ill. No one was sick. Everybody was doing well because they’re getting clean water. They found traced and found the source of sickness. 

We need to find out things. Go back to Genesis, Genesis chapter three. What happened to mankind? What was the problem? Where did sickness come from? What is the source of sickness? Where did it start? Where are the pigs? Chapter Three, Genesis chapter three, verse one. Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord had made. And it said to the woman, has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Now this phrase, has God said, has God said, it’s a very dangerous statement, it’s a statement that originated in hell, and anybody that has fallen, had given year to this kind of thing has God said, did God say so? It is a statement that arouses a doubt in what God has said, questions what God has said. So the devil comes the Eve and says, has God said? Why was Satan attacking God’s word? He looks at man gloriously created, wonderfully made. And here is the devil. He’s been thrown out of heaven. He is a vagabond, doesn’t even have a place to stay. And he finds this man whom God loves. God is so ever mindful of him. He is thinking about him from all eternity, before he even made the world God is thinking about man only, and planning everything for him. I can see the devil getting so jealous and being so jealous over man, that God making such a beautiful world for man, and making him so glorious and wonderful and making him the ruler, and the king over all creation. I can see the devil all filled with jealousy as he looks at man. And he looks at God’s relationship with man, he wants to get in the way and ruin it, and spoil man’s life. How to do it, as long as man obeyed the Word of God, the Word of God is the thing that linked to God and man. The relationship is based on that word, you should eat of all the trees of the garden, but you shall not eat of this tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that’s the thing that held it together. As long as man refrained from eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He was in a relationship with God, he was acknowledging God as his lord and master. The very moment he decided to eat, sin had come into his heart, rebellion has come into his heart. In other words, he’s saying who’s God to tell me what I should eat and what I should not? I’ll do what I want. 

And the way the devil goes about causing this kind of thing is to cause a doubt about what God has said, has God said? Because he knows that as long as people stood on the Word of God and man rests on the Word of God. Man is invincible, impregnable, immovable, you can’t do anything to a man who stands on the Word of God. Like the Psalm says, they that trust in the Lord, shall be as Mount Zion we sing, remember that song. They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed but abides forever. As long as man trusts in the Word of God, he cannot be moved, he will abide forever. He will stand nobody can shake, he’s impregnable, immovable, as long as he is connected to God through the word, as long as he stays true to God’s word. So the rift must be created right there with the Word of God. He must somehow bring first a doubt about God’s word so that man gets detached from God. That’s what he was doing. Knows that he cannot touch them and do anything to them Unless they open the door of their life to him by listening to him, by entertaining his word, and receiving the doubts that he’s bringing. Remember, in 1 Peter chapter five, there’s an interesting verse where Peter is telling the people there in 1 Peter chapter five, turn over there for one minute. And it’s verse eight and nine, 1 Peter Chapter five verses eight and nine, be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. I said, as long as you stood on the Word of God, you are impregnable, you are invincible, you are immovable, the devil cannot do anything. Some people think of the devil as a big somebody, mightier and more powerful than man that he can do whatever he likes, at his will. It’s not like that. Look at what it says here. Peter is saying to the Christian people that he says, be sober and be vigilant, because your adversary, you have an enemy the devil is walking about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Why should we seek who may devour? Because he cannot devour anybody at will. He cannot just go in and just eat people alive. Just as he wishes, he cannot, he has to find the perfect candidate for devouring. He is looking for some way to get in seeking whom he may devour. In Tamil it says it very beautifully [Tamil 00:41:47] that means, he is looking for a way to devour. Looking for a way, and that is why the Bible says another place do not give place to the devil, because he’s looking for away, he is looking for a way, don’t give way. He cannot devour anybody and everybody, he can only devour those who open their lives to Him. And Eve on that day, opened her life to Him, entertain him and believed in his lie, and therefore she got taken in and the devil had a way to enter in. 

The devil had a way to come in and ruin everything for them. And Eve opened her heart’s door to the devil by listening to his word. Doubt entered through doubt, unbelief entered and through unbelief disobedience came and sin, sickness, sorrow, death, poverty, everything followed after that. That’s how things happen. So we know the source of sickness so we know what God’s will is. We simply explained God’s will and we told you what the source of sickness the source of sickness is this thing that we looked at just now the devil has entered in. He is one that steals skills and destroys, he’s out there to rob you, steal you of your health, he is there to take everything good that God has given to you and destroy. And the story of the Bible is that Jesus has come to destroy him. The devil has come to destroy you, Jesus has come to destroy him. What is the solution how to cut off our connection with the source of evil just like they picked up the pigs and threw them away, cleaned up the place and got the clear, good water coming clean, good water coming. How to get the life of God flowing in us how to keep the evil out how to get our connection with the evil cut off. There also you turn to chapter three of Genesis, as soon as man sin. As soon as man sin, God comes up with a solution. The woman listens to the devil opened her heart, they will came in. Everything was ruined. And immediately God comes in and God comes and pulls up the serpent the devil, woman and man and tells them what’s going to happen because of what they’ve done. In verse 15, God tells us up and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruises his heal. In other words, the promise of the coming Messiah, the very first promise of the coming Messiah was given in Genesis 31:5, that somebody’s going to come who’s going to bruise your head, and he’s going to be the seed of the woman, God says. And after that, God speaks to the woman and tells him that her sorrow will be multiplied in conception and so on. And then tells Adam, that since he has done this, the ground is cursed because of him and he toil, he will eat of it all the days of his life, and thorns and thistles he shall bring forth and so on. Finally, he tells him from the dust you came to the dust you will return and so on. 

And then in verse 21, in verse 21, there is a beautiful verse, he not only tells in 15th verse that there is going to be a redeemer coming, who’s going to crush the head of Satan. He gives a clue in verse 21, about what this redemption is going to be like he gives the picture of the redemption. He portrays the redemption very simply in just two three lines. Look at the that verse 21, also for Adam and his wife, the Lord God made tunics of skin and clothed them, tunics of skin and clothed them. After sinning Adam and Eve made clothes for themselves with leaves, the Bible says, and you can imagine how long the leaves will last. Not even a few minutes, staring up on all sides. They are in shame. For the first time in their life, they’re facing shame, they’re realizing their nakedness. And God comes in. His job is over. Now he is told the promise of the coming Messiah. He has declared what’s going to happen to man as a result of his sin and so on. He could have left it at that, but he gives right there a small peek at redemption, what kind of redemption we’re going to have. And in that, he beautifully puts what all redemption is going to contain within it. For Adam and his wife, the Lord God made tunics of skin and clothed them. How did he come up with the tunics of skin? How can he come up with a leather dress for both of them? He must have killed some animals there. An innocent animal or several animals, innocent animals were killed. They were skinned, their skin was taken. And I can imagine the scene in the Garden of Eden as God does it takes the skin of the animals and covers the man and the woman with the skin of the animal, that skin that is covered with blood, the blood of the animal. And he takes that and puts it as a court upon the man and the woman a more permanent covering. 

Now, what is there about redemption? Tells us about redemption because it tells us that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin, once sin happens, you cannot remedy it without shedding of blood. There’s no other way to fix it. You’ve got to have shedding of blood, the wages of sin is death. Sin always leads to death. So God is demonstrating that because you sinned, this animal had to die, this innocent animal had to die in order to provide a covering for you. But not only that, what did God cover with the court of skin? It’s not just a matter of spirit and soul of man. More importantly, here in this case, it’s a body of man, his nakedness was covered, thereby showing that in redemption very clearly. There is answer not only for the spirit or the soul of man, but also for his body. There is bodily redemption also that is included in the redemption that God provides for men. It is the body of men that he covers. The blood shared by the innocent animal. The skin taken out of that animal, the death of that animal provided for the body of man. That’s the message that is given for the first time, the picture of redemption. The very first picture of redemption in the Bible carries with it the message that redemption deals with our bodies also. I think that’s an amazing thing if you think about it.

There was a great English artist. And he was filled with a great hunger for a clear vision of the Christ. He is a believer, he was filled with a great hunger to somehow portray Christ in all of his beauty and glory, wanted to do an exceptional job in painting the picture of Jesus. For that he needs to understand Jesus in all of this beauty and glory. What is so wonderful about Jesus. He needs to capture it. And he was trying very hard for it. He was so devoted in that. So he left his studio and his good life and friends and everything, all the comfort and everything, decided to go to the very place that Jesus lived in. He believed that if he lived in the same soil where Jesus lived and breathed the same air, and lived under the same heavens and looked at the same stars that Jesus looked at, somehow he will receive the inspiration, and get an idea of what to picked regarding Jesus. So he goes there. And as he lives there, where Jesus lived when he was on this earth, and reads his Bible and searches his Bible for God, to show him what to do. God takes him to Isaiah chapter 53, and verse six. And Isaiah 53:6 says this, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. So he got the idea of all the people like sheep gone astray. They’re all like sheep gone astray. And Jesus is described as the Lamb of God that was sacrificed for us, that one lamb sacrificed for all the sheep that have gone astray. So he looked at Isaiah 53, it’s a well, this is a picture of the cross, maybe I should draw the crucifixion of Jesus, and somehow try to portray the glory of the cross. So he takes his brush and tries to work on painting on the canvas, the picture of Christ’s crucifixion, he tries to imagine what he should do. But nothing is coming. He was not able to even start his work. So he went back to the Bible and began to read from the Old Testament. 

And then he came upon the Day of Atonement and the description of the Day of Atonement and what happened there. You know the Old Testament times on the Day of Atonement, they brought two lambs. And on one, the high priest laid his hands and confess the sin of the entire nation over that animal. That was a way of transferring the sins of the whole nation upon that animal. So the sin of the people by confession is transferred upon that animal. And then they killed that animal as a sacrifice. So that animal dies, then there is the other one that is alive. Why is the other one needed as if to depict the work of one Redeemer two lambs were needed. One was not enough, because one has to buy dying show that someone has to die to provide redemption, that blood has to be shared, death has to be administered as punishment for sin. For that a lamb was needed. So the lamb died. The other living one was needed to depict the fact that God will remove our sin as far as east is from the west, and he will throw it in the bottomless ocean, so that it will never come before us, never haunt us never accuse us to depict that this live animal was used. So again, on the live animal, the high priest will lay hands and confess all the sins of the people. And then they will have a man take this animal and walk it into the wilderness, far away to a place of no return, where the animal could not find its way back. The whole point is it should not find its way back. Because that’s the point they’re trying to show to the people, it won’t come back, your sin won’t come back. Your sin will not be remembered. Your sin will not be brought back, you will not be accused anymore, it’ll be gone forever. It is to depict that. So the man walks it way far, far away to a place of no return and leaves it and comes and leaves it and comes. The people standing here watching the whole scene, they feel greatly relieved because their sin is gone. The sin has been punished by the death of that animal, the one that died, the sin has been removed as far as east is from the west thrown in the bottomless ocean, by this escape goat that took their sins and walked away into the wilderness, never to return again. 

So they looked at that scapegoat, they felt greatly relieved. This is all a depiction of redemptions all God, dramatizing all of these things, to show what redemption is all about. So the people are greatly relieved that it’s gone. So the man returns, and the priest will bless the people saying you are clean, you can go home, and people go home and celebrate the Sabbath. This is the way it was done on the day of Atonement. But this man goes into what happens to that goat scape goat that went into the wilderness. And he says, he began to imagine he began to imagine this doomed beast, beneath it’s crushing load of guilt, lead into the wilderness and left at a place of no return. The high priest has dismissed the people saying you are clean now. Because your sins are carried away, your sins have been punished. So all done, you can go home and celebrate now. They return to enjoy the Sabbath, free from all condemnation and all doom. Because the burden of sin is gone, the burden of sin is carried away by this beast that walked into the wilderness. And the artist begins to picture that what happened to that scapegoat and began to draw it. And the moment chosen by the artist for this picture, is the sunset hour. He choose the moment of sunset, and paints his picture. In the painting, you can see the animal is very near the end of his life is shown as an animal carrying this invisible load the burden of the sin of the whole nation of Israel, crushed under the burden of the invisible load. And the white lime soil of the area. He draws it with red spots on the ground where the goat has walked. Why? Because its feet are wounded. It’s couched in the sun tearing up, blood coming out. So the white sand is showing all the blood of this animal with the red spots and the animal walks and you could see in the painting, that it’s crushed. The animal is dying of starvation of thirst become very feeble, very weak. Eyes glazing can’t hardly see anything because it’s lost all its strength. And its bearing the curse of all the Israelites, so that they may go free and they may rejoice in their homes. 

The main thing in that picture is the main thing that came out of the painting is that in the redemption that God provides, not only is our sin punished by death of the animal, not only that our sin carried away from us. That is something that happens to the animal in a bodily sense. The animal experience is the weakness, the burdens, the sickness and all the pain and the agony of all of man’s weakness and sickness. So that redemption is depicted as something that deals with spirit, soul and body. Spirit, soul and body.

He shows the animal as suffering in the bodily way, wounded, scarred, scorched suffering in its body so that we can be made well. Amazing. And I want to show you in the weeks to come, many of the pictures of redemption, each picture having in it, a redemption that includes our body, also, healing for our body also. I think it is so important as we live in this world, sometimes we don’t realize how important healing is. Only when we get sick, we realize how important healing is. I got so sick one time, then I realized how important healing is. There was a time when I was so young, I never thought I’ll ever get sick, sickness is not possible, I thought. Then I learned one thing that if you are in this world, you are in a fallen world. You are in a world of imperfection. And you have to overcome sickness, you’ve got to overcome sickness, you better be good at overcoming sickness, you better have faith to overcome sickness. When it comes, you have to deal with it, and therefore you need faith. And that is why I believe what we are teaching is very important. I’m telling you in the weeks to come when you hear it, I hope that you will be able to see the picture of your body, bodily weaknesses and sicknesses. And your diseases, this disease of the belong to human beings have been carried away by him. He bore our weakness and our sickness just like Matthew says it Matthew 8:17. He himself. Everybody say He Himself, Jesus Himself, He Himself bore our weakness, carried our diseases. 

Now the thing is, if he himself did it, then we need to meditate on it every day, we need to sing it. We need to speak it every day. And say, every time you’re sick, every time you feel weak, every time you feel haunted by sickness, you need to say he himself took my weaknesses, and bore my diseases, he himself did it therefore I am well, in the name of Jesus. That is how you overcome it. I tell you, when the doubt leaves your mind, the doubt leaves your mind about whether it is God’s will heal you or not. I’ll tell you, you’re ready to receive your healing. When you can see the picture of Jesus himself carrying your sickness, then you will see yourself as healed and that is when healing happens. Shall we all stand together please? Let’s all lift up our hands and give thanks to God for this wonderful truth. I want you to go home today and every day this week, meditate on this. Think about this. Sing about this, how that himself took your carried weaknesses and bow your diseases. He Himself did it. He Himself did it. Thank God for it. Praise God for it. Rejoice over it. Receive your healing. Receive your strength.