Redemption of the body: Forgiveness of sins and Bodily healing
Sunday English Service – 1 MAY 22
Transcript
Please turn with me to Romans 7 Chapter 8. We’ve been teaching a series on redemption titled it Redeemed. And we talked for a few weeks about how that we are redeemed from sickness, how that bodily healing is also included in the redemption. And we looked at various Old Testament pictures. Because God has planned redemption, even before He made the world and before He made man, God knew that He would make man and that man would sin and that you will need a redeemer. So the plan was in place before the world was made, before the man was made. Therefore, when the world and man was made, God immediately started revealing the plan of redemption. That’s why we have from the very first pages of the Bible, the plan of redemption unfolded for us. And it’s given to us in pictures and types and shadows. It’s played out in the Old Testament in that way. For example, through the coat of skin that God made for Adam. We saw how healing for the bodies there. We saw about the waters of Mara, which is bitter and the tree that was cut and thrown in, the water became bitter. And God immediately passed an ordinance in the place saying, I am the Lord that heals you, just like this bitter water became sweet. I declare that I will be the healer of your life. That I will make everything right. I’ll be your healer, God said. We talked about the purification of the leper. And we talked about finally, the brazen serpent on the pole lifted up before the people, and those who were bitten by snakes were healed.
All of these were pictures of redemption, how that in redemption, healing, also, bodily healing is also included. But today, I want to take you into another direction, we want to do another set of studies, about the redemption of our bodies in general. And I want to cover some things that I’ve never really spoken about in this way, which will bring great clarity to you about redemption, particularly this redemption of our bodies. That is why I asked you to open to Romans chapter 8. I’m going to read you from verse 18 onwards. For I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation, eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. The whole creation is waiting for the revealing of the sons of God with great expectation, it says. For the creation was subjected to futility not willingly, but because of him, who subjected it in hope. Why is waiting with eager expectation? Because the creation was subjected to futility. It has been subjected to the curse that came as a result of man’s sin. Because man and his world are one, connected. Because everything in this world was made for man. You look at the creation, you eliminate man from the picture, everything created makes no sense at all. What is everything for? The sun, moon and the stars and for us, not for God. Birds, the fish, the beasts, and the plants and the trees and the fruit that the tree bears. All of these things are for us for our use the whole earth. The Heaven on Earth is made for us.
If you take man out of the picture, nothing makes sense. There is no reason for the existence of anything. If you put men there, then everything has meaning because it’s all useful to man. So when man sinned, the curse came upon man. In order for the curse to be effective, the creation also had to be subjected to the curse, because if the creation wasn’t the condition, it originally was, if all is well with the creation man cannot experience the curse truly. Curse will not become the reality because the earth will still bring forth everything wonderfully. The trees will bear its fruit and everything will be fine. The creation had to be subjected also to curse so that man will be affected, his whole life will be affected, because he depends on the world for everything. So creation also was subjected to that curse. And verse 21 says, because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now, there is a great birth fan, groaning labor in the creation, it can’t wait for the day to arrive when everything will be made all right again.
The curse will be removed, the earth will return to its original condition. It can’t wait for the time it’s groaning and waiting for it, it says. Not only that, but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit. Notice the expression first fruits. We also who have the first fruits of the Spirit, that means everything that we have today in redemption is first fruits. That is why the theologians call this whole salvation, as having two aspects to it the already, and the not yet. In every way, there is an already and the not yet. We are spirit soul and body when salvation comes, it comes to the spirit, soul and body. Salvation cannot be divided, it cannot be just for the spirit, and nothing for the body. It comes for the spirit, soul and body. We divide it into three parts because it’s easier to study that way. Actually, you cannot take a man and divide them into three parts, he is spirit, soul and body otherwise you cannot be a man. He is one entity. So when salvation comes, it cannot come in a divided way. It comes in the spirit, soul and body. But there is an already and not yet aspect to it, there are things that salvation has provided, which are to be enjoyed now. And there are things that salvation has provided, which are to be enjoyed in eternity to come. That’s how we have it. So we have first fruits. Now we have the first installment, what we are enjoying now is the first fruits.
So it says not only that, but we also have the first fruits of the Spirit. even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the adoption of body just like the creation is groaning and waiting for its redemption, so that it can return to the original condition before the fall. Man also is waiting, we are also waiting, we have received the first fruits but we have not received a body that cannot die. We have not received that thing that is going to happen in eternity. So we are also groaning within ourselves eagerly waiting just like the creation is waiting. We are also groaning and waiting for the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope. But hope that is seen is not hope. But why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. So there is a groaning within us. Now some of you might say well, there’s no groaning within me. What are you talking about? What does the Bible talk about? I don’t relate to it. I have no groaning within me. Everything is fine within me. I’m alright. Well, let me show you how there is a groaning within you. Maybe you didn’t realize. This morning you got up and went to the bathroom. And you looked at yourself in the mirror. Immediately, you thought about how you were about 30 years ago. Some of you are looking at me like you’re talking about yourself, are you? Well, I’m talking about myself as well. I thought about it this morning. 30 years ago I was a quite a young man. My hair was black, as nice and thin. And everything seemed to be alright. But when I stood the before the mirror this morning, it was a horrible sight. Everything seemed out of shape. So different from what it was. Oh, I was groaning when Lord, I’m going to return to that shape. I’m trying, I’m trying, I may still do it. You think I can’t do it, but I better do it. But you’ve also been groaning, I know. You won’t agree. But you’ve also been groaning. You also thought about it.
But for people who are not still convinced, let me show you how you’re groaning. Maybe not in the bathroom. But when you saw others, who are very nice and sleek and slim, and in first blush shape. And everything is so nice that they’re so young and so beautiful and so good, you started groaning. You’re saying to yourself, I was like that once. I used to be like that. But look at me now. When am I going to return to that. I want to get back like that. And you see young people, nice looking young people who say, I want to get back to that shape. I want to get back like that, you compare with others. A lot of ladies do that comparing a lot. They see some of their friends. As long as they looked old and I mean, aging, it’s alright. They looked young. They can’t take it. They’re, my God, what happened to me? Why am I not like that? They’re groaning within themselves. Well forget about groaning in the bathroom and growing while comparing yourself with others. Let me talk about how you’re groaning in some other way. This is real. Even before you go to the bathroom when you get up from your bed. Everything is creaking and cracking. You feel like shouting, ah, [Foreign Language 00:12:09]and all that. You’re calling your father, mother, everybody, just to get out of the bed. And when you get out of the bed, everything feels so unstable. You want to stand there for just a few seconds before you start moving. Back in those days, you should jump out of bed and just go and fly anywhere and do things.
I was in some place recently, I was in Coimbatore, I met a man who came to see me. He was 90 years old, I didn’t know that. He looked like a young man really. Then slender looking. He just came in walked in like that he was very brisk, and so on. He just sat down and talked to me. And immediately just without even leaning on anything, he just getup like that. And then we’ll sit down, we’ll walk around and come back and sit down, get up, just like that. I thought when Lord I’m going to become like that. This guy is too good, 90 years old. Then only I asked him how old he was. He was 90 years old. Very, very good shape, groaning, but these are all negative type of groaning because you’re comparing and envying and you’re wishing and you’re regretting and so on. The Bible talks about the good kind of groaning, it’s a holy groaning it’s a desirable groaning. It is a groaning that is sanctifying. It’s God honoring. Because you’re groaning, realizing that you are not in the way that God has created to be. You’re in a fallen condition, this world is in a fallen condition. And you’re waiting for everything to be made perfect. yourself to be made perfect in the world to be made perfect. And that’s a good expectation. That’s a good groaning you can’t wait for it to happen. You can’t wait for this thing to come about. And it will come about when Jesus comes.
So if you want to ask this question this morning. If we’re groaning for the redemption of our bodies, when does the redemption of our bodies begin? Now immediately the instinctive answer is that it begins when Jesus comes back, the redemption of our bodies has to wait until Jesus comes back. That’s a typical answer of a Christian. In a way it’s right. If you mean by the redemption of the body, the undying immortal body that is given to you then you have to wait until Jesus comes. But redemption of the body does not just mean the undying immortal body that is going to be given, even healing and all of these things, healing and health, long life, all of these things come under the redemption of our bodies.
The bodies are redeemed in so many ways, before we even reach that stage where immortality is given to us. Before we get there to mortality, in so many ways our body is renewed, our body is redeemed. And I want to show you today, one particular truth, one theologically sound truth about the redemption of the body. And that is, that redemption of the body is something that has begun now. It has begun now. And it is an ongoing thing. It is happening now in our lives. And it is going to culminate and consummation of that redemption, the culmination and the consummation of the redemption is going to be when Jesus comes. Not everything is in the future. There is an already and not yet aspect, in everything. So, in this redemption, there is an already aspect you already have some things already possess some things. There are some things that you do not yet possess. You already have things like healing, and so on. But you don’t have immortality yet that you have to wait for, until Jesus comes. So there is the already and the not yet. In everything there is already and not yet. So I want to show you, the Bible says if any man be in Christ is a new creature, old things are passed away all things have become new. When it says all things have become new. In every aspect of man redemption has had an impact. The first fruit of that impact is seen now. The fullness of the redemption is going to come when Jesus comes.
It has begun now you see the fullness when Jesus comes, that’s the way we need to understand. So how does God redeem our bodies beginning here and now. When I said the redemption of our bodies is happening now, when Jesus died on the cross and rose again, and made atonement for our sins and redeemed us, He has redeemed us. And in that redemption, there is the redemption of our bodies. From that time on anybody who has put their faith in Christ, they have their ongoing work of redemption happening even in their bodies. There is an ongoing work of redemption happening, as is the wonderful truths I want to share with you today. The first way that we can say that what redemption is received by us here and now is that we put our faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins from the time we put our faith in Jesus, and accept Him as Lord and Savior. The redemption of our bodies also is involved in that not only our sins are forgiven, our bodies are also impacted by it. Salvation, the forgiveness of sins, affects your health in your body also, I want to show you this today.
How can we see that? How can we understand this? Sin produces guilt. And we all know that. And guilt is a terrible problem. This guilt due to sin is such a devastating force in human experience. It is something that tears people’s lives, the guilt because of sin. It not only impacts our mind, it impacts our bodies. It affects our bodies as well. Now, there’s a great theologian who teaches about these things. And his wife is a doctor he talks about how his wife studied in England and finished her medical studies and was doing the rotation the house agency or residency. And she was put in various departments and one of the departments she had to work for a few months is the psychiatric department in a big hospital, very big psychiatric ward. She learned something there and she came and shared it with this man and he talks about it in a very interesting way. He said his wife said it seems that she observed that in the psychiatric ward, one of the biggest psychiatric ward any hospital near London. She said she found that 50% of the doctors are psychiatrists, and 50% of the doctors are regular physicians, general physicians. She wondered why they would put general physicians in a psychiatric ward. She thought it’s a Psychiatric ward, big psychiatric ward, we need more psychiatrist because we’re dealing with psychiatric problems.
Why have they put general physicians? And she found out she says that the people admitted there for mental disorders with mental and emotional disorders, most of them are a large percentage of them had incredibly high percentage of physical problems. In the psychiatric ward, they had mental problems, but a large percentage of them had physical problems. Now, the chief doctor there who was her boss is not a Christian man. She says that he was about to even commit to suicide at one time. So he was in bad shape. He told her, it seems that 50% of the patients in their large ward were there because of unresolved guilt, more than 50% were there because of unresolved guilt. That’s what landed them in the mental ward. Amazing. More than 50% of them were there because of unresolved guilt. And he said, it seems that because this man went all the way to suicide, he said, it seems that this itself had a body breaking effect, resulting in numerous physical problems. Amazing to hear what these doctors have found out, unresolved guilt is the reason why more than 50% of them are there. And there’s unresolved guilt in a human being produces a body breaking effect. That means it destroys the body by bringing in all kinds of diseases. The mental problem produces a lots of kinds of diseases. In other words, and that is why they have 50% general physicians, because they’re not only dealing with psychiatric problems, they’re dealing with physical problems, real physical diseases, caused by mental problems. We see this in the Bible also. The Bible also teaches that truth. That’s what I want to show you today.
One great example is the example of David. David is a famous guy, big King, the King David. Now, he made some big mistakes that some big people make. Famous people make. And you know what it was. He did a terrible thing. He came from a very ordinary background. He was just minding a few sheep. But God had His eyes on him. Somehow God wanted to choose him God is the God of grace.He sometimes chooses people that are not so perfect. So God goes and chooses through Prophet Samuel, this boy, just 16-year-old boy, and he was anointed to be the king of Israel. And just a year later, he goes and confronts Goliath. Everybody, all the soldiers in Israel are afraid of him. But this guy takes him on and kills him very simply with just little stone. And the whole country is seeing Saul has killed 1000 and David has killed 10,000. Saul became very jealous, wanted to destroy him wanted to kill him. So he’s chasing David with three or 4000 men chasing this one little boy. And this little boy has got a company of 300, 400 people useless people. And he’s running with them running for his life, from one cave to another one wilderness to another, he’s running. But God was with him. God saved him. God protected him. God was very kind to him. God had a purpose for him. Somehow at one point, God’s grace was such in his life that he found himself in a cave hiding in the game, and Saul came to relieve himself there. He didn’t know that David was there. All David’s friends told him Look, God has given Saul into your hands now you can cut his head off right now, in this cave while he is relieving himself, he can’t even help himself, just kill him. But he didn’t kill him, he cut a little portion of his shawl, Saul’s shawl. And when the king got up to leave the cave, he went behind him and said, King, look at this, I could have cut your head off, but I just cut the shawl. Because wish I should not lay hands upon God’s anointed, you’re an anointed king by God.
I won’t lay my hands on you don’t believe your people that tell you that I am your enemy. I’m not your enemy. Please don’t chase me try to kill me. But still Saul was chasing him. Saul wouldn’t relent. And after all, this chasing Saul finally died in a war and his son also died, and David becomes king he becomes king accepted only by a part of the people of Israel for some years, and then the whole of Israel accepted him as a king and he became the most glorious king of Israel, just a shepherd boy, God showed such favor to him, lifted him up so high. But sometimes some people cannot take all that elevation and promotion in a nice way. So they get to doing some wrong things. So when all his army was out fighting war, he should have also gone there, or he should have been busy about the war. But he was on the upstairs of his house. And he saw a woman and put his eyes on her knowing that it was another man’s wife. He brought her into his palace and had a relationship with her. And when he found out that he was pregnant, he wanted to put the blame on the husband. So he told him to come on leave. They’ve been fighting for months, and she became pregnant during the war, everybody will suspect so he asked the husband to be sent on leave so that he will go home and stay and then he can say this is the guy who made her pregnant, but he wouldn’t go stay in the house. He’s such a faithful servant of David. He would sleep at David’s door.
He said how can I go and sleep in my house comfortably and enjoy myself when my friends are out there fighting the war. So he was faithful to his job. What a good man. But he has taken that man’s wife. So finally David couldn’t do anything they would they would try to put the blame on him didn’t work. So he arranged for his general to put this man the lady’s husband in the front line of the war purposely so that he may be killed. What a vicious mind somehow mind gets twisted, ready to do anything. And they did that and he got killed. And he took this woman to be his wife Bathsheba. And then who’s going to tell the thing that he’s done wrong? It’s very difficult to tell the king. You can’t even tell a young guy now that you’re wrong. I’m sure the world was the same back then. You tried to date recall a young man or young woman to say you’re wrong. So what are you talking about, I’m never wrong. If you point someone and say that they’re wrong, it’s the hardest thing for them to accept. And especially if you’re a king, and you had all power, you’re bound to get your head cut off. If you want to talk like that, so nobody could go to the king and do this.
But prophet Nathan goes to the king. And he tells him a little story, tells him a story about two men in a city. One was rich, and the other is poor. Rich men have much cattle. The poor man had one little lamb. And he treated that little lamb as his own daughter. He would drink out of the same cup that he drank out of, eat out of the same plate that he ate. That Lamb was like a little child live to that man. When the rich man had a guest come on day, instead of taking one of his animals and killing it and making a feast for the visitor, that man took the little lamb from the poor guy, the only lamb little lamb that this guy had, and made a feast for his friend who was visiting there. This is the story that didn’t happen. The story that Prophet says, and while the story was being told, the king was annoyed, he said, who’s that guy that did like that? Who’s that rich man who took the poor guy’s little lamb?
I will make him pay four times as much as he has taken. Tell me who it is. And Nathan looked at him and said, it’s you. That’s the only way they could tell him. It’s you. And he said, because you’ve taken another man’s wife and did this thing, that’s not right. You will see in your lifetime that your wives and your women will be taken and given to other men. David was shocked. When you sin, everybody says, at least that’s what they used to say when we were young. Otherwise college students used to say. Don’t worry nobody will know. Nobody will know since great comfort is this, that you can do it without telling anybody without being caught. You can keep it a secret. And all the time I’m thinking this guy knows that one guy is enough, no WhatsApp is needed. Before WhatsApp came, we had Y apps. That’s faster. That’ll spread even faster. WhatsApp is only rezoned. The problem with sin is this. They say you can do it without nobody knowing. But the problem with sin is this, you know it. Even if you did it without no one else knowing it. The problem is that you know it, and that is enough to produce guilt. You will feel guilty who can help you? You know it, plus God knows it. Plus, God knows who knows it.
This is the problem. We think nobody knows it. But the problem with sin is that basically you know it and that’s enough. That is enough to produce guilt inside of you when you have done wrong. Nobody needs to know that. You can do it absolutely secretly, but you cannot avoid guilt. Sin produces guilt, for sure, because you know it. That’s what happened to David. Now, David, as a man stricken with guilt, suffering from this guilt, unresolved, guilt laboring to get out of it and you read about it in some of the Psalm 32, Psalm 38, in Psalm 51. I want to read a little portions of that, so you will understand what a man’s guilt does. This is very serious business. Because more than 50% of the people in the mental hospital are there because of unresolved guilt. Guilt is a terrible thing. It’s devastates human beings, the devastating human experience. You cannot take it lightly. So here the Psalmist is guilty. And he cries out to God. And you can learn a lot from this. Let me read you from Psalm 32. Let me read you the first five verses I think, Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. Now, as a young boy, I learned these verses, and I used to tell them by heart. And it didn’t mean a thing to me. Never understood it, even after they came into ministry, whenever I looked at this verse, looked very ordinary,blessed is a man who’s transgression is forgiven. It just didn’t do what it should do to me.
That is where the background is important. What I told you about David, David’s story is important. That’s why the facts that I told about the psychiatric ward, and the fact that the 50% of the people are there because of unresolved guilty, and how it tears up people are devastates people. And it’s a serious human problem. All the background is important. With the background, if you look at it now, it shocks you. Now you know how serious this is. Now I can see with David why the man whose transgression is forgiven is a blessed man. If a man has a transgression, if he has sinned, and if he’s guilty, if he is forgiven, he is a blessed man, because there is the resolving of the guilt,his guilt is resolved, his sin is forgiven, he is free from this thing that will kill him, destroy him literally. Blessed is the man whose sin is covered. I can understand the Psalmist,I can see him crying out to God. I can see him writing this Psalm, knowing truly how serious this business is, and how blessed said as a person, because he himself is that blessing person who has committed that terrible sin and experienced that forgiveness from God. And he writes saying, Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not dispute iniquity, in whose spirit there is no deceit.
Read the third verse, it talks about the problem, there is a revelation here.When I kept silent. What does it mean? When I did not confess my sin. When I kept silent means when I did not go to God and accept that I’m a sinner and confess my sin, that’s what he means. When I kept silent, my bones grew old. I’m reading from NKJV. If you’ve already KJV translation will say my bones vast old. If you read some other translations, it will say I’ve got it listed here. It’ll say my bones wasted away. My body wasted away, what a translation. So he says, my bones grew old, , when I did not confess it, and I kept it to myself, when it was unresolved. When it died and I didn’t find the answer, through my groaning all day long. When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all day long. Grew old means that he was becoming like an old man, something was happening to his bone, this thing is destroying his health, there is a body mind connection, sin brings in guilt in the mind, and guilt brings in sickness in the bones, so that the bones is getting all look at the connection that the body has to guilt that comes as a result of sin. When you sin, guilt produces sickness. Because guilt is in the mind, when the mind is suffering, the body begins to suffer with it. For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me my vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Then he says, I acknowledged my sin to you that means I came and admitted my sin and confessed my sin to you. And my iniquity is not hidden. When he decided to disclose, when he decided to confess, he says, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.
In Tamil, it comes out very beautifully. [Tamil 00:38:18] You can see the man suffering from guilt. The suffering is so terrible because it is not just the mind, it has impacted his body, his bones are growing old. His vitality was turned into the drought of summer. And when he decided to acknowledge his sin to God, when he decided that he will not keep his iniquity hidden when he decided that he will confess his transgression to the Lord, he got forgiveness from God. The Bible is the answer book I say. The world has a lot of questions. This problem of sin producing guilt and guilt affecting the body. It’s the impact of guilt is something that is known even to the world, even the cinema people have written songs about it. I remember when I was a young kid, there was a Tamil cinema sound that used to say [Tamil 00:39:24] Now the Tamil cinema, people are good at asking questions. They don’t know the answer. If they had asked me they could have written the answer in another two verses. The Bible says Jesus is the answer. The Bible says you confess your sin. The Bible says you don’t hide your sin. The Bible says you come to God and tell him that you are a sinner and confess your sin and you can be delivered from this horrible thing of guilty, of sin and be set free. The Bible is the wonderful answer book. The world is full of philosophers and philosophers are good at asking questions. Have you ever found that. I used to be interested in what they say but it’s full of questions. Then I found the Bible is full of answers. Turn to 38 Psalm, Psalm 38. Here he cries out to God as a man written with guilt because of his sin. It says oh Lord, do not rebuke me in your wrath, nor hasten me in your heart displeasure. His relationship with God is affected now. Your arrows pierce me deeply your hand presses me down. Look at the guilt what it’s doing. There is no soundness in my flesh. It goes from the mind filled with guilt, to the body, the flesh suffering with it. He says,there is no sound is in my flesh because of your anger, nor any health in my bones because of my sin. People say how come sin affect your health? When you sin God doesn’t have to come down and punish you. Sin itself will do the thing. Sin itself will produce the guilt, guilt itself will produce the sickness. God doesn’t have to come down and punish anybody because of sin. Sin itself will do the jobs such as the nature of sin, this horrible thing called sin, it will destroy a person through the guilt that it produces the mind that guilt produces all kinds of sickness. There is no soundness in my flesh. Look at his words. Because of your anger. Nor any health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head, like heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. Oh, it’s a burden that’s too hard to bear for anybody.
That’s why you don’t want to sin because that’s a burden that you will never be able to bear. You will be pressed down with that burden. You will be crushed under the burden of sin. My wounds are foul and festering because of my foolishness. Seems like he’s got some diseases in the body because of his sin. Reading the other day, that in America right now, there are 110 million people that have sexually transmitted diseases in them. 110 million people. My wounds are folded and festering because of my foolishness. I’m troubled, I’m bound down greatly, bound down means I’m humiliated. I’m hanging my head down. I’m not able to lift my head up and see anybody eye to eye. I’m humiliated. I’m ashamed of myself. It’s not just guilt. Guilt is accompanied with shame. And it’s accompanied by fear, guilt, shame and fear. All of these things come in a package. These are bad negative emotions that can produce all kinds of sicknesses in human beings. Troubled and bowed down greatly. I go mourning all the day long, my lines are full of inflammation. Again, sickness. my loins are full of inflammation and there is no soundness my flesh, same words, a man who has sinned crying out to God, I’m feeble, I’m weak, that means and severely broken, see mind and body, they all relate to one another. I groan because of the turmoil of my heart. Verse 10, my heart pants, my strength fails me. For the light of my eyes, it also has gone from me. Even my eyes, I’m not able to see well. See what sin has done. Heart is panting. Strength is failing. The light of the eyes is gone. Not able to see well.
My loved ones and my friend stand aloof from a plague. Because of his diseases, the lots of diseases, all the relatives stand very far they want to avoid him. I can understand that. Your relatives will be the first ones to get away from you. That you can be very sure off. And my relative standard far off. Verse 13 and 14. But I like a deaf man do not hear an I like a mute who does not open. I’m like a mute who does not open his mouth and I’m like a man who does not hear and whose mouth is no response indicates shame. A man hanging his head in shame. Not even able to speak. Acts like he doesn’t hear he doesn’t speak, keeps quiet because he has nothing to say, sin has gotten all this. 17,and I’m ready to fall on my sorrows continually before me. For I will declare my iniquity and I’ll be in anguish over my sin by my enemies are vigorous and they’re strong and those who hate me wrongfully have multiplied. And then verse 21, and 22 he says, do not forsake me oh Lord, oh my God be not far from me. Make haste to help me. Oh, Lord, my salvation. Comes to God. That’s the answer. Otherwise, I don’t know what the people in the world will do. Can you imagine that? I’m reading the scriptures. It tells the problem of the man who has sinned the guilt of the man who has sinned suffering under the burden of guilt. Then he cries out to God and says, Oh God, don’t forsake me. Oh my God, don’t be far from me. Make haste to help me. And I think about the people in the world who don’t know God, where will they go? If they suffer from guilt and shame and fear? And they feel down, their heads are hanging down because of sin.
They’re devastated by this horrible thing called sin. Where will they go? The only questions to ask, their philosophy only gives them questions, no answers. The Bible gives answers. The Bible says go to God and say, Oh Lord, I come to you. I open my heart to you. I cry out to you forgive me, oh Lord. Psalm 51. In this you must read the first paragraph just underneath where it says Psalm 51 before you go to the verses. It says to the chief musician, a Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone in to Bathsheba. This is right after Nathan the prophet told him the little story and told him you’re the bad man. You’ve done this, you’ve taken another man’s wife, your women will be taken from you and given to other men. He’s under a shock. He knows now that God knows. He knows already that he is done wrong. He is terribly under the burden of sin and guilt and shame and suffering under it. Look at how he cries out to God. He says have mercy upon me Oh God according to your loving kindness according to the multitude of your tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. This is the answer my friend. Here’s the answer. For those suffering are the guilty here’s the answer. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Those looking for answer, here’s the answer.
For I acknowledge my transgressions. That means, I admit. I agree. Yeah, I’ve done wrong. I stand before your guilty sinner, I have acknowledged my transgressions. And my sin has always before me. That’s one thing about sin is there before you from morning till night, and when you try to sleep, it’s always before you’re not letting you sleep. That’s the problem with sin and against you and you only have I sinned. He is confessing to God. He is very plain and very truthful to God. He didn’t say I’m sorry, I’ve sinned against Bathsheba, though he has it. He didn’t say I’ve sinned against her husband Uriah, though he has indeed sinned against him. He didn’t say I’ve sinned against the people who have entrusted me with this great job. All of that is true. But sin is primarily something against God. Number one thing is sin is against God, against you, and you only have a sin, done this evil in your sight. He knew now God was looking. Somebody told him nobody’s looking. He thought nobody was looking. Now he says, I’ve done this evil in your sight.
You know there is nothing that God cannot see. That you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, in sin my mother conceived me. He said, Lord, I’m a sinner from my birth. I’m Adam’s child, Adam sin has come into me, he has carried over into me when I sin, my mother, brought forth in iniquity and conceived me in sin, behold your desire truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part, you will make me to know wisdom, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Hyssop is a plant that grew in plenty in Palestine. In the Passover day, the first Passover in Exodus chapter 12, when God told them to kill a lamb, shed its blood, put it on the doorposts of the house and sit inside the house as the angel of death passes over them, death will not touch them, God said. Remember that? God told them to take hyssop and deep it in blood and use the hyssop like brush, that little plant. So when he says, purge me with hyssop, he’s thinking about the Passover Lamb, the blood dipped hyssop. He says, Lord, let that hyssop be dipped in your blood, let my heart be cleansed. I shall be made clean, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness. He hasn’t heard joy and gladness in a long time. See what sin does. You’re going to enjoy. You cannot enjoy life after that. That bones you have broken may rejoice. If I hear joy and gladness the bones that you have broken may rejoice.
In other words, the bones are broken because of the sickness that came as a result of this horrible burden of sin that was pressing upon him. Sin produced guilt in his mind and the guilt in his mind became a great burden and his bones were broken. He says, if I’m made to hear joy and gladness, my broken bones will heal, he says. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my inequities. Create in me a clean heart oh God and renew a right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me, what a prayer. This is all — see all the songs or songs to be sung to the Lord as prayer. So I’m using on Friday nights we have prayer here. We do it now in English separately 6 to 7 and in Tamil separately in 7:15 to 8:15. You will come and participate in it, that I’m going one Psalm after the other. I’ve done 40 Psalms already. Teaching people to pray from the Bible. What a way to pray, create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence. Do not take away your Holy Spirit from me. restored to me the joy of your salvation, uphold me by your generous spirit. Deliver me from the guilt and all then I will teach the transgressors your ways, and sinners shall be converted to you. And 14, deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed O God. I’ve killed a person. I’m guilty. Deliver me from that. Who can deliver a man from this? [inaudible 00:53:49] is the right question. Where can he get peace? Where is peace? The Christianity, the message in Christianity is about peace. Where can a man get peace? People are looking for peace. Why? Because guilt is pressing upon them. There is no way to get peace, there is no peace anywhere else. The only way peace can come is when guilt is read off.
When guilt is washed away, and only when it is washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed O God, the God of my salvation. And my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness. Well, I won’t read anymore. You can read it. But what a great thing it is, to see how guilt works. Guilt is there because of sin. And when guilt is there, it breaks the bones makes the bones old. It affects your skin, it affects your looks. It affects your eyes, it affects your digestive system. It affects everything he’s talking about all that every part of your body, goes into all kinds of diseases. The British medical journal they say, has a statement once in a paper that was published in it about this as a statement is this. There is not a tissue of the human body that is wholly removed from the Spirit. They put it in a negative way. Let me put it in a positive way. Every tissue of the human body is connected to the human spirit. Every part of your body, your skin, your bone, your flesh, from head to toe, everything is connected to your spirit to your heart. When sin is in your heart, it spreads everywhere from head to toe, it affects you and makes you sick. It’s been will bring you number of sicknesses. And that is why I believe that redemption of our bodies happens in this way.
That when we come to Jesus, confess our sins, receive Him as Lord and Savior, our guilt is washed away and as a result of guilt being washed away, it percolates down to the body which has been affected because of guilt and the body also begins to recover. You know in which has been affected because of guilt. And the body also begins to recover. You know, in my 40 years of preaching experienced, I’ve heard of people who just came and sat in a meeting like this, where the word of God has preached. And some of them have told me, I don’t know where the disease that I had as gotten though. I had that experience, even back then, when I was pastoring for just one and a half years, in another country, I had that experience. People saying, I just came to the meeting, and I just worship the Lord. And I heard the preaching, and I’m well, I don’t know what happened. Well, I know what happened. God sends His word and heals them. When a word of God comes forth, that is pointing people to answer, they’ve got a problem, they’ve come up with a problem, the word of God is bringing the answer to them. The word of God is convicting them, telling them cry to God, confess your sin to God, open your heart to God, tell Him, speak to Him, do not hide your sin, and you will be made right. And once that is taken care of guilt is gone then the body that was affected because of guilt. That’s a connection. Every tissue of the body they say, these are not Christian people. These are medical people. They’re scientists. They are saying every tissue of the human body is connected to the human spirit. There is not a part of the body of your body that is not connected to the human spirit. There is not one part of the body that cannot be affected by the guilt that is due to sin.
Now, this is what they called psychosomatic illnesses, the mind body connection, they have a name for psychosomatic. I remember, many years ago, the evangelists, Katherine Coleman was to be very famous in this back in the 70s and she has to be very famous in America and in Pittsburgh, she has to have a service in a big place and if you want her in that service, you have to go in the morning and stand in the line to get to attend the evening service. She drew large crowds, a lot of people seem to get healed in that meeting. And she’ll be just walking around singing, worshiping the Lord and preaching a little bit and people are getting healed everywhere. And Johnny Carson, there was a man named Johnny Carson, who used to have a talk show. Very famous. Not a Christian, but he will cross question Christians very particularly with difficult questions. So Billy Graham, and all these people go on appear on his show, because he was the most famous show, people will not want to sleep at night without seeing the show. After seeing the show, they’ll turn the TV off and go to sleep. It was so interesting. And Katherine Coleman came on the show, I was wondering what she was going to do, because this guy can really take you for a ride, he’s very clever.
And he looked at it and said, Miss Coleman, I hear that most of the people that are healed in your meeting are healed only from psychosomatic illnesses. That is, they have been having mental problems, some problems in their mind and as a result, their body is affected. So you heal their mind. So their body is healed now. So that’s not real healing, isn’t it? That’s not a true sickness that’s healed. It’s always psychosomatic illness, is not a real illness. And I would never forget the way she answered him, very coolly said, well, Johnny, but that’s the thing that your hospitals are not able to do when your doctors are not able to do they are not able to heal these people that have problems in their mind that is affecting their body. And my Jesus heals the mind and the body and the spirit. And he got shut up just like he just stand where am said, what your hospitals cannot do, Jesus does, she said. This is the thing that is the most difficult to heal. Maybe you can choose a real biological illness, you can heal, you get your medicines, and maybe it will work. But this nothing man, no medicine will work. The problem is the mind.And there is no medicine for it except the blood of Jesus that cleanses and washes people from their guilt and sin. So, if guilt and shame and fear had such a body breaking power, surely you can find a way of getting rid of guilt, fear and shame. The body itself is going to then participate in that healing and that wholeness. If guilt, shame and fear had body breaking power, and if you have a way of getting rid of the guilt, fear and shame, when you get rid of that guilt, fear and shame, surely, then the body itself is going to participate in the healing and the wholeness. Amen. Therefore, when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, then as we find that guilt, fear and shame being cleansed from us, there should be a resulting healing and restoration to some degree in our bodies. That is why we say, the bodily redemption that are the redemption of our bodies, is ongoing right now it’s going on. When your sins are forgiven, guilt is clear. When your body gets healed. What is that? That’s redemption. That’s the redemption of your body. It’s happening now. It’s an ongoing thing is happening every day. David was a child of God. He sinned, and became sick. His bones were waxing old, his flesh was sick. So the people don’t want to come even near him. I don’t know what it is that he had. But he comes to God, and God heals him and that affects his body, that this bodily redemption. You and I have bodily redemption now it is working in this way.
Proverbs 17:22 says, a merry heart does good like medicine. A merry heart does good like medicine. Is your heart a merry heart?Do you have joy in your heart? Do you have true happiness? You have true joy. You have true happiness and joy. It does good like a medicine. It’s like taking some tonic. When you laugh and have enjoyment. It’s like medicine going into it has a healing effect. A merry heart does good like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones. Again, coming down to the bones. Amazing. Doctors say that 50% of their illnesses are more than 50% of the illnesses that they are treating are related to stress, pressure in the mind, stress. Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones, what are the greatest preachers of the New Testament times. I’d say he’s one of the greatest preachers in the last so many centuries, many say that he’s the greatest preacher of the 20th century. He was a medical doctor, doctor to the Queen of England, as a young man, 29-year-old young man, and he had a Harley Street practice in London, where all the rich people go to the big doctors.
And as he was practicing, he said he found out that most people’s problem is spiritual. That when he was treating people he found out that most people problem is this unresolved guilt, their sin, their guilt, their shame, their fear, resulting in bodily sickness, and he found himself treating the body not being able to do anything about the mind or the Spirit. Nothing to do about the relationship with God, not being able to point them to God. He found himself just giving tablets and injections and putting them in the hospital treating them. He one day decided that he will leave the medical profession and become a preacher and he made a wonderful preacher. Preached to the west Minister chapel in London for so many years to packed out audience, amazing preacher. He found out that the real problem is spiritual. And I say the even today that is true. So, is there a bodily redemption? Is there a redemption for the body right now? Who can say there is no redemption for the body right now? How can someone say that God does nothing for the body today? You have to wait until Jesus comes for that he only gives forgiveness of sin, no. Anybody had any sense, they should be able to realize that sin produces guilt, guilt produces burden, and shame and fear, producing many kinds of sicknesses. Therefore, when the guilt is resolved, bodily healing happens, and that is how bodily redemption works itself in our life today, on a day to day basis, it’s an ongoing thing it’s going on today. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, you read about the curse of the law, a big list of sicknesses. It’s there today, you’re redeemed, I say to you, you are redeemed. You are redeemed by the blood of Jesus, you’re saved, you’re redeemed, you’re blessed. Amen. Let’s stand up together. Let’s lift up our hands and give thanks to God. And let’s take this time that if you think that you need to go to God, and you need to ask God to forgive you for anything. If you think you are burdened by guilt, you’re burdened by shame and fear. If you think that this guilt is the problem. And I say to you today, the answer is right there in front of you. There is a medicine to that. That is what Jesus has done for you. Open your heart to Him, confess your sin to Him, get right with Him, reach out to Him. Cry out to Him saying oh Lord, created me a clean heart. Wash me with Hyssop, cleanse me so that I may be made clean, so that I may be made well. Let the blood of Jesus wash me from all my sins and you will receive not only the forgiveness of sins, but all the diseases, mental problems that it has brought to you over the years.
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