Covenant Theology: Blessings, Curses, and Sanctions: Promises Of The Law

Blessing the Lord Part 2 of 4

Transcript: AI Transcript

Professor: John Weaver

Subject: Covenant Theology

Genre: Sermon

Dictation Name:

Date: 2012-02-01

Synopsis: In this sermon, Pastor John Weaver continues his series on Psalm 103, focusing on the phrase 'who healeth all thy diseases' (v. 3). He explores various scholarly interpretations, concluding that the phrase can refer to both spiritual and physical healing. Weaver emphasizes that all healing comes from God, whether through means (mediately) or directly (immediately). He identifies four sources of sickness: Satan, sin, self (human frailty), and the sovereign God. The sermon underscores the importance of seeking God first in illness, especially when sickness may be rooted in sin, and encourages believers to praise God for all healing, recognizing that while God heals most of the time, ultimate physical healing awaits the resurrection.

[John Weaver] Well, let's open our Bibles today to Psalm 103. Psalm 103. You'll remember last week I began a brief series on this Psalm, especially on the first five verses, dealing with blessing the Lord, and so I want to again read these first five verses. Psalm 103, beginning with verse 1. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, Bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. You remember last week I told you just simply by way of introduction that a friend of mine asked me several months back How do we bless the Lord?

[John Weaver] And I gave him an answer and ever since that time I began to mull over that answer and found out there were a lot of other things I could have said and probably should have said. And so I began to deal with this passage just so that we could understand how indeed we are to bless the Lord. I told you by way of introduction last week that we had to distinguish between God's inherent and essential glory and God's external glory. Those are two separate things. Now, I pointed out that in reality, there is absolutely no way that we can bless God or praise God in His essential or in His inherent glory. In fact, in Psalm 16, Jesus Christ, the God-man, said to God the Father, My goodness extendeth not unto thee, but to the saints and all the earth. In other words, even the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ did not add one thing to God the Father. Thankfully, it did indeed add something to us. The Bible says in Psalm 108 and verse 5, Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, and thy glory above the earth.

[John Weaver] So when I am talking about God's inherent and essential glory, I'm talking about God's absolute perfection in and of Himself. He is the most blessed, He is the most sufficient individual. His glory is most perfect and He is most holy. Nothing can be added to Him and nothing can be taken from Him. Now we're talking about God's external glory. God does have an external glory and that external glory is either praised or blasphemed by our words and by our actions. So how then do we distinguish between God's essential, inherent glory and God's external glory?

[John Weaver] And I gave it to you like this. God's external glory is just simply manifestations of His internal glory. For instance, God, remember, has revealed Himself in three ways particularly. He's revealed Himself in creation, in redemption, and in providence. And I went through the Bible and I showed you how that even creation is a manifestation of God's glory. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament show this handiwork. I showed you how Jesus Christ is indeed the glory of God. I showed you how in God's providence He does indeed reveal Himself. So then I dealt primarily last week with just simply the first phrase of verse 3.

[John Weaver] Who forgiveth all thine iniquities. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities. In other words, every iniquity, every sin, everything that you and I have ever held or had held against us, has been forgiven in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have been told that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sins. So last week we looked simply at His provision, the first part, His spiritual provision in verse 3, who forgiveth all thine iniquities.

[John Weaver] Now today I want to pick up where I left off, and we're still on verse 3, but now we're looking at the second phrase. who healeth all thy diseases." I'm going to show you that I believe that not only do you have the spiritual provision in verse 3, but also the physical provision in verse 3.

[John Weaver] Now, let me just tell you up front, and I'm going to give you some illustrations, that most of the scholars are really divided as to the application of the latter part of verse 3. Look at verse 3 again. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases. Now there are some scholars that believe that the phrase who healeth all thine diseases is just simply an extension and an explanation of who forgiveth all thine iniquities. There are others who believe that the latter part of verse 3 just simply or can refer to physical healing as such. And then there are some other views which I'm going to show you and none of these are contradictory to scripture. But let me just give you a sampling. Here's what George Horn wrote concerning this phrase, who with all thy diseases. And of course his position is, that the second phrase is just merely an extension and explanation of the first phrase, who forgiveth all that iniquities.

[John Weaver] He says this, The body experienceth the melancholic consequences of Adam's offense, and is subject to many infirmities. But the soul is subject to just as many. What is pride but lunacy? What is anger but a fever? What is avarice but a dropsy? What is lust but a leprosy? What is sloth but a dead palsy? Perhaps there are spiritual maladies similar to all corporeal ones. And so all he is saying is, look, this is an extension of, and it's dealing primarily with spiritual maladies. Matthew Henry said this, the corruption of nature is the sickness of the soul.

[John Weaver] It is in its disorder and threatens its death. This is cured in sanctification. When sin is mortified, the disease is healed. Though complicated, it is all healed. Our crimes were capital, but God saved our lives by pardoning them. Our diseases were mortal, but God saves our lives by healing them. Notice now, these two go together. For as for God, His work is perfect and not done by halves. If God take away the guilt of sin by pardoning mercy, He will break the power of it by renewing grace. Where Christ has made righteousness to any soul, He is also made sanctification.

[John Weaver] So again here Matthew Henry is saying basically that this phrase in verse 3, the second phrase, is just simply an extension of, an explanation of, who healeth all thine iniquities, or who forgiveth all thine iniquities. Then John Gill said this, let me give you one more. Who healeth all thy diseases, not bodily ones, though the Lord is the physician of the bodies as well as the souls of men, and sometimes heals the diseases of soul and body at once, as in the case of the paralytic man in the gospel. But spiritual diseases or soul maladies are here meant, the same with iniquities in the preceding clause.

[John Weaver] Sin is a natural, hereditary, epidemical, nauseous, and mortal disease. And there are many of them, a complication of them, in men which God only can cure, and He heals them by His Word, by means of the gospel, preaching peace, pardon, and righteousness by Christ, by the blood, wounds, and stripes of His Son, by the application of pardoning grace and mercy, for healing diseases and forgiving iniquities, or one in the same thing.

[John Weaver] And this the Lord does freely, fully, and infallibly, for which thanks are due unto Him, and it would be very ungrateful and justly resented should they not be returned to Him." So, once again, Gil is saying that, hey, This is an extension of the first phrase. John Trapp, the old Puritan, believes that there are actually two implications, the first spiritual and the second physical. He says this, corporeal and spiritual, that is physical and spiritual. Jehovah-Rupee, or the Lord the Physician as he is called, cured his people on both sides and making them hold every wit.

[John Weaver] God gives efficacy to medicine for the body, and His grace sanctifies the soul. Spiritually, we're daily under His care and He visits us as the surgeon does his patient. Healing still, for that is the exact word, each malady as it arises. No disease of our soul baffles His skill. He goes on healing all and He will do so till the last trace or taint is gone from our nature.

[John Weaver] The two alls of this verse are further reasons for all that is within us, praising the Lord. And when he refers to the two alls, if you look at verse 3, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases.

[John Weaver] Now, there is another view, and this view also would have certainly a ground in scripture, and that the diseases that are spoken of here, that are being healed, or diseases that have been inflicted upon individuals, because of their sin or their rebellion or their disobedience to God. I want you to hold Psalm 103, but look back in your Bibles to Deuteronomy 28. Everyone should remember Deuteronomy 28. It is the passage where you have the blessings and the curses, where God promises blessings if we obey and curses if we disobey. Please remember what I've always told you. There are principles in Scripture One of the principles is this, that blessings always follow obedience and curses always follow disobedience. If you would look at Deuteronomy chapter 28 and verse 20, we're going to begin reading here of some of the curses that are inflicted upon individuals because of disobedience. Notice what he says, Deuteronomy 28 verse 20, The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, And rebuke and all that thou said is thine hand unto for to do until thou be destroyed until thou perish quickly because of the wickedness of thy doings whereby thou has forsaken me.

[John Weaver] The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee until he have consumed thee from off the land, whether thou goes to possess it. The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with a sword, and with blasting, and with mildew, and they shall pursue thee until thy perish." Notice if you would please, all of these diseases, calamities, are a result of disobedience. If you would look in the book of Leviticus, go back just a few pages, The book of Leviticus chapter 26 and notice verse 16 in Leviticus 26.

[John Weaver] You also again have the blessings and the curses. Leviticus 26 and verse 16. Look what he says there. He says Leviticus 26 and verse 16 for disobedience. I also will do this unto you. I will even appoint over you terror. consumption, and the burning ague that shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart, you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it." And the next verse where God says, and I'll set my face against you and you're going to be slain.

[John Weaver] So notice if you would please, here are diseases that are simply given upon individuals based upon penal infliction, that is, They deserve them because of their sin and their rebellion against God. Now, let me just tell you, in Psalm 103 in verse 3, it does not do any harm to Scripture, however you interpret the latter part of verse 3. If you want to say that it is an extension and an explanation of the first part, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, fine. Because the Bible does talk about the nature of sin and its physical Applications. If you want to say there are physical applications to that, fine. There's certainly no harm done to scripture there. But when you read verses 1 through 3, I want to point this out. Look at it.

[John Weaver] David says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases. Evidently, This transpired in David's life. David had sinned in some degree. Maybe he had been inflicted by God for his sin and rebellion. And now God has graciously forgiven his sin. God has graciously healed him. And now David is bursting forth with praise unto God. This is something that actually happened to David. In fact, David oftentimes in the scripture refers to diseases. In fact, every time this particular word is used in the Bible, it is used in a plural form. Let me show you. When he says in verse 3,"...who he liveth all by diseases." Go back in your Bibles to Deuteronomy 29 and look if you would please at verse 22. Let me show you the same exact word. Deuteronomy 29 and look if you would please at verse 22. Deuteronomy 29 and notice if you would please verse 22.

[John Weaver] So that the generation to come of your children shall rise up after you and the stranger that shall come from a far land shall say, when they see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses which the Lord has laid upon it." Now the word sicknesses here is exactly the same word that is translated as diseases in Psalm 103. So we're talking about evidently real, genuine sicknesses, real, genuine diseases. If you would look in your Bibles to the book of Jeremiah chapter 14, And verse 18, here's the same word again. Jeremiah chapter 14, and notice verse 18. And here is how it is translated in this passage. The same Hebrew word, Jeremiah chapter 14, and verse 18.

[John Weaver] He says this, If I go forth in the field, and behold the slain by the sword, and if I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with famine. Them that are sick. Those that are diseased with famine. Same thing. And in Jeremiah 16, if you look at verse 4, he says it like this. They shall die of grievous deaths. Literally, they shall die of diseased deaths.

[John Weaver] They shall not be lamented. So, whenever this word is used in the scripture, it is indeed speaking of real, genuine sicknesses and disease. And it's speaking of those sicknesses and diseases that ultimately result in death. So the word then, being in the plural, would cover all forms of sickness and all forms of diseases. Did you know that oftentimes in the Psalms, David himself spoke about being inflicted with diseases?

[John Weaver] For instance, look in your Bibles to Psalm 6. and verse 2. Let me just show you three passages very quickly. Notice Psalm 6. Psalm 6. And look if you would please at verse 2. Psalm 6, verse 2. In fact, let's read verse 1. He says, O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chase me in thine hot displeasure. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak. O Lord, heal me.

[John Weaver] for my bones are vexed." Then next he says, my soul is also vexed. So David is saying, look, there's a problem. Turn right over to Psalm 38 and look if you would please at verse 7. Psalm 38 verse 7. In fact, let's begin reading at verse 4. He says, for mine iniquities are going over mine head, as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. I am troubled.

[John Weaver] I am bowed down greatly. I go mourning all the day long, for my loins are filled with a loathsome disease, and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and sore-broken. I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart." And so David is evidently saying, I've got some real problems in my life physically as well as spiritually. And then in Psalm 41 and verse 8, just a page or so over, Psalm 41 verse 8, An evil disease say they cleaveth fast unto him and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more. So evidently David was sick and they thought that he was going to die.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to think about this phrase, who healeth all thy diseases. Let me just make a simple statement A fact. Listen carefully. All healing is from God. All healing is from God. Therefore, that is sufficient grounds to praise Him and bless Him. That is exactly what David is saying. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Forget not all his benefits, who not only forgiveth all thine iniquities, but who healeth all thy diseases.

[John Weaver] Now, all instances of restoration to health or illustrations of God's graciousness and God's healing, whether it comes through the hands of a skilled physician or the wise adaptation of means, all healing virtue comes from God. Now, let me explain this. Because you see, God may use means or God may not use means. When I say that God may use means, that is, He may use the skill of a physician, or God may heal directly, the two theological terms are immediately and immediately. When we say that God heals immediately, we mean to say that God is pleased to use means through the healing of another, whether it's a naturopath or an herbalist or a chiropractor or a medical doctor or surgeon. In other words, God uses means to heal. When we say that God heals immediately, that means that God heals directly without any means whatsoever.

[John Weaver] Now, let me give you an illustration of each one. If you would look in your Bibles to Isaiah 38. In Isaiah 38, I hope you remember that Hezekiah was sick unto death. In fact, the prophet Jeremiah I'm sorry, the prophet Isaiah had already told Hezekiah, set your house in order, for you shall die and not live. And of course, Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and wept. And notice God then turned around and sent Hezekiah back and said, sent Isaiah back to Hezekiah and said, I'm going to add 15 years to your life. I've heard your prayers. And notice if you would, in Isaiah 38 and verse 21, How has Zechariah healed? Isaiah 38 and verse 21.

[John Weaver] For Isaiah had said, let them take a lump of figs and lay it for a plaster upon the boil and he shall recover. Isn't that interesting? Just a lump of figs. Here's a man that's dying. Evidently had a great deal of infection from a boil. And all he did was lay a lump of figs on the boil and he was healed. What did God do? God used means to heal him. Now, God likewise can heal immediately or immediately, that is directly. If you would turn in your Bibles to the book of Luke chapter 8, Here is an illustration of Him healing immediately, that is directly, without any use of means whatsoever. In Luke chapter 8, you know about the woman, of course, who had the daughter. In Luke chapter 8, He's healed Jairus' daughter. Actually, he healed her directly as well. Let's read that. Verse 41, And behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was the ruler of the synagogue.

[John Weaver] He fell down at Jesus' feet, and besought him that he would come into his house. For he had only one daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay a dying. But as he went, the people thronged him.

[John Weaver] Now here is the woman with the issue of blood. And the woman, having the issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, came behind him and touched the border of his garment, And immediately her issue of blood staunched. And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master of the multitude, throng thee, impress thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me, for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling and falling down before him, and declared unto all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately. And of course, He told her, woman, go thy way, thy faith hath healed thee. But now, she had been to all kinds of doctors, they could do absolutely nothing. And all she did was come by and touch our Lord's garment, and instantly, immediately, she was healed.

[John Weaver] She was healed directly by God without any means whatsoever. Now, it can be said that God is pleased to use means most of the time. Listen carefully. Can God heal with means? Yes. Can God heal without means? The answer is yes. But I just told you that it can be said that it is usually God's will most of the time to use means, that is, He works immediately.

[John Weaver] For instance, let me ask a question. Can God supply my need financially Without me working Can he do it? Yeah But is that the way he normally does things? No Because in Genesis chapter 3 in verse 19 God said in the sweat of thy brow shall thou eat bread Till thou return in the dust for dust art and dust thou shalt return And do you remember there in 2 Thessalonians 3 and verse 10, what did He say? If any will not work, neither shall he eat. It is normally means that God uses. Now, can God heal apart from means? Yes, but He most normally uses means to do so.

[John Weaver] One of my favorite stories is about old Aunt Amanda. who believed only in divine healing. She did not believe in doctors at all. Just going to beseech the Lord to heal her. Well, Anne Amanda started going deaf. And she began to pray to the Lord to heal her. The more she prayed and the longer she prayed, the more deaf she became. And finally she got to the point it was almost impossible for her to hear.

[John Weaver] Finally, her friends begged her to please go to the doctor. And she finally broke down and went. The doctor examined her, looked in her ears. He said, ìAunt Amanda, no wonder you canít hear. Your ears are full of wax.î He cleaned out her ears. She could hear perfectly. The old woman slapped her thigh and started laughing. The doctor said, ìAnd Amanda, why are you laughing?î She said, ìBecause God done showed me Heís not going to clean my ears for me.î Now the point Iím trying to make is very simple. God does give us common sense. And God is not going to do for us what weíre responsible to do for ourselves. God has given healing, a gift of healing, to individuals.

[John Weaver] Do you know what the question is asked in Jeremiah 8 and verse 22? Let me just quote this. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? That's the question. Is there no physician there? Do you realize in Luke chapter, not in Luke, but in Colossians chapter 4 and verse 14, we read of Luke, the beloved physician. Luke traveled with Paul constantly. You remember what our Lord said in Matthew 9 and verse 12? But when Jesus heard that, He said unto them, They that behold need not a physician, but they that are sick.

[John Weaver] Then He said, Go ye and learn what that meaneth. Does God use Individuals to help others get well? The answer is yes. Very obviously. And that is the normal way that He does so.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of James. Let me show you a passage and I'm going to explain some of this in an application in closing today when I get to the end. But look in James chapter 5. Although God is pleased to use means most of the time, That does not mean that we should immediately run to man. It does mean that we should seek Him first.

[John Weaver] Is He the great physician? Well, the answer is yes. I'll explain what I'm talking about. Look in James chapter 5 beginning there with verse 14. God asked, Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him Anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up If he for committed sins, they shall be forgiven him now go back to verse 13 Go back to verse 13. Look at this is any among you afflicted? What is the answer if you're afflicted?

[John Weaver] You've got something wrong with you. It may not be anything great or disastrous, but something bothers you. What is the admonition? Is any afflicted among you? Let him what? Pray. Pray. That's the first thing. Then he says, Is any merry? Let him sing psalms. Now, is any sick among you? That is, you're really down and out. What? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil. In the name of the Lord, in the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.

[John Weaver] And if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Now watch. Verse 16, Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."

[John Weaver] Now, what the Scripture is saying is this. We should seek Christ first with our physical problems. That doesn't mean that we cannot go to men or to doctors afterwards, but we're to honor Him by seeking Him first. And I'm going to explain why. Because you see, and I will get into it a little more later, but if our sickness is related to sin, unless that sin is dealt with, the sickness is not going to be healed.

[John Weaver] That's exactly what James chapter 5 is talking about. Our bodies are not going to be healed until our sin is repented of and forgiven. So, it would probably do us no good to go to a doctor if we're not willing to repent and correct and make things right in our lives because curses follow disobedience just like blessings follow obedience.

[John Weaver] Now, let me try to answer a question that may have occurred to you. I've been asked this a number of times. Where in the world does sickness come from? Why do we get sick? Well, let me give you some answers. In fact, I'm going to give you four answers. I want you to turn in your Bibles to Luke 13. I'm going to show you this one. I'll show you all of them, but this one is important. I want you to notice Luke chapter 13. And we're going to begin in verse 11. Some sickness can come from the hand of Satan.

[John Weaver] The enemy tries to afflict the people of God. Notice in Luke chapter 13 and verse 11, And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him and said to her, woman, thou art loose from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her and immediately she was made straight and glorified God.

[John Weaver] That would be an immediate healing watch. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day and said unto the people, there are six days in which men ought to work it in them, therefore come and be healed. And not on the Sabbath day, the Lord answered him and said, thou hypocrite. Doth not each one of you on the Sabbath lose his ox or his ass from the stall and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loose from this bond on the Sabbath day?

[John Weaver] And I've got news for you folks. Those who dabble in magic and the occult and all those forbidden things, They're going to end up having problems, I can assure you. Mental, physical, emotional. But here's an instance where we know that Satan, of course, had bound this woman. Our Lord said so. We know that Satan attacked Job. Someone has asked me, in fact, there are a lot of people who try to blame everything on the devil. And you know what I usually say, most of us are not important enough for the devil to even mess with. You know, he only attacked about three people in the Bible that we know of, Job, our Lord, and Peter. And that's it. Of course, he entered into Judas Iscariot, but those are the ones that we actually know of. But Satan is one of them.

[John Weaver] Here is the next answer. Sickness can only come from Satan. It can come from sin. I want you to look in your Bibles to the book of Romans chapter 5 and verse 12. Romans 5 and verse 12. I probably would say that this is the most basic cause of sickness. In fact, we could call this the root and ground of all sickness because the Bible says in Romans 5 and verse 12 Wherefore is by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Have you ever stopped to think, had there been no sin, there would be no sickness and there would be no death. So we can say basically the root of everything is our sin and our disobedience. It's our sin, our disobedience that brings sickness and death. In Exodus 15 and verse 26, let me just quote it for you. Here's what God promised.

[John Weaver] God said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon you which I have put upon the Egyptians. What did God say? If you will obey me. If you will obey me. Exodus 15 verse 26. I will put none of these diseases upon you that I put upon the Egyptians. Then he says, for I am the Lord that healeth thee. Isn't that interesting?

[John Weaver] So we find secondly, most of our sickness comes from sin. Do you realize that many ailments are a direct result of sin. Drunkenness, fornication, rebellion, and a host of other sins produce a myriad of diseases. Drunks usually die from cirrhosis of the liver. I mean, fornication? You know, the Bible said, he that committed fornication sinneth against his own body. Do you remember in 2nd Samuel chapter 12 and verse 15, after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba. David certainly reaped what he had sown, but who died as a result of that sin? The baby. I'm just simply pointing out that here our sins affect our bodies. In fact, in Hosea 7 in verse 5, there's an example there of the king being made sick with drunkenness. In fact, the scripture says, in the day of our king, the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine.

[John Weaver] He stretched out his hands with scorners. And are drunkards sick? And of course they are. And I'm not just talking about sin sick, but they get physically sick as well. And let me point something out. There are a lot of diseases that Christians should never have. Why? Because we don't commit the sins which produces those diseases. There was one commercial that used to come on TV years ago. I would get so angry every time I saw it. The only thing that came on the commercial was a hand with a finger pointing like that and underneath it said, VD will strike you in 15 seconds. I said, bless God it won't strike me, because I don't plan on being immoral. You see, there are some diseases Christians should never have, because they're a result of sin. And by the way, when we're talking about sin causing sickness and diseases, Don't just stop and think about drunkenness and fornication and doping. No, no, no, no.

[John Weaver] There are other spiritual sins that can equally cause disease and death. Look in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. And I want to call your attention particularly to one verse. I want you to understand in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, the sin is not drunkenness, the sin is not adultery, the sin is not thievery. No, no, no. You know what the sin is? In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, the sin is misuse of the Lord's table. And what he says in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, look if you would please at verse 30, Because these Corinthians now were committing spiritual sins, he says, and for this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep. Wow!

[John Weaver] It was not that they were drunkards and whoremongers and adulterers. There were spiritual sins. And he said because of this many of you are sickly and many of you sleep. Some had died because of their sins. Years ago, Dr. S.I. MacMillan wrote a book entitled, None of These Diseases. And in that book, Dr. MacMillan demonstrated how many of our bodily afflictions can arise from unbiblical and ungodly attitudes and dispositions. I never will forget reading about one of the stories in that book.

[John Weaver] about the husband who stopped at the drugstore and asked the druggist for something for his wife's colitis. And the little boy looked at his daddy and said, Daddy, whose mama been colliding with now? So she was a fierce fighter and someone who had sharp words. And Dr. MacMillan was just simply pointing out that, yeah, We can have all of those bowel problems and everything else just simply from unbiblical and ungodly attitudes.

[John Weaver] Let me put it to you like this. I can assure you that one of the main avenues of living a healthy life is keeping a healthy heart, and I don't mean that physically. Yes, we should exercise physically for our heart, but I'm talking about keeping your heart right with God. That is the greatest step. in living well physically. So where does sickness come from? So far we've seen Satan. Secondly, we've seen sin. Thirdly, self. And I'm using the S just so you can remember these very easily. I'm keeping everything alliterative. But when I use the word self, I'm using that just to remind you that each of us are made of flesh. We came from the dust of the earth and we're liable to all the normal natural and human ailments simply because we're in the flesh. Now, we've talked about the attack of Satan, we've talked about sin. Listen carefully, folks. You do not need to be attacked by Satan. You do not need to commit a great sin to catch a cold, or to have sinus problems, or to have allergy problems.

[John Weaver] I mean, come on. You've got to understand, we are weak creatures. And do you realize the day we were born, we started dying. And the older we get, the weaker we become. It's like Roy asked me one time. He said, Pastor, why didn't you tell me getting old had all these illnesses and problems? Well, it's the truth. It's the truth. And you've got to consider the fact like Daniel. And remember, Daniel is called the beloved of the Lord. Daniel was a man greatly beloved. Daniel became sick. In fact, Daniel 8 and verse 27, Daniel says this, and I, Daniel, fainted. and was sick certain days afterwards I rose up and did the king's business and I was astonished at the vision but none understood it." Notice he said, and I, Daniel, fainted and was sick certain days. Daniel was not necessarily attacked by Satan. Daniel had not committed sin, but Daniel was sick. In fact, you remember it was Simon Peter's mother-in-law who was sick with a fever.

[John Weaver] that our Lord took her by the hand and healed her in the book of Mark chapter 1. And let me tell you something else about sickness. Just because you have a cold or allergy problem, sinus problem, or because you're sick, that does not necessarily mean that you have a lack of faith. I've heard that all my life. Well, you wouldn't be sick if you had enough faith. That's hogwash, folks. Let me tell you something. Even the mighty Apostle Paul had to leave Trophimus sick at Miletum. He said in 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 20, Arastas abode at Corinth, but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick. I would certainly not like to be the one to accuse the Apostle Paul of having a lack of faith. Because he had to leave his good friend and co-worker sick and couldn't heal him. Isn't that something? No, just because you're sick does not necessarily mean it's a lack of faith. A lot of our sickness is just simply due from the fact we're flesh and blood.

[John Weaver] In fact, look in your Bibles back to Psalm 103. I'm not going to necessarily expound anymore on verse 3, but I do want you to look, please, in verses 13 through 16. Psalm 103, beginning there, verse 13. Notice what the Scripture says. just pointing out the fact that we are flesh and blood, and since we're flesh and blood, we're weak. Notice Psalm 103 verse 13, Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.

[John Weaver] Watch, for He knoweth our frame, He remembereth that we are dust, as for man, his days are as grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more. Note, he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are but dust.

[John Weaver] Now, where does sickness come from? Well, it can come from the attack of Satan. It can come from sin, rebellion, disobedience. It could come just from ourself, just simply from the fact that we're flesh and blood. We're weak, and the older we get, the weaker we become. If you don't believe that, you try to do at 70 what you did at 20. If you will turn in your Bible to the book of John chapter 9, I want to show you the fourth place that sickness comes from. I want you to be ready Because this is an affliction here. The fourth answer is that sickness not only comes from Satan, sin, and self, but fourthly, from the sovereign God. In John chapter 9, you have a man who was born blind. Verse 1, John 9, verse 1, And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from his birth, he had never seen. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?

[John Weaver] Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. And you know the story, how then Jesus, miraculously and marvelously opened his eyes. But they ask him particularly, who did sin, this man or his parents that he was born blind? Neither he said, but for God's honor and God's glory.

[John Weaver] Now let me tell you something, folks. There are people in this world that are born with maladies. which you and I do not understand or comprehend. I saw a young child last night with Down syndrome. I've seen individuals in their 40s with a mentality of a four and five year old. I'll be honest with you. I don't understand those. Those children, those individuals, would not be what you and I would call normal. But I'm going to tell you something, folks. I believe that somehow, some way, in the grace and mercy of God, these individuals are ultimately going to bring more glory to God than a lot of us. I have a dear friend who has a daughter that was born with Down syndrome. Very obvious. And this young girl is, I say young girl, she's probably 30s, 40s now.

[John Weaver] Loves her mother and daddy. Sits down and draws like a 3 and 4 year old. She loves to hear me preach. And every time she sees me, she runs and hugs my neck and tells me that I'm her favorite preacher. And you know, I'll tell you a thought that entered my mind. I watched that young woman, and I said to myself, as much as I don't understand why she was born that way, and as much heartache and probably trouble that her parents go through in keeping her and helping her, Yet I believe I'd rather have a child like that than one who is in

[John Weaver] rebellion against God and hates God and would not serve Him. I'm just telling you folks, some of these folks are going to redound to God's honor and God's glory. And when we get into glory, we're going to find that some of them are going to be a source of absolute amazement to us. God does heal diseases and sicknesses placed upon us by attacks of Satan, our sins, by virtue of being human, and even though sometimes that He sovereignly places upon us. And when He does so, we should give Him the honor and the glory. You know folks, it's amazing that when you're sick sometimes, that God will just even give you a little respite. He'll give you a day or two of feeling great and feeling good.

[John Weaver] That's when you really ought to praise Him. If I were to ask you, how many of us deserve healing? So if we get any healing, if we get any help, if we get any mercy, we should give Him the praise. May I remind you of Psalm 50 and verse 23 where our Lord said, Whosoever offereth praise glorifyeth Me. We can praise Him not only for forgiveness of sins, but for healing all our diseases.

[John Weaver] Let me make just a couple of applications in closing. The first one is this, a question that is frequently asked concerning the will of God and healing. In fact, I get asked this question numerous times. And the question is usually posed like this. Is it God's will to heal all of the time? The answer is no. Now listen carefully. It is God's will to heal most of the time.

[John Weaver] How do I know that? Because all of us have been sick and have gotten well. It is God's will to heal most of the time, but it is not God's will to heal every time, because if He did, no one would ever die. And the wages of sin is death. No matter how many times God marvelously and miraculously heals us, there's going to come one time when we will not be healed physically in this life. We will die. And of course we will ultimately be healed because we'll get a resurrected glorified body. One that does not know sin, pain or sickness. But no, it is not God's will to heal every time. Listen, I've prayed for people who were on their deathbeds and they got well. I prayed for other people and they died. It's not God's will to heal all the time. But it is His will to heal most of the time.

[John Weaver] The second application is this. I believe it would be a great help for us if we would try to discern the source of our sickness before sometimes we sought medical help in the sense that if our sickness is a result of our sin, excuse me for saying it, but it ain't going to do us any good to go to the doctor. We'll be like that Syrophoenician woman who spent all she had and was nothing the better but the worse. If our sickness has a spiritual root, no amount of medicine is going to correct that spiritual sin and that spiritual rebellion. The only medicine that will correct it is the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, which cleanses us from all sins. And I'm going to tell you something, folks. Believe it or not, like it or not, it's still the truth.

[John Weaver] There are a lot of sicknesses, there are a lot of emotional problems, there are a lot of mental problems that could be cured with a good dose of repentance and faith. The starting point is to make sure that our lives are right with God and we're living in obedience to His Word. Father, we bow to Thee this day. We thank You for Jesus Christ. We thank You for Your truth. Help us to live for Thee. Give us, Lord, Your mercy and Your grace and help us to give Thee praise for what You have done, what You're doing in our lives. For every good day, for every blessed day, for every healthy day, we praise Thee. For every sick day, Lord, we still praise Thee and seek for Your help and Your hand in our lives.

[John Weaver] In Christ's name we pray, Amen.

Blessing the Lord Part 2 of 4

John Weaver | YouTube

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	YouTube
Media ID	yH1AyWzoLtM
Subject	Covenant Theology
Course	Covenant Theology: Blessings, Curses, and Sanctions: Promises Of The Law
Genre	Sermon
Date	2012-02-01
Dictation Name
Book	Book 158: Blessing the Lord — Chapter 2
Source Timed Segments	70

Formatted Transcript

Introduction and Review

Weaver reviews the previous sermon on Psalm 103:1-5, distinguishing between God's inherent and external glory, and introduces the focus on the second phrase of verse 3.

Well, let's open our Bibles today to Psalm 103. Psalm 103. You'll remember last week I began a brief series on this Psalm, especially on the first five verses, dealing with blessing the Lord, and so I want to again read these first five verses. Psalm 103, beginning with verse 1.

Scripture Reading — Psalm 103:1-5

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles.

You remember last week I told you just simply by way of introduction that a friend of mine asked me several months back, "How do we bless the Lord?"

And I gave him an answer and ever since that time I began to mull over that answer and found out there were a lot of other things I could have said and probably should have said. And so I began to deal with this passage just so that we could understand how indeed we are to bless the Lord. I told you by way of introduction last week that we had to distinguish between God's inherent and essential glory and God's external glory. Those are two separate things. Now, I pointed out that in reality, there is absolutely no way that we can bless God or praise God in His essential or in His inherent glory. In fact, in Psalm 16, Jesus Christ, the God-man, said to God the Father,

Scripture Reading — Psalm 16:2

"My goodness extendeth not unto thee, but to the saints and all the earth."

In other words, even the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ did not add one thing to God the Father. Thankfully, it did indeed add something to us. The Bible says in Psalm 108 and verse 5, "Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, and thy glory above the earth."

So when I am talking about God's inherent and essential glory, I'm talking about God's absolute perfection in and of Himself. He is the most blessed, He is the most sufficient individual. His glory is most perfect and He is most holy. Nothing can be added to Him and nothing can be taken from Him. Now we're talking about God's external glory. God does have an external glory and that external glory is either praised or blasphemed by our words and by our actions. So how then do we distinguish between God's essential, inherent glory and God's external glory?

And I gave it to you like this. God's external glory is just simply manifestations of His internal glory. For instance, God, remember, has revealed Himself in three ways particularly. He's revealed Himself in creation, in redemption, and in providence. And I went through the Bible and I showed you how that even creation is a manifestation of God's glory. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handiwork. I showed you how Jesus Christ is indeed the glory of God. I showed you how in God's providence He does indeed reveal Himself. So then I dealt primarily last week with just simply the first phrase of verse 3.

"Who forgiveth all thine iniquities." Who forgiveth all thine iniquities. In other words, every iniquity, every sin, everything that you and I have ever held or had held against us, has been forgiven in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have been told that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sins. So last week we looked simply at His provision, the first part, His spiritual provision in verse 3, "who forgiveth all thine iniquities."

Now today I want to pick up where I left off, and we're still on verse 3, but now we're looking at the second phrase, "who healeth all thy diseases." I'm going to show you that I believe that not only do you have the spiritual provision in verse 3, but also the physical provision in verse 3. Now, let me just tell you up front, and I'm going to give you some illustrations, that most of the scholars are really divided as to the application of the latter part of verse 3. Look at verse 3 again. "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases." Now there are some scholars that believe that the phrase "who healeth all thine diseases" is just simply an extension and an explanation of "who forgiveth all thine iniquities." There are others who believe that the latter part of verse 3 just simply or can refer to physical healing as such. And then there are some other views which I'm going to show you and none of these are contradictory to scripture. But let me just give you a sampling. Here's what George Horne wrote concerning this phrase, "who healeth all thy diseases." And of course his position is that the second phrase is just merely an extension and explanation of the first phrase, "who forgiveth all thine iniquities."

Scholarly Interpretations of 'Who Healeth All Thy Diseases'

Weaver presents various scholarly views, including those who see the phrase as an extension of spiritual forgiveness and those who see it as referring to physical healing.

He says this, "The body experienceth the melancholic consequences of Adam's offense, and is subject to many infirmities. But the soul is subject to just as many. What is pride but lunacy? What is anger but a fever? What is avarice but a dropsy? What is lust but a leprosy? What is sloth but a dead palsy? Perhaps there are spiritual maladies similar to all corporeal ones." And so all he is saying is, look, this is an extension of, and it's dealing primarily with spiritual maladies. Matthew Henry said this, "The corruption of nature is the sickness of the soul."

"It is in its disorder and threatens its death. This is cured in sanctification. When sin is mortified, the disease is healed. Though complicated, it is all healed. Our crimes were capital, but God saved our lives by pardoning them. Our diseases were mortal, but God saves our lives by healing them." Notice now, these two go together. For as for God, His work is perfect and not done by halves. If God take away the guilt of sin by pardoning mercy, He will break the power of it by renewing grace. Where Christ has made righteousness to any soul, He is also made sanctification.

So again here Matthew Henry is saying basically that this phrase in verse 3, the second phrase, is just simply an extension of, an explanation of, "who healeth all thine iniquities," or "who forgiveth all thine iniquities." Then John Gill said this, let me give you one more. "Who healeth all thy diseases, not bodily ones, though the Lord is the physician of the bodies as well as the souls of men, and sometimes heals the diseases of soul and body at once, as in the case of the paralytic man in the gospel. But spiritual diseases or soul maladies are here meant, the same with iniquities in the preceding clause." "Sin is a natural, hereditary, epidemical, nauseous, and mortal disease. And there are many of them, a complication of them, in men which God only can cure, and He heals them by His Word, by means of the gospel, preaching peace, pardon, and righteousness by Christ, by the blood, wounds, and stripes of His Son, by the application of pardoning grace and mercy, for healing diseases and forgiving iniquities, or one in the same thing."

"And this the Lord does freely, fully, and infallibly, for which thanks are due unto Him, and it would be very ungrateful and justly resented should they not be returned to Him." So, once again, Gill is saying that, hey, this is an extension of the first phrase. John Trapp, the old Puritan, believes that there are actually two implications, the first spiritual and the second physical. He says this, "corporeal and spiritual," that is physical and spiritual. "Jehovah-Rophe," or the Lord the Physician as he is called, "cured his people on both sides and making them hold every wit." "God gives efficacy to medicine for the body, and His grace sanctifies the soul. Spiritually, we're daily under His care and He visits us as the surgeon does his patient. Healing still, for that is the exact word, each malady as it arises. No disease of our soul baffles His skill. He goes on healing all and He will do so till the last trace or taint is gone from our nature."

"The two alls of this verse are further reasons for all that is within us, praising the Lord." And when he refers to the two alls, if you look at verse 3, "who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases." Now, there is another view, and this view also would have certainly a ground in scripture, and that the diseases that are spoken of here, that are being healed, are diseases that have been inflicted upon individuals, because of their sin or their rebellion or their disobedience to God. I want you to hold Psalm 103, but look back in your Bibles to Deuteronomy 28. Everyone should remember Deuteronomy 28. It is the passage where you have the blessings and the curses, where God promises blessings if we obey and curses if we disobey. Please remember what I've always told you. There are principles in Scripture. One of the principles is this, that blessings always follow obedience and curses always follow disobedience. If you would look at Deuteronomy chapter 28 and verse 20, we're going to begin reading here of some of the curses that are inflicted upon individuals because of disobedience. Notice what he says, Deuteronomy 28 verse 20, "The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me."

Biblical Evidence for Physical Diseases

Weaver argues that the Hebrew word for 'diseases' is used elsewhere in Scripture for real physical sickness, and that David himself experienced physical ailments.

David says, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases." Evidently, this transpired in David's life. David had sinned in some degree. Maybe he had been inflicted by God for his sin and rebellion. And now God has graciously forgiven his sin. God has graciously healed him. And now David is bursting forth with praise unto God. This is something that actually happened to David. In fact, David oftentimes in the scripture refers to diseases. In fact, every time this particular word is used in the Bible, it is used in a plural form. Let me show you. When he says in verse 3, "who healeth all thy diseases." Go back in your Bibles to Deuteronomy 29 and look if you would please at verse 22. Let me show you the same exact word. Deuteronomy 29 and look if you would please at verse 22. Deuteronomy 29 and notice if you would please verse 22.

"So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the Lord hath laid upon it." Now the word "sicknesses" here is exactly the same word that is translated as "diseases" in Psalm 103. So we're talking about evidently real, genuine sicknesses, real, genuine diseases. If you would look in your Bibles to the book of Jeremiah chapter 14, and verse 18, here's the same word again. Jeremiah chapter 14, and notice verse 18. And here is how it is translated in this passage. The same Hebrew word, Jeremiah chapter 14, and verse 18. He says this, "If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with famine!" Them that are sick. Those that are diseased with famine. Same thing. And in Jeremiah 16, if you look at verse 4, he says it like this. "They shall die of grievous deaths." Literally, they shall die of diseased deaths.

"They shall not be lamented." So, whenever this word is used in the scripture, it is indeed speaking of real, genuine sicknesses and disease. And it's speaking of those sicknesses and diseases that ultimately result in death. So the word then, being in the plural, would cover all forms of sickness and all forms of diseases. Did you know that oftentimes in the Psalms, David himself spoke about being inflicted with diseases? For instance, look in your Bibles to Psalm 6 and verse 2. Let me just show you three passages very quickly. Notice Psalm 6. Psalm 6. And look if you would please at verse 2. Psalm 6, verse 2. In fact, let's read verse 1. He says, "O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak: O Lord, heal me;"

Scripture Reading — Psalm 6:1-3

"for my bones are vexed."

Then next he says,

Scripture Reading — Psalm 6:1-3

"my soul is also sore vexed."

So David is saying, look, there's a problem. Turn right over to Psalm 38 and look if you would please at verse 7. Psalm 38 verse 7. In fact, let's begin reading at verse 4. He says, "For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. I am troubled;"

Scripture Reading — Psalm 38:4-8

"I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart."

And so David is evidently saying, I've got some real problems in my life physically as well as spiritually. And then in Psalm 41 and verse 8, just a page or so over, Psalm 41 verse 8, "An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him: and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more." So evidently David was sick and they thought that he was going to die.

Now, I want you to think about this phrase, "who healeth all thy diseases." Let me just make a simple statement. A fact. Listen carefully. All healing is from God. All healing is from God. Therefore, that is sufficient grounds to praise Him and bless Him. That is exactly what David is saying. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Forget not all his benefits, who not only forgiveth all thine iniquities, but who healeth all thy diseases."

All Healing is from God

Weaver asserts that all healing, whether through means or directly, comes from God and is grounds for praise.

Now, all instances of restoration to health or illustrations of God's graciousness and God's healing, whether it comes through the hands of a skilled physician or the wise adaptation of means, all healing virtue comes from God. Now, let me explain this. Because you see, God may use means or God may not use means. When I say that God may use means, that is, He may use the skill of a physician, or God may heal directly, the two theological terms are mediately and immediately. When we say that God heals mediately, we mean to say that God is pleased to use means through the healing of another, whether it's a naturopath or an herbalist or a chiropractor or a medical doctor or surgeon. In other words, God uses means to heal. When we say that God heals immediately, that means that God heals directly without any means whatsoever.

Mediate vs. Immediate Healing

Weaver explains that God heals mediately (using means like physicians) or immediately (directly), with biblical examples for each.

Now, let me give you an illustration of each one. If you would look in your Bibles to Isaiah 38. In Isaiah 38, I hope you remember that Hezekiah was sick unto death. In fact, the prophet Jeremiah—I'm sorry, the prophet Isaiah had already told Hezekiah, "Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live." And of course, Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and wept. And notice God then turned around and sent Hezekiah back and said, sent Isaiah back to Hezekiah and said, "I'm going to add 15 years to your life. I've heard your prayers." And notice if you would, in Isaiah 38 and verse 21, how was Hezekiah healed? Isaiah 38 and verse 21.

Scripture Reading — Isaiah 38:21

"For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover."

Isn't that interesting? Just a lump of figs. Here's a man that's dying. Evidently had a great deal of infection from a boil. And all he did was lay a lump of figs on the boil and he was healed. What did God do? God used means to heal him. Now, God likewise can heal immediately or mediately, that is directly. If you would turn in your Bibles to the book of Luke chapter 8, here is an illustration of Him healing immediately, that is directly, without any use of means whatsoever. In Luke chapter 8, you know about the woman, of course, who had the issue of blood. Actually, he healed her directly as well. Let's read that. Verse 41, "And, behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue:"

"and he fell down at Jesus' feet, and besought him that he would come into his house: For he had one only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay a dying. But as he went the people thronged him." Now here is the woman with the issue of blood. "And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched. And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately." And of course, He told her, "Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace." But now, she had been to all kinds of doctors, they could do absolutely nothing. And all she did was come by and touch our Lord's garment, and instantly, immediately, she was healed.

She was healed directly by God without any means whatsoever. Now, it can be said that God is pleased to use means most of the time. Listen carefully. Can God heal with means? Yes. Can God heal without means? The answer is yes. But I just told you that it can be said that it is usually God's will most of the time to use means, that is, He works mediately.

For instance, let me ask a question. Can God supply my need financially without me working? Can He do it? Yeah. But is that the way He normally does things? No. Because in Genesis chapter 3 in verse 19 God said,

Scripture Reading — Genesis 3:19

"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

And do you remember there in 2 Thessalonians 3 and verse 10, what did He say? "If any would not work, neither should he eat." It is normally means that God uses. Now, can God heal apart from means? Yes, but He most normally uses means to do so.

Seeking God First in Sickness

Weaver emphasizes that believers should seek God first in illness, especially if sin is involved, before turning to medical help.

Is He the great physician? Well, the answer is yes. I'll explain what I'm talking about. Look in James chapter 5 beginning there with verse 14. God asks,

Scripture Reading — James 5:13-16

"Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him."

Now go back to verse 13. Go back to verse 13. Look at this.

Scripture Reading — James 5:13-16

"Is any among you afflicted?"

What is the answer if you're afflicted?

You've got something wrong with you. It may not be anything great or disastrous, but something bothers you. What is the admonition? "Is any afflicted among you? let him pray." Pray. That's the first thing. Then he says, "Is any merry? let him sing psalms." Now, "Is any sick among you?" That is, you're really down and out. What? "Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up."

"And if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." Now watch. Verse 16, "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." Now, what the Scripture is saying is this. We should seek Christ first with our physical problems. That doesn't mean that we cannot go to men or to doctors afterwards, but we're to honor Him by seeking Him first. And I'm going to explain why. Because you see, and I will get into it a little more later, but if our sickness is related to sin, unless that sin is dealt with, the sickness is not going to be healed.

That's exactly what James chapter 5 is talking about. Our bodies are not going to be healed until our sin is repented of and forgiven. So, it would probably do us no good to go to a doctor if we're not willing to repent and correct and make things right in our lives because curses follow disobedience just like blessings follow obedience. Now, let me try to answer a question that may have occurred to you. I've been asked this a number of times. Where in the world does sickness come from? Why do we get sick? Well, let me give you some answers. In fact, I'm going to give you four answers. I want you to turn in your Bibles to Luke 13. I'm going to show you this one. I'll show you all of them, but this one is important. I want you to notice Luke chapter 13. And we're going to begin in verse 11. Some sickness can come from the hand of Satan.

Four Sources of Sickness

Weaver identifies four sources of sickness: Satan, sin, self (human frailty), and the sovereign God, with biblical examples for each.

The enemy tries to afflict the people of God. Notice in Luke chapter 13 and verse 11,

Scripture Reading — Luke 13:11-16

"And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God."

That would be an immediate healing. Watch.

Scripture Reading — Luke 13:11-16

"And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day. The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?"

And I've got news for you folks. Those who dabble in magic and the occult and all those forbidden things, they're going to end up having problems, I can assure you. Mental, physical, emotional. But here's an instance where we know that Satan, of course, had bound this woman. Our Lord said so. We know that Satan attacked Job. Someone has asked me, in fact, there are a lot of people who try to blame everything on the devil. And you know what I usually say, most of us are not important enough for the devil to even mess with. You know, he only attacked about three people in the Bible that we know of, Job, our Lord, and Peter. And that's it. Of course, he entered into Judas Iscariot, but those are the ones that we actually know of. But Satan is one of them.

Here is the next answer. Sickness can not only come from Satan. It can come from sin. I want you to look in your Bibles to the book of Romans chapter 5 and verse 12. Romans 5 and verse 12. I probably would say that this is the most basic cause of sickness. In fact, we could call this the root and ground of all sickness because the Bible says in Romans 5 and verse 12, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Have you ever stopped to think, had there been no sin, there would be no sickness and there would be no death. So we can say basically the root of everything is our sin and our disobedience. It's our sin, our disobedience that brings sickness and death. In Exodus 15 and verse 26, let me just quote it for you. Here's what God promised.

God said, "If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee." What did God say? If you will obey me. If you will obey me. Exodus 15 verse 26. "I will put none of these diseases upon you that I put upon the Egyptians." Then he says, "for I am the Lord that healeth thee." Isn't that interesting?

So we find secondly, most of our sickness comes from sin. Do you realize that many ailments are a direct result of sin. Drunkenness, fornication, rebellion, and a host of other sins produce a myriad of diseases. Drunks usually die from cirrhosis of the liver. I mean, fornication? You know, the Bible said, "he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body." Do you remember in 2 Samuel chapter 12 and verse 15, after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba. David certainly reaped what he had sown, but who died as a result of that sin? The baby. I'm just simply pointing out that here our sins affect our bodies. In fact, in Hosea 7 in verse 5, there's an example there of the king being made sick with drunkenness. In fact, the scripture says, "In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine;"

"he stretched out his hand with scorners." And are drunkards sick? And of course they are. And I'm not just talking about sin sick, but they get physically sick as well. And let me point something out. There are a lot of diseases that Christians should never have. Why? Because we don't commit the sins which produce those diseases. There was one commercial that used to come on TV years ago. I would get so angry every time I saw it. The only thing that came on the commercial was a hand with a finger pointing like that and underneath it said, "VD will strike you in 15 seconds." I said, bless God it won't strike me, because I don't plan on being immoral. You see, there are some diseases Christians should never have, because they're a result of sin. And by the way, when we're talking about sin causing sickness and diseases, don't just stop and think about drunkenness and fornication and doping. No, no, no, no.

There are other spiritual sins that can equally cause disease and death. Look in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. And I want to call your attention particularly to one verse. I want you to understand in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, the sin is not drunkenness, the sin is not adultery, the sin is not thievery. No, no, no. You know what the sin is? In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, the sin is misuse of the Lord's table. And what he says in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, look if you would please at verse 30, because these Corinthians now were committing spiritual sins, he says, "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." Wow!

It was not that they were drunkards and whoremongers and adulterers. There were spiritual sins. And he said because of this many of you are sickly and many of you sleep. Some had died because of their sins. Years ago, Dr. S.I. McMillen wrote a book entitled, "None of These Diseases." And in that book, Dr. McMillen demonstrated how many of our bodily afflictions can arise from unbiblical and ungodly attitudes and dispositions. I never will forget reading about one of the stories in that book.

about the husband who stopped at the drugstore and asked the druggist for something for his wife's colitis. And the little boy looked at his daddy and said, "Daddy, who's mama been colliding with now?" So she was a fierce fighter and someone who had sharp words. And Dr. McMillen was just simply pointing out that, yeah, we can have all of those bowel problems and everything else just simply from unbiblical and ungodly attitudes. Let me put it to you like this. I can assure you that one of the main avenues of living a healthy life is keeping a healthy heart, and I don't mean that physically. Yes, we should exercise physically for our heart, but I'm talking about keeping your heart right with God. That is the greatest step in living well physically. So where does sickness come from? So far we've seen Satan. Secondly, we've seen sin. Thirdly, self. And I'm using the S just so you can remember these very easily. I'm keeping everything alliterative. But when I use the word self, I'm using that just to remind you that each of us are made of flesh. We came from the dust of the earth and we're liable to all the normal natural and human ailments simply because we're in the flesh. Now, we've talked about the attack of Satan, we've talked about sin. Listen carefully, folks. You do not need to be attacked by Satan. You do not need to commit a great sin to catch a cold, or to have sinus problems, or to have allergy problems.

I mean, come on. You've got to understand, we are weak creatures. And do you realize the day we were born, we started dying. And the older we get, the weaker we become. It's like Roy asked me one time. He said, "Pastor, why didn't you tell me getting old had all these illnesses and problems?" Well, it's the truth. It's the truth. And you've got to consider the fact like Daniel. And remember, Daniel is called the beloved of the Lord. Daniel was a man greatly beloved. Daniel became sick. In fact, Daniel 8 and verse 27, Daniel says this, "And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king's business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it." Notice he said, "and I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days." Daniel was not necessarily attacked by Satan. Daniel had not committed sin, but Daniel was sick. In fact, you remember it was Simon Peter's mother-in-law who was sick with a fever.

that our Lord took her by the hand and healed her in the book of Mark chapter 1. And let me tell you something else about sickness. Just because you have a cold or allergy problem, sinus problem, or because you're sick, that does not necessarily mean that you have a lack of faith. I've heard that all my life. "Well, you wouldn't be sick if you had enough faith." That's hogwash, folks. Let me tell you something. Even the mighty Apostle Paul had to leave Trophimus sick at Miletum. He said in 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 20, "Erastus abode at Corinth: but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick." I would certainly not like to be the one to accuse the Apostle Paul of having a lack of faith. Because he had to leave his good friend and co-worker sick and couldn't heal him. Isn't that something? No, just because you're sick does not necessarily mean it's a lack of faith. A lot of our sickness is just simply due from the fact we're flesh and blood.

In fact, look in your Bibles back to Psalm 103. I'm not going to necessarily expound anymore on verse 3, but I do want you to look, please, in verses 13 through 16. Psalm 103, beginning there, verse 13. Notice what the Scripture says. Just pointing out the fact that we are flesh and blood, and since we're flesh and blood, we're weak. Notice Psalm 103 verse 13, "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." Watch, "For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more." Note, "he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are but dust."

Now, where does sickness come from? Well, it can come from the attack of Satan. It can come from sin, rebellion, disobedience. It could come just from ourself, just simply from the fact that we're flesh and blood. We're weak, and the older we get, the weaker we become. If you don't believe that, you try to do at 70 what you did at 20. If you will turn in your Bible to the book of John chapter 9, I want to show you the fourth place that sickness comes from. I want you to be ready because this is an affliction here. The fourth answer is that sickness not only comes from Satan, sin, and self, but fourthly, from the sovereign God. In John chapter 9, you have a man who was born blind. Verse 1, John 9, verse 1, "And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth." He had never seen. "And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?"

"Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." And you know the story, how then Jesus, miraculously and marvelously opened his eyes. But they ask him particularly, "who did sin, this man or his parents that he was born blind?" Neither he said, but for God's honor and God's glory. Now let me tell you something, folks. There are people in this world that are born with maladies which you and I do not understand or comprehend. I saw a young child last night with Down syndrome. I've seen individuals in their 40s with a mentality of a four and five year old. I'll be honest with you. I don't understand those. Those children, those individuals, would not be what you and I would call normal. But I'm going to tell you something, folks. I believe that somehow, some way, in the grace and mercy of God, these individuals are ultimately going to bring more glory to God than a lot of us. I have a dear friend who has a daughter that was born with Down syndrome. Very obvious. And this young girl is, I say young girl, she's probably 30s, 40s now.

Applications: God's Will in Healing and Discerning the Source

Weaver applies the teaching by stating that God heals most of the time but not always, and that believers should discern if their sickness has a spiritual root before seeking medical help.

Let me make just a couple of applications in closing. The first one is this, a question that is frequently asked concerning the will of God and healing. In fact, I get asked this question numerous times. And the question is usually posed like this. "Is it God's will to heal all of the time?" The answer is no. Now listen carefully. It is God's will to heal most of the time.

How do I know that? Because all of us have been sick and have gotten well. It is God's will to heal most of the time, but it is not God's will to heal every time, because if He did, no one would ever die. And the wages of sin is death. No matter how many times God marvelously and miraculously heals us, there's going to come one time when we will not be healed physically in this life. We will die. And of course we will ultimately be healed because we'll get a resurrected glorified body. One that does not know sin, pain or sickness. But no, it is not God's will to heal every time. Listen, I've prayed for people who were on their deathbeds and they got well. I prayed for other people and they died. It's not God's will to heal all the time. But it is His will to heal most of the time.

The second application is this. I believe it would be a great help for us if we would try to discern the source of our sickness before sometimes we sought medical help in the sense that if our sickness is a result of our sin, excuse me for saying it, but it ain't going to do us any good to go to the doctor. We'll be like that Syrophoenician woman who spent all she had and was nothing the better but the worse. If our sickness has a spiritual root, no amount of medicine is going to correct that spiritual sin and that spiritual rebellion. The only medicine that will correct it is the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, which cleanses us from all sins. And I'm going to tell you something, folks. Believe it or not, like it or not, it's still the truth.

There are a lot of sicknesses, there are a lot of emotional problems, there are a lot of mental problems that could be cured with a good dose of repentance and faith. The starting point is to make sure that our lives are right with God and we're living in obedience to His Word. Father, we bow to Thee this day. We thank You for Jesus Christ. We thank You for Your truth. Help us to live for Thee. Give us, Lord, Your mercy and Your grace and help us to give Thee praise for what You have done, what You're doing in our lives. For every good day, for every blessed day, for every healthy day, we praise Thee. For every sick day, Lord, we still praise Thee and seek for Your help and Your hand in our lives.

Study Guide

Major Themes

God as the Source of All Healing

Summary: All healing, whether through medical means or direct divine intervention, originates from God and should lead to praise.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'All healing is from God. Therefore, that is sufficient grounds to praise Him and bless Him.'

The Relationship Between Sin and Sickness

Summary: Sickness can be a direct result of personal sin or disobedience, and spiritual healing must precede physical healing in such cases.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'If our sickness is related to sin, unless that sin is dealt with, the sickness is not going to be healed.'

Human Frailty and the Reality of Sickness

Summary: Sickness is a natural part of human existence due to our mortal, fallen nature, and does not always indicate a lack of faith or specific sin.

Evidence: Weaver notes, 'We are weak creatures. And do you realize the day we were born, we started dying.'

The Sovereignty of God in Sickness

Summary: God may sovereignly allow or cause sickness for His glory, as seen in the man born blind in John 9.

Evidence: Weaver explains, 'Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.'

Praise as the Proper Response to Healing

Summary: Believers are called to bless the Lord for both spiritual forgiveness and physical healing, recognizing His benefits.

Evidence: Weaver concludes, 'We can praise Him not only for forgiveness of sins, but for healing all our diseases.'

Key Arguments

The phrase 'who healeth all thy diseases' includes physical healing

Summary: Weaver argues that the Hebrew word for 'diseases' consistently refers to real physical sickness in Scripture, and David's own experiences support a physical application.

Evidence: Weaver points to Deuteronomy 29:22, Jeremiah 14:18, and Psalms 6, 38, and 41 where David describes physical ailments.

God normally uses means to heal

Summary: While God can heal directly, He most often works through medical means, as illustrated by Hezekiah's healing with a fig poultice.

Evidence: Weaver cites Isaiah 38:21 and the principle from Genesis 3:19 and 2 Thessalonians 3:10 that God normally works through means.

Spiritual root of sickness must be addressed first

Summary: If sickness is caused by sin, medical treatment alone is insufficient; repentance and forgiveness are necessary for healing.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'If our sickness has a spiritual root, no amount of medicine is going to correct that spiritual sin.'

Sickness can come from Satan, sin, self, or God's sovereignty

Summary: Weaver categorizes the sources of sickness to help believers understand and respond appropriately to illness.

Evidence: Weaver provides biblical examples: the woman bound by Satan (Luke 13), sin (Romans 5:12), human frailty (Psalm 103:14-16), and the man born blind (John 9).

It is not God's will to heal every time

Summary: Weaver argues that if God healed every time, no one would die, but death is the result of sin; ultimate healing comes in the resurrection.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'It is not God's will to heal every time, because if He did, no one would ever die.'

Scripture References

Psalm 103:1-5

Context: The main text of the sermon, focusing on verse 3.

Psalm 16:2

Context: Cited to show that even Christ's obedience did not add to God's essential glory.

Psalm 108:5

Context: Quoted to emphasize God's exalted glory.

Deuteronomy 28:20-22

Context: Used to show that diseases can be curses for disobedience.

Leviticus 26:16

Context: Another passage showing diseases as punishment for disobedience.

Deuteronomy 29:22

Context: Shows the same Hebrew word for 'diseases' used for physical sickness.

Jeremiah 14:18

Context: Another use of the Hebrew word for 'diseases' in a physical context.

Jeremiah 16:4

Context: Reference to 'diseased deaths' using the same Hebrew word.

Psalm 6:1-3

Context: David's plea for healing, showing his physical affliction.

Psalm 38:4-8

Context: David describes physical suffering due to his sin.

Psalm 41:8

Context: David's enemies speak of his fatal disease.

Isaiah 38:21

Context: Example of mediate healing: Hezekiah healed with a fig poultice.

Luke 8:41-48

Context: Example of immediate healing: the woman with the issue of blood.

Genesis 3:19

Context: Cited to show that God normally works through means (work for food).

2 Thessalonians 3:10

Context: Reinforces the principle of working for sustenance.

Jeremiah 8:22

Context: Question about the balm in Gilead and physicians, affirming the use of medical means.

Colossians 4:14

Context: Mentions Luke, the beloved physician, as a companion of Paul.

Matthew 9:12

Context: Jesus acknowledges the need for physicians for the sick.

James 5:13-16

Context: Instructions for the sick to call elders and pray, emphasizing spiritual healing.

Luke 13:11-16

Context: Woman bound by Satan for 18 years, showing sickness from demonic attack.

Historical References

George Horne

Context: Quoted as a scholar who interprets 'healeth all thy diseases' as spiritual maladies.

Matthew Henry

Context: Quoted as interpreting the phrase as spiritual healing through sanctification.

John Gill

Context: Quoted as viewing the diseases as spiritual, synonymous with iniquities.

John Trapp

Context: Quoted as a Puritan who believed the phrase refers to both physical and spiritual healing.

Dr. S.I. McMillen, 'None of These Diseases'

Context: Referenced as a book demonstrating how unbiblical attitudes cause physical ailments.

Important Quotes

All healing is from God. Therefore, that is sufficient grounds to praise Him and bless Him.

Significance: Summarizes the central thesis that God is the source of all healing, warranting praise.

If our sickness is related to sin, unless that sin is dealt with, the sickness is not going to be healed.

Significance: Highlights the necessity of addressing spiritual root causes before physical healing can occur.

It is not God's will to heal every time, because if He did, no one would ever die.

Significance: Clarifies the limits of physical healing in this life due to the reality of death.

We can praise Him not only for forgiveness of sins, but for healing all our diseases.

Significance: Connects the two parts of Psalm 103:3 as reasons for blessing the Lord.

If our sickness has a spiritual root, no amount of medicine is going to correct that spiritual sin and that spiritual rebellion.

Significance: Emphasizes the priority of spiritual remedies over physical ones when sin is the cause.

Discussion Questions

How does understanding that all healing comes from God change the way we respond to both minor and major illnesses?

Context: Weaver emphasizes that all healing is from God, whether through means or directly.

In what ways can we discern whether a sickness might have a spiritual root, and how should we respond if it does?

Context: Weaver discusses the connection between sin and sickness and the need for repentance.

How do we balance seeking medical help with trusting God for healing, especially when healing does not come?

Context: Weaver presents the tension between using means and seeking God first.

What comfort can we find in the fact that God knows our frame and remembers we are dust?

Context: Weaver cites Psalm 103:13-16 to highlight God's compassion for our frailty.

How can we praise God in the midst of chronic illness or when healing does not occur?

Context: Weaver encourages praise for every good day and even in sickness.

Applications

Praise God for all healing

Summary: Believers should actively bless the Lord for every instance of healing, recognizing it as a benefit from God.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'All healing is from God. Therefore, that is sufficient grounds to praise Him and bless Him.'

Seek God first in sickness

Summary: Before turning to medical help, believers should pray and examine their lives for any unconfessed sin that may be causing the illness.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'We should seek Christ first with our physical problems.'

Discern the source of sickness

Summary: Believers should consider whether their sickness may be from Satan, sin, natural frailty, or God's sovereignty, and respond accordingly.

Evidence: Weaver outlines four sources of sickness and says, 'I believe it would be a great help for us if we would try to discern the source of our sickness.'

Repent of sin that causes sickness

Summary: If sickness is linked to personal sin, repentance and faith are the necessary first steps toward healing.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'There are a lot of sicknesses... that could be cured with a good dose of repentance and faith.'

Trust God's sovereignty in unhealed sickness

Summary: Believers should trust that God may have a purpose in allowing sickness, even when healing does not come, and look forward to ultimate healing in the resurrection.

Evidence: Weaver points to the man born blind in John 9 and says, 'It is not God's will to heal every time.'

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T15:57:16Z

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T06:08:44Z

Clean Transcript

Blessing the Lord Part 2 of 4

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

Well, let's open our Bibles today to Psalm 103. Psalm 103. You'll remember last week I began a brief series on this Psalm, especially on the first five verses, dealing with blessing the Lord, and so I want to again read these first five verses. Psalm 103, beginning with verse 1. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. You remember last week I told you just simply by way of introduction that a friend of mine asked me several months back, "How do we bless the Lord?"
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And I gave him an answer and ever since that time I began to mull over that answer and found out there were a lot of other things I could have said and probably should have said. And so I began to deal with this passage just so that we could understand how indeed we are to bless the Lord. I told you by way of introduction last week that we had to distinguish between God's inherent and essential glory and God's external glory. Those are two separate things. Now, I pointed out that in reality, there is absolutely no way that we can bless God or praise God in His essential or in His inherent glory. In fact, in Psalm 16, Jesus Christ, the God-man, said to God the Father, "My goodness extendeth not unto thee, but to the saints and all the earth." In other words, even the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ did not add one thing to God the Father. Thankfully, it did indeed add something to us. The Bible says in Psalm 108 and verse 5, "Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, and thy glory above the earth."
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So when I am talking about God's inherent and essential glory, I'm talking about God's absolute perfection in and of Himself. He is the most blessed, He is the most sufficient individual. His glory is most perfect and He is most holy. Nothing can be added to Him and nothing can be taken from Him. Now we're talking about God's external glory. God does have an external glory and that external glory is either praised or blasphemed by our words and by our actions. So how then do we distinguish between God's essential, inherent glory and God's external glory?
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And I gave it to you like this. God's external glory is just simply manifestations of His internal glory. For instance, God, remember, has revealed Himself in three ways particularly. He's revealed Himself in creation, in redemption, and in providence. And I went through the Bible and I showed you how that even creation is a manifestation of God's glory. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handiwork. I showed you how Jesus Christ is indeed the glory of God. I showed you how in God's providence He does indeed reveal Himself. So then I dealt primarily last week with just simply the first phrase of verse 3.
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"Who forgiveth all thine iniquities." Who forgiveth all thine iniquities. In other words, every iniquity, every sin, everything that you and I have ever held or had held against us, has been forgiven in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have been told that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sins. So last week we looked simply at His provision, the first part, His spiritual provision in verse 3, "who forgiveth all thine iniquities."
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Now today I want to pick up where I left off, and we're still on verse 3, but now we're looking at the second phrase, "who healeth all thy diseases." I'm going to show you that I believe that not only do you have the spiritual provision in verse 3, but also the physical provision in verse 3.
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Now, let me just tell you up front, and I'm going to give you some illustrations, that most of the scholars are really divided as to the application of the latter part of verse 3. Look at verse 3 again. "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases." Now there are some scholars that believe that the phrase "who healeth all thine diseases" is just simply an extension and an explanation of "who forgiveth all thine iniquities." There are others who believe that the latter part of verse 3 just simply or can refer to physical healing as such. And then there are some other views which I'm going to show you and none of these are contradictory to scripture. But let me just give you a sampling. Here's what George Horne wrote concerning this phrase, "who healeth all thy diseases." And of course his position is that the second phrase is just merely an extension and explanation of the first phrase, "who forgiveth all thine iniquities."
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He says this, "The body experienceth the melancholic consequences of Adam's offense, and is subject to many infirmities. But the soul is subject to just as many. What is pride but lunacy? What is anger but a fever? What is avarice but a dropsy? What is lust but a leprosy? What is sloth but a dead palsy? Perhaps there are spiritual maladies similar to all corporeal ones." And so all he is saying is, look, this is an extension of, and it's dealing primarily with spiritual maladies. Matthew Henry said this, "The corruption of nature is the sickness of the soul."
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"It is in its disorder and threatens its death. This is cured in sanctification. When sin is mortified, the disease is healed. Though complicated, it is all healed. Our crimes were capital, but God saved our lives by pardoning them. Our diseases were mortal, but God saves our lives by healing them." Notice now, these two go together. For as for God, His work is perfect and not done by halves. If God take away the guilt of sin by pardoning mercy, He will break the power of it by renewing grace. Where Christ has made righteousness to any soul, He is also made sanctification.
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So again here Matthew Henry is saying basically that this phrase in verse 3, the second phrase, is just simply an extension of, an explanation of, "who healeth all thine iniquities," or "who forgiveth all thine iniquities." Then John Gill said this, let me give you one more. "Who healeth all thy diseases, not bodily ones, though the Lord is the physician of the bodies as well as the souls of men, and sometimes heals the diseases of soul and body at once, as in the case of the paralytic man in the gospel. But spiritual diseases or soul maladies are here meant, the same with iniquities in the preceding clause."
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"Sin is a natural, hereditary, epidemical, nauseous, and mortal disease. And there are many of them, a complication of them, in men which God only can cure, and He heals them by His Word, by means of the gospel, preaching peace, pardon, and righteousness by Christ, by the blood, wounds, and stripes of His Son, by the application of pardoning grace and mercy, for healing diseases and forgiving iniquities, or one in the same thing."
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"And this the Lord does freely, fully, and infallibly, for which thanks are due unto Him, and it would be very ungrateful and justly resented should they not be returned to Him." So, once again, Gill is saying that, hey, this is an extension of the first phrase. John Trapp, the old Puritan, believes that there are actually two implications, the first spiritual and the second physical. He says this, "corporeal and spiritual," that is physical and spiritual. "Jehovah-Rophe," or the Lord the Physician as he is called, "cured his people on both sides and making them hold every wit."
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"God gives efficacy to medicine for the body, and His grace sanctifies the soul. Spiritually, we're daily under His care and He visits us as the surgeon does his patient. Healing still, for that is the exact word, each malady as it arises. No disease of our soul baffles His skill. He goes on healing all and He will do so till the last trace or taint is gone from our nature."
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"The two alls of this verse are further reasons for all that is within us, praising the Lord." And when he refers to the two alls, if you look at verse 3, "who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases."
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Now, there is another view, and this view also would have certainly a ground in scripture, and that the diseases that are spoken of here, that are being healed, are diseases that have been inflicted upon individuals, because of their sin or their rebellion or their disobedience to God. I want you to hold Psalm 103, but look back in your Bibles to Deuteronomy 28. Everyone should remember Deuteronomy 28. It is the passage where you have the blessings and the curses, where God promises blessings if we obey and curses if we disobey. Please remember what I've always told you. There are principles in Scripture. One of the principles is this, that blessings always follow obedience and curses always follow disobedience. If you would look at Deuteronomy chapter 28 and verse 20, we're going to begin reading here of some of the curses that are inflicted upon individuals because of disobedience. Notice what he says, Deuteronomy 28 verse 20, "The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me."
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"The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it. The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish." Notice if you would please, all of these diseases, calamities, are a result of disobedience. If you would look in the book of Leviticus, go back just a few pages, the book of Leviticus chapter 26 and notice verse 16 in Leviticus 26.
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You also again have the blessings and the curses. Leviticus 26 and verse 16. Look what he says there. He says Leviticus 26 and verse 16 for disobedience. "I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it." And the next verse where God says, "and I'll set my face against you and you're going to be slain."
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So notice if you would please, here are diseases that are simply given upon individuals based upon penal infliction, that is, they deserve them because of their sin and their rebellion against God. Now, let me just tell you, in Psalm 103 in verse 3, it does not do any harm to Scripture, however you interpret the latter part of verse 3. If you want to say that it is an extension and an explanation of the first part, "who forgiveth all thine iniquities," fine. Because the Bible does talk about the nature of sin and its physical applications. If you want to say there are physical applications to that, fine. There's certainly no harm done to scripture there. But when you read verses 1 through 3, I want to point this out. Look at it.
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David says, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases." Evidently, this transpired in David's life. David had sinned in some degree. Maybe he had been inflicted by God for his sin and rebellion. And now God has graciously forgiven his sin. God has graciously healed him. And now David is bursting forth with praise unto God. This is something that actually happened to David. In fact, David oftentimes in the scripture refers to diseases. In fact, every time this particular word is used in the Bible, it is used in a plural form. Let me show you. When he says in verse 3, "who healeth all thy diseases." Go back in your Bibles to Deuteronomy 29 and look if you would please at verse 22. Let me show you the same exact word. Deuteronomy 29 and look if you would please at verse 22. Deuteronomy 29 and notice if you would please verse 22.
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"So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the Lord hath laid upon it." Now the word "sicknesses" here is exactly the same word that is translated as "diseases" in Psalm 103. So we're talking about evidently real, genuine sicknesses, real, genuine diseases. If you would look in your Bibles to the book of Jeremiah chapter 14, and verse 18, here's the same word again. Jeremiah chapter 14, and notice verse 18. And here is how it is translated in this passage. The same Hebrew word, Jeremiah chapter 14, and verse 18.
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He says this, "If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with famine!" Them that are sick. Those that are diseased with famine. Same thing. And in Jeremiah 16, if you look at verse 4, he says it like this. "They shall die of grievous deaths." Literally, they shall die of diseased deaths.
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"They shall not be lamented." So, whenever this word is used in the scripture, it is indeed speaking of real, genuine sicknesses and disease. And it's speaking of those sicknesses and diseases that ultimately result in death. So the word then, being in the plural, would cover all forms of sickness and all forms of diseases. Did you know that oftentimes in the Psalms, David himself spoke about being inflicted with diseases?
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For instance, look in your Bibles to Psalm 6 and verse 2. Let me just show you three passages very quickly. Notice Psalm 6. Psalm 6. And look if you would please at verse 2. Psalm 6, verse 2. In fact, let's read verse 1. He says, "O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak: O Lord, heal me;"
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"for my bones are vexed." Then next he says, "my soul is also sore vexed." So David is saying, look, there's a problem. Turn right over to Psalm 38 and look if you would please at verse 7. Psalm 38 verse 7. In fact, let's begin reading at verse 4. He says, "For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. I am troubled;"
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"I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart." And so David is evidently saying, I've got some real problems in my life physically as well as spiritually. And then in Psalm 41 and verse 8, just a page or so over, Psalm 41 verse 8, "An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him: and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more." So evidently David was sick and they thought that he was going to die.
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Now, I want you to think about this phrase, "who healeth all thy diseases." Let me just make a simple statement. A fact. Listen carefully. All healing is from God. All healing is from God. Therefore, that is sufficient grounds to praise Him and bless Him. That is exactly what David is saying. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Forget not all his benefits, who not only forgiveth all thine iniquities, but who healeth all thy diseases."
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Now, all instances of restoration to health or illustrations of God's graciousness and God's healing, whether it comes through the hands of a skilled physician or the wise adaptation of means, all healing virtue comes from God. Now, let me explain this. Because you see, God may use means or God may not use means. When I say that God may use means, that is, He may use the skill of a physician, or God may heal directly, the two theological terms are mediately and immediately. When we say that God heals mediately, we mean to say that God is pleased to use means through the healing of another, whether it's a naturopath or an herbalist or a chiropractor or a medical doctor or surgeon. In other words, God uses means to heal. When we say that God heals immediately, that means that God heals directly without any means whatsoever.
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Now, let me give you an illustration of each one. If you would look in your Bibles to Isaiah 38. In Isaiah 38, I hope you remember that Hezekiah was sick unto death. In fact, the prophet Jeremiah—I'm sorry, the prophet Isaiah had already told Hezekiah, "Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live." And of course, Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and wept. And notice God then turned around and sent Hezekiah back and said, sent Isaiah back to Hezekiah and said, "I'm going to add 15 years to your life. I've heard your prayers." And notice if you would, in Isaiah 38 and verse 21, how was Hezekiah healed? Isaiah 38 and verse 21.
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"For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover." Isn't that interesting? Just a lump of figs. Here's a man that's dying. Evidently had a great deal of infection from a boil. And all he did was lay a lump of figs on the boil and he was healed. What did God do? God used means to heal him. Now, God likewise can heal immediately or mediately, that is directly. If you would turn in your Bibles to the book of Luke chapter 8, here is an illustration of Him healing immediately, that is directly, without any use of means whatsoever. In Luke chapter 8, you know about the woman, of course, who had the issue of blood. Actually, he healed her directly as well. Let's read that. Verse 41, "And, behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue:"
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"and he fell down at Jesus' feet, and besought him that he would come into his house: For he had one only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay a dying. But as he went the people thronged him."
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Now here is the woman with the issue of blood. "And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched. And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately." And of course, He told her, "Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace." But now, she had been to all kinds of doctors, they could do absolutely nothing. And all she did was come by and touch our Lord's garment, and instantly, immediately, she was healed.
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She was healed directly by God without any means whatsoever. Now, it can be said that God is pleased to use means most of the time. Listen carefully. Can God heal with means? Yes. Can God heal without means? The answer is yes. But I just told you that it can be said that it is usually God's will most of the time to use means, that is, He works mediately.
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For instance, let me ask a question. Can God supply my need financially without me working? Can He do it? Yeah. But is that the way He normally does things? No. Because in Genesis chapter 3 in verse 19 God said, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." And do you remember there in 2 Thessalonians 3 and verse 10, what did He say? "If any would not work, neither should he eat." It is normally means that God uses. Now, can God heal apart from means? Yes, but He most normally uses means to do so.
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One of my favorite stories is about old Aunt Amanda, who believed only in divine healing. She did not believe in doctors at all. Just going to beseech the Lord to heal her. Well, Aunt Amanda started going deaf. And she began to pray to the Lord to heal her. The more she prayed and the longer she prayed, the more deaf she became. And finally she got to the point it was almost impossible for her to hear.
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Finally, her friends begged her to please go to the doctor. And she finally broke down and went. The doctor examined her, looked in her ears. He said, "Aunt Amanda, no wonder you can't hear. Your ears are full of wax." He cleaned out her ears. She could hear perfectly. The old woman slapped her thigh and started laughing. The doctor said, "Aunt Amanda, why are you laughing?" She said, "Because God done showed me He's not going to clean my ears for me." Now the point I'm trying to make is very simple. God does give us common sense. And God is not going to do for us what we're responsible to do for ourselves. God has given healing, a gift of healing, to individuals.
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Do you know what the question is asked in Jeremiah 8 and verse 22? Let me just quote this. "Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?" That's the question. Is there no physician there? Do you realize in Luke chapter—not in Luke, but in Colossians chapter 4 and verse 14, we read of Luke, the beloved physician. Luke traveled with Paul constantly. You remember what our Lord said in Matthew 9 and verse 12? "But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick."
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Then He said, "But go ye and learn what that meaneth." Does God use individuals to help others get well? The answer is yes. Very obviously. And that is the normal way that He does so.
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Now, I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of James. Let me show you a passage and I'm going to explain some of this in an application in closing today when I get to the end. But look in James chapter 5. Although God is pleased to use means most of the time, that does not mean that we should immediately run to man. It does mean that we should seek Him first.
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Is He the great physician? Well, the answer is yes. I'll explain what I'm talking about. Look in James chapter 5 beginning there with verse 14. God asks, "Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." Now go back to verse 13. Go back to verse 13. Look at this. "Is any among you afflicted?" What is the answer if you're afflicted?
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You've got something wrong with you. It may not be anything great or disastrous, but something bothers you. What is the admonition? "Is any afflicted among you? let him pray." Pray. That's the first thing. Then he says, "Is any merry? let him sing psalms." Now, "Is any sick among you?" That is, you're really down and out. What? "Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up."
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"And if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." Now watch. Verse 16, "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
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Now, what the Scripture is saying is this. We should seek Christ first with our physical problems. That doesn't mean that we cannot go to men or to doctors afterwards, but we're to honor Him by seeking Him first. And I'm going to explain why. Because you see, and I will get into it a little more later, but if our sickness is related to sin, unless that sin is dealt with, the sickness is not going to be healed.
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That's exactly what James chapter 5 is talking about. Our bodies are not going to be healed until our sin is repented of and forgiven. So, it would probably do us no good to go to a doctor if we're not willing to repent and correct and make things right in our lives because curses follow disobedience just like blessings follow obedience.
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Now, let me try to answer a question that may have occurred to you. I've been asked this a number of times. Where in the world does sickness come from? Why do we get sick? Well, let me give you some answers. In fact, I'm going to give you four answers. I want you to turn in your Bibles to Luke 13. I'm going to show you this one. I'll show you all of them, but this one is important. I want you to notice Luke chapter 13. And we're going to begin in verse 11. Some sickness can come from the hand of Satan.
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The enemy tries to afflict the people of God. Notice in Luke chapter 13 and verse 11, "And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God."
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That would be an immediate healing. Watch. "And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day. The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?"
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And I've got news for you folks. Those who dabble in magic and the occult and all those forbidden things, they're going to end up having problems, I can assure you. Mental, physical, emotional. But here's an instance where we know that Satan, of course, had bound this woman. Our Lord said so. We know that Satan attacked Job. Someone has asked me, in fact, there are a lot of people who try to blame everything on the devil. And you know what I usually say, most of us are not important enough for the devil to even mess with. You know, he only attacked about three people in the Bible that we know of, Job, our Lord, and Peter. And that's it. Of course, he entered into Judas Iscariot, but those are the ones that we actually know of. But Satan is one of them.
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Here is the next answer. Sickness can not only come from Satan. It can come from sin. I want you to look in your Bibles to the book of Romans chapter 5 and verse 12. Romans 5 and verse 12. I probably would say that this is the most basic cause of sickness. In fact, we could call this the root and ground of all sickness because the Bible says in Romans 5 and verse 12, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Have you ever stopped to think, had there been no sin, there would be no sickness and there would be no death. So we can say basically the root of everything is our sin and our disobedience. It's our sin, our disobedience that brings sickness and death. In Exodus 15 and verse 26, let me just quote it for you. Here's what God promised.
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God said, "If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee." What did God say? If you will obey me. If you will obey me. Exodus 15 verse 26. "I will put none of these diseases upon you that I put upon the Egyptians." Then he says, "for I am the Lord that healeth thee." Isn't that interesting?
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So we find secondly, most of our sickness comes from sin. Do you realize that many ailments are a direct result of sin. Drunkenness, fornication, rebellion, and a host of other sins produce a myriad of diseases. Drunks usually die from cirrhosis of the liver. I mean, fornication? You know, the Bible said, "he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body." Do you remember in 2 Samuel chapter 12 and verse 15, after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba. David certainly reaped what he had sown, but who died as a result of that sin? The baby. I'm just simply pointing out that here our sins affect our bodies. In fact, in Hosea 7 in verse 5, there's an example there of the king being made sick with drunkenness. In fact, the scripture says, "In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine;"
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"he stretched out his hand with scorners." And are drunkards sick? And of course they are. And I'm not just talking about sin sick, but they get physically sick as well. And let me point something out. There are a lot of diseases that Christians should never have. Why? Because we don't commit the sins which produce those diseases. There was one commercial that used to come on TV years ago. I would get so angry every time I saw it. The only thing that came on the commercial was a hand with a finger pointing like that and underneath it said, "VD will strike you in 15 seconds." I said, bless God it won't strike me, because I don't plan on being immoral. You see, there are some diseases Christians should never have, because they're a result of sin. And by the way, when we're talking about sin causing sickness and diseases, don't just stop and think about drunkenness and fornication and doping. No, no, no, no.
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There are other spiritual sins that can equally cause disease and death. Look in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. And I want to call your attention particularly to one verse. I want you to understand in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, the sin is not drunkenness, the sin is not adultery, the sin is not thievery. No, no, no. You know what the sin is? In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, the sin is misuse of the Lord's table. And what he says in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, look if you would please at verse 30, because these Corinthians now were committing spiritual sins, he says, "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." Wow!
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It was not that they were drunkards and whoremongers and adulterers. There were spiritual sins. And he said because of this many of you are sickly and many of you sleep. Some had died because of their sins. Years ago, Dr. S.I. McMillen wrote a book entitled, "None of These Diseases." And in that book, Dr. McMillen demonstrated how many of our bodily afflictions can arise from unbiblical and ungodly attitudes and dispositions. I never will forget reading about one of the stories in that book.
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about the husband who stopped at the drugstore and asked the druggist for something for his wife's colitis. And the little boy looked at his daddy and said, "Daddy, who's mama been colliding with now?" So she was a fierce fighter and someone who had sharp words. And Dr. McMillen was just simply pointing out that, yeah, we can have all of those bowel problems and everything else just simply from unbiblical and ungodly attitudes.
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Let me put it to you like this. I can assure you that one of the main avenues of living a healthy life is keeping a healthy heart, and I don't mean that physically. Yes, we should exercise physically for our heart, but I'm talking about keeping your heart right with God. That is the greatest step in living well physically. So where does sickness come from? So far we've seen Satan. Secondly, we've seen sin. Thirdly, self. And I'm using the S just so you can remember these very easily. I'm keeping everything alliterative. But when I use the word self, I'm using that just to remind you that each of us are made of flesh. We came from the dust of the earth and we're liable to all the normal natural and human ailments simply because we're in the flesh. Now, we've talked about the attack of Satan, we've talked about sin. Listen carefully, folks. You do not need to be attacked by Satan. You do not need to commit a great sin to catch a cold, or to have sinus problems, or to have allergy problems.
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I mean, come on. You've got to understand, we are weak creatures. And do you realize the day we were born, we started dying. And the older we get, the weaker we become. It's like Roy asked me one time. He said, "Pastor, why didn't you tell me getting old had all these illnesses and problems?" Well, it's the truth. It's the truth. And you've got to consider the fact like Daniel. And remember, Daniel is called the beloved of the Lord. Daniel was a man greatly beloved. Daniel became sick. In fact, Daniel 8 and verse 27, Daniel says this, "And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king's business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it." Notice he said, "and I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days." Daniel was not necessarily attacked by Satan. Daniel had not committed sin, but Daniel was sick. In fact, you remember it was Simon Peter's mother-in-law who was sick with a fever.
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that our Lord took her by the hand and healed her in the book of Mark chapter 1. And let me tell you something else about sickness. Just because you have a cold or allergy problem, sinus problem, or because you're sick, that does not necessarily mean that you have a lack of faith. I've heard that all my life. "Well, you wouldn't be sick if you had enough faith." That's hogwash, folks. Let me tell you something. Even the mighty Apostle Paul had to leave Trophimus sick at Miletum. He said in 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 20, "Erastus abode at Corinth: but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick." I would certainly not like to be the one to accuse the Apostle Paul of having a lack of faith. Because he had to leave his good friend and co-worker sick and couldn't heal him. Isn't that something? No, just because you're sick does not necessarily mean it's a lack of faith. A lot of our sickness is just simply due from the fact we're flesh and blood.
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In fact, look in your Bibles back to Psalm 103. I'm not going to necessarily expound anymore on verse 3, but I do want you to look, please, in verses 13 through 16. Psalm 103, beginning there, verse 13. Notice what the Scripture says. Just pointing out the fact that we are flesh and blood, and since we're flesh and blood, we're weak. Notice Psalm 103 verse 13, "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him."
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Watch, "For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more." Note, "he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are but dust."
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Now, where does sickness come from? Well, it can come from the attack of Satan. It can come from sin, rebellion, disobedience. It could come just from ourself, just simply from the fact that we're flesh and blood. We're weak, and the older we get, the weaker we become. If you don't believe that, you try to do at 70 what you did at 20. If you will turn in your Bible to the book of John chapter 9, I want to show you the fourth place that sickness comes from. I want you to be ready because this is an affliction here. The fourth answer is that sickness not only comes from Satan, sin, and self, but fourthly, from the sovereign God. In John chapter 9, you have a man who was born blind. Verse 1, John 9, verse 1, "And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth." He had never seen. "And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?"
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"Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." And you know the story, how then Jesus, miraculously and marvelously opened his eyes. But they ask him particularly, "who did sin, this man or his parents that he was born blind?" Neither he said, but for God's honor and God's glory.
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Now let me tell you something, folks. There are people in this world that are born with maladies which you and I do not understand or comprehend. I saw a young child last night with Down syndrome. I've seen individuals in their 40s with a mentality of a four and five year old. I'll be honest with you. I don't understand those. Those children, those individuals, would not be what you and I would call normal. But I'm going to tell you something, folks. I believe that somehow, some way, in the grace and mercy of God, these individuals are ultimately going to bring more glory to God than a lot of us. I have a dear friend who has a daughter that was born with Down syndrome. Very obvious. And this young girl is, I say young girl, she's probably 30s, 40s now.
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Loves her mother and daddy. Sits down and draws like a 3 and 4 year old. She loves to hear me preach. And every time she sees me, she runs and hugs my neck and tells me that I'm her favorite preacher. And you know, I'll tell you a thought that entered my mind. I watched that young woman, and I said to myself, as much as I don't understand why she was born that way, and as much heartache and probably trouble that her parents go through in keeping her and helping her, yet I believe I'd rather have a child like that than one who is in
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rebellion against God and hates God and would not serve Him. I'm just telling you folks, some of these folks are going to redound to God's honor and God's glory. And when we get into glory, we're going to find that some of them are going to be a source of absolute amazement to us. God does heal diseases and sicknesses placed upon us by attacks of Satan, our sins, by virtue of being human, and even though sometimes that He sovereignly places upon us. And when He does so, we should give Him the honor and the glory. You know folks, it's amazing that when you're sick sometimes, that God will just even give you a little respite. He'll give you a day or two of feeling great and feeling good.
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That's when you really ought to praise Him. If I were to ask you, how many of us deserve healing? So if we get any healing, if we get any help, if we get any mercy, we should give Him the praise. May I remind you of Psalm 50 and verse 23 where our Lord said, "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me." We can praise Him not only for forgiveness of sins, but for healing all our diseases.
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Let me make just a couple of applications in closing. The first one is this, a question that is frequently asked concerning the will of God and healing. In fact, I get asked this question numerous times. And the question is usually posed like this. "Is it God's will to heal all of the time?" The answer is no. Now listen carefully. It is God's will to heal most of the time.
#66 | 52:55 to 53:35 | cleaned
How do I know that? Because all of us have been sick and have gotten well. It is God's will to heal most of the time, but it is not God's will to heal every time, because if He did, no one would ever die. And the wages of sin is death. No matter how many times God marvelously and miraculously heals us, there's going to come one time when we will not be healed physically in this life. We will die. And of course we will ultimately be healed because we'll get a resurrected glorified body. One that does not know sin, pain or sickness. But no, it is not God's will to heal every time. Listen, I've prayed for people who were on their deathbeds and they got well. I prayed for other people and they died. It's not God's will to heal all the time. But it is His will to heal most of the time.
#67 | 53:35 to 54:49 | cleaned
The second application is this. I believe it would be a great help for us if we would try to discern the source of our sickness before sometimes we sought medical help in the sense that if our sickness is a result of our sin, excuse me for saying it, but it ain't going to do us any good to go to the doctor. We'll be like that Syrophoenician woman who spent all she had and was nothing the better but the worse. If our sickness has a spiritual root, no amount of medicine is going to correct that spiritual sin and that spiritual rebellion. The only medicine that will correct it is the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, which cleanses us from all sins. And I'm going to tell you something, folks. Believe it or not, like it or not, it's still the truth.
#68 | 54:50 to 55:50 | cleaned
There are a lot of sicknesses, there are a lot of emotional problems, there are a lot of mental problems that could be cured with a good dose of repentance and faith. The starting point is to make sure that our lives are right with God and we're living in obedience to His Word. Father, we bow to Thee this day. We thank You for Jesus Christ. We thank You for Your truth. Help us to live for Thee. Give us, Lord, Your mercy and Your grace and help us to give Thee praise for what You have done, what You're doing in our lives. For every good day, for every blessed day, for every healthy day, we praise Thee. For every sick day, Lord, we still praise Thee and seek for Your help and Your hand in our lives.
#69 | 55:51 to 56:52 | cleaned
In Christ's name we pray, Amen.
#70 | 56:53 to 56:55 | cleaned

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T15:57:16Z

Blessing the Lord Part 2 of 4

John Weaver | Freedom Ministries

In this sermon, Pastor John Weaver continues his series on Psalm 103, focusing on the phrase 'who healeth all thy diseases' (v. 3). He explores various scholarly interpretations, concluding that the phrase can refer to both spiritual and physical healing. Weaver emphasizes that all healing comes from God, whether through means (mediately) or directly (immediately). He identifies four sources of sickness: Satan, sin, self (human frailty), and the sovereign God. The sermon underscores the importance of seeking God first in illness, especially when sickness may be rooted in sin, and encourages believers to praise God for all healing, recognizing that while God heals most of the time, ultimate physical healing awaits the resurrection.

Introduction and Review

Weaver reviews the previous sermon on Psalm 103:1-5, distinguishing between God's inherent and external glory, and introduces the focus on the second phrase of verse 3.

Scripture Reading — Psalm 103:1-5

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles.

You remember last week I told you just simply by way of introduction that a friend of mine asked me several months back, "How do we bless the Lord?"

Scripture Reading — Psalm 16:2

"My goodness extendeth not unto thee, but to the saints and all the earth."

Scholarly Interpretations of 'Who Healeth All Thy Diseases'

Weaver presents various scholarly views, including those who see the phrase as an extension of spiritual forgiveness and those who see it as referring to physical healing.

Biblical Evidence for Physical Diseases

Weaver argues that the Hebrew word for 'diseases' is used elsewhere in Scripture for real physical sickness, and that David himself experienced physical ailments.

Scripture Reading — Psalm 6:1-3

"for my bones are vexed."

Then next he says,

Scripture Reading — Psalm 6:1-3

"my soul is also sore vexed."

Scripture Reading — Psalm 38:4-8

"I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart."

All Healing is from God

Weaver asserts that all healing, whether through means or directly, comes from God and is grounds for praise.

Mediate vs. Immediate Healing

Weaver explains that God heals mediately (using means like physicians) or immediately (directly), with biblical examples for each.

Scripture Reading — Isaiah 38:21

"For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover."

Scripture Reading — Genesis 3:19

"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

Seeking God First in Sickness

Weaver emphasizes that believers should seek God first in illness, especially if sin is involved, before turning to medical help.

Is He the great physician? Well, the answer is yes. I'll explain what I'm talking about. Look in James chapter 5 beginning there with verse 14. God asks,

Scripture Reading — James 5:13-16

"Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him."

Now go back to verse 13. Go back to verse 13. Look at this.

Scripture Reading — James 5:13-16

"Is any among you afflicted?"

What is the answer if you're afflicted?

Four Sources of Sickness

Weaver identifies four sources of sickness: Satan, sin, self (human frailty), and the sovereign God, with biblical examples for each.

The enemy tries to afflict the people of God. Notice in Luke chapter 13 and verse 11,

Scripture Reading — Luke 13:11-16

"And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God."

That would be an immediate healing. Watch.

Scripture Reading — Luke 13:11-16

"And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day. The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?"

Applications: God's Will in Healing and Discerning the Source

Weaver applies the teaching by stating that God heals most of the time but not always, and that believers should discern if their sickness has a spiritual root before seeking medical help.

Blessing the Lord Part 2 of 4

John Weaver | YouTube

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	YouTube
Media ID	yH1AyWzoLtM
Subject	Covenant Theology
Course	Covenant Theology: Blessings, Curses, and Sanctions: Promises Of The Law
Genre	Sermon
Date	2012-02-01
Dictation Name
Book	Book 158: Blessing the Lord — Chapter 2
Source Timed Segments	70

Lecture Guide

Outline

Introduction and Review: Weaver reviews the previous sermon on Psalm 103:1-5, distinguishing between God's inherent and external glory, and introduces the focus on the second phrase of verse 3.
Scholarly Interpretations of 'Who Healeth All Thy Diseases': Weaver presents various scholarly views, including those who see the phrase as an extension of spiritual forgiveness and those who see it as referring to physical healing.
Biblical Evidence for Physical Diseases: Weaver argues that the Hebrew word for 'diseases' is used elsewhere in Scripture for real physical sickness, and that David himself experienced physical ailments.
All Healing is from God: Weaver asserts that all healing, whether through means or directly, comes from God and is grounds for praise.
Mediate vs. Immediate Healing: Weaver explains that God heals mediately (using means like physicians) or immediately (directly), with biblical examples for each.
Seeking God First in Sickness: Weaver emphasizes that believers should seek God first in illness, especially if sin is involved, before turning to medical help.
Four Sources of Sickness: Weaver identifies four sources of sickness: Satan, sin, self (human frailty), and the sovereign God, with biblical examples for each.
Applications: God's Will in Healing and Discerning the Source: Weaver applies the teaching by stating that God heals most of the time but not always, and that believers should discern if their sickness has a spiritual root before seeking medical help.

Major Themes

Key Arguments

The phrase 'who healeth all thy diseases' includes physical healing

Weaver argues that the Hebrew word for 'diseases' consistently refers to real physical sickness in Scripture, and David's own experiences support a physical application.

Weaver points to Deuteronomy 29:22, Jeremiah 14:18, and Psalms 6, 38, and 41 where David describes physical ailments.

God normally uses means to heal

While God can heal directly, He most often works through medical means, as illustrated by Hezekiah's healing with a fig poultice.

Weaver cites Isaiah 38:21 and the principle from Genesis 3:19 and 2 Thessalonians 3:10 that God normally works through means.

Spiritual root of sickness must be addressed first

If sickness is caused by sin, medical treatment alone is insufficient; repentance and forgiveness are necessary for healing.

Weaver states, 'If our sickness has a spiritual root, no amount of medicine is going to correct that spiritual sin.'

Sickness can come from Satan, sin, self, or God's sovereignty

Weaver categorizes the sources of sickness to help believers understand and respond appropriately to illness.

Weaver provides biblical examples: the woman bound by Satan (Luke 13), sin (Romans 5:12), human frailty (Psalm 103:14-16), and the man born blind (John 9).

It is not God's will to heal every time

Weaver argues that if God healed every time, no one would die, but death is the result of sin; ultimate healing comes in the resurrection.

Weaver says, 'It is not God's will to heal every time, because if He did, no one would ever die.'

Scripture References

Psalm 103:1-5: The main text of the sermon, focusing on verse 3.
Psalm 16:2: Cited to show that even Christ's obedience did not add to God's essential glory.
Psalm 108:5: Quoted to emphasize God's exalted glory.
Deuteronomy 28:20-22: Used to show that diseases can be curses for disobedience.
Leviticus 26:16: Another passage showing diseases as punishment for disobedience.
Deuteronomy 29:22: Shows the same Hebrew word for 'diseases' used for physical sickness.
Jeremiah 14:18: Another use of the Hebrew word for 'diseases' in a physical context.
Jeremiah 16:4: Reference to 'diseased deaths' using the same Hebrew word.
Psalm 6:1-3: David's plea for healing, showing his physical affliction.
Psalm 38:4-8: David describes physical suffering due to his sin.
Psalm 41:8: David's enemies speak of his fatal disease.
Isaiah 38:21: Example of mediate healing: Hezekiah healed with a fig poultice.
Luke 8:41-48: Example of immediate healing: the woman with the issue of blood.
Genesis 3:19: Cited to show that God normally works through means (work for food).
2 Thessalonians 3:10: Reinforces the principle of working for sustenance.
Jeremiah 8:22: Question about the balm in Gilead and physicians, affirming the use of medical means.
Colossians 4:14: Mentions Luke, the beloved physician, as a companion of Paul.
Matthew 9:12: Jesus acknowledges the need for physicians for the sick.
James 5:13-16: Instructions for the sick to call elders and pray, emphasizing spiritual healing.
Luke 13:11-16: Woman bound by Satan for 18 years, showing sickness from demonic attack.

Historical References

George Horne: Quoted as a scholar who interprets 'healeth all thy diseases' as spiritual maladies.
Matthew Henry: Quoted as interpreting the phrase as spiritual healing through sanctification.
John Gill: Quoted as viewing the diseases as spiritual, synonymous with iniquities.
John Trapp: Quoted as a Puritan who believed the phrase refers to both physical and spiritual healing.
Dr. S.I. McMillen, 'None of These Diseases': Referenced as a book demonstrating how unbiblical attitudes cause physical ailments.

Important Quotes

All healing is from God. Therefore, that is sufficient grounds to praise Him and bless Him.

Summarizes the central thesis that God is the source of all healing, warranting praise.

If our sickness is related to sin, unless that sin is dealt with, the sickness is not going to be healed.

Highlights the necessity of addressing spiritual root causes before physical healing can occur.

It is not God's will to heal every time, because if He did, no one would ever die.

Clarifies the limits of physical healing in this life due to the reality of death.

We can praise Him not only for forgiveness of sins, but for healing all our diseases.

Connects the two parts of Psalm 103:3 as reasons for blessing the Lord.

If our sickness has a spiritual root, no amount of medicine is going to correct that spiritual sin and that spiritual rebellion.

Emphasizes the priority of spiritual remedies over physical ones when sin is the cause.

Discussion Questions

[Question]

How does understanding that all healing comes from God change the way we respond to both minor and major illnesses?

[Context]

Weaver emphasizes that all healing is from God, whether through means or directly.

[Question]

In what ways can we discern whether a sickness might have a spiritual root, and how should we respond if it does?

[Context]

Weaver discusses the connection between sin and sickness and the need for repentance.

[Question]

How do we balance seeking medical help with trusting God for healing, especially when healing does not come?

[Context]

Weaver presents the tension between using means and seeking God first.

[Question]

What comfort can we find in the fact that God knows our frame and remembers we are dust?

[Context]

Weaver cites Psalm 103:13-16 to highlight God's compassion for our frailty.

[Question]

How can we praise God in the midst of chronic illness or when healing does not occur?

[Context]

Weaver encourages praise for every good day and even in sickness.

Applications

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T06:08:44Z