Health and Marrow

Introduction to the Promise of Health and Marrow

0:02 Now let us turn to Proverbs chapter 3 as we seek to expose our minds to the Word of God, that Word which lives and abides forever. You remember, I trust, that Proverbs chapter 3 is a series of relatively unrelated, there is some relationship, but relatively unrelated, various and sundry exhortations to practical godliness enforced by the strongest of motives. And we are presently studying the fourth of those exhortations and the promise attached to the exhortation in verses 7 and 8 of Proverbs 3. Be not wise in thine own eyes, fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones. Briefly now, just to review, we have seen that verse 7 is a call as a unit with three distinct lines of emphasis.

1:13 There is the call or the command to humility of mind. Be not wise in thine own eyes. If we think of it positively, it's the call to humility of mind. Negatively, it is an indictment against the sin of self-conceit.

1:31 In the second place, we have the call or the command to godliness of heart. Fear the Lord. In our study last week, we saw that this fear of God is the very soul of godliness. It is that disposition in a man's inner being wrought only by the regenerative work of the Spirit in which, in the light of what he knows of God, pleasing God is his greatest delight and displeasing him his greatest dread.

2:00 And that call to godliness of heart is followed by its inevitable sequel, a call to righteousness of walk. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. And we saw in our study how these two things are brought together again and again and in some places are almost described synonymously. The fear of the Lord is to depart from evil, we read in another place.

The Gracious and Sincere Nature of God's Promise

2:26 Now we come tonight to consider the promise attached to this three-fold call to practical godliness. It shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones. And before we break down the text and seek to expound and apply its truth, let me remind you, as I have done with each of the promises in this series, in chapter 3, that it is a gracious and not a legal promise. God is not sitting down and bargaining with us.

3:00 Us hoping we'll make a deal with him. Saying, look, I'll throw in these options and if I throw in the options, will you come to my terms, much like the car dealer tries to do with you? No, no, no, no. You see, God has every right to command us to be not wise in our own eyes.

3:17 Simply because we aren't wise in our own eyes. We are not wise, therefore don't be so in your own eyes. We are utterly dependent upon God for any light we have about ourselves and about the world and about sin. And salvation and heaven and hell.

3:33 So it's right for him to say, be not wise in thine own eyes. It's right for him to command us to fear him, since he's the God worthy of that fear. And it's right for him to command us to depart from evil. So the promise is not something God owes to us.

3:48 You've been good little boys and girls, therefore I sort of feel obligated to give you a little packet of goodies. Or as one of our Scottish friends says, some sweeties. No, no. God doesn't come to us in that way at all.

4:03 No, no. This is a gracious promise. It is a promise that God is not obligated to make, and therefore he makes it out of the free choice of his own loving heart to encourage us in our pursuit of the commands. But let me say on the other side that though it is a gracious promise, it is a sincere promise.

4:29 And the promise is no little part of our incentive to obedience. Why should we fear the Lord and depart from evil? Well, because God is God and sin is sin, and as his creatures made to glorify him, we should not sin, but we should fear him. Right.

4:48 But it adds incentive which we as sinful creatures need to know that this is not only right, but it is also for my good. And God again and again, and again in the scriptures does this. Children, obey your parents, for this is right. Honor thy father and thy mother, for this is the first commandment with promise.

5:11 You see, it's right to do it, but I'll encourage you and nudge you in the direction of rightness by the promise. So it's pure grace, but it is a legitimate motive in the life of the Christian. So much for that little introductory word. Now, to think our way through the text, consider with me, first of all, the meaning of the word.

Meaning of 'Health to Thy Navel and Marrow to Thy Bones'

5:31 The meaning of the word. The meaning of the word. For these strange words, strange to our western ears in the 20th century, it shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones. Then in the second place, we shall study together the manner in which these words are fulfilled, and then we will close with two necessary exhortations and warnings.

5:53 First of all, then, the meaning of the words. Look closely at the text. The first word that confront us is confront, confronts us is the word it. It will be health to thy navel.

6:05 Meaning then, that we are not to view any one of the three previous items in isolation. Together, the repudiation of self-conceit, the fear of God and a life of godliness, together they comprise one unit of thought, namely, practical godliness, and to that is the promise attached. Not these will be health to thy navel, but it, that is, the course of life characterized by repudiation of creature confidence, the fear of God and departure from evil, all together, it will be navel. Now, what do those strange words mean? And I confess that I've gone through every reference in the scriptures, and there are not many to this imagery, to this figure of speech. I've ransacked the commentators, and I'm just not absolutely certain that I have the mind of God in the text, but I'm 98% sure, and I think this is what Solomon is saying.

7:17 Solomon's navel coincides with his individual existence. He is an individual, an entity in himself, the moment he has a navel, when the umbilical cord is cut, from that point on, he is a self-existent creature. Up to that point, all of his sustenance has been derived from his mother by means of his umbilical cord. The navel is the identification of him as an individual.

7:52 As one able Hebrew commentator has said, the navel is, as it were, the tangible evidence, the firm center of the existence of the creature. And since all of life was sustained by means of that, prior to its severance from the mother's womb, it's easy to see how the navel came to be thought of as the symbol of the crucial center of life. In fact, it's interesting, some of the older commentators, whose knowledge of anatomy and physiology was very limited, actually make statements of this nature, that the navel is the knot of the internal organs, and binds them all together, and keeps them in their proper function. Now, we look back upon that now and say, well, that's a strange, antiquated view. Rightly so. But do you see how they could have this concept if they were thinking biblically?

8:47 So the general idea seems to be that Solomon is saying that this course of life, in which you do not trust to your own wisdom, you fear God and depart from evil, is, in most cases, as a general principle, is the pledge of good health. That's the concept. Health to thy navel, the center of your physical well-being. At that point, health shall come and extend to the entire body.

9:21 Now, what about the phrase, marrow to thy bones? And if you have an American Standard Version, you will notice that the marginal reading is refreshing or moistening to thy bones. Now, here we have much more in the Scriptures to help us. And I trace through every reference to moisture in the bones, present or dried up, and a very interesting thing unfolded to me.

9:44 I thought this was just a case of Hebrew parallelism, where you have one thought in the first part of the couplet, and then you have a similar thought, amplified, enforced, stated a little differently in the second. But I don't think we have that here. Here we have what is called in Hebrew poetry, Hebrew progression. You have an added thought introduced.

10:05 I want you to look with me at several passages concerning this whole matter of moisture in the bones, and see if you can begin to feel the biblical significance of this terminology. Turn, please, to Psalm 6, the book of the Psalms, and the sixth Psalm. The psalmist pens this Psalm when he is conscious of the chastening hand of God upon him. And notice how it says, and notice how he describes his condition in verses 2 and 3.

10:44 Have mercy upon me, O God, for I am withered away. O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled. My soul also is sore troubled. And Thou, Lord, how long?

11:00 Return, O Lord, deliver my soul. Save me for Thy lovingkindness sake. Verse 6, I am weary with my groaning. Every night I make my bed to swim.

11:09 I water my couch with my tears. Mine eye wastes away because of grief. You see the mood of the Psalm. Do you feel something of its heaviness?

11:18 And in the midst of this agony of soul, the Psalm, by the way, which those who become enmeshed in the errors of much deeper life teaching can never read with sympathy. We either have to repudiate the teaching or own up to the fact that this is part and parcel of normal Christian experience. Do you feel something of this? Do you feel something of the mood of it?

11:41 I am sure many of you have found yourselves very much at home in this Psalm. Well, in the context of feeling the pressure of God's chastisement, the sense of spiritual dryness and barrenness, He introduces this concept, Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. Keep that in mind. I am not drawing any conclusions.

12:01 I want the word itself to create its own impression upon your mind. Then I will attempt to draw some conclusions to which I believe it is necessary. I believe you will agree. Psalm 31, verse 10.

12:14 Again, let's back up to catch the context. He begins in verse 1, In thee, O Lord, do I take refuge. Lever, never let me be put to shame. Deliver me in righteousness.

12:27 Verse 4, pluck me out of the net that they have privily laid for me. Conscious, you see, of his enemies oppressing him. Verse 9, have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in distress. Mine eye wasteth away with grief.

12:41 Yea, my soul and my body. For my life is spent with sorrow and my ears with sighing. My strength faileth because of mine iniquity and my bones are wasted away. He says, my bones are, as it were, crumbling like an old edifice and wasting away.

13:01 And you see the context? Great heaviness of soul, great oppression, great agony of spirit, and in the midst of it, my bones. My bones are wasting away. Over to Psalm 38.

13:16 And verse 3, O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath. Verse 1, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure for thine arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine indignation. Neither is there any health in my bones.

13:34 Now you see the contrast? My flesh is troubled. My bones are troubled. Previous passage, my flesh is troubled, my bones are troubled.

13:45 Begin to see something emerging? Now turn to Job. Back to Job chapter 33 and verse 19. Job 33 and verse 19.

13:57 Describing the state of Job, one of his, quote, comforters says to him, he is chastened also with pain upon his bed and with continual strife in his bones. Strife in his bones. Now one final reference, Proverbs 17. Back in the book of Proverbs now.

14:29 Proverbs 17 and verse 22. A cheerful heart is a good medicine. Now you have the contrast. But a broken spirit dryeth up the bones.

14:45 Now do you think you get the idea of what this moisture of the bones is? If health to thy navel refers primarily to the state of our physical being, the state of our bones being moist or dry refers to our emotional state. Notice this text that I think is most helpful in underscoring that principle. A cheerful heart, that's the emotional state of the Christian, is good medicine.

15:16 Righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, that's good medicine. But a broken spirit, that's inwardly, dryeth the bones. And so I suggest to you that when Solomon says to his son or to his pupil, this course of life marked by this threefold call, if complied with, will not only bring health to your navel, that is general well-being to your physical frame, but it will also bring general well-being to your whole inner man so that the center, the structure of your being, your bones, will be like a moist garden and you will feel from the structural center out the health of your bones. Now let me say at this point, this kind of biblical exegesis that tries to find some anticipation of modern medical science in Old Testament literature or New Testament is mere pura. It's stupidity. It brings reproach to the cause of Christ for someone to say, aha, you see, Solomon anticipated the fact that the blood is produced in the marrow and all the rest.

16:29 No, no, no, no. God didn't play tricks on his servants. They spoke in the concepts and language patterns of their day. And this is a figure of speech.

16:39 When God through Moses is telling us that in the beginning God made the heaven and earth, that's not a figure of speech. That's history. But when you have a figure of speech, a likeness, metaphors and similes, they are made in terms of the cultural concepts of the day in which the authors existed. And so we must treat the word of God accordingly.

17:01 In summary then, the promise seems to be that the life characterized by practical godliness will be one generally marked by good physical and emotional health. Now that's what I believe the text teaches. And I showed you why I believe that's what it teaches by comparing Scripture with Scripture. Now, in the second place, consider with me, how is this promise fulfilled?

Fulfillment Through Avoiding Specific Physical and Emotional Evils

17:27 And I will suggest two lines of thought to you tonight. First of all, it is fulfilled by the specific physical and emotional evils avoided by a life of godliness. Solomon says to his son, Be not wise in thine own eyes, fear the Lord and depart from evil, for it shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones, because Solomon was an astute observer of human experience. And he had seen in his days that the man who fears God and departs from evil avoids many physical maladies which generally come to the man who does not fear God and depart from evil. Now let me show by way of several clear illustrations. Think of the problem of gluttony, and its debilitating effects upon the human body. It is a known fact that intemperance in eating causes many people to become corpulent.

18:31 Not all people. If you're thin, don't breathe easy that you're temperate. You may be a glutton. I've met people who were thin but who were gluttons.

18:41 I've met other people who tended to corpulency who were very disciplined in their eating, but they had to be even more disciplined than they were. So I'm not generalizing, but generally speaking, corpulence is an indication of intemperance. And the side effects of this are known on every hand. They were known in the Scriptures.

19:02 The Scripture condemns intemperance again and again, not just with reference to alcohol. Through the prophets, God indicts His people who recline upon their couches and fill themselves with the flesh of beasts and drink their wine until they're glutted and drunken with it. And gluttony is condemned as a sin again and again in the Scriptures, and it's one of those sins that has built-in retribution here and now. There are the physical effects of the poor heart having to pump blood through all those extra miles of capillaries.

19:35 And so there are cardiac arrest and heart diseases as a result of gluttony. Then there are the side effects, the emotional effects, the perverted self-image, the condemned conscience, the drying of the bones, loss of joy, and the Holy Ghost, the moment you look in the mirror and see the vivid reminder of your intemperance. But you see, the man or the woman who fears God and departs from evil avoids this sin. For as we saw last week, he fears God at His table as well as in the temple.

20:09 He fears God in terms of what goes into his mouth as well as what comes out of his mouth. The fear of God is the all-pervasive mentality and climate of his entire existence. And therefore, whether he eats or drinks, he does all to the glory of God. You cannot glorify God by taking His gifts and saying, God, I will take Your gifts and dig my grave with them.

20:33 Gluttony is just a subtle way of digging your grave with your teeth. You cannot consciously say, Lord, because I regard Your smile as the most vital thing in all of life and I regard Your frown as the most dreadful thing, I shall therefore be intemperate in my food to Your glory. You can't. The thought is unthinkable.

20:55 No. Before you can take that piece of pie that you should say no to, before you can take that second helping of potatoes or any at all in some of your cases, you've got to get rid of every conscious present thought of God. And you know it and I know it. You've got to.

21:16 And that's precisely what you do. At that point, you become a practical atheist. There is no fear of God before your eyes. Hence, your hand can reach out for the extra portion.

21:26 Now you see Solomon observe this. And he says to his son, If you fear the Lord and depart from evil, it will be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones. Why? You will avoid those physical and emotional evils attached to sin, gluttony and its debilitating effects.

21:46 Secondly, immorality and its destructive effects. Listen to Solomon in chapter 5. I shall not expound the passage. In due time, we hope to get to it.

21:56 I shall only read it. Proverbs 5, 7 to 11. Now therefore, my son, hearken unto me and depart not from the words of my mouth. Remove thy way far from her that is the immoral woman.

22:10 Come not nigh the door of her house, lest thou give thine honor unto others and thy years to the cruel, lest strangers be filled with thy strength and thy labors in the house of an alien. And thou mourn at thy latter end. Now notice the phrase. When thy flesh and thy body are consumed.

22:30 V.D. and gonorrhea are not 20th century phenomena. They're as old as the entrance of sin.

22:43 And it's one of the added retributions God has built in to the structure of his dealing with sin now as pledge of how he shall deal with it in the day of judgment. And amidst all the talk, about the present epidemic of these sins, these sicknesses, these diseases, not one so in suggestion that the answer might be a return to the biblical standards of sexual activity. No, because you can't have that without the fear of God. And we've convinced ourselves as a society that the fear of God is not a viable option.

23:24 We can handle ourselves all right. We've got enough penicillin. If we can just get enough people under the needle, and enough people under the needle, and enough people on the phone to tell others with whom they've consorted illicitly, then we'll clear it up. And God says, All right, smarty, go ahead.

23:39 And it's reached epidemic portion, telethons, clinics, penicillin not withstanding. Solomon was an astute observer of human behavior and human experience. He says, Oh, my son, fear the Lord. Depart from evil.

23:59 It will be health to thine evil. You'll never contract these social diseases. But it'll be marrow to thy bones. What happens to a man who indulges in immorality?

24:08 Read of David in Psalm 6 and Psalm 51. You talk about the roaring of his bones. That's the term he uses. Speaks of the roaring of his bones.

24:18 Why? A conscience that smote him for his deflection from the law of God. Think in the third place of drunkenness and its destructive effects. Look at Proverbs 23 and verse 29.

24:31 Proverbs 23, 29. Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions?

24:40 Who hath complaining? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine.

24:50 They that go to seek out mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it sparkleth in the cup, when it goeth down smoothly. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange things, and thy heart shall utter perverse things.

25:12 Yea, thou shalt be as one that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth on the top of a mast. Where did Solomon learn that? He just watched people who didn't bring the fear of God to their wine glass. Instead of receiving it as the gift of God to be used with moderation, they looked long upon the glass.

25:35 And when it was empty, they filled it up so they could see themselves again. And then when it was empty, they filled it up so they could see them until they couldn't see anything if they tried. Fear the Lord. When you have the wine glass in your hand, you hold it in the fear of God, and you receive the wine that maketh glad the heart of man as a gift to be used with moderation if you receive it at all.

26:02 When a man departs from the fear of God, he moves into trouble, he moves into drunkenness and its destructive effects, cirrhosis of the liver and all the rest. Let me just use one or two other illustrations quickly. Think of the bitterness and the frustration that are stored up in the heart of the person who doesn't fear God. And the relationship that the doctors are just beginning to tell us exists between the delicate internal organs and all the various juices and secretions that make up this mysterious thing called the human body.

26:39 The tremendous relationship between all of those things and the state of the mind and the soul. Look at Proverbs 17.22 again. Solomon saw this long before it was ever defined technically and medically in terms of psychosomatic ills.

26:56 He saw this. He observed it. A cheerful heart is a good medicine. He said some men's bodies are kept healthy by the state of their hearts.

27:06 He said other people, the problem with them is a broken spirit. A broken spirit that dries up the bones. And I've met people who I believe were crippled with physical maladies because of all the acids and the bile that was let loose upon their system because of the storage of bitterness and unforgiveness and jealousy and rancor. All that poison working within the system until the physical frame itself said I can't bear it and throws in the towel.

27:43 And then the last thing I want to mention under this first heading how is the promise fulfilled is by the chastisements avoided by a life of godliness. Remember 1 Corinthians 11.30? Here some confessing saints of God are continuing in a course of evil.

28:08 And Paul in dealing with them with the problem says in the midst of his treating it verse 30 1 Corinthians 11.30 For this cause many among you are weak and sickly and not a few sleep. And the words for weakness and sickness are the words which generally refer to physical illness. And unless the context determines otherwise we must accept a word in its general usage and I believe there's no reason to look at them any other way in this passage.

28:44 Paul says you know why some of you do not have health to your navel and marrow to your bones? It's because of sin that's not been judged. Sin that's not been faced and repented of. Look at James 5.

28:58 The intimate relationship that often exists between sickness and sin. Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church. Let them pray over him having anointed him with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer that is of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up and if he hath committed sins they shall be forgiven him.

29:18 Confess therefore your sins one to another and pray one for another that he may be healed. When Solomon said a life of godliness is generally conducive of physical and emotional health these are some of the things he had in mind. By the specific physical and emotional ills avoided in the life of godliness good health is often secured to the child of God. Now the second way in which the promise is fulfilled is the positive corollary of the negative that I've just given.

Fulfillment Through Positive Physical and Emotional Benefits of Godliness

29:58 This promise is fulfilled by the specific physical and emotional benefits attached to a life of godliness. Not only the physically debilitating things avoided by a life of godliness but the physically invigorating things attached to and flowing out of a life of godliness. Let me suggest three. Romans 14, 17 says this The kingdom of God does not consist in eating and drinking but in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

30:38 Now cross reference that with Proverbs 14 and verse 30 That peace and joy in the Holy Ghost is inward but is it contained merely within the soul? Not so according to Solomon. A tranquil heart is the life He anticipated them a little bit. Now this is true anticipation.

31:13 It is because that's a common human phenomena. It becomes like the rottenness of the bone. Envy has its destructive effect on the inner man and then it extends to the outer man. You have a beautiful example of how this works in a concrete situation.

31:45 Turn please to the book of Psalms again. And I'm trying to illustrate these things not for filler because I want you to see the principle fleshed out in real life circumstances. Psalm 3, I'm sorry. Here's David in the midst of his adversaries.

32:12 Lord, how are mine adversaries increased? Many are they that rise up against me? Many that say of my soul, there's no help for him in God. But he affirms his faith.

32:24 But thou, O Lord, art a shield about me, my glory and the lifter up of my head. I cried unto the Lord with my voice and he answered me out of his holy hill. So what did he do? In the midst of his enemies, determined to blot him out, he says, I spread my face before God.

32:43 Then what did I do? I laid me down and I slept. And I awake for the Lord sustains me. And refreshed with a good night's sleep, his faith is strengthened all the more.

32:56 And he says, I will not be afraid of ten thousands of the people that have set themselves against me round about. You see? Because he feared God and departed, he had a good night's sleep. And that good night's sleep vitally affected his spiritual perspective.

33:19 And don't you think there isn't a relationship? There are some mornings when I go to pray and I feel as carnal as a barnyard full of goats. And I search my heart and ransack my conscience and as best I know, the counts are up with God and the rest. You know what the problem is?

33:41 I just need a good eight hours sleep the next night and lo and behold, the heavens are open. And the heart responds with alacrity because of this great relationship between the two. Peace and joy in the spirit. You see our health to the navel, enabling us to sleep instead of worrying and being frustrated in unbelief as we see our problems and see our enemies.

34:07 We lie down and we sleep. And we find refreshment through our physical frame. And then, second thing, under this second heading is there will be the realistic care of our bodies as temples of the Holy Ghost. And that positively promotes physical and emotional health.

34:25 1 Corinthians chapter 6. You know the verses. What know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost which ye have of God and ye are not your own? Ye are bought with a price.

34:35 Therefore glorify God in your body. And some of the manuscripts have the phrase and in your spirit. Newer translations omit it. Glorify God in your body which is His.

34:49 Now if you fear God, you don't ignore the fact that you have a body which He has deigned to make His temple. And He says that body is an earthen vessel. We have the treasure in earthen vessels. And you do not honor God by acting like a disembodied, partially glorified saint.

35:09 Nor do you honor God by trying to exist as though you were an angel with no physical frame that needed sleep and nourishment and rest and the other things necessary for life in the flesh. You don't honor God. And that's why I don't like certain Christian biographies. There's a form of asceticism in there where men talk about burn out for God and unthinking young Christians get this and they begin to abuse their bodies that dishonors God.

35:39 Whether you abuse it by sucking in cigarettes or trying to get by on four hours sleep because some godly saint two hundred years ago did. You end up being so crotchety nobody can get along with you. And you end up cutting away at the vitals of your physical health until you're shot at age forty. I believe God wants us to plan in terms of our full three score and ten.

36:04 Doesn't sound romantic but I believe there's a lot more Bible to support it than the idea that God wants me to commit murder upon myself in the name of devotion to the God who says thou shall do no murder. Thou shall not destroy human life that means your own as well as someone else's. Now you say can't people abuse that and become, yes but the Bible says enough about self-indulgence. We don't need to be wiser than God and think we need to counteract the tendency to self-indulgence by a form of self-destruction.

36:36 We need the balance of the Holy Ghost. The man who fears God looks upon his body as part of his stewardship. Lord you've chosen to redeem me in Christ and indwell me by the Holy Ghost and any glory you're going to get to your Son while I'm here on earth you're going to get through this body. Lord help me to take good care of it.

37:03 Oh but you say can't you go yes, yes, yes you can't go too far until you make a God of your body. Yes I'm aware of that. I'm fully aware of that. There's no truth that the human heart will not pervert and turn into error.

37:17 The Holy Ghost and the Word can keep us in that razor's edge of balance. That's how the promise is fulfilled. If you fear the Lord you'll depart from the evil of self-destruction. Bearing for your body as a temple of the Holy Ghost.

37:34 And that promise then is fulfilled. Health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones. And then in the third way it's fulfilled under this second heading. There is the therapeutic effect of communion with the people of God.

37:49 You see a man who fears God never fears Him in isolation. David said I am a companion of all them that fear Thee. Paul says to Timothy flee you for lust follow after righteousness, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. One of the reflex responses of a newborn soul is I want to find some more people who know my Lord as He's brought me to know Him.

38:19 Stay! This idea you got to tell a new convert ought to go to church ought to do this ought to do that I mean can't the Holy Ghost do anything when He regenerates someone? I visit an awful lot of babies and an awful lot of nurseries and an awful lot of hospitals and I never once saw any nurse whose specialty was training newborn babies how to open their mouths. Born hungry long before the eyes open up reach up as newborn babes long for the sincere milk of the Word. Likewise another ingredient of life implanted by the Holy Ghost is that desire to be amongst the people of God. Well you say how in the world does communion with the people of God fulfill this promise? Well let me give you a little idea.

39:19 It says in Hebrews 3.13 Exhort one another daily while it is called a day lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. In communion with the people of God sins that might lead to God's chastisement are brought to life by the admonition of my brothers and sisters. And when they're brought to life then I deal with them.

39:39 That will prove health to my navel and marrow to my bones. Then perhaps I've actually come under sickness. There's the therapeutic effect of what went on just a short time ago down in the nursery when twenty minutes before it was time to come here my intestines were still very upset. I asked three or four of the men I said would you come in and pray.

40:00 Don't ask God to make me feel good. I don't care if I have to preach feeling bad. Just ask Him to undertake in the physiological process that I can stand here and preach until I'm done. That's all we ask.

40:09 And they prayed and God heard. Now I don't feel good. I mean I'm not a you know glory to God I've been healed or something else. No, no.

40:18 And I don't mean to I don't mean to be irreverent. Please don't laugh. I don't mean to be irreverent. I don't mean to be irreverent.

40:23 But what I'm saying is there is a beautiful and a precious therapeutic effect of the communion of the saints of God so that they bear our burdens with us our burdens with us. Our physical burdens. Our emotional burdens. Hence as I fear God I will be found in the midst of others who fear Him.

40:46 Solomon observed this. That's why he has so much to say in Proverbs about the companions of the young man. When sinners entice thee consent thou not. Walk with wise men thou shalt be wise.

41:00 Walk with a companion of fools shall become a fool. He observed this. Thank God the promise is fulfilled by those who believe in specific physical and emotional benefits which are attached to a life of godliness. I suggest and this is not exhaustive that this is how the promise is fulfilled.

Holiness and Health as God's Norm

41:20 By the evils that destroy us physically and emotionally which the God-fearing man avoids and by the benefits which the God-fearing man enjoys in the pursuit of godliness. Now my concluding exhortation observations are these. Number one the great principle of this text and we could find it in many other texts is as follows. Holiness and health are normal for man the creature.

41:51 Sin and sickness are abnormal. Now hold on don't you say well therefore you mean no I don't mean anything other than what I just stated. Now don't you go building logical planks out here. My plank is right here not one inch further and this is the plank.

42:11 Holiness and health are normal for man the creature. Sickness and sin are abnormal. Go back to the garden. Man was created in righteousness and holiness.

42:27 He was a creature who enjoyed perfect health. It was the entrance of sin that brought the entrance of sickness. Now let's take man when he is normal again in glory. When he is once again perfectly holy.

42:43 We shall be like him we shall see him as he is. He will be perfectly healthy. There shall be no more sickness, sorrow, crying, death. You see my principle now?

42:54 Holiness and health are God's norm for his creature. Sin and sickness are abnormal but now follow me closely. If it's seen clearly in the original creation and in the creation this is now a mixed state and you must expect that to be manifested in this area of the relationship between sin and sickness holiness and health. We have an earnest of what is to come but not the full inheritance and this is the fundament of those who say who's walking in the fear of God if he doesn't have continuous of sin. And right now in Ephesians 1 God has put all and given him to be to the church. Is sickness a thing? Yes.

44:09 Then Christ is head over it's his sake to heal to make it his servant to chastise to teach to discipline to school when he chooses. And any of you that wants to take sickness out of the hands of a sovereign Christ and say it's all in the devil's hands and if ever you've got it the devil's dumped it on you. I say does not do justice to the teaching of the word of God but thank God we do have an earnest and there is here and now a down payment of what we'll have there. So you take any given sinners pick out a hundred sinners at random and pick out a hundred saints at random and you will find for the most part the saints are much healthier than the sinners. Why? Because of this principle that there's a connection between holiness and health and sin and sickness.

Beware of Absolutizing the Promise

45:15 You see the principle? All right now the second thing that I want to say in my concluding observations is this beware of absolutizing this promise. All of the Bible's teaching on sickness is not in Proverbs 3.8.

45:32 Thank God some of it is but not all of it. Now I've been in meetings and I've read books and I was once part of a denomination that would take a text like this and they'd absolutize it. You see what it says? Be not wise in thine own eyes fear the Lord depart from evil it shall be God cannot lie it shall be you must be healthy God promises it you claim it.

45:57 The whole teaching of the Bible on sickness and health is not in Proverbs 3.8. This is one of those passages those promises which states the general intention of God but not the full intention of God. My heart is pained.

46:20 This is what grieved me this past weekend with some of these dear young converts that I had to talk with for so long down in Pennsylvania. Taking a promise like this and absolutizing it running off half cocked as though the whole Bible teaching on sickness and health was bound up in a word like this. It isn't. The man who went through the greatest physical trials did so not because he wasn't fearing God but because he did fear God.

46:49 Read Job 1. Hast thou beheld my servant Job who fears me continually and escheweth evil? It was the fear of God that made him a candidate for that trial. Now how can you be honest with a passage like that if you've got the view that sin and sickness are always of the devil and Christ came to deliver us from it entirely?

47:14 The disciples thought they had it all boxed up good. Who did sin? This man or his parents? Jesus said you missed it.

47:23 Neither. But this sin is to the glory of God. They had their compartment all airtight. And may I say reverently that the apostle Paul came to the place where he thought he had it all figured out.

47:38 And there's no amount of dancing through the tulips of the Greek words in 2 Corinthians 12 that can get away from the fact that whatever the messenger of Satan was, it affected Paul in his physical frame. He says it brought asthenia, weakness, sickness, sickness, sickness, sickness, sickness, weakness. So whatever it was, that's where he felt it. And he came to the place where he said Lord, the continuance of this problem and my usefulness in the kingdom are mutually exclusive.

48:09 So he sought the Lord probably by prayer and fasting earnestly thrice, three concerted seasons of prayer. Lord, I cannot go on. You've called me to be an apostle to the Gentiles. This thing stands in the way.

48:23 And the Lord says I'm sorry Paul. I know some things you don't. Because of all the revelations I've had to give you as a unique apostle to the Gentiles. As the one through whom much truth will come which will not be revealed to anyone else in the same measure.

48:41 I know the tendency of the corruption of your heart. And may I say a little aside, if the doctrine of the eradication of the sin principle were true, Paul never got it. Because the Lord Jesus said I know that the tendency to pride still lurks within your heart. And lest that pride rise up and you be puffed up to where I must humble you, I will allow this messenger of Satan to keep you consciously, physically weak to avoid a greater sin.

49:10 And Paul said alright Lord, most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For when I am weak then am I strong. And you want to take that out of the hands of Christ and say he can't do that for any of his lesser servants? In that sense I can thank God for whatever this tummy bug was that hit me.

49:38 Because I felt so great preaching this morning and said Lord my strength is back. And people ask some of you ask me I said I feel like I'm banging on all eight cylinders again. The Lord's shown me my son I can pull the cords off the spark plugs pretty quick and you'll be back on four. You see?

49:57 Oh how hard it is to learn those lessons. I wouldn't want to wrench sickness out of the hand of a sovereign Christ to teach me such lessons would you? If you do you go contrary to the word of God. Why did Paul have to say I've left Trophimus at my latest sick?

50:15 Well I don't know why but the fact is he left him there sick. And he didn't say pray for him he's backslidden. Pray for me I've lost my healing touch. He just states it is a common fact that he assumed would not get anybody upset.

50:28 It's a part of the common lot of the people of God to have sickness once in a while woven into the disciplines of the Christian life. Why? Because we are in the mixed state between what we were in Adam and what we shall be ultimately holy in Christ. And the mixed state comes to light at every level.

50:46 So don't absolutize this promise. Sickness is the common lot of all creatures. It can be an instrument of God Job and Paul and may I say sometimes it's just a pure mystery. And I've long since given up trying to find an absolute reason for every kind of weakness physical weakness that comes.

Beware of Healing Emphases Bypassing Godliness

51:09 It's losing business. You might as well just sink down into the lap of a wise sovereign loving God and say oh Lord thou knows and whatever you're doing be glorified. Whatever you're saying dig the wax out of my ears and help me to hear. And then the last exhortation I would give is this and it's a warning beware of all healing emphasis which bypass the call to godliness.

51:39 You say Pastor Martin you've been a bit negative tonight. My friends you must be negative when you see people destroyed by error. Jesus said beware of the leaven of the scribes and the Pharisees. Paul said beware of those dogs that would consume you with their false teaching.

52:03 As we opened up the positive truth this morning of the glory of Christ I think there was a negative note in the whole thing except against the Arians. Beloved there are wolves that would prey upon this flock and as the under shepherd of God I must seek to arm you with those things that will drive them away and I say beware of that wolfish emphasis on physical healing which bypasses the call to godliness. Let me explain. I've been in circumstances where they all didn't have that kind of glandular disorder pleading with God for healing of their gallbladder and all the time they're pumping down these greasy foods claiming their healing. Oh you can't play tricks like that on God. You wouldn't even do that with your doctor. You say make my gallbladder better and he says what are you eating and you tell him what your diet is.

53:03 He says you cut that diet out. Other people park in front of their TV far more than they do in front of their Bible and they pray of my emotional problems or men who sit in front of their TV watching ball games all weekend instead of going out and getting some exercise and they're asking God to heal them of their breathiness or of their cardiac weakness. If they got out and walked three miles a day their heart would take care of itself. Oh dear one we can't play games with God.

53:39 He's built in laws into his dealings with us and we do not honor the God of miraculous intervention and I believe he that and that he does and can heal his people in answer to the prayers of his people. I don't believe in divine healers. I believe the Bible teaches divine healing that in answer to the prayers of his people he can and does heal people miraculously either bypassing the normal means of recovery or greatly stepping up the normal processes. I have no question with that.

54:16 How can I believe that I can't do that? No. I'm not in any way knocking or seeking to discourage faith. Would I have asked those four men to gather around me and pray tonight if I didn't believe that?

54:30 Would I? I think I've put my hand where my mouth is. But what I'm warning you against is this kind of an emphasis and it's pervasive in Christendom today that ignores the call to be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord depart from evil to thy navel and says, look what God's promised health to thy navel marrow to thy flesh claim it.

54:54 Ah, my friend that promise is attached. And you've seen the little tickets that say not good if detached. This promise not good if detached. Invalid if detached.

55:09 And so I leave you then with those three observations and exhortations with the text and let me encourage you as God's people to plead this as a general promise before God. Say, Lord help me not to be wise in my own eyes. Help me to fear you more. Help me to depart from evil.

55:29 And as I am unable to do so Lord if it please you according to your promise give me health to my navel physical health moistening to my bones emotional health. I think we should pray for that. I don't think we should be sitting around neutral just waiting for the next sickness to come. I don't believe we should take that position.

55:53 However, remember the promise is not absolute. Remember that the cause may be God's disciplinary hand. It may be that in bringing one thing upon you he's saving you from something far worse. You see a thorn in Paul's flesh that may have kept him from preaching in twenty places as opposed to ten.

56:13 Not preaching in those ten places would never have destroyed him but pride will. It will destroy his counsel. So God says it's far better that maybe you don't preach in quite as many places for quite so long than that you be crippled with your pride. Oh may God give us a vision of his dealings that's broader than that which says sickness cannot be his servant for my good and his glory.

Pleading the Promise and Fleeing to Christ

56:37 But let us also plead with him that to the extent that it would be for our good and his glory we may enjoy health to our navel and marrow to all our bones and in great measure to the extent that it would be for our good and his glory. God's done that for us as a congregation I'm amazed there's a period recently up till about oh a month and a half two months ago when I think there was about five to six months and I didn't make a hospital call. Five to six months and God has just been graciously granting health and moisture to our bones as by his grace we've pressed on in the fear of God and in the life of godliness. Apart from Christ this is impossible.

57:21 To have good health my friend you can't have the end without the means and you can't fear God and depart from evil until you flee to Christ the minister of the new covenant who alone can take out that heart of stone that doesn't fear God and give you a heart of stone that will fear him. So flee to Christ cast yourself upon the savior and so doing you have the promise him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out. Let us pray.