Herbert W Armstrong

   And greetings, friends. This is Herbert W. Armstrong with the good news of the World Tomorrow.

   Can men heal the sick today? Does God heal the sick today? Well, I'm not trying to cover the entire truth about it, but just that part here is where we're going through the Scriptures in our series in which we're going through the New Testament to find the true gospel that Jesus Christ brought from God and the gospel that he preached.

   What is the gospel of Jesus Christ? It is not what we have heard, a gospel about his person, but the gospel that Jesus preached. Why have you not heard that gospel? And then we're looking also to find out what customs Jesus practiced. He set us an example that we should follow in his steps. Once again, let me remind you, my friends, that Jesus Christ never did one thing, not one thing in his lifetime that was nailed to the cross.

   Jesus Christ never sacrificed an animal as a sin offering. Jesus Christ never indulged in one of the rituals of the Law of Moses. Not once. Jesus Christ did keep the Commandments of God, which are for all eternity. Because, as you read in the 19th Psalm, the law of the eternal is perfect, converting the soul. And as you read in the 111th Psalm, that the works of his hands are verity and judgment. All his Commandments are sure. Yes, they are the work of his hands. He wrote them with his own finger. All his Commandments are sure. They, all of them stand fast forever and ever and are done in truth and uprightness.

   Therefore, Jesus kept the Commandments, but Jesus never practiced a single ritual or a single meat and drink offering or animal sacrifice for sin. He did observe Passover because that was forever, and until his crucifixion, he did eat of the roast lamb, which had been eaten at that time every year because it had a symbolic meaning pointing to his death on the cross. However, at his last supper, since the Passover was ordained forever, and Jesus, therefore, had partaken of it, he changed the manner of observance from the bread and the wine. After his crucifixion, we could no more kill lambs to represent it or to show his death. Therefore, he gave the bread and the wine as the emblems to show his death. From that time on after his death had actually taken place.

   Now, if people only knew what is in the Bible, they would be shocked and surprised. Yes, we've been going through once again to skim over in a review, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to find out what gospel Jesus did preach. It's the most surprising amazing thing when you open your Bible to read it.

   Now we've covered his pre-existence, his birth, his baptism, his anointing, the battle of all eternity for world rule with Satan, and he qualified there as world rule. Satan obeyed Christ and slunk away. And right there, Christ had qualified as the coming world ruler, and Satan was disqualified. But Jesus did not ascend the throne then, although before he was born, the angel said to his mother Mary that he was going to sit on the throne of his father David. He was born to be a King. For this cause, said Jesus himself before Pilate, "I came into the world to be a King, to rule the world." And there was a battle for world rule with Satan, the devil. Jesus has qualified to become the world ruler.

   But, as we read in the parable in the 19th chapter of Luke's Gospel, because some thought the kingdom of God was being set up right then and there, and it seems that even though he told this parable to dispel that idea that most people have persisted in it up until this day and still believe it (Luke 19:12). He said a young nobleman went into a far country to get for himself a Kingdom and to return. And when he had returned, having received the Kingdom, then he called his servants to an accounting.

   He gave that parable to show that instead of setting on the throne, instead of taking over the rule and being inducted in office. Then and there at that time, he went to heaven, the far country to get for himself this Kingdom. And Daniel in the seventh chapter shows the picture of him appearing before the Father and the throne of the Father in heaven.

   And so, we find that Jesus said in Revelation, after he had ascended to heaven, Jesus speaks through John and in the book of Revelation said that he that overcomes, will I grant to sit with me in my throne as I also overcame. Yes, he set an example and am now, at that time, written in 90 A.D., he was and sat down with my father in his throne. Jesus then was in heaven on his Father's throne, but he is coming to take over his throne, his own throne, which is the throne of his father David here on this earth. And he is coming soon. He is coming in our generation in this latter half of the 20th century A.D. But he went to heaven after his ministry, so-called, and after his crucifixion, his resurrection, he ascended to heaven. He did not ascend his throne on earth at that time. But he said, if I go, I will come again, and when he comes again, before him, we will be gathered all nations, and he's going to begin to rule them and with a rod of iron, he will be the World Ruler.

   Now he had a mission to perform, and he was a messenger sent with a message in Malachi's prophecy. We read of John the Baptist as a messenger to prepare the way before him. And then he is called Jesus Christ, the messenger of the covenant. Now he is the messenger of the new covenant. Yes, Moses was the mediator of the old covenant. Jesus Christ is the mediator of the new covenant. John the Baptist prepared the way before him, and he taught the Kingdom of God. But first, he had to call his disciples. Jesus did not try to convert the world, believe it or not. He never tried to convert the world.

   Let's see, I think we passed already, did we not, the woman of Samaria at Jacob's well. And how he made no effort whatsoever to convert her. He had said to her, if you knew who it is to speak to you, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living waters. That is, in other words, eternal life, salvation. But she didn't recognize; finally, she did realize who it was, but he never offered her any salvation. He never tried to talk her into it. He didn't say, like people do today, "Oh, won't you give your heart to the Lord? Won't you all? You must," you know, with a great big emotional appeal like you hear in revival meetings and evangelistic campaigns today, just working up people's emotions.

   He doesn't do any of that. Neither can you find, my friends, where Peter, James, John, Andrew, the other apostles went out doing it or where the Apostle Paul or the ministers and evangelists under him ever went out with that kind of thing at all? You cannot find, my friends, where they ever had altar calls and called the people to hit the sawdust trail and come down, weeping to the altar. They didn't do that.

   I want to tell you though, that no one can come to God actually and become one of God's children and be thoroughly converted until he has repented. And I don't believe that anyone can repent and come to a real conversion until that person has been so broken up because he has come to see his own life and how evil it has been compared to the spotlessness and the purity and the righteousness of God. And until he has come to, as Job did, abhor himself and be so totally broken up that there is quite an emotional experience.

   I just want you to understand, but it isn't just this thing of working up emotions for tonight only and going up because others do and pleading with someone or going because someone pleaded with you, "Won't you come and give your heart to Jesus?" You know, I've talked to a lot of people who went forward to an altar and said they gave their heart to the Lord. And I said, well, how did you give your heart to him? Did you take a knife or something and actually cut open your breast and reach in and pull your heart out and give it to him? And did you see Jesus standing there to hand it over to him? And no, no, they said we didn't do that. Well, I said, now, what do you mean? How did you go about it? Just how did you give your heart to Jesus? You know, they just looked blank. I don't know, they say, no I guess they just didn't know. It's just an expression, my friends, that some of this kind of shop talk or what do we call it? Technical language that's used in religious circles. It just takes away all meaning. It just doesn't mean a thing, does it?

   Well, really, to give your heart to Jesus? If you know what it means, it means something. But I mean, the way most people are doing it, it means nothing, and the way it's commonly talked of today, however, I think that no one has really converted, my friends, until it means everything and until he has made a total surrender and has come to be so broken up with his own life that he can hardly stand it, can hardly live with himself, and he's really repentant. And what a relief it is when the blood of Jesus Christ takes all that load away, and he's freed from his guilty past and reconciled to God. And now can come into contact with God, and God will put his spirit in him, and he can look up to God and call him Father. Yes, that is an experience. That's something that is so much greater than these counterfeit experiences that thousands are going through. But that's what it takes.

   Herbert W. Armstrong will return in a moment.

   But first this offer concerning literature of related interest. Why were you born, to become a farmer trying to feed the population bomb, to become an entertainer? To give people a fleeting moment of laughter, to be a millionaire with big houses and fancy cars, and to live out your last days on the end of a plastic tube in a hospital, to be the last to die in a war you don't understand, is that all there is to human existence, just putting in your time on a troubled planet? No, there is a great purpose for your life, a reason you draw breath, and you need to know what it is. Read the free booklet, "Why Were You Born?" This knowledge gives reason to life, adds meaning to all you do for a true added dimension to your life. Be sure to read, "Why Were You Born?" Send your request to Herbert W. Armstrong, Post Office Box 111, Pasadena, California, 91123. That's Herbert W. Armstrong, Post Office Box 111, Pasadena, California, 91123.

   Well, Jesus called his disciples. He didn't try to save the world himself. He was working through human instrumentalities. He was working through human instrumentalities. He didn't try to save the world. He didn't try to attract crowds. They followed him, but often he ran away from them. And when he did speak to crowds, he spoke in parables, not to make the meaning more clear and plain, but to hide the meaning so they could not understand lest they be converted. What do you think of that? Well, as we go through, we're going to come to that pretty soon. I'll read it to you right out of the Bible. That may be in another broadcast. But let's hurry along now.

   Here we've been reading of how Jesus had been in the synagogue on the Sabbath Day, and he taught them with authority, and they were surprised, they were astonished at his teaching. And then he went to the home of Simon, and of Andrew, and Simon's mother-in-law was sick, and he healed her. And when the sun set, the Sabbath Day was over. They brought to him a great crowd of people that were sick, and he healed every one of them because he said, quoting Isaiah 53 verse four (Isaiah 53:4), that himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses. He paid the penalty of transgressed physical law. I tell you, my friends, our sickness in every home, almost. And if there is no sickness in your home, you have something to be thankful for. Now, there shouldn't be sickness. It is not natural to be sick. We're only sick because we have broken the laws that God set in motion to give us health and happiness in our body. God set these laws in motion in our bodies to keep us healthy and to keep us feeling good and to be happy. And God set his spiritual laws to make us happy and to just make us joyful and to make life the most blessed experience that there could possibly be.

   But we break God's laws with impunity, and we eat things that are not good for us. And about 90% or more of all sickness and disease comes from eating wrong food, and it seems that almost no one in the United States knows what they ought to eat. Well, my friends, get on the mailing list of the Plain Truth magazine. We have articles on Bible prophecy. You're going to find the Bible explained, and you're going to find the laws of health so you can live without sickness and disease, if you will. And you're going to find the spiritual laws by which you can be happy and more prosperous and better off in every way. Your whole life can be changed and made happy, if you want it. If you want it, there is a way. Well, God can heal the sick, and Jesus did heal the sick because he himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.

   A Spiritual sin is the transgression of the spiritual law, the law of love. It's love to God and love to neighbor. It is summed up in the 10 points of the Ten Commandments. And when you break that law, the penalty is the second death. It's death for all eternity. Now, Jesus paid that penalty for you. He died, and he died completely, and he died in your place. He paid the penalty for you.

   Well, when you're sick, you have broken the physical laws that regulate your body, not the spiritual, but the physical laws. And the penalty is the pain, the ache, the suffering, whatever it may be; it might bring on the first death prematurely. But Jesus himself took your infirmities; he bore your sicknesses. He was beaten by stripes before he was crucified. He submitted his perfect body. That was a perfect human body that had never known sickness or disease. And he permitted it to be punished by men, not by sickness. He suffered your sicknesses and diseases for you and paid the penalty so that you can be healed of your physical transgressions exactly in the same principle as you are healed from your spiritual sins.

   Now continuing on, and I covered this in yesterday's program. How in the morning, a great while before a day, Jesus rose and rose up and went out and departed into a desert place and there prayed, oh, he spent a lot more time in prayer than we do. And that's one reason he always healed the sick who came to him. That's another reason why so many of the preachers today that understand that they should be able to heal the sick. That is that God heals the sick. And he does it sometimes through his ministers. Although it's the power of God, not the power of man that does it. And sometimes they wonder why. Well, according to your faith, be it unto you, and you just don't get that kind of faith, my friends, without the kind of prayer that Jesus put into it. He rose up, notice it, a great while before day. Now that would have been at least two or three am; I would say two or three o'clock in the morning, departed, and he went clear out to a desert place and he didn't have an automobile to go in either in those days. He walked out there where he could be alone and there he prayed. And Simon and they that were with him followed after him. Now, this must have been several hours later. I'd, there's nothing here to indicate that they got up real early too. I, I think they slept their night out, and then they found him, and they said to him, "All are seeking thee." He never sought crowds, but they sought him and he saith unto them, "Let us go elsewhere into the next towns." He didn't go to the crowd.

   Well, so he did that, and he went into their synagogues and throughout all Galilee preaching and casting out demons. And Jesus, as we read in Matthew four, beginning with verse 23 (Matthew 4:23), went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and preaching, what? Not a message about his person. Not just saying, "Well, you just accept Christ and accept everything; we get on the receiving end and accept, but don't give anything, don't give yourself, don't obey, don't obey the Commandments. You thumb your nose at God and disobey him and then accept salvation and grace from him." That's about what they preach today, but they don't preach it in that kind of language. I'm putting it in very plain language. Their language isn't quite that plain, but you hear a lot of that today. But he was preaching the gospel of the Kingdom. It's the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of God is the rule of God, the reign of God, the government of God. And he was preaching that we should repent of transgressing God's government and obey God's government, put our lives under the government of God.

   And how does God govern your lives by His law? How does the United States have any government by the laws of the nation? The United States can't govern its citizens without laws. It governs them with its laws. The only difference is the United States government has to have a system of police officers and each local city and each county and so on has its police officers and its sheriffs and these human beings have to watch and catch you at it and arrest you and prosecute you.

   Now, God doesn't have to have a lot of human policemen around to enforce his laws. God's laws are actually animate and moving and living dynamic forces and powers. God set them in motion, the laws of physics, the laws of chemistry, and the spiritual laws that are not physical and are not in the realm of physical science at all. You break the physical laws that govern your relationship to God or your neighbor is summed up in the Ten Commandments and you're unhappy and you don't know why because it's an invisible law and the causes are invisible. You just can't see and you can't understand.

   But people on this earth are unhappy. People on this earth are disobeying the Ten Commandments and they wonder why they're not happy.

   Herbert W Armstrong will return in a moment.

   But first, this offer concerning literature of related interest. Our crowded courts represent a legal system feeling the crush of its own weight. This system cannot prevent the breaking of laws since order in society begins in the mind of the individual. Broken laws are symptomatic of broken character. Self-discipline needs to be learned in the home and maintained throughout life. The late J Edgar Hoover once said that a child who has been taught to respect the laws of God will have little difficulty respecting the laws of man. God's law is founded on ten basic principles, the Ten Commandments, simple, direct, and effective, the way to true justice.

   For a clear explanation of these principles, request, The Ten Commandments. This free booklet shows how all ten of these time-tested principles can benefit you. Be sure to request The Ten Commandments. Your copy is free of charge. Send your request to Herbert W Armstrong, Post Office Box 111 Pasadena, California 91123.

   You disobey the laws that regulate your body and you're unhealthy and you have aches and pains and suffering and you usually don't know why. You go to the doctors and they try to forgive that sin that you committed by drugs and medicines. Let me tell you, my friends, the healing of the sick is the forgiveness of physical transgression of physical sin. And it's impossible for a man to do it. It's impossible for a drug or a medicine to forgive sin. None can forgive sin but God. Jesus could do it because he was and is God.

   Now he was preaching the gospel of the government of God over our lives and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And the report of him went forth into all Syria and they brought unto him all that were sick and holden with different diseases and torments, possessed with demons and epileptic and palsied and he healed them. Why isn't he healing them today? He hasn't changed. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. I'll tell you why the preachers aren't praying, the people aren't praying, and the people have no faith, and you get faith by prayer. Of course, if you want a real understanding of what faith is and why you don't have it and why you don't understand about it, write for our booklet on, Faith, it's free. I'll be happy to send you a copy of the booklet on Faith.

   Well, he healed them, and here they brought unto him all that were sick, and he healed them. That is them all. And there followed him great multitudes from Galilee and the Decapodous in Jerusalem and Judea from beyond Jordan.

   Now we continue in, I was reading in Matthew. Yes, we'll continue now in Matthew, the eighth chapter where the same story thread is picked up next, and behold, there came to him a leper and worshipped him, saying, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." Now here is a man that didn't know whether it was his will to heal. I think I told you of a woman. I had been called to her home, and it was in another town I had, had to drive some distance in an automobile to go to this woman's home. She was sick, and she called for me to come and pray for her.

   Well, I said, "Now, you know that God will heal you if I pray." Well, no, she said that I, I know he could if, if, if I could only know his will, but then I can't know whether it's his will or not. Oh, well, I said, if you can't know it's his will and you can't have faith that he will do it. And if you don't have the faith, you won't be healed. Well, I said, well, it's just too bad that you can't be saved too and that you can't get your sins forgiven. Oh, she said my sins have been forgiven. Well, I said, how do you know? Well, she says, because God says so he's promised to do that. I said, do you know it's his will? She says, oh, yes, I know that that's his will.

   Well, in the 103rd Psalm, I read to her bless the Lord o my soul and forget not all his benefits. Who forgives all thine iniquities? Yes. She said, that's what I'm relying on. That's how I know it's his will. Did you ever read the other words that follow the very next words? Same sentence, same verse. Who healeth all thy diseases. You know, she had never seen that or at least she read right over it. It didn't seem to mean anything. It is just as much the will of God to heal you from sickness and forgive your physical transgressions as it is your spiritual transgressions.

   Now, do you know it's his will to save you? Do you know it's his will to forgive your sins? Then by the same token God's word says, and you think God's a liar? God says it is his will to heal all your sicknesses and diseases. Now, here was a man that didn't know his will. And this man came and worshipped Him saying, "Lord, if thou wilt, of course, I don't know whether you will or not. I don't know whether it's your will. But if it's your will, you can make me clean. I know you're able, but I just don't know your will."

   And Jesus stretched forth his hand and touched him saying, "I will." There's the answer as to whether it's His will. It was his will. "I will, be thou clean," and straightway, the leprosy was cleansed. Can you know His will? What is faith, my friends? It's only your assurance, your absolute knowledge that God can't lie in whatever He's promised in the Bible. He will do. And he has given you an ironclad blanket promise. He will heal you if you're sick. If we only had faith, if we only knew God's will, if we only knew what faith really is, if we only believe God, he has given the promise. He has all power. He is able. Why can't you trust him?

   I'll say though, if you don't have the faith, go to the doctor and take whatever he can do, he may try to work along with nature a little bit. But there isn't a healing in a carload of drugs and medicines. As far as that's concerned, you may get some relief, and the doctors do have some drugs that will kill pains and so on. And they have sedatives and stimulants and maybe they can give you some help.

   Jesus saith unto him. See that thou tell no man, what did he do? He told him go and show himself to the priest because he should have done that at that time. But he went out and began to publish it much and to spread it abroad, the matter insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city but was without in the desert places. And they came to him from every quarter. But then he withdrew himself into the deserts and he prayed. And I read part of that from Mark the first chapter and part of it from Luke the fifth chapter, but it all fits in there in the story thread.

   And so now later, the next part of it is some days later, and we will begin that in the next program in this series. And now my friends, in closing, you need to know what real repentance is. You haven't heard it preach, write for our booklet, All About Water Baptism. And that's going to tell you a lot about repentance. It's going to tell you what salvation is, and you should write and get this booklet, All About Water Baptism, and whether it's essential to salvation and what is the proper form or mode, all of those questions and what it is to really be saved in that booklet, All About Water Baptism.

   But listen first, this is very important, write down the call letters of the station to which you are listening. Then send your request for the booklet Water Baptism or the Plain Truth to Herbert W Armstrong Post Office Box 111 in Pasadena, California. That's Herbert W Armstrong Box 111 Pasadena, California. Until next time, goodbye, friends.

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