In Sickness and Health

In Sickness And Health                               September 2, 2016

Every day, all over the world, people get married. This is usually the day both the bride and groom try to look their best. Standing in front of their family and friends, they look into each other’s sparkly eyes and say their vows, which include those four little words: “in sickness and health.” This is easy to say when your spouse is young and in the best shape of their life; but, what if life throws you both a curve ball and one of you finds yourself by the hospital bed of the other? It is seasons of life such as these when true commitment and devotion are tested.  Sickness can certainly take on different forms at different times.

There is the everyday cold and flu. These sicknesses are annoying but generally not life threatening. However, they can make us feel so poorly that we snap at our loved ones, remain irritable and grumpy.   Additionally, we are not in the same condition to fulfill our marital roles when we are sick.   This could mean a deficiency in cooking, cleaning, laundry, yard work, jobs, budgeting, intimacy, etc.

Some sicknesses are more serious and require longer healing times. Going through, and recovering from, surgery could fit into this category. After any kind of surgery, it can take a long time for him or her to be fully back in the swing of things. During these times you may be called upon to do most or all of the housework. You may be needed as a nurse in the middle of the night.  You may find yourself a little overwhelmed as you attempt to take on a double role around the home.  When you commit to taking someone in sickness and in health, you are also preparing for this day if (or when) it comes?

Lastly, you have sicknesses that are terminal. By far, these are the hardest illnesses to watch in a loved one. When you are caring for a spouse with a terminal disease, you are no longer expecting anything in return from them. This is when your spouse needs you most – when their days are coming to a close. Many of us have heard of men and women leaving their spouses while they are terminally ill. For a lot of us, such a thought is unimaginable. When a person’s worldview dictates that he or she must be happy to stay in a relationship, it would make sense that he or she would leave when his or her spouse could no longer contribute to their selfish desires. It is emotionally difficult to watch your spouse suffer – and at times, it may seem like your life has been reduced to home, hospitals, and pharmacies.

In any case, we can come to this conclusion:  All Sickness Is Bad! And we don’t want any of it!

(Matthew 4:23  And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing         all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.)

When you vow to your future spouse, in sickness and in health, you are really committing to him or her regardless of the sickness.

You are committing to him or her regardless of the emotional stress and reduction in lifestyle.

In Sickness And In Health . . . 

Those words speak again the language of “covenant,” or commitment, of a continuance, a sticktoitiveness or perseverance.   There is something that rises up inside you at the thought of one spouse leaving the other in a time of sickness.  It would be like kicking someone when they were down.  Nothing about it seems right!  Even without a lot of thought, we can determine what the right thing to do is.  It is to stick with someone through thick or thin, come hell or high water.  It is Covenant!

So, it should naturally be a little disturbing to think that God Himself would walk away from you in your time of need, that He would just abandon His Covenant with you, or break His commitment to you.  It’s hard to even imagine or envision that, because there is something inside of us that knows He is a good God, that He loves us, that He will not leave us of forsake us!

So, with that in mind, I want to tell you a story tonight, but not a story FROM the Bible, the story OF the Bible . . . The Bible’s  Message and how it relates to you right now!

The Great Problem

In the beginning, there was a huge problem.  Even though God had created this wonderful, perfect atmosphere for Adam and Eve, they still chose to blow it, and let sin and disobedience in.  Through one man, sin entered in.  Listen to what the Bible says here in Romans 5:12-14 from The Message Bible     “You know the story of how Adam landed us in the dilemma we’re in—first sin, then death, and no one exempt from either sin or death.

Romans 5:13 That sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone, but the extent of the disturbance was not clear until God spelled it out in detail to Moses. So death, this huge abyss separating us from God, dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses.

Romans 5:14 Even those who didn’t sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying a specific command of God still had to experience this termination of life, this separation from God.”

Boy, things really went downhill from there – for quite a while.  Things that God never meant to happen, were happening.

Death and corruption began to take their toll.  Sickness and Disease started dominating people, and every living thing was experiencing this corruption.

The book of Romans puts it this way:   Romans 1:18-25   “God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who push the truth away from themselves. For the truth about God is known to them instinctively. God has put this knowledge in their hearts.

From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.

Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. The result was that their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they became utter fools instead. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people, or birds and animals and snakes.

So God let them go ahead and do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God, they deliberately chose to believe lies. So they worshiped the things God made but not the Creator himself, who is to be praised forever. Amen.”

So, why is it important to talk about these things, and how in the world do they relate to marriage?  I thought this was a marriage class!  The Lord showed me that there is a direct correlation between sicknesses and ailments, pain, suffering, injuries and illnesses, and the current condition of your marriage. Sickness gets in the way!  It causes friction, it causes problems, it causes grief and sorrow, and pressure, and stress, and financial hardship, which are all specifically designed to tear down your marriage.

So, there was a Great Problem . . . . 

          But next, came a Great Promise!

You know, God also put promises in place for you and your future.  God promised to permanently deal with both the sin problem, and the sickness problem.  They are, in fact, one and the same.

Exodus 23:25 Amplified Bible

You shall serve the Lord your God; He shall bless your bread and water, and I will take sickness from your midst.

Deuteronomy 7:15 Amplified Bible

And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and none of the evil diseases of Egypt which you knew will He put upon you, but will lay them upon all who hate you.

Psalm 103:1  Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.  2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:  3 Who forgives all thine iniquities; who heals  all thy diseases;

4 Who redeems thy life from destruction; who crowns thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;  5 Who satisfies thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Isaiah 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.   Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.   5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.   6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

1 Peter 2:23  and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;   24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

You might say “That sounds great, but how can we be sure that God will follow through with those promises?

Because, Next Came A Great Provision!  Jesus came on the scene!

God’s Word is a part of Himself, just as your word is a part of you.  What you say reveals the real “you.”

Jesus was God’s Voice. What Jesus said, the Father said. God’s Character and Jesus’ character are involved in what the Father or Jesus has Spoken.  So when He says, “Surely He hath borne our sicknesses and carried our diseases, Yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted” we know that our diseases were laid on Him.

When He concludes that statement with, “By His stripes we are healed,” we know that we are healed.  God said, “By His stripes ye were healed” so that ends the discussion. He said the issue was closed. The diseases have been put away, so sickness and disease shall not lord it over you. He said, “Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a New Creation.”  That is His declaration. That statement is a part of Himself. He says you are a New Creation. He says that you are His Son and Daughter, born from Above. “That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.” This is a statement of Fact.

Sin and disease are one. They cannot dominate the New Creation. You are not only His Son, but you are a joint-heir with Jesus, and therefore, you are entitled to EVERYTHING He has already paid for!   You are a joint receiver in all that Christ did and is.   He has already healed you.  In the Mind of the Father, you are already healed.  Jesus knows that He already bore your diseases.

Joshua 21:45 God’s Word Translation

Every single good promise that the LORD had given the nation of Israel came true.

1 Kings 8:56 Amplified Bible (AMP)

Blessed be the Lord, Who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. Not one word has failed of all His good promise which He promised through Moses His servant.

Psalm 89:34 God’s Word Translation

My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.

God keeps His promises!  You can bank on it!

So, there was a Great Problem

that’s when you realize You Need God.

Then there was a Great Promise, 

that’s when you realize You Want God.

But finally, There was a Great Provision, 

that’s when you realize You Have God.

Back to that scripture we read earlier:  Romans 5:12 (Message)  You know the story of how Adam landed us in the dilemma we’re in—first sin, then death, and no one exempt from either sin or death. 

Rom. 5:13 That sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone, but the extent of the disturbance was not clear until God spelled it out in detail to Moses. So death, this huge abyss separating us from God, dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses. 

Rom. 5:14 Even those who didn’t sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying a specific command of God still had to experience this termination of life, this separation from God. But Adam, who got us into this, also points ahead to the One who will get us out of it. 

Rom. 5:15  Yet the rescuing gift is not exactly parallel to the death-dealing sin. If one man’s sin put crowds of people at the dead-end abyss of separation from God, just think what God’s gift poured through one man, Jesus Christ, will do! 

Matthew 8:2-3 Amplified Bible (AMP)

And behold, a leper came up to Him and, prostrating himself, worshiped Him, saying, Lord, if You are willing, You are able to cleanse me by curing me. And He reached out His hand and touched him, saying, I am willing; be cleansed by being cured. And instantly his leprosy was cured and cleansed.  He Is Willing!

What has He freed you from?

Sickness, Disease, Infection, Ailment, Disorder, Cancer, Fatigue, Affliction, Disability, Defects, Plagues, Hurt, Headaches, Abnormality, Sores, Maladies, Pain, Infirmity , Damage, Distress, Injury

So, how do you receive Health and Healing?

Matthew 18:18-20 Amplified Bible (AMP)

Truly I tell you, whatever you forbid and declare to be improper and unlawful on earth must be what is already forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit and declare proper and lawful on earth must be what is already permitted in heaven. Again I tell you, if two of you on earth agree (harmonize together, make a symphony together) about whatever [anything and everything] they may ask, it will come to pass and be done for them by My Father in heaven. For wherever two or three are gathered (drawn together as My followers) in (into) My name, there I AM in the midst of them.

Luke 10:19 Amplified Bible (AMP)

Behold! I have given you authority and power to trample upon serpents and scorpions, and [physical and mental strength and ability] over all the power that the enemy [possesses]; and nothing shall in any way harm you.

Romans 8:11 Amplified Bible (AMP)

And if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, [then] He Who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also restore to life your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you.

2 Corinthians 1:20 Amplified Bible (AMP)

For as many as are the promises of God, they all find their Yes [answer] in Him. For this reason we also utter the Amen (so be it) to God through Him to the glory of God.

Galatians 3:13 Amplified Bible (AMP)

Christ purchased our freedom [redeeming us] from the curse (doom) of the Law [and its condemnation] by [Himself] becoming a curse for us, for it is written [in the Scriptures], Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (is crucified);

Hebrews 13:8 Amplified Bible (AMP)

Jesus Christ (the Messiah) is [always] the same, yesterday, today, [yes] and forever (to the ages).

1 John 5:14-15 Amplified Bible (AMP)

And this is the confidence (the assurance, the privilege of boldness) which we have in Him: [we are sure] that if we ask anything (make any request) according to His will (in agreement with His own plan), He listens to and hears us. And if (since) we [positively] know that He listens to us in whatever we ask, we also know [with settled and absolute knowledge] that we have [granted us as our present possessions] the requests made of Him.

Ladies and gentlemen, Every One Of Those Promises Have Been Fulfilled.

You can now partake freely of the promises!

The price has already been paid for you!

Healing is part of Christ’s Atonement.  

Our job is to accept that Atonement!

  1. If He suffered and took stripes on His back for our physical healing, then it’s not insignificant.
  2. If He thought enough of healing to purchase it for us, then we ought to think enough of it to receive.
  3. God the Father caused His Son to bear all of our sins and all of our sicknesses on the cross. Jesus took our diseases just as much as He took our sins.

Some folks say, “We don’t need miracles today; we have the Word of God.”  Yet that’s not what the Bible teaches.  Mark 16:17-20 says:

“And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. “