We live in an age of medical miracles as far as science and wonder drugs are concerned. Man's life span is being gradually extended by the discovery of new medicine and combinations of drugs which have stolen the terror from some common diseases. Yet in spite of all the triumphs and victories there remain certain ravaging illnesses for which no cure has been discovered. We often read about occasional mysterious recessions or pauses in the course of the disease, and even the greatest doctors can't explain it, but there seems to be no real cure for some of the most deadly modern maladies.
Today I'd like to talk about some of these strange cures for which medical science has no answer. Friends, there can be absolutely no doubt that the great Creator-Healer often reaches through to bring divine healing in answer to the prayer of faith. Why doesn't He do it more often? And should a person cast aside the use of natural remedies and depend entirely upon God to work a miracle? This is the subject today. The amazing thing is that this Physician is so seldom consulted by the materialistic minded people of this generation.
It is impossible to have divine healing unless the individual believes in Jesus and his power to save. I think the best illustration of that is the Centurion, who sent word to Jesus to come and heal his servant. Do you know what the disciples of Jesus said? They came to Jesus and said, "I really think it would be a good thing if you would heal this man. He is a Roman it is true, but nevertheless you ought to do him this favor because, even though he doesn't believe in our religion, yet he is in harmony enough with us so that he gave us a beautiful synagogue from the money that he had saved up. Of course we wouldn't let a Gentile worship in one of our synagogues, and he knows that, yet he was good enough to give us a synagogue to worship in." And, by the way, if you would go over there today they would show you the ruins of that old synagogue which that man built. Do you remember when Jesus was coming to his home that Centurion sent word out, "Don't come into my house, Jesus, I am not worthy that the Messiah should come into my lowly abode, just speak the word and my servant shall be made whole." And that was the keynote of the salvation of that whole household.
It is the same today. I think it is wonderful to think of what that means, to have Jesus speak the word. When Jesus speaks the word it comes to pass. Little did that centurion realize what it would mean to have Jesus speak the word. One day he will speak the word and it will cause the dead to come forth. We don't realize what that actually means and what power it represents. Here is this stone. I could speak to it forever and nothing would happen, but to think of Jesus taking something just as dead as that stone and just speaking the word and to have life enter it. That is the same power that he uses when he heals through prayer.
Another question that we hear asked many times, and you would be surprised how many times these things come to a minister, "If I have had special prayer that I would be raised up, is it right for me to continue in prayer after they have gone, or should I just say, 'I know I am well. It is all over now.' Or should I continue to pray after that special prayer has been offered on my behalf?" This is what Jesus says, "And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint." According to that then does Jesus say that when special prayer has been offered we ought to stop praying? No. He says we ought always to pray and not to faint. As an example of that Jesus told them a story about a certain widow who needed to have an adjustment made in her life and she went to the judge of the city, but he didn't pay any attention to her. There was something wrong that she couldn't get justice. She would go and knock on the door and the servant came to the door and said, "You won't be able to see the judge." But she went back home and returned again. Again she was refused. But she was not discouraged. She came the third time and on and on. Jesus gave this in contrast to the heavenly Father. Finally after she persisted in coming it says that the judge gave her what she wanted, if for nothing more than just to get rid of her. Jesus said that anyone on this earth would do anything to give a sandwich to their children, how much more is your Father willing to give good gifts to his children! We ought to pray always and not to faint.
Sometime you may be sick and you will wonder if you should continue fervently in prayer, or is that lack of faith? Should I stop and take it all by faith, believing that the Lord has healed me? If you feel the effect of instantaneous healing then, I believe you should stop and thank God for healing, but God does not always or even usually heal instantaneously. Then you should continue to pray and not to faint. Faith is strengthened by prayer. It is impossible for us to be picked up and immediately put up in a place where we have great faith. Sometimes we wonder why we can't perform the same miracles that Christ performed. Without doubt he was stronger in faith, because he was a perfect man, but our faith is strengthened by exercise and by prayer.
Now to come to the full question of the broadcast. Our particular subject for today is, "Is it wrong to use natural remedies, and especially after prayer has been offered for our recovery?
I want to read you a little story from John 9:10, 11, "Therefore said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened? He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight." It was the happiest day that man had ever known, for he had been blind from his birth. He didn't even know who it was that had healed him, but he had heard that word, "Jesus." And he said he put wet clay on my eyes and sent me to the pool of Siloam and I washed my eyes and opened them, and I could see! Now I don't know why Jesus put clay on that man's eyes. It is not for me to explain why Jesus used the methods he did in different healing. I know that he could have just spoken the word and the man could have received his sight. Sometimes Jesus saw fit to do that, but sometimes he used other methods. This time he saw fit to have the clay placed on his eyes and use a natural method of healing, though a miracle was performed. So it is today when we use natural remedies. Now when I say natural remedies I am not thinking of Aspirin and different pain killers, I refer to medicines recommended by a physician. Israel of old used natural remedies. Did you ever notice some of the strict sanitary laws that God gave them, civil sanitary laws that governed their health. You can read about these cases of quarantine. I read about a certain family who had three diseases which were liable to quarantine. One child had one disease that demanded quarantine and another had another disease and another came down with something else and they had three quarantine signs on their house at once. Now Israel practiced quarantine. If an individual broke out with a disease that was dangerous and could be carried they had to go out to a place of quarantine, out of the camp.
Now I might ask, Was that a lack of faith on the part of the Lord to send that man outside the camp where he could not mix with the rest? Why no, but some today would say that, but they forget that the laws of nature are the laws of God and when the laws of nature are broken and an epidemic breaks out, it is only a wholesale breaking down of the laws of nature, the laws of God. So the Lord did not allow a man with a contagious disease to remain in the camp. Couldn't God have isolated that disease to that man's body? He could have, but he chose to do otherwise.
I read in Isaiah of a man who had strong faith. He is the one whose life was lengthened fifteen years but was filled with sorrow. When he received the word that he was going to die he prayed that the Lord would allow him to live and would lengthen his life. So Isaiah was told to return and tell him that the Lord would lengthen his life and I want you to notice what Isaiah prescribed? "Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover." Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord? Isaiah came back and bore the message to Hezekiah, who was still in bed, and he said "There is one thing that you must do. Get a poultice of figs and put that over the carbuncle and you will get well." I want you to notice how Hezekiah acted. He thought that would be against the laws of faith and he said, "Now what is the sign?" He objected to the poultice. He wanted a miraculous display of instantaneous healing and he looked for a sign, and God gave him a sign finally of the sun dial being turned backward 15 degrees, but the poultice of figs had to be applied before he was healed. Isaiah won out in the end.
Now couldn't Isaiah have prayed for him and he have been healed? Why did he have to apply the poultice of figs? I don't know. But I do know that when natural remedies can be obtained God uses them. Healing is only the mark that is left where the correcting was done. That is what all healing is, a correction of what was wrong. When one is sick and God speaks life into that individual, it is only correcting the fault in their body and giving it natural health and strength. Healing is working in harmony with the laws of God. The very fact that we go to God for healing also says that we intend to eradicate the cause of the sickness. It isn't right for us to go to the Lord and expect him to heal and then we go right out and do what will bring the sickness again.
That is something that evolutionists cannot explain. How a wound can be made and then it will heal over. It is a miracle of God. It is the act of recreation; the act of healing through natural remedies is the act of God. A man will cut his finger maybe slicing bread-in the days when they were slicing bread. He probably got a large bandage, they say men always do get a large one, but in almost no time that sore is healed over. Does anyone stop long enough to realize that a miracle has been performed? If you cut your hand you don't worry about it. You take it for granted that that is going to heal. That healing is the power of God at work through natural law. It is the power of recreation and we have the right to recognize it as such.
Suppose I cut my hand on the back and every day I knock it open again and it will not heal until someone comes along and says "You are just keeping that open, you need to have a splint on it so you won't bend your hand and it will have a chance to heal." The power of healing was there but we broke the laws of nature, for they say that it must be kept quiet long enough to heal. It is exactly the same with us when we are sick and then go right on breaking the laws of nature, and we say, "What is the matter, God doesn't hear us any more?"