into the subject of healing, because obviously God does have the power to heal, and I'm going
to go over that this morning. Before I get into that, let me go into, first of all, some of the
reasons for illness and sickness in the first place. You know, before we talk about healing,
let's talk about some of the causes or reasons why people are sick in the first place. Now,
the first thing I want to point out from James 5, when he says in verse 14,
is any sick among you. If you jump down to verse 15, it says the prayer of faith shall save the
sick, and save there means to heal the sick from his sickness, save him from that illness that was
going to kill him. It says, and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he have committed sins,
they shall be forgiven. And the part I want to point out there is that it says,
if he have committed sins. So is sin always the cause for sickness? No. Is it just automatically
to be assumed that if someone is sick or someone is ill, it must be as a result of their sin? No.
But at the same time as we look at this passage, could sickness be the result of sin? Yes, it can.
So there are those out there that are prosperity preachers and that are, you know, these kind of
faith healer type people, and the charismatic movement that will basically teach, well,
if you're right with God, you'll never get sick, you'll be healthy. Well, that's a false doctrine.
But then sometimes in reaction to that doctrine, people will take the other extreme and say,
well, sickness is never a result of sin. But here the Bible is clear that it can go either way.
If he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him, because he did not necessarily commit sins
to be in that second condition is what the Bible is teaching. Go to 1 Corinthians 11.
1 Corinthians chapter 11, let me show you this a little more. So the Bible is clear that sin can
be the cause of sickness. So one cause of being sick is that someone might have committed sin.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 30 says, For this cause, many are weak and sickly among
you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. I'm in
1 Corinthians 11 32. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not
be condemned with the world. First of all, let me ask this, are we talking about saved people or
unsaved people here? Saved, because it's the saved that are chastened of the Lord. The Bible says,
For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
If ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons.
And so the Bible is clear here that the saved, the children of God, can be chastened and chastised
through sickness. He said it in verse 30, For this cause, many are weak and sickly among you,
and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
Now go to John chapter 11, John chapter number 11, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.
And let me show you another cause of sickness. So one cause of sickness could be just sin,
somebody's living a sinful life. But here's another place in John chapter 9,
it says in verse 1, and as Jesus passed, this isn't really a sickness, but I'm going to show
you another sickness in two chapters. It says in John 9, 1, And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man
which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man
or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither had this man sin nor his parents,
but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. So right here, this sickness, this illness
or blindness was not a result of sin. It was just for the glory of God. God had a purpose in
causing this guy to be born blind. Go a few pages to the right in your Bible to John chapter 11,
and verse 3, we'll find the same concept. This is where Lazarus is sick, the friend of Jesus.
It says in John 11, 3, Therefore, his sisters said unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom
thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard that he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for
the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. So every sickness is not a
result of sin, but sickness could be a result of sin. Go back to 2 Chronicles chapter 21 in
the Old Testament, 2 Chronicles 21. And you see, whenever there's sickness, we should never,
ever look at someone else and judge after the appearance and say, Oh, so and so sick,
they must be in sin. Now, the reason why we need to be careful to never do that is because
if you remember in the book of Job, that's exactly what Job's three friends did. They
accused Job of wrongdoing because of his sickness. And if you remember, his sickness was that he was
covered in boils from the crown of his head to the sole of his feet. I mean, he had sores all
over his body and they were itchy and and they were oozing and they were very tormentous sores
all over his body. And his friends looked at him and said, You must have done something wrong.
God is punishing you. And the Bible makes it clear that Job had done nothing amiss,
that he was a perfect man. He was an upright man that feared God and eschewed evil.
Obviously, he wasn't sinless, but he was the most righteous man living on the earth. The Bible said
there was none like him in all the earth that was as righteous as Job. That's what God said.
And yet he was afflicted with a horrible sickness. And when the three friends accused Job of
wrongdoing at the end of the book of Job, God said, My wrath is kindled against those three
friends. So we don't want God's wrath to be kindled at us when we look at someone else
and just assume, oh, they're sick, they're ill, they have a disease. That's a punishment from God.
That's a good way to get God's wrath kindled against you. So we are not use this to judge
others. But if we're sick, we should look at it ourselves and examine ourselves and say,
you know, have I committed some sin? Am I being chastised of the Lord here?