We're turning in the word of God to 3 John, 3 John, the third epistle of the apostle John, and we're going to read this chapter, the epistle together. John, 3 John, and we'll begin our reading at the opening verse. He yelled her on to the well-beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. Beloved, thou dost faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and to strangers, which have borne witness of thy charity before the church, whom, if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well. Because that for his name's sake, they went forth taking nothing off the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive such that we might be fellow helpers to the truth. I wrote on to the church, but the atrophies, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Wherefore I come, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, pratting against us with malicious words. And not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church. Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God, but he that doeth evil hath not seen God. hath good report of all men, and of the truth itself, yea, and we also bear record, and ye know that our record is true. I have many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write on to thee, but I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee. Our friends, salute thee. Greet the friends by name. Amen, and we'll end at the end of the epistle, our Bible reading today. Let's unite in a word of prayer together before we preach God's word, before I preach God's word today. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we rejoice, O God, for the opportunity to be gathered here around thy precious word as the family of God. We cry to thee, O God, for thy help and thy assistance. We pray, Lord, that thou wilt give to me the infilling of thy Spirit. Take these lips of mine, this tongue of mine. And Lord, we pray that thou wilt sanctify it by blood and by the Spirit. And give, dear God, these hearts of ours that receptiveness required, that we would not only hear thy word, but that we would heed thy word and that we would be doers of thy word. Bless our souls, encourage our hearts, and lead us now by thy spirit. For I pray these petitions in and through the Savior's precious name. Amen, amen. Today I want to bring a third message in this little series of messages that I've entitled, Count Your Many Blessings. I trust that you have been doing that over the last number of weeks as we commence this series of messages that will focus on the blessings that God gives to us. Of times, because of our melancholy spirit, we can focus on the negatives of life. But I trust that over recent weeks that you've been counting your blessings, naming them one by one, and it has been surprising you already what the Lord has done. Now, we've already thought about the blessing of fellowship and family in this little series. And today I want to speak about the blessing of fitness. I'm trying to keep them all beginning with the letter F, maybe not a good way to do things, but we're thinking about the blessing of fitness, or to use another term, the blessing of health, the blessing of health. Your health is your wealth. I'm sure you've heard someone say that to you, or maybe you have said that yourself. Others have repeated to you the words, when you have your health, then you have everything. And when you haven't your health, nothing else matters at all. Virgil, the Roman A poet from the Augustan period is reported to have said, the greatest wealth is health, while Pobolus Serius, the Latin writer from the first century BC, he said this, good health and good sense are two of life's greatest blessings. Good health and good sense are two of life's greatest blessings. greatest blessings. These statements only serve to reinforce what we already know ourselves, that our health is one of life's greatest blessings. The world in which we live is a very health conscious world. I am told that the United Kingdom health and fitness industry is worth about five billion pounds annually, having grown about 20% over the last five years and with future growth expected in the coming years within that particular People are on the pursuit for a healthier lifestyle in the hope that such a lifestyle will lead to living longer and living happier lives. What COVID-19 has done is to remind us all of how precious the blessing of our health really is. As we have listened to the daily reports of hundreds of people in our nation, thousands of people in our world dying of this strain of coronavirus. We have been compelled to thank God on a daily basis for the health and the strength that God has given to us. And so for today, I want us to count the blessing of fitness, the blessing of health again, and see what the Bible has to say about such a matter, both in the physical and at and in the spiritual realm, what the Bible has to say about our health. Now in the passage of God's word that we have just read together, we meet a man by the name of Gaius, whom John writes this 14 verse epistle to. This was a man whom John clearly loved and respected, and yet this was a man whose health was not great. We know that to be the case because of John's words there in the verse number two that express his heart's desire for his well-beloved friend Gaius. Notice the words there in verse two. Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. Here's a man whose health was in obviously a state of decline. A saint of God who was not enjoying presently good health. And John expresses his desire that such health would return to Gaius to the same extent as his soul was prospering. I believe that these words in 3 John verse 2 remind us and serve to remind us that the saints of God, the saints of God are as much susceptible to sickness and bad health as those that have no saving interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. And thus, the Bible knows nothing of the prosperity gospels, mantra that only the faithful are rewarded with health, and that God wants all his people to be physically healthy, materially wealthy, and personally happy. The Bible knows nothing of such a teaching. The saints of God can as much be susceptible to sickness and bad health as to those who have no saving interest in Jesus Christ. Now it's very interesting to note that there are only four chapters out of the 1,189 chapters that make up the scriptures, only four in which people are found to be in perfect health. Only four of the 1,189 chapters of the scriptures. Chapters to which I refer to are Genesis chapters 1 and 2 and the Revelation chapter 21 and 22. The initial chapters of Genesis, they speak about paradise form, the creation of the perfect world. In those chapters we see God's creative power and all of its majesty as out of nothing. Ex Nelio, out of nothing. God speaks all things into existence. We see him as he creates light. and land and seas and grass and trees, celestial bodies like the sun and moon and stars. We see him and his creative power creating the birds and the sea animals and the land animals and then the crowning act of his creation, he forms man out of the dust of the ground and woman from the rib of Adam. Prior to sin's entrance into the world, death did not exist. Thus God was able to declare at the end of creation that all was very good. A world ravaged by sickness, disease, and death would not have drawn God to make such a declaration. All was very good. And thus, the opening chapters in Genesis, they present to us a world that was free from death. A world in which the inhabitants enjoyed perfect health, in a perfect environment. God made all things good. That, however, was all going to change when sin entered into the world. Romans 5 verse 12 tells us, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Death and the constituent components that lead to a person's death, the contracting of some illness, the deterioration of one's health, the eventual discontinuation of essential bodily functions was now in the world and the enemy of health for the human race. Such an enemy is ever present among us. and will be until the time that we reach the fulfillment of what we read in the Bible's final two chapters there in the book of the Revelation. Revelation 21 and Revelation 22. Then the curse will be no more. God will have created a new heaven and a new earth and all those things that we associate with bad health are banished from such places. In Revelation chapter 21, the verse one, John is given a glimpse into the new heaven and the new earth as well as the new Jerusalem. And what does John, what does he note about such places? He notes the things that are not there. I want you to listen to the words. You can turn in the Bible there to Revelation chapter 21 in the verse number four. It says, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither shall there be sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things, the former things are passed away. Death, sorrow, crying, pain are all eradicated from the regaining of paradise, if I could put it like that. Genesis 1 verse 1 speaks to me about the forming of paradise. Genesis or Revelation 21 verse and 22, those chapters, they speak about the regaining of paradise in that era. There will be no health issues and certainly no death. Mr. Spurgeon, he suffered from bad health both physically and mentally himself. He said this, complete health in heaven will be ours. When our body has been raised from the dead incorruptible, our soul has been cleansed from all defilement, our newborn spirit has come to its full development, our entire manhood shall be glorified. This is what awaits us in glory, perfect health, no more tablets, no more pain relief. No more treatments required, no doctors, no consultants, no hospitals, no hospices, no graveyards, no grave diggers, no undertakers. All is banished in the new heaven and the new earth. We are reminded by the Apostle Paul there in Philippians 3 and the verse 21, that when the Lord Jesus Christ appears, he is going to change our vile bodies, that it might be fashioned like on to his glorious body. These bodies of ours are going to go through a transformation. They're going to be like His glorious body, and surely Christ's glorious body is free from all ailments, free from all sickness, free from all disease. It surely is a body that enjoys perfect health. Perfect health. That's what we are going, those who know God, those who know Christ. That's what we're going to enjoy when we come to the fulfillment of what is told us in the final two chapters of the Word of God. However, while we live in the time period between Genesis 1 and 2 and Revelation 21 and Revelation 22, while we live in that time span, we must expect that we are not going to enjoy The full measure of health that God intended every member of the human race to enjoy when he first created man. Sin has impacted the physical well-being of us all. And even if we do enjoy what people call a full and a clean bill of health from cradle to the grave, Yet the grief reminds us that there's coming a day when death is going to blot that perfect health record of yours. There's coming a day. when health, as we know it, life itself, will be extinguished with regard to the body and our bodies will drop and will be taken to a graveyard and buried there for the body to await the day of general resurrection. And so whilst we live in a fallen and in a sinful world, we are going to experience times when our health is not what it should be and what God intended it to be for man when he first created man and placed him into the Garden of Eden. Some of us will have periodic episodes of sickness, whilst others will be crippled with lifelong illnesses. And yet all of us, without exception, save Christ's return, all of us will be brought to death. Therefore, whilst you enjoy good health, rejoice in the blessing of it, never take it for granted, and pray for those who do not enjoy this blessing to the extent that you do. Now, there are a few things that I want to say about this subject matter of our health today. Firstly, it cannot be bought. It cannot be bought. I suppose that's how we come to measure the value of anything today. It's price tag. The higher the price, the more valuable that particular item is. And health is a most valuable blessing. Things like sleep, contentment, happiness, and health are priceless. They cannot be bought. And so we judge the value of health when we remember that it cannot be purchased, whether that be physical health, whether that be spiritual health. You cannot buy deliverance from bodily sickness. No amount of money that we throw at the treatment for ailments can bring the body to a state of health. Rather, this is something that is ultimately in the hands of a sovereign God to grant to us the healing. Oh yes, we thank God for treatment, we thank God for medicines, we thank God for doctors and consultants and nurses, but it is ultimately God who grants the healing. He is the healer. When it comes to our spiritual health, it is no different. Our spiritual health cannot be obtained by money, It is not secured by our tears, neither can our works, our repentances, our prayers ever secure for us the spiritual health. Rather, when the soul falls sick through sin, backsliding, coldness, unwatchfulness in our Christian lives, we have to understand that we are unable to recover ourselves from such a sickly state. It is God and God alone who is the healer of the soul. Just think with me about all the wealthy individuals that we meet in the Bible who fell sick and found that their money was useless in the face of such a breakdown in their health. I think of King Hezekiah. We read of his sickness there in 2nd Kings chapter 20. Every king Every king has large deposits of wealth to their disposal, and such was the case in the life of King Hezekiah. This was the king who saw to the religious reformation of the nation of Judah, overseeing the cleansing and the opening again of the doors of the house of the Lord, and yet, although he was a godly man, a man who feared God, a man who walked uprightly, a man who served God, a man who prayed to God, yet, Hezekiah's health deteriorated to such an extent that he becomes bedridden, and all of his wealth, all of his riches could not see to the restoration of that health, because it's something that money cannot buy. I think of King Uzziah, that we read off there in 2 Chronicles chapter 26. Uzziah is smitten by God with leprosy because he took to himself the role of a priest that was not for him to take. He was to be the king, he was not to be the priest. God had ordained another tribe, another individual to fulfill that role. And here's a man, he takes to himself the role of the priest and God smites him with leprosy. And what do we read about him? We read that regardless of the health that he possessed, Uzziah could do nothing to relieve himself of the leprosy, and thus we are reminded that he was a leper until the day of his death. In actual fact, he lived in quarantine for the rest of his days. His gold, his silver, his precious jewels could not buy this man his health. because money cannot buy it. I think of King Nebuchadnezzar. We read there in Daniel chapter four, this Babylonian king was reduced to behave like a beast of the field because of his pride. We would say that he had a mental breakdown. Here's a man who has health issues in the mind, in the mental realm of the human constitution. He ends up a madman. What good were his hanging gardens? What good were his beautiful palaces? What good were his crown jewels in light of his health that had been removed from him? His amassed wealth could do nothing to recover him, for of his sickness it was only the mercy of God that raised him up again. What about Job? The wealth of Job, we read there in Job 1 verse 3. After listing all of his cattle and livestock and all of his wealth, we're told that he was the greatest of all the men of the East. And yet, where do we find him? We find him sitting on the ashes. We see him covered with boils and sores. And all of his wealth and all of his amassed riches could not bring Job to a state of health again. because it cannot be bought. What about the rich farmer of Luke chapter 12? Here was a man who experienced the kind of harvest that every farmer dreams of. So large was the harvest yield that he needed to pull down his old barns and build new barns to house the produce. And yet, no matter how wealthy he was, death came. took his soul into eternity. His wealth, his riches could not stay off the greatest enemy of one's health, death itself. And so we're told that that very night his soul was taken into eternity. Money may buy you the best of health and insurance cover on the market, but it will not buy you your health. When you enjoy good physical health and mental health, see how precious a blessing it is, a blessing that money cannot buy. When it comes to our spiritual health again, this is something that money cannot buy. Have you ever noticed that at times it has been the poorest of saints who have enjoyed the greatest prosperity of soul and abounded in spiritual health among those who have made up the family of God. Listen to these words found in James 2 verse 5. Hearken, my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him, earthly wealth, may not correlate with spiritual health. For those who are listening to me today, and you are maybe in the possession of a sin-sick soul, let me remind you that the recovery of that soul from sin sickness cannot be bought. In spiritual terms, the scriptures remind us In Isaiah chapter 1 verses 5 and 6, that the whole head is sick. The whole heart is faint from the sole of the foot even to the head. There is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. The verses in Isaiah 1 remind us that the moral and the spiritual sickness of mankind is a open running sore. Sin sickness can only be dealt with and spiritual health given to the sinner when the sinner seeks the help of the great physician of the soul, as they seek the help of Jehovah Rufai. For he, the one, Jehovah, our healer, is the one who dispenses his health, his saving health fully and freely. One preacher remarked, the medicine, the skill, the pardon, the deliverance, are in His hands, the Savior's hands. With no other must we transact in the matter of sins removal, not with self, or man, or the flesh, or the church, or a creed, or a priest, but God Himself. In the crosswork of Jesus Christ, God has made provision for the soul's healing. And so sin sick soul today, Come to Christ. Rally to the Savior. Flee to the blood-filled fountain. Is there one? Is there a sinner? Some unconverted one listening? Do you desire to be made whole? If so, the cross stands for your healing. Look and be cured, look and be saved, look and be forgiven, look and be pardoned, look and be reconciled to God. Soul healing can be yours this very moment and without a penny being exchanged. Take then the words of Psalm 41 verse 4 and make them your prayer, sinner. I said, Lord, be merciful unto me. heal my soul for I have sinned against thee that's what you need to pray sinner see yourself to be sin sick and sin sore and cry to God heal my soul for I have sinned against thee today you the repenting sinner experience the saving health that the psalmist speaks of there in psalm 67 verse 2 the saving health among all nations. Oh, there's saving health in the gospel. Oh, sin-sick soul, oh, come to Christ and be saved today. Maybe there's a wanderer listening today and you need to be recovered from the sickness of your backsliding. Then go to the great shepherd who restores the soul. According to Psalm 23 in the verse 3, he restoreth my soul. He restoreth it to health. He restoreth it to fellowship. He restoreth it to joy. He restoreth it to prosperity and blessedness. He restoreth it to communion. He will today, thank God, restore your soul. Listen to these words of counsel from God. that are found in Jeremiah 3 verse 22, return ye backsliding children and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come on to thee for thou art our Lord and our God. Oh, may you experience the healing, wandering one of the great physician. The second matter that I want to address in this message about the blessing of health is the maintaining of our health, the maintaining of our health. Martin Luther said, it is the part of a Christian to take care of his own body for the very purpose that by its soundness and well-being, he may be enabled to labor for the aid of those who are in want, and thus the stronger member may serve the weaker member. The Bible does encourage good health. We are reminded that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. And yet, there are those who become fanatical about their physical health. These are the kind of people that are found early in the morning doing lengths of swimming pools, lifting weights in gyms or pounding the roads for some 5 or 10 kilometer run. These people realize that if they are to remain healthy that there is time and effort and certainly dedication required in the pursuit of that very goal. As I think about such people, those who are fanatical about their physical health, I wonder how many of us are fanatical when it comes to our spiritual health. How much time, how much effort, how much dedication do we invest to the maintenance of our spiritual health? In the past week, much time did you give yourself over to prayer, to the reading of the Word, to the studying of the Scripture. The Bible is given to us to enable us to remain healthy Christians, in a spiritual sense that is. Now what is true in the physical realm is at times true in the spiritual realm. And so to maintain a healthy constitution in both realms, in both the physical and the spiritual, we have to be disciplined in at least two areas. Firstly, we have to be disciplined in what we take in, in what we take in. A person cannot expect to be physically healthy if they put into their body substances that are going to be detrimental to their health. I'm thinking about things like tobacco, alcohol, drugs, excess sugar, excess salt. All of these substances will be damaging to a person's health, and so what is true in the physical is also true in the spiritual realm. We cannot expect to be healthy Christians if we put into our minds, into our ears, into our eyes, and into our hearts, spiritual toxins that will contaminate our lives. We cannot expect to be healthy. And so beloved, be careful. Be careful what music you listen to. Be careful what you watch, what you view on television or on the internet. Be careful what reading material you digest. Be careful what conversations you listen to or are involved in, because through all of these mediums there are ways by which sin, that which defiles the mind and defiles the heart, can enter into our lives and reduce our spiritual level of health to the point that we become weak and sickly. a state that some of the believers in the Corinthian church had been reduced to according to Paul's own words in 1 Corinthians 11 and the verse number 30. And some of you, some are sickly and weak. Paul's speaking of their spiritual state. Know the way to spiritual health is by a continual daily feeding on Christ. He is our food. He is the bread of life. He is that which satisfies the soul. by feeding on Christ as He is revealed to us in the Word. This is how we shall be maintained. Our health, our spiritual health will be maintained. And so let us take into our lives not only the milk of God's Word but also the meat of God's Word and refuse to binge on the junk food. Listen to me. Refuse to binge on the junk food that is served up by so many so-called evangelical preachers that seek the happiness of the people rather than the health of the people. Let's refuse the junk food that seeks simply the happiness of God's people. Now God's people are to be happy. The joy of the Lord is your strength, of course we are, but I tell you, God's people are to be healthy, to walk in the truth, and so to maintain good health in both the physical and spiritual realms, we not only have to be disciplined in what we take in, but we also have to be disciplined in what we put out, what we put out. I'm sure you've heard about people having a detox. Detoxification or detox involves following a specific diet or using some health product that claims to rid a person's body of toxins and thereby improving their health. Well, there are certain things that we are encouraged to expel, put out of our lives that will benefit our spiritual health. I cannot identify them all to you today. That's a Bible study for you in your own home. But in 1 Peter 2, in the verse number one, Peter highlights two, or sorry, five specific toxins. Five specific toxins that are to be put out of our lives for the sake of our spiritual health. 1 Peter 2, let me read it for you. Wherefore, laying aside, putting it out, expelling it, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and all hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings. These things are to be set aside, put out, expelled from our lives. The Apostle Paul speaks about putting away other toxins within our lives. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 31, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Between these two men, Peter and Paul, nine different toxins that are harmful to our spiritual well-being are identified and must be put away. And brethren and sisters, I think that nine of them is sufficient for us this week. and probably next month and probably for the rest of this year that we would work on at least these before we even go anywhere else. Malice, guile, hypocrisies, envies, evil speaking, bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor. Let's put them out for the sake of our spiritual health. Let's put them out. Let's, as it were, have a spiritual detox, if I can be as crude as that. It may be that we all need a good detox, spiritually speaking. There are things in our lives like those of Paul and Peter and Christ that are detrimental to our spiritual health. need to be expelled from our lives. And so let us, by the blood of Christ, and let us, by the help of the Spirit of God, see to the crucifying of the old man and the expelling of such harmful things from our lives so that our spiritual health is restored. Let us not be weak and sickly. Let us be spiritually strong. Let's have good health. The third matter that I want to close with, and it is a brief thought, want you to think on this. When health fails, God hasn't. When health fails, God hasn't. The apostle Paul, came to realize that when he experienced his old ailment that he termed his thorn in the flesh. The apostle Paul found that God's grace was sufficient for him whilst cumbered with that physical ailment and would testify of such there in 2 Corinthians 12 and the verse nine. And he said unto me, my grace. is sufficient for thee. For my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Child of God, I want you to remember that whenever sickness takes hold of your body, and just because health has failed, your God hasn't failed. In fact, God knowing that sickness has frequently been of more use to the sense of God than health has, brings us to times in our lives when we do feel the frailty of the frame and the weakness of the human constitution. I did preach on the matter of sickness before and the benefits that it brings into our lives. Let me just remind you of those benefits as we close. Benefits that can be derived from times of sickness. Benefit one, sickness reminds us of our own mortality. It reminds us that we are dying. We're dying. Benefit two, sickness can draw us back from our wanderings. Maybe we do go astray and God places us on the back, brings sickness in to remind us of where we have departed and from whom we have departed. Benefit three, sickness provides us with an opportunity to glorify God. We can glorify him in our illness. Benefit four, sickness humbles us. What a benefit that is. We creatures who are so full of pride, Sickness humbles us. Benefit five, sickness provides a believer with an opportunity to show charity to those who are sick. Remember what Christ said? I was in prison and you visited me sick. I was naked and you clothed me. And as much as you did it unto the least of these my brethren, you did it unto me. An opportunity even to serve Christ. If sickness comes your way, remember, Christian, that though it may deprive you of a thousand comforts, there is nothing that can separate you from the love of God. In times of sickness, as well as in times of health, God never changes. God never feels. God never stops loving his child. Failing health is no indication that you have trusted in a failing God, or that your faith in God is not what it should be. Did you get that? Failing health is no indication that you have trusted in a failing God, or that your faith is not what it should be. It may be just that the lessons that your loving Heavenly Father wants you to learn And the Christian graces he wants to mature you in is best done through your period of sickness than it is through your time of health. In light of God bringing us safely to the 17th of May 2020 in good health, Let us count again the blessing of it. Count the blessing of health. And let us pray for those who are not enjoying good health. And let's think on them when it is well with us. What a blessing our health is. May we see to the maintaining of it both in the physical and in the spiritual realm. Primarily on the spiritual, just as Gaius did, though sickly in a physical way, yet in a spiritual way, his soul prospered. May our souls prosper. And may God send his saving health among all the nations. and may sin sick sinners come to Christ today. May the Lord be pleased to bless this message to your heart today. Let's bow, please, in a word of prayer. Father in heaven, we just raise our hearts in grateful thanksgiving for the blessing of health. We recognize, oh God, that all things are ordered by thee. In sickness and in health, thou art forever the same. And Lord, we praise thee for this. And we cry, Lord, in these days when sickness abounds, let us count the blessing, O God of health again. And may we not take it for granted, but understand that it comes from thee. Lord, give to us as a people spiritual health. May we be careful in what we take in and most certainly what we put out of our lives. Lord, give us healthy constitutions, we pray. Give to us, Lord, strength and power in these days. And may thy blessing rest upon the preaching of the word. Bless us until we meet again, for we pray these, our prayers, in and through the Savior's precious and worthy name. Amen.