Our mission, ye saints of the Lord, is lay for your faith in His excellent Word. On more than these heaven to you He has sent, ♪ True to Jesus for refuge have fled ♪ ♪ In every condition in sickness and health ♪ ♪ In poverty fail or abiding in wealth ♪ ♪ At home or abroad Fear not, I am with thee, O Queen of this late, I am with thee. I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand, upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand. I will not, I will not desert to its foes, that so long all hell should end. We're turning to 3rd John, 3rd John for the Bible reading. You'll know that there is only one chapter in that epistle of John, so it's John And we're reading 3 John today, and we're reading from the opening verse off the chapter. We'll read the chapter together. You'll find it if you go from the back of the Bible, Revelation, Jude, 3 John, and so you'll find it there. 3 John, and let's read from the verse 1. The elder unto 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 the truth. Beloved, thou doest 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 of the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellow helpers to the truth. I wrote on to the church, that they ought for frees, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Wherefore, 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. Demetretus hath a 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 had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write on to thee, but I trust that 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 end just there at the end of the epistle. Let's unite in prayer and seek the Lord, just in a brief word of prayer, please. Our heavenly Father, we come before thy holy book, the word of God, the word of God that liveth and abideth forever, this sure word of prophecy. We thank thee that we're not, as it were, searching out into the realm of philosophy, to try and find a message for this congregation. But there is a word here today for our souls. We pray, O God, that as the word is spread out before the congregation, we pray that they might feed on the word. Pray, O God, that their souls might be satisfied, instructed in the things of God. So come and bless us. Meet with us around the word. Send thy spirit. He is the great teacher, the author of the book. Open our understanding and our eyes that we may behold wondrous things. I defy law. Help us not to be like the atrophies. We love to have the preeminence, but let us find ourselves at the feet of Christ. Help us to find ourselves in that place of submission. Let us be found where Samuel was found. Speak, speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. Oh, answer prayer. We ask these, our petitions, in and through Jesus' precious name. Amen and amen. At the end of the 20th century, a movement swept across the religious world known as the Prosperity Gospel Movement. As a movement, it still exists today, but it is known by various names. The Name it and Claim it Gospel, the Blab it and Grab it Gospel, the Health and Wealth Gospel, or Positive Confession Theology. Television evangelists, and I use the term evangelist very reluctantly, but television evangelists such as Joel Osteen, T.D. Jakes, and Joyce Meyer, and others, propagate the prosperity gospel on multiple television channels and outlets across the globe on a daily basis. Now simply put, the prosperity gospel movement teaches that God wants believers to be physically healthy, materially wealthy, and personally happy. The forefront of the movement is the doctrine of the assurance of divine physical health and prosperity through faith. Those who ascribe this other gospel teach that health and wealth are the automatic right of all Bible-believing Christians, and it may be received by faith as part of the package of salvation, since the atonement of Jesus Christ includes not only the removal of sin, but also the removal of sickness and of poverty. We need to ask ourselves the question, does this message of the prosperity gospel movement align itself with the teaching of Holy Scripture? Because it is to the law and to the testimony that we must bring all teaching to and all movements to if we are to discern whether it is the true gospel and teaching of our God and of our Savior Jesus Christ. We need to be very careful when ministering to people who experience sickness in their lives. We need to be very careful when we minister to those who suffer from poverty in their lives, and we need to be very careful with those who are crippled by despair and despondency. Today I want to focus on one of the areas that the Prosperity Gospel Movement focuses namely that of the individual being physically healthy and deal with the life issue of sickness today. And to deal with the life issue of sickness today, I have found myself And I find that a considerable percentage of my time outside of the study is taken up with visiting the sick of the congregation. Now that is simply part and parcel of a pastoral ministry. If you are to be a pastor, if you are to be a minister, there's going to be much time taken up with those who suffer from sickness. Now that sickness can take one of two forms. It can take the form of a physical sickness, or it can also take the form of a mental sickness. I've often found going into a home and finding that there are people either there dealing with a health issue or a long-term sickness themselves, or that that family is dealing with a sickness within the extended family circle. And so today we want to think about what the Bible says about sickness and the lessons I believe that can be learned by us as God brings us through times of sickness in our lives. So, first of all, we want to think, first of all, the widespread occurrence of sickness. Think with me about the widespread occurrence of sickness. Now, while famine and pestilence and war and other tragic life events are found to occur within isolated pockets across the world, that is not the case with sickness. Sickness is a worldwide problem. Every continent, every country, every region, every district, every town, every home will at some point or another be affected by sickness. We trust that we'll never be affected by earthquake, by volcano, but sickness is a worldwide problem. You'll find sickness in Europe. At the same time, you'll find it in Asia, and in Africa, and North and South America, and in Australia, Oceania. You'll find it in hot countries, in cold countries, in civilized nations, among savage tribes. Across the world, men and women, teenagers, boys and girls are found to be in a sickly state. Wherever you look in this world, We are confronted with the fact that those who live on planet Earth are affected with sickness on a universal scale. Health clinics, pharmacies, hospitals, hospices, undertakers, graveyards, all point to the fact that sickness is a prevalent evil in this world. Whenever we come to consider from God's Word those that we find on sick beds, because we do find people on their sick beds within the Word of God, we find that sickness is no respecter of class, it's no respecter of age, And it's no respecter of any other social distinction that you care to mention today. We find in the scriptures, first of all, that sickness is no respecter of a person's stage of life, where they are on the stage and on the journey of life. Now we all know the law of the first mention whenever we come to Bible study. You'll find that the first time that sickness is mentioned is found in Genesis chapter number 48, if you want to turn there. This is the first time that the word sick is used in the scriptures. And you'll know that it is in reference to a man who is at least 130 years of age. He's at least 130 years of age and we know that with respect to the previous chapter in Genesis chapter 47 as Jacob comes down into Egypt, he's before Pharaoh and he's asked the age Verse number 8, 47, and Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou? And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of my years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years. Few and evil have been the days of my life been, and I have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. So he is at least 130, if not a little older, when we find him here in Genesis chapter 48. And what do we find? We find that because of age, this man becomes sick. And it came to pass after these things that one told Joseph, behold, thy father is sick. And he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. Old age has brought this man, Jacob, to a sickbed. Eventually it's going to take him to a deathbed, but initially sickness takes hold upon this 130-year-old man. But if you look through the Scriptures, you'll find also that there are young people are affected by sickness. You think about that 12-year-old daughter of Jairus. She's lying sick, falling sick at the point of death. She eventually does die, but initially she finds herself at 6, 12 years of age and she's found to be a sickly child. I think about that little boy that was born into the home of David and Bathsheba. as a result of their sin, that little child becomes sick. We read in 2 Samuel 12 verse 15 that the child became very sick and again that sickness leads eventually to that infant's death. Infants. Children, nearly almost teenagers. And then a man at 130 years of age, we find that old men, boys, girls, young people, are all found in a state of sickness, because sickness is no respecter of age. No respecter of age. Sickness is no respecter of social status. In 2 Kings chapter 20, in the verse one, we read of a man, a king, who was sick on to death. His name is King Hezekiah. And it doesn't matter how much money Hezekiah has in the palace vault. It doesn't matter how much acreage he has to his name. Those things did not ward off sickness in Hezekiah's life. He's a king, and yet the king falls sick. Not only was he a king, but we think of Uzzah. Was he not a king as well? Does he not become a leper? In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord. This is the king that's taken by leprosy. Here are two kings, and they're affected because of sickness, because money cannot ward off sickness. Just because you're a wealthy individual, just because you own property, does not mean that you'll go through life without experiencing times of sickness in your life. Now, it's very interesting. As we think about Hezekiah, God restores Hezekiah back to health again. He prays. And God answers his prayer. The prayer of faith shall heal the sick. We're told of that in James chapter 5. And so we find that, yes, prayer can raise a man to health and strength again. But there's something very interesting to notice in 1 Kings and the chapter number 20, or 2 Kings, sorry, 2 Kings in the chapter 20. I trust that I'm able to find it here. 2 Kings in the chapter 20, the verse number 7. This is speaking about Hezekiah's sickness and Isaiah said, take a lump of figs. And they took it and laid it on the boil and he recovered. Now what I'm trying to simply show you is this. Hezekiah uses the means available to him at that moment of time for him to recover of his sickness. No, there are people and they say, well, I don't need to take medicine. I don't need to go and see the doctor. I believe in God. Hezekiah believed in God. He prayed that God would heal him, but he also employed the means. And what were the means? A lump of figs on the boil. That was obviously the way by which this maybe poison was extracted out of his body. But he uses the means available to him at that present moment of time. And so are we. And so we have kings crippled by sickness, but also think of the lowest rung of society within the Bible. And we find that such who occupied that rung of society, they also suffered sickness. Now, who was on the lowest rung? It was the servants. The servants. You see, the servants have given away all their rights. They no longer have rights. They have come under a new master. They don't do their thing anymore. What they want to do, that's all gone. They've given themselves over to the will and to the pleasure and to the commands of the master. They're in the lowest rung of society. They have no rights whatsoever. And yet we find servants within the scriptures affected by sickness. Do you remember that individual there in Luke chapter 7, the centurion's servant? We read this about him in Luke chapter 7, that he was sick and ready to die. He was sick and ready to die. Sickness shows no mercy. on rich or on poor, every part of society, every stratum of society is affected by this problem, this ailment of sickness. J.C. Ryle remarked, there is no exemption from any rank or class or condition. High and low, rich and poor, gentle and simple, learned and unlearned, kings and their subjects, saints and sinners, all alike are liable to disease and all must submit to the king of terror. The admirals and generals who have left behind a worldwide reputation. The state men who have swayed senates and made indelible marks on the history of their own time are all carried one after another to the grave. Rich men, in spite of all their privileges, enjoy no immunity from sickness and death. All ages, all classes. Thirdly, all spiritual states, because sickness is no respecter of a person's spiritual state. Some of the godliest individuals that we find in Scripture, we find them affected and troubled by bodily ailment and sickness. That's why we read 3 John today. Did you notice what John says about that man, Gaius, in the verse number two? Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. It's evident from what John is saying about Gaius. Here's a man who's suffering. Here's a man who's not enjoying good health. Why would he pray that he would be in good health if he already was in such a state? No, this man obviously is crippled by some health problem, some health difficulty. But even though his health is failing, his spiritual life isn't. No, his spiritual life is going on with God. going on with God even though he be in sickness. And is that not the case? I have found it to be so. My visits with individuals who are sick, they're some of the strongest Christians They're going on with God. They're not allowing their sickness to decapacitate them, as it were, to put them out of action, as it were. I think of, I always think of our dear sister, she's now in glory, our dear sister Louise Wells, MS. Yet there was never a prayer meeting she missed, never a gospel service she missed, never a family worship service that that woman missed. She was incapacitated, as it were, nearly because of health, but she still came to the house of God. She found the benefit and the profit of being there. And here's a man, Gaius, what a godly man he is. He's well-beloved, the well-beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth, as he's a man who's walking in the truth. He's a man who's obeying God, and yet sickness comes. Well, that wouldn't stand up to the prosperity gospel movement. Because they say that a man should never be sick. A woman should never be sick if they're walking with God and they're walking in obedience to God. They should never be sick. Well, it doesn't stand up to Scripture, does it? I think of another man, the Apostle Paul. Are you going to question Paul's spirituality? Would you dare to do that? To question Paul's spirituality? Yet what do we find him? We find him crippled by an ailment, he calls it the thorn in the flesh. Now the Galatian believers, they love Paul so much. Paul writes concerning them in the book of Galatians that they would remove as it were their eyes and as it were give them to Paul. Now it seems to suggest that Paul obviously has got a problem with his eyes. I've spoken about this before. You'll read sometimes at the end of his letters he speaks about how large a letter I wrote on to you. That doesn't mean that it's large by way of number count. It's literally the size of the letters. It's a large letter he cannot discern. There's something wrong with Paul's eyes and he prays. He prays that God would remove the thorn of the flesh from him, but God says no. He says, my strength will be made perfect in your weakness, Paul, and my grace will be sufficient for you. Are you trying to say that there was something deficient with Paul's faith? I doubt it. And yet here's a man of God. And yet he's found to be sick. I think of Job, a man who was upright in his generation, who eschewed evil, who shunned evil, a man among whom among the rest of society there could not be a man found with respect to his spiritual standing with God. And yet what do we find him? We find him sitting on a pile of ashes covered from head to toe and boils in his life. and taking a piece of pot and scraping himself to try and get some kind of ease. Are you trying to tell me that Job was not a Christian? What about one of Paul's traveling companions? We don't hear too much about him. His name is Trophinus, T-R-O-P-H-I-N-U-S. We read of him in 2 Timothy 4, verse 20. Paul says there that he has to leave this man at a city called Milton because he was sick. Here's a traveling companion of Paul. a partner in missionary endeavor, and yet we find that he has to be left at Miltam in order to recover from his sickness. These are godly men. These are men that are serving God. These are out-and-out men for God, and yet these are individuals that suffered sickness in their lives. And yet cast alongside those godly individuals we have ungodly men in the Scriptures, and they too are afflicted by sickness. The person that comes straight to mind is that of Herod Agrippa. He fails to give glory to God in Acts chapter 12. And as a result, we are told that he falls sick. God inflicts upon him death by worms. An ungodly man and yet afflicted by sickness. Our spiritual state, whether we be godly, whether be ungodly, does not make us immune from sickness. I could go on, but I need to go very quickly. I think about the widespread occurrence. Yes, I'm thinking about that general widespread occurrence of sickness, but you take your own body, take your own body today and think, what part of my body could not be affected by sickness? Your mind could be affected by sickness. Your brain, trauma, stroke, seizures, tumors, your brain. Think of your ear. Swimmer's ear. Tintinous, that constant buzzing going on in your head. And I'm sure there are individuals in this house who have that. constant going on. Think about your eye diseases, colour blindness, conjunctivitis, dry eye. Think about mouth diseases, the common cold sore, mouth thrush, gum disease. Think about the disease of heart, the disease of liver, the disease of kidney, the disease of colon, the disease of the legs and of the feet and so on. I did a little research And I find on the worldwide web that there are supposed to be 30,000 different human diseases known to medicine. And then I looked elsewhere and they said that there were 100,000 different diseases. Sickness can seize and take part of every part of the human constitution, every part. Sickness is a worldwide universal problem, whether you look at it at macro scale or micro scale. Not only do we think about the widespread occurrence, I want to think about the source of our sickness. It's very brief. The source of our sickness, I'm not thinking here about the specific causes of every illness. For example, a person can get rickets, you know, understand this, if they lack in vitamin D, or if they're lacking in calcium or phosphate. An individual can contract rabies if they're bitten by a dog or by some kind of animal. I'm not dealing with that kind of cause or source. I'm not dealing here with the general causes of sickness. Malnutrition can lead to sickness. Poverty can lead to sickness. Lack of medicine can lead to sickness. Our living environment can lead to sickness. These all can play a role in our health, but I'm dealing here with the cause of sickness with respect to the Bible. Where do we go but back to the fall? We go back to the fall again. It is the source of our sickness. When God made this world and when he made man the crowning pinnacle of his creation, God utters these words as he looks into the constitution, the body, the mind of man that has come out of his hand. He says these words that he is, and it is all very good. Do you think that if a man had been suffering arthritis that God would have said it's all very good? Do you think if cancer was in his body that God would have said it's all very good? Now God, as He looks into innocent man, He realizes and He sees that it is all good. There's no kind of illness, there's no kind of sickness that is found in the human frame because it was God's purpose and intention that mankind would be freed from sickness and death and that they would live forever. That was God's original intention. And what happens when we get to heaven and we come into our glorified state is that all pain And all illness and all sickness and all tears and all death has gone away. There is the reversing of the curse. But whenever Adam and Eve sinned, that very moment, death entered the world. Now, they did not die immediately. We understand that. Why not? Because that's grace. That's grace. If they had died immediately, they would have been damned. Sin, death, damned. That's how it would have went. But between the moment of sin and the moment of death, a remedy is found. A way of rescue is devised, or it had been devised in eternity past, but it has now been provided by the shedding of blood. Man can then approach to God as they appropriate that work, that atoning work on their behalf, as they look forward to the cross. Between death and between sin there is stands the cross in the place of blood shedding. That's God's mercy. But the seeds of death were sown in Adam's life. He started to get old. He started to age. He started to feel sickness in the body and within the frame. Sin has caused sickness. And so sickness is part of living in a fallen world with fallen bodies. J.C. Ryle again, sin is the cause of all the sicknesses, disease and pain and suffering which prevail on the earth. They are all a part of that curse which came into the world when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and fell. There would have been no sickness if there had been no fall. There would have been no disease if there had been no sin. The perfect world. And so we must accept that sickness is one of the byproducts of the fall, part of the curse. And therefore, until we reach the place where there is no curse, we must expect to be afflicted with sickness, either ourselves or our loved ones. Sickness will come. The widespread occurrence of sickness, the source of sickness, we'll just spend the rest of our time on the benefits. And yes, you heard me correctly, the benefits of sickness. The benefits of sickness. There are many benefits that flow to us because of sickness, many lessons that God would have us to learn in our times of illness. And let me say that any benefit received or lesson learned must be seen then as invaluable into our lives. Mr. Spurgeon said, I venture to say that the greatest earthly blessing that God can give to any one of us is health with the exception of sickness. He said, sickness has frequently been of more use to the saints of God than health has. But I hasten to add this, that sometimes sickness has been of more use and benefit to the unsaved as well. And you'll understand what I mean. Let me list a number of benefits. Number one, sickness reminds us of our mortality. It reminds us of our mortality. Moses makes this plea in Psalm 90 verse 12, so teach us, to number our days, that we may apply our hearts onto wisdom. And one of the ways that God teaches us to number our days is by bringing sickness into our lives. You see, people live today as if they're going to live forever. They live today as if they're never going to die. They plan and scheme for the future. They dream and aspire about potential adventures, potential ventures, and potential enterprises, while all the time they feel to take into consideration of their own mortality. And yet, when God touches the spring of health, and a person is made to face the news of some terminal illness or some long-term sickness, Their thoughts inevitably turn to the matter of death and the matter of eternity. It can be on the sickbed that men and women realize that they have to die as well as they have to live. And there are people here today, there are people here today, and I could name you, And you gave very little thought or time to God whenever you were in the full bloom of your health. Isn't that right? Your soul eternity never came into your thought life until the day that sickness came. And it was in that sickness, and it was at the thought of your own day of death that brought you to Jesus Christ. Maybe you're here today and you're enduring some sickness and you're not saved. Maybe this is God's means whereby to draw you on to himself. I do not know how God works. There are many means and methods by which God can bring a man or woman to saving faith in Jesus Christ, and maybe this present sickness that you're enduring has been sent by God into your life to alarm you, to disturb you, to trouble you about your sin. It's through it that God is asking you, are you saved? Are you ready for death? Are you prepared to meet God? Have you pardon and peace through Christ? Is your soul saved? And maybe you are a Christian, and you have got sickness, and you're enduring it in your body. Maybe God is speaking to you about your mortality. You have only maybe a few months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, years to live. And God would say to you as a believer, live those years for me. Live those days for me. Invest that time for my cause and my name and for my glory. He reminds us all of our mortality, that we're all dying. Another benefit that can be derived from a time of sickness is that sickness can draw us back from our wanderings. Think of the individual that was once earnest for God. Christ was their delight. Their chief interests were in the things of God. They loved God's Word. They were always found in the house of God. Prayer was once their happy enjoyment. The company of God's people was pleasant to them, but something happened. Something happens in their life, some tragedy, some difficulty within the church or outside the church, and they've turned away from the Lord and they've grown cold. And as a result, the world has gained its power over them. And years pass, decades pass since they've prayed, decades lapse since they were last found in the house of God. And then God steps in and touches the spring of health. And where sermons and entreaties from other believers failed, sickness did its work. For sickness laid hold of the bodies, life's priorities were reassessed, and the wandering one returned. I tell you again, there are people in this house, and that happened. That happened in their lives. God brought them to the sickbed, And I would venture to say that those individuals, though that time was difficult in their lives, they thank God that God in his mercy chastened them in such a way. Maybe you are wondering today, drifting from God, is this what it's going to take? God bringing you to a place of sickness? For you to reassess life's priorities? The third benefit that can be derived from a time of sickness is that sickness provides us with an opportunity to glorify God. When Lazarus was sick, the Lord Jesus Christ said this about his sickness there in John chapter 11 in the verse number four. And when Jesus heard this speaking about Lazarus, he said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God. that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. This time of sickness in the life of Lazarus was a means by which God was going to be glorified. And how was he going to be glorified and honored? He was going to be glorified and honored by God raising Lazarus from the dead. That was the natural conclusion of all sickness. God was going to raise him from the dead. And thank God in times of sickness, God can be glorified. We often think, well, I can glorify God whenever I'm in full health, but whenever I'm found in a time of sickness, how can I glorify God? There are two ways in which God can be glorified in sickness. First of all, he is glorified as he sustains you in that sickness. God was glorified in Paul's life. He sustains him. He doesn't remove the sickness, but he sustains him. He undergirds him with all the strength and the grace that is required to lift up God's servant. And as individuals look on at the apostle Paul's life, God is glorified. They see a man who's sick, who's infirmed, who could very easily forget about the work of God, but here he's going on, he's keeping at the work of God because God has sustained him and thereby God is glorified. So God can sustain you and as he does so he's glorified, but he can also be glorified by touching you, by raising you up. by causing that sickness to be banished. Thank God for that. He bore our sins in His own body. We thank God for that. He is the one who healeth all our diseases. He healeth our diseases, if it be His will. But that little story of John, I don't have time to develop it. But three times in John chapter 11, we read the words about Lazarus. And three times it speaks about God's love to him. He whom thou lovest, verse three, is sick. Verse five, now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Verse 36, behold how he loved him. Listen, if you're sick here today, God loves you as much in your sickness as he does in your days of health. His love has not changed. His love for you has not changed. Your love with an everlasting love. And in times of sickness, we can question the love of God, but not with respect to Lazarus. Christ loved him, and yet he was brought to sickness, even death. We can glorify God in our sickness. The fourth benefit, sickness humbles us. Sickness humbles us. We live in an age where men and women believe themselves to be invincible. Nothing is going to stop them. Nothing or no one is going to stop them. Naturally, speaking human beings are proud and high-minded creatures. However, whenever sickness takes hold of the body, when illness takes hold of a man or woman and takes them to a sick bed, then the pride is humbled because they are reminded by God in the words of Job 4, verse 19, that they dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth. It's not easy to be proud when you're lying on a sickbed. Not easy to be proud. Do you remember what happened to King Nebuchadnezzar there in the book of Daniel? He was proud about all that he had done, but what does God do? God takes reason, and he becomes like an animal of the field. And as a result of that, what does he say? God, the God of heaven, is able to exalt and to abase the proud and the humble. God is able to do it. God is able to humble the person. And maybe you're a person who thinks you're just invincible. I tell you, God at any moment could touch the spring of your health, take you to a bed of sickness and bring you to a place where you're humble before God. The fifth and final benefit that comes as a result of our sickness, sickness provides the believer And I'm speaking about those who have sick individuals within the church family. We have that. Those who have sickness within their homes, their families, their friends, their neighbors. Sickness provides the believer with an opportunity to show Christian charity. You'll not have to go beyond the four walls of this church building to find people who are sick in body and mind. You'll not have to go beyond the four walls. But what have we done to relieve their sickness and their sufferings? What act of kindness have we ourselves been involved in during those times of sickness? Have we visited them? Have we made contact with them by way of telephone call, by way of card, text message, email? Have we prayed for them? Have we provided, especially whenever the lady of the home is put on a bed of sickness, have we thought to ourselves that I could maybe go and help and provide maybe a meal for that family going through a time of sickness? Brethren and sisters, I feel that we're not very good at this area. We're not very good at this area of Christian living. Some people might think, well, that's unimportant. To try and help someone that's sick, to visit someone that's sick, you might think that's a very insignificant thing. That surely isn't Christian living. But let me remind you that whenever God brings you and I to judgment, it is this very thing, this very kind of charity that will be very much to the forefront when God takes to account of where the rewards are going to go. How do I know that? Very quickly, Matthew chapter 25. Matthew chapter 25, with this I close. Matthew chapter 25, let's read from the verse 34. Speaking of the last day of judgment, the sheep and the goats, they have been separated, the right and the left, then shall the king, Matthew 24, sorry, 25, Matthew 25, verse number 34, then shall the king say unto them, on the right hand, come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared from you from the foundation of the world, for when I was unhungered, and you gave me meat, you gave me meat, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you took me in, naked and you clothed me, I was sick. And ye visited me? I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, whence saw we a hunger fed thee, or thirsty, and gave thee drink? Whence saw we a stranger took thee in, or naked, and clothed thee? Or whence saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the keen shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, In so much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. A preacher going to visit someone that's sick, that's not worthy of reward. Will we find it here? In actual fact, Jesus Christ said that the visiting of a sick child of God is as much and as is seen by God as if you were doing it to his own dear son. And I believe it will not lose its reward. Paul said to the Ephesian elders, Acts 20 verse 35, I have shown you all things, how that so laboring you ought to support the weak. The word is how you ought to support the sick, the diseased, the infirmed. And to remember the words of Lord Jesus, how he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. J.C. Ryle, he said, I firmly believe that God is testing and proving us by every case of sickness within our reach, by permitting suffering, He tries whether Christians have any feeling. Beware, lest you be found in the balances and found wanting. If you can live in a sick and dying world and not feel for others, you have yet much to learn. You know, the Lord himself tends the sickbed. God tends the sickbed. What an act of condescension. What an act of mercy. What an act of tenderness. How do I know that? Psalm 41, verse three, the Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing. Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness. That's the heart of God. that he cares for even his sick child. And he makes all the bed from pillow to foot. He makes it all up. And he comes and he nurses his own sick child. I tell you, Mohammed or Allah doesn't do that for their followers. Buddha does not stoop to do that for their adherence. But God in heaven does. He nurses his sick child. Because he is Jehovah Rufai. He is the Lord our healer. Sickness is part of living in this sin-cursed world. It's all going to come, whether it be because of common cold or whether it be cancer. that's going to come, and it will affect every family and every person in this house today. So what do we learn? Well, we learn these lessons. I am mortal, but I have an immortal soul within me that will either go to God's heaven or God's hell. In times of sickness and in times of health, May the soul take the priority and the preeminent place in all of our considerations. And may we be like Gaius even if we are found to be sick. May even in our sickness our souls prosper as God carries us through the valley of sickness and trial. May God be pleased to bless even these considerations to our hearts today. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Thank you. Oh God, our loving Father, we recognize that sickness is part of living in this world. We think of the greatest sickness, that of sin. And we bless thee that there is a remedy for that sin. Though there be many an illness, where there is found no remedy for among the medical profession, yet we thank thee that the sickness of sin is dealt to the satisfaction of God by the blood of Jesus Christ. We thank thee that there is a balm in Gilead. There is a healing of the soul that can be known. And if there be one who's maybe gone through a time of sickness, a time of physical problems, and are not yet saved, we pray that, O God, thou will draw them on to thyself, because we are aware that soon death will come and take us all out into eternity. what will it be to go into eternity with a sin sick soul. Draw such to Christ and help us and give us the grace and families who are going through times of sickness bear them up we pray and encourage them and glorify thyself even in the sickness we pray. We offer prayer in and through Jesus' precious and wonderful name. Amen and amen. Thank you.