The Healing Voice of God R1697

In just a few moments, we'll head to John, Chapter 5, with Dr. Wilton. And while we do so, know that we'd love to connect with you on our website, www.tewonline.org.

That's www.tewonline.org. Now, Dr. Don Wilton. Lord, we need you, O God. We need you in our homes. We need you in our schools, our board meetings. We need you in the White House. We need you in Congress.

We need you in our streets and our airports. We need your healing. Lord Jesus, we come before you today, and we cry out to you today, and we thank you, Jesus.

Please forgive the interruption. We'll be back in just a moment with the rest of today's message with Dr. Don Wilton. But Dr. Don, once we remind you, we're here to pray for you, here to connect with resources 24 hours a day at this number, 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673 and online at www.tewonline.org, where you'll discover great resources like this. And a friend and a neighbor, even this year, God just so spoke to me again, but showed me some things, and I just pass these on to you today, because we so desperately need healing. And I want to speak to you today about the healing voice of God, and God's going to apply this to your healing cry. Be it physical healing, be it that concern that you have, be it that situation with your children, that fracture in your family, that cry that you have for the healing of our nation.

It's impossible. What can you do? What can we do? It's like we just being caught up in this vortex. It's like the traffics flowing and the confusion and the hurt and the pain and everything. God's going to speak to you. I want you to open your Bibles to John chapter 5.

Let's just read this passage. This is the Word of God. We're in John chapter 5. This is what the Bible says. John chapter 5 and verse 1, after this there was a feast of the Jews and the Jews went up to Jerusalem.

Now in Jerusalem by the sheep gate there was a pool which in Aramaic is called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay multitudes of invalids, blind, lame and paralyzed. One man in particular was there who had been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there for a long time, he said to him, do you want to be healed?

The sick man answered, said, sir, I have no one to put me into the pool. When the water is stirred up and while I'm going another steps down before men, Jesus said to him, get up, take up your bed and walk and at once the man was healed. And he took up his bed and he walked. Now the day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, it's the Sabbath.

It's not lawful for you to take up your bed. But he answered, that man was the one who healed me. That man said to me, take up your bed and walk. And they asked him, who is the man who said take up your bed and walk? Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was for Jesus had withdrawn as there was a crowd in the place. But afterwards, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, see, you are well, sin no more. And nothing worse will happen to you. The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. May the Lord give us an understanding as we pray for one another and just God bless you today, precious friend, as you listen from the point of your own healing.

There are a number of things worth noting that we need to establish about this. First of all, where this took place, it lies right outside the temple mound. You literally walk off the temple mound into the courtyard that has the pool of Bethesda. It's right next to it, right at the sheep gate. The sheep gate is the gate that goes down to the garden of Gethsemane. You would go out the sheep gate on the eastern side and then you would cross through the Kidron Valley and up to the garden of Gethsemane. So when Jesus comes back, he's going to land on the Mount of Olives. He's going to walk down past the garden of Gethsemane and up toward the sheep gate where the eastern gate of the temple is, which is sealed. And only, as the prophet says, only Jesus will open that gate when he reclaims his throne on Mount Moriah, the place of sacrifice. A place where Abraham sacrificed Isaac, brought his best, and God said not even your best can be the sacrifice that can heal people. Not even your best can do that. Only Jesus. Where did this take place?

This is very important for you to hear. The pool of Bethesda was not a Christian healing pool, not even sort of. The pool of Bethesda, the word Bethesda means mercy.

That's the word, mercy. It's a beautiful, the house of Bethesda, the house of mercy. So the pool of Bethesda was part of the Hellenization of the Roman Empire. It was one of the many things that were built by the Roman oppressors who were ranked pagans.

God Jehovah had no part of their life. In fact, they crucified Jesus, accepting the cry of the crowd to crucify him. And the pool of Bethesda was no different to the theater that was built, the sports complex. Even just you almost from the pool of Bethesda looking at the Antonio fortress, which lies on the right side of the temple mound where Pilate was, where Jesus was judged. That was all Roman, the Hellenization of Jerusalem. And the pool of Bethesda was built to the god Asclepius, Asclepius.

That was his pool. Who was Asclepius? Asclepius, the god, the pagan god Asclepius was the god of wellbeing, the god of health, and the god of medicine.

That's who he was. And just to help you to understand Asclepius, Asclepius had two daughters. Guess what their names were? One's name was Hygiena or Hygienia. Does that sound medicinal, hygiene?

Where do we get our name hygiene? His first daughter, her name was Hygienia. The second daughter's name was Panacea. Panacea, remedy for sickness. I know I'm being very simple and medical people are saying, you're just scratching the surface.

I am. So here's Asclepius, the god of medicine, the god of healing. His two daughters, Hygienia and Panacea. The symbol for all of this was a snake, still to this day, the medical symbol.

All right? So, putting all these things together, this place here was a place where God, so impressed on me, was a pagan place, where according to the gods, whomever went to this place, because that was the place that you were supposed to go to, to ask the gods to do their work. Justin Martyr, one of the great fathers that we always, he said, how do you explain all of this?

The stirring of the water and everything. Justin Martyr said, and I'm quoting Justin Martyr, when the devil brings forward Asclepius as the raiser of the dead and the healer of all diseases, may I not say in this matter likewise, he has imitated the prophecies of Christ. Now, who is the devil? The devil is the great imitator. Everything he does, he tries to set himself up as God, like God. And actually, in end times, that's the ultimate what's going to happen with Antichrist.

Who is Antichrist? And during the tribulation, Antichrist is going to set himself up in the temple as God. And because the Holy Spirit is going to be removed from the earth, everybody who has been left behind is going to believe it. Because they have no means to not believe it. Because the Holy Spirit is the one who convicts us concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.

Take the Spirit out, you've got to expect sin, you've got to expect a disdain for the righteousness of God, and you've got to expect a mockery concerning the judgment of God. So here we have the pool of Bethesda. That's where this took place. What did it provide? What did this provide?

Well, it provided an avenue. It was one of the many features of the Roman Empire. It was no different in many ways from their sporting activities, where they would provide these gory scenes so that people could come and feast and scream and shout and give vent to their feelings and feel like they could let it all hang out, so to speak.

That's what the Romans did. They understood the lust of human nature for something to be able to vent on, to get a hold of. And the pool of Bethesda, dedicated to the god Asclepius, was the place where they said, look man, you come to this god and if he wants to, by whatever means, he'll do it. And they believed him. They believed him. And hundreds of thousands of people came, including this one man, came looking for the answer in the wrong place, to the wrong person.

And in his case, it cost him many, many years, as the Bible said. So why was he there? This brother here, this man here was there for a very good reason, folks. He was desperate need of healing.

He was desperate for healing. He had a very, very good reason, just like you and just like me, just like all of us. We've got a reason. You've got a reason right now. I want you to, strange way to say, I want you to accept and celebrate your reason.

Does that make sense to you? I want you to know your anxiety, your pain in your body, that diagnosis. You've got a reason to want to be healed. This is not some internal imaginary thing that's going on. This is real, folks. This is serious stuff.

Please forgive the interruption. We'll be back in just a moment with the rest of today's message with Dr. Don Wilton. But Dr. Don wants me to remind you, we're here, here to pray for you, here to connect with resources 24 hours a day at this number, 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673 and online at TEWOnline.org, where you'll discover great resources like this. I cannot begin to describe to you how incredible, what a privilege and an honor to sit at the feet of Dr. Billy Graham as his friend and pastor for so many years, right there at his home every Saturday. I've put that down in Saturdays with Billy. My thoughts, this relationship, never violating any confidences, just sharing the life of this extraordinary man that God touched and used across the world to reach so many people for Christ.

Friends of presidents and prime ministers, you don't want to miss this opportunity. It is filled with personal anecdotes, but above all, the blessings that flow from the heart of God's servant, Dr. Billy Graham. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. And then the fourth thing was who it was that healed him. And this is all going to come together here. Who was it that healed him?

After all is said and done. And the Bible here says that he'd been coming all his life, been in his condition for 38 years, and he was persistent. He was desperate. And in the final analysis, who healed him? The only person who could. It wasn't the water.

It wasn't the place. It wasn't Asclepius. It was Jesus.

And I just want to say this. I've got so much in my mind. I just want to say this to you, that after Jesus had healed him, there were two pools.

Whew, have I got a lot I want to tell you. There were two pools within walking distance. There's the pool of Bethesda here, and then at the bottom of the city of David, the bottom of the Kidron Valley, almost where Gehenna meets the Kidron Valley, you have the pool of Siloam. When Jesus healed the man at the pool of Siloam, he told him after he healed him to go and wash off in the pool of Siloam. But this man, after he healed him, he didn't tell him. He didn't tell him, now go and wash off in the pool of Bethesda.

Why? Because Jesus wanted him to know, when I've healed you, don't go back to the gods. Don't go back and dip your toe in the waters that are not mine. And that's why Jesus said, don't go back to your sin of falling after another god. He didn't say your sin is the cause for your sickness. He was saying you were sinning because you were following pagan gods. And Jesus said, you want to go back to the pagan gods. These things will come back on you because I do not share my space with any other god. And there are many of us, we go to Jesus and Jesus answers our prayer and two weeks later we're back to the same thing. Very quickly, just to contextualize, five ways that Jesus heals.

You can write these down. Five ways in the Bible Jesus heals. Number one, instantly.

Boom! Previous chapter, John chapter four, starting at verse 46. There are just countless illustrations. Jesus heals instantly. I've watched it even in our church. I've seen it in the lives. There are some people sitting here today that we've watched go through deep, deep waters and Jesus has just healed them just like that. I've heard so many stories and diagnosis in the case of sickness and they did this, that, went to the doctor and the radiologist came and said, we just don't understand this.

There's not a sign of anything. Jesus can heal instantly. Number two, Jesus heals slowly. So if you go to Mark chapter eight, talking about the blind man, Beth Cider.

Mark chapter eight, the blind man at Beth Cider. Jesus heals slowly. If I may say very respectfully in the face of my Jesus, it's his decision. Sometimes he heals instantly, sometimes he seems to take his time. Thirdly, Jesus heals in the Bible medicinally. He uses people, godly doctors, nurses, medical people. He heals medicinally.

In our day and age, how true is that? If you go into Luke chapter 10, the Bible is full of olive oil. The Samaritan man, I said in Luke chapter 10, he heals medicinally.

God uses the means that have been brought into the benefit of our people. But he heals, number four, fourth way he heals is gracefully. I don't know how to put that in another term because in 2 Corinthians 12, it says, my grace is sufficient for you.

And this is a tough one. I've met some of the most grace-filled people in this congregation who have had debilitating whatever it might be for years and years and years. And in that, they've been healed gracefully because they carry in the context of that debilitation, such a living testimony of grace. I don't know how to say this.

Please forgive me. It's like God has just said, I want you to keep having this problem because you are blessing so many people. There are people I meet that I know are hurting in whatever way, but they show such grace.

The final one that I'd put on the table today is Jesus heals eternally. He takes people home to be with him. You know, in 2021, Karen's father, my father-in-law, got COVID. And yeah, he was a very elderly gentleman, but COVID essentially killed my father-in-law.

And we, like many people, just like you, very, very loved, beloved man. And it was because of COVID, he was taken off to hospital. We couldn't even see him.

Remember that time? His last five weeks on this earth, we couldn't even see our father. Couldn't go in, couldn't see him.

He's by himself. And I remember when they brought him to hospice the last day, and we stood there watching them offload him from an ambulance and then put him into this little isolation room at hospice. We couldn't go in.

We had to stand outside the window. And I remember my father-in-law saying, I have fought the good fight of faith. And then he lifted his hand and he saluted us through the window. And shortly thereafter, Jesus healed him eternally.

This week, a lady very close to my wife, same thing happened to her. You know, eternal healing is the greatest healing because it's tied into the greatest healing that God ever gives us. What's the greatest healing? Salvation. This is a picture of the greatest single healing that can take place.

When he heals us from death to life. The healing of forgiveness. Everyone that is listening right now is a sinner.

Everyone. All of us have sinned. And we've been healed because we've been forgiven. What hope would we have in the world?

What hope would we have with our sons and daughters? In my life and ministry, folks, I've dealt with men who have been unfaithful to their wives. And they've confessed their sin to Jesus and Jesus forgave them.

And then they confess that to their wife and their wife forgave them. Greatest healing that could ever happen. If you took the greatest healing of Jesus out of us, what are we left with? Why are we Christians? Why do we believe because of the healing of Jesus?

It's the greatest joy in the world. So for healing to happen, I've earmarked five things that need to take place for you to be healed. Number one, you have to be in the right place. And I don't know what I'm saying there. I stood at the pool of Bethesda. It was the wrong place for this man for 38 years. But it turned into the right place. I think right now you just may find yourself in the right place.

Be it here or be listening in your living room. Are you in the right place? Number two, you need to be in the right position. And I'm speaking of your heart.

The way you are positioned before a holy and a righteous God. Number three, you need to have the right reason to be seeking healing. You've got to get down to that inner motive.

And I began my message a little while ago saying, you've got a reason. Number four, you need to have the right determination. Nothing should stand in your way. And then you need to be going to the right person.

You can spend 38 years doing everything, trying everything, but you're dealing with Asclepius, and he's not going to heal you. And then here comes Jesus. This is the voice of God. Would you bow your heads with me?

Every head bowed. Jesus, we hear your voice. So many of us have gone repeatedly to the pool of Bethesda, and we're looking at you, Jesus. It's your voice.

It's who you are. There are people who will come forward, seeking prayer, making decisions. There are people right now who are giving their hearts to Jesus, which is the single greatest healing that can ever take place. I pray, Lord Jesus, that people everywhere today would trust you as Savior and Lord.

Are you weary, heavy laden? Jesus wants us to come and lay our burdens right there at the foot of the cross, and He will be the one to heal. We believe this, Lord Jesus.

You are doing your work, and we believe it. And we are praising the name of Jesus. And when people come and say, Who did this? Jesus did it. He did it, and He can do it in yours and my life as well. Jesus is ready to meet you right where you are. You've been listening to Dr. Don Wilton, our teacher here on The Encouraging Word, and you've heard him as he's teaching and preaching from the pulpit.

But now as he steps into the studio, would you open your heart to what he wants to share next? Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today I repent of my sin, and by faith I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. Perhaps you were praying along with Dr. Wilton moments ago, and you know God is changing your life from the inside out. You've given your life to Jesus, or you've rededicated your life to Christ. Dr. Don wants to pray for you, and he wants you to have some free resources that'll help you take some of the next steps in rooting your faith. Please call us, and we'll send these information to you at 866-899-WORD. Again, the number is 866-899-9673. Or you can meet us on our website as well at www.tewonline.org. That's T-E-W online dot O-R-G.