Why God Wants You Healed, Part 3

SPEAKER 01 : 0:06

Greetings, friends and new listeners, and welcome to The Sound of Faith. I’m Sharon Knotts, thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today’s message is part three of the three-part message, Why God Wants You Healed. In part one, we saw that salvation and healing are a package deal. David called them God’s benefits in Psalm 103. Today, we will look back at another benefit David declared in Psalm 103. He redeems my life from destruction. This includes the curse of sickness in part three, the canceled curse. We have been ministering on why God wants you healed. And we’ve already had two messages. One, the first one that we ministered, we called it the beneficent bundle. The beneficent bundle because of all the benefits that we read about. And then the next time we ministered on Isaiah 53 and the whipping post. So we’re going to go to part three today and we’re going to still begin with our flagship verse. And that’s Psalm 103. Going back to Psalm 103 and looking at verses 1 through 3. Amen. And how many have it? All right. We’re going to bless the Lord. We’re going to do that. Bless the Lord. Oh, my soul. All that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not his benefits. That’s why we had the beneficent bundle. And we talked about that healing and salvation are inseparable. They are a package deal. Amen? He forgives all your iniquities. He heals all your diseases. We have it right there. And now we’re going to look at verse 4. Who redeems your life from destruction. Who redeems your life from destruction. You know, on the cross, Jesus, we already learned, he paid in full the debt for our salvation. Forgave us of all our iniquities. And then we spent a lot of time in the last sermon about the whipping post. And we learned that there, the blood that Jesus shed from the wounds in his back was for our healing. Amen? But we’re going to have another benefit we’re going to look at today. And that’s verse 4 that says… He, what? Redeems your life from destruction. Because Jesus on the cross not only paid for our salvation, not only paid for our healing, but he canceled the curse. The curses that had come down on mankind from the Garden of Eden all the way through up to this point, curses that had come on them. And then now we’re after the cross. More curses were to come, as we’re going to see in a moment. But first of all, let’s look at that word redeem. In the Hebrew, the word is ga’el, and it has five meanings. First of all, it means to rescue someone who’s in danger. Secondly, it means to redeem a slave, and we probably think of it that way mostly, to redeem someone from slavery. Or it could be just to redeem property, someone who’s lost their property, and you’re going to redeem it and get it back for them. That’s the third one. The fourth one is to pay a ransom to save somebody’s life. Amen? You know, sometimes these kidnappers will kidnap somebody. Amen? We see it happen all the time in the news. And then they say, well, here’s the ransom. If you want your loved one back, this is what you’ve got to pay. And then another one I found very interesting, number five, is to avenge a loved one who has been hurt or even murdered. To avenge them. Because in the Old Testament, that’s what they did. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Amen. So let’s look in Exodus chapter 6. And we’re going to see where God called himself God. as Israel’s redeemer. Exodus 6. And we know at this point that they are still in slavery in the land of Egypt. And verse 6. So 6 and 6. Wherefore God, speaking unto Moses, said unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out of From under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will rid you of their bondage. And I will redeem you. With a stretched out arm. And with great judgments. So we see a combination of those meanings going on here. Amen. God was going to redeem them. He was going to rescue them. Because they were in danger. And not only that. He was going to redeem them. And he was going to bring them out of slavery. And when you say, I will, remember I’ve told you in the past, it’s the strongest declaration in the English language. If God says, I will, he will. But then he also said, you see with the last thing that God said, and I am going to redeem you with great judgments. What does that mean? I’m going to avenge. I am going to have vengeance on these Egyptians that have done this to you for 430 years. Amen. So God here calls himself their redeemer. And he brought them out. He paid the ransom. How did he do that? He took the lives of all the firstborn of Egypt. And he paid the ransom for the children of Israel. But he spared their firstborn. Amen. And he avenged himself on them when he drowned Pharaoh and all his mighty armies in the Red Sea. So we see here that God says, I am your redeemer. So now they’re on the other side of the Red Sea and they’ve come safely over. And just about the time they’re getting ready to break out the tambourine, they hear the sound of horses’ hooves and they look and they say, oh, they’re coming after us. But God waited. He didn’t close the sea up as soon as the last foot of the last Israelite stepped over safely. He waited until Pharaoh and all of his armies were in the middle of that sea. And then God. Cause the sea to cover them and drown them all. Now you can get out the tambourine, Miriam. Now, ladies, you can get ready to dance and sing. Amen. Now, because God has avenged you. Let’s jump up to chapter 15 in the book of Exodus and just look a little bit at it. We won’t read it all, but get the feel of it. I like to get the feel of it. Amen. Not just talk about it, but get the feel. And we’re in Exodus 15 and verse 13. This is actually a song that Moses wrote and is singing. And we’re looking at verse 13. Thou in your mercy has led forth the people which you have redeemed. You have guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. So he’s saying you’ve redeemed us. I wanted you to see that word. Drop down to verse 19. For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea and the Lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them. But the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea. And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, which is also the sister of Moses, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after with her timbrels and with dances. And I love this. Miriam said, Sing ye to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. And all the ladies were singing and playing their tambourines. What a wonderful celebration they were having. But you know, just three days later, just three days later, they had run out of water and they were thirsty. And now we start that murmuring blame game. that they became victim to. Amen? But I’m going to show you that this is the first time what we’re about to read here in Exodus 15. We’ll drop down to the next verse. I want you to see that this is the first time that God reveals himself to the nation. Up to this time, it’s always been with Moses and with Aaron. But now he’s going to reveal himself to the nation, and we’re going to find out what he calls himself. Verse 22. So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur, and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore, the name of it is Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. Somebody say a tree. A tree. which he had cast into the waters, and the waters were made sweet. Therefore he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and he proved them. And he said, if you will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, and will do that which is right in his sight, will give ear to his commandments, and keep all of his statues, I will put none of these diseases upon you which I have brought upon the Egyptians. For I am the Lord that healeth thee. This is the first time that God is revealing himself to the nation. And Take note of how he reveals himself. I am the Lord your healer. The first time he reveals himself. He’s saying I am your healer. Amen. But look at this place. It’s a place of bitterness. They are thirsty now. And they come and they see this water. And now they’re getting happy. And everybody’s rushing down to get a drink of water. And immediately it’s ugh. Because the water is bitter. Amen? A bitter place. And they named the place of that Marah, which means bitterness. The waters were undrinkable. But God turned what was bitter into something that was sweet. What did he do? He told Moses, do you see that tree right there? Get that tree and dip it into the water. Amen? Amen. And when he dipped it into the water, the waters were made sweet and the people could drink of them. Dip a tree. I mean, why didn’t God tell Moses, hey, get out your miracle rod? I mean, that miracle rod just split the Red Sea wide open three days ago. Why didn’t he tell him just get out that miracle rod? Instead, he said, get that tree and dip it into the water. Anybody see a prophetic sign here? Anybody getting a prophetic sign? Amen. A tree that can take bitterness and turn it into sweetness. A tree that can take sickness and turn it into healing. Amen. Anybody see that? A tree that could change a person’s life from bitterness and sickness and disease and make it sweet and healthy and whole. That’s the lesson that we see here. It’s pointing. Everything that they went through is pointing to the Messiah. Amen. Now we’re going to jump in our fast forward thing and we’re going to go a whole 40 years later. And now they’re ready to cross into the promised land. But because of an unfortunate turn of events with Moses, which we won’t go into right now, Moses is not going to be able to go over with them. And instead, God is going to let Joshua take them in. And he told Moses, you’re coming home with me. And he took him up on a mountain. And nobody knows exactly what went down, but we know that God buried Moses. And no one knows where that burial site is to this day. I’m sure God had a good reason for doing that. They would have probably turned it into some kind of idol or shrine, right? But before he goes up on that mountain with God, he’s going to give his very last… Exhortation to the people. And he went through all of the 40 years journey and the miracles and the signs that God did to bring them out. How he kept them for 40 years. Fed them with manna every single day. I think I multiplied it once a long time ago. It’s over 14,000 breakfasts. That God sent down manna. And they drank out of a rock. And they were healthy. And their shoes didn’t get old. And their clothes didn’t wear out. I mean the miracles that God did. He went through all of them. But he gives them this last admonition. And we go to Deuteronomy chapter 28 for this. And you’re going to be familiar with this as soon as we get there and start looking. We’re going to look at verse 1 and 2 first. Now remember, this is Moses with his farewell exhortation. And it shall come to pass, if you shall hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord your God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command you this day, that the Lord your God will set you on high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come on you and overtake you if you shall hearken unto the voice of the Lord your God. And now he starts giving them all of these blessings. Amen. Now he’s saying you’ve got to obey the Lord. All the things that I have told you, you’ve got to obey him. You’ve got to serve the Lord your God. And if you’ll do that, he will exalt you above all the other nations. Listen, all the other nations worship demons. Because that’s what idols are. Well, that’s made out of stone. Well, that’s made out of wood, and a man made it, so it can’t be anything to it. No. There are demons behind that. Amen? And all of the nations, they worshipped demons. And God said, do not worship the demons and the idols like the other nations do. Not just because he was a jealous God, and he is. Amen? Amen. But he didn’t want them worshiping demons and opening up the door for sickness and disease and curses to come upon them. Amen. So he begins to tell the blessings, and I’m not going to read it, but you go from verse 3 all the way to verse 14, and it’s all these blessings. I know some people, they say them every morning when they get up. They’ll say, I’m blessed in the city. I’m blessed in the country. I’m blessed going in, blessed going out. Amen? I’m the head and not the tail. I’m above and not beneath. How many heard all those? This is where it is. But he said, verse 15, But it shall come to pass, if you will not hearken unto the voice of the Lord your God, to observe, to do all the commandments in his statutes, which I command you this day, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. All these curses. And I’m not going to go through them all because we are focusing on healing. Amen. But I will tell you this, in verse 22, I’ll just tell you this one because I think it’s quite interesting. The Lord shall smite you with a consumption. And that means some kind of systemic disease that’s just eating you up. I mean, it could be more than one thing. I mean, it could be tuberculosis or some other disease that’s just devouring your health. Amen. On a systemic level. And then look, and with a fever, and look at this one. And with an inflammation and with extreme burnings. Now that covers a multitude of sicknesses. We hear more and more all the time that inflammation causes your heart to have problems, your lungs to have problems, your kidneys, your liver, and certainly your bones. Amen? I mean, what is inflammation and intense burning than things like arthritis? and all of those kinds of things. This is some of the things that God said would come upon them. Amen? And with the sword, which would be war, and with blasting and mildew, which means your crops are going to be devoured, and they shall pursue thee until you perish. And just in case God left something out, if you read all of them, from where I left off, if you would go all the way through all the following verses and read about all those curses, just in case he didn’t mention something, let’s go to verse 61. And verse 61 says, also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, then will the Lord bring upon you until you be destroyed. Just in case I didn’t mention something. Because how many know new diseases have come along? There are so many cancers. When you say cancer, there’s a multitude of cancers. And even if you name a specific type of cancer, there’s more than one type within that sub-cancer group. Amen? So many diseases. I mean, who ever heard of COVID-19? But we see what it did to the whole world. It brought everything to a stop. Amen. So we see that it covers every kind of disease that could ever be imagined. He says that is what will come upon you. Amen. So what we want to boil it down and say this. All sickness, all disease, all infirmity is part of the world. The curse. It’s part of the curse. And we read in Psalm 103 verse 4 that he redeems our life from destruction. Now we’re going to go to the New Testament and see how it’s described in Galatians 3 13. We’re now going to the New Testament. To see what Apostle Paul said about the curse. And this is a good verse. If you don’t have it marked in your Bible, you ought to do it today. I’m looking at Galatians chapter 3 and verse 13. Christ has redeemed us from the curse. The curse of the law being made a curse for us. For it is written, curse it is everyone that hangs on a tree. So somebody says it’s written, but where is it written? It’s written in Deuteronomy 21, verse 7. And there in Deuteronomy 21, 7, it says, every man who hangs on a tree is accursed. Being executed on a tree was a curse. Amen. Now, in that time, they didn’t do crucifixions. That’s what the Romans did in the New Testament. But in the time when Moses wrote this, they did hang people on a tree. Amen. And that was a cursed way to die. So it’s written, cursed is he that hangs on a tree. So I’m saying to you that it was not only that Jesus shed his blood that saved us and healed us and delivered us from the curse, but he had to die on a tree. You know, they tried to kill Jesus many times. I think it was at least twice they tried to stone him, and he would just disappear out of their midst. And once they took him to the brow of a hill, was getting ready to cast him down off the hill, off of a steep cliff, and he disappeared out of their midst. Now, let me tell you, it wasn’t because he was afraid to die. He came to die. That’s what he came to do, to die. But he had to die on the cross. He had to die on the tree. Amen? That was the only way that he could deliver us from the curse. And we learned the last time in Isaiah 53 at the whipping post, we learned in order for us to receive healing, he had to go to that post and receive the stripes and the wounds in his back. Amen. And he had to die on the cross in order to redeem us from the curse and all the sicknesses that are part of the curse. Amen. We’re in verse 13. Let’s look at verse 14. That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. So that all the blessings could come upon us. Amen? In order for all the blessings to come upon us, Jesus had to go on the cross and die. And remember, he didn’t just die for the Jews. God so loved the world. Amen? That he gave his only begotten son. Let’s look quickly at Ephesians chapter 2. I won’t spend much time there, but I do want to point something out to you. You probably know these verses. Ephesians 2 and 12. That at the time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But, somebody say, but now. But now. In Christ Jesus, you who were sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Amen. We were strangers. We were aliens. Let me just tell you that simply means that we were not a part of the Jewish people, the seed of Abraham. We weren’t part of the seed of Abraham. Amen. So all the promises that God had given, we didn’t have any claim to it. But on the cross, amen, we who were afar off, he made us nigh by the blood of Christ. Somebody say thank you for the blood. Amen. Thank you for the blood, Jesus. Thank you for your cross. Amen. Amen. I know I told you to go there, but I’m going to tell you now to go back to Colossians 2.13. All right, we’re back in Colossians, but this time we’re going to look in chapter 2, and we’re going to look at verse 13 and following. And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, has he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses? Let me just say quickly, don’t get hung up on that word uncircumcision. You know, let me just boil it down and make it very simple. Just think in your mind, whenever you see uncircumcised or uncircumcision in Paul’s epistles, which he uses it a lot, think in your mind, a.k.a. Gentiles. Non-Jews is basically what it means. Amen. So we were, as we read in Ephesians a moment ago, we were aliens. We were strangers. We had no right or claim to the promises of God. We were dead in our sins, but he has forgiven us all our trespasses. Amen. And how did he do it? Verse 14, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. And he didn’t stop there. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Think about that for a moment. What is the it? So let’s look what he did on the cross. He nailed something. What did he nail? These ordinances that were against us, that were contrary to us. What in the world is that? Well, first of all, he nailed the evidence and the documentation of our sins. Some of you might only had a letter size page up there on the cross. Some of you might had to have a legal size. Some of you might needed a poster. And some of you might have need a scroll about 10 feet long. But there was enough blood Enough blood that Jesus was able to blot it all out. Blot them all out. And in addition to our sins being blotted out, I also believe that those ordinances refer to all of those curses we were looking at in Deuteronomy 28. And we only look there. There’s more curses in there, folks. There’s more curses in the Old Testament. And all of those, he blotted them out with his blood. Amen. Glory to God. Amen. He blotted it out. He nailed it to the cross. He blotted it out with his blood. And then he triumphed. You know what most people would see as the greatest tragedy? This innocent, good, good man who all he did was go around and heal people and cleanse lepers and open blind eyes and even raise dead people. And he’s a good person. And all his teachings were about love one another. And it’s a tragedy of tragedies that they crucified him in the natural. It looked like the greatest tragedy, the greatest defeat in the kingdom of God. You see, his disciples were broken and they were scared and they fled in fear. Amen. Because they weren’t looking in the spiritual realm. They were looking in the natural realm. And when they looked in the natural, they saw their beloved rabbi with his body broken, bruised and crushed and his back torn open and his face swollen that you couldn’t even tell who he was. And the matted blood where they pulled out his cheeks. And the thorns on his head that pierced his whole eyes were… You’ve seen people that have been in horrible accidents and they take a picture of them in the ICU and they don’t even look human. Well, Jesus was worse than that. Because it says in Isaiah 52, I believe verse 14, that his face was marred more than any man so that they didn’t recognize him. And the women, as they looked up at him, they smoked their breasts to look at him. And you see in the natural, that is what they were seeing. Looking in the natural realm. They saw the body of their precious Lord hanging on a cursed tree. They knew the scripture. Amen. And they saw that the religious leaders were mocking him. He said God would save him. Well, let’s see if God comes and saves him. Amen. They saw even that thief mocking him saying, well, if you are the son of God, why don’t you come off the cross and save yourself? And while you’re at it, save us too. They were seeing and hearing all of this. They were hearing Jesus cry out. Amen. The seven statements from the cross. They saw all of this, but they did not see what was happening in the supernatural realm of darkness. They didn’t see what was going on. In that realm. Amen. Because they didn’t see. That Jesus. Went down into the bowels of the earth. He went down into Hades house. He went into paradise. He went into Abraham’s bosom. He ripped the gates off. He said come on boys. Come on Moses. Come on. Come on Enoch. Nope Enoch’s not there. Aha. Amen. He went from righteous Abel. Righteous Abel through everyone. King David and all the beloved. Wonderful prophets like Isaiah and Daniel who told his story hundreds of years beforehand. He went down there and said, come on. It’s time to go to your father’s house. It’s time to ascend on high. Amen. And he led. How many? Oh my, my. How many did he free? The millions who were righteous. According to the righteousness of the Old Testament. Waiting by faith for the Messiah to come. And he came in person. And led them out and led them on high. You see that they didn’t see that. They did not see when Jesus went up to the evil devil and said, give me the keys. And ripped the keys to death, hell and grave out of his hand. They didn’t see that. Amen. They were just visualizing Jesus on that cross. Amen. Amen. And they didn’t see, this is the good part for us, they didn’t see that Jesus stripped Satan. That word spoiled, he stripped Satan. He disarmed him. One translation says disarmed. I like that. He disarmed him of any authority over us. Amen. And he openly triumphed over all the evil angels. The one third of angels that Satan was able to convince to follow him in his folly. Of thinking they could overturn God. Amen. Before all of them, they all saw it. I want you to see that this was, it says it made a show of them openly, all the principalities and powers. And we know that in the book of Ephesians, the sixth chapter, that’s we’re told by Paul, that’s who we’re wrestling against. And he made a show of them openly. They didn’t see that. When he paraded all the righteous and all of them saw it. I mean, I’m telling you, it was open. In other words, I want you to understand that everyone being in the supernatural realm saw this. We’ll start in the third heavens. Who’s up in the third heavens? God, who else? Did I hear somebody say holy angels? Holy angels. How many holy angels? Holy angels. Oh, you are getting clever. You are learning my tricks. Hell, I try to trick you guys. Not to make you look foolish, just because I like to see if you are following. Okay, in case you didn’t hear up here, our astute brother Mike. And then our astute Terry jumped on. Okay, talking about holy angels, I said, how many? They said two-thirds. Two-thirds. Good answer. But we know this, innumerable, uncountable. We don’t know how many, but innumerable angels. So all of them, see, they’ve got supernatural vision. And they’re seeing Jesus go down and do all of this. And they’re high-fiving each other all over the place. And they were rejoicing. Amen? We’re going to step down to the second heaven. Who’s in that heaven? Principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of this earth, of this world, this age and spiritual wickedness in the high places. Wickedness isn’t like something you, okay, this is wickedness. No, it was the angels that are up there. It’s the one-third of the angels that rebelled with Satan in the past. Amen? all of them were watching as Jesus went down into the bowels of the earth and set the righteous free. And he did one other thing. Peter tells you, I didn’t give you the verse, but Peter tells you in one of his books that he went and preached to the angels in Tartaru. And you’re saying, well, where is that? And who are they? It’s a part of In the under part of the world. Part of, you know, when you say hell, people think of burning fire. But there’s a lot, there’s many compartments in the bowels of the earth. Amen? Many. And this word tartaru is a Greek word. And it refers to a compartment in the lower parts of the earth that is utter darkness. And that there are angels there that are chained, waiting for their final judgment. Amen. And many deduce from that that, you know, when the back in Genesis around the sixth chapter, we learn how that angels came down and they mated with women and they produced the giants and that sort of thing. So maybe it’s those angels. It’s some angels that rebelled against God at some point at some time that he now has imprisoned in chains in darkness. So that he went down there. He went in that compartment where they are. preached I sure wish somebody would have heard that sermon and wrote it in the Bible don’t you I would have loved to hear that sermon amen it was good so that is what happened amen and so I want you to see that they did not see all that they did not know what Jesus had just gone through and not only that there’s angels that are all over this earth We know about the prince of Persia. We know about the prince of Grisha. We’re told about that in Daniel. I know there’s a prince of Russia. I know that. Amen. There are many princes in geographical places on this earth. Wicked angels in the employment of Satan and what he’s doing. Amen. And all of them saw it because he openly triumphed over them in it. What’s the it? The cross. The cross. It was the cross. That triumphant blood stained piece of wood. Is what redeemed us from the curse. It redeemed us from sickness and infirmity and diseases and demonic oppression. Because on the cross he became the curse. You know when they had beaten Jesus to a bloody pulp. At the whipping post there. When Pilate had him whipped, I really think Pilate thought that they would feel sorry for him, the Jewish people, and then let him go, but they didn’t. And so now his back is hanging shreds of bleeding, mutilated skin. And they took the cross beam of the cross. And told him to carry it. Now he didn’t carry the whole cross. The horizontal beam was called the cross beam. That thing weighed a lot. It weighed something like 60 pounds or something. And they told him you got to carry it. To the place of the cross. To Golgotha. So he had to go through the old streets of the city. Called the Via Dolorosa. But he began to fall down. He couldn’t carry it. He fell beneath the load. And I know that he partly fell beneath the load because he was bleeding and he lost so much blood from what happened to him in Gethsemane and the beating and all that they did to him. His body was weak and trembling, so therefore he was falling beneath the load. But I got to tell you that I also think that one reason why he couldn’t carry it and his body was so weak is because he was carrying cancer. He was carrying all kinds of diseases, all kinds of viruses that come and plague mankind, all kinds of illnesses. Think of any illness you can think. I believe that Jesus was carrying them in his body. Think about that. We automatically can understand he’s carrying my sins in his body. But at that whipping post, I believe that all of those sicknesses and diseases, those 39 stripes covered it all. And I believe that that’s why he was falling beneath it. Did he feel the pain? The chronic pain of things like rheumatoid arthritis, crippling arthritis. Amen. Did he feel the pain when somebody’s having cardiomyopathy and their heart is not working and their chest is full of pain? Did he feel the pain when people can’t breathe because their lungs are all scarred? Did he feel that pain? I believe he did. Amen. Because he had not taken on the sins of the world yet. And he was already fallen beneath the load. Amen. Falling beneath the weight and the load. All right. I’m going to finish with this verse. I have more. I’m not going to push it. I’m going to finish with this. John 19 and 28. Jesus is now on the cross. He’s already taken upon himself all our sickness and disease at the whipping post. He’s taken on himself all of our sins. After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, he said, everybody together, I thirst. Now there was a set of vessel full of vinegar and they filled a sponge with vinegar and they put it upon his sip and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, now I know you want to help me with this one. What did he say? It is finished. And he bowed his head and he gave up his spirit. So, you know, earlier, if we would back up, we would find out that earlier when they first crucified him, that they offered him, you’ll find this in the book of Mark in the 15th chapter, they offered him a pain numbing drink of wine because it was mixed with myrrh. And myrrh was an analgesiac. It deadened pain. And you know what? He refused it. He did not take it. And I’ve heard people say, and I will agree with them, that he wanted to feel everything that he was paying for. Amen. He wanted to feel it. So he refused that. But now he says, I’m thirst. And they go and they give him a drink and he takes it and he drinks it. Why now? Well, I read this and I thought I like that. So I’m going to say it too. It’s because by now his throat was totally parched and dry. Amen. And you know, with me, I get dry mouth. And when I do, it sounds like there’s something wrong with me. Like I got a lisp or something, but it’s because my mouth gets so dry that when I go to speak, my tongue starts like getting stuck and it makes me sound exaggerated. Or like I’m drunk or something. And I’m not. That’s why I really need to be drinking more water. I get this dry mouth. How many have ever had dry mouth that made you seem weird? Okay. So Jesus’ mouth was extremely dry. And he probably could feel that his tongue was not going to work very good. And here’s what this said. And I say, amen. He wanted to make sure that the next thing he was about to say, that he was going to say it with a loud voice. Because the Bible says he spoke with a loud voice. He was going to take the last ounce of his strength in his body. He wanted to make sure that his mouth wasn’t so dry he couldn’t speak it out. What he was about to say. He wanted to say it in a loud voice. He wanted every word to be enunciated. He wanted it to be clear. He wanted them to hear it down in the bowels of hell. Because he was about to come down there and rip off the gates. And he wanted them to hear it. Amen. Because he was about to say. What was he going to say? It is finished. Not only that, I want you to see there was a difference in this particular wine at the end. Because this was sour wine, and it’s not like the spiked wine in the front in the beginning with the myrrh that they wanted to give him, and he said no. This was sour wine, which means it was diluted way down with vinegar. You see that, amen? And this wine was actually the soldier’s wine. You know, them soldiers had to hang around there for hours waiting for these people on the crosses to die. How many knew that? They couldn’t just all walk off. They had to stay there until they had expired. And then towards the end, if they were still alive, they would go and break their knees. Because once they broke their knees, they couldn’t push up and breathe, so they would die quickly. And we know they didn’t break Jesus’ knees because he was already dead. And that fulfilled an Old Testament prophet, not one of his bones. Amen. will be broken in Old Testament prophecy so this was not like the wine that was spiked in the beginning with myrrh this was what the soldiers would have had for their own refreshment and so Jesus said I thirst and he said it is finished it was with the loud voice and it was the cry of someone who has completed a tremendous labor Amen? I mean, it’s not like you’ve been working for three weeks on a jigsaw puzzle that would cover the whole top of this pulpit. And every day you get a few more pieces in. And you have to walk away and say, I’ll come back to you. And you work on it and you come back the next day and the next day. And finally, after about three weeks, you put the last piece in and you say, it is finished. Yeah, well, that’s nothing. This was the labor of the Messiah, the crucified Jesus. Amen. And he wanted to die with victory on his lips. Amen. And he knew that his work was accomplished and he had finished what he told the father. The Greek word is tetelestai. The root meaning is to finish. It can also mean to pay in full. It was used to stamp people’s debts. When they came and made the last payment, they put tetelestai, tetelestai, tetelestai. Paid in full, paid in full. I love it when I can write on that little bottom line on my check, paid in full. The last one on that credit card, amen? That’s what it meant. And so it meant that everything, the debts of sin were paid in full. For our sickness and disease were all paid in full. Everything that was under the old covenant that required redemption was paid in full. Amen. That meant there didn’t have to be another lamb, another bullock ever offered up. They say, they calculate, that there was probably over a million animals that were slain from the law of Moses and going forward. A million animals. They didn’t need this offer anymore because Jesus, with his one sacrifice, he paid in full every debt for our sin and for our healing. And for any curses. You hear a lot of people talking about curses. Do this and do that and do the other. You know just have faith in the blood of Jesus. Just have faith in the cross. And quote these verses. That’s all you need. Amen. Because Jesus disarmed him. I’m going to stop here. But in closing I want to say one thing. Every time. Someone. Receives their healing. Jesus receives the reward of his sufferings. Every time someone is healed in the name of Jesus, Jesus receives his reward for all of his suffering at the post and on the cross. Amen. That’s why God wants you healed. Amen. Amen. And I didn’t go into it, but you can do it on your own. You go to Hebrews 12 and read the first three verses. For the joy that was set before him. He endured the cross. He despised the shame. But guess what? He receives his rewards every time a soul is saved. And every time a sick person is healed. In Jesus’ name. Come on, let’s everyone stand together if you will. Amen, amen, amen. Glory to God. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Amen. God never afflicts his children with disease. All sickness and disease come from Satan. It is part of the curse first caused by sin in the garden and passed down to us. But Galatians 3.13 declares that on the cross, Jesus redeemed us from the curse. As it is written, cursed is he that hangs on the tree. Jesus not only had to die for our sins and sickness, but he had to die on the cursed cross. Child of God, you are not under the curse because the cross canceled the curse. Today’s message, The Canceled Curse, is part three of Why God Wants You Healed. I urge you, if you’re contending with sickness, to order this complete message today. It is available on a three CD album for a love gift of $20 or more for the radio ministry. Request SK-226. Mail to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or go online to soundoffaith.org. But to order by mail, send your minimum love gift of $20 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Request SK-226. Till next time, this is Sharon Knott saying, Maranatha. Thank you.