Is There No Balm in Gilead 1973

The physician can see that his friend's rash and fever are not just minor symptoms, but they are part of a deadly syndrome which spells very quick and certain death if this disease isn't taken care of quickly. Moreover, the physician knows exactly what to do for his friend. With a little bit of cooperation, this man can be completely cured within two months.

But if the friend laughs it off and refuses to take warning, what can the physician do? The man's wife pleads with him. Fred, listen to your friend. You're not well.

You've lost a lot of weight. You're getting weaker every day. Go to him.

Do what he says. Woman, get off my back. I'm all right.

After Christmas, we'll take a vacation down south and get some sunshine and rest. He gets weaker every day. And on Christmas Eve, he collapses on the living room floor and dies.

At the funeral, people stand around and shake their hands. This man had a curable disease. His best friend was a doctor.

Why didn't the man do something for him? But the doctor was never given a chance. And if there is sickness in the body of Christ, and the people who make up that body don't admit that it's there, what can the physician do? From Jeremiah 8.18 My grief is beyond healing. My heart is sick within me.

Hark the cry of the daughter of my people from the length and breadth of the land. Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her king not here? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images and with their foreign items? The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved. For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded.

I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is the health of the daughter of my people not restored? Now when Jeremiah spoke these words to the people of Jerusalem, they scoffed at him. What's wrong with you, Jeremiah? We're all right.

Jerusalem is in good shape. You're the one who's sick. And the city of Jerusalem went on about her business.

The priests up there in the temple were busy preparing the sacrifices and looking after the crowds. And the king and his court were taking up with their social life. And down in the marketplace there was all kind of food and all kinds of articles for sale and plenty of money to buy.

Granted, there were wars going on all around Israel. And granted, there was a rumor that the Chaldean army was moving up toward Jerusalem. And that it was going to lay it to siege.

But it just didn't seem real. As the months went on, things really began looking bad. And Jeremiah kept pleading with the people, turn to God! And the leaders of Jerusalem continued to protest, everything is all right.

All our problems are only minor. And even when the Chaldean armies finally did surround the city and laid it to siege, and nobody could come and go from the gate, and food became scarce, and water was short, and people began to die, still the leaders of Jerusalem insisted that things were all right. Not until it was too late.

Not until the Chaldean armies broke through the walls, and the king of Jerusalem fled and was captured, and his sons were killed before his eyes, and then his eyes were gouged out, and the temple was burned to the ground, and the people were led away as slaves. Not until there was no possible way in which they could say, Jeremiah, you're wrong! Not until that point did they say anything but, Jeremiah, you're wrong. You're wrong, Jeremiah, get out of here! And all this was so unnecessary, Jerusalem could have been healed.

Long before her disease came to the place where it was really fatal, Jeremiah could see, as could anybody else with eyes, that her sickness was there, and it needed to be cured. But nobody would listen to him. And he would cry out, why is this? Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician here? Now, in the body of Christ, here in this place, across this city, and in many other places, we are seeing symptoms which, taken by themselves, don't appear to be very serious.

The odd brother and sister falling away, what's so unusual about that? Brothers and sisters have been falling away from the faith since the beginning. Many are called, few are chosen. Believers at each other's throats, that was going on back in apostolic days.

Disciples turning lukewarm, compromising. People whose lives had been made pure, now turning back into immorality. Laborers getting weary, love growing cold.

Men and women of God losing that vision of the kingdom. And we could go on naming all kinds of things. But these symptoms in themselves, bad as they are, are not the real problem.

The real problem is twofold. And it is exactly what Jeremiah ran into. Nobody will admit that there's anything seriously wrong in a body.

And nobody will pay any attention to the physician who stands in her midst with healing. Now, true, if we have a wounded thigh like Jacob had after he wrestled with the angel of the Lord, if we have a thorn in the flesh like St. Paul, these things don't frustrate the power of God. As a matter of fact, they help it.

God's strength is made perfect in our weakness. See, but when we are sick with unbelief, when we're sick with anger, when we're sick with fear, when we're sick with a hard heart, when we're sick with covetousness and lust, and envy and hypocrisy, and when these things infect the whole body and everybody goes on pretending we're all right, we're well, then we're in trouble. Now, surely these things, of course, went on in the apostolic church.

And what did the Lord do about it? He called it to repentance. Read chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation. Remember then from what you have fallen and repent.

Remember what you have received and heard. Keep that and repent. If you will not awaken, I will come like a thief, and you won't know at what hour I will come upon you.

There is a balm in Gilead, and there is a physician standing right in the midst of his people with eyes like flames of fire, feet like burnished brass. In his hand he holds the seven stars. Out of his mouth protrudes a sharp two-edged sword.

And his face is like a noonday sun, shining in full strength. The question is, when will his people admit that they need his healing touch? When will they turn to him for cleansing and forgiveness as a people? Something is wrong throughout the city of Detroit. Something is wrong.

Something is sick. And the thing that the body of Christ in the city of Detroit needs is not more therapeutic meetings, more clinics, more seminars, more conventions, more conferences. These things don't bring life, and don't be misled by the size of the crowds you see here and there.

And don't be lulled to sleep by the fact that every once in a while you hear somebody praising God. Sure, there are meetings all over town, and Bible studies, and church services, and there are lovely crowds in many places, but the fact remains that the work is not getting done. The Lord of the Harvest is calling laborers into his harvest.

And it appears that they're coming. They come to meetings. But the harvest stands there, still waiting to be reaped.

Ninety percent of the energy in our fellowships is spent taking care of ourselves, babysitting each other, sympathizing with each other, exhorting each other, rebuking each other, gossiping about each other. While we're doing this, over here are brothers and sisters who really need attention. Brothers and sisters inside the fellowship, and they're not even getting it.

Nobody knows about them. They don't fit the mold. Their problems aren't like mine.

They're not serious. Also, we keep wrestling with temptations and inner conflicts inside, and then with what little bit of strength is left, we go out to proclaim the kingdom of God, and the world looks at us and says, that's the kingdom of God? Thank you anyway. I'll take big time.

This city isn't getting the impact of the gospel, nor will it if we bring in five Billy Grahams at once, and ten Pat Boones, and eight Dave Wilkersons, and anybody else at five will multiply WBFG by ten. Still no impact. The Christians will be listening to Christian radio, and they'll be talking to each other, but still no impact.

Until the body of Christ in this city is healed, cleansed, raised out of its drunken stupor, lifted out of its preoccupation with itself, made to stand on its own two feet, and given a voice that can really be heard. And all it takes is for some assembly of believers somewhere to admit that it needs healing, not just for its sore backs and its frayed nerves, but that it needs healing for the entire body, the assembly. All that it takes is some congregation somewhere to admit that it is not what God called it to be, and to quit pointing the finger at this guy and that fellowship and these people over here, and to begin instead to weep before God for its corporate sin and its corporate death.

As he drew near to the gate of the city, behold, a man who died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a large crowd from the city was with her. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said, Weep not. Weep not, he said to this woman, and then he raised her son from the dead.

He was drawn to that woman with resurrection light by her weeping, which wasn't just tears, but it was a broken heart. Woman, why are you weeping? He says to Mary Magdalene at the tomb. Then he manifests to her the resurrection light that is now his.

Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Jesus will come to his church with power to raise it from the dead when he finds her mourning for her dead condition. Mourning, not criticizing.

Many of us are highly critical of things that are going on in the body and things that are wrong. But a critical spirit never brings light. All a critical spirit ever brings is more death.

And some of us feel that we're quite gifted with discernment. We're busy discerning all the problems in the body and the personal problems and the demons that possess these people and those people and this group over here. And we get quite impatient with the people who don't appreciate our deep insight.

But while we are busy discerning and diagnosing and criticizing, there is one thing we are failing to do. We are failing to admit that we are part of the disease. We're not the physician.

We're part of a sickness. The physician stands in our midst waiting to heal us. Waiting for us to come down off our self-righteous pedestals and admit that we're part of the disease.

He was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our inequity. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed.

Now the bread that you're going to eat today is not just a body that has been broken for some body else's healing. It's not even a body that was broken for your healing before you became a believer. It is the body of Christ broken for the healing of your present disease.

The body of Christ broken for the healing of your sickness of pride and self-righteousness and unbelief that you walked into this room with. And the wine just bloodshed for other people's sins. Not even bloodshed for the sins that you committed before you became a believer.

It is the blood of the Son of God, the Lamb of God shed for your sin of rebelliousness. Harness of heart against his mercy that you brought with you today. Jesus had so much more to give us than we now have.

Us, forget about the other people who need him so badly. What about you and me? But forgiveness and healing cannot come in and transform us until we admit to face the truth about ourselves. May God give us the power to draw near to the only physician on this earth or anywhere else who can heal us.

There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole. There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin sick soul. There is a physician standing in the midst of the children of Zion who is able to make them strong with the strength of God right now.