Gods Mouthpiece No.4 The Doctor

The reading is from Ecclesiasticus, chapter 38, verses 1 to 15. Honor the doctor with the honor that is his due in return for his services, for he too has been created by the Lord. Healing itself comes from the Most High, like a gift from a king.

The doctor's learning keeps his head high, he is regarded with awe by potentates. The Lord has brought medicines into existence from the earth, and the sensible man will not despise them. Did not a piece of wood once sweeten the water, thus giving proof of his virtue? He has also given men learning, so that they may glory in his mighty works.

He uses them to heal and to relieve pain. The chemist makes up a mixture from them. Thus there is no end to his activities, and through him health extends across the world.

My son, when you are ill, do not be depressed, but pray to the Lord, and he will heal you. Renounce your faults, keep your hands unsoiled, and cleanse your heart from all sin. Offer incense and a memorial of fine flour, and make as rich an offering as you can afford.

Then let the doctor take over, the Lord created him too, and do not let him leave you, for you need him. Sometimes success is in their hands, since they in turn will beseech the Lord to grant them the grace to relieve and to heal, that life may be saved. If a man sins in the eyes of his maker, may he fall under the care of a doctor.

I'd like to introduce to you Dr. Rob Ferguson. Where are you doctoring, Rob? In Lansing. It's lovely to be with you all.

Nice to be amongst friends again. How long have you been here? How can I help you, Tony? Just slip behind me. You don't ask me to take all my clothes off.

They're all. I'll get it in before you do. You've been in Lansing a long time, I think.

Seems like it, 22 years now. Maybe a bit less, but in Worthing for 22 years. It's the way the Lord opened the doors.

Was that your first post? Is that what you call it, a post or a position? It was my first time as a GP, yes. I'd been abroad in Nepal before that. I started with OM before that.

You weren't a doctor with OM, though? Only fleetingly, when hepatitis struck and things like that. Otherwise I was a driver. What are the differences between being a doctor in Nepal and being a doctor here in Lansing? Well, you've got this immense backup in the West, haven't you? You can refer on to consultants.

I've just been back in Nepal for a couple of months and I was staggered at what the so-called GPs in the hospitals there were doing. They were doing harder work than I think the consultants do, with less backup. I was really impressed.

You're a Christian doctor, which is why you're here talking to us tonight. Has that made a difference in the way that you operate as a medical man? Operate? I don't mean technically, do you? No, I don't mean technically. Function.

As you function, yes. Yeah, I'm sure it does, yes. I think I'm almost laughed at for being rather laid back in the practice.

And people have told me stories where I've left someone ranting and raving and said, well, it'll be all right. But I think the Lord gives me a peace and a confidence that He is working and helping. Not necessarily miraculously, but through a calming influence.

And sometimes also I'm very aware that God gives me a pricking of the conscience and it's reminding me that I need to go and look at someone again or reminds me of something I haven't done for the patient. So I think in that way it helps a lot, or He helps a lot. My wife is a nurse and I just don't understand why on Saturdays in the winter she likes to watch casualty.

I thought it was a bit of a busman's holiday. We learn a lot. Patients will come in with it next week.

Okay, so apart from keeping you in work, over the years you must have seen some pretty awful things. We see awful things, tomato juice everywhere on a Saturday night on the TV. But have there been things that you've seen that you've witnessed in terms of human suffering that have been stressful for you as a Christian? Had you been a non-Christian you might have put it aside.

But as a Christian, believing in a God of love, have there been times when you've seen suffering that really has hurt you? Yes, I think the thing that I've found hardest, strange enough, hasn't been the death or the accidents or even the congenital deformities, but sexual abuse. To see the, well actually witness and be involved in the suffering of the youngsters, well actually even middle-aged people who have been abused as children and to feel the incredible anger that they feel. Well I felt, everybody involved felt, and to have to try and feel the forgiveness of the Lord and try and help the abused people towards that forgiveness, that's been really hard.

And just turning that picture around for a moment, you've got these people who are suffering. Does the fact that you've been a Christian in that instance, has that itself been a difference for the patients, do you think? It's very hard for me to tell, isn't it? I would like to think, I mean I work with some colleagues, two of whom are Christians, a non-Christian one is, so we're half and half. And I would say the patients feel as supported and as helped by any of us, because by God's grace we are a caring lot.

We all have different personalities and different strengths. So I wouldn't say that as a Christian I stand out any better as a doctor. Perhaps one might in a non-Christian country, but I think we're blessed by very high standards in this country.

So in one sense our theme is God speaking through doctors. Is it fair then for us as ordinary Christians to think of Christian doctors as taking these opportunities to witness to the Lord and to teach people the gospel? Is that accepted? Well, you mentioned your wife's a nurse, and I think I'd like to bring out here very much the concept of the practice health care team. Now David Hanson will know about this and say I'm into this, and so will your wife, I think.

We're very much part of a caring team, as you know, the district nurses, the midwives, the health visitors, the receptionists, the so-called dragons behind the desk, and I promise you they're not, the counselors that work with us, the CPNs, they all can be involved in listening, caring, loving, suggesting treatment. So it's very much not just the doctor. In Luke's day it was the doctor.

Now we've moved on to the opportunity for Christians, health professionals, Christians to be a witness, and we work together. And if I have a Christian colleague, say a nurse, working with me, I can say to her or him, what about opening, as you're sitting changing the dressing or something, you get perhaps more chance to talk. We're very pressurized, and sometimes you're there to get your job done, and yes, it's difficult to find the opening, and I quite frankly prefer to have some Christians in the area, maybe pastors, maybe keen Christians who aren't necessarily trained as pastors, to refer on to, to contact, to make contact with the patient if I think there's an opening.

Just before the service I saw I was going to ask you this hard question, which is close to my heart, and that is there are instances in life when people just don't seem able to receive words, and very often we think of sharing a gospel, sharing about the Lord as speaking. There are people with severe mental handicap, for example people who are so stressed out that words would mean nothing to them. Are there ways from your experience or your understanding, ways in which these folk can receive the love of God apart from in words? Yes, it's certainly often said in medical circles that the touch that we give, the words we say even if the patient can't respond, goes deep, and I must say I feel I'm weak at that, I'm not a good toucher, but I can see that it's a good point, and although I haven't experienced with the deeply handicapped as you mentioned, I remember when my own mother was dying, she wasn't a Christian, but I was able to sit with her right through the night, so she was breathing very heavily, and barely conscious, and just tell her what a good mum she'd been, and how I loved her, and also mention to her that her mother was waiting for her to go to heaven, to be with her, and I feel that we communicated, although she didn't actually, apart from squeezing my hand, I didn't get any response, so I think it's similar.

Well that's very helpful to me. Thanks ever so much. Thank you.

Well we've got now, I don't know whether it's David and Irene, or just David coming up to talk to us. Two, excellent. Dave, I was delighted to get your phone call on Saturday, can you share with the folk the gist of what you told me? Yeah, some of you know that we came back from Pakistan three months ago, having completed eight years overseas, and we've been looking for a job for the last three months, and it's been quite hard to get back into the health service, but we're really pleased to say that we've got a job up in Bolton, up in the other end of the country, and God has opened up a job up there, in an area where a lot of Pakistanis and Indians are living, so we sense that this is really from the Lord.

The interview went very well, they're very interested in the work I've been involved with in Pakistan, which is unusual, and yeah, we're going this week. Sorry to be leaving everybody, and we really appreciated the support that people have given, and the way people have prayed for us, and showed their concern, so thank you so much. Irene, how do you feel about that now? Well it's nice to have somewhere to go.

As September got nearer, we were beginning to panic, because we felt that God would provide something for us, but we didn't want to say out too loud that God was going to do it, in case he didn't do it. Then we finished our deputation on Sunday night, two weeks ago in Dover, at my parents' church, and the only thing that we had was an interview for David on Tuesday, at Brighton University, to do a back to nursing course. So he did that, got that place on that course, and we thought, well that's something to fall back on, if nothing better comes.

And then after that, he had an interview on Kettering, and then two more interviews, and each time it seemed to get better, and we thought, well, if nothing better comes, we'll settle with that. And God has given us something that, as much as we could have hoped for, our only problem is that it's very, very quick. And school starts in Bolton a week Tuesday, and unfortunately the headmistresses aren't in the schools this week, and so we're going to keep pestering that number, until we get through to somebody to get our kids into school for next Tuesday.

How about somewhere to live? Yeah, we realise when we're up in Bolton on Friday, that we ought to get moving quickly, so opposite where I was being interviewed was an evangelical Anglican church. And we liked the look of the church, because on the notice board, where it said minister, it said, all the members of the congregation assisted by the vicar. So we thought, hmm, this sounds like a good church.

So we banged on the door, the vicar's door, and he invited us in, and we explained our situation. He grasped it very quickly, and said that he'd try and arrange temporary accommodation for us. By the time we got back to Worthing in the evening, he'd phoned and said he's fixed up somewhere for us to stay for the first few weeks, sharing a house with a lady in the church, until we find rented accommodation.

So we thank God for that. That's wonderful. Dave, do you have any comment on my last question to Rob, about the love of God being mediated through his people, to people who can't accept it, or can't understand it in words.

Does that relate to your experience in Pakistan? Yeah, very much so. We had a lot of contact with children with learning disability, with mental handicap, and we saw changes in their behavior, changes in their ability to do simple things, like feed themselves, dress themselves, and to be able to respond to people's love and affection. Often you have to look very carefully to see changes, but I would definitely say that yes, children can respond to people in that way, yes.

Could I burden you to pray for Rob and his team in Lansing, and then I'll pray for you and Irene and the family as you go. Lord, we thank you so much for the way that you have gifted Rob. Thank you for the experience that he's had, both overseas and in this country.

And we thank you for the practice that he's part of. Thank you for the team, and thank you for the way, the acknowledgement, the honesty Rob has, that we as Christians don't necessarily have all the gifts, but those same gifts also seem in those who aren't, don't profess your name. But we thank you Lord for the way that you work in our lives too, and for the way you prompt us, and for the way you enable us to serve you, and we thank you so much for that.

And we pray for Rob that you would continue to use him, give him many opportunities to share your love in a practical way, and the opportunities he has to refer people on to pastors and other churches. We pray that there will be many opportunities. We thank you Lord for Rob and the other Christian doctors in this town.

We pray that you would bless them in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Lord, we want to rejoice with Dave and Irene at this sudden turnaround in their lives, this new opportunity. Thank you for going ahead of them, and thank you too for opening up the hearts of these Christians in Bolton in providing this temporary accommodation. We pray for them in these few days of preparation, that they will be calm and peaceful within themselves, and that the journey up north will go well, that they'll be able to settle into their temporary home, to find schools quickly for the children, to feel at home in a church, and then as Dave finally prepares to begin his work, we just pray Lord that you'll make him your person in that community.

Thank you for the opportunity to use his experience in Pakistan, his Urdu language, in the lives of immigrants and the children of immigrants in that part of the world. Grant Lord that Dave and Irene will be your people, will be salt and light, will be the love of Christ to the hearts and minds of many people there. Bless them as they go, we pray.

We want to pray too for John and Jean left behind. Help them to cope with this extra little sacrifice too, in Jesus' name. Amen.

In him the sinner's found, Who is damned on holy ground, He's here for the glory of the Lord, He's shining over earth with holy fire, Whose splendor He is proud. How awesome is the radiant King of Light, He's here for the glory of the Lord, He's shining over earth with holy fire, Whose splendor He is proud. He comes to bless and heal, To minister His grace, No one too hard for Him, In thanks receive from Him, He's here for the power of the Lord, He's here for the glory of the Lord, He's here for the presence of the Lord, The Holy One in Him.

In him the sinner's found, Who is damned on holy ground, He's here for the glory of the Lord, Thank you, be seated. That reference to standing reminds me of my dad's favorite joke of some wimpish soldier who had a medical and at the end he said to the military doctor, Doctor, how do I stand? The doctor scratched his head and said, Lad, that's just how, what I would want to know. Luke chapter 1, Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed to us by those who from the first were right witnesses and servants of the word.

Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. That was the first book, at least the opening of the first book, written by Dr. Luke. Let's go to the second book, the Acts of the Apostles.

In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. It has been said that a minister sees a man at his best, a lawyer sees a man at his worst, and a doctor sees a man as he really is. Charles Spurgeon had an impish sense of humor.

In his late 20s, he decided to take out an insurance policy. The question was, Who is your general practitioner? He supplied the answer. I've got a facsimile of this insurance policy.

The next question was, Have you ever seen any specialist? And Spurgeon said, No. I am of the conviction that one doctor is quite sufficient if you want to remain healthy. Jesus said, and he repeated it three times, It is only the healthy, or rather, it is only the sick who need a doctor.

He put it with this negative. It is not the healthy who need a doctor. It is those who are infirm.

And our Lord in his ministry, he complimented the work of doctors. He didn't cancel it out. He didn't suggest that they were operating at a lesser faith basis.

Twinned with his preaching, and often the launching pad for what he had to say, was his own incredible ability to heal disease. Now, if you're a doctor, you do have a couple of limitations. A doctor cannot work miracles.

Medical discovery, it moves in mighty leaps. It leapt straight past the common cold, and gave it us for keeps. Doctors cannot perform miracles.

Doctors cannot save souls. The most remarkable doctor I met in Worthing, with the exception of this evening's contribution from one GP, I must say that in case I move to Lansing one day, was a man called Gustafson, who actually was the visionary behind St. Barnabas's, the cancer hospice. Gustafson and I were good friends, though he was considerably older.

And I remember him telling me that on one occasion, he had an article accepted by the Lancet, that's the in-house magazine of a medical profession, in which he was arguing that doctors ought to start to give a little more time in preparing people to die. But by and large, doctors don't do that. Doctors, I repeat, cannot work miracles, and they cannot save souls.

Now, let's bear those two things in mind and bring it to Scripture, because obviously that's the most important thing. What does Scripture have to say about doctors? Well, you have an example in the third gospel and the history of the Christian church, the fifth book in the New Testament, of the work of a man who was a doctor, Dr. Luke. It seems that he came from Antioch, and there he met up with Paul.

And he stayed with Paul for part of the first missionary journey, and then it seemed as though they separated for a while, and then he picked up his friendship again with Paul and was his constant companion to the end of his life. And what you get in the Acts of the Apostles and in the gospel of Luke, unpunctuated three times in the letters that Paul wrote, are the account of a man as a doctor who reports the ministry of Jesus, the exciting story of the early church, and who receives from his life's companion three particular accolades. For the apostle Paul says of Luke in Colossians chapter 4 and verse 14, he is a beloved physician.

If you check through the record of the Acts of the Apostles, you will find that there are a number of nautical terms. Now, Luke is a great handler of the Greek language. The best Greek in the New Testament comes from the pen of Luke.

But occasionally his nautical terms are not quite accurate. Somebody has suggested, and I rather like the suggestion, because he did live at Antioch, it was a seaport, that perhaps for a while he was a sea doctor, maybe a ship's doctor. And then one day he heard of the Lord Jesus.

Or maybe he had become interested in Judaism, and therefore he embraced the faith. The term that we give to this is a proselyte. This, of course, I can't prove.

But what we do know about Luke, and it obtains today, I think, for most GPs, and that is that he exercised a considerable influence. I mean, the man to whom he refers in the opening verse of the Gospel and of the history, Theophilus, it seems as though this man, by his title, was some high up in the Roman government, and that Luke had contacts at that level. Luke is not a Jew.

He is a Gentile. And he's come to an appreciation in his ministry that being a medical practitioner, though satisfying, is not all that God wants him to do. There is a book by a man called Eusebius, which is, of course, prime reading for all our elders before they join the tabernacle.

It's called the Historica Ecclesiastica. And if you believe that our elders have read that, then you'll believe anything. And it says, Luke, who was by race an Antiochian and a physician by profession, was long a companion of Paul and had careful conversation with the other apostles and in two books left an example as examples of the medicine for souls from which he had gained from them.

The medicine for souls. One of the men who taught me most in life, Martin Lloyd-Jones, was a doctor, a brilliant doctor in London, a noted heart specialist in the 1930s. The reason why he left his profession was though he honored the practice of a doctor and maintained it to some time during the whole of his life, he nonetheless felt that to cure souls, to be a physician of souls, was equally or rather of greater importance.

Now, Luke obviously thinks this way too. He's a man of tremendous compassion. That's why the apostle Paul calls him the beloved physician.

And some of us have every right to thank the Lord, whether our doctor is a Christian or not, for the loyalty and the affection that they direct towards us. Paul, who makes this comment about his GP, so to speak, a beloved physician, well, he was a weak man or it seems to me that there is overwhelming evidence to support this in the New Testament. A diminutive man who, when he's writing to the Galatians, says of them, had it been possible, you would have taken your very eyes out for me with the suggestion, it's not a dogmatic conclusion that I can draw, but it's a reasonable hypothesis that Paul actually suffers from some very bad eye disease, perhaps glaucoma.

He certainly found himself often in malaria infested places. And can you not see Luke alongside? Or else why would Paul call him the beloved physician? And how was it that Paul later on, advising the young Timothy, who seemed to have some gastric problem, that a recourse to wine as a medicine would perhaps be a good thing to do. So the apostle would not have actually agreed with this little statement, God and the doctor we alike adore, but only when in danger, not before.

The danger o'er both the light requited, God is forgotten, and the doctor slighted. Luke did not forget his God, or rather Paul did not forget his God, nor his doctor. But he goes on from Colossians, writing to the Philippians, and he speaks of Luke in these words.

He says, Luke is my fellow worker. I like that term, physician of the soul. It seems to me that if a doctor is to move from one profession to another, he's actually extremely, or she, is extremely well suited to teach the Bible.

Because you see a doctor by their very training has a sort of diagnostic approach. I mean, he sees a man, he sees a woman, he sees his patient, and he's immediately analyzing. In fact, I wonder sometimes if doctors ever get any rest.

I mean, those who are doctors are part of the medical profession. In the tab, you sort of let your eyes range around the balcony and think, well, that one's not so good. Yeah, yeah.

Do you relax? I don't know. I mean, you have this trained mind. And here is Luke with a trained mind.

Here's Lloyd-Jones with a trained mind. Here are a host of missionary doctors, for Luke is the first of a grand company of doctors down history who will be pioneer church planters. He brings his mind as a doctor to theology.

And he's concerned. Concerned to give us the full record of the life of Jesus. Concerned to give us the facts concerning Mary particularly.

I've always felt that the Christian church owes an incalculable debt to Luke for having the mouse towards probably the end of his life to look out the apostles who could give him information for his researchers and to take some time as he must have done with Mary. I love the authorized versions, depiction of the nativity story and the conception of Mary. And it seems to me that not only is there a beauty of language, there is also a sensitivity of mind that speaks out of a doctor.

And Luke's very concerned for us to know not only the three years of Jesus' public ministry, but he wants us to be in on the sort of gynecological process whereby which Jesus came into this world. And we thank Luke for his frankness and for not backing off from giving us evidence that indicates that Jesus' birth was so spectacular. The only conclusion, the only diagnosis you can make is that he was born of a virgin.

So here is Luke and in Paul's estimate, he's not just my beloved physician, he is my fellow worker, he's a fellow teacher, he's a theologian and instructor alongside me. And then finally, and this isn't a contrived sort of scheme for an address, there are just these three comments that fall from the lips or from the pen of Paul in 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 11, references made to Luke as my faithful friend. Here is Paul and he's got towards the end of his life and he's in great difficulty.

It seems impossible to us to conceive that Paul, who had won so many people to Jesus, could ever be lonely. And I want to tell you that one of the faulty conclusions that is sometimes drawn about Christian leadership is that the leader himself is strong and invulnerable and doesn't need help or support. And here is Paul in his loneliness and he dashes off a letter to Timothy who in effect has become his adopted son.

And he says, you know something, Timothy, everybody's left me. Only Luke is with me. And to the end of his days, according to that Latin book to which I made reference a little while ago, Luke is alongside Paul.

Luke was from Antioch of Syria, a physician. He was a disciple of the apostle Paul and later accompanied him until the latter's martyrdom. He served the Lord without distraction and at the age of 84 he fell asleep in Boeotia full of the Holy Ghost.

Such is the information that we're given about Dr. Luke. He was a medical man and if you read the Gospels you'll find reference particularly to medical conditions in the third narrative that tells of the life of Jesus. But Luke would have made it very clear to you had you spoken to him and indeed he makes it transparently obvious in the books that he wrote that he does not only have a concern for your physical well-being, he is even more concerned for your spiritual.

That's why he talks so much about Jesus and the miraculous conception and the death of Christ on the cross and the mighty resurrection. He brings the trained brain of someone who knows how to engage in diagnosis. He lays one fact upon another fact and when you are through reading his Gospel you have this picture of Jesus Christ that not only is he the healer of the body, he is the savior of the soul.

And Luke asks you the question as I ask it for him right now. Repeating the statement of Jesus, do you recognize your spiritual ill health to the extent that you can be passed from the surgery of Dr. Luke to, I speak with respect, the even more wonderful surgery of Jesus Christ. Are you aware that his life and his death and his resurrection is the prescription and the only prescription that can deal with your sin.

Paul thanked God for a beloved doctor, for a fellow worker, and for a faithful friend. Do you thank God for the physician that Luke spoke so clearly about? Has he become your savior? Have you received healing from him? Have you asked for your sins to be forgiven? Let's bow our heads in prayer and listen to my good friend Jeff pray very softly on the organ what will be our last hymn tonight. It's a beautiful song.

We're going to sing it in a moment, but let's hear the melody. At even ere the sun was set The sickle lord around thee lay O'er in what divers pains they met O'er with what joy they went away Once more tis even tied And we oppressed with various ills drawn near What if thy form we cannot see We know and feel That thou art here Verse 3, let's stand and sing this feeling fully. Verse 43 Just be seated.

Thank you for your patience. Tony, just come and commit. Jeff, just remind us where you're going and what you're doing.

I'm going to India and I'm going as part of a Christian band and it's going to do some concerts over there. Leaving when? We're leaving next weekend. I think it's on a Saturday.

It's just been changed. And how long will you be away? I'll be away for two and a half weeks. Okay.

Let's pray for you Jeff. Lord, we do thank you for this brother and we thank you for his input into our lives week by week as he plays his instruments and leads the worship. Thank you for his effort in moving towards this Big Vision concert in October.

Lord, we pray for Jeff as he leaves now next weekend. Grant that he and his colleagues will have good journeys, that they will be kept safe and in good health and good spirits as they travel around that wonderful nation of India. We pray Lord that this international music, international language of music, this international youth culture will be one that can be permeated by your love as Jeff and his colleagues play.

Grant that many young lives in India will be touched with an understanding of who you are, of who our Lord Jesus is and how their lives can be turned around through knowing him. And we pray Lord that when Jeff comes back that he will be rejoicing, that we might rejoice with him. Help us to stand with him in prayer.

And grant Lord too that when he's away our lives will be blessed by your input here as we stay in living. Thank you again for Jeff. Thank you for calling him to this time in India.

Go with him, bless him and make him a blessing we pray. In Jesus' name, Amen.