Health-Crisis

[0:00] Health crisis. Think of the health crisis that's going on.!

[0:30] You check for the vital signs. If I had someone to be a model I could demonstrate but I won't do that. But you check for the vital signs and you administer first aid, life support.

[0:40] Now I know the gospel of St John's. Who's ever done a St John's course, a first aid course? I think they've changed it a bit since I did one. But they call it Dr ABC.

[0:52] So you're going to have a short first aid lesson this morning. Dr ABC, alright? You check for danger. Response, airway, breathing, circulation.

[1:03] So you step outside, there's someone lying on the footpath or on the roadside. It's a health crisis. This person, this body needs treatment. So what do you do? You check first for danger. Are there any road hazards?

[1:19] You don't want to get run over while you're helping. Maybe there's live electricity cables. Be careful. Danger. Now let me try by my best attempts here to draw from this kind of analogy to something spiritual, alright?

[1:36] Because there's a lot of analogy here in what I'm talking. So hopefully you can follow me. Now the Bible calls the church the body of Christ.

[1:48] Picture this injured person as representing the church, the body of Christ. When you see such a sight, you administer Dr ABC.

[2:02] Danger. Spiritually speaking, the church faces danger. I put to you, there's danger. Deception, error. It's out there.

[2:14] But we don't always notice it. There's wolves that can devour the flock. Yet sometimes we're too busy with the sheep fighting the fleas and ignoring the wolves that are there.

[2:28] There's danger, right? It seems like the church has a health crisis. And with this person that's needing first aid, you check for signs of life, for response.

[2:42] You go down to that body and you say, you give them a little shake. Hey, wake up! I put to you that the body needs a wake up call. A shake up!

[2:54] Likewise, God calls out to the church, the body of Christ. He wants a response. Wake up! Are we listening? He wants a response.

[3:05] When you go to that body in giving first aid, you check the airway. Is it blocked? You know, the tongue can sometimes block the airway. Or something that they've eaten can choke them.

[3:17] Check the airway. What about spiritually? Spiritually so. We've talked about it lately, of hindrances, of blockages to spiritual life, of the word of life.

[3:28] What's stopping us receiving from God? Is there a blockage? As you give first aid, you check for breathing.

[3:42] You go down to the body and you feel if there's breath coming out of the body. As the body of Christ, we, the church, need the breath of God. God breathed into Adam, didn't he, in the garden.

[3:55] We need the spirit, or breath, same word, to do a work, to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Is the breathing right? And in giving first aid to that body out there, you check for circulation.

[4:09] Is there a pulse? What about spiritually? How's that pulse? Is there a health crisis in the body of Christ, the church? I'll put to you that there can be a health crisis in the body of Christ.

[4:23] We need a check-up. How is it? How is our spiritual pulse? Have we the heart of God, his heartbeat? How are we doing as a church?

[4:34] Do we need a spiritual check-up? So hopefully you're following the analogies here. That first aid, the health crisis of needing a spiritual check-up.

[4:45] Because there's a health crisis in the church. Is the church dead or alive? I'll put to you the psalm that you could reckon there's a deadness. The life is lacking.

[4:56] How's your health? It's a common question we can ask people. How are you doing? Meaning, how are you well? It's a common question, isn't it? What about your spiritual health?

[5:08] I used to work in the health sector. And the world does a lot of good stuff to look after people's bodies. But they miss the spirit, don't they?

[5:21] They might look after the psyche, the soul, the mind. They give help to body, to mind. But they miss the spirit. How's your spiritual health?

[5:32] It's probably more important than the other, isn't it? The body, the mind. It's the spirit. What about the spirit? How's our spiritual health? What about the health of the church, I'll put to you?

[5:44] That's what I'd like to kind of zoom into, if you like. If you can follow the analogies enough to think, yeah, there is a health crisis going on. We see John writes in the third letter of John, chapter one, verse two.

[5:59] He says, God wants us to be in health. He says, in health. Now, in health here, we're going to revisit this phrase that sits behind this word, this phrase, in health.

[6:18] A little later, we'll unpack that a bit more. In health, this phrase, in health, it means healthy, without disease. The word here, it means sound health, to be well, to be in health, to be whole.

[6:32] And I put to you, we need a checker as a church. Check the condition of the body. That body. Check the body. What's its condition?

[6:43] What about the church? Is the church alive and well? Or sickly? Worse, dead. The church is a body.

[6:54] We know this familiar site here. You can see this is dated. It's not got a flat screen. It's got the old fashioned phone here. But the old norm of life being in it.

[7:07] What's the condition of the body? It's a bit like this one. A little run down, in poor shape, out of condition. Friends, I put to you, the church can be spiritually weak and sick.

[7:21] Think of it. Look at the new fashioned church of today. The popular church. It's kind of lost the power that it once had.

[7:33] It's full of new methods and gimmicks. But it's unlearned some things too. It's no longer a Bible believing church. We see how some churches had a good start, but they're kind of, something's gone.

[7:48] It's lost something. The evangelistic fervour, the gospel zeal is gone. It's lost. And some, you could say, such a body, a church body, it's not healthy.

[8:02] It's actually sick. It's a bit run down. And we could think of the new improved religion of today as it's alike to what happened in David's day.

[8:14] As one example, there's an ecumenical bandwagon, a new car, newfangled efforts of the flesh. 1 Chronicles 13, in the context verse 4, it says, When they floated the idea, all the congregation said they would do so.

[8:30] It was right in the eyes of all the people. David had this idea of carrying the ark of God on a new cart.

[8:40] And the context there is, of course, moving the most holy object of the ark of the covenant. Really, a very precious place where the presence of God was manifest.

[8:55] And God had directed clearly how the ark was to be carried on the shoulders of the priest. There was clear instructions of what to do. And it says, verse 7, and they carried the ark of God in a new cart.

[9:10] It had all the bells and whistles. It was the finest cart that man could make. Verse 8, and David and all Israel played before God. It says, with all their might, and with singing, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets.

[9:28] They had the whole band there. A lot of gusto and zeal. But the new cart idea was wrong. It was popular. Everybody wanted it.

[9:40] It says it was right in the eyes of all the people. They put it to a vote. And they said, yeah, 100%, we're behind you, David. But it was wrong. It was what the ungodly Philistines did to transport the ark.

[9:55] So everyone just went along with the idea, even though it was wrong. And we can make the same mistake as a church, as churches, as churches can often do, as pastors can.

[10:07] Pastors can mistakenly do. What seems popular? What seems pragmatic? But it's disobeying God. And we've all got to be careful of that. We see modern day religion creates a compromising church.

[10:20] And there's much shallowness there. It's not the new cart that we need. It's the old school that we need to enrol in. We don't need a new message. We need a new emphasis on the old message.

[10:33] Think of what the church used to be. If you check the pulse, check the health, put the thermometer in, check the health condition. Think of what the church used to be back in the book of Acts.

[10:46] It was militant. In the letter of Jude, he urges, I exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith, contend for, earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

[11:03] The early church had a fight. Our forefathers contended. But what of us? We've lost our fight. That fighting spirit.

[11:15] There's a fight going on. In the theme of health, are we fighting fit? There's a phrase, fighting fit. They condition the athletes, don't they?

[11:26] The boxers, the wrestlers, to be fighting fit. We've got a contention, a fight to fight. And I put to you, sometimes we need to contend against the creeps.

[11:37] Now let me explain. To creep means to develop or slowly advance by imperceptible degrees. It's like the old analogy of the frog in the kettle.

[11:49] You put the frog in the kettle and it just sits there until it gets boiled to death. Not realising, not knowing what's happening. It creeps up on the frog.

[12:00] It's like the frog. And things can creep up. I put to you, health wise, spiritually health wise, there's a creeping that goes on. And really it's the worst of enemies.

[12:12] Because it happens bit by bit. And I put to you down through church history, in present times, there's a lot of creeping. Creeping in doctrine. Creeping in changing the gospel such that it's not the gospel anymore.

[12:28] And the devil is waging an all out war against God and godly standards. We should contend for the faith. And there's a creeping we've got to be careful of. When you think of how your health can decline, it kind of creeps up on you, doesn't it?

[12:43] Oh, actually I'm not as strong as I used to be. I'm not as fit as I used to be. It kind of creeps up on you. And we've got to be careful of the creeps, the creeping.

[12:57] Because we're in a spiritual war, the Bible talks about how there's an attack going on. And the enemy's plot is to attack. To attack the family, morality, the church.

[13:09] And it's happening like Isaiah prophesied of how it comes in like a flood. But thank God, when the flood side of evil comes, we've got the spirit of the Lord as our resource, our strength.

[13:22] And so the old fashioned church used to stand strong on the word of God. They didn't follow the world's fads and fashions. They weren't woke, inclusive or ecumenical.

[13:34] But now we see it's a different style now, isn't it? The early church faced that pressure to conform to sinful society. But they chose rather to obey God than men.

[13:49] What's the health like? That body. There's a sickness in the church. I put to you there's a sickness in the church. The church is sick. It's lost its zeal.

[14:01] And we need reviving. Look at that body. That needs reviving, right? That body out there needs reviving. The answer is revival. It's a restoring.

[14:12] A reviving like that body by the roadside needs revival. The church of God needs revival. God's life. That's the theme. So we see that we need to be anointed with fresh oil.

[14:28] As the psalmist cried in Psalm 92 verse 10. We need a fresh anointing. It's the same as the early church had. It's not different. But it's again God's anointing.

[14:41] Not noise and emotion. Some churches have a lot of that. But they don't have the true touch of heaven. And like as when Samuel anointed David, we need to go back to that anointing, that unction of God.

[14:57] The old church had it in the old upper room. That's what they had, isn't it? They had the anointing. They didn't have Bible schools and padded pews and pretty buildings and programs.

[15:13] But they had the old power. The Holy Ghost. The Holy Passion. And friends, the Holy Spirit has been moving since Genesis chapter 1 verse 2.

[15:24] God's power and life. So think of it. As we think of this theme of spiritual health, the health condition of the church. When there's a body in the hospital, they often check the body temperature, don't they?

[15:38] They check, they put the thermometer in, they check for the temperature. Because it's a gauge. Is it cold, lukewarm? Has it got a fever?

[15:50] What's the temperature of our church? Now I was checking the temperatures before, so it's hopefully just right. But think about spiritually, what's the temperature? How are we travelling?

[16:02] We think of a theme of boundaries, of landmarks. Proverbs 23.10. The Proverbs writer says, remove not the old landmark.

[16:15] And landmarks were like these loose stones laid in furrows of an open field. They could easily be moved, shifted, little by little, bit by bit. And some things have moved from where God wants them to be.

[16:29] There's a picture there of a landmark. It was marked. It was meant to be stationary and firm. But there's a lot of shifting been going on.

[16:40] Like that creeping we talked about. And so a lot of churches, they once had the power, now they're cold, worldly, weak, sickly. Friends, God wants his body, the body of Christ, to be strong and healthy.

[16:54] There is hope. Even in a valley of dry bones, as Ezekiel saw. Where he saw God's people like this scattered bones, these dry bones. But God gave revival right there in the valley of dry bones.

[17:09] In the boneyard. And it's the same for you and me, brothers and sisters. When we might feel spiritually lacking, a lack of God's life in us, revival can come.

[17:22] God's restoring can come. So the church needs a check-up. Now, when doctors look at a body, they can sometimes look at the micro level through a microscope, check out the cells.

[17:34] Think of it. How many cells we have? Your body, they reckon, is maybe 37 trillion cells. Give or take a few million.

[17:45] 37 trillion cells. Think of that. You're an amazing creation. Every one of you. And there's about 5 million blood cells in one drop. One drop of blood.

[17:56] 5 million of these things. Blood cells. 1 million cells in your body die every second. Well, that's a thought, isn't it? Now, don't get too worried because they get replaced.

[18:08] One million cells every second. Bang. Dead. And born. In one day, about 1.2 kilograms of cells die. That's amazing thoughts, isn't it?

[18:21] Cells are dying, but they are born all the time as well. Most of the time. And it makes you think, in a way, as we think of that analogy, that truth that is the body of Christ, that we're like cells in it.

[18:37] We're like parts of the body of Christ. And so, the question is, are we playing our part? In a body, every part has got its proper place and function, its operation to fulfil.

[18:50] All the different parts of our body. And we know when one of the parts breaks down, don't we? When something isn't quite working like it should, it can create havoc. Every member of the body has a function.

[19:03] Think of the body, the DNA, the wonder of it, the mind, the circulation systems, the respiration systems, the reproduction systems, the digestion, the nervous system, the immune system.

[19:17] It's all working together such that you're an amazing specimen today. And it's like that with the body of Christ, that we have these different parts and functions, but we need each other.

[19:30] We're interdependent. And every one of us belongs in the body. So, Paul describes the body of Christ. There's numbers of times. For example, in 1 Corinthians 12, he talks about how the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee, nor again the head to the feet.

[19:48] I have no need of thee. Our Lord is the head of the body and every part has need of each other. We're interdependent. And it's the same with the body of Christ.

[20:00] Get that picture of the body of Christ as this, as it ought to be a healthy organism, that it has order. Paul talks about the order that's in the church.

[20:11] He talks to the Colossians about how there's an order and a steadfastness of their faith. And he says that there's an order. This is a military term.

[20:23] Think of soldiers marching in order. They're drawn up in rank and file. That's the sense of it. It's a battle and it's an order. God wants the church to be orderly. And it talks about how the body has many parts.

[20:36] Just as our human body has many parts. Romans 12 talks about how the body of Christ, many parts, are one body in Christ. Members one of another.

[20:48] So that's the ideal. That the church be healthy, like a healthy body. With all the different parts working and different parts.

[20:59] Get that. Different is good. Every one of us is different. Every one of you has a different role. A different work to do. And there's work for all of us. So it's good that we're different.

[21:11] Because we complement each other. Now it's a fact. You can try this at home. No two cornflakes look the same. Kent, you can try this at home. Pour that packet out on the kitchen table.

[21:25] And there's no two cornflakes look the same. And it's the same with Christians, isn't it? Isn't it? We're all different. Amen. I'm glad you don't all look like me. It's good, isn't it?

[21:36] That we're different. We're all different. And we all complement one another. We're different parts. Like the cornflakes are different. Christians are different. But there's a unity too.

[21:47] That we're together. We're together. There's a healthy unity. Not a disunity that creates dysfunction. But a healthy unity. The body has a unity. And that's a good thing.

[21:58] There was a cartoon of a pastor on the phone. He says, Bad news, Bishop. Our church planting team is divided on whether to call the new congregation First United Church or United First Church.

[22:12] Now, Christians can argue about things that really are no matter, aren't they? Christians don't always get along. That's not a good thing. But I want to put to you that unity is a good thing.

[22:24] We should be united. There's an old saying, United we stand. Divided we fall. So, I'm a unionist. I'm a unionist. I believe in unions.

[22:35] Not trade unions. I actually don't believe in them. But unions like the marriage union. I believe in that. Our union with Christ. The union of believers.

[22:46] The unity of the body. That's a good thing. Like Paul talks about it. He says that he wants them to speak the same thing. That there be no divisions among you. But that you be perfectly joined together.

[22:57] In the same mind. In the same judgment. So, there's strength in unity. As another example, we talked about cornflakes. Think about snowflakes. Snowflakes are frail.

[23:09] But if enough of them get together, they can stop traffic. So, there's a unity. As the snow falls and builds snowdrifts, there's a strength in unity.

[23:20] So, are you in the union? The union. Talking about the unity of the spirit. So, tongue in cheek, I want to say to you today, join the union.

[23:31] Talking about the union that's in the body of Christ. Don't get me wrong. I'm not a unionist. But we see, just as an example to kind of picture this, if you can, that we should join the union of labourers.

[23:46] Because the Bible says we're labourers together with God. We should join the AWU, the Australian Workers Union. We should be labourers. We should be builders too.

[23:57] We should join the BLF, the builders labourers. It says in 1 Corinthians 14, how the body comes together. And Paul says that everything be done to edifying, to building.

[24:08] Be constructive. And most importantly, the most important union is the knitter's union. Now, I know there's some lady folk here who like knitting, as does my wife.

[24:19] And we should join the, I put to you, we talked about the AWU, the BLF. And he said, we should join the TLC, Tender Loving Care. Because we should be knit together in love.

[24:30] We should be knitting together in love. Now, it says we should, it doesn't say we should be knits or nutters, but we should be knitters with a K. We should be knitting together, knitting together.

[24:43] Our hearts knit together in love. I'm being light hearted here, but it's that sense where that unity is all about those pictures, isn't it? We're labouring together, we're building together, and we should be knitting together in love.

[24:56] There's a knit, a close knit aspect to the church. Because God wants us to be together and to be as a togetherness that's functional, like a symphony.

[25:08] God makes us like a symphony, with everyone playing their part in harmony. Different instruments, making a beautiful sound. Are we playing our part in the orchestra, if you can picture that?

[25:20] Are we in tune? God wants us to be that close knit body, that close knit relationship, so that we can bear one another's burdens.

[25:33] We can pray for one another. We can confess our faults to one another. We can build up one another in our holy faith. We can encourage one another. We can provoke one another to love and to good works.

[25:44] So there's all those analogies of that unity of a body, of a symphony, of an orchestra. Even in the game of footy, team unity is the basic ingredient of winning.

[25:58] When every player plays their part, we all benefit. When they play their position, there's victory. So it's like that in the body. There's a good thing about the unity that we have.

[26:11] Different, but together. It brings that health and function of the whole body. When every part plays its part, does its function. As our Lord pictures again of the body, the picture of the body again, 1 Corinthians 12, that the members should have the same care for one another.

[26:28] In Colossians 3, 14, it talks about the bond of charity, the bond of love. In 1 Peter, it talks about fervent love. And it's interesting where it says we should love one another with a pure heart, fervently.

[26:43] The word fervently, apparently, where we get the word translated fervent, it means stretched. It's like a medical term that's used of muscles.

[26:54] So there's a sense where we stretch out our love. It's like a muscle would stretch out. We should stretch out with love. A body can get sick.

[27:06] Friends, we know, I know, you know, that a body can get sick. We can suffer a health crisis. And physically speaking, we've got to take care of ourselves, don't we?

[27:19] Infection can come. A virus. There's cancer. Gangrene. Sometimes there's radical surgery needed.

[27:31] Paul talks about some in 2 Timothy 2, 17, that their word eats like a canker, like cancer, like spiritual gangrene. And so the Bible warns us about dangers to the body, as it were, in that picture of body.

[27:46] Now, I started out by talking about how in 3 John it talks about in health. That there's a prayer there that they would be in health. And it's the same word used here that's translated wholesome or sound.

[28:02] The Bible gives us the remedy for spiritual sickness. And really this is at the heart of this message today. What is the answer for unhealthy condition?

[28:16] Is to get healthy words, wholesome words. The Bible is called wholesome words. This is wholesome.

[28:27] There's nothing added. There's no artificial supplements. It's the genuine wholesome word of God.

[28:38] Paul talks to Timothy about wholesome words. He says, Some would teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words. This word is, I'm not sure how you pronounce it.

[28:51] And we don't make much of the Greek. But there's that sense where there's a value in looking at this underlying word. And this word in health is hygieno. Because we get hygiene.

[29:03] We get the word hygiene of health. It speaks of health. Where we see sound doctrine. This is hygieno. Healthy doctrine. Doctrine is healthy.

[29:14] It's good for us. It's wholesome. It brings health. And Paul warns about those who consent not to wholesome, hygieno words. He talks about some who will not endure sound doctrine.

[29:28] They'll heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. He talks about the faithful word to Titus. He says, Hold fast the faithful word. That you may be able to, by sound, hygieno doctrine, exhort and convince the gainsayers.

[29:45] So, and it also talks elsewhere about being sound in the faith. Titus 1. Sound. Healthy. In your faith. How's your health? Your faith health.

[29:57] How's your doctrine? Is it healthy doctrine? So, it's an interesting thought. God wants healthy words. Wholesome words. He wants healthy doctrine.

[30:09] Healthy teaching. He wants healthy faith. I put to you this three things we should watch out for. If we want to maintain our spiritual health.

[30:24] If we want to keep fit. Talked about that body needs reviving. Talked about the health crisis. There's a sense where we need a spiritual check-up. How are we travelling? How are we doing?

[30:35] Is there something wrong? Are we well? Spiritually well? How's our spiritual health? And then how do we maintain that? How do we keep fit? Now, of course, you've got a perfect specimen here.

[30:46] Or somebody who keeps fit. But I put to you that we call do better. I know I could do better, honestly. And the first one I suggest to pay attention to is diet. How's your diet?

[30:58] We need food. It's our body's fuel. What are you taking into your body? Is it good? Food brings energy, doesn't it? What are we eating?

[31:09] What are the appetites we're feeding? I put to you that, spiritually speaking, many are malnourished. They're undernourished. They're spiritually lacking.

[31:20] The Bible is called, the Bible teaching is called meat. And we see diet is really good. It says in Amos, the Lord prophesies that there will be a famine.

[31:31] People will be starving for the word of God. People are spiritually stunted and starving because the diet is missing that.

[31:43] We see today, it seems in many quarters that the old, old story, the good news, that soul-saving gospel, people don't have it. There's churches you can go to where they don't talk about the gospel, how to be saved.

[31:56] And there's a diet problem, a food problem. A lack of solid food, of that body-building diet that we need. So check your diet.

[32:07] God wants the body of Christ fit and healthy. And secondly, another D is discipline. As well as spiritual food, we need spiritual fitness. And fitness comes from disciplined training.

[32:23] You see how soldiers prepare. They want to keep them fit and trim. They've got to keep doing drill and keep exercising. There's a certain level they've got to meet. Even the police force, they've got certain physical requirements.

[32:37] And the Bible says, Paul tells Timothy, 1 Timothy 4 verse 7, He says, Refuse profane and old wise fables. He says, Rather exercise yourself unto godliness.

[32:52] And this word exercise, just to use another Greek word that underlies this word exercise, is gymnasio. It's saying, train yourself, exercise yourself.

[33:05] Literally go into the gym. As far as your godliness, exercise yourself unto godliness. So there's a picture there of spiritual exercise. If you want to keep healthy, exercise yourself.

[33:18] What about spiritually? How are we travelling that way? Have we got spiritual exercise? How's our muscles, our strength? If we don't exercise the muscles, they'll weaken.

[33:30] Think about the early church, what they had. It was strong, wasn't it? The early church was strong. People like Stephen went to his death. He feared the Lord more than men.

[33:43] We see the church through the dark ages, the Inquisition. The men and women of God feared God more than the flame. What about you and me? How are we travelling spiritually?

[33:55] How's the spiritual muscles? We need to work out. Work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Exercise your faith. Get into training. That's why we have a Bible study.

[34:06] A couple of Bible studies in this church. It's training. It's gymnasium. Go into the gym. Exercise yourself. Train yourself.

[34:17] It's saying unto godliness. And we see, sadly, there's much lightness out there. Jeremiah 23 talks about how those who prophesy false dreams.

[34:29] He says there's some who will cause God's people to err. They'll bring error and false teaching through lies and lightness.

[34:41] There's a lot of irreverence and carelessness out there. Worldliness. The teachings of many popular TV preachers, it's actually false. They're teaching lies.

[34:52] It's light like fairy floss. It's not God's truth. So check your diet again. Wise up to that. Watch out. What are you taking in? Is it spiritual junk food?

[35:03] Got to be careful what goes in. In contrast, we see the Bible speaks about God's refreshing. Think of reviving again. This dead body or this dying body needs reviving.

[35:17] In Acts 3.19, it says that refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord. Now this word refreshing, it could be understood as recovery of breath.

[35:28] Recovery of breath. Now that body is going to lose its puff. It's going to stop breathing. But spiritually so, we've got God's refreshing. A refreshing, a recovery of breath.

[35:40] That's revival. Where does it come from? From the presence of the Lord. So there's a picture there again of reviving, of refreshing, of restoration of spiritual health and vitality.

[35:52] So we've seen this need of getting the diet right, the discipline right. A third D is watch out for the dirt. Watch out for the dirt. Now years ago, they weren't so mindful of this, of the danger of dirt.

[36:07] Dirt is dangerous to the body. We need to keep clean. In the early 1840s, there was a young doctor called Semmelweis who introduced cleansing and hygiene into the hospitals to reduce infection.

[36:22] They hadn't had that before. The doctors didn't use to wash their hands. They'd go from one, a dead body, to start operating on a living one. They weren't washing their hands in between patients.

[36:34] And disease was rampant. Many people died. What about spiritually so? Are we watching out? Are we careful about the dirt? There's a lot of dirt out there, isn't there?

[36:47] The Lord wants his church cleansed. He talks about cleansing the church through the washing of the word of God. Friends, watch out for the dirt.

[36:58] Even in our mind, that can be contaminated. And the Bible talks about bringing into captivity every thought. Let's be different from the world such that there's a good cleansing.

[37:11] A cleansing of our mind. We'll keep our mindset clean, different from the philosophy and thinking of the world. Friends, when we get saved, our brain gets rewired. In a way, there's a new mind, isn't there?

[37:24] The mind of Christ. There's a freshness, a washing that happens. And sanctification, holiness, is not really something that we do. It's someone. It's Christ in you.

[37:36] As pictured here, we see that salvation through faith, our guilt is removed, and Christ transfers his righteousness to us. Jeremiah 23 says that the Lord is our righteousness.

[37:50] And someone has said, you have as much holiness as you have of God in you. Really, the holiness is his. And he gives it. If we can receive, that's our righteousness.

[38:03] Christ is our righteousness. Our sanctification. And that's a growing thing. It says, as we draw nigh to God, he will draw nigh to us. The church around Australia, I put to you, is not healthy.

[38:17] There's a health crisis, all right? It's fallen by the roadside. It's like this body lying there, needing first aid, treatment.

[38:28] Friends, the church needs to go to Dr. Jesus for a spiritual health checkup. The body on the roadside needs reviving. The spiritual body, the church of God needs reviving.

[38:40] We need revival, don't we? And it's his work. I put to you that we've lost something. What we have lost can be restored. As David cried in Psalm 23, he restores my soul.

[38:54] Friends, your spiritual life can be recharged. I know I've got to keep watch on my phone, don't you? You know, plug it in, it starts to die. What about spiritually?

[39:05] What about a spiritual life? We can be recharged, restored. It's like a picture of how people restore cars. You see an old car? What it can become was what it used to be.

[39:17] They restore it to get it into that top running condition. And God wants to do that with you and me, brothers and sisters. He's got a spiritual body shop that restores and realigns, wrecks, and makes them to his perfect design.

[39:34] He restores, he brings us back to that original condition. And the Lord wants to bring his church back, away from sickness and weakness, spiritually speaking, to health and wholeness.

[39:47] That's what he wants for us. And it's like to, as someone has pictured a time where there was a painting by an artist, Rossetti, that had become faded. And they brought this painting back to the painter and he worked on it again.

[40:03] And then he inscribed on it, repainted, repainted by the artist. And so too we can be refashioned by the master. It's what happens really when we first get saved, isn't it?

[40:17] Our maker remakes us. We're born again. We're made brand new. According to his original design, his best design, he makes us a new man. And it's the same with the body of Christ.

[40:28] He's got this ideal for us. Maybe, like our bodies can, we can get spiritually out of condition. There's a health crisis.

[40:39] He sees our need. And just to recap, I know we've covered a bit of ground here, but to try to capture it in part, what ground we've covered.

[40:50] I know I've used a lot of analogies. I hope I've not lost you in the process, but there's a sense where there's a body that needs reviving. A health crisis. There's a need to check.

[41:02] First aid. There's health and the sickness. And it's like the body of Christ sometimes suffers poor health. God wants us to be fighting fit.

[41:14] Poor health can creep up on us. It creeps. We need to safeguard our health. Watch out for those things like a new car.

[41:25] Stuff that God says, it's not the way. Don't do that. There's revival possible for that body. There's revival.

[41:36] Fresh oil. Keep tabs on your health. Get a spiritual checkup. How you doing? Go to God. Go to the great physician and check in with him.

[41:47] There's hope even for the dry bones of revival. We think of the body of its function. God wants the body of Christ to be functioning well.

[41:59] He wants his church to be functioning really well. And so there's need for order, for unity. That blessed union. That we be united in a true union.

[42:11] A godly union. We have a care. A love. That we function. We see there's a remedy. That is really wholesome words.

[42:22] That healthy doctrine. Sound doctrine. That's what it means. Healthy doctrine. Teaching that will give us spiritual health. It'll do us good.

[42:34] We'll have spiritual health benefits. Because of the teachings. Sound doctrine. And of sound faith. Wholesome words.

[42:45] And what about keeping fit? You know, we can go to the doctor and get the prescription or whatever. And actually we don't do anything about the remedy that he's given to us.

[42:57] We don't take the remedy. We need to maintain our spiritual health and fitness. And those three things we talked about. How's our diet?

[43:08] How's our appetite? What is it that we want to eat? Is it the word of God that we want? How's our discipline? How's our discipline? Are we exercising our faith?

[43:19] Or is fitness something that we don't really do spiritually? And what about dirt? Hygiene? So important to health. Is having a clean house.

[43:31] What about spiritually so? Having a clean heart. How's our health? How's our health? To maintain that health and fitness. Friends. Restoration is God's work.

[43:42] And he wants his body to be strong and healthy and well. He's given us the remedy. Will we take it? Let me quote.

[43:53] Jesus is an old fashioned saviour. With an old fashioned gospel. That will take people to an old fashioned heaven. And save them from an old fashioned hell.

[44:05] By the way of the old fashioned cross. Written about in the old fashioned book. Empowered by the old fashioned spirit of God. We don't need some new car. We need the old message.

[44:17] We need the wholesome words. By God's grace we can be. A better church. A Christ honouring. Bible preaching church. A soul winning church.

[44:28] This is the perfect church. It is here today. Mind you it's still under construction. God's still working on us. Isn't he? Thank God.

[44:39] One day. One fine day. You will finally get to attend an assembly of the true church. On that great day. You will be in the perfect church.

[44:51] With perfected members. With the perfect and infallible pastor. Jesus Christ. Lord of Lords. King of Kings. In the meantime.

[45:02] God orders us to assemble in a far from perfect local church. Are there hypocrites in the church? Unfriendly people. Hard seats. A fallible, sometimes boring pastor.

[45:14] God's simple answer is go. He says go. Go to church. Be the church. Not forsaking the assembly. Getting together. Exhorting one another.

[45:25] And so much the more. As you see the day approaching. So friends we're in the middle of a health crisis. There's a health crisis. So there's a body there that needs reviving.

[45:36] What about the church of God? There's a crisis people. There's a church that needs revival. And how are we spiritually? Well we keep tabs on our spiritual life.

[45:48] Our spiritual health. Maybe there's work that can be done. And it's his work. His work in you. Amen. Let's pray. Lord we thank you that you are the great God.

[46:00] Our saviour. Lord for this. Body. This little gathering. Of. Fallible people. Yet. Saved. People.

[46:11] Lord we thank you that you're doing the work in every one of us. We're all different. We've all got something to give. To be. To do. To be the church. Lord help us to be that church. To check out our spiritual health individually.

[46:24] Corporately. Where there's a crisis. Where there's something lacking. Lord help us to. Take the remedy. The wholesome words. Your word Lord. To feed on it.

[46:35] To grow. To get stronger. Lord guide our steps. Help us to be that church. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Have that healthy faith.

[46:46] Wholesome words. Healthy doctrine. Amen. Amen. To ending. Thank you.