Deuteronomy 32:39-41 See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound… I. NONE BUT THE LORD CAN WOULD OR HEAL. 1. The Lord alone can spiritually wound. It is the Holy Spirit's work to convince of sin, and until He puts forth His power the preacher may preach himself dumb with weariness and blind with weeping, but no result can possibly follow. 2. None but the Lord can heal. Gospel truth is sufficient in itself to comfort all that mourn, but it will comfort nobody so long as the natural unbelief of the heart remains. Get a hold of a lacerated spirit, torn with unbelief, and try what you can do. Say, "Trust in the Lord, my friend," and he replies, "I cannot trust." Tell him Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; and he says he knows that, but he cannot get hold of it. Do your duty with him, for whether you can heal him or not you are bound to set the Gospel before him: but you shall find that you have worked in vain if you have gone in your own strength. God can use you to heal a broken heart, but you cannot do it yourself. II. THE LORD CAN WOUND AND HE CAN HEAL. 1. The Lord can wound. He can pierce the most unlikely heart. Therefore, despair of none. The wretch who is the nearest approach to an incarnate devil may yet become as an angel of God. 2. What a very sweet side of the truth is the second part of it — namely, that He can heal. There are some awful cases of bleeding wounds! I have known the heart bleed as though it would bleed to death beneath the sword of conviction. Some are driven to despair, and have been ready to lay violent hands upon themselves in the bitterness of their souls. Let it ring out like a trumpet, that these poor despairing ones may hear it, — the Lord can heal. There is no case so desperate but what Jehovah-Jesus can recover it. Despair! thou must let thy Captive go. Despondency! thou must open thy prison house when Jesus comes. III. THE LORD DOES WOUND AND DOES HEAL. 1. I have a bundle of arrows which I have seen shot at different times from the bow of God so as to wound men. (1) The arrow of continual gentleness. tells of one to whom God was so wonderfully kind, and the man was so wonderfully bad, that at last he grew astonished at God's goodness, and since the Lord continued to load him with benefits, he turned round and cried, "Most benignant God, I am ashamed of being Thine enemy any longer. I confess my sin and repent of it."(2) "God is angry with the wicked every day." Surely this should cut you to the quick. (3) "He that believeth not is condemned already."(4) "The wicked shall be turned into hell," etc. (5) "Thou hast destroyed thyself"(6) "You are dead in sin. You have destroyed yourself, but you cannot save yourself." 2. Now, I will hold up before you the bottle of balm. When a soul is wounded, the Lord applies His sacred surgery to the heart. He has healed some of us. (1) The particular bottle of balm which He used in healing me is one which I know well, and shall never forget. This was the label, "Look unto Me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth, for I am God, and beside Me there is none else." Why, do you know? I was afraid of God until I heard that God was in Christ, and that I was to look to God in Christ, and that the very God whom I dreaded would save me. That revelation came home with Divine power to my soul! The preacher said, "Look. This is all that is wanted." "There," he said, "a fool can look; a little child can look; a half idiot can look; a dying man can look" "Look" said he "and it is done." Did I really understand him — that I was only to look to Christ dying on the Cross for me, and see God making an atonement for my sin in the person of His Son — that I was only to look, and I should live at once? It was even so, and I did look. My burden passed away. (2) Here is another drop of balm, — When a man is wounded he feels that he cannot help himself; but then there comes in this precious truth — that the Spirit of God can do it. O you wounded ones, may the great Spirit show you at this time the person of the dear Son of God — God and man. (C H. Spurgeon.) Parallel Verses KJV: See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. |
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