Doug Batchelor - Healing, Health and Holiness - Part 2

Nuclear submarines, or boomers, are modern engineering wonders equivalent to a tightly packed, self-contained city where a crew of 140 share the space of a three-bedroom house. A nuclear sub can stay submerged up to 90 days. There is little contact with family during this time. Along with the pressure of being prepared to launch nuclear weapons, it’s one of the most stressful military assignments. To compensate, the Navy trains the best chefs for these subs. A meal might be prime rib, sauteed mushrooms, baked potatoes, fresh bread, and real chocolate cake. They say an army travels on its stomach and that’s why the military spends millions evaluating what the soldiers eat.

Why is it that many Christians think God doesn’t care what His soldiers eat? You know, the Bible teaches that whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. Since our bodies are God’s temple, we should present them to Him as a living sacrifice and not abuse them with gluttony, especially since we’re soldiers in His army. So join me, today, for this program as we uncover more amazing health facts from the Word of God.

Welcome, friends, to our Foundations of Faith program. So glad to see each of you here. And we’ve been talking about, if the reformation was to continue, what are some messages that the Christian world really needs to hear. But I always like to start with an amazing fact. I’m going to need to read some of this from my notes tonight because there’s just a lot of details I can’t remember. The most powerful super computer used to be in the U.S. it was called The Big Blue – made by IBM. No longer. Now it’s in China. It’s the 93 Petaflop Sunway Taihulight installed at the national supercomputing center in Wuxi, China – I’ve been to Wuxi – it has 10.5 million locally made processor cores – one computer. Your computers might have a couple. At its peak, the computer can perform 93 trillion calculations per second, which is a whole room of super processors, air conditioners and power cables. Still, this is only 0.4 percent of what one human brain can do in processing in a second, which means this super computer is about half as smart as a mouse brain.

You know, the Bible tells us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. You know, in your brain, that two and a half pound electrochemical computer. It’s filled with billions of neurons and they’ve discovered now that within the neurons are these dendrites and they used to think that they were kind of interconnecting cables, but the scientists have come to discover that each one of these little dendrites, which are just super microscopic cables within the neurons, actually each is a computer in itself. And so, the statistics that they had about the computing ability of the human brain, they’re finding out that it was much more than they even thought, which makes sense, because we’re going to be learning through eternity.

That’s just one reason I could just never accept evolution. Why would you evolve a brain that you don’t even use 70 percent of it in one life? Why would you evolve with so much extra capacity? I think that God made these things. Now, our message tonight is dealing with the subject of healing, health, and holiness. Let’s look at our lesson, it’s going to bring out a number of points.

First question: why is God concerned with our physical health? Because, first of all, He loves you. Look in Matthew 4:23. What was the ministry of Jesus like? Jesus went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the Kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. Jesus spent almost as much time healing as He did teaching. He wants us to be well. He created man healthy in the beginning. He wants us to have life. You read in 3 John, verse 2, “Beloved, I wish above all things that you might prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers.” How important is physical prosperity to God? He said, ‘Even as your soul prospers’. Why? Why is that important? Because God communicates to you through your brain. Your brain is sort of like the bridge between your physical body and God. He doesn’t communicate to you through your toes or through your elbow. And you might think He speaks to you through your stomach, but God speaks to you through your head.

And your head is a combination of some kind of a spiritual organ and they still don’t know if thoughts are physical. Look at all the things that are happening now, right now, in this room in your minds and in mine while I’m talking to you and I’m taking in things visually. I’m watching some of you yawn and think what that does to me while I’m talking. And I’m seeing all of this and I’m thinking about what I’ve got to say next and there’s just thousands of things going on in my mind and are those tangible? When the Holy Spirit inspires you, is that just a computer process or is there something outside influencing your brain? But your brain is also an organ. It’s fed by blood. It’s interesting, it’s the center of – all the nerves in your body kind of end in your brain, but your brain doesn’t feel. If you take care of your body and your mind is clear, it is easier for you to be a witness for the Lord.

You will feel better which makes you a happier person, which makes you a better witness. If your head is clear, you understand spiritual things better – it’s easier for you to live a Christian life and comprehend the will of God if your mind is clear. And so the devil is working overtime to try to fog up the minds of His people and make them sick so that they’re just not able to let their light shine the way He wants them to. He wants us to have an abundant life. And that’s our next verse, John chapter 10, verse 10, “I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” I love this picture of this guy, his name was Banana Jack. I think, in the picture, he’s skiing – he’s not only skiing he’s skiing barefoot and he’s 90 years old. He obviously doesn’t have dentures because he’s holding the rope in his teeth.

I like to sprinkle a few amazing facts here. I was reading back in 2014 about Jeanette and Alan Murray who set a record for running the most consecutive marathons of anybody in history together. Starting January 1, 2013, every day through the year, they ran a marathon and they ran completely around Australia and Tasmania, running 366 – they did one extra for good measure – marathons – 26.2 miles every day and she was 63 and he was 68 years old. And, along the way, they consumed 10,000 bananas, thousands of avocados, smoothies – they’re both vegetarians – vegan vegetarians. Part of the reason they did this was to promote a vegetarian diet because she believed it was largely responsible for her recovery from cancer. And the jury is in, friends, in spite of what you may be hearing from some of the meat and dairy industry, a vegetarian diet is definitely healthier for people. There’s far less disease – I learned this the hard way, years ago, and I’ll maybe say more about that later. God promised the children of Israel, when He brought them out of Egypt, that if they would serve and obey Him He would remove all sickness from them. Did He keep His promise?

You know, He prescribed their diet. They ate angel’s food from God every day. And, after 40 years of following the laws of health and sanitation that God had given Moses, do you know what the testimony is in Psalm 105, verse 37? Among this people – this nation – of up to 2 million people, it says He brought them forth – there was not one feeble person among their tribes. Can you imagine 2 million people in a city and the hospital is empty? Nobody – nobody, you know, the nurses and doctors are just kind of folding their arms and they’re watching the clock because there’s nobody to take care of because everybody’s well.

You know one reason that there’s a healthcare crisis in North America? It’s because, you know, even if you take care of yourself and you follow all the best health laws, you’ll eventually get old and die. But God doesn’t want you to spend the last 30 years of your life dying. You read in the Bible about Moses. It says Moses climbed a mountain – 120 years old – God said, ‘Moses, it’s time for you to die. I want you to climb that mountain and we’ll deal with it up there.’ Moses climbs the mountain, God lays him to rest, and it says his strength was not abated, his vision was still clear – 120 years old – active, productive, clear – and then, all of a sudden at the very end he dies. Isn’t that kind of how you’d like to go?

I know so many dear old people who took care of their health and just kind of fell over in their garden. You know, you just – everything just sort of holds together until the end. But, you know what’s happening because of the bad living practices – not completely – some things I know are hereditary and some things are accidents, but a lot of the time the bad living practices in western society – people start getting heart disease and diabetes and hypertension and all these problems, and they’re on medication and that makes them sicker and they spend the last 30 years being sick and it’s overwhelming the expenses of our society. I’ll tell you the cure for the healthcare problem in America right now. Congress can’t fix it, but if there was a revival of the teachings of the Bible on your knowing your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and people taking care of themselves, in ten years the healthcare crisis would be gone.

Why is our health so important to God? The Bible says, in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19, “Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost…therefore glorify God in your body. He dwells within you. Christ said He will be in you. So He wants you to take care of this miraculous machine that He’s given you. And you’ll feel better. Again, Romans 12, verse 1, Paul says, “I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present yourself a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto Him.” You know, whenever you brought a sacrifice to the temple it was to be a holy, pure, unblemished sacrifice.

What is a good Bible living rule – or what is a good Bible living rule for all Christians? Simple principle that we should all follow, 1 Corinthians 10, verse 31, “Whether therefore you eat or whatever you drink, do all to the glory of God.” Now, help me, if it’s possible to eat and drink to God’s glory, does it make sense that it’s possible to not eat and drink to God’s glory? And a lot of people are eating and drinking things that are not bringing glory to God and it’s not good for their bodies either. And the church, I think, needs to discover this truth – or rediscover, I should say, this truth. Let’s be specific, if you don’t mind, we talked about it during our Bible questions another night, should Christians be using any alcoholic beverages? You know, there’s a reason why you drive by the liquor store and it says, ‘beer, liquor, and spirits’ because when a person drinks the beer and the liquor they become possessed by other spirits.

Let’s face it, haven’t you noticed that when a person has a little bit to drink they start doing things they normally would not do. Their judgment is impaired, they say things they’re often sorry about, they do things they’re often sorry about, and I know from experience you wake up and you’re in jail, you don’t know why you’re there. Or you wake up and you found out you’ve done something terribly embarrassing that you can never forget about, or you’ve hurt somebody you cared about because it’s like a spirit took over. Why would a Christian want to do anything that would lower their resistance to temptation? Noah drank, stumbled around – Noah drank, stumbled around naked. King David tried to get Uriah drunk so he’d go against his conscience. Lot drank and he slept with his daughters. You look in the Bible, it’s not a good record. Give wine to him that is ready to perish. You read in Proverbs 20, verse 1, “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; and whoever is deceived thereby is not wise.” God wants us to be wise.

Alcohol is addictive. It destroys brain cells. It dramatically affects a person’s ability to reason. Christians should not drink alcohol. And even if you think you could make a biblical argument that they drank a little wine in the Bible, now that you know better and since it’s the most destructive drug in our society, why would you want to support that by your example and make someone else stumble even a little bit? What’ll God do to those that destroy their bodies? This is serious. Now don’t say, ‘Pastor Doug, you’re being legalistic.’ You take it up with the New Testament. It’s what God says. 1 Corinthians 3:16 and 17, “You are the temple of God. If any man defile” – now where did we just see that word, ‘defile’?

Daniel said he purposed in his heart he would not defile himself. And did God bless Daniel through the whole book of Daniel? Bless him with a clear mind, a long life, a great ministry? Starts out by saying he purposed he would not defile his body because he believed – he wanted his body to be a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. Was Daniel spirit filled? Read in Daniel chapter 6, it says the king saw an excellent spirit was in him. He was spirit filled – would not defile himself. The Bible says you’re the – New Testament – you’re the temple of God…if any man defiles the temple of God, him will God destroy.” Now, praise the Lord, if you’re alive there’s a chance to repent.

Because you probably all have done it before, I know I have. But He’s calling on us to be holy, to be pure, and to be healthy. Why wouldn’t we want to? So, is murder a sin? What about self murder. Now, if you take poison and you know it’s poison, and it takes 24 hours to kill you, is that a sin? But what if the poison you take is going to take a week? And you know it’s poison, it says, ‘This’ll kill you in one week’ and you take it. Is that still kind of suicide? What if it takes 20 years? At what point is it okay if you know it’s going to kill you? And what does it say on every pack of cigarettes? Warning: this is known to cause cancer. This is known to cause birth defects. It’s known to cause all kinds of problems. Tobacco is the second most costly drug addiction in North America, is what it does to our society.

Now, I know people watching and people out here you have struggled or may be struggling with this or one of the other things. I have too. It was a big struggle. Now quitting smoking is not hard, I’ve done that a hundred times. Staying quit is the hard part. That’s what Mark Twain said, ‘Quitting smoking is easy, I’ve done it a hundred times.’ So I did. I’d quit and then I’d start. I’d quit and then I’d start. And I know it’s a challenge – my mother smoked, my father smoked, my grandparents smoked and I was a smoker before I picked up my first cigarette, just by the second hand smoke in my life. So it was very easy for me to start. It was very hard to quit. But how much can we do through Christ?

All things are possible. And you know how much money I’ve saved? You could do a down payment on a house for what you’ll save if you quit smoking. And He can give you the victory. Whatever it is. There’s a problem with people addicted to opioids and drugs. It’s not just alcohol and cigarettes. God doesn’t want us to abuse any drug. Now, there are some necessary medications, but we’re talking about people who are addicted to things and it controls their life.

What’s a good basic health rule for Christians? Every man that has the mastery is temperate in all things. So, you know, when you think about foot and drink, think in the context of a traffic light. You’ve got a green light, what’s that mean? Go. Red light? Stop. Yellow? Go real fast. No, what do you do when you see a yellow? No, yellow means caution, right? Some things are absolutely no. You’re not supposed to eat the things that God calls an abomination. If you’re going to eat meat – yellow light – eat the clean meat and do it in moderation. If you’re going to eat sweets – it’s not just meat – you now, there’s a lot of things that – a treat, that’s okay from time to time, but if you’re eating desserts with every meal, it’s going to start to show. And then, of course, green light is blessing – go. But, you know, you can overdo anything. You should be temperate.

Now, I did some research. Have you ever wondered what the fruit was on the forbidden tree? I’m pretty convinced it was actually a chocolate tree. I heard about a guy, forgive me, but he found a genie – true story – and he rubbed the bottle and the genie came out and he said, ‘Oh, you get three wishes.’ And the guy said, ‘I want a bank account with a billion dollars in it.’ Poof! He’s got this bank account that’s got a billion dollars – Swiss bank account. He said, ‘Now I want a beautiful, red, Italian sports car.’ Poof! He’s got a Masaratti. He said, ‘Now, the third thing, I want to be irresistible to women.’ Poof! He turned into a box of chocolates.’ I’m sorry, I just thought was fun.

So, before I say this, I needed to say that, because this is pretty serious. Last month, Centers for Disease Control, October 2017, a troubling new report released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows almost 40 percent of American adults and nearly 20 percent of adolescents are obese. The highest rates ever recorded in the U.S. Even though we’ve heard this for years, it isn’t getting better, it’s getting worse. We’re being destroyed by abundance. It used to be people were dying every year because of malnutrition and starvation. Now there are more people in our country that are dying from over eating – over nutrition, you could say.

The Bible is pretty clear – Galatians 6, verse 7, “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a person sows, they will also reap.” One of the big offenders is soda. It’s liquid candy, is what it is. I’ve got a friend and I hadn’t seen him for awhile. I saw him again he’d lost 30 pounds. I said, ‘Brother, you look great. What did you do?’ He said, ‘I did one thing.’ ‘What was that?’ he said, ‘I stopped drinking soda. That’s all I did. Don’t exercise anymore, didn’t change my diet. I gave up the soda and lost 30 pounds.’ You see kids all the time walking around nursing a soda pop and they’re struggling with obesity and then it leads to diabetes and their lives – they start getting sick before they even begin to live. This is not God’s plan, but we need the power of God to make these practical changes, amen?

Are Bible health principles still practical today? Look at some of the principles that God gives in His Word. Very simple things – you find this in Leviticus 13:46 – quarantine procedures control contagious disease. You ever heard about the Ebola crisis, they found the cure was hyper-Leviticus. They started following the quarantine procedures in Leviticus and they put a stop to it.

Human body waste should be buried. It’s just simple sanitation. I’ve been in countries – you know, most of us, we’ve got countries where you’ve got places dedicated as a bathroom. I’ve been in a few places where there are only a few places that are not the bathroom. And they have all kinds of disease problems.

Washing the body inside and out controls germs. You need to drink lots of water – good water. People sometimes never drink water and I haven’t even said anything about the addiction to caffeine. They’re having – I read 24,000 people have been admitted to the hospital last year because of over-caffeine related problems – and a lot of them are kids.

Moral living prevents sexual disease. That’s self-understood truth.

Do you know the Bible says that animal fat and blood should not be eaten? And, by the way, it says that in the New Testament too. Read Acts chapter 15. Yet a lot of Christians – you’ll never hear pastors talk about that. And it’s not just the food you eat – hatred, bitterness is detrimental to one’s health. Some people are sick because of what they’re eating; a lot of people are sick because of what’s eating them. They are mad, they’re bitter, they keep nursing grudges, they can’t forgive, and it affects – the stress affects your health. And, of course, as I mentioned, overeating of even good food is very harmful. I understand these sumo wrestlers, they have a brief time of glory and they have very short lives.

Our bodies need proper rest. There’s never been a time when people are so short on sleep as our age now because of the computers and the fluorescent lights and so much to entertain that people are not resting and it will shorten your life span.

The importance of good exercise and work. God took man and He put him in the garden. He said, ‘Dress it, keep it, work.’ He wants us to be active and you’ve got to stay busy. God gave you a body with muscles and if you don’t use them, they atrophy and all kinds – your bones get weak – and God – it’s very simple: use it or lose it. It’s also true with your faith. You’ve got to share it with others or you lose it.

You’ve got to give it away if you want to keep it. Have a positive attitude. The Bible says a happy spirit is health to the bones. What will people in heaven – or will people in heaven kill and eat animals. No. It says they will not hurt and destroy in all My holy mountain, says the Lord.

So how can I make these changes that God wants me to make? The Bible says that He will take away – Ezekiel 11:18 – the detestable things thereof and, notice this, “and I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit in them that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances. How can we do it? He puts a new spirit within us.

Now it’s difficult making changes in our lives, amen? Do you know I was addicted to ice cream for 40 years? I got a sermon you can listen to online, it’s called Cold Confession – it’s a true story. I’m not saying ice cream’s a sin – everyone clear on that? It was for me. I was addicted and I struggled and it was a battle. And it wasn’t until about six years ago, finally, I was able to be free. I had to have ice cream every single day. And so I know what a struggle is. A simple thing like that. And, you know, it didn’t look like it was hurting me, but I knew that it had a grip on me. It was the expensive stuff too. And God wants to give you the victory whatever your struggles might be. How many of you would like to ask Him?