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Healing Is a Part of Redemption
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And the chief captain said, “Untie him! Untie him right now! Mr. Paul, we are sorry, we didn’t
know. Um, I hope you don’t feel the necessity to report this to Caesar because… would you
come inside? I’ve got some fresh lemonade. I think some of my clothes would fit him. Would
you get some and bring… sit down here, Mr. Paul. Oh, we got something on your clothes. I’m
sorry.” Paul goes from being “about to be scourged and beaten” to “loosed and respected.”
Friend, you were born into this. You didn’t earn it, you didn’t buy it, and you couldn’t do enough
to deserve it. But when you looked up and you said, “Jesus, I believe on You, and I receive You
as my Lord and my Savior,” you were born again! You were born into this family and into this
kingdom, and your name,
your
name, is in that Book, and that Book is a Book of the redeemed
and the ransomed. It is also a roster of the citizenship of the eternal kingdom of God, and as a
citizen, you have rights. But you must know them, and you must stand up, and you must speak
for them.
Jesus opened not His mouth. Do you know that He could have? Do you remember what He said
when they were about to take Him? He said, “Don’t you know I could call on the Father right
now. He would send Me legions of angels,” (Matthew 26:53) and they would have taken Him
out of there so fast. I mean, they’d wipe out every soldier within 100 miles of there, just like that.
But then you and I would still have to pay for our own sins.
Jesus could have spoken up. When they tied Him to the whipping post, and they started beating
Him—and not only were they beating Him, but the hand of God was striking Him with the core
spiritual cause of every disease and sickness, and it was crushing Him, and bruising Him, to His
spirit’s core—He could have said, “I appeal to justice. I don’t deserve this. I’ve done nothing
wrong. I appeal to the Almighty and justice.” If He had spoken up, He would have been
delivered, because He didn’t deserve it… and we would be lost. We would have to pay the
penalty for our sin. Don’t you know He wanted to say something? All He had to say was a word;
that’s all He had to say. All He had to say was, “Stop it!” Remember when He said, “I Am,” and
they all fell to the ground?
He is our Hero. Think about the strength it took. Think about the self-control. All you have to do
is say a word, and you’re out of it. He took it. He opened not His mouth. He let them. “Nobody
takes My life from Me. I lay it down and I pick it up.” He was not in their hands or in their
control, with nothing He could do about it. He
let
them do it, and like a lamb that’s led before its
shearers is dumb and just stands there and takes it, He opened not His mouth. It says it again. He
opened not His mouth. Do you know why He opened not His mouth? So we could open our
mouth: “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so…” Let them open up their mouths and let them say
it, and when anything that is stealing, killing, and destroying comes and starts to pound on you
and affect you, you better not sit there and say, “I don’t know if it’s the will of God.” You stand
up and you say, “No, you don’t! No, you don’t! Is it lawful, you ignorant devils? Is it lawful for
you to work cancer in my body when I’m uncondemned? When I’m a citizen of heaven?”
“Oh, you deserve it. You’ve messed up.”