Psalms 89:13 – “Thou hast a mighty arm: strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand.” The health message is the right arm of the 3 Angel's Message. It is the gospel in action as we are told.”
THE ARM DOES SOMETHING FOR THE BODY:
- It protects the body
- It serves the body
WE ARE TOLD:
“A body without hands is crippled and inefficient.” {PUR, August 29, 1901 par. 1}
“A body without hands is useless. In giving honor to the body, honor must also be given to the helping hands, which are agencies of such importance that without them the body can do nothing. Therefore the body which treats indifferently the right hand, refusing its aid, is able to accomplish nothing...” {MM 238.2}
QUESTION: What are these hands? We always hear of the right arm, but what are the hands?
ANSWER: We have been instructed by the Lord that the medical missionary work is to be to the third angel's message as the right hand to the body. The right hand is used to open doors through which the body may find entrance. This is the part the medical missionary work is to act. It is to prepare the way for the reception of the truth for this time.” {PUR, August 29, 1901 par. 1}
There are reasons why God combined the health message with the 3 angels. Some people want to make the health reform the 3 angel’s message, but it is not. It is the right arm also known as the entering wedge. It is to be connected with the 3 angel’s messages.
Q: Why is it that God would arm the 3 angel's messages with the right arm/right hand?
REASONS WHY GOD HAS GIVEN THE HEALTH MESSAGE:
1. To Glorify Himself
Notice I am saying the health message was given to glorify God, but I did not say sickness is to glorify God...this is what the health message will do, and remember, sickness is not inflicted so God can get the glory.
“It is a sin to be sick, for all sickness if the result of transgression.” {CH 37.2}
2. To Exalt His People
3. To Lessen the Suffering of Humanity
4. To Test the Loyalty and Obedience of His People
5. To Answer the Prayer of The Faith Of The Sick
All sickness is due to a violation of the laws of health. Most violate the laws of health, get sick, call on a doctor, take medication, many times get worse and then they call on the Elders for the anointing because they believe the prayer of faith saves the sick. But that's not the prayer of faith. God makes it clear that if we willingly violate the laws of health and then medicate and then ask for the Elders of the Church, GOD WILL NOT ANSWER THOSE PRAYERS.
God wants to answer the prayer of faith, but true faith works by love, purifying the soul and it has the fruits of obedience and righteousness...God will be glorified in answering the prayers of his people in behalf of those who are sick, but He will not come in and work a miracle for those who are going contrary to the means He says we are to use for healing.
Q: By the way, instead of calling on the physicians, who should we call on first?
A: GOD (Remember the two kings who had sickness in their feet?)
King Asa called on the physicians and he died with the sickness 2 years later, but King Hezekiah called on the Lord and he lived an additional 15 years. (You can find those stories in 2 chronicles 16:12 and 2 kings 20:1-7).
6. It Serves As An Entering Wedge For Our Evangelism.
The testimony of Jesus tells us when people see that we are sound in the principles for health, they will believe we have a message superior to that of what the majority teaches.
When we do this work, we reach the heart, and when this happens, this opens the way to plant the gospel seed. We are told that hundreds and thousands will come to the truth because of the health message. The people need to feel that they are cared for and love in order to open up to our message. The testimony of Jesus says this will tear down the prejudice of those who know about us and our faith.
7. It Is To Prepare A People For The 2nd Coming Of Jesus.
“The HEALTH REFORM is one branch of the great work which is to fit a people for the coming of the Lord. It is as closely connected with the third angel's message as the hand is with the body.” (CTBH 9.1)
“...The law of Ten Commandments has been lightly regarded by man; yet the Lord will not come to punish the transgressors of that law without first sending them a message of warning. Men and women cannot violate natural law by indulging depraved appetite and lustful passions, without violating the law of God...” {CTBH 9.1}
“He has permitted the light of health reform to shine upon us, that we may realize the sinfulness of breaking the laws which he has established in our very being. Our heavenly Father sees the deplorable condition of men who, many of them ignorantly, are disregarding the principles of hygiene (every little jot and tittle of the health law, whether it be THE VINEGAR, THE SPICES, MIXING FRUIT AND VEGETABLES, DRINKING WITH MEALS, ETC. And it is in love and pity to the race that he causes the light to shine upon health reform. He publishes his law and its penalties, in order that all may learn what is for their highest good. He proclaims his law so distinctly, and makes it so prominent, that it is like a city set on a hill. All intelligent beings can understand it if they will. None others are responsible. To make natural law plain, and to urge obedience to it, is a work that accompanies the third angel's message.” {CTBH 9.1}
Our role as a church is to help our members and the world to recognize that God is not going to be trifled with. He means what he says and we cannot afford to violate one of those precepts without incurring the penalty. He wants to turn the curse into a blessing, but if we go on in transgressing any of these things, our reward will be punishment and He doesn't want that.
A: “Men and women must be taught to take a careful review of every habit and practice and at once put away those things that cause an unhealthy condition of the body, and thus cast a dark shadow over the mind.” --Ibid, Nov. 12, 1901. {WM 127.2}
“He designs that the great subject of health reform shall be agitated and the public mind deeply stirred to investigate; for it is impossible for men and women, with all their sinful, health-destroying, brain-enervating habits, to discern sacred truth, through which they are to be sanctified, refined, elevated, and made fit for the society of heavenly angels in the kingdom of glory.” {3T 162.1}
FROM THAT QUOTE, WE CAN SEE WHY THE HEALTH MESSAGE IS SO IMPORTANT.
If we are not following God in all the health principles, our minds will be so beclouded, we will not be able to receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit; we won't experience the latter rain experience. God wants to sanctify us by these truths, but we can make it impossible for him if we are violating the principles of these natural laws.
The candies, mints, eating between meals, putting frozen and cold items into our mouths, eating between meals, eating items we know are not the most healthful…we have to give all these up or God will leave us to ourselves as he left Ephraim to his idols. (Hosea 4:17)
“The great subject of reform is to be agitated, and the public mind is to be stirred. Temperance in all things is to be connected with the message, to turn the people of God from their idolatry, their gluttony and their extravagance in dress and other things.” {CD 71 .2}
Q: What god do we make when we disobey the laws of health pertaining to what we put into our mouths?
A: Whose god is their “belly” (Philippians 3:19) and verse 18 calls people who make their bellies a god, the enemies of the cross of Christ.
When we continue to eat or drink that which we have been counseled against, we become the enemies of the cross of Christ.
Q: Is that what you want? Is that what I want?
A: NO
LISTEN TO THIS POWERFUL TESTIMONY OF JESUS:
“John was to go forth as Jehovah's messenger to bring to men the light of God. (Are we to be current John the Baptists in these last days? Wasn't John Elijah in the Spirit?
LET'S CONTINUE:
He must give a new direction to their thoughts. He must impress them with the holiness of God's requirements, and their need of His perfect righteousness. Such a messenger must be holy. He must be a temple for the indwelling Spirit of God.
(Remember yesterday we discussed how God cannot and will not dwell in a polluted temple and how it is very rude of us to fill our bodies with filth and then to ask Jesus to dwell within us?)
CONTINUING ON...
Listen very carefully to this next statement because it's powerful: “In order to fulfill his mission, he must have a sound physical constitution, and mental spiritual strength. Therefore it would be necessary for him to control the appetites and passions. He must be able so to control all his powers that he could stand among men as unmoved by surrounding circumstances as the rocks and mountains of the wilderness.” {DA 100.3}
***In other words, not willfully putting himself in temptations way, but if and when he is in its way, because he is bringing the message to a wicked people, he does not falter, but stands firm regardless.
“As a prophet, John was..."to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." In preparing the way for Christ's first advent, he was a representative of those who are to prepare a people for our Lord's second coming. The world is given to self-indulgence. Errors and fables abound. Satan's snares for destroying souls are multiplied. All who would perfect holiness in the fear of God must learn the lessons of temperance and self-control. The appetites and passions must be held in subjection to the higher powers of the mind. This self-discipline is essential to that mental strength and spiritual insight which will enable us to understand and to practice the sacred truths of God's word. For this reason temperance finds its place in the work of preparation for Christ’s second coming.” {DA 101.2}
“He who is converted from errors in eating, drinking, and dressing is being prepared to hear and receive the truth into a good and willing heart...” {CH 221.4}
“I...saw that many do not realize what they must be in order to live in the sight of the Lord without a high priest in the sanctuary through the time of trouble. Those who receive the seal of the living God and are protected in the time of trouble must reflect the image of Jesus fully.” {EW 71.1}
“When the plagues of God shall be all around you, you will then see the principles of health reform and strict temperance in all things,--that temperance alone is the foundation of all the graces that come from God, the foundation of all victories to be gained.” (Te 201.4)
When we present these messages, we must present Christ, because it is only through him that we can obey these laws and do that which he asks us to do. It was only through Jesus that I was able to quit smoking 3 packs of cigarettes a day...it's only through Jesus that we can quit many of the self-destroying habits that we have. Some things we can drop off like it's nothing, but others, we truly need the help of Jesus.
Hebrews 12:1-2 – “...let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience, the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith...”
Christ has died for us and we are washed and cleansed in His blood...he sets before us a race that we must run and we must keep our eyes on the author and finisher of that faith.
We must be able to endure the contradiction of sinners against ourselves and against the truth and we must keep going.
Higher than the highest human thought is God's ideal for his people…godliness, God likeness...this is the goal.
“I saw that many were neglecting the preparation so needful and were looking to the time of “refreshing” and the "latter rain" to fit them to stand in the day of the Lord and to live in His sight. Oh, how many I saw in the time of trouble without a shelter! They had neglected the needful preparation; therefore they could not receive the refreshing that all must have to fit them to live in the sight of a holy God. Those who refuse to be hewed by the prophets and fail to purify their souls in obeying the whole truth, and who are willing to believe that their condition is far better than it really is, will come up to the time of the falling of the plagues, and then see that they needed to be hewed and squared for the building. But there will be no time then to do it and no Mediator to plead their cause before the Father. Before this time the awfully solemn declaration has gone forth, "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: a...” {EW 71.2}
*** The latter rain will not be poured out to help us overcome sin, it will be poured out on those who are sighing and crying and overcoming their sins through Christ.
While we have breath in us and the Holy Spirit is speaking to us, we now have the privilege of working with the Lord in putting away sin: pride, selfishness, the love of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Let us strive with all the power that God has given us to be among the hundred and forty-four thousand. And let us do all that we can to help others to gain heaven.” {RH, March 9, 1905 par. 4} {7BC 970.10}
DO WE NOW SEE WHY WE NEED BOTH?
We need the 3 angel’s messages. We need the health reform message. Because we will not go into the kingdom as transgressors. And God's message to us as Laodicea is to repent...we say we are okay, but we really are not, because if we are transgressing one of God's commands whether they are natural or physical, we are transgressors...but while Jesus is in the most holy place pleading for us, we still have time to bring those sins to Jesus...this is the time of judgment, in the anti-typical day of judgment...so let's stop breaking these physical laws and bring them to Jesus and become victorious and not wait to the last minute. Remember, God will not be trifled with...men and women are sealing their eternal destiny every day!
SOP ABBREVIATIONS:
PUR = Pacific Union Recorder
MM = Medical Ministry
CTBH = Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene
WM = Welfare Ministry
3T = Testimonies to the Church, Volume 3
DA = Desire of Ages
CH = Counsels on Health
Te = Temperance
EW = Early Writings
RH = Review & Herald
BC = Bible Commentary
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