HEALING

Eric Burr

Ezekiel 47: 1, 8-12; Revelation 22: 1,2

Brothers who have served in ministering to the brethren will know that it is not necessarily what you get on the Saturday morning that you give to the brethren an hour or two later; the brother who was with us in London last weekend spoke about Ezekiel 47, and the thought came into my mind from this scripture and that in Revelation 22 to say a word about healing. That it is needed would be undeniable. There are in the histories of brethren, brethren who are present, matters which may still need to be healed. "The heart knoweth its own bitterness, and a stranger doth not intermeddle with its joy", Prov 14: 10. Even in conversation coming here we were reminded of someone who had kept something in her mind for twenty years. Beloved, there is healing in relation to all sorrows, personal or collective or whatever they may be: the rivers run and there is healing. It says, wherever the river came there was healing; you cannot stop it. The question then would be why we do not know more of it, because the company of the people of God is intended to be a healed environment. No bitterness should remain there, no sorrow. There are sorrows which are incommunicable; there are sorrows in which we can hardly sympathise with one another because we have not known the sorrow. Think of our beloved brother here - his wife is with Christ: others of us here have not known that sorrow and our ability therefore to sympathise is limited to what springs out of affection for one another according to the Spirit of God. But there are matters which arise in which it might be better if we would submit to the healing power of these waters which flow out. It is interesting to think, in the Scriptures, of the rivers that flow out: they flowed out of Eden and they flow out of the house and they flow out of the city in Revelation 22 and they flow out of the belly of the believer: "out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water", John 7: 38.

According to the scripture in Ezekiel 47 there are things which are not healed. That is very sad thing to contemplate. The marshes and the pools shall not be healed; they shall be given up to salt. Beloved brethren, if we think of salt let us think of it in the terms of the New Testament: "Let your word be always with grace, seasoned with salt", Col 4: 6. Let us not be like these salty places which cannot be healed. There is one area of things which cannot be healed, and will not be healed until it changes, and that is enshrined in the word that they that are whole have no need of a physician but they that are sick (see Matt 9: 12). The Lord Himself said that - they that are whole have no need of a physician. Let none of us take the ground of being so whole that we need no physician; we should shortly be given up to salty places, and the bitterness in ourselves that springs largely out of self-righteousness will begin to show in everything that we do. In assembly problems one sorrows to discern how much effort is given up even in terms of quotation of ministry and letters that are written that may be founded in self righteousness and self-justification. The fount of that is pride and God resists the proud. If we feel that we have to do this or that and if we feel - I say if we feel, because we always do well to respect the views and the outlook of the rest of the brethren - that we must do something different from the rest of the brethren, let us not be so proud in what we have done that we cannot listen to anything else. The waters will not flow then and we will be given up to salt, and the marshy places will remain, and they do remain.

This scripture actually speaks of the world to come. Think of that, that even in the world to come there will be areas that will not be healed. We think of the world to come as an environment which is entirely under the control of Christ, in which He has influenced everything, and yet even there there are marshy places that are given up to salt. What a permanent memorial to the pride of man! Let us be sure that we are not proud. It is a great thing to be right, it is a horrible thing to be selfrighteous. Let us be sure that we are under the healing power of these rivers that run. I am sure that these rivers produce humility: they produce lowliness of mind; "in lowliness of mind, each esteeming the other as more excellent that themselves", Phil 2: 3. Our beloved brother Mr Gardiner in London used often to tell us that you can look round the meeting and say, That brother is more generous than I am, and that sister is more spiritual than I am, and that brother is more tolerant than I am, and even that child expresses more simplicity as to the Christ than I do - "each esteeming the other as more excellent than themselves". The Lord would help us, and He would help to promote a healed environment in every locality as we take account of the excellence of one another. Think of the excellence of the work of God. Let us take diamonds; in the world there are a few diamonds which are of considerable size but there are other diamonds that are not nearly that size, but their chemical constituent is exactly the same as the big ones. And that is true of believers. There are some in whom you can see an immensity of the work of God and there are some you might think, well, there is something of Christ there. Its constituents are the same as the one in whom is the greatest gift. Let us esteem one another as more excellent than ourselves. It is far from me to take advantage of a meeting in which I may be serving to speak about matters which might trench on what is administrative; it is a pity to give brethren a lecture on the way to solve their present problems. That is not ministry: the reality of ministry is bringing out the excellence and the power of our Lord Jesus Christ. But matters arise among us of different kinds and many would be more easily resolved if the excellence of the work of God in one another was very much before our minds. Let us esteem that. Sometimes one has heard historically of meetings where you would hardly expect unbelievers to be speaking to each other in the way that goes on in a meeting. Beloved, end it, end it; be a Christian in the meeting when you come, come as one who loves the Lord, and one who loves the Lord loves the brethren. Come and sit down among them and be like that.

Now I have referred to these rivers and what I want to say about them is in particular to take account of the place from which they come. The river in Ezekiel 47 flows out of the door of the house but it comes from the right side of the house, south of the altar. And you might say, What is the need to mention the altar? The Spirit of God has found it necessary to mention the altar. It comes from the right side of the house, it says, south of the altar, and every drop of water in that river has some characteristic of the altar upon it because it has flowed out that way, it has come by way of the altar. There is healing among the people of God if the effect of the sacrifice of Christ is the primary thing in their minds, and the river flows out by the south of the altar. Think of what that altar meant to God: the latter part of Ezekiel sets out for us the outcome in a city of which it is said, The Lord is there. This is a book which has great depth in it. The early chapters perhaps puzzle us about the wheels, but the book has in it the revival of Israel in chapter 37 - they "stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army" (v 10). In this latter part things are set out in a way that you could as it were draw the plan of it if you followed it through. But in it there is an altar. There are places for priests, places for stores, places for people, a place for the king; all this is there, but there is an altar there. What it suggests to me is that central to the thoughts of God in relation to the world to come, in relation to which this book is prophetic, is the work of Christ and His death. Let that be more in our minds, beloved. Let us not think that that foundation was laid in my soul twenty, thirty, forty years ago. Let us not think that we ever get beyond the value of the work of Christ. Get back to it more. There is no question that, as some evangelical circles teach, that you need to get back to the blood and come again under the power of the blood. The blood was shed once and is there once and is there for God once and is therefor me once, the power of the blood of Jesus. It may be necessary that in the Holy Spirit I come back to the need for it, but there is no question of it being shed again. It has been shed once, He has given Him self once in the end of the world for the putting away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and the blood is there. We have been taught - and there is no doubt that the teaching is correct - that I may need to come back to the water; the water flows. The water flows in this chapter but the blood was once and once for all. But never let me think I can get beyond the work of Christ for me. Things may develop out of it, things may expand in my soul, even appreciation of what Christ did when He died may expand in my soul - let it be so - but nothing can take the place as a foundation in the life of a believer of the work of Christ on the cross, in the grave and raised and ascended. Let us get it entrenched in our souls. Sometimes you almost fear that the knowledge of doctrine hinders the appreciation of Christ. Let it not be so. The pursuit of doctrine for its own sake leads to intellectualism. Doctrine does not feed the soul; doctrine is a way of putting into order things which are in the Scriptures: it puts them in order in your mind so that you understand the framework of things. But doctrine does not feed the soul; what feeds the soul is the ministration to it of Christ and of God in the power of the Holy Spirit. This river flows out by the side of the altar and everywhere it comes it brings with it some trace of what that altar meant to God; what it means to me, but what it meant to God. It comes out as if every drop of water in that river has touched the altar at some point. Will there not be healing in that? Will there not be the power that has once healed me and dealt with every discrepancy between myself and God, will there not be the power in that to heal every other condition which may exist among the people of God? There is power, and as the hymn says, There is 'power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of the Lamb'. But there is power in this river. It seems to me that nothing can stop it, it just flows and flows.

'The river of His grace,

Through righteousness supplied,

Is flowing o'er the barren place

Where Jesus died.' (Hymn 13)

This river is flowing still. It flows into your circumstances, into your house, into your relationships, into connections with your wife and with your family, your children, with the brethren; the river flows and the touch of the death of Christ is in every drop of it. Do you not think that if we lived together more in the light of the value of the work of Christ and the powerful flow that brings to us its benefits moment by moment there would be more harmony among the people of God? And what is more, you would find common ground with every other believer. I am not saying you would find fellowship with them, you would find common ground with them; they are in touch with this river and you are in touch with it too. That is why I gave out that hymn (No.188), 'And, willing hear the story of love that's come to heal'. Love has come to heal and it has come to heal you and to heal everybody else, to heal every relationship, to bring about a state of perfection which nothing else could do. Go back to the first of Isaiah and you will find there the whole body from the crown of the head to the soul of the foot, wounds and bruises, and putrefying sores; they have not been bound up, neither mollified with ointment. No healing had come in there. But do you think by the time you reached Isaiah 53 there is no healing? "Surely ... the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed" (v 5), the river flows out by the altar. And in the condition of Israel in chapter 1 where there was nothing that could be done to cure them, nothing that could be done to remedy them, and where even through the prophet God is Himself lamenting over the condition of His beloved people, in chapter 53 ''with his stripes we are healed". He sees of the fruit of the travail of His soul and He is satisfied, but He is satisfied in people who are healed. When is the first occasion when healing comes in in the Bible? I do not know, but an early occasion is when they came to the waters of Marah and they were bitter. Have you never been to the waters of Marah? Have you never - as Hezekiah says, "I had bitterness upon bitterness", Isa 38: 17 - been there? Is there anyone who has never felt the bitterness of circumstances, the bitterness of things that happen, the bitterness of disappointment and of sorrow and of bereavement and of loss of employment, circumstances in which everything is against you? "I had bitterness upon bitterness" Hezekiah says. And there at Marah in that bitter place, Jehovah showed Moses wood; he cut it down and cast it into the waters and the waters were healed, and it says, " I am Jehovah who healeth thee", Exod 15: 26. How did He heal them? Well, Christ was cut off and had nothing, and in His death He was cast into the waters of bitterness and the waters are healed and the people are free to drink. In the next verse they come to Elim where there were springs of water. No bitterness there, they come to springs of water because the tree was cut down; Christ was cut off and He had nothing. In His death He has been cast into and has borne all the bitterness which enters into the lives of nearly every person.

Bitterness is very rarely expressed. Have you ever heard people say, I feel very bitter about this? Occasionally you do and you think that they are saying it in spite of themselves. But the tree was cut down and the waters healed, and He says, "I am Jehovah who healeth thee". There is another occasion where waters were healed (see 2 Kings 2: 21); they cast in salt and the waters were healed - the blessedness of what it is. But the water here flows out by the side of the altar.

Now in Revelation the water does not flow out of the altar, it flows out of the throne. That is a very important thing to understand. The river in Revelation 22 flows out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, "a river of water of life, bright as crystal". Think of John seeing that. When you take up the Bible have you ever had impressions that you can actually see what was happening? As I say, doctrine gets in our way and interpretations get in our way, but the children do not look at it like that. If you show a child this verse he will immediately have a picture; he will say, That is a river of water of life and it is as clear as crystal and it flows out of the throne of God and of the Lamb - impressions of what the actuality is. The river of water of life flows out, and John says, "he shewed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal". Think of that, nothing interfering, no muddy stream, nothing churned up, "a river of water of life, bright as crystal". It is as if you could let down your cup and drink it; 'I came to Jesus, and I drank of that life-giving stream' (hymn 248). And there John saw it. Have you ever seen it? Have you ever stood on the earth and looked into heaven and had some impression of the river of water of life, bright as crystal? How excellent it is! John says, "he shewed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, going out of the throne of God and of the Lamb". That is to show us that healing does not come about sentimentally. Healing does not come about by taking one another by the arm and stroking one another; healing is related to the throne of God and of the Lamb. And if, as I said, in the river in Ezekiel every drop of water is characterised by the altar passed which it flowed, so in Revelation 22 every drop of water in the river is characterised by the throne of God. That is, nothing will be healed apart from the acknowledgment of what is due to God Himself. We often take things up and try to work them out and try to help one another - and may we go on helping one another - but we forget that the healing comes out of the throne. It was the river that kept the tree going and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. These things should help us to see that things in Christianity are not remedied by sentimentality: in fact sentimentality usually makes things worse, it is like trying to oil a lock with treacle. But the river that flows out of the throne of God and of the Lamb is going to maintain the rights of God and there is no basis of healing which does not maintain the rights of God. We may hope that this may be overlooked or that may be overlooked, or looked at it this way and looked at it that way, but no matter can be looked at on two different levels.

There is one level on which things are looked at and here it is the throne of God. Healing comes because the throne of God is giving character to a river which waters the tree: "In the midst of its street, and of the river, on this side and on that side, the tree of life, producing twelve fruits in each month yielding its fruit; and the leaves of the tree for healing of the nations". There is nothing that cannot be healed if the rights of the throne of God give character to the healing process. How could it be otherwise? If the rights of God are acknowledged the healing power will be there because things are being kept right in relation to the throne, in relation to the rights of God. It is a great day for rights in the world. There are charters of rights for nearly everything: even for animals there are charters of rights. But God is left out. God has His rights and when God's rights are acknowledged things will come right because they are acknowledged. One sorrows sometimes, beloved, to hear brethren speak of the rights of the Lord being maintained when really what they mean is that their view of the matter is going to prevail. There is a need for greater penetration into the intimacy of what it is to have actually to do with God and with Christ. We come near sometimes to taking the name of the Lord in vain, and we attach the Lord's name to our own opinions and to our own decisions, when the rights of the throne of God need to be acknowledged. If you were there before the throne of God would you say anything about your own opinions? It goes back to what we were seeking to touch in the reading as to the headship of Christ; if you make way for this, you make way for the dominance of God in every matter and it waters this tree. And you go by that tree today and it has one variety of fruit on it and you go by it in a month's time and it has another variety of fruit, but all these fruits are watered by the river that comes out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. What blessedness there is in that! Have you ever felt one of these leaves applied to you, wounds which are not bound up nor mollified with ointment, but the leaves of the tree there? Think of what it will be in this actual day when the nations are healed. Think of the strife there is in the world at the present time: there is hardly a country which is not engaged with strife of some kind or another. Sometimes it breaks out in war, sometimes it is in classes, sometimes in politics and all these things. Think of what it will be when the leaves of this tree heal the nations. A wonderful day it will be and it has the same power now. I remember a brother quoting that hymn when he preached in London,

'Thy touch has still its ancient power,

No word from Thee can fruitless fall,

Lord in this solemn evening hour

Send forth Thy word and heal us all.'

There it is, they came to Him in the evening in all their diverse conditions as they were, 'with what diverse pains they met, Oh, in what peace they went away,' and every one went away healed. The blessedness of the availability of Jesus!

The river also flows out of the throne of the Lamb. I suppose it is out of the throne of the Lamb: "the throne of God and of the Lamb", as if they are together in the throne, but the power of the Lord is there. There is an expression in the gospels which we often think of: ''the Lord's power was there to heal them", Luke 5: 17. The power of the Lord is still present to heal. What is the actual context of that remark? The power of the Lord was present to heal Pharisees. The Pharisees were there, and it says that the power of the Lord was present to heal them, persons supreme in self-righteousness. The power of the Lord is present to heal every different condition that there may be in any soul today, in any company.

I have not very much more to say, but I commend to the brethren a desire for healing. If there is amongst us a desire for self-justification there will never be healing. Let there be a desire for healing. People get injured even amongst us, perhaps they should not be - we are all rather touchy at bottom - but people get touchy and they are hurt, and all that kind of thing. Let the disposition of the brethren be for the healing of one another. Let us use some leaves of this tree. If they can heal the nations, can they not heal you? Can they not heal your brother or your sister? Can they not heal your house and your family? Can they not heal? They will heal every condition in the world in the day to come. And John says, I saw a river of water of life, bright as crystal. Think of it, think of it flowing through the meeting.

Beloved, let the river of water of life flow through the meeting-room. It comes by way of the altar and it comes by way of the throne of God and of the Lamb, and wherever it comes it either communicates healing in itself or it nurtures what will provide for healing among the brethren. I get the impression in Ezekiel that when God gave the prophet the words to say that there were the marshy places that were given up to salt, if I could use such an expression, God is disappointed. "Ye will not come to me that ye might have life" (John 5: 40), that is, people would not come and be healed. But there is healing. I commend the thought to the brethren that we could be occupied with healing one another. I am not talking about administration but about the general state of feeling for one another amongst us that will nurture one another, that will comfort one another. They brought away the boy alive and were comforted (see Acts 20: 12); somebody had been healed. Think of what the meeting would be if everyone was healed, everyone was comforted, everyone was at rest because the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowed through the place. If you felt like it you could drink it; if you felt sick you could take one of the leaves of the tree and you would be healed. And next month when you felt down again there would be a different fruit but it would be the same tree and it would be the same water.

I commend these thoughts to the brethren, fairly simple thoughts I trust, but there is a power available to us now which brings about healing in every condition which we might conceive, and we might all be healed. The hymn says, Won't you come and be healed, won't you whisper, I yield. Have you ever touched that, yielded to Christ and were healed as you did so? Our brother in the reading referred to the way we might stimulate one another; let us heal one another, let us take it on, let us heal one another for the Lord's sake.

 

NEW YORK

29 May 1993