There Is A Balm In Gilead

miss you sick and you've been trying education to heal you but education cannot heal you you try government but government cannot heal you government came heal itself culture cannot hear you dick and power ship but it cannot heal you recreation can make you feel good but it cannot heal you you need somebody God specializes in scenes that seem impossible and he can do talking about Jesus what no other power older didn't do you need somebody gotta hear you there is a balm in Gilead the German writer Friedrich von ligaw has left words that resonate with many of us when I read them you will remember some of them though the meals of God grind slowly yet they grind exceedingly small though with patience he stands waiting with exactness grinds he all the German writer seems to have captured in some sense God's judgment upon his own people but he judges the nation and pays them the earned wages for the sins that they have committed no nation can despise God's law defy his rule and not suffer for it and yet Jeremiah teaches us this morning that once extinct you won't get away some of you like me love to hear the words of the American poet James Russell Lowell who actually in a few words summarizes the entire life Ministry of Jeremiah I don't think Lao in any sense had Jeremiah in the fore when he was thinking about the words that he wrote in his poem to present crisis and yet for those of you who say I would like to know more about Jeremiah you can know it in the words of this poet who said it this way once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide in the strife of truth with falsehood for the good or evil side those words actually summarizes the prophetic ministry of jeremiah the prophet his ministry was inaugurated with resistance he didn't want to be a prophet a word that we casually throw around the day it would have been safer for him to be a priest priest had a regulation book to work by to tell you what to do on Monday and what altered bow down to on Tuesday what rights to offer up Wednesday ceremonies to practice on therr think religious observances on Friday how to kick and chill on Sabbath day it was a book that wrote down the regular routines of the religious leadership but not the Prophet the Prophet unlike today prophet we spell profit that they PR o fi t but the Prophet the one that spoke on God's behalf the one that uttered the words the word of the Lord ah the Lord has said and what they say it came to pass it would have been better to be a priest that was the lineage of Jeremiah but God called him to a prophet to speak truth to the power to be and that's an entirely different kind of story so Jeremiah now represents a spiritual leadership a leadership that represents God's Word and so now we come to know that every nation every home Church in every city every person needs decisive leadership from God's Word someone has said if you ever reject truth from inject truth into politics it stops being politics because the politician asks is it popular the diplomat asks is it safe but true spiritual leadership asks is a really God's will so let me finish with Jeremiah by reciting the end of Lao Wells poem truth forever on the scaffold wrong forever on the throne yet that scaffold sways the future behind the dim unknown standeth God within the shadows keep a watch above his own Jeremiah now has shattered the popular illusion of the temple in Jeremiah chapter 8 this is God attacking the false prophets chapter 7 Jeremiah is attacking those people who live by the temple that is the temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord who actually believed that safety of God was in the temple of the Lord it would go this way I can live any way I choose to live as long as I get to the temple I live under God's protection and God told Jeremiah you tell the members at the church with our walls that's really not true just because you're in the room doesn't mean that you're in right relationship with the Living God you see what I mean I would rather be a priest than to be a prophet because priests never had to say that but prophets do but there's just one abiding question that Jeremiah seeks to answer and the one that we ask ourselves why didn't the nation turn back to God keep in mind that this nation these are God's people they will not be people if they were here this morning would have to grapple with what I'm saying they would not not be able to find themselves in the narrative they would say he's talking about us these are the people keep in mind that God had given the law we would say the Scriptures these are the people who have prayed to God these are not strangers to God these are people who ancestors that past had been nurtured in the ways of God they would not have been offended being here this morning they would have said that's the language I understand they would say that's what my grandmother taught me at her knee my grandfather prayed at the kitchen table on Sunday this is what my uncle would talk about God did this this was a group of people who had not forgotten their history they knew of the God of their past they just started reinterpreting them now making God to fashion into their own likeness and image they created God I like that in their image and their likeness if you have your Bibles open I'll give you the outline of his sermon that Jeremiah preached is three refusals of why they didn't turn back to God verses 4 and 7 they refuse they refuse or that refusal was irrational just remember that the reasons they gave for not turning to God didn't make it a good sense let me see if you got good sense if you are wrong walking on the wrong side of the road then a person with good sense would walk on the ten of you got good sense if you fall down good sense would saying you didn't want to be now when you read those words that I gave to you in verses four through seven then you'll see for those who thought that I was trying to be clever that's the metaphor that Jeremiah is actually using he just says simply this not to trust God just ain't good sense verses 8 through 12 their refusal was caused by deception when you read the next words they were just not wise it didn't make much sense not to trust God it was not wise verses 13 through 22 I guess they forgot when you're irrational unwise as it relates to your relationship to God it leads to judgment now you see what Jeremiah means when he says the harvest is past you know some of you you're thinking too hard listen to it the summer has passed how long is the harvest April to June the summer has ended how long is that June maybe to the end Midway September the profits of poet he's simply saying how many harvests how many summers does God have to give you and you're still not saying is there no balm in Gilead we're saying that it's it's a spiritual these antebellum Negroes in particular who wrote these spirituals and some afterwards wrote with a cute genius and I'm not going to give you a lecture only but if you want to have some fun reading it read James combs old book the spiritual in the blues you'll enjoy that why did this incite to write these spirituals come from this genre of music that nourishes so many souls that strengthens one every year for the last almost 30 years the only reading I do in February is all nothing but Afrocentric literature nothing biographies histories documentary everything and I've been reading up over the last couple of months about these spirituals and acts where did they come from it's not the first time I've heard him I've grown up with him I've been nurturing on them they serve as a Prag ID for me periodically when I search for words and I don't know what to say I reach back some time to the ancients and recite these spirituals fed my soul on them there is a balm in Gilead and then you don't have to be a linguistic expert you pick up something in the spiritual that you don't pick up in the prophetic literature Jeremiah is raising a rhetorical question he asks is there balm in Gilead he's not asking God he's not asking the nation he's actually doing like most preachers he's just thinking out loud he is there balm in Gilead and these Negroes black folk African Americans when they took that genre of music they didn't ask the question in the singer they didn't say here's our bomb in a Gilead they answered it there is a bomb they do what Jeremiah doesn't do Jeremiah is forecasting they're interpreting there is a balm in Gilead that heals the sin 600 this this sickness is not biological it's not physiological sickness this is a sickness of the soul this is something that is so deep that these people who wrote in response to that query raised by Jeremiah they were saying no not just in a physician can heal this sickness oh I know I know what I'm talking to you don't you not sick you ain't never been sick but I'm not talking about asthma I'm not talking about bronchitis I'm not talking about counselor I'm talking about a sickness that only one specialists can handle I needed some help with this so I asked dr. Gardner Calvin Taylor I said tell me because I know you written on balm in Gilead dr. Taylor for those who don't know he pastored in New York City he's a native of Louisiana daddy was one of the famed preachers in the south he a famed preacher the Dean of preachers tire magazine called dr. Taylor asked I said give me some insight because I don't I came lock-in to Jeremiah and he just told me to tell you a few things and I want to pass it on to you said Ralph remind your church that the balm in Gilead comes from a long distance you see the balm in Gilead the bomb tree it's a tree it does not grow in Palestine Palestine is too arid the land is desiccated it lacks the nutrients and the natural resources for a tree like the bomb tree to grow so the tree then grows farther east of the Jordan in a luxuriant lands and so when you get the bomb tree you have to transport it from way off to where you are because that's where the healing is in the bomb tree and so you bring it from a long way off now I can tell you think I'm talking about trees these the genius of these black folk they knew that Jeremiah wasn't talking about a tree they said that 609 BC he was looking 600 years into the future of somebody that would come from a long way off and he would bring healing in his wings this morning some of y'all are sick I love you but you're sick love ain't got nothing to do with sickness you sick and you've been trying education to heal you but education cannot heal you you tried government but government cannot heal you government came heal itself culture cannot heal you it can polish it but it cannot heal you recreation can make you feel good but it cannot heal you you need somebody God specializes in things that seem impossible and he can do talking about Jesus what no other power on earth can do you need somebody that can heal you no wonder the angel said and they shall call his name Jesus for he shall heal his people love that since you need a Savior Church the harvest has passed summer has ended people have sat in churches like this for years and years and after years they know less about God they know everybody on the NBA all-star team no they stats know what college they went to know that biography and when you ask him about Jesus they talk about him like they never heard of it they know everybody on scandal they know the part on the House of Lies no that background ask him about Jesus they talk like they never heard I do it sometime and I ask people you're Christian yeah grew up in church I said tell me about Jesus duh you ought to know something about you ought to know something about don't sit here and worship Him and say you're loving and don't know something every week if you in this church you can add a line to it born in Bethlehem died only that's all you you ought to know something about harvesters past summer has ended still not saying oh I see you in somebody here but you can't help them and they can't help you here's out no balm in Gilead dr. Taylor told me to tell tell them one more thing he said and tell them that bomb that that bomb tree is an unattractive tree there's no beauty in that tree it's it's a bomb tree that grows in a strange land and a far distance and it's unattractive no Beauty no calm leanness to it it's not to be confused with the beautiful fir trees it's not to be mistaken for the cedars are those Lebanon not to be confused with the evergreens are those beautiful majestic redwoods inside of the California forest no nothing like that this is a little shrub ugly unattractive some of you know I'm not talking about a tree now I'm talking about the one that Isaiah spoke about when Isaiah said there's no beauty or calm leanness upon him that we should desire him that nobody really likes the way Jesus look not just a physical attraction no that's not what he's really talking about he's speaking that there is nothing about him that's so attractive that naturally you would be attracted to him but when you discover he has the power to make a difference in your life it ought to be what magnetizer to it we're looking for pretty angry we want pretty in government and all we discover is when you pull back the less ugly as it can be some of us have tried pretty in relationship only to only discover it is true that beauty is only skin-deep yeah yeah yeah but here is one where there's no beauty our calm leanness no attraction about him and yet he is the one that we refer to that you don't have to give a dissertation to when you say he's a Rose of Sharon he's a lily of the valley he's a bright that morning strong those that's been around him know that you're talking about Jesus when you see that I'm through now but there one more thing that you need to know and dr. Taylor gave me this when he said you might forget about the distance of the attraction but whatever you do don't forget about this one tell them that healing is in the tree but it ain't in the leaves and it's not in the root the only way you can get healing out of that tree is that you got the piercing and cut it is only then does the ink a resin spill out of it oh he was wounded for my transgressions he was bruised for my iniquities and the chastisement of my peace have been laid upon him the only way you can be saved is that he has to be pierced and he has to be cut for the blood that comes spilling out he came from a distance as a stranger to his own land don't beauty or attraction to him born in a stable and wrapped in swaddling clothes he didn't come into raw regality of the Roman government but he came under the humble influence of a God that said that it was not robbery to be equal with God and made of himself no reputation but took upon him the form of a servant even to die on the cross have a good day I if you don't know that bout now I can't make you know that here you got crosses behind you and crosses in front of you and crosses on the way out he says he died you can't be healed unless he died when was the last time you connected with the church that a dramatic difference in your life every week pastor Ralph Douglas West is making that kind of difference in the lives of people around the world so call us or visit us on the web at church without walls or to find out more about our books DVDs and other fantastic resources we also invite you to partner with us as we continue to take this ministry to a global audience your prayers and financial support are critical and allowing us to expand this remarkable message so call the number on your screen to discover how you can become a partner with us today and when you're in the Houston area we invite you to visit us for a life-changing experience at the church without walls come visit

Channel: ralphdouglaswest

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Keywords: Be encouraged, ralph west, Balm Of Gilead, There Is A Balm In Gilead, preaching, gospel, inspiration, scripture, The Bible (Religious Text), teaching

Id: z3ACmlS9L-Y

Length: 28min 30sec (1710 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 15 2015