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W.D. Frazee Sermons Ministry

W.D. Frazee

Balm of Gilead- Part 1

Why, then, is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

Gilead, you remember, is on the east side of the River Jordan, the northern part of that territory that the Israelites conquered before they crossed over the river and took the main part of Palestine.

It was settled by Reuben Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

The mountains of Gilead were the original home of the prophet Elijah.

In those tablelands and mountains there grows an evergreen tree which exudes a resin which was highly prized among the ancients as a healing balsam.

And from time to time in the Bible we hear of this balm of Gilead.

The Ishmaelites that were on their way down to Egypt at the time that Joseph's brethren sold him as a slave were carrying the balm of Gilead, among other things that they were taking down to sell.

Now Jeremiah lifts this expression from the physical and applies it to the spiritual.

He likens the problems of the people of God at that time to physical sickness.

Is there no medicine, no treatment that can meet the need of this patient?

Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?" Well, in Christ's object lessons, page 418, I read this sweet assurance.

Tell them that there is a balm in Gilead and a physician there.

So tonight I want to study with you about the balm of Gilead, dispensed by the great physician.

Christ of course is the great physician and he's dispensing the balm of Gilead, which means his grace, his love, his spirit, which is a mighty healing power.

In the book Testimonies to Ministers, page 200, I read, The great physician alone can apply the balm of Gilead.

So this isn't something we can buy in the drugstore, and it isn't something that some commercial firm can get its hands on and charge so much an ampule or a pill or a package.

And remember, dear friends, if you and I are to have any part in applying this balsam, we have to be the agents, the partners of the great physician.

The great physician alone can apply the balm of Gilead.

Then let me make a very practical application of it right now at the beginning of our study.

The only way the true medical missionary work can be done successfully is by those who have Jesus in their hearts.

It was never meant to work any other way.

The balm of Gilead for body and mind and soul can be dispensed only by the great physician.

In Counsels on Health, page 536, I read, The great physician-in-chief is at the side of every true, earnest, God-fearing practitioner who works with his acquired knowledge to relieve the sufferings of the human body.

He, the chief of physicians, is ready to dispense the balm of Gilead.

Oh I thank the Lord for doctors and nurses that believe that phrase.

When I get sick, which isn't very often, but no matter if it's only once in a lifetime, I'm so glad that there is a place where there's some doctors and nurses that, under Jesus, the chief physician, are dispensing the balm of Gilead.

Thank God for the healing power of Christ flowing through the ministry of those whose lives are dedicated to the medical missionary work.

Now this evening I want to study some of the ways in which this balm of Gilead can be applied to us and through us, all of us, if we will just share with Jesus.

You remember in the 147th Psalm, I wish you would turn to that.

Notice that God is in the business not only of healing broken bones, but broken hearts.

Broken hearts are harder to heal than broken bones, my friends.

To thank God the balm of Gilead is a specific.

Psalm 147, verse 3, He healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds.

He healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds.

Isaiah the 66th chapter in the 13th verse.

A wonderful promise of comfort and health and hope.

As 1 whom his mother comforted, so will I comfort you.

Oh, my dear friend, that man that I was reading to you about from the letter, He had to have blood of a certain type in order to take care of his need, didn't he?

The broken in heart, they need blood of a certain type.

In our business, you and I have this job of getting together the patient and the physician that supplies this blood type.

Or back to our original figure, the balm of Gilead.

Now turn over to the New Testament, the 1 Thessalonians, the 4th chapter.

We'll see an example of the application of this bomb of Gilead, the broken hearts, the sorrowing spirits.

Paul had preached the message of Jesus, life, death, resurrection, and ascension there in Thessalonica.

He'd had to leave and go on to other places.

And he wrote them this letter to encourage them.

Some of them were so disappointed because some of their number had fallen asleep in death.

And Paul by the Spirit of God wrote them this letter to comfort their hearts.

Many here tonight have at 1 time or another suffered the pain of bereavement, lost a father or a mother, a husband, a wife, a brother, a sister, a son or daughter, or some other loved 1, someone near to you by the ties of nature or friendship, listen to this oft-quoted, never too often, promise of God.

See how it applies the balm of Gilead to the wounded heart.

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God.

And the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, And so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Now will you read the 18th verse with me?

Wherefore comfort 1 another with these words.

He who heals the broken in heart and binds up their wounds is in this promise applying the balm of Gilead to the wounded heart.

It's a specific, wherefore comfort 1 another with these words.

I thank God that Jesus has applied it to my heart as from time to time I've had to stand by the open grave And lay away a loved 1.

And I thank God that he's helped me scores of times to apply this balm of Gilead to other hearts who are called upon to go through the pain and sorrow of bereavement.

Friends, thank God the prescription is a good 1.

I was reading a beautiful example of this in a letter that the Prophet to the Remnant wrote to the believers on Pitcairn Island back in 1894.

In a storm, some of their number had been lost at sea and drowned.

They're on that little lonely island in the South Pacific.

If you'd like to read more of it, you'll find it in the book Selected Messages, Book 2, beginning page 269 and running over to page 274.

After mentioning some of them by name, she says, To the afflicted ones, I would say, be of good comfort in the hope of the resurrection morning.

The waters of which you have been drinking are as bitter to your taste as were the waters of Merah to the children of Israel in the wilderness, but Jesus can make them so sweet with his love.

The woman who wrote these words had been called again and again to go through the experience of bereavement.

She lost her oldest son when he was a promising young man in his later teens, a beautiful singer.

Everyone thought he would make a strong worker for God, but he was laid away in death.

She was called upon to stand by the grave of her youngest child, a little babe.

They had stood side by side in preaching this message through the early days, laying the foundations of this church, she had to see him laid away.

So she knew what she was writing about, that there is balm in Gilead.

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Balm of Gilead- Part 1

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