The Word Of Faith

“for this cause many are weak and sickly among you…”

Through Kenneth Hagin

Media Referenced: Noon Prayer April 01, 2020

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There are some things in the 11th chapter of 1 Corinthians I want to share with you. And oh, I would to God that you could see it. It is so important that you do. It can mean the difference in how long you live on this earth. It can either shorten or lengthen your life; according to what you do with it.

As we read the passage together, my comments are in parentheses:

1 CORINTHIANS 11:23-34

23 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, (Paul was not present in the room that night, but he says that he received this from the Lord.) That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:

24 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in rememberance of me.

26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.

27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

28 But let a man examine himself, (It says nothing about my examining you or your examining me.) and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.

29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. (Notice the word is “unworthily” and not “unworthy.” It is an adverb; no an adjective. It describes the manner in which you do it; how you enter into it; your attitude your motive. This is not talking about your being unworthy. If you are a new creation, you could not be unworthy – God has never made an unworthy new creation.

Also notice the word “damnation.” The Greek word translated “damnation” here is identically the same Greek word translated “condemnation” in the 34th verse. It means condemnation, or judgment.)

30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.

(You can see in this verse that it is condemnation, or judgement, rather than damnation. They did not go to hell; but rather they were judged. They ate and drank unto judgement upon themselves.)

31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.

32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

33 Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another.

34 And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when I come.

 

This passage says that they eat and drink condemnation or judgement unto themselves by not doing two things:

(1) Rightly discerning the Lord’s Body

(2) Judging themselves

 

Rightly discerning the Lord’s body has a two-fold application.

First, they did not discern this face: that the Lord’s body was broken for their physical sustenance.

Millions take the Lord’s supper every week never discerning that fact because it is never preached to them. They eat the bread which is a type of broken body of Jesus never discerning that through His broken body, physical healing was obtained for them and that they could be well.

For this reason (because they do not discern the Lord’s body) Paul said, “many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.”

“Discern” means to “see.” Paul infers that if they would discern or see the Lord’s body (“…by whose stripes ye were healed” – 1 Peter 2:24.), they would not be sick, or weak, and many would not have died prematurely.

Through His shed blood, remission of sins was secured for us! And through His broken body, physical sustenance and healing were secured for us!

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Secondly, not only do we need to discern that the Lord Jesus’ physical body in which He lived during His earth walk was beaten, and that by His stripes we are healed—but we also need to discern that today the Lord’s body, spiritually speaking, is one.

The bible declares that the Church is the Body. “Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. And God hath set some in the church…” (1 Cor. 12:27-28).

The way you get into the body is to be born again.

We must discern the Lord’s body today as one. God is not pleased with people withdrawing themselves from fellow believers. He is not pleased with those who segregate themselves and think they know so much more than anyone else they can hardly afford to associate with fellow believers.

We must rightly discen the Lord’s body today, lest we be weak, and sickly and die prematurely. Can you see that?

Can you see the danger in the attitude, “We can’t have anything to do with other members of the Body of Christ.”?

I preached divine healing as a Baptist preacher. Then after receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit I came over into the Full Gospel circles.

In my early association with certain churches, I saw that some of them were particularly strong on healing. In some of these congregations no one had been operated on for years; no one died prematurely.

But in later years, I have gone back to the same churches and they are the sickest bunch I have ever seen in my life. And I knew it was going to happen all the time.

I predicted it would turn out just as it did. I predicted it on the basis of this scripture. They isolated themselves for other believers; even from other Full Gospel believers. They did not discern the Body of Christ. They had no time for anybody except their own exclusive little bunch. Their attitude was, “If he’s not with us, there must be something wrong with him.”

In those kinds of Full Gospel churches where they scarcely recognized even another Full Gospel movement, it was the hardest thing in the world to get those people healed.

But we could go right over into another Full Gospel movement which recognized the whole Body of Christ, and it was easy for them to receive healing. They honored and recognized the whole Body of Christ. They realize that they are not THE Body, but only a part of it. They honor and have respect to the rest of the Body and therefore God can honor them and move in their midst with greater healings and greater manifestations of the Spirit.

See to it that you discern the whole Body of Christ and realize that the Body of Christ is one. And walk in love toward your fellow man.

You may have heard me tell what the Lord said to me concerning a minister, “You go tell him he is going to die,” He said. He will die soon, unless he judges himself on these three things: money, love, and diet.”

A telephone call came in the midst of a convention, “Pray for Brother So-and-so. He is dying now.” Preachers with a healing ministry were invited to the platform to pray. As I started forward, the Spirit of God said, “Don’t pray for him. He is going to die.”

But, Lord, why is he going to die?” I asked. “He is a young man and you promised at least 70 or 80 years. He is prominent in the healing ministry and if he dies it will hurt the ministry.”

The Lord said to me, “He would not judge himself and walk in love toward his fellow man and fellow ministers. And I judged him and turned him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that his spirit may be saved unto the day of the Lord Jesus.”

That was better than being lost and going to hell – but it was not God’s best.

 

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Let’s examine this scripture further, beginning with the last of verse 29;

1 CORINTHIANS 11:29-31

29…not discerning the Lord’s body.

30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.

31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not judge.

 

This is not written to the unsaved, folks. This is written to Christians.

If we Christians would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.

Thank God, I am never going to be judged! If I see I am wrong, if I see I have missed it, that minute (I’m not going to wait until I go to church) I am going to stop right there and say, “Lord, I have missed. Please forgive me.”

He said that if I would do that, if I would judge myself, then I would not be judged!

You couldn’t very well judge yourself unless you had something to judge yourself on. You have to violate something before you can be judged.

But if you miss it, if you fail, whether little or big, judge yourself and He will forgive you. Then you will never be judged on it.

1 Corinthians 11:31-32

31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.

32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord…

 

However, if you do not judge yourself – If you do not correct yourself when you see you are not walking in love – If you have committed a sin and have not judged yourself saying, “That is wrong and I repent of it and I ask You to forgive me,” and if you walk on it long enough — Then the Bible says, “But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord.”

Some people just sort of dare God, as well as the devil. It’s all right to dare the devil, but you had better be careful daring God. You had better do what God says.

Now why is it that, “when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord.”?

1 Corinthians 11:32

32….that we should not be condemned with the world.

 

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Remember that all this was said in connection with those weak and sickly in the church and those folks sleeping in their graves. They either did not discern the Lord’s body, or they did not judge themselves.

Some might say, “I just won’t partake of the Lord Supper and then this won’t apply to me.” Oh, yes it does!

There is much in this passage that is good and interesting, but I especially want to get this over to you. We must discern this fact: the Lord’s Body is one. His spiritual body today is one. “Ye are the body of Christ and members in particular.”

Let’s discern the Body then. Let’s realize that it is one and that all of us together as born again believers, whether we have received the baptism of the Holy Ghost or not, are members of the Body of Christ.