The Lord’s Compassion

The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works (Psa. 145:8-9.)

In the study of the Lord’s compassion, we have, to my mind, a complete revelation of the Lord’s willingness to heal. During His earthly ministry He was everywhere moved with compassion, and healed all “them that had need of healing;” and it is “this same Jesus” who, after saying, “It is expedient for you that I go away,” is now seated at the right hand of God, “that He might be a merciful (compassionate) and faithful High Priest” for us.

In the Scriptures, “compassion” and “mercy” mean the same. The Hebrew noun, rachamin, is translated both “mercy” and “compassion.” The Greek verb, eleeo, is translated “have mercy” and “have compassion;” and, likewise, the Greek adjective eleemon is defined “merciful—compassionate.”

To have compassion is to love tenderly, to pity, to show mercy, to be full of eager yearning.

God Nothing So Much as Love

The text above begins with “the Lord is gracious and full of compassion.” These sentiments concerning the nature of God are expressed over and over throughout the Scriptures. God is not anything so much as He is Love. The most conspicuous statements in the Scriptures about our heavenly Father are the declarations concerning His love, His mercy, His compassion. There is no note that can be sounded concerning God’s character that will so inspire faith as this one. In our revivals, I have seen faith rise “mountain high” when the truth of God’s present love and compassion began to dawn upon the minds and hearts of the people. It is not what God can do, but what we know He yearns to do, that inspires faith. ‘By showing His compassion everywhere in the healing of the sick, Jesus unveiled the compassionate heart of God to the people, and the multitudes came to Him for help. Oh, how insidiously has Satan worked to hide this glorious fact from the people. He has broadcasted the unscriptural, illogical and worn-out statement, that the age of miracles is past, until he has almost succeeded in eclipsing the compassion of God from the eyes of the world. Modern theology magnifies the power of God more than it magnifies His compassion; His power more than it does the great fact that “the exceeding greatness of His power (is) to usward.” But the Bible reverses this, and magnifies His willingness to use His power more than it does the power itself. In no place does the Bible say that “God is power,” but it does say, that “God is love.” It is not faith in God’s power that secures His blessings, but faith in His love and in His will.

God’s Love Veiled by Modern Theology

The first statement in our text above is, “the Lord is gracious,” meaning, “He is disposed to to show favors.” This glorious fact, that shines with such brilliancy throughout the Scriptures, has been so eclipsed by modern theology that we hear everywhere, the Lord is able instead of “the Lord is gracious.” Hundreds needing healing have come or written to us, saying, concerning their need of deliverance, “the Lord is able;” but their teaching, as well as their lack of teaching, has kept them from knowing that the Lord is willing. How much faith does it take to say “the Lord is able?” The devil knows God is able, and he knows He is willing; but he has kept the people from knowing the latter fact. Satan is willing we shall magnify the Lord’s power, because he knows that this is not a sufficient basis for faith; but he knows the Lord’s compassion and willingness is.

Before praying for the healing of people, we have to wait to teach them the Word of God until they can say, “the Lord is gracious,” instead of “the Lord is willing.” This is exactly what Jesus had to do before healing the leper who said, “If thou wilt thou canst.” He showed His willingness, so that the man could really expect healing.

In the preceding sermon, we have presented many scriptural proofs of the Lord’s present willingness to heal. But even when we can advance from saying “He is able” to saying “He is willing,” this is not enough. The word “willing” is too tame to fully express God’s merciful attitude toward us. “He delighteth in mercy.” (Mic. 7:18). We have His attitude more fully expressed in II Chron. 16:9, “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.” This text exhibits our Lord as not only being willing, but eager to pour His blessings in great profusion upon all who make it possible for Him to do so. “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro,” or, in other words, He is ever hunting for opportunities to gratify His benevolent heart, because “He delighteth in mercy.”

Benevolence is the great attribute of God; therefore, if you want to please Him remove the obstacles out of the way of the exercise of His benevolence. He is Infinitely Good, and He exists forever in a state of entire consecration to pour forth blessings upon His creatures whenever they make it possible, which all may do. Suppose the vast Pacific ocean were elevated high above us. Then conceive of its pressure into every crevice to find an outlet through which it might pour its ocean-tides over all the earth, and you have a picture of God’s benevolent attitude toward us.

A Serious Challenge

After being first properly enlightened, I challenge you, Reader, to place yourself where God’s mercy can reach you without His having to violate the glorious principles of His moral government, then wait and see if you don’t experience the most overwhelming demonstration of His love and mercy, and the blessing will flow until you have reached the limit of your expectation. Cornelius placed himself where God’s mercy could reach him by saying to Peter, “We are all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God,” and he found God’s goodness so great that He could not wait for Peter to finish his sermon. Just as soon as Peter had spoken enough to be a basis for their faith, down came the blessing.

Not only is God able, but He is also willing to do “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” His love is so great that it could not be fully gratified by blessing all the holy beings in the universe; therefore, it is extended to His enemies “throughout the whole earth.” It seems to me that God would rather we should doubt His ability than His willingness. I would rather have a man who is in trouble say to me, “Brother Bosworth, I know you would help me if you could” (doubting my ability) than to say, “I know you can, but I have no confidence in your disposition to help me.” Again, the text at the head of this sermon further states that the Lord is “full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.” When I think of how the Lord so floods our hearts with His tender love, until, in intercession for others our hearts are too full of yearnings to utter their feelings (yearnings that “cannot be uttered”), I stand in awe, and wonder what His compassion must be. A mother’s compassion for her suffering child makes her not only willing to relieve the child, but to suffer if she cannot. The Greek word sumpathes, (translated “compassion”) means to suffer with another.” Accordingly, Isaiah says: “In all their affliction He was afflicted.” Is it not strange that this wondrous fact of His mercy toward the sick, so clearly seen and applied during the darker ages of the Old Testament, should be overlooked and set aside in this “better” age, in which is opened the way for the fullest possible manifestations of His mercy toward every phase of human need?

The Benevolent Heart of God Reaches All

Our text, after showing the greatness of His compassion, closes with the logical conclusion, “The Lord is good to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works. In other words, He is so “full of compassion” that he cannot be “a Respecter of persons” in the bestowal of His mercies. How could He (Who being unable to fully gratify His benevolent heart by blessing Holy Beings, extends His mercies to the wicked of earth) withhold the common blessing of healing from any of His own obedient children?

What a strange doctrine that the sick are not to look for as much mercy during this age of grace, which prophets and kings desired to see, and Angels desired to look into, as sufferers did during the darker ages. Is God now more willing to show the mercy of forgiveness to the devil’s children than He is the mercy of healing to his own? The fact is, He loves His own sick and suffering child even more than He loves the sinner, and “the mercy (compassion) of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting (not upon sinners alone, but) upon them that fear Him”. “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him”. As the Heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him,” as well as to the sinner. The sick christian can say, with Solomon, “ . . . there is no God like thee . . . which keepest covenant and showeth mercy unto thy servants that walk before thee with all their hearts.” (II Chron. 6:14.) Not some, but “All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth (not unto His enemies, but) unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.” (Psa. 25:10).

Instances of the Lord’s Compassion

Now let us look at a few passages from the Gospels, showing the Lord’s compassion.

Mark 1:40-45, “And there came a leper to Him, beseeching Him, and kneeling down to Him, and saying unto Him, ‘if thou wilt thou canst make me clean.’ And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth His hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, ‘I will; be thou clean.’ And as soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed; ... and they came to Him from every quarter.”

Here it was compassion that moved Christ to heal this leper.

Matthew 14:13, 14. “ ... He departed thence by ship into a desert place apart: and when the people had heard thereof they followed Him on foot out of the cities. And Jesus went forth and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and He healed their sick.”

Here, as elsewhere, He was “plenteous in mercy” to “all that had need of healing;” and it was His compassion that moved Him.

Matthew 20: 29-34. “And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him. And, behold, two blind men sitting by the wayside, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, ‘Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David.’ And Jesus ... said, ‘What will ye that I shall do unto you?’ They say unto Him, ‘Lord, that our eyes may be opened.’ So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him.”

Here these blind men asked for the mercy of having their eyes opened, and Jesus granted unto them the mercy of healing, proving that healing is a mercy as well as forgiveness. The sick, in those days, when seeking healing, asked for mercy. In our day most people think of mercy as applied only to the sinner, not knowing that His mercy is also extended to the sick.

God the Father of Mercies

Paul, who calls God the “Father of Mercies,” proves it by healing all the sick on the island of Melita. Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful (compassionate) for they shall obtain mercy.” Job was healed when he prayed for his friends. According to one of the beatitudes, he obtained mercy by showing it. Referring to, and accounting for Job’s healing, James 5:11 says, “The Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy,” and follows with the direction to the Church, “is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the Church,” etc. In other words, because “the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy” let “any sick” in the Church to-day as well as Job obtain their healing also. Having provided all we need, Jesus is still saying, as He did to the two blind men, “What will ye that I should do unto you?”

After Jesus had had compassion on the man in the tombs so possessed with a legion of demons that he cut himself with stones, and broke the chains with which they had often tried to bind him, when he was clothed and in his right mind he was so glad that he besought the Lord that he might remain with Him. “Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel.” (Mark 5:19-20).

A Result of One Man’s Testimony

And now let us read Matthew 15:30-31, and see the results of this one man’s testimony, given to advertise the Lord’s compassion. “And great multitudes (in Decapolis) came unto Him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed and many others, and cast them down at Jesus’ feet; and He healed them: insomuch that the multitudes wondered when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel.”

It was not their being sick, as some teach to-day, but their being healed, that caused these “great multitudes” to “glorify the God of Israel.” Oh, how much glory would come to God, as well as blessings to the world, if every minister to-day would present clearly the Bible promises for healing to the sick, and then, as soon as each one was healed, he would, in his turn, publish the Lord’s compassion throughout his “Decapolis.” In a short time thousands upon thousands everywhere who are now sick would obtain faith in Christ for healing. It would then again be said of the multitudes that they “glorified the God of Israel.” The higher critic and the modernist would soon be unpopular, and the false healing cults would not draw away from the Church the multitudes who are now being ensnared.

Not a Crime to Publish God’s Goodness

It is stated above that this man “published” the Lord’s compassion. Some oppose and write articles against us for publishing the testimonies of those who are miraculously healed. What is the matter? Is there anything wrong in obeying the Lord’s command to “make known Ais deeds among the people?” Since Jesus died to open the way for His mercies to reach all the needs of man, we surely ought to be willing for them to know it. One would think to read some of the books and articles that are being written that it is a crime to let the people know about the Lord’s compassion.

You will notice that in the Scriptures above quoted, as the result of miracles of healing His fame was spread abroad, “and they came to Him from every quarter.” And “they followed Him on foot out of the cities,” and “great multitudes came to Him.” “Multitudes!” “Multitudes!” “Multitudes,” everywhere.

It is the same to-day. Just as soon as it is known in any city that “this same Jesus” is actually healing the sick—as soon as the command is obeyed to “make known His deeds among the people,” and His compassion is “published,” the people come “from every quarter.” I have never seen anything that would so break down all the barriers, and bring the people from every quarter, as the manifestation of the Lord’s compassion in healing the sick. We have found, in our revivals, that as soon as the public find out what “this same Jesus” is doing, they come from the Methodist quarter, from the Baptist quarter, from the Catholic quarter, from the Christian Science quarter, from the Unity quarter, from the Spiritualist quarter, from the Jewish quarter, from the poor man’s quarter, from the rich man’s quarter and from every quarter, and multitudes hear the Gospel, and give their lives to God, who would never even attend the meetings if there were no healing miracles to reveal His compassion.

An Effect of Present-Day Healings

If Christ and His apostles could not draw the multitudes without miracles, does He expect more from us? Instead of the “ministry of healing” diverting from the more important matter of salvation for the soul, we have seen more happy conversions in a single week than we ever saw in a whole year of evangelistic work during the thirteen years before the Lord led us to preach this part of the Gospel in a bolder and more public way. As soon as our revivals get under way, hundreds nightly crowd forward to give their hearts and lives to God, and whole cities are put to talking about Jesus. Other evangelists who have visited our revivals are now proving this to be true in their own meetings.

In our last revival preceding the writing of this book, conducted in Ottawa, Canada, during the seven weeks of the meeting, six thousand came for healing, and about twelve thousand for salvation. I doubt if there would have been more than one thousand for salvation had it not been for the miracles of healing which displayed the compassion of the Lord. The City and country were stirred as never before in its history, and the largest crowds that ever gathered under one roof for religious meetings in this capital of Canada, filled the newly-built million-dollar Auditorium—the largest building in the City. The attendance ran as high as eight thousand in a single service, and in this book is a reproduction of a photo of one of these audiences. Before leaving the city, many hundreds of written testimonies were received from those healed or being healed from almost every kind of disease and affliction. To God be all the Glory!

Healing a Mighty Evangelistic Agency

One Baptist evangelist who, amongst other evangelists is now proving this to be true, has written, in one of ten pamphlets he has published on the subject, that healing is the greatest evangelizing agency that the Lord ever used, and that he would not return to the old way (new way) for all the money in America.

Now let us look at another passage concerning the Lord’s compassion.

And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their Synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then said He unto His Disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the Harvest that He will send forth laborers into His harvest. And when He had called unto Him the twelve, He gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sicknesses and all manner of disease ...and commanded them, saying . . . Go, preach ... heal the sick. (Matt. 9:35 to 10:8.)

Here, His compassion toward the sick is now becoming so well known that the “harvest” has become too great for the ONE REAPER. His compassionate heart is full of yearning over the increasing numbers who could not reach Him because of the press. “When He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them.” It is as though He was able to personally minister to but a portion of them, and His compassion for the rest of the rapidly-growing multitudes is now moving Him to thrust forth other laborers to heal, as well as preach. “His harvest” is not only the same in character in our day, but it is also much greater than when He was here; and, because His compassion is still the same, He wants the same kind of reapers to reap the same harvest, or results, by preaching and healing in “all the cities and villages.” His compassion manifested through these twelve new laborers soon necessitated the thrusting forth of seventy more, empowered to preach and to heal. Laborers of this kind are few to-day, while “the harvest” truly is plenteous beyond what it was then. What He was beginning “to do and to teach” is exactly what He wants done and taught everywhere. Instead of ending something, according to the modern idea, He was starting something, which He promised to continue and increase—not the twentieth century Gospel, but “this Gospel” (that He proclaimed) He said “shall be preached in all the world.”

A Strange Reversal of Christ’s Promise

Jesus, in John 14:12 and 13, emphatically taught and promised that the same mercy and compassion could reach the people through our prayers while He is our High Priest in Heaven. In fact, His departure was to open the way for His compassion to be manifested on a much larger scale. Isaiah prophesied of Him, “Therefore will He be exalted that He may have mercy... ” Jesus said, “It is expedient (profitable) for you that I go away.” This could not be true if His going away would withdraw, or even modify, the manifestation of His compassion in healing the sick. Is it not strange that many ministers to-day exactly reverse Christ’s promise that the same and greater works shall be done by teaching that the age of miracles is past. Others do the same by teaching that God wants some of His devout children to remain sick for His glory; and many other traditional and unscriptural ideas.

Every man who teaches that healing is not for all who need it to-day, as it was in the past, is virtually teaching that Christ’s compassion toward the sick has been at least modified since His exaltation. Worse yet, others teach that His compassion in healing the sick has been entirely withdrawn. To me, it is a mystery how any minister can take a position that veils and interferes with the manifestation of the greatest attribute of deity, God’s compassion which is Divine Love in action. When Paul would make the strongest possible appeal for consecration, he said, “I beseech you by the mercies of God,” which is the manifestation of His greatest attribute.

Two Important Questions

Jesus said, “When He, the Spirit of Truth is come ... He shall glorify Me.” Could the Spirit glorify Christ to the sick by telling them that the age of miracles is past, or that Jesus, since His exaltation, has withdrawn or modified His ministry to the sick, after He, Himself, promising to do “the works ... and greater works” during this age? Has the Spirit come to magnify Christ by modifying His ministry to His sick and suffering brethren while He is their High Priest, directly contrary to the glorifying of the God of Israel in Decapolis, occasioned by the healing of the multitudes? If so, then the not uncommon practice of praying for the sick to have fortitude and patience to bear their affliction instead of praying “the prayer of faith” for their healing, is right.

It is since He became our High Priest that He speaks from Heaven seven times, saying, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” Men are saying much to-day which the Spirit has never said, and which is the opposite of what He does say. The following are a few of the things the Spirit says for the purpose of glorifying Christ. :

Wherefore in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful (compassionate) and faithful High Priest ... (Heb. 2:17.)

We have already shown that both the words “merciful” and “compassionate” are given as the meaning of the Greek adjective eleemon translated “merciful” in this passage. This verse has no reference to Christ’s compassion as manifested during His earthly ministry; it refers only to His ministry from Heaven, and to the fact that His incarnation was to the end that He might show compassion as our High Priest after His return to Heaven. “All that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day He was taken up” is what, because of His unchanging compassion, He promised would continue and be greater after He went away.

The Spirit further glorifies Christ by saying that He is now “touched (Greek, sumpatheo—translated “have compassion,” in Heb. 10:34) with the feeling of our infirmities,” that He still “can have compassion” (Heb. 5:2); and that He is “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever.” Let us worship Him, because His compassion is the same to-day, and because as He looks upon all our infirmities He is still “moved with compassion” and yearns to help us.

Of course, we recognize, and thank God, that many who do not believe in Divine Healing do cooperate with the Spirit in these glorious sentiments as pertaining to the more important work of soul-saving; but how wonderful it would be if all ministers and christians, instead of saying that the age of miracles is past, would cooperate with the Spirit by also proclaiming to sufferers these glorious sentiments which the Spirit expresses while fulfilling His office-work of glorifying the exalted Christ. Instead of being priests and Levites passing by on the other side, the Church, in James 5, is commanded to be a “Good Samaritan,” with compassion ministering to the physical needs of the sick and afflicted, binding up their wounds, pouring in the healing balm of wine and oil (the Word of God and the Spirit of God); for “He sendeth His Word and healeth them” by the power of the Spirit. Jesus pronounced a woe upon the Scribes and Pharisees for having omitted the weightier matters of mercy and faith.

In the fifth chapter of Acts we have another wonderful proof that Christ’s compassion toward the sick is now the same; for we read, concerning the multitudes brought into the streets of Jerusalem, in the days after He had ascended to the Father, that “they were healed every one.” Here it was, again, as our High Priest in Heaven, that Jesus did exactly what He did before going away. From Heaven He was “moved with compassion, and healed all who had need of healing.”

Even in the last chapter of Acts, we find His compassion manifested from Heaven by the healing of all on the island of Melita. While He is our High Priest His compassion is so great that “He ever liveth to make intercession for us.” Again, His compassion for the sick, since He was glorified, moved Him to “set” (establish) in the Church the gifts of faith, of miracles and of healing for the recovery of the sick while He is our High Priest through the centuries. After Christ’s exaltation, to express it in the words of Rev. W. C. Stevens, “We find, as a matter of course and of necessity, ‘gifts of healing,’ taking just such rank and prominence as they did in our Lord’s personal ministry on earth.”

Even Laymen May Pray for Sick

Again, it is His present compassion for the sick that caused Him, as our High Priest and Head of the Church, to command the elders, and even the laymen, to pray the prayer of faith for the healing of “any sick” during the Church Age (James 5: 14). Rev. W. C. Stevens on this point remarks, “All preachers, teachers, writers and others who hand out the Word of Life to the people, should keep this direction (James 5:14) as continuously before the people as sickness itself constantly confronts them.”

Even during His earthly ministry, our Adorable Lord would make any sacrifice, and suffer even the curse, itself, in order to open the way for His compassion to reach the most unworthy and the most provoking of His enemies. Both the bloody sweat of Gethsemane and the horrible tortures of Calvary were but the manifestations of His infinite compassion. He went to Calvary with “His face set like flint;” for, after He had been betrayed by the kiss of Judas into the hands of His crucifiers and Peter had cut off the ear of the servant of the High Priest, Jesus heals the ear of His enemy, and tells Peter to put up his sword; and He sheathed, as it were, His own sword, by holding in check the most natural impulse of His holy soul in refusing to pray when, by praying, He could have had, instantly, more than twelve legions of angels to enable Him to escape the agony of the cross. But, then, there would have been only a judgment seat, and no mercy seat, for fallen man with all his needs of body, soul and spirit. In His substitutionary work for us He anticipated every possible need of Adam’s race, and opened the way for mercy to reach every phase of human need. He was then, and is now, moved with compassion toward all who need His Presence as “Provider,” “Peace,” “Victory,” “Shepherd,” “Righteousness” and “Physician,” which are the seven blessings secured by the tragedy of His Cross, and revealed to us by His Redemptive names. His Covenants, including the Covenant of Healing, are given because of His mercy, and “He keepeth covenant and mercy with all who love him to a thousand generations.” (Deut. 7:9).

How Not to Grieve the Heart of Jesus

Doubting or ignoring His love and compassion grieves the heart of Jesus. It made Him weep over Jerusalem. So many times have ministers said, in these days, that we do not need miracles now, thinking of miracles only as signs to prove the Lord’s deity, etc. I have said to them, “If you had a cancer eating your head off, you would need a miracle, would you not?” Most people to-day are so in the dark on this subject that it never occurs to them that there is mercy also for the sick. They never think of the gifts of healing and miracles as being the manifestation of Christ’s compassion; and that, hour after hour, and day after day, for three years, He healed all who came to Him because of His compassion. Are not the needs of sufferers to-day the same as they were in that day? ‘And do they not need as much compassion as ever in the past?

When we think of the countless numbers in despair, suffering with such intense agony that death would be a mercy, and to whom the physicians, after doing their best, have been obliged to say, “I can do no more for you,” how precious it is to know that Christ’s compassion, every moment, is still precisely as when it was manifested during the three years of His earthly ministry of love—a fact upon which we may absolutely rely.

We have shown that bodily healing is a mercy which Christ, Who was the expression of the Father’s will, everywhere bestowed upon all who sought it; and we have the plain declarations, the “Lord is plenteous in mercy unto all (including the sick) that call upon Him,” because His mercy “endureth forever;” and is “from everlasting to everlasting ;” He is “full of mercy” “over all His works.” Do not these Scriptures settle the matter? Instead of saying that the age of miracles is past, say, “It is written!” “It is written!”