Condition: Venereal Diseases (Also Referenced Under AIDS)
Romans 1:26-27 alludes to diseases resulting from sexual immorality (this would include AIDS) as being just recompense for the sin that caused them. I’m sure someone would love to point out here that some people get AIDS from blood transfusions or other reasons involving no fault of their own. If that’s you, the passage above doesn’t apply to your case. The fact is, most people get AIDS and other venereal diseases from immorality, and they have only themselves to thank for their condition. God does not give people AIDS. The passage above does not say that God gave people venereal diseases. But venereal diseases are out there, and if you sin sexually, you set yourself up to receive them in your body. These diseases are part of fallen creation and they follow certain kinds of sin. Don’t kid yourself or let your government or secular school fool you: The only “safe sex” is NO SEX until you are married to someone of the opposite physical gender and then sex only with your spouse from then on. No physical devices can avert the SPIRITUAL problems that sexual sin causes. There is no such thing as SAFE SIN.
Proverbs contains warnings about the physical consequences of sexual sin. Proverbs 5:8-11: “Remove thy way far from her [the strange woman], and come not nigh the door of her house: Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel: Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth: and thy labours be in the house of a stranger; and thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed.” Proverbs 6:32-33: “But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. A wound and dishonor will he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.” Proverbs 7:22-23, 26: “He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; Till a dart strike his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life...For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.”
Because these diseases are sin-related, you need to repent of the lifestyle that gave you the disease in the first place. If you are engaging in homosexual acts, procuring services from prostitutes, committing adultery (that’s the biblical term for what man calls “having an affair”), committing fornication (that’s the biblical term for being what man calls being “friends with benefits”), or using illegal intravenous drugs, you are sinning and need to repent. These are not “personal choices” – they are SIN. They are not “diseases” – they are SIN. They are not “alternative lifestyles” – they are SIN. They are not environmentally determined inevitable outcomes of your poor upbringing – they are SIN. They are not “genetically pre-programmed traits” – they are SIN. You must take full responsibility for your sin. You can’t blame your mother, your father, society, politicians, or anyone else. You made a choice to sin and you are solely responsible for that choice in the eyes of God. You need to repent. If you don’t, it is like asking someone to bail out your boat while you continue to drill holes in the bottom of it. Someone may indeed do the bailing, but you are just making even more bailing necessary in the future.
Until you repent of the sin that brought your condition on you, you are not in a good position to receive healing from God for it. God in His mercy may heal you in a service, but you are don’t have a right to “claim” deliverance from the devil’s works in your body while you continue to practice the devil’s works with your body! God’s Word cannot be broken. If you sin sexually, there will be a physical price to pay for it as well as a spiritual one even though you are under the New Covenant. You are tempting Christ by asking God to heal you so that you can go out and sin longer and more comfortably. However, once you stop sinning sexually, you have cut off the source of the disease and now you can receive healing from it and stay healed rather than just getting sick again.
King David made his share of mistakes and apparently had some form of VD himself. This sin was not what made him “a man after God’s own heart,” but David owned up to it and took responsibility himself, as he needed to, and repented. That is what you need to do.
Psalm 38:3-18:
There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.
For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.
I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.
For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.
I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared for reason of the disquietness of my heart.
Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.
My heart panteth, my strength faileth me: as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me.
My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off.
They also that seek after my life lay snares for me: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long.
But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.
Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs.
For in thee, O LORD, do I hope: thou wilt hear, O LORD my God.
For I said, Hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me: when my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me.
For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually before me.
For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin.
Given that David lived a long time after his gross sin with Bathsheba, it is a fair assumption that God healed King David when he declared his iniquity and was sorry for his sin. This may be what David referred to in Psalm 30:2-3.
One must be careful when using Psalms under the New Covenant, as there are some things that do not apply quite the same way today. For example, you need not cry as David did, “Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11), because under the New Covenant, Jesus said that the Spirit would abide with you FOREVER (John 14:16). Being sorry for your sin is not a prerequisite to salvation or forgiveness (there is nothing about it in Romans 10:9-10, for example), but you should still hate sin and want it gone from your life because sin still carries a price tag in this life.
If you are living in what the Bible calls sexual sin and it doesn’t bother you, YOU ARE ON YOUR WAY TO HELL AND YOU NEED TO GET SAVED. Don’t be deceived into thinking that you can live an unrepentant immoral lifestyle and be a real Christian (1 Corinthians 6:9). Please see How to Be Saved from Your Sins immediately! I have had too many people tell me that So-and-So really does love the Lord when So-and-So is shacked up and plans to stay that way. Either they’re right, or God, the Bible and I are right. I’m sticking with my position. It is hard to have any respect for a pastor who puts such immoral people on the worship team – a VERY common issue today! Where did the fear of God go? Such action teaches the entire congregation to disrespect God. Some churches that have no miracles need look no farther to determine their biggest hindrance.
The good news for those who have diseases that are their own fault is found in Psalm 107:17-20. When fools are afflicted because of their sin, they can cry out to God for mercy, and He will send His Word and heal them, and deliver them from their destructions. In fact, under the New Covenant, God actually DID send His Word (Jesus) already to procure your healing for you. So you can receive healing from God. However, Jesus’ advice to the man at the Pool of Bethesda is still appropriate once you receive healing: Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you (John 5:14).