This is the verse where we'll
begin this morning in verse 20. We've seen this story so far. But when it says in verse 20,
and when he saw their faith, he said unto him, man, thy sins
are forgiven thee. He saw their faith and forgave
his sins. Now we know that we can't believe
for somebody. Scriptures are clear on that.
Each sinner before God is accountable to God on his own. It's the soul
that sinneth that shall die. And it's the one who cries unto
the Lord that shall be saved. It's the man who believes on
Christ that shall be saved, the man or woman. You can't believe
for somebody, but that doesn't change our text. It may help
us understand it, but it doesn't change it. My faith won't save
you, or vice versa, or anybody else. But by the grace of God, sinners
are saved through faith. Our Lord said more than once
to sinners in this book, thy faith hath saved thee. Our Lord said that. Now I've
heard people say, well faith doesn't save. Well, it depends
on where you got it. If you got it from Him, it will. Faith. God saves those, in Romans
chapter 10 it says, who call on Him. Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But then the question is asked,
how are they going to call on Him in whom they have not believed. And how are they going to believe
on Him of whom they have not heard? And how are they going
to hear without a preacher? And how is somebody going to
preach Him unless God sends them? And so, my faith won't save you,
but there is a faith that saves, that God gives when He saves,
and by means of which He saves sinners. By grace are you saved
through faith. God doesn't save apart from faith. He gives faith by grace. It's
not of yourselves the scripture says. It's the gift of God. You
can't brag about it. You can't glory in it. And the
faith that he gives saves. But you won't be saved by somebody
else's faith. Well then why does our text say
what it does? It's not very complicated is
it? He saw their faith and he said to that man. He forgave that man's sins. So
here, I think this is the question for us this morning. Do you believe
that Christ is able to save those that you love? Do you believe
that? When the Lord Jesus Christ looks
in your heart, does he see this faith? And here's the thing, it's not just
about agreeing with it. Do you believe enough that it's
important to you? Like it was to these four. Four
men carried this man's bed and we read what they did, is it important enough to us to
seek means to bring those that we love to the Lord? Whether in prayer, whether by
making sure they hear the gospel of Christ crucified, whether
by teaching, training up our children in the way that they
should go, Our Lord has promised when they're old, they'll never
depart from it. On the authority of the word
of God, I ask us, do you suppose that the Lord might see our faith
and save them? Now, I just said it just like
the scripture did. He saw their faith and he forgave
that man's sin. You think that might happen? Might He be pleased? If you have faith, He gave it
to you. If He sees faith in you, it was put there by Him. And of course, those that we love,
if He's going to save them, He'll have to give them faith too.
If you believe that He can save them, it's because of Him. And
if they ever believe on him, it'll be because of him.
He'll have to give them faith. This paralyzed man, it says that
he went from there glorifying God. He left that place glorifying
God. Not his friends. He didn't glorify
them, although they brought him to the Lord. He glorified God,
you see. Because he understood, I believe,
Do we understand wherever we find faith, whatever
the means are, God's going to get the glory in it. The means are in and of themselves
worthless. We know that from the scriptures
too. Many will hear the gospel and not be saved, at least hear
it with their physical ear and perhaps even understand intellectually
what the gospel says. Many will be prayed for and that's
what this is. These four men bringing this
man to Christ. What is that? Prayer. What do you mean, Chris? Well,
what is prayer? Prayer is to seek the Lord and
His blessing upon somebody. Now that's primarily. We thank
Him in our prayers. We praise Him in our prayers.
But He said, do you need anything? Ask me. Do we need anything? Prayer is seeking the Lord and
His blessing upon somebody, either me or somebody else, or both,
many people maybe. And what do these men do? They
sought the Lord and His blessing upon somebody. It was prayer
in action, wasn't it? And our Lord said, the effectual
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Don't discount
what God honors. Don't despise the means that
He's ordained. Although in and of themselves
unless he blesses them now they're worth of you Many will be prayed
for they'll never be saved There are some in the scripture that
our Lord said don't even pray for Didn't that say it don't
you even pray for? He hadn't said that to me about
anybody that I love So by God's grace may we pray for May we
seek God May we seek to bring them before the one that can
do something for them. Lay them at his feet. That's all we can do. We just
lay them at his feet. We can't do that except by his
grace. Christ is salvation. And you know by his grace, and
I believe I speak for most of us here, many of us surely, I'm
pretty sure our Lord is able to save. the worst sinner among
us. I'm pretty sure he can do it.
Don't you think so? I believe he can. I think he can save every one
of us if that's what he wants to do. He saves freely, without a cause,
that word, being justified freely by his grace, Romans chapter
3. That word means without a cause. Well, did God not have a reason
to save sinners? Yeah, but not in them. He saw
nothing in them. No reason to save you. Lots of
reasons not to. But no reason to have mercy on
me, and yet he did. His grace is sovereign and free
and distinguishing and undeserved and unsought for even. Nothing
a sinner does is the cause of salvation. If we believe, if
we cry, if we call on the name of the Lord or come to Him, that's
the result of His grace, not the cause of it. And the God
who has ordained to have mercy on sinners, specific sinners,
His sinners, His sheep, His elect, has also ordained all of the
means whereby that mercy is bestowed upon that sinner. They're going
to hear the gospel. Somebody's going to pray for
them, I bet you. Somebody's gonna want to see
it happen The Lord said concerning Israel, I will yet to I will
yet be inquired of By them for this to do it for Will the Lord be inquired of
by us to save those that we love Well, I pray so Do not neglect those means now. Seek them. They sought means.
Don't neglect to pray. Don't neglect the Word of God.
Don't neglect the worship of God. Don't neglect to gospel
preach. Seek these things. Let us not
rest until our loved ones are brought before Him. Can we learn
that this morning? By whatever means God has blessed
us with, has allowed us. God blesses us with means and
then He blesses those means when He's pleased to do so. And don't
miss again the most important lesson I believe in this whole
passage perhaps. None of it's up to us. The reason
that we want our loved ones brought before Him is because it's up
to Him. That's why we want them in front
of him. Because this whole matter is up to him. He's the one who
can, if he will. I'm so glad about that. Aren't
you glad it's not up to you to get your children saved? If you want it to be up to you,
you have a real high estimate of your ability. Way too high. Aren't you glad the whole matter
is up to him who delights to have mercy on sinners? It's up
to him who is plenteous in mercy. The one who doeth all things
well. Let me say it again. Hanging
upon his mercy is the best place in this world to be. The Lord
said to that man, man thy sins are forgiven thee. Not if you
will. Not here's what you need to do.
He didn't ask him any questions. He didn't ask him to do anything.
We need to understand something. Surely this settles it once and
for all. We see this. We've talked about
how that Christ honors faith that honors him. He gives it
and he honors it. But faith is not a condition
of salvation. It's just not. It is a result
of it. It is evidence of it. It's a
means of salvation. You are saved by grace through
faith, but not because of faith. As a secondary cause, but not
the first cause. This man's friends had faith,
but did this man have any faith? Did the paralyzed one have any
faith? We're not told that he did. Not when the Lord forgave him. Our Lord didn't say, do you want
to be saved? Do you want to receive forgiveness?
Will you receive forgiveness? Will you accept me? Will you
anything? He just said, I forgive your sins. Your sins are gone. Surely that ought to settle any
question about how a sinner is saved. The Lord Jesus Christ
forgives sins sovereignly. He forgives sins The sins of whomever, whenever,
wherever he pleases. Did Saul of Tarsus have faith
when our Lord arrested him on the road to Damascus? Didn't
look much like it, did it? Did the man at the pool of Bethesda
have faith when our Lord healed him? He did ask that man, will
you be made whole? And the man didn't even say yes.
He was still complaining about how no one would help him into
the pool when our Lord said to him, rise. That's how a sinner's
saved right there. That's how a sinner's saved.
And whatever people are talking about from pulpits this morning,
here's what we need to be talking about. How God saves a sinner. He does it sovereignly. He does
it at his own discretion. He does it freely. He does it
by his grace. He does it because he is plenteous
in mercy for no reason whatsoever in them. And he does it by means
of his word and by means of faith, by means of prayer, by means. And we are to seek those means
and we're to give him all the glory in them, in the means and
in the result. That's what this man did. He
was the one that was saved. And what did he do? He left there glorifying God. Thy sins are forgiven. You think about that. Did our
Lord Jesus Christ forgive the sins that he hadn't even committed
yet? You better believe he did. What good would it have done
otherwise? If God forgives you for every sin you've ever committed
up to now, you think you can make it from here on out? He
got to forgive all of our sins, past, present and future. That's
what he does. Your sins are forgiven. John
said unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his
precious blood. He's already washed away the
sins I haven't committed yet. The ones I'll commit before I
leave this building today. And the ones I'll commit ten
years from now if I live that long. Thy sins are forgiven. Forgiveness
is free. You can't earn it and you can't
mess it up. On what basis does God forgive a sinner then, his
sins? How can you sin? Remember who
God is. He can't be God and just let
it go. The judge of all the earth must do right. And the right thing is for my
sins to be punished. So how is he going to just forgive
my sins? Well, he's going to punish them
and forgive them. Ephesians 4.32, And be you kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's
sake, hath forgiven you. That's how God forgives sinners.
for Christ's sake. In Christ, by Christ, through
Christ, because of Christ. Because Christ has lived for
you, because Christ has died for you, because you are in Him
and He in you, you are forgiven. May God forgive all of our sins
for Christ's sake. He's not going to forgive them
any other way. Look at verse 21 now. And the
scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this
which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
alone? Well, there's a lot of teaching
in that verse. The Pharisees reasoned. The scribes and Pharisees
began to reason. That's a problem. That's a problem. Is reasoning a bad thing? Absolutely. Absolutely. When it comes to
the Word of God, it is. Faith saves, not reasoning. Our Lord saw faith and blessed
it. Our Lord saw reasoning and rebuked
it. Man's reasoning doesn't have
anything to do with believing God. Does that mean that the
gospel is unreasonable? Of course not. But according
to whose reason? According to whose reasoning
powers? Most people think it's unreasonable. When you are told something simple,
plain, clear, and absolute, God doesn't say figure it out.
He says believe it. There's not much to figure out. When Paul speaks of the simplicity
that's in Christ, that word means all-inclusiveness. All-inclusiveness. And when we understand that and
know that, it's not because we figured it out. And once we do
know it, what is there to figure out? We just believe him. We just believe him. He saw their faith and he forgave. But he saw their reasoning. And he rebuked it. Who is this
which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
alone? Now the last part of what they
said is the truth. Nobody can forgive sins but God.
Well there are men, you know, absolving people of their sins.
That's blasphemy. That's anti-Christ. Only God
can forgive sins because only God is sinned against. David said in Psalm 51 for against
thee the only have I sinned and none this evil in my sight That
thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when
thou judgest If you judge me and put me in hell you'd be doing
the right thing because I'm guilty I've sinned against you and you
only Wait a minute. What's he talking about there?
He's talking about when he sent Bathsheba's husband to his death
and stole his wife Can you think of anything more low down than
that? Didn't he sin against Bathsheba
and against her husband, surely? No. He wronged them, but he didn't
sin against them. All sin is against God. And so
only God has the prerogative to forgive it. I cannot forgive somebody for something that they did to
somebody else. The person that they did it to
is going to have to forgive them. Isn't that right? That person who is wronged must
be the one to forgive. I can't say, Tommy, I forgive
you for what you did today. What good is that? And when it comes to sin, only
God can forgive. Because sin is against God, all
of it. Only God can forgive sins also
because only the precious blood of God's Son can atone for them. God forgives on the basis of
atonement. No law can accomplish it. Galatians
3.21 is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid.
For if there had been a law given which could have given life,
verily righteousness should have been by the law. But there is
no law given that can give life. Forgiveness, righteousness, is
by the precious blood of Christ in him only. No sinner can be
saved by law because sinners by definition are lawbreakers. That's what sin is. It's defiance
against and disobedience to the will of God as expressed in his
law. The death of the sinner can never
atone for sin. It's simply not sufficient. How
can the blood of a man pay an infinite debt? Well, that man would have to
be God. His blood would have to be precious. that is of infinite
worth, if an infinite debt is to be
paid by it. And Christ is that God man, the
shedding of his blood is forgiveness. Colossians 1.14, in whom we have
redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. The forgiveness of sins is redemption
through his blood. Verse 22, when Jesus perceived
their thoughts, he answering said unto them,
what reason you in your hearts, whether it is easier to say,
thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, rise up and walk. Now what's our Lord saying here?
Is he saying that one is easier than another to say? Well, I've
thought that before, but think with me this morning. If it were
me saying this, if it were me, it'd be easier in the long run
to say thy sins be forgiven me because that's unverifiable.
And sinners do say that, you know, so-called priests in the
religion of this world forgive people of their sins, absolve
people of their sin. That's pretty cheap talk, isn't
it? If I said, rise up and walk,
and nothing happened, which is exactly what would happen, we'd
just hear crickets, then I would be shown to be a
fraud. And that, in the sense then of consequences, would be
harder to say. In the sense of consequence,
that would be harder to say. If I say, your sins be forgiven,
then nobody can verify one way or the other about that. But
I don't believe the Lord, though, meant that here, that it was
easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee. On the basis of the verifiability
of the outcome. And there are two reasons I don't
think that can be true. Number one, if that is what he's
saying, then he's admitting to saying the easier of the two
things first. And I believe that's contrary
to the point of this passage. The point that he's making. is
that he can say whatever he wants. And so to say, well, I said the
easier of the two seems contrary to that point, doesn't it? Secondly,
when our Lord says rise up and walk, somebody's about to rise
up and walk. So either way, it's verifiable
in his case. Well, the one that would presumably
be harder, would be clearly verifiable. And so that is equally easy for
him to say. It's just as easy for him to
say that, isn't it? And I believe that's what he's saying. Since
it's the Son of God speaking and performing both of these
things, I believe he's saying that one is just as easy for
him to say as the other. But he said the one that he did.
So that everybody would know. Everybody that was there that
day. Everybody that's here this morning. So that everybody would
know something very important. Verse 24. But that you may know
that the Son of Man hath power upon earth to forgive sin. That's why he said what he did.
Not because one was easier or one was harder. Either one. The one that might be harder
for me to say in the sense of the consequences of it or the
verifiability of it. That ain't hard for him to say
that. Because when he says it, it happens. But he said what
he did so that you would know that it's his prerogative on
this earth to forgive sins. Think about how important and
powerful this knowledge is. Now there are those that know
this in their heads that don't know it in their hearts. But
if we know this by faith, if we know this, you think about
how important and how powerful that knowledge is. As long as
we know this, there is hope no matter what. You might say, you might have
to say this, well I betrayed a man. We talked about this earlier.
I betrayed a man. I sent him deliberately to his
death so that I could steal his wife. I'm a murderer. I'm an adulterer. I'm a wretch
before God. When David heard the story of
that in a parable, he said, tell me who this man is and I'll kill
him. And Nathan said, it's you, David. Can you think of anything? Have
you ever been that low? Have you ever been brought to
that place? Can you think of anything lower
than that? No, but the Son of Man has power
to forgive. David who committed that horrible
evil said to God's prophet Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.
And you know what Nathan said to him? The Lord hath also put
away your sin. It don't matter how low you are.
It don't matter how wretched. It doesn't matter what you've
done. If you're the nastiest, lowest
worm on God's earth, as long as the Son of God has
authority on this earth to forgive sin, There's hope for you. But I have no quality of life. I heard this recently about somebody
that I loved very much. Think about that. No quality
of life. No reason to live. This man in our story likely
had very little quality of life, wouldn't you imagine, to be paralyzed,
to have to depend upon others, to carry him around, utterly
dependent, utterly helpless, to go through life watching others
do things that you would give anything to be able to do. Well, our Lord, listen to this
in Matthew 9.2, in Matthew's version of this same story, it
says, Behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy,
lying on a bed, and Jesus seeing their faith. In all three accounts
of this story, it says the Lord Jesus saw their faith and had
mercy on him. So whether I've been clear about
that this morning We need to find out about that, don't we? He saw their faith and said unto
the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer. Your sins are
forgiven. Well, wait a minute. I'm still
lying on a bed. I still can't move. I'm still
dependent and helpless and wretched. No, you're not. You're free. You're saved. You live like very few that go
through this world, that live in this world, will ever live. You'll do things and feel things
and know things that most people never will. paralyzed, dependent, helpless, be of good cheer. You think that man could have
been of good cheer if the Lord had walked away right then? What a word this is to any and
all who have in this life difficulties, limitations, challenges, Handicaps,
heartaches. Have you lost some quality of
life? Or maybe you think all. What
a word this is to us. Are any of us like this man?
In any way, even a little bit. Is there something that keeps
us from being who and what we want to be? The Son of God said
to this miserable, paralyzed man, be happy. You can be happy. You can be joyful, you can be
cheerful, even on that bed. Even in the case that you're
in, your sins are gone. What makes you happy? What makes
us happy? And then, this is a blessing
to my heart, our Lord is not unconcerned with our earthly,
temporal, relatively unimportant needs either. He also said, get
up. Wait a minute Chris, are you
saying that this man being paralyzed is unimportant? I didn't say
that. I said relatively unimportant. Compared to the matter of your
sins before God, everything is relatively unimportant. But here's the beauty here, here's
the blessing I believe. It was important to that man. It was important to that man.
I'm going to make a bold statement
now. But I say it on the authority
of God's Word. If it's important to you, it's
important to Him. Now He may straighten you out
about it. He may not grant it. He may refuse you. He might say
no. But what's important to the ones
that you love is important to you. My children have wanted some
things in their lives that just wouldn't have been good for them.
Period. And so I said no. I believe I've experienced that
from the Lord. I think He said no quite a bit.
to me. But then there are things in
my mind that they didn't need. It wasn't important for me to
have them, but I saw that they weren't bad. Any parents here
like that? They didn't need them as far
as I was concerned, but they needed it. They needed it. And even though I thought it
was not that important for them to have it, I saw how badly they
wanted it and I loved them. And it was in my power to do
it. Do you think that our Lord gives
us things that we want just because He loves us? I'm pretty sure
about that. Your sins are forgiven. That
ought to be enough. That is enough. Nevertheless, rise. And he said this, go into your
house, go into thine house. There's something about this.
Our Lord doesn't send us on some grand, important, epic missionary
journey. Go home. Go home. He may send you on a grand missionary
journey, or he may just say, go home. You see here, tell your friends,
tell your family what the Lord did for you today, but it's okay
just to go home. And again, maybe not everybody.
He said to that man in Matthew 8, 22, don't you go home. That
man wanted to go home. He said, let me go My father's
still alive, maybe not for long. Let me go and take care of him
and bury my father." And the Lord said, no, let the dead bury
their dead and you come follow me. But he forgave this man's sins
and then just said to him, go home. There's nothing wrong with
going home, is there? Never think that just because
a man just works a regular job, lives in a regular house, has
a regular family in a regular town, and lives a regular life
that he's not serving God. We can serve God at home, can't
we? May God give us grace to serve Him at home. Verse 25, And immediately he
rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed
to his own house, glorifying God. He just went home, but he did
it a certain way. And this is my prayer for us.
Wherever we go, where are you going? You're going home? Go
there glorifying Him. Surely when the Lord forgives
our sins, how can we go anywhere except
this way? glorifying Him. May we glorify
God all the way home, at home, on our jobs, wherever we are. And we don't glorify Him. Remember,
He taught us now, we don't glorify Him by being religious in front
of people. He said, you see the Pharisees,
how they love to be seen, and they make long prayers and repetitious
prayers. He said, don't you be like them.
Don't you be like them. Let your light so shine before
men in such a way that they see what you do and don't glorify
you. They see what you do and what
you say and glorify your father which is in heaven. May we glorify him. You know, I know one thing that
glorifies him. when he sent that Gadarean demoniac
home, you remember what he said? Tell. Tell. Tell. Tell your friend, tell
your family. I love to tell the story. Don't
you? Of Jesus and his glory and Jesus
and his love. We tell our children, we tell
our wives and husbands, we tell our families, we tell anybody
who will listen. He forgives sins when he wants, and he forgave
mine.