I'm entitled this message this
morning, The Labor of the Church. The labor of the church, or rather could
be the purpose of the church. Here we have in this passage
of Scripture, Luke chapter 5 and verse 18, down through verse
26, we have a history of the healing of the paralytic man. It says, Behold, men brought
a man upon a bed, which was taken with a palsy, that means paralyzed,
and they sought by means to bring him in and lay him before the
Lord. This paralyzed man. You see how His four friends,
His four friends who knew of Christ, who knew of His power
to heal and save their friend, these men, went to great pains
and effort to carry their friend and bring him before Christ. They went through a lot. But
their good efforts Those good intentions for their friend were
greatly hindered. Look at this in verse 19. And
when they could not find by way, by what way they might bring
him in because of the multitude. They had good intentions. They
had good desires for their friend to bring him. They knew Christ
could heal him, and they believed that, and they took their friend
with great pains to themselves, great efforts in their body,
took him to Christ. But they were hindered because
there was a multitude of people. Now in the previous verse 17,
we see who those people were. It says that they were certain
Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by out of every country. These wicked, self-righteous
men would not let these men through. even though they themselves had
no desire to be healed of Christ. They had no need of being healed
of Christ. Yet this man who had need of
Christ, they hindered him from coming in. They hindered him
and his friends from bringing him before the Lord. But is that
not what the Lord said about the scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites? He said to those Pharisees, He
said, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against man. Well,
how do they shut up the kingdom of heaven? How do self-righteous
religionists shut up the kingdom of heaven? They do it by preaching
law. Law. You see, the law always
prohibits man from coming to Christ, coming to God. And Jesus said, for you neither
go in yourselves, who themselves could not obey the law, yet neither
they suffered anyone to enter in. They opposed men from coming
to Christ, even as these men in our text opposed this paralytic
from coming to Christ. But I want you to notice something.
This did not hinder them. This did not deter them. but rather it strengthened their
zeal. It did not hinder them, it strengthened
their zeal, it did not extinguish their desire, but rather their
love for their friend and their knowledge of Christ caused them
to do something drastic. They climbed up on top of the
house, tore up a man's ceiling, and let their friend down in
front of Christ. It amplified their rejection
of them, amplified their resolve to what great lengths they would
bring their friend for healing and salvation. And so they climbed
up there, they tore up that ceiling and led him down to the only
one they trusted. You notice they didn't leave
him to the Pharisees on the outside, did they? They didn't say, hey,
well, we just trust you to take our friend before the Lord. Nope. They didn't trust anyone. They
didn't lay Him before anyone because none of those men had
any power. They knew this. Only Christ could
heal. Only Christ could save their
friend. And they would not rest until
their friend was brought before the Son of God. They would not
rest. Well, what did they find when
they brought Him? What did they find when they
laid Him before the feet of Jesus? Did Christ rebuke them for tearing
up the ceiling? Now boys, you shouldn't have
tore up that ceiling. No, didn't say anything about
that. Did He tell them to wait for a better day? Now boys, now
y'all just wait till I'm finished preaching. You wait till I'm
done. No, no waiting. No waiting. They did not find Jesus unable
nor unwilling. He said, as it is recorded in
this scripture, He's seeing their faith. Seeing their faith said
unto the man sick of the palsy, Son, man, thy sins be forgiven
thee. Thy sins be forgiven thee. Now, this did not cause no small
stir. This did not cause any small
stir. Matter of fact, the jaws of every
self-righteous man dropped to the floor. They all gasped within
themselves. Did He just say, Thy sins be
forgiven thee? And they reasoned within themselves,
Who can forgive sins but God alone? Now listen, their statement
was as true and honest a statement as ever was made. There was nothing
wrong with their statement. What was wrong was their faith. They did not see that God was
present with them. They did not see the deity of
the Lord Jesus Christ. But their statement was true.
Only God can forgive sins. You see those little foolish
men running around with their collars all backwards, and then
they say, Oh, thy sins be forgiven thee. They throw some water on
your face and whatever they do. Whatever little religious ceremony
they do, they say, Thy sins be forgiven thee. And I tell you
this, they're liars. Because only God can forgive
sins. I don't care what kind of little
funny hat they wear. But I tell you this, God can
forgive sins, only God. So their statement was true.
The problem was they did not see God manifest in the flesh.
God himself was there in human flesh. David said this, Against
thee and thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.
Against the Lord. Therefore, only God, since sin
is only against God, only God can forgive it. David said in
Psalm 103, in verse 3, I believe it is, he said, Who forgiveth
all thine iniquities? Who? The Lord. Only God can forgive
sin. Only God can forgive iniquities.
And healeth all thy diseases. See, He who forgives is also
the one who can heal. And so Jesus proved to them this
whole thing. If you want to know the focal
point of this whole thing, it's right here. To prove His deity. The reason these men were so
moved for their friend, the reason this man was a paralytic, the
reason that they were not deterred, the reason they were so zealous
as to open the sealant and let him down, was for this one purpose,
that Jesus Christ should prove His deity by forgiving this man
of sin. in the face of them all. They
were without excuse. They had no excuse. This man
forgave sin, who is God manifest in the flesh. But Jesus said,
you know, what are you reasoning about, boys? Why is your brain
smoking? Imagine the smoke was coming
out of their ears, they didn't understand, they were all confused. And He
says, what are you reasoning for? Which is easier to say? Thy sins be forgiven thee, or
get up and walk. Now, which one's easier to say?
Well, it's easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, because
you can't see it. Like I said, those false priests
run around saying it all the time. But that you may know that
the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, He said
to the man paralyzed, Rise up and walk. Pick up your couch
and go home. Now, was this man's sins forgiving
him? Were they forgiven? Well, if he did not rise up and
walk, then Christ, his sin would remain. But immediately the scripture
says, immediately he rose up before them, took up his bed,
and departed to his house glorifying God. So this proved the deity
of Christ. It proved his forgiveness. Even
by his raising this man from his couch. But let us see That
this history, now I've just explained the history, that's all I've
done to you. I've only explained the history of this story. The
history of this is an amazing display of Jesus' power and authority
and deity. But I tell you that it was also
men of the Holy Spirit as a picture. As every miracle, I've preached
to you a long time. Every miracle that I have preached
to you, have I not showed you this, how God saves sinners?
Because that's what they're there for. Miracles in Scripture are
not just God showing off. Rather, they are purpose to show
us how God saves sinners. That's it. And so then, these four men,
consider these friends, of this paralytic. These four men that
are given to us in Scripture are very important men because they are a type and picture
of the church. They're a type and picture of
the church and our purpose and our ordained part in calling
sinners to Christ. Now these men, listen, they were
unknown men. We don't know who they are, we
don't know where they came from, we don't know their background.
And listen, even so it is with the church. For the most part,
the church of God is unknown, unpraised, and unhonored in their
generation. Very few men have written works
that have lasted. I've got a lot of books in my
office, and I tell you some of them are really good and useful
books. But for the majority of the church
to which those men preached, I have no idea who they were.
And you know what? Listen, I'm going to surprise
you. In about 50 years, no one's going to even know we were here. That's alright. That's alright.
But these men were no less important in the work of God. In the healing
of this man, they were vitally important, weren't they? To that
man, they were vitally important. to the display of the glory of
Jesus Christ at that time, they were vitally important. And so
it is with the church. You and I are unknown by this
world in this generation we serve, but I tell you that the church
is vitally important to the service of Christ. I want you to know that your
support of the gospel, your service in the church, is just as vital
as the preaching of the gospel. Because this is how this preaching
goes out into the world, is by you, the church. That's how God
ordained it. And we'll see that in just a
minute. But these men, we didn't know who they were, neither did
the church. These men loved their friend. They loved their friend so much
that they would carry his limp body all the way to Christ. Even so it is with the church
that we love the souls of men and desire nothing less than
to see men come to Christ. That's the desire of the church.
We desire men to come and be healed and saved of Christ. These men didn't let anything
get in their way. And neither does the church.
Neither does the church. No matter the cost, no matter
the labor, no matter the rebuke of men, we should be determined
as these men were to get their friend to Christ, even so should
we be determined that others come to Christ. We should be
determined in our work. Our work is not accidental, friends. It's on purpose. These men literally, intentionally
brought that man to Christ. Even so do we, as the church
of God. We are to bring men to Christ. Why? Because only Christ can
save them. Only Christ can save them. Only
Christ could heal that man. Only Christ could heal our family.
Only Christ could heal our children. Surely, believers, we can see
that this should be the determination of every one of us who have received
the saving grace of God. It should be our determination
to see others come. Why? This is the commission of
the church. Our King, our Lord, our Savior
has given us a decree. Go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature. Is that an ambiguous statement? Did he leave anything out that
we're to be doing? No. Are we to add to what our
King has decreed for us to do? No. We are not to add anything. We are ambassadors for Christ.
As though Christ did beseech you by us, be you reconciled
to God. You see, we are ambassadors and
we dare not speak a word of our own. We dare not give you anything
of our own. We give you what our Savior has
given to us to give to you. That's what the church is to
do. We are to give what we have. What do you have? You have the
revelation of God right here. I don't need to add to it or
take from it. This is it. Here it is. And from cover to
cover, it's Christ. It's Christ. And so then we are
to be zealous for our work. Now I'll tell you this. Now,
I don't want to be mistaken with the false church because they
have means of getting people in that is not our means. They
use bribes, deception, and entertainment to bring people in. All of those
means are what? Deceptive. They're trying to
trick people in. I tell you what, do you suppose
they had to trick this paralytic to get him to Christ? I bet you
this man knew his need of Christ. And they brought the man who
had a need for Christ. And I tell you, if there's anybody
that has a need for Christ, I'll bring you to Christ. I'll show
you Christ. And so will anyone else in this
building. They'll show you Christ. That's what we do. That's our
purpose. I can't heal you. I can only bring you to Christ.
And so that's what we do as the church. We don't use means of
deception to do it. Matter of fact, those people
that use deception to get people in the church, you listen, their
gospel most likely is not the true gospel anyway. So it ain't
going to help anyway. If their Christ is not the true
Christ, what good is it going to do you? It's not going to
do you any good. So it is my prayer that God give
us such love and zeal for men. Love without hypocrisy. I'm not a used car salesman.
I'm not here to sell you a bill of goods. I'm here to tell you
the truth. I'm here to tell you of Christ
and Him crucified, Him risen again for the salvation and healing
of the souls of men. I'm not here to lie to you and
tell you if you give to Jesus, you're going to get more money
and more health and more wealth and more prosperity. Liars! That's
all they are. They're charlatans. Leave them
alone. We have no part with them. But
our zeal is to bring you to Christ. And how do we bring people to
Christ? But it's to show them Christ. Not show you Christ in
me. Not show you Christ in my doings.
I didn't say just watch me and you'll see Jesus. No! I'll tell
you what God's Word says of Christ. You don't have to take my word
for it. God's Word tells us plainly who
He is, so we bring Him to Christ. So, before then, but before this,
before we see our purpose, and I'm going to show you more of
your purpose as a church, but in order to see our purpose,
shouldn't we know the Gospel? If you're ever going to bring
man to Christ, shouldn't you know Christ? Can't tell of a place you ain't
ever been. You can tell of it, but you can't
tell by experience. And I tell you, you can't tell
a man of Christ except you experience the gospel yourselves. Except
you know it yourselves. These men would have never went
through such great lengths had they themselves not known Christ. And so it is, before we go to
any great lengths of witnessing of Christ, we ourselves should
know the gospel. We ourselves should know it.
What is the gospel? Now, this is very difficult,
very hard. I want you to listen. Salvation is of the Lord. There it is. There's the gospel. I've just
told you, salvation is of the Lord. That's the gospel. That's the whole thing in a nutshell. That's it. The gospel. No man
can save himself and no other man can save another man. Only
God can save you. That's a message to this man,
this paralytic friend. We know somebody that can help
you. Well, can you help me? No, I
can't help you. I can't do anything for you. I can lift up your couch.
I can carry you anywhere here and there, but I can't save you.
But there is one that can save you. He's the Lord. He's the
Lord. We'll bring you to Him. Okay,
bring me." He said, bring me to Him. And so they did. And so in order to declare the
Gospel, we ourselves must know it. The Scriptures are very plain. So then, Paul says, it, election,
salvation, redemption, regeneration, glorification, every part of
salvation, listen, so then, it is not of him that willeth, nor
him that runneth, but God that showeth mercy." So no matter
how good you are, how much you're running in religion, that's not
going to save you. It's no matter how determined
you are to be saved, salvation doesn't come by determination.
That paralytic could have determined to walk all the days of his life
and died a paralytic. So it is with man. So salvation
is only the work of God in the creation of a new nature. And
it comes by the grace of faith in Christ and repentance from
sin and dead works. Now then, I'm going to give you
five facts. Five facts about this gospel
that are unmovable facts, immutable facts, unchangeable facts. The first one is this, man by
nature is depraved. That's a fact. It's not a debate. Man is totally, absolutely depraved
and dead in sins. We are by nature, even as this
paralytic, we could not come to Christ on our own. It's even worse than that. We
were dead and could not even know our need of Christ. You have a corpse up here. And
you get doctors to look at the corpse and you say, well, this
guy died of an infection. Look at that. He had cancer.
Look at that. We just open up his spleen and
there's cancer all in there. This man died of cancer. And
you go to the man and you say, don't you know you died of cancer?
He's dead. He doesn't know anything. You
just cut open his spleen. He felt nothing. That's exactly
how man is by nature. You can dissect his problem in
front of his very eyes and he doesn't need Christ. He doesn't
want Christ because he's dead. If you haven't come to Christ,
listen, it's because you are dead in your sins. That's just
a simple fact of Scripture. I'll give you some scriptures
to go along with this. Genesis. Go to Genesis. Chapter 6. Genesis chapter 6. Look what God says about man.
Genesis 6 and verse 5. And God saw the wickedness of
man was great in the earth. and that every imagination of
the thoughts, not just the thoughts, but the very imagination of the
thoughts, the thought before the thought of man's heart, not just his
actions, his heart, was only evil. Now, how often? How often was man's heart evil?
What does God say? continually well pastor that
was before the flood that was just a bad time and you know
after Noah everything seemed to get better oh it did go over
to Genesis 8 after the flood after the flood Look what happens. And Noah built an altar unto
the Lord, and took of every clean beast, of every foul, and offered
burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled the sweet
savor, and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse
the ground any more for man's sake. For the imagination of
man's heart is evil from his youth. What changed? Nothing. Nothing. Paul said this in Romans 8, he
said, The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject
to the law of God. It's not naturally subject to
the law of God. Listen, neither indeed can be.
It can't be subject to the law of God. Why? Because it's spiritually
depraved. Paul said that in 1 Corinthians
2 and verse 14. He says, you cannot receive the
things of God because you are spiritually judged, condemned. And Jesus said in John 6, no
man can come unto Me. Now these are just fact. This
is not debatable. Man by nature is totally depraved.
Just a fact of the Gospel. It's a fact. Second fact is this,
God has an elect people. God, from before the foundation
of the world, according to His own sovereign purpose and grace,
chose a people for Himself. Go to Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. This being
illustrated by these two men, Jacob and Esau. Romans chapter 9 and verse 11,
for the children, not yet being born, neither having done any
good or evil, that the purpose of God, the purpose of God, according
to election, might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth.
It is said to her, the elder shall serve the younger, as it
is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What are we going to say about
that? Is God unfair, unjust? God forbid that you should even
think such a thing. For He said to Moses, even to
Moses, I will have mercy on whom I'll have mercy, and I'll have
compassion on whom I will have compassion. And so then God says
of His elect, Jacob have I loved." You see, God's elect, He has
loved. When has God loved them? He has
loved them from eternity. He says, I have loved thee with
an everlasting love. His love is unchangeable, immutable
for His elect. And He chose them not based on
any merit or worth in them, but according to His own free will
and grace, He chose them. In Romans chapter 8, just a page
over, it says in verse 29, For whom he did foreknow, he also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Believer, this
is undebatable. God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. Election is not debatable. God chose a people. The third
fact is this, Jesus Christ came in the flesh to be the representative
and redeemer of the elect. This was the purpose of the Lord
Jesus Christ coming into the world, to save His people from
their sins. You see, God gave His Son the
elect. God chose the elect, and this
is the only way we can describe it, is order, sequence. I mean,
although it's an eternal thing. We say that God the Father chose
a people and then gave that people to Christ. What does that mean,
He gave them to Christ? He made Jesus Christ responsible
for their salvation. In a covenant, in a compact,
the Son and the Father agreed that He should give His life
a ransom for them. That He should die for them. Isaiah chapter 53, he said, for
my people, for the transgression of my people was he stricken. Go over to John chapter 6. John
chapter 6. I love John chapter 6. It's probably
one of the most clearest gospel messages ever preached in all
of Scripture is John chapter 6. John chapter 6, look at verse
37. These people, they were following
after Christ and He was telling them, you're not mine, you're
not mine, you're not mine. They didn't understand. They
didn't understand. And so He's telling them this,
you didn't believe Me. And I'll tell you why you didn't
believe Me. Here it is. All that the Father giveth Me shall come
to Me. Him that cometh to Me I will
in no wise cast out. Four. I came down from heaven
not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.
And this is the Father's will. This is the Father's will which
has sent me, that of all He hath given me, I should lose nothing,
but raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will
of Him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth
on Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up at the
last day. Go to John chapter 10. John chapter
10. Look at verse 14. Jesus said, I'm the good shepherd.
I know my sheep. Well, how does He know them?
The Father gave them to Him. I know my sheep and have known of mine
as the Father knoweth me, even so I know the Father. And I lay
down my life for who? The sheep. Only the sheep. Always the sheep. It's for the
sheep. And other sheep I have which
are not of this fold, them I also must bring. And they shall hear my voice, and
there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Therefore doth the
Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take
it again. Now what of this sounds iffy
to you? Does any of this sound as though
that something may stop him? Something may get in the way
of his work? No. He said, I will raise them
up again at the last day. Thy will lose not one that the
Father gave to me. You see, the Son has come to
redeem and blot out the sins of His people before the justice
of God. And Christ fulfilling that will
of God. What will of God? By the witch
will we are sanctified. You know what that word sanctified
means? It means holy. Holy. You who are the elect of God
are made holy by the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ.
You are made holy. And so then the fourth fact of
the gospel is this, the Holy Spirit is sent of the Father
to quicken, regenerate, and raise the elect to life and faith in
Christ. All that the Father chose, all
that Christ died for, the Holy Spirit will call with an irresistible
call. Irresistible call of grace. I just read to you that passage
in Romans, Romans 8 and verse 29, but Romans 8 and verse 30
says, Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called. And whom
He called, them He also justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified. You suppose there's one that
God purposed to call, justify, and glorify that He did not call,
justify, and glorify. Not one. Not one. He said, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. This was not a question or doubt.
There's no doubt in this statement. They will come. Why? The Holy
Spirit will come in power and they could do nothing else but
come to Christ. That's it. I like this. Psalm 65 verse 4
said, Blessed is the man thou choosest. Isn't that right? Isn't that
a blessed man? One that is elected of God. That's a blessed man.
But how do you know your election of God? He said, blessed is the
man thou choosest and causest to come. Causest to approach
unto thee and dwell in thy courts. Who is chosen? Only those that
are called by the irresistible grace of the Holy Spirit. In
Psalm 110, verse 3, it says this, Thy people, the people I chose
for you, Christ, the people that I gave you to be king over, thy
people shall be willing. From birth? No. We weren't willing
at birth. We weren't willing all the time
until the Spirit came to us. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. In the day of thy power. This is the testimony of everyone
that is quickened by the Spirit. These four things right now,
so far, these four facts, they're indisputable. Why? Because they are the experience
of every one of the elect. They are not only written in
Scripture, but they are written in my heart. The Scripture testifies
to my experience. We know these things that salvation
is of the Lord. That's what we know. I know that. Just as much as even men knew
that Christ alone could heal their friend, I know this, salvation
comes from Christ alone. It's by God alone that salvation
comes to sinners. I know that. And so does everyone
in the church. You see, I once was dead, but
now I'm alive. I once would not believe, now
I can do nothing but believe. Christ died for my sins, established
my righteousness, and the Spirit has quickened me. He's exposed
me of my sins, He's showed me that I cannot save myself, and
He's showed me that Christ alone can save me. That's what He showed
the whole church. That's what He shows all of His
elect. Has He showed you that? Before you go out and try to
bring others to Christ, do you know Christ yourself? This tickles me. I don't know,
I get it. Maybe I shouldn't be so chuckle
at it, but it does. There are people in some of your
families who they've heard the truth so much that they can't
go anywhere else. Yet they won't come here. But
they still say this is their church. That's my church! That's my church! If you've not
experienced this grace of God in your heart, this is not your
church. The church only belongs to those
who are only a part of those who are in Christ. That's who
the church is. The church is not a building.
The church is a people. It's a saved people. It's a redeemed
people. It's a chosen people. And it's
a people who know that salvation is of the Lord by experience.
I know this to be true. You who believe this know this
to be true. It's not a question. It's not
up for debate. We don't debate the gospel. We just declare it. And so then we who know this
to be true, We know this, that all the glory
belongs to God if anyone's saved. If I'm saved, all the glory belongs
to God. If you're saved, all the glory
belongs to God. And no glory belongs to us. Not unto us. Not unto us, O Lord,
but unto Thee be honor and glory and praise and majesty and dominion
and power forever and ever. That's who belongs all the glory.
Now with that being true, this is also true. This is my fifth
point. God uses men to reach men with
the gospel. God has ordained the use of His
church to reach sinners. This same God who chose sinners,
purposed to save sinners, purposed to suffer for sinners, purposed
to redeem and call sinners to life and faith, has also purposed
that the means of preaching the gospel is the only means by which
He saves them. I'll show you two places for
time's sake. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse
17. For Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel. Not with wisdom of words, lest
the cross of Christ be made none effect. For the preaching of
the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which
are saved it is the power of God. Verse 21, for after that
in wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased
God. Listen, there's the whole cause
for this matter of preaching. Here's the reason why we preach. It pleased God. That's why. You think you got a better reason
than that? Do you think you have a reason
as to why we should not preach? Well, I've got the Word that
says it pleased God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that belief. This is the means God's
chosen. Now, God could have ordained
any means He wanted to. But He ordained this one. This is the one God chose, even
that sinners who are saved by His grace should witness to other
sinners of Jesus Christ, and by our gospel, the elect should
be called. 1 Thessalonians 2 verse 13, We
are bound always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth by our gospel. You got that? How is that going
to come about? How is the elect ever going to
believe if they have never heard And how are they going to hear
without a preacher? And how are they going to preach
except they be sent? How beautiful are the feet of
them which preach the gospel. Is that not your testimony to
that man that came to you and the Lord brought to you to preach
the gospel? How beautiful is his feet because
he brought such good news to me. He brought such grand tidings
to me. Do you not suppose that paralytic
man was so thankful for his friends? He was thankful for his friends,
but he glorified God. He didn't glorify his friends,
he glorified God. And they glorified God together,
because He healed him. But this is the means God's chosen.
You who believe on Christ, see then that by the grace of God,
men are saved. But since God has chosen this
means, should we not have a zeal for men? Should we not be determined to
get this gospel to men? If these men never knew the need
of their friend, they never would have brought him. Isn't that
right? This man was paralyzed and they
saw his need of Christ. If you are waiting for the lost
to just come in, they'll never come. It's like fishing without a pole
or a net and saying, well, if God wants the fish in the boat,
they'll jump in. Well, that's not the means God
chose to catch fish, is it? What's the means God chose to
catch fish? A net! That's why He told His disciples,
cast the net! He could have brought all those
fishes into the boat by just willing it. But He didn't. He
ordained the casting of the net. And therefore He has ordained
the means by which He'll save His elect is the casting out
of the gospel. That's the only means. Should
we not then zealously cast out the net? At every opportunity
we should cast it out. Without hesitation. Why? We know
man's need. I know man's need. Don't you?
What's man's need? What do they need? They need
Christ. They need Christ. What does your
son need? What does your daughter need?
What does your friend need? They need Christ! And I should
show them what? Christ! That's what I should
do. That's the mission of the church. Show them Christ. Do you see the need and condition
of those men around you? Then let us have pity on them. We should have pity on them.
And we should do everything within our power to bring them under
the sound of the gospel. Secondly, these men would have
never gone to so much trouble and cost if they did not believe
Christ was willing and able to heal him. Is this not why believers are
so easily discouraged? Because we do not believe Christ
is either willing or able. I know I'm hitting bone here.
Because I hit my own when I thought about it, when I studied it.
So I'm sure that I'm hitting right down to the quick. Is that
not the reason why we are so hesitant and so discouraged in
preaching the gospel? Because we fail to believe Christ's
power and willingness to save. That's it. It's the only reason.
But I tell you, aren't we so easily discouraged? Hey, would you like to come and
hear the gospel? No? Okay. I guess I'll just go
on. I understand. You're not trying
to open opportunity, but when opportunity opens, tell them
of Christ and leave them alone with Christ. These men brought
this man to Christ knowing He was willing and able, and they
left Him there. And that's what you should do.
You should be as bold and as zealous as possible for the Gospel
of Christ. But when you bring them, leave
them alone. Oh boy, we like to meddle. We bring people in the
church, and then we say, oh, did you hear this? You know,
you're trying to pick their brain and see what they got and see
what they didn't get, and you're trying to work it in somehow. Leave them alone. Once you've
showed them Christ, what else can you do? It's not in your
hands. You bring them to Christ, you
bring them before Christ, you describe Christ to them, and
you leave them to Christ. That's what these men did. What
was the result of their faith? What was the result of their
labor? Success. These men, were they not happy to see their
friend walking? I bring my children for this
purpose. Because every time the gospel
is preached, the power of God is present to heal them. That's what it says in our text.
Go back to your text and look at it. In verse 17, at the bottom
of the verse, it says, the power of the Lord was present to heal
them. Where are you going to bring
them? Where would you bring your friends? Where would you bring
the paralytics? Where Christ is. Where is Christ? where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. So the
power to heal is here. So whose hands is it to heal?
It's in Christ's hands to heal. But I will do everything in my
power to bring them to where Christ is. Heard that statement,
you can bring a horse to water, can't make him drink. I actually
tried that, that's just so. I just can't do it. But it's
just so with man. You can bring them, but you can't
heal them. Leave them alone. The gospel
is powerful enough. Because that's the means God's
chosen to save sinners. Now then, I'm going to ask you
a very personal question. Do you believe that? I know you believe on Christ.
I know you believe that gospel I just preached to you. Those
points are immutable points that you will never move off of. You
know it by experience, God has saved you. But is your neighbor beyond saving? If you think he is, you think
too highly of yourself. Grace should humble us to know
this, salvation is of the Lord. And as an obedient servant, I
am to bring men to Christ and leave them there. And God will heal everyone He
is chosen and redeemed. So what is the success rate of
the church? What's the success rate? 100% success. You got that? Your witness is
100% successful. What other encouragement do we
need? And this should never deter us,
nor make us lazy. This should motivate us, move
us to love. I pray that God would do that.
I pray that God would teach us by these four men, may He show
us our labor, may He use us in the calling of His elect. Let's
stand. We'll be dismissed in prayer.