Well, good morning to everyone.
If you would open your Bibles with me to Mark chapter two this
morning. Mark the second chapter. Before we begin, let's seek our
Lord's blessing. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy and reverent is your matchless name. Father, we've gathered
here together this morning to worship and to praise your name. Father, I pray that you would
enable us by your spirit to worship you in spirit and in truth. That
you would deliver us from just going through the motions of
religion. And Father, enable us to hear word from thee. Enable
us to worship from the heart. Father, I pray as we open your
word that you would be our teacher. That you would be the one to
speak to each heart here this morning. And Father, give us
faith to believe. faith to see our Lord Jesus Christ.
And what we pray for ourselves, we pray especially for our children's
classes this morning. Father, how we thank you for
all these young ones that you've given to us. We pray you'd keep
them safe from this wicked generation in which they're forced to grow
up. And Father, above all, that you'd
have mercy on their souls. I pray that you'd be with them
in this hour, be with their teachers. Father, use this time, we beg
of thee, to plant the seeds of faith in their heart. Father,
for those that are in times of difficulty going through deep,
deep waters, and it seems like there are many at this time,
Father, we pray for them. We pray you'd comfort their hearts
with your presence. We pray you'd heal them, that
you'd lead and guide and deliver as soon as it could be thy will.
Father, all these things we ask, and that name which is above
every name, the name of Christ our Savior. Amen. Now our lesson
begins this morning. Mark 2 verse 1, I've titled the
lesson Faith and Forgiveness. Verse 1 says, and again he entered
into Capernaum. And after some days it was noise
that he was in the house. Now you're more than likely,
like me, whenever we hear the name of the city Capernaum, we
tend to think of that unbelieving city. Look back at Matthew chapter
11. I'll show you why we tend to
think that. You know, this city, Capernaum,
was pretty much the base of operations for our Lord during his earthly
ministry. He preached there often. He performed
many miracles there. Yet look what he says about that
city in Matthew 11 verse 23. And thou, Capernaum, which art
exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell. For if
the mighty works which had been done in thee had been done in
Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto
you that it should be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the
day of judgment than for thee. So we have pretty good reason
to think of Capernaum as an unbelieving city, don't we? But this is so
comforting to my heart. Even in the midst of all that
unbelief, God still had a people there. All that unbelief did
not stop the Lord from saving his people out of that city.
It did not stop him from saving his people from their unbelief.
Now I'd love that. I'd love to think my unbelief,
my weak faith will never stop God from saving me. People's
weak faith will never stop God from saving them if God set his
eternal love upon them. man's deadness, man's disinterest
in the gospel, man's disinterest in forgiveness of sin or being
made righteous, that'll never stop God from doing what he's
purposed to do, from saving his people from their sin. He gives
faith where there isn't any faith so that people will believe on
his son. And whenever I think about Capernaum, I have to apply
this to us. The Lord himself preached there.
The Lord himself. Yet they didn't believe. He performed
so many miracles, maybe it just quit being miraculous to them.
I'm not sure why, but something happened that they just did not
believe. We have had the gospel of God's
grace preached here for generations. I guess, nigh on 80 years now,
that's been in this town. It is my everyday prayer that
we do not become gospel hardened. Well, I've heard that before.
It's just something I've got every week and just, you know,
and take it for granted just because it's been preached here
for so long. That's what happened in Capernaum.
I pray our Lord never allows us to become lukewarm about this
matter of seeking Christ. I want our interest in Christ
to be a genuine heart, interest and need of him, a need that
never diminishes. You know, at one time, there
was a lot of excitement in Capernaum about our Lord being there. Look
back in chapter one, verse 45. But this, he went out, this man
that the leper that the Lord healed, he began, the Lord told
him, now don't tell anybody, but he went and began to publish
it much, to blaze it abroad the matter in so much that Jesus
could no more openly enter into the city. but was without in
desert places. And they came to him from every
quarter." At one time, if the Lord entered into that city,
the people would just throng him so much, he literally could
not move around. So he didn't go into the city.
But now chapter two, verse one, and again, he entered into Capernaum
after some days. Just a short while ago, everybody
was so excited, weren't they? Now apparently that's diminished
and the Lord could enter into the city again. And it was noise abroad that
the Lord was in the house. Now, that city so full of unbelief,
there were still enough people seeking the Lord. That house
where our Lord was, was full of people. The outside, the front
yard was so full of people, you couldn't get to the front door.
Even in the midst of all that unbelief, the Lord had a people
in Him. And He brought them to Him. Now
I'm gonna give you four things that are true of everyone who's
seeking the Lord, people seeking the Lord. Number one is this.
Trouble brings an object of mercy to the Lord. Look at verse three. Or let's read verse two again.
Straightway, many were gathered together, insomuch that there
was no room to receive them. No, not so much as at the door.
And he preached the word unto them, and they come unto him,
bringing one sick of the palsy, which was born of four. Now in
this man's case, it was physical trouble that brought him to the
Lord. He was sick of the palsy, he
was paralyzed. At least his legs were paralyzed, maybe he was
paralyzed from the neck down. But he could not move around
himself. If he could go somewhere, somebody
had to carry him. That's one of the most miserable,
staged oblivion I think of. To be paralyzed. I just can't
imagine how awful it would be. You can't do anything for yourself. You can't feed yourself. You
can't get yourself a glass of milk. You just can't do anything
for yourself. And it would not surprise me
to find out that this man day after day after day, year after
year after year, lay on that cot. Don't you reckon it crossed
his mind by me? Why am I the one paralyzed? I
wish I wasn't paralyzed. You know that crossed his mind. But you know that disease, that
paralysis, turned out to be a blessing in disguise. More than likely,
this man never would have sought the Lord if he was in full health.
More than likely. If this man had not been paralyzed,
he never would have known the joy of being healed by Christ. He never would have known that
joy unless he was sick first. Now you already know that this
physical disease is a picture of our spiritual disease. Adam's
fall in the garden brought horrible sin and death and destruction
on the whole human race. Adam's disobedience plunged us
all into sin. So that by the time we're born,
we're born with Adam's dead sin nature. It's the only nature
our father had to pass on to us. But worse than being spiritually
paralyzed, we're spiritually dead. We're dead. We don't have any ability to
do anything spiritual, just like a dead corpse doesn't have the
ability to do anything physical. We can't do anything that's righteous
that God requires of us. We don't have the ability to
come to Christ for life. We don't have the desire to come
to Christ for life because we're spiritually dead. We cannot and
we will not come unto him. That's what the Lord said. See,
our spiritual disease is spiritual deadness. We can't do anything
for ourselves. Now, when I was a boy, I spent
a whole lot of time wishing that Adam had never fallen. If Adam
hadn't fallen, I would not be in this mess. I mean, I can't
tell you how many times I wished that. But do you know as horrible
as Adam's sin was? Do you know it was a blessing
in disguise? If Adam had never fallen, we'd
never know the joy of salvation in Christ. If Adam had never
fallen, we'd never know the joy of being given eternal life by
Christ. If Adam had never fallen and made us guilty, we'd never
know the joy, the thrill of being forgiven of our sin because of
the blood of Christ. Now, I grant you, it's a horrible
feeling when God first shows you that you're a sinner. I mean,
when God shows you, you're in trouble. I mean, that's miserable,
isn't it? You're spiritually paralyzed.
You're helpless to do anything spiritual. You're helpless to
do anything to get God to save you. You're helpless to do anything
to save yourself. That's a miserable, miserable
feeling. But do you know that's a blessing
in disguise? It's a blessing in disguise because
this is our nature. You and me will never seek mercy.
We'll never seek forgiveness. We'll never seek God's salvation
until God first shows us that we're a sinner, doesn't have
any hope. If God ever makes us so miserable that our only hope
is Christ, that's a blessing. That's a blessing. All right,
number two, God always uses means of mercy. Look at verse four. and he was born of four, and
they could not come nigh unto him for the press. They couldn't
even get to the front door. So they uncovered the roof where
he was, and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed
wherein the sick of the palsy lay. Now this man was gonna be
healed, wasn't he? That was God's purpose. But now
Almighty God's gonna use means to heal this man. His friends
are gonna carry him to the Lord, and when they can't get to him,
They're gonna put forth some effort in this thing, aren't
they? Well, the means of salvation is always the preaching of the
gospel of Christ. The means that God uses to give
saving faith to his people is the preaching of Christ. And
it's the one and only means that God's pleased to use. There's
no other way, no other way. It's pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. The only way you and
I can see Christ by faith is if somebody preaches him to us.
We can't believe on a savior we've never heard of, can we?
We can't preach on a savior that we don't know. Somebody's got
to tell us who he is. Now, Almighty God has a purpose,
has an eternal purpose, and he's going to accomplish that purpose.
Whatever that purpose is, he's going to accomplish it, but he's
going to use means to do it. If you and I are gonna hear the
gospel of Christ, somebody is gonna invite us to come here.
Somebody's gonna say, won't you come with me? Somebody's gonna
give you a CD or somebody's gonna give you a link to sermon audio.
Somebody's gonna do something so that you can hear. That's
what these four men did for their friend. Their friend needed Christ,
didn't he? Well, they're the means that
the Lord's gonna use to bring him. They picked him up and carried
him, carried him to Christ. And you know, we have no idea
who these four men are. Humanly speaking, they're probably
pretty insignificant. They weren't apostles, they weren't
a prophet, they probably weren't preachers, but the Lord used
them to bring one of his children to his feet. Wayne, I sure would like to be
using the Lord that way, wouldn't you? That's not insignificant
at all. We don't know the names of these
four brothers, but Don Fortner in his commentary on this epistle,
or on this gospel, he named them. He said their brother Faithful
Fred, Witnessing Willie, Praying Perry, and Diligent Dan. That's the means, isn't it, that
God often uses to bring his people to hear the gospel. A faithful
brother, a witnessing brother, a praying brother, a diligent
brother, Just won't quit. Many of you remember brother
Eddie Ballard. Jay and I were talking about
him this week. Eddie was famous for inviting folks to come to
service with him, come hear the gospel. And Eddie wouldn't quit. I mean, just wouldn't quit. And you know, him not quitting
brought many people to hear the gospel and believe on Christ.
Diligence. See, these men, they'd heard
about the Lord Jesus. They knew who the Lord was. Apparently
the Lord had given them faith that the Lord could heal their
friend. So they brought their friend to the Savior. And they
couldn't get in. Sold out show. Well, we'll come
back tomorrow. You know, it just must not be
the Lord's will. I'm just not going to go in and
we can't get there today. No, sir. These men climbed up
on the roof and tore the roof apart so they could lower their
friend down at the feet of the Savior. I mean, nothing was going
to stop them from getting their friend to Christ. That's how
desperately they needed the Savior. That's how desperately they needed
him. Now, spiritually speaking, it's
a miserable experience, but the Lord's got to bring us to the
place that we are so desperate that nothing will stop us from
getting to Christ. Nothing. And when the Lord brings us to
that place, we're so desperate. I've got to have, I've got to
have Christ. That's when we'll find him. That's
the Lord's promise. In the days you seek me with
all your heart, when you're so desperate, you seek me with all
your heart, the Lord says you'll find me. You'll find me. When
you call out of me in desperation, the Lord said, I'll hear. Now
that's this man. I mean, he was paralyzed. He
couldn't do one thing to heal himself. He couldn't get himself
to Christ. He couldn't do anything to make
himself better. Nobody may as well not ever tell this man,
you take the first step towards Jesus and he'll do the rest.
He's paralyzed. He can't do anything. All this
fella can do is lay there like a speed bump. I mean, that's
all he can do. But it appears that he had the
same faith that his friends had. More than likely, he asked them
to take him to the Savior. He believed that the Lord could
heal him. He'd heard something about Christ,
too. You know, when a leper who's getting ready to die, he's full
of leprosy, he has no hope, I mean, he is just in the most miserable
condition, he's very soon gonna die, and the Lord touches him
and instantly heals him. And he starts blazing the matter
abroad. Who's interested in hearing what
he's got to say? Other lepers, other people who are hopeless.
This fella had an interest and he heard of the Savior. And he
got his friends to bring him to the Savior. Well, here's the
third thing. Whenever the Lord gives faith,
he also gives the forgiveness of sin. Verse five says, when
Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, son,
thy sins be forgiven thee. And knowing human nature, I'm
just pretty sure of this. This man is paralyzed. That morning
when they had determined to come to Christ, almost everything that was on
his mind was healing from paralysis. Don't you reckon? but he got
a whole lot more than he bargained for, didn't he? You know, I'm
thankful that the Lord is not limited to what I can think of
to ask him to do, aren't you? Look at Ephesians chapter three. This verse gives me, I like reading
it, I like thinking about it, Ephesians 3 verse 20. Now unto him that's able to do
exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according
to the power that work within us. Unto him be glory in the
church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. We pray, we trust in, we
look to the God who is able to do exceeding abundantly Not just
a little bit abundantly, not just a little bit exceedingly
more than what we can even ever ask or think. Isn't that a good
reason to pray? Lord, thy will be done. Lord,
here's the situation, here's the problem. Lord, thy will be
done. He's able to do something a whole lot better than what
I can think of. I'm thankful, aren't you? If God was limited
to my pea brain, what I could come up with, Our gospel would
not be glorious at all, would it? All this man could think
about, he was just obsessed with it, I'm sure. Having his body
healed of this paralysis, and the Lord forgave his sin. See, the Lord dealt with the
disease itself. He dealt with the problem itself,
not just the symptoms. The symptoms, the symptoms, of
our sin sickness is our outward sins. It's our weakness, our
weak faith, our uncaring about God. We care about anything more
than coming to hear Christ preach. And all we see outwardly is the
symptoms of our sin, don't we? And man's religion, this is what
they always try to do, deal with the symptoms of the disease.
They try to get you to quit sinning. Now straighten up and fly right.
Don't don't do that. Don't think like that. Don't
be like that. They're dealing with the symptoms of the disease. But the disease that causes all
that problem is a sin nature. It's our nature. So the Lord
forgave the disease. He forgave the root of the problem.
He forgave his sin. Now here's the fourth thing.
Only God can forgive sin. Verse 6. There's some in every
crowd, aren't there? But there were certain of the
scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, why did this
man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
only? And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that
they so reasoned within themselves, he knew what they were thinking.
He said unto them, why reason ye these things in your heart?
Whither is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, thy sins
be forgiven thee, or to say arise and take up thy bed and walk?
but that you may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth
to forgive sins. He sayeth to the sick of the
palsy, I say unto thee, Arise, take up thy bed, and go thy way
into thine house. And immediately he arose, took
up the bed, and went forth before them all, insomuch that they
were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it
on this fashion. Now when Christ forgives sins,
He told this man, your sins be forgiven thee. When Christ forgives
sins, he doesn't just ignore the sin and say, well, it's okay
that you did that. I won't bring it up anymore.
That's the only way we can forgive sin with each other, right? We
say, well, I'll try to forget about it and won't bring it up
anymore. When Christ forgives sin, he puts that sin away. See, sin is a debt to God, so
Christ pays that sin. He pays for it with his own blood.
Sin is a defilement on our soul. Well, Christ shed his blood to
wash the soul of his people white as snow. Christ shed his blood
to put away the sin of his people. Then there's nothing to be angry
about anymore, is there? No, sin's forgiven because sin's
not there anymore. There's no reason God wouldn't
forgive his people. because the blood of Christ took
their sin away. He took away everything, every
reason God would have to be angry with his people. And the only
one who can forgive sin like that is the Lord Jesus Christ. See, Christ is that fountain.
He's the fountain open for sin and for uncleanness that Zachariah
prophesied of. Zachariah said, there's one coming.
He's a fountain open for sin. That fountain can pay for the
sin of his people. That fountain of blood can cleanse
the sin of his people away, make them white as snow. He's gonna
give them a new righteous nature, a nature that doesn't have any
sin, a nature that has never sinned, that can never sin. And
that's the nature that God will accept. Well, there's a whole
lot that goes into this matter of God forgiving sin, isn't there?
He forgives sin. But just so the Pharisees and
those religious scoffers would know that the Lord Jesus has
the power that he has the right to forgive sin. He told that
man, take up your bed and walk. Now we've heard this so many
times. God gives a command that we can't obey. He tells us to
do something that we can't do. The Lord told that man, take
up your bed and walk. He'd never had walked before. He'd been
paralyzed from birth. He never has walked. But with
a command from the Lord came the power. And he took up his
bed and carried it home. I tell you, every week, believe
on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now come to Christ. Cast your soul on him. Beg him
for mercy. Look to Christ. I say that knowing full well
that if you don't know Christ, you can't do it. I know full
well. I know. I know because I sat
right where you're sitting. Hearing Brother Henry say, look,
and I say, if you tell me where I will. You tell me come to Christ,
but I don't know how. You tell me believe, but I can't.
I mean, I tried. I can't make myself believe. If Almighty God forgives your
sin, you'll believe. If He speaks to your heart, see
what the Lord says, I say unto thee. Not if the preacher says
unto you, but when God the Holy Spirit says unto you, arise and
come to Christ, you will, you will. If you come here week after week,
and you're like I was, that rebel boy that still somehow wanted
to believe, but I just couldn't. I know it's miserable. And the
only thing I can tell you is this. When these doors are open, be
here. Be here to hear. If you're seeking
Christ, seek Him where He's found. Seek Him where He's preached.
You keep calling and don't quit. Be like that diligent man Brother
Fortner talked about. The Lord will hear you eventually.
You just keep coming. You just keep crying. I say unto
thee, take up your bedrock. If the Lord says that to you,
you will. You will. And you know that had to get
on those Pharisees' last nerve That fella took up his bed wall. Don't you know that? Oh, that
bothered him. But that's how the Lord dealt
with him. All he did is show them his power. His power to
physically forgive sin or to physically heal diseases. And
he left them there. He didn't say anything else to
them. That was just a demonstration of his power. And they still
didn't believe him. But I'd like to close with this.
thinking about how it is, not how the Lord dealt with the self-righteous,
but how he dealt with his poor, hurting child. Now, our Lord knew from all eternity
who this man was. The Lord chose him, chose him. He made him an object of mercy
before anything was created. And the Lord knew this man would
be born paralyzed. He knew he would. That was God's
purpose for this man, to be born paralyzed, so that Christ would
be glorified in it. Our Lord knew the exact day,
the exact moment, the exact circumstances that he was gonna heal this man.
See, the outcome was never in doubt. There was never any doubt
about this. That not only was this man gonna
be healed, he was gonna be forgiven of his sin. Now our Lord knew
that, didn't he? He knew that. But this poor man didn't know
anything about that. He didn't know not one thing
about it. Until his friends carried him to the Lord, climbed up on
the roof and tore the roof apart so they could lower him down
at the feet of the Savior. And there he lay at the feet
of the Savior, looking up at the Savior. And he didn't know anything at
all about God's purpose for him. Until the Lord spoke to him and said, son, If the Lord didn't say anything
else, he just heard the Lord call him son. This is the only
place in scripture where the Lord ever called a man son. Son, isn't that a term of endearment?
Son, come here son. Jan and I have our own. little
grandson, he's 10 months old, with us this weekend. He's pulling
up on stuff and trying to stand, you know, he stands on his own,
he falls over and busts his head, you know. He did that last night,
started crying. And I went over to him and picked
him up and said, come here, son. That's just a term of endearment,
isn't it? This man had no idea he was a
son of God, a child of God, until the Lord called him son. And
he said, son, thy sins be forgiven thee. That's how our father speaks
to all of his children. Now, that's a blessing, isn't
it? That's the blessing that always comes along when God gives
us faith in Christ. All right, I hope Lord will bless
that to you.