Luke chapter 5. I'm taking the
title for the message from what is said in verse 26. Luke chapter
5, verse 26. When the Lord healed this paralyzed
man, and he took up his couch, and no doubt he was leaping and
jumping, and departed to his own house, giving God all the
glory. The last part of verse 25, they
were all amazed. They were all amazed. And they
glorified God. And they were filled with fear,
reverence, worship, saying, here's what they said. We've never seen
anything like this. We've never seen anything like
this happen. We've seen strange things today. A mercy beggar receiving grace,
grace of God. By nature, that just doesn't
happen. It happens only by the grace of God. In Mark chapter
2 where this story is given, it's recorded there in verse
12, it says, we never saw it on this fashion before. We've
never seen it happen this way. Now when this crowd of people
saw this miracle of grace come to this poor sinner, his paralyzed
body not only healed, but all of his sins all of his sins freely
and eternally forgiven, his soul was healed, his body was healed,
and all the people were amazed. That is amazing grace, is it
not? And then they glorified God, who alone is worthy to be
honored and glorified. They glorified God, knowing that
this had to be the work of God. This just doesn't happen. It
has to be the work of God. All healing is of God. And then
it says there, thirdly, they were filled with fear. That is,
they were filled with reverence. They were filled with worship
and awe of all this amazing thing, saying, we've seen extraordinary
things this day. In other words, this is no ordinary
day. This is no common day. This is
the day that salvation came to this sinner's house. Salvation
came to this sinner's house. Over in Luke 19, you remember
the story of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus, the publican. I believe
he was the chief publican. Remember? And when he heard the
Lord Jesus was coming by that way, he climbed up the sycamore
tree to see Him. And the Lord walked right underneath
that tree. Zacchaeus! How did he know His
name? He's always known His name. He
has from eternity known his name. Zacchaeus, make haste and come
down. And he came down at the command
of the Lord. And the Lord said to him, this day is salvation
come to your house. Salvation's come to your house
for you're also a son of Abraham, a spiritual child of Abraham.
The Lord Jesus Christ, and then he says, the Lord Jesus Christ,
he said to Zacchaeus, the Lord Jesus has come to seek and to
save the lost. And you're one of those for whom
I came to seek and to save. David referred to it as the day
of salvation. He referred to it this way. This
is the day the Lord hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in
it. This is the Lord's doing and
it's marvelous in our eyes. It's marvelous when God saves
a sinner by His grace. And that's our prayer today.
May we too be amazed at His sovereign grace. And that's the only type
of grace there is, is sovereign grace. May we have our hearts
tuned to glorify God and give him all the honor and glory.
May we be filled with a heart of true worship before God, with
true reverence. Holy and reverent is his name.
I know this, the Lord Jesus Christ is worthy of all honor and praise,
isn't he? Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.
Remember our study in the Revelation? Worthy is the Lamb that was slain
to receive all honor, glory, blessings, and power, both now
and forever. You know how we honor His name? Abraham was strong in faith,
giving glory to God. That's how we honor Him, by believing
Him. Being fully persuaded that all
that God had promised, God is able to perform. Now in this
particular Gospel story, has given unto us. We find it in
Matthew chapter 9 that we read earlier. And then if you want
to mark this down, it's also found in Mark chapter 2 and here
in Luke chapter 5. And we're going to use Luke chapter
5 for our message today. We see in these verses at least
three distinct miracles that Lord Jesus Christ performed,
plainly declaring unto us His eternal power and Godhead, His
total deity, His total sovereign dominion over all things, over
all diseases, over all creatures, over all things. His dominion
is an everlasting dominion. He has complete dominion over
all things. We see at least these three things. We see sins forgiven, totally,
completely, eternally forgiven, and they were forgiven justly
upon the Lord's atonement for our sin. We see secondly, the
complete knowledge the Lord has of all the hearts of all men. He read their mind, knowing their
thoughts, knowing their heart. That's a miracle. The Lord is
omniscient. He knows all things. And then
we see the Lord's total and complete healing of this man's crippled
body and the forgiving of his sin. That's a miracle of God's
grace, is it not? Now, let's look at the first
thing in verse 18 and 19. The first strange and extraordinary
thing. We see four faithful friends,
four men, carrying this paralyzed body of their friend before the
Lord. I want to be a friend like that,
don't you? I want to be a friend like that. Look at verse 18 and 19 again.
And behold, men brought in a bed, these four men, They brought in to bed this man,
their friend, that was taken with palsy. He was paralyzed.
He could not walk. And they sought means to bring
him in and lay him before the Lord. And when they could not
find a way that they might come in because of the multitude,
the house was packed out. They couldn't get in. They went
up on the top of the house and led him down through the tiling
with his couch into the midst of this crowd before the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, you get a hold of this scene
here. These faithful friends sought
means, you see that in verse 18, they sought means to bring
this man before the Lord. Why did they do this? going to
great lengths to hoist this man up on the roof, that was no easy
thing, and to put him on the roof, and then take off part
of the tiling of the roof, and then hoisting him down before
the Lord Jesus Christ. These were difficult things to
do, and yet they went to great lengths to use means to put this
man right before the Lord Jesus Christ. Now why did they do that?
Well, they loved this man, didn't they? This man was their friend.
They wanted the best for this man. They loved this man. You
know, love is a strong motivator. We read in Proverbs 17, 17, a
friend loveth at all times. A brother is born for adversity.
These were true faithful friends who sought the best they could
for their friend. They knew that they couldn't
help Him. They couldn't heal Him. They couldn't do anything
for Him. But they also knew that the Lord
Jesus Christ had all power to heal. Christ healed others. Why not our friend? Why not our
friend? Look back at chapter 5, same
chapter, verse 15. But so much the more went there
a fame abroad of Him, and great multitudes came together to hear
and to be healed by Him of their infirmities. These men heard
about the Lord Jesus Christ healing other men, and they are thinking
in their mind, well, if He healed others, why not our friend? So
they sought means, strange means. Now, you can imagine sitting
here and hearing a noise up here, and the sheet rock starting to
come down, and here comes a man down through the ceiling. Well,
you would be taken aback, wouldn't you? I know I would. I would
say, what is going on here? You see, we read in the Scripture
in Luke 9, the Lord healed all them that came to Him with a
need. He healed them that had the need
of healing. I've never read in Scripture
where the Lord turned a mercy beggar away. Everyone who came
to the Lord Jesus seeking mercy, He healed them. He healed them.
That ought to encourage us to come to the Lord Jesus Christ
by faith. I want to be a faithful friend like these four men to
use good means God has given to us to bring the Gospel to
our family, to our friends, to bring our friends to hear the
Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, faith comes by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of the Lord. It says over there in Mark
2, while the Lord was in this house, it says over there that
same story that He preached the Word to them. Faith comes by
hearing and hearing by the word of the Lord. The Lord has ordained
the means of the preaching of the gospel to call out His elect.
It pleased God to do so. Let us always seek opportunity
to promote and preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ wherever
we go. in our neighbors, to our neighbors,
to our fellow workers, wherever we live, to our family, to our
friends, let us always seek opportunity to be a faithful witness of the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And being a faithful witness
is not a complicated thing. You don't need to be a theologian.
I'm certainly not. You don't need to be a fine orator
of true doctrine. I'm certainly not an orator.
Preaching the gospel is this, and being a faithful witness
is this. It's simply telling one beggar, telling another beggar
where he found bread. This man, when he was healed,
he went everywhere like that demon possessed man when the
Lord healed him. You remember the Lord said, go
home to your family and friends and tell how great things God
has done for you? Don't try to explain, just tell
how great things He's done. We go as mercy beggars preaching
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to those who will hear. Some will hear and some won't
hear. I don't expect everybody that I preach to to believe what
I'm preaching. That's not up to me to convince
you to believe. All I'm going to do is preach
the gospel and God will have to drive it home to your heart.
God will have to teach you the Gospel. But we want to use the
means that God has given us to present the Gospel, to preach
the Gospel. We have Gospel tracts. We have Gospel CDs. We have the
Gospel on the radio. We have the Gospel on the Internet.
We have the Gospel here in the pulpit. God has given us great
means. Invite your friend to listen
to our radio program sometime. Invite your friend sometime to
listen to our TV program on Sunday morning or Sunday night. If they
don't want to come here, Would you listen to the gospel on these
other means that God has given us? And we're so blessed with
these means that we have at our ready disposal. And here's the
second thing. Sometimes, and many times, great
blessings and great afflictions that come from the hand of the
Lord, great sorrow and great sickness brings us to hear the
gospel. Our light afflictions don't work
against us, they work for us. All things work together for
good to them who love God, to them who are called according
to His purpose. Here is one of the Lord's elect, chosen from
all eternity, who was afflicted with great trials. This man was
paralyzed. He probably was born that way.
He couldn't walk. He never could walk. He received
great blessings. Oftentimes, great trials are
forerunners of great blessings. Great blessings. Now I'll tell
you a story. Some of you remember the man that used to ride that
electric wheelchair. Brother Lyons, do you remember
John Howsam? John Howsam. He'd been here several times.
He'd ride that little Omego. And the reason he'd ride that
electric wheelchair was he was paralyzed. He was crippled. But
here's the back story. You know how that man was a very
successful man. Chillicothe, Ohio. And the TV
program Brother Mahan had back in those days would reach all
the way up into Ohio. And this man, John Howsam, was
a very successful man. He worked at Port Columbus. He
drove every day to Port Columbus. And he had a very, very important
job there. And then one day he was afflicted
with an ailment. And he kept getting sicker and
sicker and sicker. And it got to where he could
not walk. It got to where he could not work. He had to take
disability and he stayed home flat on his back. One day he turned the TV on and
there was a preacher named Mayhem. Started preaching the gospel
to him. Preaching the gospel to him. He said, well, I want
to hear more about that. So he listened to him again the
next week. Started writing to him. Brother
Henry would send tapes to him. And then one day John Haslam
said, I'm going to move to Ashland. And he'd come every week, drive
that little mule right up front and sit on the front row. And
he was there until he died. You see, you say, well, that
man had a terrible affliction. He had multiple sclerosis. He
was crippled. And it just got worse and worse
and worse. But the Lord sent him that affliction
that he might hear the gospel. You see what I'm saying? The
Lord uses whatever he will to bring his elect to hear the Gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it might be that the Lord
may have to cripple you and put you on your back, to humble you,
that you might hear the Word of Truth. It's not until we know
that we have a great need as vile, guilty sinners that we'll
seek mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ, as long as you think
you're okay. As long as you think, I'm not
a sinner, as long as you think, well, I'm not guilty, as long
as you think God won't really punish sin, you'll never seek
mercy in Christ. But when He teaches you who you
are, sinner, guilty, vile, and wretched, then you'll seek mercy
where mercy's found in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not until
we know that we have no ability, no power, no righteousness before
God that we'll seek salvation where it's found. in Christ. This crippled man, in our story
here, he knew he could do nothing for himself. No doubt his parents
tried to take ointment and rub his legs, and no doubt they probably
tried different remedies and different means, but nothing
could heal this man but the power of God. Those who God wisely
saves, first brings us to know the end, brings us to know the
end of ourselves, He strips us of all pride and self-righteousness,
self-glory, and then he clothes us with the righteousness of
Christ. He brings us down in the dust of despair and depravity,
and then he lifts us by his mercy. There first must be conviction
of sin before there's a pardon of sin. God must first convict
us and show us that we're guilty, show us our need of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He must empty us in order to
fill us with His grace. Here's the third thing we see
in this story. The Lord Jesus Christ has all
power, not only to heal our body, but to save our soul. He says
to this paralyzed, crippled man, when he saw their face, The faith
of those four men and the faith of this man on the couch. He
said, man, my sins are forgiven. And the scribes and Pharisees
began to complain. Well, who can forgive sin but
God only? The Lord Jesus Christ has all
power to justly forgive all sin. Here's another strange and extraordinary
and marvelous thing. Son, be of good cheer. your sins
are all gone. Now that just doesn't happen
naturally. That's a sovereign act of God Almighty and His love
and mercy toward His people. No church member or mere religious
preacher or priest, no counselor, no minister has power to forgive
sin or to put away sin that belong to God alone through the Lord
Jesus Christ. You see, we've sinned against
God. He's the only one that can put away our sin. And that's
what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for His people. The Lord
deals with this poor cripple. He deals with his greatest problem
first. What was his greatest problem?
His greatest problem wasn't his crippled legs, it was his crippled
heart. It was his paralyzed heart. It was his sinful heart. That
was his first problem. That was his biggest problem.
His sin, his guilt was far worse. and his useless legs. He had
a useless, depraved heart. Before the Lord deals with his
physical need, the Lord deals with his spiritual need, his
sin problem. And that's our problem. You know
we all have a problem? Did you know that? We all have
a sin problem. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. We all have. We're all sinners.
We are sinners saved by the grace of God. No one has the power
or authority to forgive sin but God alone. The Lord Jesus Christ,
you see, is God Almighty, who has all authority and all power
to justly forgive the sin of His people based upon the satisfying
atonement, based upon the justifying righteousness in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Peter put it this way, we're not redeemed with corruptible
things of silver and gold, but with the precious blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We had in our Bible study this
morning in Hebrews 9 that the Lord Jesus Christ as our great
high priest did to bring the typical animal sacrifice, he
obtained for us eternal redemption with his own blood. That is our one and great and
only need, and we desperately need, what would you say is your
greatest need? It's the forgiveness of all your
sin. And this is only found in and through the Lord Jesus Christ
alone. It's by His blood, by His grace, and by His power.
Now preacher, how can I know my sins are forgiven? I can't
tell you that they're forgiven. You can't even tell yourself
that they're forgiven. How can I know my sins are all
gone? How can I know that my sins have been paid for and forgotten
by God Almighty? How can anyone know? By looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ, by saving faith. Let me show you
Scripture. Hold your place there and turn
to Acts, the book of Acts chapter 13. The book of Acts chapter
13, when Paul preached his first gospel message, in his first missionary journey,
his first Acts 13, verse 38. Acts 13, 38. Be it known unto you, therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man is preached to you the
forgiveness of sins, And by Him all that believe are justified
from all things, which you could not be justified by the law of
Moses. You see, it's in the Lord Jesus
Christ that we have redemption. By Him all that believe are justified
from all things. Being justified by faith, we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, from which
you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Salvation,
therefore, my friend, is received Faith doesn't accomplish salvation,
does it? Faith doesn't accomplish salvation. Faith receives the
Lord Jesus Christ who did. This salvation by the grace of
God is received by believing, not doing. We know faith is a
gift of God. For by grace are you saved through
faith. And that's not of yourself. It's
a gift of God, not of work that any man should boast. It is a
marvel of God's grace to be given faith to trust Christ alone for
all salvation. That's a strange and extraordinary
thing. To believe God, especially in
this day, to believe God and rest in the Lord Jesus Christ,
that is a marvel and miracle of God's sovereign mercy, sovereign
grace, and sovereign love. And here's the next thing I want
us to see, point number four. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
only all-powerful, He's all-knowing. Look at verse 21 and following. Mark, excuse me, Luke 5. Verse
21, And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who
is this which speaketh blasphemy? Who can forgive sin but only
God? And what they said was true.
No one can forgive sin but God. And when Jesus perceived their
thoughts, He knew their thoughts, He knew their heart, He knew
what they were thinking. When He knew their thoughts,
He said unto them, Why do you reason in your hearts? Whether
it is easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say,
Rise up and walk. Now both are easy to say, impossible
to do. But that you may know that the
Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sin, He saith unto
this sick man, I say unto thee, arise and take up your couch
and go into your own house." The Lord Jesus Christ is not
only omnipotent, but He's omniscient. He knows all things. He knew
their hearts. He saw their thoughts. In Hebrews
chapter 4, neither is there any creature that is not manifest
in his sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes
of whom we have to do. The psalmist said, there is not
a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it all together. The Lord looks upon the heart.
You remember what the Lord said of them, seeing their faith?
He looked right into their heart. and seeing that they did believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Seeing their faith. Seeing their
faith. But he said to these Pharisees,
why do you think evil in your heart? The Pharisees were right
in saying that none can forgive sin but God, but very wrong in
charging the Lord Jesus Christ with blasphemy. Which means to
speak evil against God. Now listen to this. Wash your
ears out with this. Sit up and listen to this. If
the Lord Jesus Christ is not God, then he is a blasphemer. If the Lord Jesus Christ is not
God, then he is an imposter and cannot save one sinner. Cannot
save one sinner, yet alone a guilty sinner like me. This sinner right
here, me, this sinner needs a great Savior with great salvation,
who is able to forgive all my sin, not just some of my sin. All of my sin, the blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all our sin. Thank God He
is God, our Savior, who died to put away all the sin of God's
covenant children. His blood cleanses us from all
our sin. Now, here's number five, point
number five, verse 23 and 24. Whether it's easier to say, Thy
sin be forgiven thee, or to rise up and walk, but that you may
know that the Son of Man, who is the Son of God, He has power. How much power does He have?
He has all power of heaven and earth. He has all power to forgive
sin and to heal people. Another marvelous, extraordinary,
strange thing happened that day. The Lord clearly demonstrated
that He is God our Savior. What is easier to say, thy sins
be forgiven or to rise up and take up your bed and walk? I
suppose both would be easy to say, however, both would be impossible
to do. Saying and doing are two different
things. But that you may know that the
Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sin, paralyzed man,
You're healed. Your sins are gone. Stand up
upon your feet. Take up your couch. The Lord
shows us again that He is Almighty God. He has all power to save
to the uttermost. That we may know, that we may
understand, He has all power to forgive our sin. Now, if the Lord saved a sinner
like me, certainly there's no case too desperate for Him. I
like what Newton told His preacher friend John Jay, if God saved
me, He'd save anybody. And that's true. If God saved
a wretched man like me, why not you? Why not you? The Lord said to this man, arise
and take up your bed. It was a commandment. He didn't
invite him. He said, well, if you will, if you want to, you
know, you can rise up and walk. It was a command, wasn't it?
I command you to take up your bed and walk. And immediately
he did so. This is how God saves sinners,
by His command, by His decree, not our decision. This man was
not invited to stand up and walk. The Lord commanded him to do
so. When will a sinner be saved? When it pleases God to do so.
With the Lord's command comes the will, the ability, and the
desire to do so. I'll give you a good example
of that. Turn a couple pages. Turn to Luke chapter 6. Luke
chapter 6. There was a man who had a withered
hand in Luke chapter 6. It came to pass, verse 6, also
on another Sabbath that he entered into the synagogue and taught.
And there was a man whose right hand was withered. Here's a man
with a paralyzed hand. He's all withered up. And the
scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on
the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against him. But he knew their thoughts, and
said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, stand
forth in the midst. And he rose up and stood forth.
And Jesus said unto them, I will ask you one thing. Is it lawful
on the Sabbath day to do good or to do evil, to save life or
to destroy? And looking round about upon
them all, he said unto the man, stretch forth your hand. And
he did so, and his hand was restored whole like the other. Now, he
didn't invite the man to stretch forth his hand, did he? He commanded
the man, and he stretched forth his hand. Thy people shall be
willing in the day of God's power. One other example, if I can find
it here, I think it's found in Luke chapter 7. Luke chapter
7, verse 11. Luke 7, verse 11. Here's a story
I told you about of the widow who lost a son. This is Luke
7, 11. And it came to pass, the day
after that he went in to the city called Nain, and many of
the disciples went with him and much people. And when he came
nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man
carried out, the only son of his mother. She was a widow,
and much people of the city were with her. And when the Lord saw
her, he had compassion on her and said in her, Weep not. And
he came and touched the bear, the bed, that they had bare him
on, stood still. They stood still, and he said
to the young man, I say unto thee, arise. And he
that was dead set up and began to speak. And he delivered him
to his mother. And there came fear on all. They
glorified God, saying, the prophet, the great prophet is risen among
us. and that God had visited His
people. So, there's two examples, and you know, remember the story
of Lazarus, when Lazarus, who had died, and was in the grave
four days, and his body was rotting, and the Lord walked in front
of that tomb and said, Lazarus, I invite you to come out. No,
He didn't say that. He said, Lazarus, come forth.
And he that was dead came forth. You see, the Lord, when He saves
us, He saves us by His decree, by His command. And that's what
we call the irresistible grace of God. We're going to see an
example of that next Sunday. And when the Lord calls Matthew,
a publican, Matthew, follow me. Follow me. Here's the last thing
I want us to see. In verse 26, immediately, verse
25, He rose up before them and took up their arm where He lay.
He grabbed up His bed and departed to His own house, glorifying
God, giving God all the honor and glory. When God saves us
by His grace, we become thankful, thankful unto the Lord's mercy.
They were amazed, they glorified God, and were filled with fear,
saying, We've seen strange things today. We're all amazed. Newton wrote an amazing grace,
how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was
lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. They glorified
God. This is the bottom line in all
that our God does. The grand design of redemption
is the glory and honor of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they were
filled with reverence, worship, The only place we will truly
worship is before the throne of Almighty God. That's the only
place a sinner will truly worship, is for the throne of God who
is God, Almighty God. The Father seeketh such a worship
Him in spirit and in truth. We've seen strange things this
day. Oh, may God bless His Word.