The book of Mark. Let me read a few verses here. We'll read beginning with verse
number one. And again he entered into Capernaum
after some days. And it was noise that he was
in the house, or it was rumored, broadcast, the word
was out that the Lord Jesus was in the house. And the result
was, and straightway, many were gathered together. Now, they
had heard that the Lord Jesus had come to this place here in
the city of Capernaum, and many were gathered together, and the
crowd was so great, insomuch that there was no room to receive
them. no, not so much as about the
door, and he preached the word unto them." Now, it is important
to remember this here. He was in the city of Capernaum,
and the word got out that he was there in this house, and
the multitude of people came at this place in so much that
they crowded out the exit. And he preached the word unto
them. And they came unto him, bringing
one sick of the palsy, which was born of four. And when they
could not come nigh unto him for the prince, that is, for
the crowd, they couldn't get to him, 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. And when Jesus saw their
faith, I think including his faith along with his four friends,
he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven
thee. But there were certain of the
scribes sitting there, reasoning in their hearts, Why does 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 said unto
them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts? They didn't understand that our
Lord could read the thoughts in the hearts of men. 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 ye may know that the
Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, he saith to
the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, Arise, and take up
thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. And immediately
he arose, and 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. He went forth again by the seaside,
and all the multitude resorted unto him, and he taught Now, our Lord Jesus Christ was
at the city of Capernaum, and he was at his usual work, preaching
the Word and healing the sick. Now, the first thing I want you
to notice in this narrative is, number one, I want you to see
what great spiritual privileges some people enjoy and yet not
make use of them. But great spiritual privileges
some people have and some people enjoy and yet make no use of
these spiritual privileges. Now this fact is illustrated
by the history of the city of Capernaum. Now, there is no city
throughout the length and breadth of Palestine that enjoyed so
much of the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ during his earthly
ministry as the city of Capernaum did. That in itself is a great
privilege. These people here were privileged
to have the earthly presence of this sovereign ruler, God
himself, more than any other city in all of Palestine. Now, it says in Matthew chapter
4 and verse 13, it says that when he left Nazareth, which
was his hometown, that's the town that he grew up in, you
remember he came to Nazareth and he did not do many miracles
because of their unbelief. And it says that he marveled
at their unbelief and finally he left them alone. And the 13th
verse of the 4th chapter of the book of Matthew it says, and
leaving Nazareth he came and dwelt in Capernaum. after leaving
Nazareth, he took up his abode in this city of Capernaum. Now,
in this city of Capernaum was the place where many, and I mean
many, of his miracles were worked and many of his sermons were
delivered. But nothing that he said seem
to have any effect upon the hearts of the inhabitants of this city. We are talking about the people
of Capernaum. He entered into Capernaum after
some days and it was noise that he was in the house. And there
was great crowds of people attracted to his ministry. And he preached
the word unto them. and also displayed his great
and glorious power in that he performed miracles in their midst
here at Capernaum. You see, they crowded to hear
him, and straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that
there was no room to receive them. There was not any room
to receive them in this house, and they gathered on the outskirts
of the house. And the crowd was so great that
a man who was sick, who had palsy, who was paralyzed, who couldn't
walk, who was borne by four friends, couldn't even get to where the
Lord Jesus was because the crowd was so great. They had to climb
up on top of the house and let him down through the roof. Well, I read to you here where
it says that they were amazed and they were astonished at his
wonderful works, these people. but they were not converted.
So I am saying here that I want you to see, brethren, that great
spiritual privileges are enjoyed by a whole lot of people, and
yet they make no use of these spiritual privileges. These people
had this great and glorious privilege of having the presence of God
in their city, walking on their streets, preaching in their public
places, preaching in their synagogue, enjoying to a degree the hospitality
of some of the inhabitants by going in their house, performing
great miracles, but yet they remained hardened, their hearts
were hard towards the Lord Jesus Christ. Someone said that they
lived in the full noon-tide blaze of the sun of righteousness.
They lived in the reflection of the sun of righteousness at
its fullness. at its brightness, they lived
in the reflection of that, and yet their hearts remained hard. They received from him, I guess,
the heaviest condemnation that any city ever received other
than Jerusalem. Turn with me, if you will, to
Matthew 11, and I want to show you what our Lord said in regard
to this city. And I want to show you here that
these people, remember this is what we're saying, that there's
great privileges, spiritual privileges that some people enjoy and yet
make no use of them. That is, some people have the
privilege of coming to hear the gospel of God's redeeming grace. And they come, and they hear,
and they hear, and they hear, and they hear, and they hear,
and they listen, and they identify themselves outwardly with this
place, and this people, and this gospel, but yet never hear with
the inward ears. They remain unconverted and hardened
at heart. This city who had this privilege
of having the Lord Jesus Christ on her streets and hearing him
preach and seeing the miracles that he wrought, this is what
he said about them. In Matthew chapter 11 and verse
23, look there at verse 23, and you will see that he pronounced
a heavy condemnation. against them, on them, and thou
of Capernaum, which are exalted into heaven, shall be brought
down to hell. Here is the city now, performed
all these many works, preached the word to them. He said, You
are exalted into heaven, but you shall be brought down to
hell, for if the mighty works which have been done in thee
had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. The wicked city of Sodom that
we talked about this morning, about Lot and his wife, He said,
If the works that I have done in your midst, if they had been
done in the city of Sodom, that city would not have been burned
to the ground. But I say unto you, Capernaum,
that it shall be more tolerable, that is, Sodom will be better
off in the day of judgment than you will be. I say unto you,
it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day
of judgment than for thee. Oh, what a condemnation our Lord
pronounced against these inhabitants of this city of Capernaum. Now! Another thing that I want you
to see here, now we suppose many times that all that is needed
for the converting of sinners is the powerful preaching of
the gospel. Sometimes we hear certain individuals
preach and we are taken up by their rhetoric and their style
and their delivery and we are taken up by what they say and
we are interested in what they say. impressed and amazed at
the insight that they have to the Scripture and to the powerful
preaching of the Gospel and the exaltation that they do of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And we feel that that if we just
had this preacher in our midst, if we just had him here and preached
to us for a certain length of time, I'm sure that many would
be converted. Now, we think that. That's the
way our mind runs. I guess that's human nature to
think that way. Well, I'll tell you this, brethren.
We forget, I guess, the power of unbelief. We forget the depth
of man's depravity against God. We just forget that man is so
against God and he is so far off and so far away from God
that he will never come back to God unless God brings him
back in spite of the most powerful preaching that can be preached. Our Lord Jesus Christ preached
here in Capernaum. The greatest of preachers. God
Himself. He preached. And He performed
true and genuine miracles. There was no fake miracles that
our Lord Jesus Christ performed like they do on the television
removing gorters and healing cancer and all of the things
that they do, and these tent meetings and so forth. Miracles
that he performed, I will tell you, brethren, were true and
genuine. And these people heard They heard
faultless and blameless preaching, and they saw the preaching of
the Lord Jesus Christ confirmed by miracles, and yet they remained
dead in trespasses and in sins. So let us learn, brethren, let
us learn that even the very truest and the very best preaching will
not always bring about the conversion of men who are dead in trespasses
and in sins. It takes more than good preaching. It takes more than true preaching
in the conversion of a sinner. Oh, the truth apart from the
working of the divine spirit will not bring about conversion. Well, nothing, I guess, seems
to harden men's hearts so much as to hear the gospel regularly
and then deliberately prefer to leave it be. What I'm saying is this, men
who constantly hear the gospel, They hear it regularly that the
preacher is faithful in the proclamation of the gospel of redeeming grace. The theme is Christ and Him crucified. It is Jesus only. It is the personal
suffering and the death of the Lord Jesus Christ being constantly
preached and magnified. Now, a man that constantly constantly
hears that regularly, is generally, if he does not submit to it,
if it does not break him and strip him, that generally has
the reverse or the opposite effect upon him. It hardens his heart. It hardens him. So it did with
these people. Oh, how highly favored these
people were at Capernaum, and yet so full of unbelief. Our prayer this evening ought
to be, you and I, who, I believe we hear the truth, and I believe
I preach the truth. And if I don't preach the truth,
then it's not worthwhile to listen to me. And if I didn't preach
the truth, if I was you, I wouldn't even come. I wouldn't even come.
I wouldn't even give me the time of day in regard to hearing me
if I didn't preach the truth. But I believe I preached the
truth. I believe that. And I believe that men who come
here at this place from time to time preach the truth. They
preach the truth as in Christ. They preach the gospel. They
labor constantly in the preparation of sermons that will set forth
the gospel in its simplicity. And we ought to pray Lord, deliver
us from hardness of heart, O that we might not get hard and calloused
in our heart. Well, another thing I want you
to see is this, how great a blessing affliction, misery, or disease,
or sickness may prove sometimes to a man's soul. This man who
was sick of the palsy, who had four kind friends, and those
are the kind of friends that are worthwhile, who are concerned
about you. Here is a fellow who was bowed
down and burdened down in mind and in soul who could not remove
himself from his own house. But he had four kind friends
and these four kind friends took notice of his condition and they
were concerned about him. And they believed that the Lord
Jesus Christ could do something for him if they could get him,
if they could get this fellow into the presence at the feet
of Christ. This is the kind of friends to
have. And so he was carried in his bed by these four kind friends
and let down in a place in the midst of where Jesus was preaching
the Word. And at once the object of this
man's desire was gained. Right now, look at him when they
let him down here. It says, And they come unto him,
bringing one sick of the palsy, which was born of four. And when
they could not come nigh unto him for the press, or for the
crowd, They uncovered the roof where it was, where the Lord
Jesus Christ was in the midst of this house. People gathered
around on all sides, a great crowd there. And when they had
broken it up or lifted some of the tiles off of the top of that
house, then they let it down or let down the bed wherein the
sick of the palsy lay. And when Jesus saw their faith,
he said unto the sick of the palsy, right now, Son, thy sins
be forgiven thee. Well, I tell you, there couldn't
be anything greater than this. The object of this man's desire
was gained right like that. Right like that. The forgiveness
of sins. That is what is against us. You
see, every man that is born a woman, he goes astray from his mother's
womb speaking lies. He speaks lies as soon as he
goes from his mother's womb. He is in out-and-out rebellion
against God. Now, his sin is not against his
father or his mother. That is, not only indirectly. His sin is not necessarily against
father or mother or society or nation or neighbor or any type
of people. His sin is directly against God. When a man sins, when a sinner
sins, his sin is against God. And he needs to have his sins
forgiven. He needs to have his sins covered. He needs to hear a voice from
heaven saying, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. That is what
he needs to hear. And if he never hears that, if
he never hears, from the voice of God. Now you say, well, is
God going to speak to me in an audible voice? Do I have to hear
a still voice somewhere in the background say that? No, you
don't have to hear that. You hear the Word. You hear it
through the Word. The Word was with God and the
Word was God. And we handled the Word. We handled
the Word, the disciples said. We touched Him. We felt Him. We ate with Him. The Word is
the Lord Jesus Christ. You hear the voice of God through
the Word. The Word speaks to us by the
Spirit. And that is what we need. We
need to hear that. We need to hear, Son, thy sins be forgiven
thee. Here was a man who was carried
from his house that morning, weak, bowed down in body and
in soul. Here he goes returning to his
house rejoicing. Can we doubt, can anybody doubt,
that to the end of this man's days, as long as he lived, he
thanked God for his affliction. He thanked God for his palsy,
because without this palsy, he might have lived and died in
ignorance and had never seen or heard the voice of the Lord
Jesus Christ at all. He would have never, in all probability,
heard the blessed words of the Lord Jesus, Thy sins be forgiven
thee. The palsy was indeed a blessing. And many times that proves to
be so, that our affliction, our misery, is only the means to
a greater blessing from God Almighty. Every sickness and every sorrow
is a gracious message from God. It is. Every sickness and every
sorrow, that's a message from God. And brethren, let us take
heed to what the Scriptures say. The Scriptures say, See that
ye refuse not him that speaketh from heaven. Let's don't refuse
him. Let's hear him as he speaks to
us, even through misery, even through affliction. You remember
what old David said? David said, it is good for me
that I was afflicted that I might learn thy statutes. Oh, a wise reason for every trial. He knoweth the way I take, Job
said. That's what he said. He knows
the way I take. And when I come forth, when he's
tried me, when he's tried me, and I come forth, I'll be as
gold. You see, a wise reason for every
trial. Let me show you some things here
this evening about this fellow. Take up thy bed and walk, our
Lord said to him. Well, you say, but he cannot.
He is paralyzed. Our Lord said, take up thy bed
and walk down here. Jesus saw their faith. He said
unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. Well,
certain of the scribes sitting there reasoning in their hearts,
they said, well, this fellow This fellow, he is a blasphemer.
Who can forgive sins but God only? And our Lord had already
said, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. Our Lord, who could read
hearts and read the thoughts of men, and he could see that
they reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason
ye these things in your hearts? Is it easier to say to the sick
and the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or say, Arise, and take
up thy bed, and walk? that ye may know that the Son
of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins. Now listen, he
says to the sick of the palsy, Arise, and take up thy bed, and
walk. I can't, I'm paralyzed. Arise, that's what he said to
him. They carried him in here. They carried him in here. And
our Lord's going to tell him to do something that he hadn't
done before or he couldn't do before. The man's paralyzed. He saith to the sick of the paltry,
I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into
thine house. The man is paralyzed. He can't
rise up, let alone take up his bed and walk. What makes you
think he can get up? He's paralyzed, Fred. Four kind friends got him
from his house this morning. He couldn't turn over in bed.
He had to be helped. When he wanted a glass of water,
someone had to bring it to him. And when he drank it, someone
had to lift him up and give it to him so he wouldn't choke.
The man was paralyzed. He lay in his bed. He couldn't
help himself. But our Lord said to him, He said, rise, take up
thy bed and walk. Well, he can't, he's paralyzed.
He can't rise up, let alone take up his bed and walk. Oh, my soul. Rise, take up thy bed and walk. Listen to this now. I want you
to hear this. That's a command of God. Our
Lord Jesus Christ speaks with authority here. They said up
here, Why doth this man speak blasphemies? Who can forgive
sins but God only? That's right. That's one time
they told the truth. Who can forgive sins but God
only? God only can forgive sins. There's
not a man on earth that can forgive sins. An angel from heaven can't
forgive sins. A church can't forgive sins.
A council can't forgive sins. The wisest group of men and women
collected in one body upon the face of the earth from the ends
of the earth can't forgive one sin. They can't forgive one curse
word or one lie. or one suggestive thought, they
can't do it. This is reserved for God and
God alone. God only can forgive sins. A
church can't do it, a denomination can't do it, a nation can't do
it, or a nation of other nations can't do it. Only God can do
it. They speak the truth here when
they said, Who can forgive sins but God only? That's a command.
Our God's commanding now. He said, Arise, take up thy bed,
and walk. Now, with that command, comes
the strength to comply. With the command comes the ability
to comply with the command. Notice this now. The power is
not in the palsied man, but it's in the Savior who commands. That's where the power is. Can
you see that? The power is in the Lord Jesus
Christ who said, Arise, take up thy bed, and walk. The power
in the command gives the man the ability to comply. That man didn't argue. He didn't
say, I'm paralyzed, Lord. Can't you see that? I've been
paralyzed all my life. But immediately, as soon as our
Lord told him to arise, he did it. He picked himself up and
went his way rejoicing. You see that man with the withered
hand that we preached about here not so long ago? Our Lord said
to that man with the withered hand, he said, Stretch forth
thy hand. Now that man did what he had
never done and what he had never been able to do before, but without
the command and without the presence of Christ, he wouldn't have been
able to do it. But the command of Christ carried
with it an ability to comply with that command. And immediately
he stretched forth his hand. You remember when God told Moses
they needed some water. They needed some water. And God
told Moses, He said, Go to yonder place and strike the rock. Well,
anyone knows there's no water in a rock. I've seen lots of
rocks. I've climbed up on top of many
a rock. I've seen them all over the hills
and mountains of West Virginia, rock after rock, some of them
as big as this church building. I know there's no water in that
rock. I don't know what type of a rock that was. But our Lord
told Moses, He said, Go and strike the rock. Just strike that rock. Well, there is no water in the
rock. Well, there is if Christ is there and so commands, there
is water there. If God says to do it, and God
is there, there will be water in that rock. That is what I
am talking about. You remember at the wedding of
Cana? they run out of wine. And there
was no wine left. And so he said, fill the pots
with water. Got all these empty pots out
here, just fill them up full of water. Well, I know and they
know that water cannot become wine. It will if Christ commands
it so. See? If he commands, then you
comply because the power and the ability to comply is carried
with the authority of that command. When he said, Believe upon the
Lord Jesus Christ and live, well then I believed. In myself, I
didn't have the ability to believe. I was dead in trespasses and
in sins, but the good spirit, the good spirit enabled me to
comply with the command, and I was able to believe and trust
in the Lord Jesus. Well, you remember when the Israelites
were bitten by the serpents and they were dying, and so God told
Moses, He said, make a serpent out of brass and hang it up on
a pole, and he said, tell the children of Israel to look to
the serpent, and whoever looks at that brazen serpent upon the
pole will live. But how in the world can a brass
snake give life? How can a brass snake hanging
up on a pole give spiritual life? How can it give physical life?
How can it make men live just by looking? Well, it can if Christ
commands you to look. It can give life. We ought to be done with this
foolish reason and human logic. And we ought to come out and
get away from and shake off the lie and alibi of fatalistic inability
and one more time hear him, hear the voice of him who commands,
who can raise the dead, and who says believe and live. The Bible
says all things are possible with them that believe. Believe
and live! Believe in the Son of God. Believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, how great is that authority
of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is God speaking. And just
as sure as he speaks to this man in this second chapter, he
speaks to us here this evening. You and I who are, if there be
any here this evening, you are alienated from the life of God
in Christ by your sins and rebellion against God, why don't you just
believe and live? Why don't you look and live?
He commands you to look unto me, all ye the ends of the earth,
and be ye safe. Why don't you do that? Listen,
the salvation that saves sinners is entirely from God. God only
can save sinners. God only can forgive sins. And
if you ever hear of a salvation that does not come from God,
you can depend on this. It is not seaworthy. It is no
good if it doesn't come from God. It has got to be altogether
and entirely from God. And the salvation that saves
sinners is entirely and altogether from God. Rise and take up thy bed and
walk. Did that fellow do it? You say
he is paralyzed. Well, I said he is paralyzed.
Twelfth verse. What happened? Arise, take up
thy bed, and go thy way into thy house.' And immediately he
arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all, insomuch
that they were all amazed, and they glorified God, saying, We
never saw it on this fashion." And he went forth and went to
his house. May the Lord help us to see that
salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if he speaks, let's not refuse
him. Let's speak from heaven. Arise,
he says, arise. Believe and live. All things
are possible with them that believe. Arise, arise. Can a man believe? He can't apart
from the Spirit of God. But if God speaks, if God speaks,
if he commands, He gives the strength to comply with the command,
and you can believe. Did he speak? Did he speak? You
know whether he has or not. As I said this morning, that's
reserved for you and you alone. That's something that you must
do, something I must do. Father can't do it for you. Mother
can't do it for you. You can't go to To be with the
Lord on someone else's coattails, that is, some individual, you
must go to the Lord alone. And if you ever go to heaven
when you die, it will be by and through the Lord Jesus, whom
you have depended upon. You've entered in. You've come
through the door. You've trusted in the Lord Jesus.
I bid you this evening, trust in Him. Believe in Him. Depend
on Him. Cling to Him. He's life. He's life. Apart from Him, there
is no life. Bow to Him while there's yet
time.