I love what Psalm 72, 17 says
about our Lord Jesus. His name shall endure forever. His name shall be continued as
long as the sun, and men shall be blessed in Him. All nations
shall call Him blessed. Blessed be the Lord God, the
God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things, and blessed
be his glorious name for ever. Let the whole earth be filled
with his glory. Amen and Amen. The prayers of
David the son of Jesse are ended. What a great way to finish. Simon,
would you like to pray for us? Heavenly Father, what a great
honour and privilege it is to be with children, to be fleshly
returning in their great saviour in the Lord Jesus Christ. We
thank you for our church. We thank you that you've revealed
the gospel in front of us and that you've revealed the gospel
amongst us on a regular basis. We pray for your grace to understand
just what a great privilege that is. We pray, Heavenly Father,
that you will continue to sustain your witness amongst this community
and we pray that you will use it mightily for the salvation
of your children. We also thank you, Heavenly Father,
that you use that witness as your spirit works amongst us
to minister to us. Heavenly Father, we are all in
desperate need of your grace in our lives We just thank you
for leading in our greatest tribulations. You go near us and you reveal
yourself to us in such a way that we refresh our souls. We
just pray for that. And we pray for our brothers
and sisters that are here. We pray that they will be experiencing
the wonders of your presence in their lives. One of the things that I keep
getting drawn to by is the fact that The scriptures make it to me
very clear that the Gospels were written after the episodes that
caused the book of Galatians to be written. That being the case, and one
piece of evidence for it is that we have the Gospel of Mark and
we're looking at Mark Chapter 2 this evening, is that in Acts
Chapter 15, which is after the Jerusalem Council and after the
issues first arose and caused the problems in the churches
in Antioch and beyond, The end of Acts chapter 15 is when Paul
and Barnabas had their disagreement and their disagreement was over
a young fellow called Mark. And it wasn't until some considerable
time later that Mark was restored to relationship with Paul and
the others. So my contention is that The
Gospels, as John says, the whole world could not contain all the
books that should be written to tell the stories of the Lord
Jesus. And the stories of the Lord Jesus that we have preserved
for us by the Holy Spirit are stories that are there for a
particular purpose and meaning, and obviously they are to reveal
the glory of the Lord Jesus in the salvation of his people.
And one of the things that he saves his people from is the
bondage, of course, to the law. And so when you read the Gospel
stories and you read the interaction of the Lord Jesus and the Pharisees
are there, you see as we went through Mark's Gospel again and
again and again, the Lord Jesus would reveal the glory of God.
in himself and in his words and in his actions, and then there
was a division. You would find innumerably, you
would find the Pharisees there on one side and you would have
another bunch of people who were rejoicing, just rejoicing in
who God is. When you think of what's happening
in Galatians, think of what's happening with people who came
out of the Pharisees and claimed to be Christians but really were
still Pharisees in heart. You actually go back to the Gospels
and you see again and again and again the meeting of the Lord
Jesus with these people. Some of them of course like Nicodemus
were saved, many were saved, but I think we have a picture
again and again in the Gospels of the freedom, the glorious
liberty. The liberty that the Lord Jesus
brings, what glorious liberty it is, a liberty to glorify Him,
a liberty to worship Him, a liberty to be free. And here in Mark
Chapter 2 we have one of these remarkable stories. I'll read
it and then we'll just look at it briefly and I would like you
as you go through it to think about some of the lessons that
the Lord may have taught us out of Galatians and you'll see many
more things in here that I can bring to your remembrance this
evening. Mark 2, verse 1. And again he
entered into Capernaum after some days, and it was noise that
he was in the house. And straightway many were gathered
together, insomuch as there was no room to receive them, no,
not so much as about the door, and he preached the word unto
them. And they came unto him, bringing one sick with palsy,
paralyzed, which was born of four. And when they could not
come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where
he was. And when they had broken it, when they had lifted up the
tiles, As Luke says, they let down the bed wherein the sick
of palsy lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he
said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. But there were certain of the
scribes there. In fact, Luke's Gospel reminds
us that the scribes were the scribes of the Pharisees as well.
The two groups were mixed together. There were scribes who were Pharisees. There were certain of the scribes
sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, Why doth 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? Whether it is
easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven
thee, or say, Arise and take up thy bed and walk. But that
you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive
sins. He said 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 rose, took
up the bed, and went forth before them all in so much that they
were all amazed and glorified God saying, we never saw it on
this fashion. In fact Luke's Gospel in Luke
Chapter 5 says that they were all amazed and they
glorified God and they were filled with fear saying, we have seen
strange things today. paradoxical things today. One of the wonderful things about
the Gospel is that it comes to the needy. I don't know about
you, but I think this paralysed man is so typical, so typical
of people brought to the Lord and brought to salvation and
so typical often of the Lord's people. We can, as the Lord Jesus says,
we can without Him do nothing. Without His work of grace, His
continuing work of grace, we can do nothing. We are so needy
that we need to be brought again to the feet of the Lord Jesus.
We need to be brought again and again to a place where He can
speak personally to us. Your sins are forgiven. Our great God, He creates by
word and His words as He says in the Proverbs, the word fitly
spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. The Shulamite
at the end of that remarkable book of Song of Solomon says
that Thou dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to Thy
voice. She knows that His companions
are hearing His voice and then she says, Cause me to hear it
paralyzed Paralyzed Does that describe you? I must admit I
have felt encumbered by physical frailty and weakness and entrapments
of late and I sense again and again and again the cry, someone
bring me to the feet of the Lord Jesus, someone bring me to a
place where I can hear His words. Here we have many paradoxes,
don't we? We have these extraordinary things,
the creator of the world among his creation, he who is the judge,
he's judged of men, and these men judge the paralytic and judge
the words of the Lord. What words he says, your sins
are forgiven, not because he asked, not because there's any
mention in the text that he had any faith. He had no ability to do anything,
paralysed, but he had a word from the Lord. Let's begin and
just look briefly at some of these amazing things that caused
these people to be in awe of the Lord Jesus and to glorify
God on that day. And may we be encouraged like
these men to receive the double reward, to see their friend healed,
and their friend forgiven, and their faith commended. These men come, don't they? One of the great things about
those who are drawn by the Lord, the obstacles seem to grow bigger
and bigger the closer you get to Him. And the closer they were
to the presence of the Lord Jesus and His blessings, the greater
the problems were. There He was in this house, so
jam-packed with people, such was the fame that He had. so
early in his ministry. You've got to remember that these
are very early episodes in the ministry of the Lord Jesus and
each of the Gospel accounts would indicate that. There they were
in this place where you can't get in. No one, everyone was
so fixated on being in the presence of the Lord Jesus that there
wasn't even room made for this man in great need to come in. And so these men exercise extraordinary
great faith and active faith, don't they? They bring in to
the Lord Jesus and they can't get in and they find the only possible
way of getting their desired result is to go onto the roof.
And the roofs of those houses had big sort of clay plates called
tiles and you could lift them off. And then somehow they lifted
enough off and were able to stand on enough of them to actually
lower this man down. And what a scene it must have
been with the Lord Jesus preaching there. The Pharisees, He knew
their hearts. The Pharisees there waiting,
nitpicking, nitpicking, waiting for an opportunity to see him
slip up one tiny little bit, and in the midst of that the
ceiling is opened and this man drops down. And as remarkable
as that is and as much as it's commended by the Lord Jesus,
there are greater things about to happen. This is a day of great
wonders. There was no room and they came
to him bringing one sick and they let him down on the bed
in front of the Lord Jesus. And it's interesting, verse 5,
isn't it? When the Lord Jesus saw their faith, He's talking
about the faith of these four men. It's not a mention of the
faith of the paralytic man. When He saw their faith, He then
speaks to the sick of Palsy and what a wonderful word He says.
Dear oh dear, brothers and sisters, this is the greatest word that
a sinner can hear from the lips of Almighty God. Son, your sins
are forgiven thee. And the word forgiven is in the
passive tense. The man did nothing. He is just
the recipient. In fact, In the original it says,
your sins are forgiven you. They've already been forgiven. He's already been forgiven. Your sins are forgiven. Only one man. These Pharisees
were right, weren't they? Why does this man speak back? Blasphemies. Who can forgive
sins but God alone? There is no forgiveness of sins
in the activities of men. There is no forgiveness of sins
in the religious activities of men. Forgiveness of sins is in
the hands of God and God alone. What did David say after that
great transgression that he is more famous for than his remarkable
acts of faith? He says, against thee and thee
only have I sinned. Sins are against man, but ultimately
sins, all sins, are against God. And here is the Lord Jesus speaking
to a man He's probably never met, and He says to him, Son,
thy sins are forgiven. So He forgives sins by speaking
a word. It's just speaking a word to
the hearts of His people. Romans 15 says, Now the God of
hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. But there's
a believing that God brings to his people. that you may abound in hope through
the power of the Holy Ghost. In Matthew's account he says,
son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee. He says son,
he's speaking in terms of relationship and his word is a word of comfort,
isn't he, to the hearts of his people. Be of good cheer. Thy sins are forgiven thee. There is a reason with God's
people for the joy and the peace in believing, because God speaks
a word of peace. Your sins, your sins which are
multitudinous, as we'll see in a minute, your sins are forgiven
thee. I love what Hezekiah said when
he learnt that the Lord had been merciful to him in Isaiah 38,
and he says, Behold, for peace I had great bitterness, but thou
hast in love to my soul. delivered it from the pit of
corruption, for Thou hast cast all my sins behind Your back. What a remarkable God we have. As we know and we hear so often,
and I pray the Lord will keep reminding us, is that God cannot
forgive sins with any impairment to any one of His divine characteristics. He must be holy in the forgiveness
of sins. He must be just in the forgiveness
of sins. He must exercise love. He must
act righteously. He must act faithfully. He must
act always. in accordance with his character. And of course the Lord Jesus
is saying, son, sins are forgiven thee because your sins are mine
in the eternal covenant. And he is the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. So the Lord Jesus can speak to
him as Nathan spoke to David on that great day. The Lord has
taken away your sins, taken them away. Only sinners, only sinners
feel the need of forgiveness of sins. Only sinners know the
joy and peace in believing when God speaks that word to their
hearts. But, verse 6, but there were
certain of the scribes there, there were certain of the Pharisees
as well there, Sitting there, reasoning in their hearts. Reasoning in their hearts. Why
does this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
alone? Verse 8, wonderful, isn't it?
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? A couple of things are revealed,
aren't they? Men are always reasoning things about God. They're always reasoning. especially religious people,
are reasoning things, they're weighing things up in their minds.
The children of God are made to be aware that God reasons
about us and He sees what happens internally all the time. Nothing is hidden from Him with
whom we must live. As Proverbs 24, 12 says, won't
he who weighs hearts consider it? Brothers and sisters, the problem
with religion, the big problem with religion is it only ever
goes skin deep, doesn't it? It only ever looks at the surface. But God, God looks at the heart
all of the time. Why reason these things in your
heart? There they are. like most men
so much the time, reasoning a judgment about the Lord Jesus, in fact,
and before them stands their very judge, aren't they? When
men are making judgments about spiritual matters, they're always
making judgments about the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's an extraordinary thing,
isn't it, for us to stand in judgment of God. May God protect
us from that sin. See, He knows everything that
goes on in our hearts. In Genesis 6-5, the Lord saw
that every imagination of the thoughts of His heart was only
evil continually. only evil continually. You see, there is such a thing,
and there are in our lives continually, there are sins that never escape
our minds. And yet that's exactly what was
happening here, wasn't it? The Lord Jesus exposed the fact
that he was God before these people. They were reasoning that
he actually in his revealing of himself gives men throughout
time and history reason, to reason wisely about he who is the judge
of all men. He's given sufficient evidence,
hasn't he? He's been clearly seen, his acts were clearly seen.
He clearly validates his word, his character, the way he saves
his people through free and sovereign grace. And so to remain an enemy
is against reason and it's against evidence and against your own
soul's good. So many of these Pharisees that
we read about here had another three years to examine the Lord
Jesus' claims about Himself. He's not hiding the fact, is
He? They think that God alone can
do this and He is as clearly as He possibly can saying as
He does at the beginning of the other Gospels, I am God Almighty. I am your creator, I am the sustainer
of life, I am the Christ of God and now you can examine me as
much as you like." And for his people, they know that when he
examines them, he always examines us perfectly
right, all the time. And so when he examines this
man with the palsy and says, your sins are forgiven you, he
is looking at all of that man's life in the totality of his existence
and he's making the most remarkable judgement about it. See when
we come back to what we've been looking at in Galatians, isn't
it? The Lord Jesus has revealed Himself
and His salvation with such clarity and He's revealed it in such
a way that He reveals the hearts of men. He reveals that sin is
more than skin deep and that you cannot, by fleshly activities,
cleanse a heart and purge a conscience. You cannot, by religious ceremonies
and religious activities, take a scrubbing brush to your conscience
and your soul. God alone has the prerogative. He who sees it all and sees its
putrid activity and sees its sin, the only one who sees its
sin with any clarity, is the only one who can take that sin,
have that sin laid on him and take it away perfectly and completely. He says immediately, verse 8,
immediately he perceived in his spirit that they reasoned within
themselves. And then he says to them, why
reason ye these things in your hearts He exposes the hearts
of people. He exposes the hearts of people
by revealing Himself. He exposes the hearts of people
in the Gospel. The hearts of people are revealed
in their response to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Basically they say to Him, what
right? What right has he to say these
things? For him, a man, to say these
things is blasphemy unless he is God." And Jesus Christ turns
to them and says, what right have you to entertain such thoughts and make judgments? But then
he says this remarkable thing, doesn't he? Do these things in your heart,
whether it is easier to say to the sick of palsy, Thy sins be
forgiven thee, or to say, Arise, take up thy bed and walk. Arise, take up thy bed and work,
to know that the Son of Man has power to forgive sins, but that
you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive
sins. What a remarkable title our Lord
Jesus takes on Himself. They accuse Him of taking on
the property for God, and then He takes to Himself a title,
a title of humility, voluntary humility. I love, when Stephen
was dying, what did Stephen, who did Stephen see in heaven
in Acts chapter 7, He was full of the Holy Ghost,
verse 55. Being full of the Holy Ghost,
looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and
Jesus standing on the right hand of God and said, Behold, I see
heavens opened and the Son of Man standing on the right hand
of God. He saw Him as the Son of Man. The Crucified Man. Daniel introduces
us to this title of him in Daniel 7 in its remarkable description
of the Lord Jesus. What a remarkable title He took
on Himself, the Son of Man. I saw in the night visions, and
behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven
and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before
Him. And there was given Him, this
is the Lord Jesus, there was given Him dominion and glory
and a kingdom that all people, nations and languages should
serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion which shall not pass away and His kingdom is that
which shall not be destroyed." Our God doesn't change. Our God is the same yesterday,
today and forever. Our Saviour is unchanging. in his being unchanging in his
attitude toward his people. What an encouragement. What an
encouragement to poor needy sinners. What an encouragement to the
paralyzed. The power of pardoning sin is
in the hands of the Son of Man. He who is touched with the feeling
of our infirmities has the power to forgive sins. He who is tempted
in all parts as we are, yet without sin, is there defending and forgiving
His own. Bone of our bone, flesh of our
flesh. And what does He do? In Acts
15.9, He purifies their hearts. I don't know about you, brothers
and sisters. I am just stunned that that's
what the Lord Jesus says of His people and what He does for His
people. purified hearts by faith, not by works, not by any activities,
just by believing. Hebrews 9.14 is just as remarkable,
isn't it? He's purged your conscience, which means to take something
like a white shirt with a stain on it and you scrub it and scrub
it and scrub it. until there's absolutely nothing
left and it's perfectly, perfectly clean. He's purged your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God through the blood
of the Lord Jesus, washed, washed in his blood. cleansed by a word. What does he say to his disciples
on that night when sin was in their past and sin, more grievous
sin was lying before them? He says, you are clean by the
word I have spoken to you. The Pharisees reasoned in their
hearts and they reasoned in a way of condemning and mocking the
Lord Jesus, but they didn't reason in their hearts to save their
souls. What an awful thing it is to
be trapped in religion. What a paralyzing thing religion
is. This man has found the only way
of salvation. He had to be brought by sovereign
grace to the Lord and he had to be laid before his feet and
he had to hear a word from God. And what a great word, isn't
it? That you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth,
He says to the sick of palsy, I say unto thee, arise, take
up thy bed, and go thy way into thine own house. So the Lord
reveals His salvation in a test of His own choosing. He laid the test, what a remarkable
test it is, just to speak a word and have this man healed instantly,
immediately and perfectly. He speaks a word and sins are
forgiven. He speaks the word of His grace
and the word of His peace. He can both cure the disease
and forgive the sin. And it's interesting isn't it,
he turns his gaze from debating with these Pharisees and leaves
them with all the evidence of who he is and how he saves his
people and laid out before them with absolute clarity. That's what law-keeping is doing,
isn't it, in the hearts of people these days, like these Pharisees. It causes people to stand in
judgment of the wonder of saving grace, to stand in judgment of
the wonder of redeeming love, and to stand in judgment of the
character of God's service. What a terrible, terrible trap
it is. I love the response. They were all amazed. Immediately he rose with a word. He had life. He had new life
with a word from God. He who was carried on a bed is
now made to pick up his bed and walk home and go back to his
own house. And the response of people is
that they are all amazed. Brothers and sisters, one of
the things I long for in my own heart is that I would be amazed.
I want to be amazed at the grace of God. I want to be amazed again
and again at the person of the Lord Jesus. I want to stand in
awe of redeeming love. I don't want for myself for it
to become ordinary, for it to become something that just is
accepted without a sense of deep and serious wonder. I pray the
Lord works that in our hearts. This man's set at liberty to
praise God. See, we're paralysed until the
Lord frees us. Set at liberty to glorify God. That's true freedom, isn't it?
Not glorifying man or anything he ever does, but simply glorifying
God. And what a wonderful thing it
is. They are all amazed and they glorify God, having seen God
do something amazing in someone else's life. What a great attitude
grace brings in the hearts of believers, that we long for and
love to see others blessed by God. I love what Matthew Henry
says, others' mercies should be our praises and we should
give Him thanks for them. Look around for the wondrous
works of our Lord in His people, in the way He cares for them,
the way He watches over them, the way He protects them, the
way He rescues them, rescues them from all the things that
entrap and paralyse people. And we should be just rejoicing
when the overflowing fountain of sin and uncleanness is caused
to be witnessed. We give Him thanks. The other
thing, it's a great lesson isn't it, is the Lord's children in
this world go through many afflictions. There have been many that you
have gone through and there are many around the corner waiting
for us. But how much How much did this
man have reason to praise God for his afflictions, for his
paralysis, for his being brought by the hand of others' faith
into the presence of the Lord Jesus? You see, the trials of
this life are designed by our God to draw us nearer and nearer
to Him. May God cause us to wonder. May God cause us to long for
His voice which speaks peace and speaks forgiveness to our
hearts. And may He grant us again and
again the joy and peace of believing. Religion and the law binds and
yokes people. I love that ditty that was very
famous. I don't know why it's not so
famous these days, but it says, run John, run. The law demands,
forgives us neither feet nor hands. Better news the gospel
brings, bids us fly and gives us wings. Wings of freedom. Wings of liberty, wings of forgiveness
of sins in our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we thank you again for the revelation in your word of your dear Son
and how he saves sinners like us. We thank you again, Heavenly
Father, that he who searches our hearts and knows that we
are but a dust, We thank You that He knows our infirmities.
We thank You, Heavenly Father, that He knows our weaknesses.
We thank You that He knows and is touched with the feeling of
our infirmities. Heavenly Father, so often in
our walk of faith, We feel as if we are paralyzed. We pray,
Heavenly Father, that we would know something of the joy and
peace of believing and something of the remarkable privilege,
Heavenly Father, of bringing our brothers and sisters and
those that we love dearly to the feet of the Lord Jesus. We
thank you for the boldness of access to the throne of grace,
that we, your children, may enter in. and find that again and again
you are far more gracious and far more merciful and far more
loving and far more forgiving than we can possibly imagine. Help us to be amazed, Heavenly
Father, at the grace of God. in the face of our Lord Jesus
Christ. We praise you for him, we pray
you bless us Heavenly Father and bless your word to our hearts. May you find us just hearing
a word from our Saviour and simply believing, as amazing as it is,
believing amazing and wondrous words. We pray in Jesus' name,
Amen.