Alright, let's turn back there
to Isaiah 35. Isaiah 35. I just want to read
something to you here and then we go back to Mark chapter 2. Isaiah 35. Let's read this again. Isaiah 35 verse 4, Say to them
that are of a fearful heart, We get fearful in our hearts
sometimes, don't we? Isaiah 35, 4. Say to them that
are of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not. Now look at these next
words. Behold, look who it says is coming. Behold, your God will come. God will come. What will He come
and do? Look at the last part of that
verse. He will come and save you. He will come and save you. We need to be saved from our
sins. And then look what it says. What will happen? Verse 6. Then
shall the lame man leap as a heart, as a deer. The lame man. Alright, let's turn back to Mark
chapter 2. Mark chapter 2. Now this is the miracle of the
Lord Jesus healing the paralyzed man that was let down through
the roof of the house. Now, I want to just read a portion
of this and then we'll go back to verse 1 and begin. But look
at verse 5. He said to that man that was
sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. That's what
it is to be saved. is to have your sins forgiven.
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? Now Isaiah prophesied and said
who was coming? He said God was coming. God will
come. And when he's come, what did
he say he would do? He will save you. Here he is, he come and
he said to this man, thy sins be forgiven thee. And they heard
him loud and clear. And these Pharisees sat there
and they said, there's nobody that can forgive sins but God.
But God. He's the only one. Now that's
the point of this passage. This passage is confirming that
Jesus Christ who is the Son of Man. He's that One who came in
human flesh and took the nature of His elect children. That Son
of Man who came through the lineage of David, through the lineage
of Jacob, through the lineage of Isaac. This is He that's come. And it says, it's telling us
here that He is the Son of God, equal with God. God, equal with
God the Father, the second person in the Trinity. When you read
Son of Man in the Scriptures, you know it's speaking of Him
in His mediatorial character, speaking of Him as the mediator
between God and men, the Son of Man. When you hear it speaking
here of God the Son, it's declaring that He is the essential Jehovah,
the second person in the Trinity, God the Son, Jehovah Jesus is
who this is. Now, everything our Lord did
here, not just the speaking and saying forgiveness of sins to
this man, everything our Lord did here declared He's God come
in human flesh. We're going to see that. And
I want you to see that in light of what other scriptures teach
us about Him. Now why is it important to learn
that he's God come in human flesh? Because the work that he performed
as a man, for his people, as the mediator, in our nature,
as our representative and our substitute, is eternally effectual. Because He is God and has power
to forgive sin eternally, effectually. That's why it's so important
to know He's God come in the flesh. And the other thing is,
is because He's risen. The Son of Man that came is risen. And he has all the power to do
in his church, for each individual elect child personally, the same
things that he did when he walked this earth, when he was on this
earth. He has the same power to work these things by the same
eternal power in Godhead. If a man does not believe on
Christ, he doesn't believe God. That's what, I had asked Scott
to read John 5, that's what John 5 is telling us, the Lord is
telling us there, that He's equal with the Father. The reason that
what the Father does, He does, and what He does, the Father
does, is because He's God. We worship God the Father, God
the Son, God the Holy Spirit. God in three persons. We don't
worship three gods, we just worship one God. But He's manifest to
us in three persons. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. And we see Him come as a man
in Christ Jesus. That's who He is. He Christ Jesus
is God come in human flesh, Emmanuel, God with us. Alright, let's go
back to verse 1 and let's begin here. See what we can learn. First of all, we see Jesus is
God the Son. by where he came and what he
did. Look at Mark 2 verse 1. And again
he entered into Capernaum after some days. Now, we're looking
over at Matthew 4. Capernaum, Matthew 4. Capernaum
was his own city. This was the city where he paid
tribute as a citizen. And the house We're going to
see that he was in, may have been Peter and Andrew's house,
because this is where they were from. But Matthew 4, he was in
Capernaum. Now he came to Capernaum in the
first place to fulfill the scriptures which only the God-man mediator
could fulfill. That's why he was there. Look
at Matthew 4.13. And leaving Nazareth, he came
and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast. That's
where he is. in the borders of Zebulun and
Naphtalim, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaiah the
prophet, that it might be fulfilled." He came to fulfill the scriptures.
Everything he said in John 5, he said that these scriptures
are they which testify of me. And everything that was written,
everything that was prophesied was prophesied. Like Isaiah said,
your God is coming. And when He comes, He's going
to save you from your sin. And when He does, the lame man
is going to leap as a heart. Now, that's where this prophecy
came from, was Isaiah. Isaiah the prophet. This is what
he said in Isaiah 9-2. Isaiah said, the land of Zebulun
and the land of Naphtalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles, because that's mainly made up of Gentiles,
the people which sat in darkness saw great light. And to them
which sat in the region and shadow of death, light is sprung up.
He's the light. He's got the light. From that
time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of heaven has come
to you. The kingdom of where? The kingdom of heaven has come
to you on earth. That's what the Lord began to
preach. Now, the very fact that he was there was in the first
place was because he was there that these scriptures might be
fulfilled. He alone could fulfill these scriptures. He wrote them.
He wrote them. Holy men of Old Spacus, they
were moved by the Holy Ghost. They spoke by the Spirit of Christ
speaking. They wrote these things because
of him. Now he's come and he's the only
one that can fulfill that which is written of him. And he's in
that place for that reason. Then we see here that when he
came there, it shows us he's God the Son because God is all-knowing. He's omniscient. He knows all. And so he's there because he's
got at least five elect children there. He's got at least five
elect children there. These four men who bring this
bed and this one man who's sick of the palsy. He's got at least
five elect children there. And the Lord knows those that
are His. God knows all things. He knows
those that are His. He knows where they are, and
He comes to them, and He calls them, and He draws them to Himself,
because He is God. He has power to do that. He has
power to bring His people unto Himself. He said, I know my sheep. He knows everything about them.
And because he's God the Son, he had a hand in this whole house
being filled up. Look at Mark 2 verse 1. And it
was noised that he was in the house. I said to you this may
have been Simon, Peter, the apostle, and Andrew his brother. It may
have been their house because he went there often. But he was
in this house. Our Lord didn't have a house.
He didn't have a house. But he was in this house and
it was noised abroad that he was there. And straightway many
were gathered together in so much that there was no room to
receive them. No, not so much as about the
door. Now, is all this coming about
by accident? Is all this coming about just
helter skelter? Some folks heard he was there
and they went started spreading these rumors around and next
thing you know, this house is full of people. Is that all coming
about just by accident? God is God who rules all things. The one standing there in human
flesh is in charge of everything. You see, this is what the Pharisees
didn't like. This is what religion don't like
at all. Religion never likes the fact
that Jesus Christ is God all-powerful, able to save, and He's in control,
and religion's not. The traditions of men are not,
and man and their traditions are not in control. Christ is
in control. He's doing everything here to
show forth He is the Son of Man, has the power of God Almighty
to forgive sin. That's what He's showing us here.
And this mediator who's come is God the Son, God Almighty. If He has the power so that a
sparrow, a little bird, cannot fall to the ground without the
consent of God Almighty, then did He not have a hand in all
of this right here? If He's God the Son, He had a
hand in all of this that's going on, that's transpiring here.
Nothing's happening that God isn't in complete control of.
And here he is, God the Son. He's working this together. And
this, too, is another example of the Scriptures being fulfilled.
You know what Genesis 49.10 says? It says, "...the scepter shall
not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until
Shiloh come, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be."
Here we get a little picture of that. Here he is in this house
and this house is full of people that have gathered there to him.
You see he did some miracles there before and it began to
be noised abroad so that he couldn't he couldn't even go about and
preach or do anything and so he left and went over to went
over the Sea of Galilee and went over to where the to Gadara and
he worked that miracle over in Gadara then he came back to him
and now he's back again and it's poised abroad and here they are
there in the house. And He was preaching this gospel
to them. It says, verse 2, He preached
the word unto them. That's another fulfillment that
declares to us He's God the Son. Come, the Son of Man, who is
the Savior of His people, the God-man mediator. Let me read
Psalm 40, verse 9 to you. Psalm 40, verse 9. These little things we should
never look over because everything our Lord did, He did with a purpose. Everything He did, He did to
fulfill what was written before of Him. It said He preached the
Word unto them. Psalm 40 verse 9 tells us, speaking
of Christ, it says, Let's read verse 7. I, lo, I
come, in the volume of the book it is written of me. I delight
to do thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart.
I have preached righteousness in the great congregation. Lo,
I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. I preach
righteousness in the great congregation. We don't have to wonder what
he was preaching, do we? He was preaching Christ. You know how
we know that? Because he is the Lord our righteousness.
And he preached righteousness in the great congregation. You
see, he's fulfilling the scriptures in everything he's doing. He's
declaring here that the Son of Man is God the Son come in power. I had somebody that was belittling
the preaching of the gospel to me recently and they made this
comment they said Christ only preach publicly one or two times.
I don't know why you make such a big deal out of that. Well,
it has to do something with this. If he didn't preach, if he refrained
his tongue, he's not God. That's why. That's why. If he
didn't come and do what he said he was going to come and do,
he's not God, the Messiah promised that would come. He's not the
prophet of his people. The truth is Christ publicly
preached the gospel constantly while he walked this earth. Matthew
9.35. Matthew 9.35. Look there. Jesus went about all the cities
and villages, the big cities and the little villages, teaching
in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and
healing every sickness and every disease among the people. Where
did he go? In all the cities and villages,
teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the
kingdom. Look at John 18.20. John 18.20. Jesus answered, I speak openly
to the world. I ever taught in the synagogue
and in the temple, whether the Jews always resort, and in secret
have I said nothing. I've said everything I've said
in broad day. I've preached publicly constantly.
That's what he said. That's what the master said.
And here he stands in this house again about to do a miracle declaring
he's the God, the son. And he's showing us in all of
this that he is the one that's come in the fulfillment of all
these scriptures right here. Then secondly, we see that he's
the son of man is God the Son, the God-man mediator in his dealings
with the four friends. Now watch verse 3. And they come unto him, bringing
one sick of the palsy, which was born of four. He was being
carried by four friends. This man was paralyzed, sick
of the palsy. Now the Lord that's standing
here, who is God the Son, where does faith come from? Where does
faith come? Faith is a gift of God. Faith
comes from God. It's the fruit of God the Holy
Spirit degenerating a man. And we're going to see here in
a moment, these men came there because they had faith. They
came there because they had faith. They already had it before they
came there. That's what got them to come
there. How do we know that they had faith? Look at verse 3. It
says, and they come unto Him. That's how we know they have
faith. They come unto Him. He's going to say it plainly
here in a moment, but the fact that they came unto Him. He said,
all that the Father giveth me shall come unto me. And I'll
in no wise cast them out. And He said, and no man can come
to me except the Father draw him. And I'll raise him up at
the last day. These four men had a friend in
need of mercy. This friend was paralyzed. And I think, I know that this,
I think this man had a greater need than that. And I think they
knew he had a greater need than that. But this man, he was in
need of mercy. And they believed, these four
friends believed that the Lord Jesus Christ could heal him.
They believed that the Lord Jesus Christ would save their friend.
They believed that. And this man with the palsy believed
it. All five of them believed the gospel. So you know what
they did? They took advantage of the means
that God had presented to them. God had come to a house in their
neighborhood, and God was preaching the gospel there, and it was
noised abroad, and they heard He's there preaching the gospel.
And you know what they did? They made every effort they could
to get there with their friend to hear the Lord Jesus Christ. Every effort they could. Many
of you are like these four friends here. You give all diligence
to come and hear the gospel preached. You give of yourselves first,
and then you bring your children, you bring your friends, you bring
your family, you bring them to hear the gospel. Faith in Christ,
true God-given faith, it does some things. It does some things
in a person. Faith produces diligence to use
the means that God says pleases Him. That's what these men were
doing. Now, we see he's God the Son
in the fact that he tried their faith. He tried their faith. God gives faith and God tries
faith. God alone is the one who can
try faith. But this is the man Jesus standing
here. That's the point. He's God the
Son. I said to you, none of this stuff,
this house being full of people, and all these people coming there,
he doesn't reveal himself to any of them. He didn't reveal
himself to any of those folks standing there. They saw this
and they marveled at it, and they glorified God for giving
power to a man, but they didn't see who he is, because he didn't
reveal himself unto them. But he's doing everything he's
doing here to try the faith of these men that he's bringing
to him in that place to hear this gospel preached. Look at
that verse four. When they could not come nigh
unto him for the press. You see, all this group of folks
being in that place had a purpose. They blocked the normal entrance
for these men to come in and get their friend in front of
the gospel. So, having the faith they had, they just packed up
and said, well, man, we're sorry. We're not going to be able to
make it today. And they turned around and went home and said,
oh, he'll be on our coast another time. There's always next week. There's always tomorrow. We've
got plenty of time. In a season convenient for us,
we'll come back. No, that's not what they did.
Look what they did. What does faith do? They uncovered
the roof where the Lord was. These men, you know, we're talking
about little flat roof buildings here, and these men took a ladder.
They went around, found somewhere, found a ladder. They're carrying
a man that's paralyzed on some kind of little mat, some kind
of little bed, and they found a way to get him up on the roof
of this house. And they got him up on the roof
of that place. And then once they got him up
there, it says, verse 4, and when they had broken it up, they
didn't just go up on the roof. Can you imagine we'd be sitting
here having services, and all of a sudden, tiles start falling
out of the ceiling? And some fellows bust the ceiling
open up there, and it says, and then they let down the bed where
in the sick of the palsy lay. They let him down. These men
had some faith. They were determined, we're getting
this, we're getting our friend in front of him. The sinner who's
given faith has an earnestness to get to Christ. He's got an
earnestness to see Christ in his glory. He's got an earnestness
to hear Christ and to see Christ exalted and to see sinners saved
and to see his sheep called out. He's got an earnestness for this.
Someone said the cry of the flesh is, we cannot. But the cry of
faith is, we must. We must. We must. We have to get to him. He might
not be here tomorrow. He might not be here tomorrow.
He may come back in all his glory tomorrow. They overcame every
obstacle. They weren't discouraged. They
didn't turn back. They didn't make excuses. They had a need.
They had a need. And they believed Christ was
the only one who could meet that need. Now look at verse 5, it
says, when Jesus saw their faith. When Jesus saw their faith. Only
God knows the heart and only the Lord can see the faith. And
He saw faith in them even in more than just their earnestness.
We can see the faith of them in their earnestness getting
to Him. Christ knows the heart because He's God. He knows the
heart. And He saw their faith. We might
not see God honor our faithfulness to Him. And when I say our faithfulness,
I'm hesitant to even talk about it because it's so weak anyway. practically non-existent, but
when we talk about our faith, we may not see Christ honor,
God honor our faith. We may not see it as immediately,
we may not see it in our lifetime, like these men saw Him do. But
we have this assurance, God honors faith. He said in 1 Samuel 2.30,
the Lord saith, them that honoreth me, I will honor. I will honor. And they that despise me shall
be lightly esteemed." And here we see the Lord doing exactly
that. These men honored Him because it was so important for them.
They believed so much that He was the only one that could save
their friend that they honored Him by going to all these lengths
to get to Him. And He honored them. He saw their
faith and He did a great thing for their friend. Here's the third way we see that
Christ is God the Son. We see in His dealing with this
sick man personally, with the way He dealt with this man personally.
Now this brings it down to us personally, to our own heart,
how He deals with each of us individually. Look at verse 5. And He said unto the sick of
the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. Why was this man sick of the
palsy? Why was he paralyzed? Was that by accident too? Was that by chance that this
man was paralyzed? He was sick of the palsy because
the Lord had given him this sickness. And Lord had given him this sickness
to make him more aware of a greater illness, and that was his need
for forgiveness. This man had a need for forgiveness
of his sin. How do we know it was the Lord
that gave this man this need? Well, the Lord told Moses in
Exodus 4.11, the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth?
Or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind?
Have not I the Lord? If there's a man born this way,
or if there's a man who ends up this way in this life, he
said, have not I done it? Have not I done it? Concerning
the blind man, Christ came to a blind man one time, and they,
disciples, were trying to figure out was it his mama and daddy's
fault, or was it his fault, or what was the fault if this man
was born blind? And Christ said he was born blind that the works
of God should be made manifest in him. That's why. So here we
got a paralyzed man who had a need. We're going to have to have a
need. One reason that you aren't breaking down the walls to get
to Christ right now is because you don't have a need. you don't
have a need. We can call ourselves sinners
and we can go around and put on some pretense of being a sinner,
but we manifest what we really think by what we think of Christ,
what we think of his gospel, what we think of his people and
his children, the work he does in this place. That's how we
manifest it. He, the person that has a need
wants to get to Christ. He's got to have Christ. He'll
talk to mom and daddy. He'll talk to sister and brother.
He'll talk to anybody that'll listen and do whatever they say. He'll call up, he'll run a preacher
plumb batty trying to get him to help me. I've got to know
Christ. He'll go to everybody. He's got
to find Christ. He's got to get to Christ. This
man couldn't work. He couldn't do anything. He couldn't
work to make a living in this world, much less do any works
of righteousness by which men think they're saved. He couldn't
do anything. And that's you and me in sin
without Christ. We're paralyzed. We can't do
anything. If the Lord gave you a thorn
like this, I think about this sometimes. I think about, you
know, you see these different stories and stuff of a loved
one who just is given some kind of disability and some kind of
thorn like this. If the Lord gives us some thorn,
some sickness, some great trial in this life, that the power
and grace of God may be manifest to us and in us, what a blessing. What a blessing! This man wouldn't
have been there had he not had this need, and he's there now.
Whatever the affliction that puts the greater need of forgiveness
in our heart, whatever that affliction is, we can say with David, it's
good for me that I've been afflicted, that I might learn thy statute.
Alright, now note something else here. Note how the Lord addressed
him. Verse 5, the Lord said, Son. Our Lord didn't waste words.
He didn't speak words like me and you do just for sentimental
reasons. He wasn't just trying to give this man a term of endearment
just for the sake of it. He called him a son. He's manifesting
here that the Son of Man is God the Son. You know how he could
say son to this man? You know how he could say my
child to this man? He's God the Son, who was with
the Father before the world began, when the Father, by divine adoption,
gave all His children to the Son, and predestinated them unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself, so that from
before the foundation of the world, when He says, I know my
sheep, He's able to look at one who comes to Him and say, Son,
you're my Son. You're my son. You're mine. He
knows that and he's able to do that. That's why he was given
the spirit. That's why he was given faith
to begin with because he was a son. You know, we're not given,
we don't become sons. By our will and our work, we're
given the Spirit because we are sons. Listen to Galatians 4,
6. Because ye are sons, God hath
sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. You see that? It's because you
are sons that God sends forth the Spirit of his Son into our
hearts, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. John said, as many as
received him, to them gave he the privilege to become the sons
of God, even to them that believed on his name, which were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God. Man's just not going to have
any place to boast in this thing at all, because he's doing it. So, this is, all through here
we're seeing things that our Lord did that he's showing that
he is God omniscient, God omnipotent. Our mediator is the God man. He is God in our human nature,
in the nature of his children. Now notice this. The Lord spoke
to this man before this man ever said a word. This man didn't
say anything. Their friends didn't say anything.
They just let him down through the roof. And the Lord said,
Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. The Lord started speaking. The
Lord started. You know who knows what we need
before we ask Him? God does. God does. You know who this one standing
here is? He's God in human flesh. How could He know the heart of
this man? know what this man wanted in his heart. You know
this man was thinking, you know this man had probably rehearsed.
You know how we do it. You rehearse over and over and
over what you're going to say. You get it all down in your mind
what you're going to say when you talk to somebody important
about something very important. And this man probably rehearsed
this over and over and over in his heart where he's saying it
over and over in his heart. And the Lord heard it. The Lord
heard every word. The Lord knew what He came there
for. And the Lord spoke before He ever even opened His mouth
and audibly said anything. The Lord, because He's God, He
knows. And also look at this, because
He's God, our Savior, He knows what we need most. He knows what
we need most. He didn't say, Son, thy palsy
be healed. He said, Son, thy sins be forgiven
thee. I think sin's what was on this
man's heart. I don't think his palsy was on
his heart nearly as bad as his sin was. Because the Lord addressed
what was needed most. He said, Son, thy sins be forgiven
thee. You know, the Lord knew his heart.
The Lord only forgives sin where there's been repentance and faith.
It doesn't say anything here about repentance, but wherever
God gives faith, He gives repentance. This man was mourning over his
sin. And God knew his heart, the Lord
knew his heart. You know, I was thinking about
this, and Michelle, I was thinking about, you emailed me this week,
and I was thinking about some friends of mine and different
things. You know, we hear about a loved one that gets sick, and
it shocks us. It's shocking to us. And we desire,
with everything we have, we want to help them. We want to try
to do whatever we can for them. But you know, don't you want to have that same
kind of earnest desire over the sin of our loved ones? That's
what they have a need of. They have a need of being saved
from their sins, their sins being forgiven. That's what they have
a need of. I want to have more of an earnestness over that disease
that's worse than any other disease, worse than any other thing that
could come upon them. But even if the Lord didn't do
anything else for him, the needful thing's been done. Blessed is
he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. And you
notice the Lord here said sins. If he had just said one sin,
then there might be others that were left out, but he said sins,
that means they're all covered. They're forgiven. Your sins are
forgiven. Past, present, and future. When
Christ says your sins are forgiven, we could sit here in this place
and we could start talking about all our infirmities, and we could
talk about all our sicknesses, and we could talk about all our
trials, and all our troubles, and we would all lay claim to
at least one, if not more, not multiplied. infirmities, and
trials, and sickness, and sorrows, and all those things. Well, if
the Lord permitted you to come into great wealth, that might
be an indication that God had just left you to yourself. If
God takes that thorn away, that might be an indication that He's
just leaving you alone. If He restored health to you,
eventually we're going to die. But if he whispers in our heart
and says, thy sins be forgiven thee, my son, my daughter, thy
sins be forgiven thee. That don't mean but one thing.
That means eternal, unchangeable grace of God Almighty. Because he's the only one that
can do that. Now, let's look at the fourth thing here. We're
seeing the point here that the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, is
the only one who has the power to forgive sin, because He's
the Son of God. He's the only one who had power
to work all these things that are being worked out here, because
He's God the Son. The blood of Jesus Christ, the
blood of Jesus, that man, Jesus, who is Christ, the Christ, His
Son, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. That's who He is.
Now fourthly, let's see it in what He did with the rest of
those standing by. Verse 6. But there were certain of the
scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, They're not
talking, they're just thinking about this. They're putting all
this, they're adding all this up in their own heart. Why does
this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
only? They were exactly right. They
were exactly right. They didn't believe him, but
they were exactly right. None can forgive sins but God
only. He's the only one who can forgive
sin. Angels can't forgive sin. Men
can't forgive sin. A pope can't forgive sin. A priest
can't forgive sin. A preacher can't forgive sin.
A church can't forgive sin. Nobody can forgive sin. Only
the God-man who could obtain the forgiveness for us and grant
forgiveness to us can forgive sin. He's the only one that can
do this. The only one that can do it.
But because He's God in human flesh, He can. He can. Now, He knew their thoughts,
didn't He? He knew their thoughts too. Just
like He knew that man's heart that came to Him with faith,
He knew the thoughts of these men who didn't believe Him. Verse
6, They were just reasoning in their hearts. And then in verse
8, 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? Now, who can do that? Who can
know the hearts of a man? Jeremiah 17, 10 says, I, the
capital L-O-R-D. When you see capital L-O-R-D
in the scriptures, it means Jehovah. It means God, triune God. I, Jehovah the Father, Jehovah
the Son, Jehovah the Spirit. I, the Lord, search the heart.
I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways
and according to the fruit of his doings. You see, He gave
that man who came seeking Him. He gave Him according to the
fruit of His ways and the fruit of His doings. He knew his heart.
And He's given these men according to theirs too. He's going to
leave them there all by themselves. All by themselves. They consider
Him a blasphemer. He knows their heart. This is
proof that He's God the Son. And then, again we see it here
by this next miracle He did, verse 9. Whether 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? Which one do you
think would be easier to say? Which one do you think of these
two would be easier to say? Thy sins be forgiven thee, or
take up thy bed and walk? The fact of the matter is, both
of them require the power of God alone. They require the power
that God only possesses. And the presence and power of
God the Son alone could give efficacy to either one of these
commands. And only Him could make His command
effectual so that He just said it and it was so, Eric. He said,
Thy sins be forgiven thee. When He said it, that man's sins
were forgiven him. They were absolved. They were
gone. Because He's going to bear them
in His own body on the tree. He's going to the cross to bear
them. Every sickness He took, when he healed somebody, every
time he said, your sins are forgiven thee, he was loading them on
himself the whole time, the whole time. And not only when he walked
this earth, but from the foundation of this world, Every time he
passed over the sin of a thought of a child he was putting that
sin on himself Putting that sin on himself putting that sin on
himself Till he came to Calvary's tree and the Lord laid on him
the iniquity of all his leg He laid it all on him So that's
what he's doing here, but look at this Verse 10, but that you
may know now look how he addresses himself that the son of man that
He's been showing all through this that He's God the Son. And
He said, but that you might know that the mediator, this man,
Jesus, who's standing here in front of you, who's come here
to do this work, that you might know that the Son of Man hath
power. He's got power, the power of
God, because that's who He is. That you might know He hath 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. Now, we saw in Isaiah 35-4, it
said, Behold your God will come, He will come and save you. He
came, He's showing us a picture of what He does for His people.
He came to that man and He said, Thy sins be forgiven thee. He
came to him and saved him. That's what He did. And then
that was the first thing he did. And then it said in Isaiah 35,
6, Then shall the lame man leap as a heart. The second thing
Christ, by which He declared He's God in human flesh, is right
here, verse 12. And immediately that man who
was paralyzed 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. Can't you imagine? He was doing that already in
his heart, because God had already done something better than this
for him. The Lord had already healed him
of his sin, and he was leaping as a deer in his heart, but now
the Lord healed him of his body. There's a side note here, too.
The wrath of man always works out for the betterment of God's
people. Here these men are sitting there thinking, blasphemy in
their heart, and it worked for the good of this man. The Lord
healed him of his bodily affliction, too. Christ Jesus, the Son of
Man, is God the Son. Do you hear that? He's God. He's the God you're going to
have to deal with. He's the God I'm going to meet. We're going
to meet him. He has the power to forgive sin. He's the only
high priest. He's the only high priest. The
high priest was made to declare Christ Jesus is the only high
priest to make reconciliation to God in things pertaining to
God for his people. He's the only offering. You can't
offer God anything. He's the only lamb. Christ is
the only mediator between God and his people's fallen men.
You're going to have to have somebody that's going to have
to bring you together with a holy God. He's the only one that can
do it. He's the only way to the Father. Christ is the only one
who met the holy demands of God's law, perfection. He's the only
one who never did it. Christ is the only one who met
the demands of divine justice, made full atonement, full satisfaction. And only the blood of Christ
can purge your guilty conscience, can purge your conscience from
dead works. Say, well, I don't feel like
I'm doing dead works. You don't believe God. If you don't believe
God, there's your deadness. There's your dead works. All
the philosophy and all the reasonings and all this getting around with
other fellas is just as ignorant as you and talking to them and
trying to come up with all your philosophies on who you think
God is and putting them in your little box is all a bunch of
dead work is what it is. And until God, this one, this
one at whose mercy we're at, this one whose mercy, we're at
His mercy, we have to come to Him, bow down and say, Lord,
show me. And it's only when He has purged
our conscience, when His own blood by the Spirit of God has
purged our conscience, will we believe and say, Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God. Son of the living God. And he still has this authority
right now. I want you to look at Acts 531. Everything that we're seeing
right here that he did, he has the exact same authority right
now. My gospel is not popular because
my gospel doesn't put anything in the sinner's hand and say
this is something you need to do. My gospel declares the power
is of God and that power of God unto salvation is manifest in
this gospel which declares Christ is Jesus is the truth. He's the
way, the truth, and the life. He's the power that works this.
And He's the head of His church right now and He's working everything
right now in the midst of this world right now for the good
of His sheep. Look at Acts 5.31. Him hath God
exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Savior for
to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. What
did He just say? He said, God has exalted him. He's at the right hand of the
Father. And he's a prince and a savior.
He is a ruler and he's the savior. He's the sovereign and he's the
savior. And he alone is the one who's
going to give repentance. You know what repentance is?
It's a radical change of mind. a radical change of heart. He's
going to make you, when He calls His children, He's going to make
them do a complete 180 from the direction they're headed. They're
going to turn straight around and say, I'm going away from
God, not to Him. I've been a blatant ignoramus
all my life, and I have not known the true and living God. And
He's gonna turn you to Him. And He's gonna give forgiveness
of sins. What He did to this man right
here. If He does this, this is what He does. He's in control
of this. He's in control of everything
that took place right here. Because He's God. The God-Man. Now there's great blessing in
that for us. Great blessing. Listen. To everybody here. To
everybody. Christ Jesus has manifest. He's
the God-Man Mediator. And he's manifested this way.
He sent the gospel to every one of you sitting here right now.
That's what we saw here. All these people were filled
this house here because he's God working everything together.
That's who he is. where two or three are gathered
together in my name. It's not that two or three decided
we're going to skip church today and go out here and worship God
on the deer stand. It's God himself giving you a
heart to gather together where there's only two or three and
the whole world's turned thumbs down on you and despise you and
reject you and want to kill you. Because he gave you the heart
and gathered you there. He's the God to do that. He's
the God to do that. To you who are like these four
faithful good friends of this sick man, You just keep on trying
to get your sick friend to Christ. Whether it's a sick son, a sick
daughter, a sick mother, a sick father, sick child, sick brother,
you keep trying to get him to Christ. Get him in front of Christ,
whether it's bringing him a CD, a tape, a tract, a message, or
getting him to come hear the gospel. And when your faith is
tried, and it will be, wherever he's given faith, he's going
to try it. He's going to see what a good friend you are. And
I don't get discouraged, but just keep giving all diligence
if you gotta get a if you gotta. If you gotta get a boat and get
across the river, get a boat and get across the river. If
you've got to get a ladder and climb up the wall and knock a
hole in the ceiling, do it. Do it. God honors the faith he
gives. And then to you whom the Lord's
dealing with personally, like he did this man, to you that
he's dealing with personally, remember the Lord chastens those
that are his sons. He gave this man paralysis to
bring him where he was because this man had a need of his sins
being forgiven, a greater need than his body being healed. You got a trial, you got something
going on with you, in your family, in your workplace, in wherever. Whom the Lord loves, He chastens.
He brings them to Himself. But to His sons, He does this
to give us a need, and He knows what we need before we ask Him. And He gives us what we need
most. If He says your sins are forgiven, you've got everything. All is well with your soul. Whether
He takes the thorn away or not, all is well. And then to you
who are merely standing by. You know, that's what these Pharisees
were called. These ones that reasoned in their heart. Sentence
and all this. They're called in another place
those that stood by. They just stood by. Sovereign God knows your heart
too. He knew theirs. He knows your heart, too. Mr. Standby wants to judge God's
people, saying, well, they're just not a people of good cheer.
When the Lord says in another place, He said to this man, son,
be of good cheer. When you look at this man at
first, after the Lord said, son, be of good cheer, you just saw
a paralyzed man. You didn't see a man that was
in any way manifesting what good cheer is that we think about
in our mind. But do you think he was turning
backflips in his heart? Do you think he was smiling from
ear to ear and laughing and joyful in his own heart? Well, sure
he was. We're poor. Listen now, Mr. Standby, listen. That doesn't
justify your own unbelief. Don't judge us believers by outward
appearance. We're poor, but our sins forgiven
us. We're weak, but our sins forgiven
us. We're full of infirmity and vexed
by our own sins, but our sins are forgiven us. We don't have
anything with which to impress, but our sins are forgiven us.
We have some sick, we have some sorrowing, we have some without
jobs, but we have forgiveness of sins. We have God who has
taken our nature and put away our sin and made us one with
his divine nature. And that we will have forever.
That we will have forever. This is where forgiveness of
sins is. It's in Christ. Go to Christ. Believing Christ
is believing God. Believing Christ is believing
God. Amen.