Matthew chapter 9, and I kind
of want you to hold your place here, but we're going to have
to go over to Mark chapter 2 as well. So Matthew chapter 9, we'll
be looking at the first two verses here, and in Mark chapter 2,
verses 1 through 5, this is the same account here, given, but
there are details given by Mark that are not given by Matthew. But as we will see, Matthew gives
us a better introduction. a better introduction, and Mark
gives us more details, so we'll look at these together. I've
entitled this message, Faith and a Fourfold Forgiveness. Faith and a Fourfold Forgiveness. The Scripture says, "...and he
entered into a ship and passed over and came to his own city. Our Lord Jesus here is returning
from Gadara. If you remember, He had traveled
to Gadara and there He met that man with the legion of demons. And the Lord, by His showing
great grace and great power, He delivered that man of those
demons and cast them into the swine. And those swine ran off
that hill. And at the end of chapter 8,
we read that they that kept, verse 33, they that kept the
swine fled. And they went their ways into
the city and told everything and what was befallen of the
possessed of the devils. And behold, the whole city came
out to meet Jesus. That'd be great if there was
a period there, wouldn't it? But it's not. Listen what they
did. And they besought him that he
would depart from their coast. Our Lord had done a great work.
He manifests to them His grace in salvation. What a picture
of salvation the demoniac of Gadara was. It is a picture of
all of us, how that God freed us from our sin. And there that
man was, an object of grace, sitting at the feet, clothed
in his right mind, and these people came out to see Jesus,
and they saw this man, and yet their love for the swine was
greater than their love for Him. And they said, leave us, depart
from us. And you know what Christ did?
He gave them exactly what they desired. He left. Religion often speaks of the
free will of man, but here is a great display of exactly what
man in his free will will do. He will always desire Christ
to depart from him. When men say such things as God
must honor man's will, that God desires that all men be saved,
but He will not infringe upon your will. He will not overrule
your will. They have no idea what they're
saying. If God never overrules the will of man, no one is saved.
Except God come in and, like the demoniac, conquer you, you
never will come to Him. Man's will is always that Christ
should not rule over. I praise God that He did not
leave this to me. We praise we who believe. We
praise God that He did not give us the desire of our hearts by
nature. We praise Him for His power to
deliver us and set us like that demoniac at His feet, clothed
in His righteousness, in our right mind. Now those people
were not in their right mind to cast out the Prince of Life.
They were not in their right mind. Man by nature is not in
his right mind. But when God saves us, we are
in our right mind. We desire to be with Him. We
desire to be with Him. And we know this, salvation is
not of him that willeth, nor him that runneth, but God that
showeth mercy. And I want you to know this,
that every soul that is in hell right now, it is because they
would not believe on the Son of God. If you die in your sins,
and you spend eternity in hell, it will be because you said to
him, depart from me. You did not desire him. You would not believe on him. And so every man that is to enjoy
the presence of God, God must change that will. God must change
that heart and give you a heart of grace and mercy. We must see
our need of salvation. We must see our need of forgiveness
of sins before we will ever believe on
Christ. And this is what God does for the sinner. Now in our
text, we see now he has come across the sea. He had left them
and come across the sea. And read this with me. He entered
into a ship, passed over and came into his own city, which
is Capernaum. And behold, they brought to him a man sick of
the palsy, laying on a bed." Now, at this point, I want you
to go over to Mark's gospel because there's greater detail given
to here as to how they brought this man to Christ. And that's
what I want to spend some time on this evening. Look at this
in Mark chapter 2. In verse 2, he says, "...and
straightway there were many gathered together." He had come over across
the sea, and now he's in a house. "...and straightway there were
many gathered, 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 to him, bringing one sick of
the palsy." And he was born of four. He was carried of four
men. 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 up, they let down the bed
wherein the sick of the palsy lay. When Jesus saw their faith,
he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven
thee." This man here was sick of the palsy. In other words,
he was paralyzed. This man had no ability to bring
himself to Christ. This man, he could not do anything
for himself. He was unable to feed himself.
He was unable to clothe himself. He was unable to clean himself. Can you imagine how horrible
a life this man endured being sick of this palsy? He was not
able to do any of these things, and yet he had friends. What
a wonderful thing it is to have friends, isn't it? This man had
good friends. These friends were so good. It was a blessing to this man,
these four friends, when they heard of Jesus. These friends
heard of Christ coming into this place. And they determined to
take their friend to Him for healing. They determined to do
this. These men believed on Jesus Christ
that He was both able and willing. They never would have went to
the great lengths they had went to had they not believed He was
both able and willing to help their friend. And see what great
lengths they went to. They found that there was no
way for them to get in. And what did they do? They climbed
up on the roof, tore up the roof, and let this man in. Now that
took great pains. They let this man in to Jesus,
and we find out that Christ, seeing their faith, and I want
you to know, now he's not just talking about the four men, he's
talking about all five of them. the faith of these men that brought
him and the faith of the man that is led down and he says
to the one that was led down a very astonishing thing he says
something that uh... he doesn't usually say the healing
when he's healing this was a very uh... strange occurrence he said
this instead of take up that bed and walk which was expected
he said so Something greater. Be of good cheer. Thy sins be
forgiven thee. And these are the two things
I want us to see tonight is, first of all, their faith. I want us to see the faith, first
of all, of the four friends that brought him, and then the faith
of the man sick of the palsy. And the second thing I want us
to see is the four-fold forgiveness of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ
forgave this man all his sins. So let's look at this. Their
faith. These men arrive at the house and it's full. It's full. There's not so much as a way
to get through the door while he's preaching the gospel. But
that would not stop them. That did not stop them. They
would not let this obstacle come in their way. They climb on the
roof. with this man on their shoulders. Climb onto a roof that is not
their own house and tear off the shingles or whatever that
was there on the roof. Tore that out so as to get their
friend to the only man on earth who could do anything for him. Now why were these men so vigilant? Why were they so determined to
get their friend? Because it was important. It was a vital issue with them. It was vital to them that their
friend be brought to Christ. And they would not be deterred
by anything to bring him. Now, you've gone to the store
before. You've wanted to get something. You get into the store,
you go through all the trouble of driving and getting out and
getting your thing, and all of a sudden you get there's one
cashier. And the line is almost out the door. What do you do? You look at the thing you want
and you determine is it worth it? Is it worth it? Usually we just put that thing
on the shelf and say, we'll come back later. It's not important. But now then, your child is sick. Your child is sick. And you see
that he needs to be in the emergency room and will you be deterred? Will traffic deter you? Will
anything stop you? short of death for bringing your
child. Why? Because it's urgent. It's
necessary. It's not some small thing. This was no small thing. These men realized that and they
would not be deterred, let no obstacle come in their way. These
men saw the urgency of the matter even so much that they tore off
a roof to get this man to Christ. These men knew and believed Jesus
was the only hope and the only one able and willing to heal
their friend. And so these men had faith. They
believed. They believed. They had heard
of Him. Christ had been in Capernaum for many things. He had healed
many people in Capernaum. Peter's mother-in-law had healed
that centurion's servant. There had been many things he
had done there in Capernaum. And these people knew it. And
the only way they would find any relief for their friend is
to bring him to Christ. Now let their faith be an example
to every one of us who are believers in Christ. Their faith should
be an example to every one of us who know Him, who is both
willing and able to save sinners. You know that? You believe that? Then their faith should be an
example to us. Believer in Christ, is there
any greater disease than sin? Are not our friends and family
and loved ones sick with this disease and in need of salvation? Is it not an urgent matter to
bring our friends to bring those we love, those that we care for,
to the feet of Christ who alone is able to save them. Yes, it
is a most urgent thing. It is not a matter of indifference. It is an urgent matter of necessity. They must have Christ, else they
die. And do we believe that He is
an able and willing Savior? Do we? We know that He is because of
our own experience. That He is able and willing.
And so if we know this, then why are we not longing to bring
our friends at His feet? We should be longing and seeking
every opportunity to bring them to hear of Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. This is the means that God has
chosen through the preaching of the gospel. This is what He
was doing there, wasn't it? He was preaching the Word. And
they wanted to get Him there. They wanted to get their friend. Now let me ask you this, how
many places in this city are there that preach the gospel? How many in your place do you
know that preach the gospel of God's grace? I tell you, I don't
know many. I don't know any here. I pray
that there are. I pray that there are many that
I don't know of, but this is the only one I do know of. I
wish there were more. And so then what we ought to
do, following the example of these bins, is bring our friends,
those who are in need, to hear of the gospel of God's grace,
to hear the preaching of Jesus Christ's victorious, triumphant,
and successful death for the redemption of sinners. That's
a message that sinners need and must hear. Robert Hawker says this about
this text, he said, we should feel somewhat the same earnestness
for the salvation of others. He said, I think I would bring
to ordinances, which is preaching, he said, I would bring to hear
the preaching of the gospel, to the ordinances of Christ,
to believe on Him, to be baptized, and also private approaches to
the mercy seat. The whole of my carnal, graceless
relations. He said, I want to bring everyone
that I know either to the ordinances that God has chosen, either that
or by prayer to God for them. Bring them. If they won't come
physically, bring them to God in prayer. In earnest prayer
that He would save them. and do as these men did lay them
down before the presence of Jesus more than this I am not able
to do but this but this I am encouraged to do
let us seek them to bring anyone who will come anyone who will
come and hear let us compel men to come why it's a vital urgency
It's a necessity. And we cannot and should not
force them. Now that's not what I'm saying.
No, that's not. This man who was sick of the
apology, as we're going to see in a minute, he was not being
forced. He himself had a need and he
desired to go. We're not forcing them to come. But when we see our friends,
we see like these men, they feel their need. When a person feels
their need, let us say, come with me. If you find anyone who
has a need, come with me. Come with me. I know where the
Christ is. I know where He meets with us
and saves those in need. And not only bring them to Christ,
but trust that Christ should save them. For this is his purpose, isn't
it, to come into the world? He said, this is a faithful saying
worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners. To save sinners. How many have
we brought to Christ for Him to save them? Expecting Christ
to save them. How many have we brought expecting
Christ? Usually, I remember bringing people and I say, you know, man,
that person is never going to hear a thing. I'm not expecting
Christ to do anything. No, I expect Christ to do something.
We should expect Christ to do... Why? Because that's what He said
He would do. If a man's... Now, I'm not saying
be presumptuous. If the man has no need, then
really you should not expect anything of the man. But if there's
a need, and you know this, Christ will save him. There was a...
Donny Bell conveyed this story. He said there was a man who was
a hog farmer, and he'd been coming for a while to hear the gospel
and had no no seeming interested at the time but he called donnie
one day and he came out to his is a farm there and met him out
there in the hall man weeping and said brother donnie i'm i'm
no more better than these halls i'm worthless i was worthless
as this whole before god i have no hope in myself." And Donnie
began to smile. And the man said, why are you
smiling? I don't understand. He said,
you don't know it, but God's already begun to work in you.
Why? Because he began to see his need. That's a work of God. That's
a work of God when a man sees his need. Because it's only a
man who has a need will come to Christ for mercy. And when
we bring those who have a need, I know this, Christ will fulfill
it. Talk to your friends. If they have a need, tell them
to come. He'll fulfill it. Jesus Christ will come. He'll
fulfill your need. Your need of salvation. Now Christ
did not come to call the self-righteous. Now if a man comes with self-righteousness,
If a man comes trusting in his merit, his will, his church,
his priest, his preacher, his pope, whatever, if he's trusting
in something in himself, Christ did not come to save them. He
said, I come not to call the righteous But who? Sinners to repentance. You see,
I want to bring sinners. That's because Christ will save
sinners. I want to bring those sick of
the palsy because Christ will heal those of palsy of sin. I know that. We know that because
that's our experience. Those lost, those deceived in
religion, We say, come with us and bow at the feet of Christ.
He has both the power and the will to save you. And notice
those that come, that the faith of these friends,
though it was given by God, though it was used of God to bring this
man in, yet their faith had no power to heal or to save this
man. Their faith had no power to heal
or save that man. Even so it is with us. If we
bring someone in need of salvation, we know this, we have faith that
Christ will heal and save those who have need. But we know this,
that our faith has no part in it. Our faith has no part in
their salvation. And yet we bring them, we having
faith given of God, we know this, that God must also give them
faith as He did us. Now listen, I bring my children
every Sunday and every Wednesday to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I do that on purpose. I do that because I know their
need. And as long as they are under
my roof and my authority, I will do that with all within me to
bring them. I see the urgency, the need of
it. One thing about it, if they ever
have a need, I am truly believe Jesus Christ will heal them.
If they have a need, He will save them. But until that day
they have a need, my faith will do nothing for them. This is why you have such religions
at infant baptism. They believe that their faith
is somehow affecting that child. Somehow that faith is extending
the grace of God toward those children. No! That's not true. That is not in the Word of God
and you won't find it. You would have to imply that
in the Word of God. You would not be able to find
it explicitly in Scripture. Now listen, my children do derive
a lot of benefits from being here, but they will not derive
grace from my faith. They must believe for themselves. I cannot make anyone believe. My faith cannot generate faith
in anyone else. just like these men they believe
that christ could do this they went through all of the trouble
to get him before christ and christ did it night didn't do
it because of their faith it was because this man who was
on the debate When it says in our text, it
said, Jesus saw their faith. He not only saw the faith of
them that brought Him, and He honored that. He honored that
faith, but yet it was the faith of the man sick of the palsy
that brought this, Son, be of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven
thee. Faith for our loved ones is good
and right, but we must by faith bring them, but unless they believe
for themselves, there is no way they shall receive the forgiveness
of sins. Mark 16, 16. Our Lord Jesus Christ commissioned
us to this. He said, He that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. You must believe on Jesus Christ. And I tell you that if you ever
do, it is an act of God's sovereign mercy. It is an act of divine
power from God that you believe. That you believe on Him. We believe
on Jesus Christ and without faith it is impossible to please God. But what do we believe? Do we trust in our faith? No. It is rather the object of our
faith that saved us. This man trusted in Christ to
heal him, to save him. He believed on Christ and this
is what occurred. Jesus said, Son, thy sins be
forgiven thee. Oh, that God would give us who
believe such faith as to bring others, and that God would give
those that we bring such faith as to believe. Because those
that believe are forgiven of their sins. And this is the second
thing, is forgiveness. Christ's forgiveness. When this
man was lowered, I'm sure he was expecting something different.
I really do. I don't think this thought came
to his mind first. I'm sure he'd heard, wanted to
hear, take up thy bed and walk. But he heard something greater
than that. He heard something better than
that. He heard this, Son, oh, isn't
that something? Son, my son, I have something much better
than physical healing for you. Thy sins be forgiven thee. This man was tortured with sickness
and disease. He knew that the root of his
sickness was sin. Sin. Either directly or indirectly
was the cause of this palsy. The cause of all of our ailments
is what? Sin. Sorrow. Sin. Loneliness. Sin. Depression. Sin. All of
this as a root cause is sin. And I tell you, our Lord struck
not at the symptom of this man, He struck at the root disease,
the root cause. And He healed the root cause.
See it? All that sinners would come to
Christ in need of forgiveness. Forgiveness, not merit. Mercy,
not merit. that religious self-righteous
people should be exposed by the Spirit of God so as to remove
the false covering up their works and come to Jesus in need of
forgiveness. This is the gospel message. This
is the gospel message. All who come to Him, like this
man, have their sins forgiven. How'd this man come? He came
helpless. He came with no ability or merit
in himself. He came looking only for mercy. And he found what? He found mercy. He found mercy. More mercy than
he thought. And all who come for forgiveness
of sins, they shall find it. They shall find it. Do you know that God delights
in mercy? The scripture tells us that,
and Ezekiel said, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. You
know the death of the wicked can't ever satisfy the justice
of God, ever. It won't ever satisfy, that's
why it's eternal. It'll never pay for one sin. And Micah 7, it said, God delighteth
in what? Mercy. Mercy. and so once you come for mercy
and find forgiveness i want to give you a fourfold forgiveness
there are four things about christ forgiveness that should give
everyone who is forgiven joy you who believe in christ
and you have come to him and he has forgiven you of your sins
this is the kind of forgiveness that he gives first of all it
is a complete forgiveness It is a absolute forgiveness. When Jesus forgave this man,
he forgave him of all his sins. All of those sins before he came,
all of those sins while he was there, and all of those sins
when he left. He forgave him all his sins. Listen to this, what the psalmist
said, he said, Bless the Lord, O my soul. and forget not all
his benefit what is the first benefit that he thinks of who
for give it this is the first and great benefit of christ forgiveness
he forgives all your seats all your seats isn't this the cry of your heart
bless the lord all my soul And don't forget. How often do you
forget? How often do you lament in your
sin and say, surely this one is not forgiven? Surely this
one is not covered. And yet he said, son, be of good
cheer. Thy sins, all of them are forgiven. All of them are forgiven. No
matter your circumstance, no matter the suffering of this
life, all your sins are gone. All your sins are gone. It's
like the scapegoat. When God told them to confess
the sins on the head of the scapegoat, a strong man arm took that goat
out into the wilderness, into a place uninhabited, and let
him go, never to be seen again. And that is a picture of what
happened to all your sins. They're gone. In the eyes of
God, He said this in Song of Solomon 4, verse 7, Thou art
all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee. Why? He forgiveth
all thy sins. All complete forgiveness. Can
you count your sins even as you have sat here tonight? Can we
even amount the sins that we've not even thought of? And yet
he says, I don't remember them. I don't remember. I've forgiven
all of them. Secondly, his forgiveness is
immutable forgiveness. It is unchangeable forgiveness. When he said to thee, Son, thy
sins be forgiven thee, it is an immutable charge that can
never be changed, nor will he ever change his mind about your
forgiveness. This is because before the world
began, we, like this man, were in Christ. God had already determined
that you should be forgiven. Therefore, He put you in Christ,
and Christ was as a lamb slain, when? Before the foundation of the
world. Now why should there be a lamb slain even before there
was sin? Because God purposed that you
should be forgiven. And all His purposes are what? Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus. They're immutable. They cannot
be changed. Whatever God determined in eternity
is exactly what shall happen in time and eternity. He chose
us in the election of grace that we should be holy and without
blame. And His Son agreed to be our
surety, our Redeemer, our Savior. And He was for all those that
believe on Him. And this was by sovereign grace
alone. He was not looking at what we
would do. He was not looking at how we should merit this forgiveness,
but in sovereign grace, He was not willing. This is why your
forgiveness is immutable, because He is not willing to impute your
sins to you. He's not willing to do it. In
fact, He was willing, rather, to impute your sins to His Son. and therefore he made his son
to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the
righteousness of god and yet what all god purpose
in time in eternity we know this it must come to pass in time
everything god purpose in eternity, must come to pass in time. He
purposed the death of our Savior, which must, of necessity, come
to pass in time. Even so it is with our forgiveness. We must experience the forgiveness
of our sins. Why? Because God purposed for
you to receive it. In time, He comes to us with this message
of forgiveness, and by grace, we receive it. By faith we receive
this message. And I know that our forgiveness
is immutable because of God's person. He said, Behold, I am
the Lord, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. We should give thanks unto the
Lord, because his mercy endureth how long? Our salvation, our forgiveness
is immutable. Immutable. Thirdly, our forgiveness
is just. This is necessary. It's a just... God is just to forgive us our
sins. Now what John says, he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins. Now listen, you and I forgive
all the time without payment. We do. When we're pulled over by a police
officer for speeding, what is the first thing? We do not want
him to be just. We want him to find a loophole,
maybe we want him to write a warning, get us off by a warning, which
is technicality. We don't want that justice, because
we're guilty. But listen, God can never ever
be merciful at the expense of His justice. He cannot forgive
you at the expense of His justice. And listen, if He did, there
would be no assurance you were forgiven. If someone was guilty of a crime,
but got off by some mix-up of the judicial system, I tell you
that person would never have any confidence that justice wouldn't
come back and take him. But believer, that's not how
it is when God forgives our sins. He forgives us because His justice
is satisfied. Because Jesus Christ has paid
in full all you owed to God. He paid in full. Therefore, because
of His perfect payment, listen, you're freely forgiven. Freely. Without a cost to you. without
any merit in you. You are freely forgiven. Then
when he told that story of the Pharisee, he said if a man owed
$500, another man owed $50, and he frankly forgave them both. He freely forgave them both. Paul said being justified, how?
Freely. By His grace. But not without
justice. Through. through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. And so then the cost to God was
great. His son suffered the hail of
God's wrath for all my sins and left none for me. None. God says this, I, even I, am
he that blotteth out thy transgression. Listen, for mine own sake. And will not remember thy sins. Why can he not remember your
sins? Because he is just. Would it be just if you paid
a fine and then the judge come back on you for the same crime? No. God will never do that because
justice is satisfied. Therefore, He can freely forgive
you. So when you ask for forgiveness,
God can do so with a smile. Son, be of good cheer. Thy sins
be forgiven thee." Through the redemption of Jesus Christ. And fourthly, our forgiveness
is a perpetual forgiveness. A perpetual. It's a complete
forgiveness. It's an immutable forgiveness.
It is a just forgiveness, and it is perpetual. And this is
good because we still have this old man of sin. I need perpetual forgiveness. Constant forgiveness of sins. If God completely forgives our
sins, immutably forgives our sins, justly forgives our sins,
then He in time will perpetually, constantly also forgive us our
sins. And God came and gave us a new
nature. What did He do with the old one? Nothing. It's still that rotting corpse
of death about our neck, and therefore there's a struggle.
Paul said, "...in my flesh there is no good thing. For to will
is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I
find not." He says in Galatians, there's a warfare, a struggle
within our own selves concerning these two natures that live inside
of us. And so then, what is it that
God provides so that we should have our conscience cleansed? Now listen, I am completely free
from sin at all times. Never am I unholy in the eyes
of God, yet I am in my own sight. God says to me, you shall loathe
yourselves, and I do loathe myself. but this is my his constant provision
for us is a perpetual forgiveness right now he says this son be
of good cheer thy sins be forgiven And then he says it again, Son,
be of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven. And he
says it again, Son, all the time. All the time. Perpetually cleansing
us from all our sins. All our sins. His wounds perpetually intercede
for us, constantly before the Father. Micah says this, Who
is a God, like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, that passeth
by the transgression of the remnant of thy heritage? He retaineth
not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will
turn again. He will have compassion on us.
He will subdue our iniquities, and thou will cast their sins
into the depths of the sea." What sea is that? It is the sea
of God's forgetfulness. He said, thou will perpetually
cast them there, always, never remembering. Isn't that what
God determined to do? I will remember their sins and
iniquities. fourfold forgiveness, it's complete. For you who believe in Christ,
do you believe in Christ? Do you trust in Christ? Have
you come at like this man with no merit, no ability, laying
it all at the feet of Christ? Then he says to you, son, I see
in the people, completely, immutably, Forgiven. Eternally forgiven. Perpetually forgiven. Justly
forgiven. You are forgiven. May God help us to remember it.
Now listen, my memory has nothing to do with my forgiveness. Often
I forget. But it doesn't have anything
to do with my forgiveness. I'm still forgiven. Isn't that an amazing forgiveness?
May God give us such comfort. What great things he had done.
And I pray he does it for others. May God give us the faith in
Christ to bring others to hear if they have a need. May God
open the door and allow them to come and hear of his great
forgiveness. Great! And you know later he
healed this man's sickness too. I know he was proving his deity
here. And that man went home not only justified, but healthy,
well, what a wonderful Savior. Merciful. I pray God will bless
this to you. This stand be dismissed in prayer.