Matthew chapter nine, we're going
to look at these few verses here, but I want to read you the account
that Mark gives of our Lord healing this man who had the pulse and
he was paralyzed. This man was paralyzed. But let
me read to you Mark's account in Mark chapter two. And again, he entered into Capernaum,
that's his city, that's where he stayed at, after some days,
and it was noised that he was in the house. The Lord's in the
house. We should advertise that this
morning, see how many showed up. The Lord's in the house. And straightway many were gathered
together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them. And I believe the house he was
in was Peter's house. I believe he may have been in
Peter's house. It says, not so much as about the door, it was
so crowded. And he preached the word unto
them. And they come unto him, bring him one sick of the palsy,
which was born of four. Four of his friends carried him. And when they could not come
nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where
he was. They went up on the top of the
house, tore a hole, and Peter drew. And when they had broken it up,
they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. And
when Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the posse,
son, thy sins be forgiven thee. Now our Lord, our Lord left the
land of the Gergesenes and he went back to his hometown of
Capernaum. He's on the trail of his sheep.
That's what he's doing. He's not wandering around. He's
not just out on a stroll. He, every day, every day he was
on the trail of his sheep. He came to save sinners. And
sinners are going to be saved. They are going to be saved. The
servant of the Lord, as it says in Isaiah 42, shall not fail. He shall not fail to glorify
God. He shall not fail to save sinners. He shall not fail. He's going to save sinners. And
there were some sinners there who needed him, and he's gonna meet them. And
it says in verse two, and behold, they brought to him a man sick
of the pulse, he lied on a bed. Four friends, this man had four
friends that brought him on a bed, they had carried him, they carried
their friend. And I thought when I read that,
what a true friend is. A true friend is one that brings
you to Christ, brings you to hear the gospel, brings you before
the Lord in prayer. That's a true friend. And this
man had four true friends, for sure. They brought him, they
carried him. He couldn't walk, they carried
him. They made a journey. I don't know how far they journeyed,
but they made a journey because they had heard, no doubt they
had heard of the Lord. And it may be that some of them
had heard him speak previous to this. And they knew in their
hearts, they knew that the Lord Jesus could save them. that he
could save this man. He could heal this man. They
knew that, they believed it. They believed in their hearts
the Lord could heal their friend. So much so that they climbed
up on the roof. They couldn't get through the
crowd. The crowd was so thick, they couldn't get him through.
So they climb up on the roof and they tear a hole in the roof. Don't worry about that roof,
tear it up. Don't worry about that hole in the roof. And they
let him down. They took cords, tied on the
four corners of it, took ropes, tied on it, and they let this
man down in the presence of the Lord. This young man was paralyzed.
He couldn't come himself. He couldn't do anything. He couldn't
move from where he was. and sin has paralyzed all men
and women, we've been shut down spiritually. Spiritually, if
God leaves us alone, we cannot come to him. Christ said to those
Pharisees at one time, and this applies to everybody that's lost,
he said, you will not come to me that you may have life. Sin has paralyzed us. Sin has
actually paralyzed our will. Because our will is not to come. I distinctly remember a time
when I did not want anything to do with Jesus Christ. I didn't
want anything to do with God. I didn't want anything to do
with that. I didn't want anything to do
with religion, period. But it took the grace of God
to arrest me and arrest you and give you an interest in Christ
and bring you to hear the gospel. No one hears the gospel by accident. They hear it on purpose for whatever
reason God uses. This man was paralyzed and he
couldn't come by himself. And God put it in the heart.
God had made it possible where these men had heard and they
believed, they believed in their hearts that if they can get,
just like this woman with the issue of blood in the latter
part of this chapter. She said, if I can but touch
the hem of his garment, if I can just get to him, I'll be made
whole. She believed that with all her
heart. And the evidence of it, when she touched him, she was
made whole. That's the evidence of it. And it says here in verse
two, and Jesus seen their faith. Not just the outward act of faith,
but the inward belief. They believed in their heart
that he could do it. And they believed he would do
it. They believed he would. Well, they wouldn't have brought
him. They believed he'd do it. And that paralyzed man, he believed
also. And the evidence of it is that he got up and walked
when the Lord healed him. You see, faith is always evidenced
by words. It's always evidenced by words. And note what our Lord took care
of first. Notice what he takes care of
first. They brought this man believing that the Lord could
heal him. But notice what our Lord does
first. He says, son, be of good cheer. Thy sins. Thy sins. I tell you, our sins
are innumerable. They are absolutely innumerable.
And he says, thy sins be forgiven thee. Thy sins be forgiven thee. Our Lord took care of the sin
problem first. Every problem I have, every heartache
I have, every physical pain I have, sin is the root of it. You know
that. Sin's the root of it. Take away
sin and I wouldn't have a problem. Sin's the root of it. And our Lord took care of this
sin problem first. Christ did not treat the symptoms. He treated the disease, sin. If we ever have our sin issue
dealt with, it'll cure a lot of our problems. It'll cure our
spiritual problem for sure. If our sin issues dealt with. Now religion treats symptoms.
Jesus Christ treats the disease, the real problem. He gets to
the root of it. And the root of my problems is sin. And sin, listen, is what I am. That's what I am. Sins, plural,
is what I do because of what I am. Stealing, as I said before, doesn't
make me a thief. No, I'm a thief and that's the
reason I steal. Get the order correct. I'm a
thief and that's the reason I steal. The root of the problem is in
me. It's what I am. It's what I am. And our Lord dealt with the root
of the problem. It was sin. Original sin from
Adam and actual sin. He may have done something. This
man may have done something that caused him to be paralyzed. I
don't know. But sin's still the root of it.
It's still the root of it. Now listen to me. Sinners don't
need to straighten up. You don't need to straighten
up. You need the Lord to save you. I learned that. I learned I don't need to straighten
up. I needed the Lord Jesus Christ
to save me from myself. Save me from my sin. I learned
that. I learned that. Sinners need
to be saved. That's what they need. And if
God saves them, the grace of God will teach that sinner to
deny ungodliness. That's what the word of God says.
The grace of God teaches us to deny ungodliness. It's not physical healing that
we need. Now, if it pleases the Lord to
heal, if I have a problem, if I can't walk, if I'm paraplegic,
if it pleases the Lord to heal me, if it does, he will. But
if not, that's fine too. But the real healing that I need
and you need is spiritual. It's spiritual. Because if he
heals me, if I'm healed physically and not spiritually, sooner or
later, I'm gonna grow old and I'm gonna die. And what does
it matter whether I walked or whether I was crippled if I don't
know Christ? No, it's not physical healing
we need, it's spiritual healing that we need. I need God to remove
my ignorance, my spiritual ignorance of who He is. I need God to remove
my ignorance of who I am and what I am. And I need God to
remove my ignorance of who Jesus Christ is and my need of Him.
That's what I need. And here's a reason now, here's
another reason for good cheer. He called him son. Did you catch that? The Lord
never just uses words. There are no fillers in the Bible. He called him son because that
is his son. That's his son laying there.
Yes, that's his son paralyzed. just like Lazarus, poor Lazarus
laying at the rich man's gate. Yes, that poor man laying there
is God's son. That rich man wasn't. Now, if
religion would look at it, just false religion, or the world
looks at it, they think that that rich man is blessed of God,
and that poor man is not. But that poor man is brought
to faith in Christ, and that rich man is still lifting up
his eyes in hell. and he's penniless now. But here's a reason for good
cheer. He called him son, son of God. The scripture says in
1 John, now are we the sons of God. It does not yet appear what
we shall be. But we know this, when he shall
appear, we'll be like him. Now are we the sons of God. Do
you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? I'm telling you right
now, you are a son of God. Son of God, a daughter of God,
you're his child. Now, not gonna be, but now. And
here's another reason for good cheer. Not a word is mentioned about
him being able to walk as a reason for good cheer. That's not the reason. The reason
for good cheer is this, thy sins are forgiven. And if God forgives
me of my sins, I can assure you those sins are gone. They're
gone, they're not coming back. They're gone. And forgotten about. Forgotten. They're not gonna
be brought back up to me again. You remember when I told you
not to? No. God doesn't bring them back up. They're gone, he's
forgotten. They're forgotten. You can't
remember something that doesn't exist. And with God, they don't
exist anymore because he put them away. He has put them away
by the blood of Christ, they're gone. Now I remember them, but
not God. God doesn't remember them. He
doesn't remember them against me. They're gone. And notice here, the scribes
complained about this. When he said, thy son, thy sins
be forgiven, be a good cheer, they complained. But that paralyzed
man didn't complain, did he? He didn't complain, no. Has your sins been forgiven?
Have your sins been forgiven? Then you have something to be
a good cheer about, even if you're having a bad day. Even if I'm
having a bad day, even if things are not going the way I want
them to go, or I'd like for them to go, if my sins are gone and
they're forgiven, I have something to be very cheerful about. I
do. It says in verse three, they
complained, they called him a blasphemer. I'll tell you this, if Jesus
Christ is not God, he is a blasphemer. But he's God. This man, Jesus
Christ, is the living God. He's the creator of heaven and
earth in the flesh. That's who he is. That's who
he is. Some thought he was just a good
man. No, he's the God man. He's the God man. Remember that
one young man came to him, said, good master, and the Lord stopped
him. He said, there's no good but
God. If I'm good, it's because I'm God. But they complained, they called
him a blasphemer. Instead of rejoicing over this
man being healed, they got angry, jealous, they were envious. But
it says in verse four, the Lord knew their thoughts. This shows
his deity, he knew their thoughts. David said, in Psalms, you know
my thoughts are far off. He knows the heart. He never
judges by appearance, he knows the heart. He sees the heart. Christ is the great heart reader. He's the great heart reader.
No thought, Job said, I believe it was Job said this, no thought
can be withheld from thee. You can't tell what, I can't
tell what you're thinking. I can't tell in any way shape
or form what's going through your mind, but the Lord knows
everything. And he says to them, why think
you evil in your heart? What evil have I done? What healing
this man and enable him to walk? Is that evil? Is saving a soul from hell, is that evil? If the Lord saved the most outwardly
wicked person in this community, would that be evil? No. No, that'd
be something to rejoice about. They said, why are you thinking
so evil of me for what I've done to this man? What evil have I done? Listen,
if they knew who he was, God in the flesh, Hmm, I wrote down
here, they wouldn't think so evil of it, but they would. They
still would. If God doesn't change the heart,
our thoughts of God don't change. Our thoughts of God, and their
thoughts of Him wouldn't change either. He says here in verse five, which
is easier to say, thy sins be forgiven, or to say arise and walk. Now
which is easier to say? They're both easy to say. But
they're impossible to do unless you're God. Unless you're God,
it's impossible. It's easy to say, everybody in
here can say it. We all can say it. But it's impossible to do unless
you're God Almighty. No one can forgive sins but God. No one can put them away but
God. And our Lord on purpose gave
an outward evidence of his power to forgive sins by enabling this
man to walk. Both easy to say but none easy
to do unless you're God. But I said, thy sins be forgiven
so that you would know. He said, I said this so that
you would know that the son of man, Jesus Christ, so he identifies
himself with us, the son of man. He's a son of God and he's a
son of man. He became a real man. Jesus Christ is God Almighty
and Jesus Christ is a very real man. He became one with us. And he
has power to forgive sins, he says on earth. He has the authority
to forgive my sins. That's why he said in one place,
all you that labor and heavy laden, come to me, I'll give
you rest. He has the power and the authority
to give rest, spiritual rest, rest from sin. He has the power
to do it. Does anyone need their sins forgiven? Christ can forgive us our sins. And after he took care of the
real problem, which was sin, then he said, rise up and walk.
The problem was not in his physical body, but in his heart, it was
sin. If you and I get that taken care
of, Then we can rise up, now listen, we can rise up and walk
with God. Enoch walked with God. Noah, it says, walked with God. And if this sin issue is taken
care of, if my sins are put away by the blood of Christ, I, a
sinful man, can walk with God. I can walk with God. And the
Lord commanded him to rise up and walk and go home. And with
that command, listen, with that command comes the power to do
it. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. You can tell that to people until
your face turns blue. But when God speaks it, When
God speaks that in power to the heart, that person will believe. That person will believe God.
Because faith, it says, is a gift of God, and faith comes by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. And if God speaks to my heart
and your heart to believe, with that will come the power to believe.
Until then, we will not believe God. We won't do it. And our
Lord said to him, he said, you go home, go home first and make
them happy. Could you imagine when he went
home and all those people have known him and his family that's
been around him and with him and here he walks in the door?
He didn't leap in the door. Now when the Lord healed, that
man didn't get up. and then left away, he picks
his bed up, rolls it up, that thing they were carrying him
in, he picks it up, takes it with him and goes home and walks
into his house. When the Lord saves, it's a complete
salvation now. I'm telling you this, when a
believer dies, that believer walks into heaven, he walks into
God's presence. Rise up, take up your bed and
walk. Rise up and walk with God. Told
him to go home and make them happy. You know, that'd been
a sad place for a good while. Had been a sad place for a while. I tell you, if you ever taken
care of someone that's, you know, Vicki and I, we lived with a
man for four years that had MS. And taking care of someone that's
handicapped and they can't walk, they can't get around, that's
not an easy job. That's not easy. And this man goes walking in
and I know those who took care of him, it was a happy day for
them. And you tell them what great
things the Lord hath done for thee." Just like that demonic
that the Lord had cast all those devils out of. He said, you go
home and you tell them what great things the Lord's done for you. And he went. He went. He did as the Lord commanded
him to. He left and he went. And it says
the multitudes marveled. They were stunned. Stunned. Marveled and glorified
God. Listen, to marvel at these things
is one thing, to believe is another. It says they gave God the glory
for giving such power to men And I thought, no, forgive such
power to a man, Jesus Christ. You know, one time he gave the
disciples power to go out and cast out demons and heal the
sick, but he gave them power. He said, I give you power. Whatever power we have, whatever
power I have in preaching, if there's any real power in it,
It's of God, it's not me. I'm just a clay pot, and I'm
talking a crack clay pot, but I'm just a clay pot. The powers
of God in salvation. But they did, they did not recognize
the Lord Jesus Christ as the God of glory. in that whole town,
that city. They didn't do it. That man did. And those four friends that brought
him, they recognized who he was. And the Lord saw their faith.
It says he recognized their faith. He recognized. But not that town,
that town as a whole. Look, let me, let me see if I can find, turn over to chapter 11. I'll
close with this. I was gonna do the rest of those
verses, but I'm gonna close with this. In verse 20. Then began he to upbraid the
cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they
repented not. Woe to thee, Chorazin! Woe to
thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which
were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would
have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you,
it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of
judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum," this is
his hometown, all these people here in Capernaum gathered around
the house, they witnessed this man getting up off his bed and
walking out of there, walking out of that house. And thou,
Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, because the king
of glory resided there, shall be brought down to hell. If the
mighty works which had been done in thee had been done in Sodom,
it would have remained until this day. But I say to you that
it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day
of judgment than for thee. See what they saw? Seeing a miracle, seeing a miracle will not save
anybody. But God performing one in you
will. God doing a work of grace in
you will save. My greatest need in yours, and
I know this, I know this without a shadow of doubt, is for the
Lord to forgive me of my sins. Put them away. If he does that, one day I'll be able to walk
right into the presence of God. All right.