The title of today's sermon is
The Forgiveness of Sins. So let's read from Matthew chapter
9 verse 1. And we're going to read through verse
13. There's a man here that's brought to Jesus by his friends. Beginning in verse 1 of Matthew
9. And he entered into a ship and passed over and came into
his own city. And behold, they brought to him
a man sick of the palsy." Palsy means paralyzed. He couldn't
move his legs and arms. He couldn't get out of his bed.
Apparently he couldn't sit up because they brought him to Jesus
on a bed. So they brought to him a man sick of the palsy,
lying on a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith,
said to the sick of the palsy, those are the four men who brought
him his friends, the sick of the palsy, Jesus said, Son, be
of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven thee. And
behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This
man blasphemeth." The word blasphemeth means they spoke against, or
someone, they said, they claimed Jesus was speaking against God,
against His claiming things about Himself, or assaulting God's
truth. They claimed Jesus by saying
to the man, Your sins are forgiven, was blaspheming God. And verse
4, And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Wherefore think ye evil
in your hearts? For whether is easier to say,
Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Arise and walk? But that you may know that the
Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, then saith he
to the sick of the palsy, Arise, take up thy bed, and go into
thine house. And he arose and departed to
his house. And when the multitude saw it,
they marveled and glorified God, which had given such power to
men. And I want to read through verse
13. And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man named
Matthew. That would be the man God used
to write this particular gospel, Matthew. And he saw him sitting
at the receipt of custom, collecting taxes. And he saith unto him,
Follow me. And he arose and followed him.
And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, in
Matthew's house actually, behold, many publicans and sinners came
and sat down with him and his disciples. So evidently, since
Matthew was a publican, some of his friends came, and there
were a lot of sinners who came with him. And when the Pharisees
saw it, they said to his disciples, Why eateth your master with publicans
and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he
said to them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they
that are sick. But go ye and learn what that
meaneth. I will have mercy and not sacrifice,
for I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. So here in verse 12 and 13, Jesus
compares sickness to sin, and He calls not the righteous, but
sinners to repentance. And the Pharisees were complaining
that these sinners were gathering around Jesus, and Jesus tells
them, that's why I'm come, to call sinners to repentance. So
I want to look at this particular healing that Jesus did in Matthew
chapter 9. In Luke chapter 5, and this is
also recorded in Mark 2, but I'm not going to read that, but
in Luke chapter 5 the same account is given. And I want to read
that too because it's similar, but it has some things in there
that are not here in Matthew. So if you want to turn to Luke chapter 5 verse 18. And it says, And behold, men
brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy, and they
sought means to bring him in and to lay him before Jesus,
before Him. And when they could not find
by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude,
there were too many people, they couldn't fit him in, they went
upon the housetop and let him down through the tiling with
his couch into the midst before Jesus. And when he, Jesus, saw
their faith, the men who carried the man that was sick of a palsy,
Jesus said to him, the sick man, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.
The scribes and Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this
who speaketh blasphemies? And here's why. Who can forgive
sins but God alone? And then, of course, he perceived
their thoughts, which proved that he was God. They thought this. They were
always thinking things against Jesus. Now I want to look at
this passage of Scripture in Matthew
chapter 9 under the title of the forgiveness of sins, the
forgiveness of sins. And here's the first question
I have is who Who are forgiven? Who does God forgive? Well, it's
not far from us, and the answer is not far from us. It's in verse
13. Remember, Jesus came not to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance. There's only one
kind of people that are forgiven. It's those who need forgiveness.
There's only one kind of person who needs forgiveness. It's sinners. And sinners need forgiveness,
don't you know? Here's a man that was completely
helpless. He was a burden, really, to those
who were around him. He couldn't do for himself. Always
needed to be taken care of. Even carried around. He couldn't
even live. He couldn't gather food. He obviously
couldn't work to earn money. He was a basket case. Literally
bedridden with his sickness. And I don't know how long he
was sick. But many cases in the healings of Jesus illustrate...
What we learned last week, that the miracles that Jesus did were
intended to teach us. And one of those points, remember
if you recall those points, that Christ did miracles first to
fulfill Scripture, and secondly to provide irrefutable testimony
from God that He is the Christ. And then thirdly, to show in
many different ways, and this is the one that's dear to us,
in many different ways God shows through these miracles that Jesus
did, how Christ comes to sinners and how sinners come to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Throughout the miracles, there
were people who were sick a long time, some severely sick and
helpless in their sickness, like this man. Miserable, shut up
to the mercy of God. Man's help, fully exhausted,
and only God's help could work to forgive them or to heal them
or to cast devils out of them or even raise them from the dead.
And in some cases, as we saw in Mark chapter 5 last week,
men opposed themselves, like legion, because the devil had
control of him. All these cases teach us how
the Lord Jesus Christ comes to us, our condition when He comes
to us, and how we are brought or how we come to Him by the
drawing of His grace by the Holy Spirit. Sinners are the ones
Jesus came to save. sinners Jesus came to save. You
know, this is also taught in 1 Timothy 1.15, that famous scripture. You know, there's some scriptures
that we know by heart because they've been repeated to us so
many times. Some of them we've read and memorized
on our own, but this one is especially dear. Paul, the apostle, he says
in 1 Timothy 1.15, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
of whom I am chief. We shouldn't get beyond that.
We should never come and hear the gospel as anything but a
sinner needing to be healed of our sin sickness. And so that's
the first point, is that Christ came into the world to save sinners. To save sinners and to bring
God's mercy to sinners. Remember the parable in Luke
18 of the publican and the righteous, I mean the righteous, the self-righteous
Pharisee. and the publican. The publican
was a sinner. The Pharisee came in and boasted
about all that he had done and how God had blessed him. But
the publican stood afar off and bowed his head and smote on his
breast, and he said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. That's
the posture, and that's the position God brings us. John 16, verses
8 through 11, Jesus tells His disciples that when the Holy
Spirit comes, the Spirit of Truth, He would first convince the world
of sin. Doesn't that point to the horrible
condition of our sin that we need someone to convince us of
our sin? Doesn't that teach us how bad
really our sin is? I think the hardest thing to
convince a man of is that he is a sinner. It takes the Spirit
of God to do that. And the Spirit of God teaches
us not that we've just done wrong, but that we can't do right. We
can't do right. And this is what Romans 7 teaches
us, even in the experience of believers. Paul says, the good
that I would, I do not. And the evil, which I would not,
that I do. And then he says, also, I know
that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. And what
he's expressing there is a total experience of trying to do the
will of God. He says, I just fail at every
point. I'm always coming short. I do
the things that I don't want to do." And this is the Apostle
Paul, the same one who said in 1 Timothy 1.15 that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. And so we see that truth brought
home to us here, even in this text of Scripture. In Matthew
chapter 9, once again, Jesus came, not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. And doesn't that comfort you?
Doesn't that comfort you? To know that you, like this man,
this man was paralyzed. Have you ever seen someone who
was paralyzed? It's a terrible thing. Sometimes
I've been asleep and dreaming and think that I can't move some
arm or leg or some part of your body. And you panic. You go into
some kind of a... It's terrible to think that I'm
not going to be able to move. And here this man is unable to
get up. He's unable to sit up, to move
himself about, to do anything for himself. And that pictures
for us our condition. This man shows us what, in a
body, what a sinner is in his soul and in his spirit. We're
totally helpless. It says in Romans 5, remember,
Romans 5, 6, that when we were without strength in due time,
Christ died for the ungodly, the ungodly. And then, remember
in Romans chapter 4, turn to Romans 4. I like this, I like
this verse of Romans 4 because this is, this is all a constant
comfort to the soul. When we read Romans 7, we find
the frustration there, and Paul crying out at the end of Romans
7, verse 24, a wretched man that I am. Look back at Romans chapter
4, verse 4. He says, Now to him that worketh
is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. The man who
goes about to try to establish a righteousness of his own incurs
greater debt. He isn't rewarded with grace,
but debt. But to him that worketh not..."
That's the picture that this man is. Totally helpless. Unable
to do anything. Worthless to society. His body
worthless to himself. He can do nothing to profit God.
He's, like it says in Romans 3, altogether unprofitable. "...but to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him..." on Him that justifieth the ungodly.
All of the work of the Spirit of God is to direct us to Him,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who justifies the ungodly. His faith, the one
He believes, is counted to Him for righteousness. What a blessed
truth that is. Aren't you glad that God wrote
in Scripture the truth of our salvation? Aren't you glad that
He said that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners?
That God justifies the ungodly? That Jesus came for this purpose,
to call sinners to repentance? And He holds up to us, this man,
like in Luke 18. beating on his chest, God be
merciful to me, the sinner, the sinner. And then he even shows
us further about the sheep that was lost, or the coin that was
lost, or the prodigal son, and the son crying to his father,
father I've sinned against heaven and before you. I'm no longer
worthy to be called your son, and receiving mercy. God is a
God of mercy and He comes for sinners, and that's who the Lord
Jesus Christ came to save. So that's the first point here,
is that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Incurable,
helpless, sinners who are in themselves not only a burden
to themselves, but a burden to God's justice. Throughout the
Old Testament, God describes the nation of Israel as a burden
to Him. Constantly carrying this stiff
neck, rebellious, unthankful, idolatrous, spiritual, adulterous
people. And He says, you're a burden
to Me. I'm going to ease Myself of My burden. Here God eases
His justice of the burden of our sin in the death of His Son. That's what He's doing here,
calling sinners to repentance. And so we see this. The second
point I want to make here is that of satisfaction. Let's look
at this in a little more detail in Matthew chapter 9. Jesus comes
and he finds this man lying on a bed. He was there in a house
and the house was so full of people and there were so many
people outside that they couldn't get this man to Jesus. So these
men, his friends, these men who believed that if they could just
get their friend to Christ, that the Lord Jesus Christ could heal
him of his palsy, of his paralysis, of whatever affliction he had,
that the Lord Jesus could do that. Like Abraham in Romans
4.21, they were fully persuaded that what he had promised he
was able also to perform. Jesus said, come unto me all
ye who labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. He could
do it. And so they found a way. These
men, with faith, they thought, they were creative. They were determined to get this
man to the Lord Jesus Christ. If we can just get him to Christ,
then all will be well. Isn't that a picture of how we
bring our loved ones to the Lord Jesus? Praying for them. Giving them whatever we can. A CD to listen to. Sending them
a card or letter or speaking to them about the Lord Jesus
Christ. Trying to get them to the Lord
Jesus Christ. If we can just get them to Christ,
all will be well. That's what these men are. Four
men bringing their friend to Christ. And so he sees them. He says he sees their faith.
Jesus seeing their faith. He saw their faith. It doesn't
even speak of the faith of the man who was paralyzed, does it? I've always wondered about that.
Seeing their faith. Doesn't it require faith for
God to forgive a man? I want you to hold that thought. Does it require faith for God
to forgive a man? Here the Lord Jesus Christ sees
the faith of his friends and then he speaks to the man who
was on this bed. Now they brought him undoubtedly
thinking that the Lord Jesus would heal him of his paralysis.
But what does Jesus do? He does what the great physician
must do. He sees his true need. Have you
ever gone to the doctor? Well, doctor, I've got this problem.
What does he do? Well, he says, what happened? Did you do something? No. Well,
have you been eating right? Yeah. Sleeping? Okay, yeah. Did
you hurt yourself exercising or working? No. And he asks all
these questions trying to get to the root cause of what's wrong.
Where does it hurt? Let's take a picture. Let's sample
your blood or whatever. And they're trying to determine
what the root cause is. Here the great physician looks
at this man lying on a bed and he sees the root cause of his
problem. It's sin. It's sin. What he needed
most was his sins forgiven. Aren't you glad that the Lord
Jesus Christ knows our problem before we know what our problem
is? And he comes with the solution
to our problem. He makes a provision, God makes
a provision before we even know our problem. And the Lord Jesus
sees his problem, he sees his misery, he sees his need, and
he speaks to him. Seeing their faith, seeing his
need, he speaks to the man and he says, Be of good cheer, thy sins be
forgiven thee." What a word. I wonder if after he was up walking
around, sitting perhaps, and people saw him and said, maybe
his name was Joe or something. Joe! Man, it's great to see you
up walking around. Oh. I didn't know what I really
needed most was to have my sins forgiven. The Lord Jesus Christ
came. He's such a physician. He looked
beyond what I thought my problem was to my deep need, which was
to have my sins forgiven. Notice Jesus said that here.
He says, Son, be of good cheer. Be of good cheer. The word good
cheer is often translated to be of good cheer, but it also
means comfort, to comfort me. What comforts us? What can possibly
give us cheer but this? To know my sins before God are
forgiven. And this is not just anyone.
Priests cannot forgive sin. A man cannot forgive sin. What
if you owed? What if you're... I was thinking
about an illustration. What if my brother borrowed my
car and he totaled it? He wrecked it. And my mom said
to my brother, it's okay, he forgives you. What good would
that do for me? I hadn't released him from a
debt. You just totaled my car. Or what if you owed the bank
$10,000, and your neighbor goes to the bank and says, I mean,
yeah, your neighbor goes to the bank, and the bank, you owe the
bank $10,000, and your neighbor says to the bank, the one who
was the creditor, Your neighbor goes to the creditor
and asks them to just forgive you of the debt. And then your
neighbor comes to you and he says, the bank has forgiven you all
your debt, but they haven't. It wouldn't do any good, would
it? There's a fundamental principle. The one against whom you have
sinned is the one who has to forgive you. And so, the Pharisees
rightly said, who can forgive sins but God? Because, like David
prayed in Psalm 51, after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba,
after he had murdered by proxy Uriah the Hittite, his faithful
servant, he said, "...against thee, thee only have I sinned,
and done that which is evil in thy sight." He knew that he had
sinned against God. And so the prodigal says the
same thing. Father, I have sinned against
heaven. and before you. A man on earth
who presumes to forgive sins is substituting himself in the
place of the Lord Jesus Christ, and no man can do that. A substitute
Christ is an antichrist. That's the word, that's what
it means in scripture when it says antichrist, a substitute.
One who comes in the form, and as in the Latin, the word substitute
means vicar. I mean, the word is vicar in
Latin, so the Pope is called the vicar of Christ. A total
claim of being antichrist. Anyone who does that, stands
in the place of God, and tells men that your sins are forgiven
you from God, is a liar. He has to be a liar, and he's
a blasphemer. But the Lord Jesus Christ here
speaks as God. The one against whom sins have
been committed. And he says to this man, Son,
your sins are forgiven you. We think of it too lightly. We don't appreciate that statement. But just like the woman, taken
in adultery, brought to Jesus by her accusers, and she was
set in the midst, and Jesus stoops and writes on the ground a couple
of times, and he stands up, and they're all gone, and he says
to the woman, Has no man condemned you? And she says, No man, Lord. And then he said these wonderful
words, Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. That was
the word she needed to hear. Whether men condemned her or
not wasn't the issue. The Lord of glory. Say unto my
soul, Psalm 35 3, I am thy salvation. We need to hear it, and we need
to hear it from the Lord Jesus Christ. God has given him authority
on earth to forgive sins because he is the Son of Man. And so
he speaks this to the man, and it was in speaking this, here
he is, still paralyzed. He's completely unable to do
anything. And Jesus is telling him, be of good comfort. Your
sins are forgiven you. Your sins, what else do you need?
If your sins are forgiven you, I'm okay. If I'm paralyzed the
rest of my life, if my sins are forgiven me, I'm okay. My conscience
is clear, my soul is free. Everything is released before
God, my sins are forgiven. And that's what Jesus says to
him now. And so that's the second point here is satisfaction. How
can God forgive sins? And you know the answer to that
question. Look at Ephesians chapter 1. I'll take you to this. Ephesians chapter 1. There's
so many verses in the Bible about forgiveness of sins that we could
study it for weeks. But Ephesians 1 says this about
about forgiveness of sins. He says, "...in whom," verse
7, Ephesians 1, 7, "...in whom, in the Lord Jesus Christ, we
have redemption through His blood the forgiveness of sins, according
to the riches of His grace." What is forgiveness? Well, I
should say, yeah, I asked the question, how can God forgive
us our sins? Well, this answers that. It also
answers what forgiveness is. How does God forgive us our sins?
Redemption. What is the forgiveness of our
sins? Redemption. Both of them are true. You see,
the word redemption includes two parts. The one is to pay
off the debt. to pay off the debt or to bring
a ransom to the captor to free the captive. Or to pay a ransom
to the slave master in order to free the slave. All three
of those are seen in scripture. The debtor, the captive, and
the slave. You see, when God delivered Israel
from the land of Egypt, He says He redeemed them from Egypt.
I've redeemed you from Egypt, from bondage. They were slaves
there. But Pharaoh was also a captor. And when... I'm sorry, I've lost the name. When Boaz redeemed Ruth and Naomi's
inheritance. He paid money. He paid for the
land. He paid for everything that had
formerly been her husband's, Naomi's husband and Ruth's husband.
He redeemed them. They were poor and they had lost
their inheritance. He redeemed their inheritance
by paying for it. He was a near kinsman. He could
do that. And so redemption means a payment in order to make amends
for a debt that was owed by a debtor, and it also means to free a lawfully
kept captive or a slave by paying a ransom. And that's what redemption
is. It's the payment of ransom to
free the lawfully imprisoned debtor. And I love this illustration
that I heard when I was, when I think when I first heard the
gospel. I'm not sure if this was the time when I heard the
gospel or not for the very first time. But look at Matthew chapter
18. I've told you this before. A few phrases from that sermon
still stick in my mind, and one of them is this, in Matthew chapter
18. After Peter asked Jesus, how
many times do I have to forgive my brother in a day if he sins
against me? And Jesus said, 77. In other
words, just keep 70 times 7. Not 77, 70 times 7. Verse 23
of Matthew 18, Jesus said, Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened
to a king which would take account of his servants. And when he
had begun to reckon, one was brought to him which owed him
ten thousand talents." Now, a talent is a huge amount of money. As
I mentioned before, it's somewhere on the order of 70 pounds weight. And if it's gold, that equates
to somewhere around 10 billion dollars in today's money. So
it's an infinite debt. That's what the point here. An
infinite debt. an immeasurable debt. For as
much as he had not to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold,
and his wife and children, and all that he had in payment to
be made. The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him,
saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.
Not that he waited for him to payment. Not that he waited for
him to pay the debt. He says, Then the Lord of that
servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him
the debt. He was bound up, right? He had
put him in prison. His wife, his children, all that
he had was ready to be sold. And then the one he owed all
this to, he loosed him and freed him. And he forgave him all of
his debt. All of his debt. And then he
says here, after that, he went out and found someone who owed
him 100 pence, which is about 15 or 16 dollars. Can you imagine
that? And he took him by the throat.
He wouldn't pay, he couldn't pay. So he took him by the throat,
choked him, and the master who had forgiven him heard of that
and had him brought back in and said, turn him over to the tormentors
until he pays it all. This is a picture of a debtor's
prison. Here's someone who owes a debt. He cannot pay. He's thrown
into prison until he pays the debt. But in prison, you can't
earn money. And so you're always there, waiting
to be cleared, but never able to be cleared because you can't
pay the debt. That's what the ransom is for. It's to pay your debt. It's to
get you out of prison that you deserve to be in because you
owed a debt that you couldn't pay. And the Redeemer in the
law was there so that if you had a near kinsman who saw that
you were indebted, enslaved, or a captive, he could take out
money and pay off your debt. And then you would be free. And
that's the second part of redemption, is this release. The release. And the release of our redemption
is the forgiveness of sins. When someone sins against you,
or let's say you sin against somebody else. You've sinned
against somebody, you know you've done wrong, and you feel horrible.
And you, it was just wrong. Maybe you spoke behind their
back. Or maybe you betrayed their trust. Whatever it was. And you
come to them and you know things can never be the same. And you
ask them, please forgive me. I was wrong. At that point, this
person has the ability to release you. from the debt you owe to
them. Now it's not a monetary debt,
but it's a debt of mistrust where you've betrayed their trust.
They can forgive you and release you from that or hold you under
it. And so forgiveness is the release of this debt of sin that
we owe to God. And the way that God can do that
is by bringing a full payment for our debt. It says this, look
at a couple of places in scripture. We just looked at 1 Ephesians
chapter 1.7. It says that we're redeemed by the blood of Christ. Look at Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews
chapter 9. We're redeemed by the blood of
Christ. Hebrews 9.22. It says this. Almost all things are by the
law purged with blood and without shedding of blood is no remission. Remission means that you've remitted
the debt. You've paid it off and so you
get a receipt sent to you in the mail. Your debt's been remitted. You have fully paid it. And God
says here that there's no remission without the shedding of blood.
It says in Leviticus 17, 11 that it's the blood that makes atonement. The blood makes atonement. Now
look at verse 12 of Hebrews chapter 9. It says, "...neither by the
blood of goats and calves..." Jesus didn't enter the holy place
by the blood of goats and calves. "...but he entered by his own
blood." He entered once into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption for us. Do you see those words? I treasure
that. The Lord Jesus Christ entered
into heaven with His own blood. offering himself to God, and
he obtained what? Eternal redemption. The price
of his blood fully paid the debt that enabled God in full justice
to release the prisoners, to release the captives, the slaves,
and those who were indebted to his justice. He released them.
Look at Hebrews 10 verse 17. It says in Hebrews 10, 17, "...and
their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." That was
a promise in the New Covenant. Now where remission of these
is, remission of sins and iniquities, that's what he's saying. When
there's a remission of sins and iniquities, what does God do?
He remembers those sins and iniquities no more. That's amazing, isn't
it? You and I cannot stop remembering
things. When something happens to me,
it gets into me, and I can't forget it. I'm going to remember
it. It's like that illustration Todd
gave a long time ago. His brother spilled something
on his mom's new couch, and she wailed into him. The next morning
she got up and saw it and wailed into him again. I'm just not
satisfied. I'm going to keep giving him
a whipping until I get this thing taken care of here. God, when
he saw the Lord Jesus Christ and received his blood from him,
he was fully satisfied. He shall see the travail of his
soul and he shall be satisfied. Propitiation means satisfaction
was made to God's wrath. He was appeased. His justice
was satisfied and he forgave the debt. And here in Hebrews
10, 17 it says where there's remission, Where there's remission
of sins, there is no more offering for sins. Once the debt's been
paid, there's no need for another offering. And their sins and
their iniquities will I remember no more. There's such a remission,
such a payment, that God forgets. He doesn't remember them. His
justice doesn't even consider our sins and iniquities anymore
against us. That's forgiveness. Don't you
want that forgiveness? How do you have it? How can you
have the forgiveness of sins like that? Well, the forgiveness
is given by God when Christ obtained it. Remember, redemption means
not only the payment of the ransom, but the release of the prisoner.
And Jesus obtained eternal redemption for us when He offered His blood.
Now I want to take you to Colossians chapter 2. Take a look at this. Remember, when Jesus saw their
faith, He said to the man, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. And
I don't know, maybe the man believed too. I can't say whether he did
or whether he didn't. But the point is, is that his
forgiveness in the passage we looked at didn't hinge on the
man's faith. So in Colossians 2, I want you
to see this verse. He says, In verse 13, and you,
take a look at this verse, and you being dead in your sins and
the uncircumcision of your flesh. To be dead means that you have
been condemned. and spiritually you've died,
physically you're consigned to death, and you're waiting the
final judgment, you're under the sentence of death. Being
dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened,
that means he's given life, he's raised up together with him,
with Christ, having forgiven you all trespasses. Now, there's
a number of things to note about that. First of all, notice, Why
were we raised up according to this verse? He has quickened
you together with Him, having forgiven you all your trespasses. It's like I said a minute ago,
if you pay a debt, you get a receipt in the mail, maybe, that says
it's all paid. At the end of the time, you finally
meet that last payment on your loan, and the bank sends you
a statement and says, You own the car, or you own the house,
or whatever it is you're paying off. Full receipt, full ownership. Here, God says, He raised us
from the dead, having forgiven us all of our trespasses. So
our resurrection from the dead is the result of us having been
forgiven of our trespasses. The receipt is, The receipt is
that our debts and our trespasses have been forgiven. And the result
of that having been done is that we're given a resurrection. We're given the inheritance of
eternal life. We're raised from the dead. And
so our forgiveness... First comes, and then our resurrection,
because the Lord Jesus Christ obtained eternal redemption for
us. And so when Jesus says to this
man, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. Then, after that, the Pharisees
questioned him about, well, how can you do this? Then he raised
him from the dead, didn't he? First he forgave him, then he
raised him. And so this is the order we see
in the scripture. First the Lord Jesus Christ meets
the full payment God required for the remission of our sins.
Remission is made. The sins and iniquities are remembered
no more. And then God the Spirit speaks
into our conscience, sprinkling the blood of Christ by faith
in our conscience so that we receive what's already been done
as a receipt, a declaration in our heart, in the courtroom of
our heart, that God has already justified us in heaven. This
is the wonder of forgiveness of sins. And so back to Matthew
chapter 9 here. There's many places. In fact,
look at this one verse here. Look at Acts chapter 5. Acts
5. The Lord Jesus Christ, having
been raised from the dead, already has paid our sins fully. And God received that payment
from Him, and God released those who were indebted to Him by that
payment. And because of that, because
the Lord Jesus Christ fully paid, it says that He was raised up
and He was seated on the right hand of God. But look at Acts
chapter 5. Verse 29, Then Peter and the other apostles answered
and said, We ought to obey God than man, rather than men. The
God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you slew and hanged
on a tree. 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. The Lord Jesus Christ,
having fulfilled all that God required, was exalted to the
throne of glory. And on that throne he sits as
king to give repentance, to give forgiveness of sins. And that's
what he says to this man. Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. How could the Lord Jesus Christ
say this? How could he say this? How could
God forgive sins? There's only one way. God has
to satisfy his own law and justice. Two things are required. God
has to fully satisfy His justice. And He has to put away that sin
that's pictured on the Day of Atonement. By the goat being
sent out into the wilderness, that's putting away our sins.
And by atonement being made in the holy place. But also, He
has to fully meet every requirement of His law. And that He did in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, he therefore can say
to this man, your sins are forgiven thee. And so the scribes in verse
3 of Matthew 9, the scribes and the Pharisees said within themselves,
this man blasphemes. And Jesus knowing their thoughts
said, wherefore think you evil in your hearts? For whether it
is easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Arise
and walk? Which one is easier? Which one
do you think? Is it easier for Jesus to say, Your sins are forgiven
you, or for him to say, Rise up, walk, to a man who couldn't
move? Which one do you think is easier?
The Pharisees, he asked the Pharisees. Now, Jesus did this so skillfully. First he understands their conundrum
in their mind, and then he asks them a question, so that with
their answer he can show them that they really understand,
but are denying and holding down the truth. So he says, What do
you think? Which is easier? To raise a man
up from his body being sick, or to raise a man up in his soul
from being under the condemnation of God's just law? Which one
do you think is easier? Well, in Exodus chapter 33, If you remember the account in
Exodus 32, the children of Israel had gone into the wilderness.
They were at the Mount Sinai. And Moses had gone up to the
mountain. And they couldn't see him for
a while. So Aaron makes this calf. They give Aaron their earrings.
He throws them into the fire. He makes this calf. And they
fall down. They worship it. And God says, In so many words,
stand aside, I'm going to destroy them all. And Moses says, Lord,
forgive this people, or, let's see, I should read it to you.
Exodus 32, he says, it says, Moses returned to the Lord. After
he came down from the mountain, he saw what they had done, he
scolded them for it. Moses returned to the mountain,
verse 31, and said, unto the Lord, he said, O this people
have sinned a great sin, so he admits it, and have made them
gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive
their sin, and then there's a dash. It's like he didn't finish his
sentence. And if not, and in other words,
if you won't forgive their sins, blot me, I pray thee, out of
thy book which thou hast written. What kind of a man would ask
that? Forgive their sins. There are no words to describe
the ingratitude of these people. God had saved them. They had
seen it. Ten plagues brought them out
of 430 years of bondage, through the Red Sea, destroyed their
enemies, even the king in the sea. And now they're sinning
against him, serving idols. They make this stupid god. Even
Aaron makes it out of the fire of gold. And they're saying,
these be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee out of Egypt.
with less than a month." Why would they do that? And Moses
says, Lord, if you will forgive their sins, and if not, blot
me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. And
the Lord said to Moses, whoever has sinned against me, him will
I blot out of my book. And then look at chapter 33,
which is where I wanted to get to. Remember, the question here
is, The Lord spoke to this man and
said, your sins are forgiven you. But look at verse 33. He
says in verse 16. Chapter 33, verse 16. And wherein
shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in
thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest with us, so shall
we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are
upon the face of the earth? Verse 17. And the Lord said to
Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken, for thou
hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. And
Moses said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And he said, I
will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee, and I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show
mercy. And then in chapter 34, verse
6, And the Lord passed by, before him and proclaimed, The Lord,
the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in
goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity
and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the
guilty. Those words tell us so much about
God. You would think that if God was
going to show His glory, He would say, let me show you how strong
I am. That's what men do, isn't it?
Let me show you how wise I am. But He says, let me show you
how gracious I am to sinners. How gracious I am, and merciful
I am to sinners. Not because of something they've
done, but because I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and
I will be merciful to whom I will be merciful. And so, here's this
man, and the Pharisees say, I mean, Jesus asks them, what's easier?
To forgive sins? To say to him, your sins are
forgiven? Or to raise him up? The glory of God is seen in His
forgiveness of sinners. Which one do you think is harder?
The thing that gives God His glory? to forgive sins, or something
He can accomplish by simply, He created our bodies by forming
them out of the dust of the ground and breathing into our nostrils
the breath of life. He can recreate those with nothing. But to forgive our sins, it required
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Which one do you think is easier?
But they didn't understand that because with men, as I've said
before, talk is cheap. We can just say whatever we want.
I can say, what's the worst thing that can happen to me? I'll be
made a fool. I mean, think about the President
of the United States in his gross Gross sin against the laws of
this land. Immorality, lies, all kinds of
things in the late 90s. What was the worst thing that
he did? He just defamed his own character. And of course made
a mockery of the justice system of our country. But what's the
worst thing that God could do? If he speaks something and it
doesn't come to pass, God ceases to be God. The Lord Jesus Christ,
if he commands that this man's sins are forgiven, in order for
him to do that, he himself actually has to fulfill his word and pay
the debt. The Lord Jesus Christ took the
debt, the burdens this man's sin were to his justice, and
bore them himself and paid that full debt. Then he says to him,
Son, your sins are forgiven you. is a hard thing to do. Only God
can do that. And not only is it difficult,
but it requires God's wisdom. But not only His wisdom and the
difficulty of it, but it requires God to humble Himself. Have you
ever had somebody come and just offend you? And show no repentance
toward you? And just be your enemy? What
does it make you want to do? Just write them off. Forget that
person. Forget them. They want nothing
to do with me? I'll have nothing to do with
them. But here the Lord of Glory, no reason in us, no obligation
external to Himself, but His own mercy. He chooses to have
mercy on sinners. Which do you think is harder?
There's no man on earth, no man on earth who has mercy like God.
Who out of his own pure goodness shows mercy to his enemies. So
much so that he reconciled us to himself by the death of his
son when we were his enemies. This is something that's very,
very difficult to do. Not only because it requires
such a payment, but it requires the mercy and the love of God
to offer Christ in payment for those He saves. What amazing
grace. That's the satisfaction, that's
the forgiveness of sins. That's why the Lord of Glory
is able to give forgiveness and repentance from His throne, because
He actually paid and fulfilled God's justice and exalted His
glory. in forgiving sins by His own
death on the cross. He obtained eternal redemption
for us. And now the last thing I want
you to see here is after Jesus says, He proves to the Pharisees,
yes, I do have power on earth to forgive sins. He commands
the man to get up and walk. And as I mentioned before, that
shows to us how Christ first forgives us and then raises us
from the dead. But then in Luke chapter 7, a
great story is given there. This is the last thing. Luke
chapter 7. Again, two debtors. Here, in this case, there was a Pharisee who asked
Jesus to come to his house and eat. In verse 36, one of the
Pharisees desired Jesus. Luke 7, verse 36. One of the
Pharisees desired Jesus that he would eat with him. And he
went into the Pharisee's house and sat down to meet. And behold,
a woman in that city, which was a sinner, When she knew that
Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box
of ointment, and stood at his feet behind him, weeping, and
began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs
of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment."
This is the display of the greatest love that this woman could think
to give to the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't do anything to pay him.
But I just want to show him how much I love him. She takes all
that she has in this box of ointment, pours it on his head or his feet
here. Is it his feet here? And then
she takes her hair down and her tears, crying because she's so
thankful. And she washes his feet and kisses
his feet with her tears and her hair. What a display of love,
isn't it? What would cause such love? Well,
read on, verse 38. And she stood at his feet behind
him, weeping, and began to wash his feet with her tears, and
did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet,
and anointed them with the ointment, his feet. And now when the Pharisee,
which had bidden Jesus to come and dine with him, saw it, he
spake within himself, saying, Hmm, this man, if he were a prophet,
would have known who and what manner of woman this is that
touches him, for she's a sinner. She must have been outwardly
and openly a sinner before Christ saved her. Verse 40, And Jesus
answering said unto him, Simon, I have some what to say to thee. And he saith, Master, say on.
I suppose he thought he had something wise to say to him. He did. But
he didn't realize he was going to expose his hypocrisy. Verse
41. There was a certain creditor
which had two debtors. The one owed five hundred pence
and the other fifty. One ten times the amount the
other. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them
both. Tell me, therefore, which of
them will love him the most? Simon answered and said, I suppose
that he to whom he forgave the most. And he said to him, thou
hast rightly judged. And he turned to the woman and
said, Simon, seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house,
thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she hath washed my
feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou
gavest me no kiss, but this woman, since the time I came in, hath
not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not
anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment." An expensive
amount of ointment. Verse 47, Wherefore I say unto
thee, Her sins, which were many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven,
the same loveth little. And he said to her, Thy sins
are forgiven. Here this woman is doing this great show of affection
for the Lord Jesus Christ, adoring Him. And Jesus says, you know
why, Simon? Do you know why she's acting
like this? Because she loves much. But why does she love much? Because she's been forgiven much. That's the reason. The one to
whom God has forgiven much, they love much. It's the principle
of grace. And so, when we see this, when
we see the The result of this, we realize that God has forgiven
us. He has forgiven us an infinite
debt. And so in Proverbs 10, 12, he says this, hatred stirreth
up strife, but love covereth all sins. We love much when we
forgive much because we've been loved much by God because He's
forgiven us much. Isn't that the way it works?
Grace to us, grace to others, love to us, love to others. We
love Him because He first loved us. Oh may God teach us that
we've been forgiven much for Christ's sake. May we believe.
He says in Acts 13, around verse 27 or so, he says, I'm preaching
unto you by this man the forgiveness of sins, that all who believe
are justified from all things from which they could not be
justified in the law of Moses. In Christ, in his redemption,
the law of Moses provided no forgiveness. except for blood
atonement, and that's the blood that was shed. Our forgiveness
is in Christ. Let's pray.