Heart overflows, loving, thankful
for his Lord and Savior. Tell what he knows. Once more,
I want to tell it. Once more would I embrace, you
know what, I'm only a sinner, saved by grace. That's the only
kind of preacher there is, you know, a sinner. I know someone,
one time, came out of religion like most believers do. They
were so relieved because the first thing the Lord does when
He deals with you is shows you what a sinner you are. Even in
religion. And you think you're the worst
sinner on earth and you think you don't deserve to be in the
church. But you're sure glad when you hear it. And this person
heard the preacher stand up and talk about what a sinner he was.
And that person was so relieved to hear that. If the preacher
is a sinner, I can listen to him. Luke chapter 5, besides someone
said that church or preaching is just one
beggar telling another where he found bread. Or one sinner
telling another sinner where he found mercy. That's it. The Bible, as you know, was written
as a book. There were no chapters and verses.
It all goes together. Look at verse 18. You see that
little backward P? You know this, but some may not.
That's the beginning of a paragraph. Or often, time has elapsed between
the previous verse and this verse. But this begins with and, doesn't
it? Well, look at verse 1. It came to pass. Verse 12, and
it came to pass. Verse 16, and he withdrew himself. There's some teachers in here.
The old English composition rules, you don't begin a sentence with
a conjunction. What's a conjunction? I learned
it on Sesame Street. Conjunction, junction. Hooking
up words and phrases and clauses. That's what conjunction. If,
and, but. It's connected to the previous
sentence. If you go through the gospel,
you find and, and, and, and, and, and. Why? Because it's all
connected. This is all the story. I'm not
being foolish here. I'm trying to tell you that it's
all the story of one person. The Lord Jesus Christ who came
from glory to save his people. The gospel beginning with Genesis
and ending with Revelation is about this story. The gospel
story of how the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. And Ephesians 2 is one of your
favorite chapters, isn't it? How does it begin? And you. And you. Have faith quickly. So verse 18, that's the way it
begins, this way. And, it's a conjunction. So you kids got a lesson in English
language. But it's a lesson in the Bible. It's all about Him. And how He
came to save us. And, behold, the word behold is an old Bible
word and I looked it up. It means to stop. It means to
think on this. It means to consider. It says
don't, just hang on, look at this. Would you look at this? Behold, and this story is of
four men bringing a man. They had to get to Christ. And they saw that it doesn't
matter what it takes. We're going to get our friend,
our brother, whoever it was, whoever, a neighbor, whatever.
We've got to get them to Christ. It's His only hope. What are
we going to do? We're just going to get on the
roof and tear the roof apart. Was this thing serious to them? Behold, our Lord said, seeking
me, you will find me. When? You search for me with all your
heart. That's seeking. That's searching. Behold, these men brought this
man sick of the palsy. Now stop and think about it.
Behold, the Lord Jesus Christ was in this house. The Son of God, with power to
heal, was in that house. These men heard about it. Somebody
told them, you know that Jesus of Nazareth
is down in Simon Peter's house? They said, what? You know that
he's down there in that house? Seriously? Yeah, he's down there. Really? Bill, Joe, John, tell
Bill, tell George, he's down there. He's right down there.
He's here. Is he here? Says they sought whatever means
they could get to get to him. I find people seeking whatever
means or excuses they can to keep from coming. Not these men. This was a pressing
matter that Paul talked about. Pressing matter. If our friend
doesn't lie before the Lord Jesus Christ, if our friend, if our
Lord doesn't look on him, he's a goner. And there's some right in this
room sick of this palsy. Palsy makes you paralyzed. Palsy doesn't let you walk. And there's some in here not
walking by faith. Blindness. Our Lord healed blindness
and deafness and dumbness and leprosy and all these things
are pictures of salvation. We all need this, don't we? And
some in here are so blind they haven't seen it yet. It's just
an interesting sermon. Just another preacher. It's just
another day. When we looked at if the gospel is being preached,
the power of the Lord is present to heal. He heals everyone that
has what? Need. Look at verse 31. And Lord, scribes
and Pharisees were murmuring. They didn't like anything. They
came to catch Him at His Word. They didn't come to hear His
Word. They came to catch Him. Or for entertainment or something.
He was a good speaker. And they came because everybody
else would not want to go to church, you know. They murmured and verse 31, Our
Lord said, They that are whole need not a physician, but they
that are sick came not to call the righteous, but sinners to
repentance. We talk a lot about sin here, don't we? That you
won't find a message preached from this pulpit that a man doesn't
begin with sin. I recently had a man imply to
me, he wanted to argue, although it wasn't an argument. I hope
he was sincere. He implied to me that a church
is a place where good Christians go. And he said, we ought to go out
there in the streets and talk to people. That's where the sinners
are. I'm going to ask a show of hands
right now. Would one of these real good Christians raise your
hand? Somebody. If you think you're
a real good Christian, raise your hand. All right, let me ask another
show of hands. If you think you're the chief of sinners, raise your
hand. And you've come to the right
place. That's what this is about. That's what this is about. The
church is a hospital for sinners, a cancer hospital. You know,
if you get cancer, you don't just go to the hospital, do you?
You go to a cancer hospital. Because everybody there has it.
Right? It's a deadly disease. You know,
if I don't get healed from this, I'm going to die. You might go
to the hospital, have ankle surgery like I did. You're not going
to die from that. But when you hear the word, you've got cancer.
And many in here have heard that. You have to go to a place that
deals with cancer, aren't you? And you're going to hear a lot
about it. Because it's going to kill you. Tell me, please. You want the best physician,
don't you? Don't you want the best physician, the best treatments?
Brothers and sisters, this is a cancer ward. This is a place
where all of us, our loins are filled with a lonesome disease.
Is that you? Old Brother Joe used to love
it. I'd say this. I've been tempted to put on the
church house sign, no good people allowed. Sinners only. What if a harlot walked in this
place? Brethren, this place is full of them. The church is a soup kitchen
for the hungry. The church is a place where the
gospel is preached. The gospel is Christ. The gospel
is Christ crucified, who died for sinners, who paid a price
because of sin. It's going to kill us all. God's
going to kill us. If God didn't kill Christ, He'd have to kill
us? That's how serious it is. The church is a place where you
can find bread. It's bread for the hungry. It's
water for the thirsty. It's clothes for the naked. It's
mercy for the guilty. It's grace for the helpless.
It's help for the hopeless. It's freedom for the captives. And we keep coming back because
we keep getting in captivity. We keep coming back to be clean
because we get dirty. It's sight for the blind. It's
healing for the deaf. Hearing for the deaf. It's faith
for the lame. It's good news for those in trouble. The Lord sends His Word and heals.
That's how He does it. These four men heard. Faith cometh
by hearing. People aren't going to hear it
out there. I know we'd go out there and we'd tell them, we'd
talk to them. But here's what the woman at the well did. She,
there was somebody at a well. And that well is a picture of
the church, where Christ is, where the water of life is served
up. Right? Isaac was a well digger. Isaac
is the son of promise. Isaac's a type of Christ. What
did he do? He dug wells. Water for everybody. This woman
was sitting at a well. Our Lord was sitting there waiting.
Where is this woman going to find the Lord? At a well. That's
where Jacob found his wife. That's where Isaac found his
wife. That's where the Lord found this woman. And she went there
with a water pot. And the Lord, the first thing
He did was reveal to her what her true need was. He made her
thirsty. He made her feel her guilt and
her sin. Living in sin. He made her feel all that. She's
convicted. And she said, I know this. When Christ comes, He'll
take care of all this. He said, I am. She met Him there. She got to
wonder about it. You know what she did? Oh, she
ran and told some people. What'd she tell them? What'd
she tell them? Somebody, I met the Lord, you
come sit. You come here. Go back where
I was. He's still sitting there. Come
on, he's not going to be there long. Right? And that's what they did, sister,
didn't they? They all came back and they said, we heard her,
but now we hear because we hear you. And that's what we do. As I said, this man wanted to
argue with me about preaching. You don't need to hear preaching. You're arguing with God when
you bring up that, okay? How shall they call on him who
does not believe? Not heard. How shall they hear
of him? Not heard from a preacher. Man, that's, take heart. I misquoted that. Listen, whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How? Then
shall they call on him who did not believe. How shall they believe
in him who did not hear? How shall they hear without a preacher?
How shall they preach except there be sins? Everybody saved in this book
heard a preacher. Preacher didn't save them, the
Word did. But God sent the man, and they
heard Him. They heard Him. And you're not
going to hear this message out on the street, are you? These four men heard, He's in
that house. We've got to get to Him. They
sought means. They sought means. They heard,
faith cometh by hearing. Hearing by the Word of the Lord.
Did this man, I never thought about this, did the man sick
of the palsy ask them to take him? Maybe. Maybe he heard about it. Brothers,
would you mind taking me? I've heard of people being healed
of the palsy, and he's there. Would you take me? Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. The Lord
doesn't save people who don't call. If you don't call, you
won't be saved. If you don't come, you won't
be saved. Well, he couldn't come. Well,
he did. Would you take me? Whosoever shall call, if you
seek me, you'll find me. If you don't call, you won't
be saved. If you don't come, you won't be saved. No man can come,
no man can call unless he comes and calls you. But you will come,
you will come. These four men heard. And they were desperate. They
had one thing on their mind, this pressing matter for their
friend or their brother, whoever it was. And they couldn't get
near the Lord. And they needed to, they had
to. They wanted to be as near Him
as possible. They wanted this man to be right in front of Him. Did you notice it says before
Him, not far away. I want to get as close as I can.
I want Him as close as I can. We can get Him. I want Him to
hear from the Lord. I want Him to look into the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They said, I want the Lord to
look on Him and I want Him to see Him. He's not going to be
saved unless He does. And they brought him in. They
brought him in. Brothers and sisters, your loved ones are not going
to be saved apart from hearing the gospel. And the gospel is
in this blood. Yes, it is. We've got a dear sister back
there. Her father came years ago. And he'll say, everybody
is. Thanks, Al. And she insisted
he come here. And she rode with him, or he
rode with her, when he came to visit. And he'd be riding down
the canyon. He'd say, here's a church. If
I imitate him, you'll know who it was. Here's a church. Here's
a church. What's wrong with this church?
And she kept saying, the gospel's not there. Christ is not being
preached there. You come with me. And she insisted. She insisted. And he said, I'm
not going there anymore. I'm not going there anymore.
She said, yes, you are. You come to visit me. You're
coming with me, right? One day, on Connecticut Yankee. You can't teach a Yankee nothing.
Well, the Lord did. Taught him he was a sinner. Didn't
know the Lord. Saved that old boy. He wasn't
with us too long and the Lord took him home. Isn't that amazing? Amazing grace. The gospel's here. In this community. The gospel's right here. I know
of no other. I've looked. I've listened. Haven't
you? You've been to places. Not bragging
on us. I'm just telling you, there's
one gospel. There's one Lord. There's one
faith. I've reached out. I've looked.
I've listened. I can't find it. But it is here, isn't it? So
what does that mean? Let's find means. We have means
to bring them. We have means to bring them before
the Lord. You want them to hear from the Lord. We have means.
They sought means. We have means. We've got the
radio, we've got sermon audio, we've got automobile, that word
of mouth. Would you come with me and hear
what I hear? Who? Well, they wanted their
friend to be before the Lord. See, that's why. I'm not looking
for church members. My dad used to say that. I'm
not looking for church members. Church members give you nothing
but trouble. He said, I'm looking for sheep. Sheep! Sheep! Maybe that's the
message you need to hear next, after you hear the one on dying.
On the trail of his sheep. I'll never forget that. He preached
the message, I'm on the trail of his sheep. Look at verse 20. They brought
him, and he saw their faith. The Lord Jesus Christ saw their
faith. What is faith? Well, I've said
this many times. It's not a what. It's a who. They believed on the Lord Jesus
Christ. They believed their friend's
only hope was Jesus Christ. They believed this man had to
see, had to hear, had to be touched by, had to be healed by, had
to be saved by Jesus Christ. That his only hope was Jesus
Christ, the Lord. That's faith. And how do you
know that? How do you see faith? See, faith
is not just saying, saying. Pharisees say, but don't do. It's easy to say. How do you know they believed
on the Lord Jesus Christ? How do you know that they knew that
their friend's only hope was for him to hear the Lord Jesus
Christ? They brought Him. He saw their faith. Now, deep
faith is believing on the Lord. And He's not being preached today
as Lord. He's preached as a figurehead.
Like the bow of a ship, you know. Kind of a luck charm. You only
call on Him when you get in trouble. He's no figurehead. He's not
a Lord in name only. You don't make Him Lord. He's
not your co-pilot. He is Lord. You're in His hands. Men and women need to hear this.
You know, if I had one message I'd preach to this generation,
it'd be that one that's on the radio this morning. Did you hear
it? I owe how our world needs to
hear that. That the God who is God, that man who really is a
Word, And it's only hope. One hope.
Not what man does with God. Not what man lets God do. It's the mercy. The gospel is
the power of God Himself. They need to hear who God is. They need to hear who Christ
is. This is life eternal. That they
might know Thee, the only true God. And Jesus Christ. And He sent. He's the Lord. He's Jesus. He's the Savior.
That means God our Savior. He's Christ. He's the Covenant
Head. He's the Redeemer. He's the only
one that has the right to redeem. He's Boaz. Boaz didn't have to
redeem Ruth, did he? Boaz didn't have to redeem Naomi. Boaz didn't have to do that.
But he did. He's the only one that could.
It's up to Him. Christ. Messiah. The Anointed
One. There is no other. He's the Prophet. He's the prophet. We don't need
any more prophets, Mike. We've got one. He's told us all
things. He's the priest. He's the great
high priest. We've got a high priest that can forgive all sins. We have a king. You know, the
only true government, the only real government, the best government
there is, is a monarchy. That is, if he's a good king,
a wise king, a godly king, we have one. Brethren, our God reigneth. Our Lord reigneth. The end of
his reign, there's no end. The Lord Jesus Christ. Our faith
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. He saw their faith. Now faith
is the evidence of things unseen. Right? An unseen God. It's not
of yourself, it's the gift of God. If you believe this God,
This strange God, these strange doctrines to most, if you believe
this, God gave you that faith. It's not a present, it's a gift
of God. Faith is the evidence of things unseen, and yet, things
that you see of faith are evidences of faith. All of Hebrews 11 shows
us, I was going to turn there, but we don't have time. We thank Paul wrote it. But he
mentions Abel. How do you know he believed God?
How do you know he believed in salvation by blood? He killed
a lamb. He brought a lamb. He didn't,
Mackey wouldn't dare bring anything in. He came one way, the lamb.
How do you know he believed? My only hope's in his blood.
That's what he said. Enoch walked with God. Seemed
like nobody else did. He agreed with God. How do you
know Enoch had faith? He agreed with God. He said,
let God be true in every man of honor. You saw it. Noah being warned of God. Warned
of God, mind you. He didn't hear the love of God.
He heard of the wrath of God. And he was warned of God. And
moved with what? Fear! That's the beginning of
wisdom. What did he do? Prepared an ark. How do you know people fear the
Lord? They come and hear about this ark. They come and they
get in the church house where the ark is prayed and they tell
me again. Is this a city of refuge? The church is a city of refuge.
They've got to be in it. You say, I want to be where Christ
is. I want to be found in Him. Hide me, O my Savior, hide me. This gospel is kind of refuge
in it. This gospel is a hiding place. This gospel is where Christ
is preached. Covering for the naked. Faith is seen. And we could go on and on, couldn't
we? Hebrews 11 does. Faith is just another word for
life, people. He saw life, life of God in them. Faith is the life of God in the
soul of man. And you hath He quickened who
were dead and trespassed in sin. How did He quicken you? We're
quickened together with Christ. Oh, it's by grace you're saved.
Through faith. It's not of yourselves. It's
a gift of God. Faith seen. Faith seen. Let's continue. Faith
seen is importunate prayer. How do you know that woman that
came with an issue that she needed Christ? She came crawling. How do you know that woman whose
daughter was vexed with the devil really believed Christ was her
only hope? She wouldn't. She wouldn't be turned away.
He ignored her. He called her a dog. The woman,
the importunate widow, kept coming, kept coming, kept coming, kept
coming, and the king said, I'm going to give her what she asked
for. She's serious. That's faith that's seen it. Importunate prayer. Here's the
importunate prayer. Jacob said, hey, let go. You can leave me, but I am not
letting go until you bless me. I'm not going anywhere. You know that's not of himself. Importunate prayers, having a
pressing need to worship, to hear the word. It's a pressing
need, pressing need. I've got to have it. Faith that
is seen is an attitude of thanksgiving. That gives glory to God. And
no matter what. Some of you, all of us go through
trials and the way that our faith in our sovereign God that sends
these things, the way it's seen, is for other people to see you
go through that and still give thanks to God and say things
like this, strange things. God did this. A lady in this building was talking
to a man at work, which she's very prone to do. And she said
to him, I believe in the sovereign God. I believe God does all things.
I don't believe He's standing by watching things. He causes
all things. She said, I believe if I go down
the street and have a wreck in my car, God did that. I said,
oh no, that's not. How strange is that? That's what
they say too. God didn't want that to happen. You'll believe strange things. And it'll be known with an attitude
of thanksgiving, repentance, true worship, humility, mourning,
hunger and thirsting, meekness, peacemaker, worship, witness. That's faith that is seen. Faith
that is seen. Over in Acts chapter 11, Barnabas
went down to Antioch and he says, when he had seen the grace of
God, He rejoined. He saw some former idolaters.
We've been to Mexico, some of us have. Boy, we saw the grace
of God. In every village, every little
poor pueblo in Mexico, there's a giant Catholic cathedral. If you want to see Catholicism
in its true light, go down to these third world countries. These poor peasants send in their
pesos, hard-earned pesos. And they send it in for them
to build these monstrosities, these buildings where Catholicism
reigns and rules, where these rich priests prey on these people. And the inside is full of all
sorts of actual gold and stuff like that. And these people come,
and they bow, and they buy candles, and they bow, and they do this,
and the priests promise them this, and the priests promise
them that. And if they don't, they warned
them, you're going to go to hell. Every village down there. But
God chose some. And he takes them out of that.
And he gets a little house where somebody meets, like a Lydia
or a Jada, and gets a little Pueblo. And he sent a preacher,
Walter Groover, Cody Groover, he sent a preacher down there
with the gospel of Christ and Him crucified. And sends a gospel. And they hear it. And they huddle
together. And they come in the back of a pickup truck. They
got to hear this message. Freedom from captivity. Free
from sin. Freedom from that priest up there
in that mansion. Freedom! And they come and they
hear Christ and He makes them free. And you see the grace of
God, don't you? You see it. Our Lord saw their
faith. Miraculous, life-giving, life-changing,
new creature, new heart, mind, walk, talk, faith. Faith is not
a creed. Faith is not a profession that
is of your mouth. With the heart man believeth.
The heart. So here Christ was preaching.
And they heard and they came. And they brought their friend.
And says he saw their faith. I can't help but think of him
standing there watching them do this. He was expecting them. You know that? This didn't take
him by surprise. And neither will your salvation.
And you know, I hope the Lord is dealing with some. It appears
maybe. I hope. And I'm not infallible.
The Lord is. But sometimes it's just so wonderful
to watch the Lord deal with somebody. And the first way He does it
is just make them miserable. And when they're miserable, I'm
smiling. I'm thinking, the Lord must be dealing with him. And I can't help but think of
him standing there watching him go to all this trouble. Can you
see that? Can you hear Simon Peter's wife? Look what they're
doing to my roof! Simon's up. He's watching it. He's smiling. I knew they'd come. I'd been
waiting on them. There they come. They lowered him down. And it's
silent! Everybody stops, and the lower
of this man ropes down at the feet of the Lord, right in front
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord, and He looks down
on this man. He looks down. The Son of the
Most High God looks down. upon this one that he'd chosen
before the foundation of the world, that he loves, that he
elected, that he set his heart, mind, soul upon, that he came
into this world to save, and brought here by strange means,
but brought. And he looks down into his face. What do you think the man's doing?
He's looking up. The Lord's looking down in mercy
and love and grace. The man's looking up. He's looking
into the face of none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And the
Lord said six words. Six words. Man, thy sins are
forgiven. Some of you, you must be like
this man. He must know something about
that. There's some Pharisees sitting
over there. He came to be healed of his palsy. Man. Alright, let me address
somebody in here. No Pharisee. Now, Pharisees,
you have a palsy and you don't know it. Man. What man? He didn't call his
name. Aren't you glad the Scriptures doesn't call names? Huh? Man? That's what I am. You? I ain't much of one. David wrote
that in Psalm, was it 34? He said, this man, this poor
man cried. Man? You know, whosoever, whatever. Whenever the Scripture says man,
it means woman. You know that? It means boy, it means girl.
Man? Human being. Sinful creature. Man. Thy sins. Thy sin. Do you have any sin?
If you really know yourself, you believe that you're the chief
of sinners. If you really know yourself, you're not thinking,
I sure hope so and so hears this. If you really know yourself,
you're thinking, I need this. My sins. David said, my sin. That's why Psalm 51 is our favorite
Psalm. Oh, so and so sure is a bad sinner.
I hope the Lord saves him. My sin is ever before me. If
that's not your heart cry, you'll get tired of this message. This
man, when all this is over, this man says, tell it again. Tell
me again. Thy sins. That's our problem. That's the source of all trouble.
That's the source of our inward struggle, our outward struggle.
That's why everybody's mean as a snake. Sin. That's why there's
death. Sin. And the Lord said, my sins,
your sin. Our. Right now, not shall be. Our. Right now! Today's the day of salvation.
You know, if somebody hears this message, if the Lord speaks to
one person, He's saying, right now. Today. Since. Forgiven. You. Me. Forgiven. Me. He ain't talking to me. Yeah,
He said you. Forgiven. You ever needed forgiveness? There's nothing worse There's nothing worse than to
feel at odds with somebody who's sinned again. Somebody who's
disappointed. And the worst of all is our God. And to feel like He's going to
cut you off. That He's not going to have anything to do with you.
They ought to give you your portion with the wicked. Why? Because
of sin. Sins are separated. But to hear
the Lord Jesus Christ through the gospel preached, saying to
you personally, your sins are forgiven. Frankly. Fully. Immediately, forever,
forgiven and forgotten. Forgiven, when the Lord says
forgive, it means forgiven. It means forgotten. It means
never to be brought up again. He said there's sins and iniquity,
I'll remember no more. I'll never bring it up again. You'll never forget it. We never
forget it. But God said, I'll never remember
again. Man. Now brethren, the Lord doesn't
save unrepentant sinners. And this man, the Lord had convicted
him of his sin. Yes, he did. Yeah, he did. The
Lord doesn't tell unrepentant sinners, your sins have forgiven
you. Right? And he did. He told this man. And I can just see him. I can
see him lying there. He's still paralyzed. He still
has the palsy. The Lord hadn't healed his body
yet. But man, he's healed it. I think he's smiling. I think
he's grinning from ear to ear. I think tears are running down
his face. I think it's the best news he's
ever heard in his entire life. I think he now thinks if he heals
my palsy, fine. If he doesn't, that'd be fine,
too. Because I'm forgiven. Sins are gone. I think if he
sung a song, he'd sing this. Did you hear what the Lord Jesus
said to me? They're all taken away, away. My sins are pardoned and I am
free. They're all taken away. They're all taken away, away. You reckon? You ever been guilty of anything
and had to face a court date? One time, my dad was in a serious
car wreck that he caused. He ran a red light. And he had
a car full of kids. He was a youth minister. And
if he'd have died, he'd have split hell wide open. And he'd
taken those kids with him. That's why he went everywhere
afterward, renouncing all his past religion. But he was in
his car wreck. He ran a red light. They was
all talking or whatever. And ran a red light and plowed
T-bone another car and just totaled that other car. Thankfully nobody
was hurt. He had a court date coming in. And his father went with him,
and time came for the court date. And you know, if you've gone
through it, he was waiting on this date. And it's just nerve-wracking.
His heart was just fearful. What's going to happen? What's
going to happen? They're going to put me in jail. What's going to happen
to me? What's going to happen to me? And he took his father
with him. His father went with him, and they were sitting there
in the back row of the court waiting on his death. case to
come up, and my dad said, I remember it like yesterday, he said, that
judge was throwing the book at people. He was so just. He was
just so rough, and he was throwing the book at people. Sentencing
people to jail right and left, he was showing no mercy practically. He said, the more I waited, the
more afraid I got. Trembling. I was literally trembling.
What's going to happen to me? And you know, Case after case
went by until finally everybody was gone but him and his dad
sitting on the back row. And the judge had his head looking
down like that and he looked up. He said, what can I do for
you all? Dad stood up. He said, my name's Henry May.
I'm scheduled to appear here. The judge went. Your name's not in here. There's
nothing in here. Your name's not here. Go on home. You're free to go. There's nothing
on the record. You know what dad said he did?
He said if he could have leaped a pew, he'd have left it. He
went out of that place forgiven. Forgotten. Blotted out. Nothing on the record. Clean. Clear. Over. That's what God does to every
sinner. You say, but Christ hasn't died
yet. Oh yeah, he's a lamb slain before the foundation of the
world. Because every Old Testament saint was saved by the blood
of the Lamb. Those Pharisees, you know what
they said? He's blaspheming. Who can forgive
sins but God alone? That's right. One more point. Our Lord said here in our text,
He said this, and this needs to be looked at. He said, Which
is easier? Is it easier to say, Thy sins
be forgiven thee, or to say, Rise up and walk? Which is easier? Which is easier? Forgive sins
or heal a man with a problem? Which is easier? Well, it's easy
to say. The Pope says it. The Pope says
that your sins are forgiven you, but they're not. He's a liar. He hasn't forgiven anybody. False
prophets say, be healed. But they're not. It's all on
me. But you know, our Lord said that
you may know, number one, that this is why I came. That this
is the most pressing need. That this is the only way that
sinners are forgiven. This is the only way that sins
are forgiven. One way. If I say the word. It's my word. It's my will. It's me. It's me saying it. Who
shall lay anything the charge of God's elect? It is God to
justify. Who can forgive sins but God
alone? That's right. So this one standing there was
God. Is God. He still is God. He's
not standing outside your door hoping you'll let him. He's seated
on the right hand of the majesty on high. But here's good news.
Every sinner, no matter how bad, Never, the chief of sins. You
look to him, you look in his face, like this man did, looking
up, pleading, hoping, will you have mercy on me? I need forgiveness. You know what he'll say? Freely
and frankly, man, thy sins be forgiven. In Matthew's gospel,
he said, the first thing he said was, son, son, be of good cheer. Cheer up. I got good news. Your sins are gone. Now, arise. Take up your bed and walk. But
he got sick of something, didn't he, Dan? He died of something.
He probably got bed fast again, didn't he? An old man. Couldn't
get out of bed. But his sins are gone. See that? That's our need, whether we know
it or not. That's our need. And it's God's
great mercy to show us that need. All right, let's sing number
477, 477.