Really feel yourself to be a
guilty sinner. Mercy. It's just a word. You know, our Lord said, you
know, your own mouths will condemn you. I'm just certain that there's
somebody in here who sang that song without realizing what they
were singing. I have long withstood his grace, long provoked him
to his face. I'm just certain that somebody
sung that without realizing what they were singing. We need mercy, don't we? That's
the reason we need mercy. The very things that we just
spoke. Mark Chapter 2. Turn with me
to Mark Chapter 2. Mark Chapter 2. Everybody has problems. We all have particular problems
that we feel like that if we could just get rid of a particular
problem, that everything might be all right. I don't know what
it is, what your problem may be, but we feel like that if
our problems, this particular problem, if we could have this
or have that or whatever, that our problems will be over. We
might be happy. I don't know what your needs
are, what you feel like your needs are. Many people feel like
their needs are financial needs. We all have financial needs,
but many of us feel like if we could just get out from under
this or that debt, that everything would be all right, don't we? The fact is, though, that we
would just incur more debt, get back under it. It's human nature. It's the way it is. But I think
it was my father-in-law one time that said, if you make $10,000
a year, it takes $10,000 to live on. If you make $100,000, it
takes $100,000 to live on. We use it. We use it. If we feel
like if we could get rid of a particular problem, if we could just get
out from under this or that debt, we feel like if we could just
find a better job, then we would be content. a place to work that
would be happy. But no, I don't know how many
jobs I've held, but a lot. And some of you have held a lot
of jobs, too. But after the newness wears off of one job, it gets
right back into a routine again, just like any other job. It's
always the case. Very rarely does anybody come
up with an occupation where they really, really do look forward
to going into work. But we feel that way, don't we?
If I just get a good job or get out from under dad and so forth.
And young people have this particular problem. Young people think that
if they could just get out of the house, get out from under
mom and dad, you know, get me a, if I could just get me an
apartment, get me a good job, you know, get me a nice car and
a good job and get me a pocket full of money, I've got it made. And they're going to realize,
dear Joe, that their problems are just begun. Just begun. Get out from under mom and dad
who's taking care of them and flipping the bill to pay them
themselves, problems are just starting. Or they may think,
young people may think, if I can just get married, I'll be so
happy. You married folks, tell them
about it. Problems may just be really starting then, especially
if you're married and unbelieving. then you don't know what, probably,
if you yourself are an unbeliever. But I tell you, it keeps breeding,
it keeps breeding, this thing of wanting this or wanting that.
If I just have this, will you get that? Or if I just have that.
Right? Right. Some of us, it's physical
problems. Some of us, the pain is, the
pain is severe. It is severe. Particularly older
people. The pain, the suffering you go
through in your bodies, it is. It's real. It's severe. Day by
day it's terrible and you think, if I could just be free of pain,
if I could just be free of pain, I'd be so happy. But no. Because after that one's gone,
another one's going to come. Why? We're dying. We're dying. We can't escape it, can we? No
way. Because old age, old age is bringing
on every affliction known to these bodies. Deafness, blindness,
arthritis, osteoporosis, you name it, we're headed for it.
And if we get rid of one problem, something else is going to occur.
Why? We're dying. All we can do is just numb the
pain. That's all we can do. So that's
not going to be the end of our problems. We're going to have
more. We're going to have more. A fellow came into my office
yesterday. I wish you could see and hear some of the things
that I do during the course of the day. I get a lot of visitors
over here, a lot of calls. A fellow came into the study
yesterday, and he was crippled. He was walking on a crutch, and
he had a withered hand. I don't know what it was, but
he was asking for help, for financial help. And he said he couldn't
work, he was on disability and so forth. But I thought, if only
he knew what he really needed. Now, he thought if he'd just
get his bills paid and so forth, that everything would be all
right. And I tried to tell him. I tried to talk to him about
it. about the one thing he needed, what he really needed, what he
really needed. I tried to, tried to talk to
him, but you know everybody has righteousness, don't they? Even
this guy, he's obviously a wild, you know him, obviously a very
wild fellow, but he said he knew God, and he didn't drink, didn't
smoke or anything. He's all right. He just needs
to pay a few bills. A preacher one time said this,
he said this, there's only one thing you really need, one thing. And if you could have
this, this one thing that you really need, you need to know
Christ. You need to know the true and
living God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. That's what I told
that young, that fellow. I said, silver and gold have
I none. This scripture came to my birth. I said, I don't have
much money. This church doesn't have much
money. But what we've got, we'll give unto you. You come out and
hear this gospel, and it'll really meet that need that you have.
You don't even know you've got. You need to know God. Oh, I know
God. But this preacher said that one thing we need is to know
Christ and his salvation. Somebody said, oh, he's probably
sitting in a leather chair behind a cherry desk, handmade cherry
desk, that preacher. Had a nice big car sitting outside,
a nice big home, a pretty wife sitting at home waiting on him,
and all his bills paid and so forth. That's probably who that
was that said that. No. No, it wasn't, either. The preacher, the man that said
that, was completely penniless. Had no home, no place to lay
his head. suffered immensely, more than
anybody will ever suffer, ever, as a man. Had no friends. Everybody
forsook him. No family. Hated, despised, sought
after to be killed by everybody. That man was a preacher. He was
the Lord Jesus Christ, Sue, that was. And he said that to a woman. He said that to a woman. She
was, one day she was sitting at his feet. And evidently, he
doesn't say much about this woman. We think that she was formerly
a notorious woman, perhaps a prostitute. We don't know if this is the
one or not. But he said to this woman, who apparently she didn't
have a husband or any children or much money or many pleasures
of this life. Apparently she didn't have much
either. But he said about her, he said, she's got it. She's got the one thing, Nate.
She got all she needs. And all she was doing was sitting
right there at his feet. She had everything, didn't she,
Terry? She had Christ. She knew that she was hearing
the voice of the Son of God. And that old boy that came in
my office, if he'd ever hear the voice of the Son of God,
his problems would be over. Here's one big problem. One big
problem. That's what I'm getting at. Look
here at Mark chapter 2 with me. If we get rid of our financial
problems, we'd still have physical problems, wouldn't we? If we
got out of debt, we'd still have aches and pains. And then you'd
give every penny you had to get out from under this pain. Right? Oh, it's a circle. It's a vicious
circle this life is in. Yeah, it is. And if you get old
and settled, you know, with all everything about you, grandchildren
and all that, You give every penny you had to be young again. Well, if all our problems were
solved, we'd still have this one great problem, this one great
need, this one terrible problem and affliction that's the source
of all our problems. Sin. Sin. Sin. This is the root and the
source of all our problems, isn't it? Sin. This is behind it all.
This is the blight upon mankind. This is this black plague that's
been plaguing mankind from the beginning. This is the source
of all our problems. And some people don't even know
it. They think, if I get rid of this, get rid of that, if
I can have this, have that, I'll probably be over. No! The big
problem, the source of it all, is with you all the time. Sin,
right? You mean God's punishing me because
of my sins? No. The whole human race is suffering
because of sin. This principle, this evil principle
of sin. The scripture says your sins
have separated you from God. Yes. You're suffering because
of that. But sin is this evil principle
and characteristic Within every one of us, it makes us suffer,
makes us want, and heap upon ourselves, and when we get it,
we want more. It keeps us unsatisfied. Sin, sin. Listen to these scriptures. By one man, sin entered into
the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men, for all had sinned. By one man's offense, death reigned. Death reigned. By the offense
of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. And that
one man, you know the story, that one man was Adam. Adam,
the first man. Because of what happened to him
in that garden, we now suffer all these things. We suffer because
of this sin issue. This sin. So what happened? I'm
not going to take it for granted. Everybody here understands it.
Maybe somebody didn't care. I don't know. But what happened?
Well, in that garden, God said, I'm God. God made man. He said,
I'm God, and he planted a tree there that was typical of his
sovereign power over man. He said, you can have anything
in this garden, but don't touch that tree, because I reign and
rule, not you. I reign and rule. Don't touch
the tree. If you eat of that tree, if you
touch that tree, you die. Well, what did Adam do? Was it
a simple thing like, well, it looks good, you know? Oh, it
can't be that harmful. Take a bite of an apple, a simple
bite of an apple? Which our generation would make
us think that's all it was? No. What Adam did was he sinned
and came short of the glory of God. In other words, he said,
I'll not have God reign over me. I want to be in charge and
I have a free will. God has no right to reign over
me like that. I'm in charge of my own destiny.
Who does he think he is? That's not fair. Why should he
withhold this from me? Who does he think? I'm there. There. And so God, the wrath
and the judgment of God came down upon him, and it came through
us. You say, well, that's not fair. He can't hold me accountable.
God can't punish me for what Adam did. He's not. says, all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. In other words, you have not
glorified God. That's what the handwriting on
the wall said, meanie, meanie, take thou. Weighed in the balances
and found warning that God in whose hands your breath is, you
have not glorified, the scripture said. Now give a thought to God. Does God need a better reason
to put anybody in hell than in gratitude and not giving a thought
to him? Perhaps on Sunday morning or Wednesday night, does he?
We've sinned and come short of the glory of God. In other words,
didn't like to think about God. Didn't give any thought to God.
Did not like to retain God in our knowledge. No, go on our
merry way, playin' around in this world. Forget God. We'll remember Him every now
and then. Right? Sin. Sin. And that's not all. This sin, this problem, It's
either going to be taken care of now, or we're going to live
with it from now on. We think we got problems now.
It's the reason I'm talking about the seriousness of what we're
going through. We think we got problems now. We think we just
have this, just have that. It's coming to time. Some people,
when they don't have this problem taken care of, they don't realize
what problems are. This is the reason I say this
is a serious problem. This is the one thing needful.
This is the one problem we've got to be taking care of, Stan,
isn't it? And sad to say some people don't
even know they've got the problem. So therefore they're not seeking
to get rid of it. They're working all they can
to get rid of financial problems and physical problems, to obtain
this and that and the other, but not this problem. which the
scripture says, seeking you'll find, searching with all your
heart does. Look here, sin is this problem,
and it will be with us for all eternity. You think we're suffering
now? You think you're without now? Unless something happens. Well, the world hurts. Now, hell is unreal. You know,
people don't preach on hell. I don't preach much on hell,
because I don't know much about it. Scripture doesn't say much. Christ
himself talked about it more than anybody. But it's a reality. It's a reality. And unless this
problem is taken care of, unless, and we're hurting, but look here at the story. This
is the very story here. I turned right over to this.
After that fellow left my study in God's providence, I turned
right to this scripture. I wasn't looking for it. I didn't
have it on my mind. I was just flipping through the
Bible, and it's open right here to this. When that fellow left
my study, it's amazing, the Lord's providence. Now, if this doesn't
speak to you, it speaks to me. I hope it does. Look at it with me, Mark chapter
2, verse, let's begin with verse 1. Again, now he entered into
the companion. This is that same preacher I
was telling you about a while ago. Same preacher. It says chapter
1, verse 14, he came preaching. Verse 38, it says that I must
preach. Christ was a preacher. Unless
we despise preachers, you despise this preacher, you get tired
of hearing this preacher. Christ himself was a preacher. He was
a preacher, and this preacher, everywhere he went, he attracted
a crowd. He entered into the compendium,
and after some days it was noise that he was in the house. They
heard he was here. This was Peter's house. Peter,
this is funny if you go back and look at it. Peter, the first
several weeks or however long that the Lord started preaching,
everything went on in his house. I mean, people would just come
and swarm in his house from all over. I'm sure Peter, Peter didn't
know what was going on. I'm sure he thought, look at
all these people in his house. But at any rate, you have to
look at it to appreciate that they swarmed his house. Well,
he was in the house, Peter's house. And straight away, many
were gathered together. Now, we don't have a very big
crowd here, but we've got a few here. But there wasn't any room
to receive them. No, not so much as about the
door. And he preached unto them, preached the word to them. A
big crowd. Here they were, all gathered
together. This preacher was talking. He was talking. You know who
this preacher was? I wish I knew more about him.
This was God. This was God Almighty in the
body of a man. God Almighty. He came to do something
for me. He came to do something for us.
The message that I'm proclaiming this morning is to do something
for us, but yet we spit on it, in effect, like they did. Spit in God's face. God came
to save. Spit in their face, His face.
What do we do? The message is the message of
our salvation, the message of relief, the message of comfort,
of eternal life. What do we do? That's what we
do when we go on our way and forget it. Forget about it. Live our lives as if it didn't
exist. That's what we're doing, spitting.
Don't need that. God brought this earth to do
something for me, to do something for me. Oh, He fed many people. He fed a lot of thousands of
people. He healed a lot of people. He
healed blind people. He healed deaf people. He healed
lame people, people sick with diseases and all. He even raised
the dead. Wonderful things He did. God
does wonderful things for us right now that feeds us, closes
us. But that's not what He came for.
That's not why He came. He said the Son of God has come
to seek and to save. He came to save. He didn't come
to heal. He came to save. He said the
poor you have with you always. What if He had healed? People
say, The Catholic Church has done more for the poor than any
other. Christ said, the poor you have with you always. If
Christ would have healed every lame or sick man that was on
the face of the earth at that time, after he left, there'd
be somebody else to take care of. That wouldn't have taken
care of the problem. That wasn't the problem, was
it? If he'd have fed all the poor of all the world after he
was gone, they'd still be hungry, wouldn't they? Right? That wasn't
the problem, was it? And that's not our problem. You
don't need to meet a girl. We don't need to have a good
job. We need to meet the Savior. That's who we need to meet. That's
who we need to know. That's the problem. We've got
this sin problem within us. We don't even know we have. Christ
said, the poor you have with you always. Why didn't he heal
all sickness and take away all poverty? Because that's not the
problem. If that had been the problem, he'd have taken care
of it, wouldn't he? But that wasn't the problem. You take
away the pain of cancer with morphine, you're going to die
of a disease, right? We need to have the disease cut
out of us, don't we? Well, look at this. Look at this.
Ironically, God's providence, this passage of Scripture came
to me, verse 3. Well, they came unto him, here's
this big crowd, and they came unto him bringing one sick of
the palsy. Here this man came. They came
bringing this man sick of the palsy. And I don't know how tough
this is. I don't have palsy. I don't have cerebral palsy.
I don't have an affliction. I'm very healthy right now. I
don't know how tough it is. But I do know somebody does.
You say you can't talk about it. Yeah, I can. I know somebody
that has palsy. I know somebody that has muscular, multiple sclerosis. He's wasting away to nothing.
Doctors say it's going to get worse to where he can finally
bed fast and can't move an inch. Some of you may know him, John
Houseman. You know what he said? Now here this man is confined
to a wheelchair. He can't get him a good job.
His wife left him. His wife of 25 years took his
daughter and left him when he got multiple sclerosis. He was
real happy, real content. He had a good job, Air Force,
designed the airplanes and so forth, brilliant man, tall, six
foot two. He's sitting in a wheelchair.
Can't move a slurred speech. Can't hardly move at all. Have
to have somebody take care of it. You know what he said? He said, I thank God I've got
multiple sclerosis. He said, if I didn't have this,
I'd have never heard the gospel. He didn't have any problems. Oh, he had problems, but he didn't
have this problem. And he realized what the problem
was. Well, this old boy didn't. This poor, this sick of the palsy,
he didn't know. Neither did his buddies. They
wanted him healed. They brought him. Here this fellow.
They brought him down there. He was bed-fast, crippled, probably
for years. Bad shape, terrible affliction,
problem. He wanted more than anything
to be healed. He went to great extremes to get it, didn't he? And his buddies, this must have
been his brothers or his cousins or somebody's neighbors or whatever,
they wanted to get him healed. They heard about this healer
down there. Let's get him down there. If
he can just be healed, his problems are over. You're going to find
out later on that his problems just started. Well, look at it. Well, they couldn't come nigh
to him, verse 4, because of the press. There's so many people
that couldn't get to him. What are we going to do? We can't
get to him. We can't get him. They couldn't, so they, boy,
you're talking about delicate. They uncovered the roof. They
got him up on the roof. Now, how hard was it for four
men to get this man on a stretcher, on a bed, up on this roof? Got
him up on the roof, and then they started tearing the roof
apart. Well, Peter thought, what in the world are they doing?
They're tearing my house apart. What's going on here? that they
tore the roof apart. Uncovered the roof where he was,
and when they'd broken it up, they let him down. We got him
down. There he is! There he is! The healer! Got
him down there in front of him. He lay there, and the crowd stops.
You know, Christ was speaking. I'm sure he went. Everybody stopped. Quiet. And I'm sure the guys on the
roof, you know, were going, oh, he's going to get rid of me.
And this man lay there by the trampoline looking at the Lord.
Look what happened. Verse 5. When Jesus saw their
faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be
forgiven thee. Is this having significance to
you? I'm sure of this man. Now, he
can't get healed. He'd lay in there, and the Lord
said, Son, here it comes. And his buddies, here it comes!
And everybody's going to heal him. Their sins are forgiven. What's going on
here? He gave this man the best gift
he could ever give him. He didn't know anything about
it, unless that means something to you. Your sins hadn't been
forgiven yet. You see what I'm saying? This man heard the greatest news
he could hear in his entire life, throughout eternity. Those words
rang in his ears throughout eternity. I remember when. When what? When you were healed? No, I remember
vaguely something about that, getting up and walking. I remember
when he said to me, the sin to God. The sin to God. But yet many people thought this
is what the scribes, look at it, verse 6. A certain scribe
sitting there reasoning in their heart, oh wait a minute here. Wait a minute, sins? He didn't
come to get his sins. He came to be healed. They told
that to me at that funeral of Roger, remember? This preacher. I preached the funeral, first
funeral I ever preached. There was a young man who was a believer,
and his brother died the very same day. His brother wasn't
a believer. And this Methodist preacher got me off the side,
right before the service, and he said, now, he said, now, let's
not preach a revival here. Let's not preach a revival here. I'll say a few good things."
And that's what he did. He bragged on that man. I tried
to preach the gospel. The gospel. And that's what the... You can come to be... We didn't
come to... I told Todd Nybert that one time when he preached
the funeral of his mother-in-law. He preached the gospel. Talked
about sin. And the preacher, somebody came
up to him afterwards and said, we didn't come to get saved. We came to a funeral. Oh, if they'd only gotten saved
and hadn't come to a funeral. Right? Right. But this man didn't come to be
saved. He came to be healed. But he
got a healing he didn't know he needed. The Lord did heal
him on top of that. But he took away the source of
the problem, this sickness he didn't know he had. He got rid
of his sin as only the Lord could. Now I want you to look at how
wonderful this is and how enlightening this is upon the gospel of sovereign
grace. I want you to look at this. They
said these scribes and these Pharisees, You know, the wrath
of man will praise him on it there. They said, verse 6, they
reasoned in their hearts, and they said, verse 7, this man
blasphemes. Who can forgive sins but God
only? That old boy was a sovereign
gracer and didn't know it, wasn't he? How right they were. I wish
more religious scribes and Pharisees knew that. Don't you, Rick? None
can forgive sins but God only. Right? God only. That's what he was saying, didn't
know it was salvations of the Lord. See, it's God, and here
it is, in short. God is the one that's been offended,
just for rehearsing in our mind. God is the one that's been offended.
We don't make peace, our peace with God? No, He's got to make
it, doesn't He? He's got to reconcile you to
himself, John. He's got to, since he was the
one offended, he's got to be the one to say, I forgive you.
It's not man, it's not in man's decision to say, I accept you.
No, no, no. Who can forgive sins but God
only, right? We can't just say, I've decided
to let God forgive me. That's ridiculous, isn't it? God's the one that's been offended,
he's the one that's going to have to pronounce forgiveness.
Very simple, very simple. It's not man's decision. And
since God is life, he's the only one that can give life to dead
sinners, right? Since God alone is good and holy, only what God
does matters. Only what Christ did, establishing
that righteousness and satisfied justice, only what he did. So
that's the reason God came in the person of Jesus Christ, to
do for us what we couldn't do for ourselves, because none can
forgive sin. We can't forgive our own sin.
We can't work for it, can we? We can't earn it. We can't earn
favor and acceptance with God. Who can forgive sins but God
only? So God came down in the person
of a man to forgive man's sins. This is the wisdom of God, the
wisdom of the gospel. He came down to do for us what
we couldn't do for ourselves, to live a holy life, a righteous
life that God demanded. He lived, he was made under the
law that he made. He subjected himself to the same
law. That's the reason hell is eternal,
because it's against an eternal God. But Christ could, because
of who he was. He suffered on that cross eternal
agony. I don't know how, but he did,
didn't he? He suffered eternal agony for God's wrath against
sin. Only God could have done it,
John. Only an infinite sacrifice could fulfill, could suffice
for our infinite sin. And then he arose from that grave,
triumphant and victorious and successful, job finished. And
by virtue of all that, he forgives sins. He can up and just say,
it's not by what we did. It's not even by our faith. Now
listen to me. Who can forgive sins but God
only? God only. Now listen to this. People ignorantly think that
God has Providential power, they say, talk about God being sovereign.
They give him power over, well, what? What do they give God power
over? Thunder. Thunder, that's God,
you know. Lightning. Earthquake. No, no, they attribute that to
the devil, don't they? Earthquake. God wouldn't kill
people, no way. What do they? What do they attribute? Some kind of power. They say
he made this thing. Good Christians say he made this
thing. Anyway. Providential power but not salvation
will that no they won't have that wouldn't no way nobody attributes
salvation a man to God. Except people who really believe.
I can get forgive sins but God only but they say you know he
can he can. Raise a man from the dead but
he unless that man lets him save him he can't save him. Like that old man told that young
preacher, you know, he said, God trying to save me and I won't
let him. He trusts him in hell. I won't
let him do that either. That's about how absurd it is, isn't
it? It really is. But people say this, we've got
to have faith. Faith has something to do with it. No, no, wait a
minute. No, it doesn't. Look at the story
here. Here's the marvelous part of this story here. This is what
he's saying here. This man's sins were forgiven. before he knew he had any. Let
me say it again. This man's sins were forgiven
before he knew he had any. He didn't come to have his sins
forgiven, did he? But Christ just up and said,
your sins are gone. What does that sound like to you?
Sounds like sovereign grace to me. He didn't know he had any
sins. He didn't know he had any. He
came to be healed. He was angry at the problem,
wasn't he? But Christ said, you've got a problem you don't know
about. It's gone. It's gone. Gone. It is? Do you see that? That's every
one of us. Every one of us. In God's eternal
plan of salvation, our sins were gone before we knew we had any.
And what does faith do? Does faith save us? No, faith
just up and one day realizes what he's done. That's what faith
is, God revealing to you what he's already done. It doesn't
save you, it just makes you realize, hey, I've been saved. Does that
make sense? You know, look at what he says
here in verse Verse 8, he says immediately when Jesus perceived
in his spirit that they reasoned within themselves, he said to
them, why reason ye these things in your heart? Which is easier?
Which is easier to say the sycopause of your sins are forgiven or
say get up and walk? Which is easier? Which is easier
to generate life or to regenerate? You mean it's harder for God
to, you know, God can create a universe? Out of nothing, just done. A
universe. But yet, Joe, he can't break
your will. Which is easier, tougher, or
what men say, he can't. It's up to you. God can't. He's
done all he can do. Now it's up to, gracious sakes,
which is easier? To me, if he did this by the
word of his power, it seemed like to me it would be a whole
lot easier for him to say, believe me. And Henry does. That seems pretty easy to me.
You know, I can fairly well convince my daughter of some things. My
wisdom, my power, my authority and all. You better do this or
else, and she'll do it, buddy. Right? That's pretty easy. I can't create a thing. Right? I can't make nothing. Which is easier. Christ is mocking
these fellows. Which is easier, to raise him
off his bed or raise him under newness of life? And then he goes and says, well,
that you might know that I've got power. Look at it. Look at it, verse 9, he says,
he said, well, verse 8, he says, why reason these things in your
heart? Which is easier, to say your sins are forgiven or to
say rise up and take your bed and walk? But that you may know
that the Son of Man have power on earth to forgive sin. So you'll
know the Son of Man has power. Terry, that's faith. You know
where this power lies. You know that God has put all
authority and power in His hand. This is eternal life, that you
may know. This is what the gospel says. This is why the gospel
says it, that you may know that you have eternal life and are
passed into God's heaven through Christ. It is he that you may
know that all power and authority is given unto Christ, things
in earth and things in heaven. That it's he that sitteth on
the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as
grasshoppers. That it's he that doeth according
to his will in the armies of heaven among the inhabitants
of the earth, and none can stay his hand and say unto him, What
doest thou? That you may know where your
salvation is. That's what the gospel says,
right? That's the reason the gospels break and we preach the
same gospel as he preached in the gospel right there that you
may know that I have power. And they said it out of their
own mouths condemned them didn't it who can forgive sins but God
only right you are old boy and that you may know that the son
of man has power over all flesh all life is in his hands God's
son and he said and I'll just do this while I'm at it. Verse
11, he said, take your bed up. All power is given unto me, spirit
and flesh, but the real problem lies in the spirit. The real
problem, this is what I came, my kingdom is not of this world.
Else I'd have come riding in on a white horse, and I'd have
healed at my golden scepter, healing, vanquishing all evil,
and setting up my kingdom, and happiness, and joy, and food,
and prosperity for all." No. Pain, sorrow. He said, in this
world, tribulations, suffering, pain. Why? His kingdom, Lord,
of this world. He didn't come to set up this
kingdom of this world. He came to set up a spiritual
one and set it up in your heart, that you may know what real power
is. Someday we're going to know,
Terry, aren't we? Even as we've been known. We're going to know
what was our real... We don't even know that now.
Some of us who believe the gospel, and the Lord has revealed himself
to, we know a little bit about it. We just know from poverty.
We feel a little bit of peace, a little bit of excitement about
the gospel, a little love for it, you know, a little enthusiasm.
This ain't much, is it? Well, someday. Hannah said, you
know, we I meant to say this the other night when we got to
Florida. Remember that illustration I
gave? Driving in the car and I said, I'll tell you when we
get there. When we got there, we crossed the line. I said,
Hannah, we're here. You remember what she said? I
look back and she was doing this. She said, I'm so excited, got
tears in my eyes. And we're going to be so excited someday. We're going to be so
excited. And we're going to be singing.
That's the reason, in light of all this, in light of who it
was that got us there and what it took, we're going to be singing
unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins, His own blood.
You're not going to sing about me or Mama. No. Don't be too excited to see Him,
you know. There he is. There he is. He's
the one. He got me there. Daddy did it, didn't he? Daddy
took you to Florida. My father, it's going to take
me to heaven. Well, he said, rise, take up
your bed, go your way into your house. And immediately he arose. There was 12 and took up the
bed and went forth before them all. When is a man saved? This is what I'm getting at,
really. When is a man saved? Wait, when he believes? No. No. That's just the realization
of it. That's just the manifestation
of it. Right? That's just the revelation of
it. Right? We're saved when God says so. Salvation's of the Lord. Who
can forgive sins but God only? When is a man saved? When God
says, you're saved. Right? Right. When does a man
say, when God says so, when Christ came down and lived and died?
We weren't around when that took place. People say that, don't
they, about Adam. I wasn't around when Adam sinned.
Well, you weren't around when Christ died, either. When does a man
say? When the Holy Spirit comes and
reveals it to him. They're justified, or faith just
acknowledges really what God has already done, and God gives.
Well, you say, well, what about repentance? Man's got to repent.
Goodness, if God leads a man to repentance, it's all of God
into Henry. Who can forgive sins but God
only? None. Only God. Salvation is
up the lower. We say this every time we get
up here, don't we? That you may know. We say it to you, that
you may know that you have eternal life. Well, this man took his
bed up. You know, he didn't realize it,
though. He didn't realize that he was taking up his cross, too.
He said, take up your bed, and he went before the mosque. Now,
he probably thought my troubles are over, didn't he? He started jumping and hollering,
you know, carrying that bed. All right. Look at this. He went
out and said, look what they've done. And here comes some old
pies, Southern Baptist fellow. I'm sorry, Nazarene or whatever. He said, and this guy was giving
God all the glory. Christ saved me! Christ saved
me! He healed me! He did it all! He did it all!
I said, wait a minute, wait a minute. I've got to find something here. He couldn't deny it. A notable
miracle had been done. He couldn't deny it. I said,
wait a minute, wait a minute here. You can't carry your bed. Yes, it's Saturday. Today's Saturday,
you can't be carrying you can't be a child of God. Look what
you're doing there. You can't be. Don't you know that man stopped
carrying? What? He had to be thrown that bed
at him. That's the reason Christ said
nothing but hard words for these self-righteous religious Pharisees,
wasn't it? bind heavy burdens upon people
that you yourself don't bear, didn't he? That's what he said.
He didn't know it, you know, but you see, that's what I'm
trying to say here. The point I'm trying to make
here, even though his physical problems were over for a time
being, his real problems had begun. His biggest problem was
met. His sins were gone, justified,
accepted with the Holy God. And on top of that, he had physical
health. But now, Christ said, now you're
really going to suffer. In this world, you shall have
tribulations. Be of good cheer. I hope we'll come. You know,
you see what I'm saying? So if he got a hold of what Christ
did, I'm sure he did. Christ revealed himself to him.
That, taking up that bed was was a very minor thing to him. But having his sins forgiven,
having his sins forgiven was the glory. And look at verse
12 again. It says, They were all amazed
and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.
Salvation on this fashion. Remember old Nebuchadnezzar saying,
Salvation after this sort. A God who is able to deliver
after this sort. Two thousand years later. They
say it again, we never saw it after this sort, after this fame. We never heard a message like
this. I thought somebody was going to be here, a man that
stopped by yesterday, another man, I had two visits, and he
said he was going to come. This may be for somebody else.
But I just know he's never heard it after this sort. Never heard
a message like this. A lot of people have never heard
a message like this. A message how that God chooses us, not
vice versa. How that God Takes away your
big problem and then gives you a lot of other ones. Wait a minute,
that doesn't make sense to me. It makes spiritual sense. How
that Christ has all power and actually puts away sin. Never
heard it like this. Never heard it like that. How
a man is really saved. I'll tell you what we call it
here. John Newton called it first. He called it grace. Amazing grace. They were all amazed at sin and
glorified God. This is the only gospel, the
only message that really glorifies God, isn't it? That's how you
can tell the truth, isn't it? And you can examine two messages,
and that's how you tell which one gives God all the glory.
And some of you, that you know the Son of God has power, and
only He can forgive sins. You know that. You're amazed,
and you glorify God for a salvation after this. in this fashion.
It's the old fashion, really. It's not new. It's old. It's
old as the hill. God was talking about this a
long time ago. He said, somebody's coming. Somebody's coming. Didn't
he? Well, let's stand and sing a
song. Let's see that song. Joe, would
you come up here and leave us in this for 4.49? to God be the glory, great things
He hath done. To God be the glory, great things
we have done. So loved He the world, and He
gave us His Son. And He who did His life had a
cause to worship And opened a life gate that all may go in Praise
the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the earth
hear His voice Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the people rejoice O come
to the Father, through Jesus the Son, and give Him the glory,
great things He hath done. O perfect redemption, the purchase
of God, To every believer the promise of God, A vowless submission
to truly believe. Atonement from Jesus, a pardon
received. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
let the people rejoice. O come to the Father, to Jesus
the Son. And give Him the glory, great
things He hath done. Thank you, and you're dismissed.