I pray tonight and hope that the Lord will make us see why we have no reason to fear. That passage there, I just kept hearing the Lord over and over say, fear not, fear not. I will. You fear not. I will. He's our power. He's the strength. And that's what we're going to see in this passage. And I pray the Lord would make us know really know that we have no reason to fear when we trust the Lord. Luke 5, this is the passage where our Lord was preaching.

And all of a sudden, you can just imagine the scene. There's a noise on the rooftop and they pull back everything that was in the way and they made a hole in the roof. and they lower down their friend who's paralyzed, they lower him down right there, just like if somebody come in here and open the roof, and they lower him down right there in front of them.

And the Lord told this man, thy sins be forgiven thee. And the Pharisees and the doctors of the law were thinking, they were just thinking, This man's blaspheming. None but God can forgive sin. And he knew their thoughts. And he said, which is easier, to say thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say rise up and walk?

This man's paralyzed. He said, but that you will know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sin. I say unto thee, arise. Take up thy bed, take up thy couch and go to thy house. This man immediately rose up and the people were amazed. They were amazed. I want to point out just a couple of things here to you before we get going.

Look here at verse 15. At the end there it says, and the power of the Lord was present to heal them. to you that are called, Christ is the power of God. And then in verse 21 at the end, when the Lord declared this man's sins were forgiven, the Pharisees said this, verse 21 at the end, they said, who can forgive sins but God alone? They were absolutely right. Verse 24, he knew their hearts and notice how he answered.

He said, but that you may know that the Son of God, he doesn't say that. He says, but that you may know that the Son of Man hath power upon earth to forgive sin. This passage is declaring that that man who people take his name so flippantly, Jesus, that man, the Son of Man, is God.

He is God, the Son of God and the Son of Man in one person, the God-Man Mediator. That's who He is. He's the power of God who reconciled fallen, chosen sinners to God. He reconciled us to God by justifying us. And then He comes to us Because he's the son of man, he knows how to deal with us. And he comes to us and he teaches his people what he did for us. And he makes us quit fighting God and makes us be reconciled to God. So he's the son of God and he's the son of man, representing God and man. And he brings us together in one in him. One with God, God one with us in Christ Jesus. That's what he does. And he's the only one that has the power to do that. He's the only one with the power to do that. I titled this, The Power of the Son of Man. The Power of the Son of Man.

You know what we're gonna see in this passage? We're gonna see what Isaiah declared. This is a prophecy. He said, behold, your God shall come. That's who he is, the son of man is God come. And he'll save you. And he said, and when he's done that, he said, and then shall the lame man leap as a heart.

And we're gonna see that happen right here. We're gonna see our natural condition. And then we're gonna see the power of the son of man. And then we're gonna see the sure result, the sure result. First of all, every man's natural condition is seen right here in this passage. It says in verse 17, he was teaching and there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by.

By nature, every man in this world thinks he's a pretty good authority on who God is. It's amazing how few people there are that will say, I don't know who God is. You won't hardly run into anybody that says that. Most everybody thinks they know God, and most will tell you, I know I'm saved because I, and they'll tell you what they did.

I prayed through. I let God save me. I accepted GI. These men didn't come to the Lord Jesus because they didn't think they had a need to come to the Lord Jesus. They had made themselves religious. What did they need with him? By nature, all God's elect are just like this. We come into this world, Pharisees, self-righteous, self-saving men, and thinking we know God and it's just the God of our imagination. We don't know the God of this book, and we don't have a need of him because we don't think we're sinners by nature. The Lord Jesus has to intervene.

He has to. He has to do for us what he's gonna do for this lame man. And all are just like this lame man. He was paralyzed in his body. We're paralyzed in our soul. We're paralyzed in spirit. We cannot come to God. Will not come to God. Will not come to Christ. Will not do it. Can't do it. We have a palsy of the spirit. We're dead in sins. cannot move. This man was paralyzed. And that's where we are today, we're paralyzed. Like a dead man, can't do anything. The same way this man couldn't come to Christ on his own, we can't come to Christ on our own.

Every sinner who comes to Christ is drawn by the Son of Man. We're drawn by the power of the Son of Man. That's how any sinner comes to Lord Jesus. And those that do come will tell you that so. Will tell you that so. You might say, well, this man's friends brought him.

Who gave them faith? Who gave them the spiritual understanding to know he's the Christ, he's the Savior? Who gave them faith to believe he could heal their friend? No, it was the Lord who drew this man. The power of the Lord put it in their hearts to bring their friend to this man.

This is what Christ declared. He said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. You're never gonna see Christ turn away from one that truly came to him. As we go through these scriptures, you'll never see him do that. And he said, no man can come to me except the father which sent me draw him. And somebody will say, wait, you said the son of man draws him. It says the father draws him. Yep.

The son of man and God are one. He is God. He is God. And so that's our condition, we're dead by nature, we're religious by nature, we're Pharisees and doctors of the law by nature, but it's all in ignorance, vain imagination, and we're paralyzed and unable to come to the true God, the true Lord Jesus.

Now, next let's see the power of the Son of Man. Let's see his power. The Lord Jesus is the Son of Man, he's called that Referring to him as a man. He's the son of David the son of Abraham after the flesh meaning he came through their genealogy The son of man is the power of God To make us hear the gospel you see there in verse 17 the Lord was teaching he was preaching It's what he was doing when this happened. And that's important because it pleased God to save by the foolishness of preaching. And Christ is the power of God. When you're called, you know the power of our Lord did it. You know the Son of Man did it. But it's not the preacher. It's not just preaching. It's not the preacher. The excellency of the power is of God, not of us.

The Lord Jesus has to speak. Look here, it says in the parentheses down in verse 24, he said unto the sick of the palsy. He said, he spoke. And then it says, note these words, he said, I say unto thee, arise, take up thy couch and go into thine house. Power came with those words. When he gave that command, it came in power. And that man was healed and he arose.

That's 1 Corinthians 1, the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But it's not foolishness to you who he's called. To you who he's called, this preaching of this gospel is the power of God. And the reason it is, is because to them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God. you know he's the one that called you. That's why it's so dishonoring to the Lord for a sinner, a man, to say that he made himself come to the Lord, or he did something to get saved. That's why it's so dishonoring, because the Lord is the power to call his people. The faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, by this written word, by him speaking the word, and by the spirit of God coming in power and making you hear the word.

That's how we're brought to Christ. That's how we come. That's how we come. Now, the Son of Man is the power of God to forgive sins. He said in verse 20, he said, man, thy sins be forgiven thee. This is mercy, this is compassion. That's what this is. They brought this man to be healed in body. He's paralyzed. They brought him to be healed in body. And the Lord healed him eternally, spiritually.

The Pharisees were right. They hated Christ. They wouldn't come to Christ, but what they said was right. They said, only God can forgive sins. And they were absolutely right. And when the Lord answered them, He didn't say, I am God. He didn't say, you're right, and I am God. He said, but that you may know that the Son of Man hath power to forgive sin. He's declaring here, brethren, that He's a real man, but He's really God.

He's all God and all man in one person. Now, this is interesting. I found this out this week, and I had not noticed this before. Here, he said, man, thy sins are forgiven thee. Matthew and Mark record it, and he said, son, thy sins are forgiven thee.

The son of God, he's the son of God. He's one with God the Father. And as the son of man, he's one with his people who are men. He's one with his people. He's the God-man mediator. And he brings holy God and men together. As God, who is one with the Father and choosing this man before the world began, that was his son. So he said, son, thy sins be forgiven thee. As the son of man, who is one with his brethren, who came to save his people who are men. That's the purpose of him saying here he's a man. He came to do for men what men couldn't do for ourselves. And when I say men, you ladies know I'm talking about man. I'm not just talking about men.

But he came to do for us sinners what we could not do for ourselves, so he took flesh. and he's the only one that brings us together in one. How could he say thy sins be forgiven thee? How does he have that power? We saw before when we looked at the leper, it says he healed him so it could be said that he bore our sins and he bore our sicknesses in his body on the tree. And that's again what we have here. The way he could say, thy sins be forgiven thee, is because he represented God, and on behalf of God, holy God, he had to do something for God, and he did. He came down and honored God's law by the cross, so that God is just to be merciful to us, so that God's just to say to us, your sins are forgiven.

They were put away in perfect righteousness, in a way perfectly just. And that's the first thing he was doing. And he reconciled all his elect to God by that. He restored that which he took not away. We took it away, but he restored it, though he didn't take it away. He bore the sin, he bore the curse, he did that. But first and foremost, he did that for God.

So God's just. And at the same time, as the Son of Man, He's God's elect. He's representing all His people. By that I mean, He's the only one God's looking to. It's Him. And everything He did, He did for this man, and He did for His people. How do you know that? Because He said, Thy sins be forgiven thee. He saved this man. This is one of His elect. And everything he did, he did for this man, just like he did it for every other elect child.

And he justified us. He made us righteous in his righteousness. And then he comes to me and you, and he speaks to our heart, and he makes us to know what he's done for us. And he brings us to quit fighting God, and he brings us to come humbly before God, believing that Christ is our reason, God will receive us. That's what he did. He represented him. He did a work for God and he did a work for his people, for men. And it made us one.

And you know how he makes us quit fighting against God? He comes to us and he makes you to know, when he says your sins are forgiven, he teaches you how they're forgiven. He teaches you something of what I just declared, and he makes you to know the very God who we were angry at, our carnal mind was enmity against him, the very God we hated, sent his only begotten son for us. And the very Lord Jesus, we were like the Pharisees sitting by, scorning, nothing to do with him, we don't need him. And that very Lord Jesus went to the cross and bore our sins. And he comes to each elect child personally and makes you know he bore your sin personally.

Put it away. That's what melts. He said, I'll give you a heart of flesh. That's what gives you a feeling heart, a spirit that's broken and contrite, is to see the very God you rejected, the very Christ that you would have nothing to do with, did it all for you, and then had the compassion and mercy to come and tell you and reveal it and give you faith to believe. Thy sins are forgiven thee.

All right, the Son of Man is power in that he knows the hearts of his people. He knows our heart. He knows it. He knows what we need, and he knows before we ever even ask him, he knows. They brought this paralyzed man to be healed in body, but the Lord knew their heart.

He saw their faith. Look in verse 20, when he saw their faith, He said unto him, man, thy sins are forgiven thee. He saw their faith in more than what they did to get that man there. He saw their heart. How do you know? Because he put it there. He gave them that heart and he gave them that faith. And he drew them to do what they did. And he knew the heart. He knew the heart.

I'm sure there's been hundreds of messages preached that focus on those men and their faith, and bringing their friend to Christ. I'm sure there's been a lot of messages preached on that. I don't believe that's the focus of this passage. And when you talk about their faith, which is a good thing to talk about, but you have to say this, the Son of Man gave it to them. The Son of Man is the power who gave them that life, and He is that life. It's the object of their faith that did the work. Christ Jesus, he's the one that drew them, and he's the one that sustained them, and he's the one who saw that heart and honored the faith that he gave. He did that. And don't miss this either, brethren.

He knows the hearts of his enemies who are not his. He said there in verse 21, it says, the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason. Saying who is this which speaketh blasphemies who can forgive sins, but God alone. They're not saying that out loud They're just reasoning But when Jesus the son of man perceived their thoughts He answering said of them what reason ye in your hearts He knew their heart to brethren leave your enemies with Christ leave them to Christ Leave your enemies to Christ. He knows their hearts better than you know their hearts. He knows their hearts better than you know their hearts. And you never know, they might be one of his elect. Saul of Tarsus was.

If you'd have seen him, you'd have thought, that's an enemy of Christ. But he was Christ. Christ died for him. Father loved him from eternity. So pray for your enemies. Don't try to Go toe-to-toe with an enemy of the Lord. You leave them with Christ. He knows their hearts. He knows their heart. The Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, and He proved it because He also has power to heal physically. He can heal physically.

It says here in verse 23, He asked them, whether it is easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Rise up and walk? We're so backwards, brethren. To us, what do you think's easier? To us, it's easier just to say, thy sins be forgiven thee. It's a lot harder to say to a paralyzed man, rise up and walk, and him actually do it. That's the way we think.

But brethren, our Lord is proving He is the power to do the greater, to forgive sins. That's the greater thing. He's the power to forgive sin, and he shows us that by the lesser. He's the power to heal this man and make him walk. And so that's what he did. That's what he did.

He said in verse 24, he said, but that you may know that the Son of Man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, that he's answering that question. He's saying, I know you think it's easy to say your sins are forgiven, but so that you know that I have power to forgive sin, he said to the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, arise and take up thy couch and go into thine house. And immediately he rose up before them and took up that whereon he lay and departed to his own house.

Now we're talking about physical things right here now. And I'm deaf, so maybe I'm qualified to speak about this, what I'm about to say. But I know we have dear brethren who have children, and we have brethren who were born with various bodily infirmities. I have brethren I know that have children who have bodily infirmities. Paul had a thorn in the flesh, probably blindness, that's what it seems like. Moses had a speech impediment.

But when Moses was talking to the Lord about that, in Exodus 4.11, the Lord said to him, who hath made man's mouth, or maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Have not I the Lord? He made them. He made them like they are. That comforts me, knowing the Lord made them. He made them like they are.

And the Lord always has a purpose in everything He does. He has a purpose in that bodily infirmity that this man had and that your children might have and brethren might have. He has a purpose. He's making us personally know our need of Him. You know, the Lord made this man paralyzed not only for the man. He did this for his friends.

And it made them come to the Lord. That child that has the infirmity, the Lord is blessing that to the believing parent to bring them to him. And the Lord could speak, He could take away all our infirmities, He could take away all our sins, just by speaking. But He's using these things, these weaknesses and our sins and all these things to keep us knowing our need of Him, and He keeps you crying unto Him. We're a lot more apt to cry to Him when we're up against a wall than when everything's smooth sailing. And anything that brings you to the feet of Christ is good for us that we've been afflicted. Whatever it is. Whatever it is.

It makes you bring them to Christ. It makes you come to Christ. And it makes you bring your sick child or your sick brother or whoever. It makes you bring them to Christ in prayer. It makes you bring that lost child or daughter to hear the gospel. See, the Lord's blessing you by that, it's the same as He's blessing the one that has it.

And we know our greater need is for inward healing. That's what we need. He could heal us in health, and we thank Him when He does. I just got news last night, a brother that was sick, and his doctor said he's well. The Lord did that. And we thank the Lord when He does that. But listen, if the Lord heals us physically, We're gonna still die, because our flesh is just dust. It's going back to the dust. But our greater need is for the Lord to say, thy sins are forgiven. Our greater need is for the Lord to heal us inwardly and make us know where he is.

Because if Christ is your life, you'll never die. You will never die. He said, I am the resurrection. He that seeth and believeth me will never die. You'll never die. But you remember this, too. Now, the Lord didn't take Paul's thorn away. Whatever that thorn in the flesh was, the Lord didn't take it away. And our need is not for the Lord to take away the circumstances.

Our need is for Him. For Him. For His grace. For His power. And it made Paul, through whatever it was, He made Paul to know this. My grace is sufficient. I'm sustaining you, I'm keeping you, I'm carrying you. And so Paul said, when I'm weak, that's when I'm strong. That's when I see Christ as the power that's saving me. That's the purpose in it, brethren.

As painful as it may be, the Lord will give grace, and He's going to keep His child coming to Him. Go hear the gospel preached, because Christ is who you need. Problem the trouble the circumstances get to Christ Go hear him preached and then go to him in prayer, but draw near to Christ Don't draw further from him draw nearer to him. That's the need that's today now lastly got one last thing the result of the Son of Man Revealing himself in his child when he makes you to know that He, the son of man is the son of God and he's all your righteousness, all your holiness with God, all your acceptance when he makes you know him and believe him.

It says there again, verse 25, immediately, this man was healed, immediately. Now we saw that with the leper. When the Lord speaks, he creates a new man that is whole. He's holy, he's whole. He's created in the image of our Lord Jesus that made him. He's righteous and holy in Christ's righteousness and holiness. That's why you'll never die, because Christ in you is the hope of glory. You'll never die. All right? Secondly, look at this.

It says, verse 25, he glorified God. Everybody the Lord reveals himself in, we're gonna stop saying we did anything. We're gonna stop bragging on our righteousness. We're gonna stop bragging on our wisdom. We're gonna stop bragging on our holiness. We're gonna glory only in the Lord. We're gonna glory only in him.

And verse 26, I don't know who these people are. I don't know who he's speaking about in verse 26. But I know it's so of everybody he saves. They were all amazed. And the Lord's people, when he saves you, we are amazed. We're amazed. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, now am found. I was blind, but now I see. He did that by his grace. And we glorify God even when you see somebody else saved. They're glorying in him because he healed that paralyzed man. We glory in him when he saves somebody else, just like we did when he saved us.

And they were filled with fear. And we're given a godly reverence to come down to his feet and depend on him the rest of our days. That's what reverence does. Reverence fears him and believes in meekness is Depending on the Lord For everything that's true meekness every time Moses had a problem He was on his face before God begging God to undertake that's meekness meekest man in the world and that's what the fear of the Lord creates and then look at this and Faith always perseveres and faith overcomes. Verse 19, when they couldn't get to Christ the normal way, they went up on the housetop, led him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus.

Faith that Christ gives will persevere and will overcome. And here's why. It's because Christ is the power And he's the author and finisher of our faith. He gave them that faith. He upholds the faith he gives. And faith looks only to him to do it. And he tries our faith.

He put all that trouble in their midst. He made it so they couldn't just walk in the door and get to him. He did that. He drew that multitude. That's why they couldn't get to him. That was a test. He sustained their faith to go to the roof and let that man down through the roof.

When your faith is tried, when there's some obstacle that he puts in the way, some trouble that comes your way, the Lord's in full control of that, and the way his child's gonna overcome is because the Son of Man, who is the power, gives you more grace, and he sustains that faith, and he honors the faith he's given. That's what he does. And so when he tries it, you're going to overcome, but you're going to give him the glory for overcoming. You're going to persevere, but you're going to say, he preserved me. He did it. And I like this.

Somebody said, our flesh says we cannot. That's what the flesh said. We cannot. The spirit that he gives, the faith he gives, says we must. We must. The flesh is saying we can't get to Christ. The spirit he gives says we must get to Christ. And you will get to Christ. He will make sure his child draws near to him. That's how we overcome. That's how we persevere. All right, brethren. I pray that's a blessing. I pray the Lord will bless it to you. All right, Brother Adam.