Turn to Mark chapter 2. Thy sins be forgiven thee. They took him in hopes of getting physical
healing, and he got soul healing. He got more than he bargained
for, didn't he? He was just hoping, and the four
that took him were hoping that the Lord would heal him because
he had healed so many. And they believed. They believed
in their heart. And the Lord saw their faith.
He can see the heart. He knoweth them that trust in
him. And they took him there. in hopes
of him being able to walk away from that place whole. And the Lord healed his soul. Which was the most important?
Soul. The healing of the soul. The
saving of the soul. Our Lord said it's better to
be hot, to be lame, and enter into heaven than to be made whole
and perish. Much better. What would it mean
to you to have a great debt, a debt you could not pay? Absolutely, totally forgiven. I mean a debt that was hanging
over your head and you had no means and no way of paying it.
And then you were just forgiven it, completely. Not only forgiven
it, but forgotten about. The person who forgave you just
completely wiped it out and did not remember it no more. What would it mean to have a
terminal disease healed? Well, you know, to many, most,
It means everything. It means everything. You're not
taking any of this with you. It would mean everything. Well,
how much more to have my sins forgiven, blotted out, not remembered anymore. What would that mean? Well, without the Holy Spirit
conviction, it wouldn't mean anything, would it? It really wouldn't
mean anything. But if the Lord is pleased to
give us a real conviction of sin and give us some understanding
of sin as He sees it, we can only get
a little understanding of it as He sees it, and to have that
forgiven. Man, that would mean everything. It would mean everything. Let's
look at this. And again, our Lord entered into Capernaum.
He had been there earlier, and he went to some other towns and
preached the gospel and healed some people. And after a while,
he came back. They came back to Peter's home. And when he came back, it was
noised. It was sent throughout the city. He's in the house. Can you imagine
that? I mean, he went through that
town, that city like wildfire. He's back. He's back. He's back in Peter's house. He's
back home. And that city flocked to that
house. It was noised abroad. His fame
went abroad. He healed many. He cast out devils.
And they were looking for him. Most of them were looking for
him, not because they wanted to be saved, but they had some
diseases and sicknesses and they wanted that healed. Because this
is the very town, he said, many of his mighty works were done
in and they didn't believe on him. But when he came back, He came
back to Peter's house, and straightway many were gathered together insomuch
that there was no room to receive them. No, not so much as about
the door. It was jammed, and he preached
the word unto them. Here is an example and a lesson
to every one of us who teach and preach. He did not entertain
the crowd. He did not perform miracles to
entertain, but to demonstrate His power over sin, over Satan,
and they all have spiritual implications. When He came back, He preached
the Word unto them, and this is the best thing we can do.
The best thing we can do. when sinners gather at the door
is to preach Christ unto them, to always preach Christ unto
them, not grow tired and think we need to come up with something
else. There is nothing else, really. This is the children's
bread, and it's the only message we have for sinners, the only
good news. Apart from this, there is no other good news. There
is no good news apart from the gospel. It says, he preached the Word.
Wouldn't you like to have heard that at that time? He took the
Psalms. You know, I stumble. Sometimes
I feel like I'm up here pulling a wagon with square wheels. He
never felt like that. He handled the Word like an architect. I mean, he took the Word and
he would turn to this Psalm or that Psalm. Because he said,
all the Psalms of the prophets, they speak of me. And he would
turn from book to book, or turn to Isaiah, he'd turn to the Psalms,
and he would just open the Scriptures to them, just like I pray he
does tonight. He opens his Word to us. And
he preached to them the Word of God. He talked about who God
is, talked about salvation, how God saves sinners, and showing
them these types and these pictures, and going through that, and how
they apply to the Messiah. What a message, what a message. And when Paul writing to Timothy,
in 2 Timothy, Paul said, Timothy, preach the word. Be instant in
season, out of season. Preach, don't get distracted
from that. I was reading an article, actually
I was reading a sermon note from Henry back in the fifties today.
And he was talking about the preacher today is the pastor
of the preacher. He's supposed to be the one who
does all the visiting and does all this. He named off a list
of things. He said, but I can't find that
anywhere in the Word of God. He said, I find where he's supposed
to pray, read, and preach. Preach the Word. Feed the flock. Feed the flock. That's what Paul
tells them to preach the word, preach the gospel. That's what
he's talking about. He preached the gospel. It says here, he
preached the word to them. He preached the gospel to them.
He preached the word of righteousness to them. He preached the truth
to them. He preached the word of grace to them. He preached
the word of salvation to them. And as he was preaching to them, there was a disturbance, but
it was a good one. It was a good one. It's not like
that demon who interrupted. Of course, that ended up being
good for that man. It ended up being good for that
guy because that demon got cast out. But it says here in verse
3, And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which
was born of four. I made a little side note here.
Oh, to have such friends. To have such friends. to have
someone that would bring me before the Lord. I pray that you all
do it continuously for me and I for you, that we continually
bring one another before the Lord. But we should always, always
bring our loved ones before Him. He might save them. Now, it's
His sovereign will to do with them as He will. We recognize
that. Just like that leper recognizes
it. He said, Lord, if you will, you can make me whole. So let's
always do that. Always. They came to the right person. It says they come unto him. Remember
one time that father brought his son and he said, I brought
him to your disciples, but they couldn't do anything. Well, they
brought him to the wrong person. You bring him to him. to him. They came to the right person.
No one else could help him. No one else could save him, and
no one else can forgive sins and put them away but Christ. No one else. It says they brought
him. He couldn't bring himself. He
could not bring himself. This man was paralyzed. He was
totally dependent Totally dependent on his friends bringing him to
see the Lord. It doesn't say, now it doesn't
say, we're going down through here, that he saw this man's
faith, he saw their faith. And I believe he's talking about
the four that brought him. He saw their faith. He may be
including that one, I don't know, but I know he's including the
four that brought him. And they brought him. He couldn't
bring himself, they brought him. The Lord, listen, the Lord uses
Whatever means he's pleased to use to bring us to himself. He
knew this man was, this is God. He knew this man was going to
be brought. He knew this sheep was going to come. And he providentially
surrounded this man years earlier by some friends who really loved
him and believed that the Lord could save this man, that he
could heal him. And they put forth the effort to bring him,
carry him. They didn't put him in a car
or anything. They carried him. Bore him by four. They bore his burden. Bear you
one another's burdens? There's a good one. There's a good one.
And they brought him. And they would not be denied.
Look, and when they could not come now unto him for the press,
They were just throng of people there at the door, and they could
not get close to him. What would you do? What would you do? This is where
faith comes in. This is where faith comes in.
They didn't just say, well, we're going to have to go back, you
know, or got a long wait here. They went around that press,
climbed up on top of the house, and tore up Peter's roof. It
doesn't matter. In those roofs, I was reading
today about what they're made out of. That's not easy. That
was not an easy job, what they did. And they tore a hole in
that roof large enough to let that man down. Led him down into
the presence of the Lord. Can you imagine that sight? The
Lord's preaching. He's preaching. Can you imagine?
I'm standing here preaching. Can you imagine somebody coming
down and being dropped down in this congregation while the Word
is being preached? Somebody tearing the roof off
this building so they can get him in here? That's what happened. They wouldn't be denied. They
took up the roof to get to him. Sometimes, sometimes the Lord
makes it hard to get to him to prove faith. Sometimes he makes
it difficult in order to prove faith. If you really need him,
nothing will stop you. Nothing will stop a sinner from
getting to Christ. If that sinner needs Christ,
he's going to make it. He saw their hearts. He saw their
faith. And when they could not come
nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where
he was. And when they had broken it up, they let him down. They
let down the bed wherein the sick of the posse lay when Jesus
saw their faith. You see, he saw their faith.
He saw their heart. We see the action, don't we? You don't see my heart. No, you
don't see that. You see my action. You see what
I do. And from that, you judge me. We just want to know. He sees the heart. He knoweth
them that trust in Him. Now, people can say they trust
Him all they want to, but He knows them that trust in Him.
He knows them. And if you and I believe that
He's able to save, there will be no obstacle that'll keep us
away. None. Remember that woman who wanted
the Lord, the Syrophoenician woman? And he said, it's not
right to give the children's bread to the dogs. I mean, if
you go read that, it was like he was throwing rocks at her.
He didn't give her any encouragement, but he couldn't run her off.
Why? Because she needed him. She needed
him. And this policy, which this man
had, and it was so devastating to him, Turned out to be a great,
great blessing. That's what brought him. That's
what brought him. All things work together. We
read that in fact, all things work together. And when Jesus saw their faith,
the faith of them who brought him, as I said, he sees faith
wherever it is. He sees it because he gives it.
He's seated because He's the one who gives it. In verse 5, when Jesus saw their
faith, He said to the sick of the palsy, Son, and that's with
a capital S, He's talking to him now. He's talking to him
as a Son. You see, I not only hear the
voice of the Son of God speaking here, I hear the voice of the
Father speaking. This is the voice of the Father
speaking through the Son to this Son. Son, thy sins be forgiven
thee. You know, all they did was let
him down. They didn't even say a word, did they? Not a word
was said. But he saw their heart. He saw
their faith. And that man didn't say a word.
It's not recorded that he said a word. But when our Lord saw
it, He said, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. We see here His
power to forgive sin. To forgive sin. What was this man's real problem? What was his real problem? The
Lord dealt with it, didn't He? Sin. What is my real problem? It's sin. That's the bottom line. The root of every problem I have
is sin. You know, we treat a lot of symptoms
and never really get to the root of it, do we? I think that's
exactly what false religion does. It treats symptoms, but it never
deals with the real problem called sin. And this man's real problem was
sin. Because you'll notice, when the Lord forgave him of his sins,
he said, Thy sins be forgiven. What happened? He was healed. He was healed. Sin is the root of all of our
sicknesses. It's the root of all of our problems. There's
not a pill for sin at all. They can't make one for that.
They can't make one for that. But his power to save from sin
is very real. I'm telling you, it's very real.
Sin can be put away. All sin can be put away. If this
sin issue is dealt with by Christ, if it's dealt with properly by
Him, you'll never be the same. I'm telling you, you will never,
ever be the same. Not if it's dealt with by Him.
Now, if religion deals with it, it's just going to come out in
another form, that's all. It'll just come out in another
form. Well, the scribe was sitting
there. You know, they got to show up. But there were certain
of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts.
Like I said, they're sitting there and they're contemplating
this. This man, here's what they're
contemplating. Why does this man speak blasphemies? And the
Lord knows their hearts. He knows every thought going
through their mind. He knows it. Why does this man
blaspheme? Why does he speak blasphemous? Who can forgive sins but God
only? You know, you can be right sometimes and still be wrong.
They were right, but they were still wrong. Their whole life
was wrong. But here, they're dead right. Who can forgive sins but God
only? Now we're going to deal with
the deity of Christ. These Pharisees and these scribes,
they are faced with the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ here
in Peter's house. They're faced with it. And they're
saying that he's blaspheming. Well, if he's not God, he is. He is blaspheming if he's not
God. Only God can forgive sins. He's the one sinned against. So what does this mean? He said,
Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. Well, he must be God. He must
be God, if that's so. If his sins are forgiven. And
I tell you what, he stood up and walked. The man was healed. The Lord didn't say, be healed. He said, your sins are forgiven.
And he stood up and walked. He was loosed from that infirmity. Sin that had him bound. Sin absolutely
had this man bound to the point he could not do anything. He
couldn't move. He couldn't walk. He couldn't
go anywhere. And when the Lord forgave him of his sins, it was
like he was set free. Whom the Son sets free, he's
free indeed. And they want to charge him for
being blasphemous. Blasphemous. They want to charge
him for it. But he's God. He is God. And he has the right and the
power to forgive sins. On earth, he said. He has the
right and power. And he's the only one on earth,
not the Pope, who can't forgive any. Father, forgive me for I
have sinned. You've seen these. That is such a farce, such a
moneymaker. But the only one who has power
on earth to forgive sins is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only
man that can do that, the only potentate, the only king, the
only sovereign that can do that. But now God cannot, will not
forgive sins without satisfaction. God cannot and will not just
say, your sins are forgiven, not without satisfaction. And
this is where the substitution of Christ comes in. For this man to be forgiven of
sins, all his, listen, past, present, and future sins. When
he said thy sins be forgiven, he wasn't just talking about,
well, it may have been, the man may have done something that
caused his paralysis. I don't know. He may have done
it. But he's talking about all of them. He's talking about sins
he ain't even committed yet. All of them. They're gone. They're
absolutely gone. But now he can't just say your
sins are forgiven and move on to the next one. There's got
to be satisfaction. There's got to be satisfaction.
So for him to forgive me of my sins, for him to forgive that
man of his sins and you of your sins, somebody has to suffer
for them. Someone has to die for the sins
that are forgiven. That's the way God can forgive
because they've been dealt with. This is where 2 Corinthians 5.21 comes
in. He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Christ took that
man's sins. The one who forgives us is the
one who died for us. And put those sins, those sins
that are forgiven, are gone. They're gone. Remember no more. I remember them. You can remember
sins, can't you? You know, we can forgive one
another, but we still, I mean, we can truly forgive one another,
but we still remember. But you know, listen, I want you to get
a hold of this. God absolutely doesn't remember them. And the
reason he doesn't remember them is because they don't exist.
They don't exist. They're gone. They are that purged.
They are that dealt with. So when He's talking about thy
sins are forgiven, He's talking about they're forgiven, they're
gone. They don't even exist anymore. You can't remember what does
not exist, can you? No more than you can believe
on someone you don't know. Yeah, try it. Some nut will probably
try that. You can't do it. You can't do
it. They're gone. That's why God can't remember.
That's why He remembers our sins no more. They're gone. They don't
even exist. And immediately, when Jesus perceived in His Spirit
that they so reasoned within themselves, He said unto them,
Why reason ye these things in your hearts? Why do you doubt
who I am? First of all, do they not have
enough scriptural proof? You know, they have so much,
they had the Word of God. There was so much, so much proof
of that. The things that he did that matched
the scriptures, that alone was enough. And then he did all these
miracles and that was enough. But with the unregenerate, it's
never enough. Never. Why do you reason these things
in your heart? Why do you question my power? Why do you question
who I am? The reason why is you don't believe. Don't believe. When we start
putting question marks on these things, it's because we don't
believe. Why reason ye these things in
your heart? You know, unbelief, unbelief
reasons. Faith believes and acts on it. But now, unbelief, it's got to
reason it out. It's got to be logical. That's just not logical. That's
why usually the wiser, so-called, the man is in the world, the
further away from God he is because he just logically can't figure
it out. And he has to logically figure
it out. No, you don't. You believe God. And I tell you
this, David said, I have believed to see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living, and it's in that order. Believe to
see, not see, then believe. You take God at his word and
you believe, then you get more life. You get more life. Where am I at? In verse 9, whether is it Easier to say to the sick of
the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Arise and take
up thy bed and walk. Which is easier to say? Well, unless the person has a
speech impediment, both of them are easy to say. I mean, you
can say either one of them, it's easy to say. It's another thing to do. See, we can say a lot of things,
but he's saying here, you know, it's easy to say, but what did
you just see? What did you just witness? You
just witnessed a man to whom I said, thy sins be forgiven,
stand right up and walk. Thy sins, he said, be forgiven
thee. And he rose up and he walked. But you may know that the Son
of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. He was given the
power, the authority, the right to forgive sins and no one else. No other man, no other anything. Christ. Christ and Christ alone. He saith to the sick of the palsy,
rise. He says to the sick of the palsy,
I say unto thee, arise and take up thy bed and go thy way into
thine own house. They could not deny that his
ability to rise up and walk was in direct connection to the forgiveness
of his sins. They couldn't deny it. Actually,
the Lord connected it like that. Those Pharisees, they could not
deny that His ability to rise up and walk was in absolute direct
connection to what the Lord said when He said, Thy sins are forgiven
thee. Only Christ can put them away.
Only He can forgive. And when He does, it's real.
I'm telling you, it's real. It's real. I say unto thee, Arise, take
up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. And immediately,
I told you this last week, salvation is immediate. It's immediate. And immediately he arose, took
up the bed, and went forth before them all, in front of all of
them. I bet you it looked like the parting of the Red Sea. They
probably just started just standing back as he just walked right
through the middle of that crowd. They just parted and just marveled. What the hell was that? Marveled
as they watched this man not limp out of there. Those four
that brought him, they went home happy. They went home rejoicing
also with this man. He came, like I said, for the
healing of the body, but he got his soul healed. His sins forgiven,
the Son of God. And He wasn't looking for that.
He was not looking for that when it happened. I tell you this,
there ain't one of us looking for that when it happened. Now you look back on it. You
know, when you go through the process of it, you think you
are, but no. We weren't looking for Him. When
grace arrested us, We weren't looking for him. Not
looking for him at all. The Apostle Paul on the road
to Damascus was not looking for the Lord Jesus Christ. He was
looking to kill the church. But the Lord was waiting on him.
He was waiting on him. And when he reached that point
in the road, he struck him down. Time to be born. It was his time
to be born. This man. What a change the Lord makes
when he saves from sin. He not only saves from the guilt
of sin, he saves from the power of sin, the reigning power of
sin. He saves from it. And listen here. And immediately
he arose, took up the bed, went forth before them all, insomuch
that they were all amazed, amazed, and glorified God, saying, We
never saw it on this fashion. We've never seen anything like
this. And you never will, apart from Christ. You'll never see
anything like this apart from Him. This is a real change. This is
real forgiveness. This is a real salvation. This is a real encounter with
the God of heaven and earth. And look how complete. Look how complete the salvation
was. He walked out and went home.
Can you imagine when he walked into his house, his wife being
there? I mean, I don't know how long
this man liked this, He walks into that house just as strong
as he ever was, if he ever was. As strong as he could be. And
I imagine she was just about ready to faint when he walked
in that door. And I guarantee you, he told
her what the Lord had done for him. I met Jesus Christ. And that
man was never the same. Ever.