If you will, take your Bibles
and turn with me to Mark chapter 2. Mark chapter 2, and we'll begin
reading in verse 3. And they came unto him, bringing
one sick of the palsy, which was born of four. And when they could not come
nigh unto Him, now notice this, they're not so much concerned
with going to a place, they're coming to Him. And that's what
we try to emphasize when we preach the gospel. It's not going to
do you any good to come to a place, you have to come to Him. So 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 down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. When
Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son,
thy sins be forgiven thee. But there were certain of the
scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, why does this
man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
only? 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? 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. But that you may know that the
Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, you say it to
the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, arise and take up
thy bed and go thy way into thine house. Now the lesson this morning is
about our Lord's power to forgive sins. Power has to do not only
with ability, but it has to do with permission. It has to do
with the right. And over in John chapter one,
where it said he gave them power to become sons of men, part of
that power that he gave them was the permission to come. And
he also gave them the ability to come. But here he's not so
much talking about ability, although he does give this man ability
to believe, but he gives him the right. And this is what he's
telling these scribes who are questioning his language questioning
what he said and how he said it. To show you, to prove to
you that the son of man hath power to forgive sins, I'm saying
to the sick of the palsy, arise, take up your bed, and walk. Now there's five things I want
you to see in this miracle of God's saving grace. And first
and foremost, I want you to see the Lord Jesus Christ whom God
sent into this world to save sinners. This is what started
these men to take this sick of the palsy and bring him here. They knew that this was the Christ. They knew that this was the Son
of God come into this world to save sinners. They knew that.
They knew that. This is the purpose in his coming,
and this is the purpose in his preaching, and this is the purpose
in these miracles he so graciously performed. God come into the
flesh. God and man in one amazing character,
one amazing being. This was the God-man. Never a
man spake like this man. This man was amazing. This man
had answers to the questions. And this man had the power to
forgive sins even here on earth. And he's one who is God and man
in one person and one who is fully able to represent his elect,
able to be touched with the feelings of their infirmities. He had
compassion on this man. He was touched with his infirmities. And he's able, as an able representative
of his elect, as God and man in one person, he's able to be
touched with the feelings of our infirmities and able to represent
them before the law, truly being a man subject to the law of God. And one who is fully able to
stand before the holy justice of God. and honor that justice. It's not just another man trying
to relieve the sufferings of men. This is the Christ. This is not the man who's trying
to do anything. This is the man who can and did
and will. And then secondly, I want you
to see the sinner who must be brought to Christ. This man couldn't
come to Christ. He had to be brought. He had
to be carried. And there's three things here,
just very quickly I want you to see about this. And first
of all, I want you to see that he must be brought because he
has no spiritual ability to come on his own. Those Pharisees begin
to murmur at the language of our Lord and he looked at them
and he said, don't murmur. No man can come to me. That can has to do with ability. No man can come to me except
my father Drahe. He's not coming on his own. You
hear men talk about, well, I was in my closet and I saw a vision,
or I was out on the battlefield and I was dying, and the Lord
spoke to me, and no, he didn't. No, he didn't. Somebody spoke
to you, but it wasn't the Lord. When the Father draws men, He
draws men through the means that He's ordained. So he must be brought because
he has no spiritual ability to come on his own. And you can
say what you will or talk about all your old experiences all
you want to. The Bible said there's none that
seeketh after God. None. God looked down himself
from heaven to see if there was any who did seek after him. He
said there was none. And just so you know that, he
says, no, not one. Natural man, it says, receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. Tells us man at his best
stage is altogether vanity. He must be brought Every sinner
must be brought to Christ. He must be brought because he
has no spiritual ability to come on his own. And then secondly,
he must be brought because God has purposed for him to come. Our Lord said over in John 6,
I think it's verse 38 or 37, somewhere along in there, he
says, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. They're going to come to Him
because God has purposed for them to come. So they're coming. And I don't know what's going
to stand in their way. I don't know how old they're going to
be. I don't know all the circumstances involved. But I can tell you
this, they're all going to come, every one of them. They're going
to come to Him. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. Why are they going to come? Because
God's already ordained the means. God's already arranged the providence. And God Almighty works in the
heart and even in the tongue. The thought of the heart and
the answer of the tongues of the Lord. They are led through the foreknowledge
of God, Peter said, through the foreknowledge of God the Father,
through sanctification of the Spirit, and obedience, and the
spiritual application of the blood of Christ, the sprinkling
of the blood of Christ. And then again in John 644 he
tells us, no man can come to Christ except the Father draw
him. For it's written they shall all be taught of God. Every man therefore that has
heard and has learned of the Father cometh to Christ. So he must be brought because
of his inability and he must be brought because God has purposed
it. And he must be brought because
this is the one thing that faith knows that'll work. That's what
faith knows. In order to do you any good, there's only one thing you can
do, is bring you to Christ. Bring you to Christ. Nothing
else is going to do it, Russell. Now you can talk to men and you
can reason with them about their infirmities and you can, surely
everybody in this place can enter into a little bit with somebody
who's suffering and dying of cancer and all of those types
of things, but you can't do them any spiritual good until you
bring them to Christ. Nothing else works. Our Lord said to those Pharisees,
he said, you compass sea and land to make one proselyte like
unto yourselves, and when you've made him, he's twofold more the
child of hell than he was before you did it. Faith doesn't look for alternatives.
You hear me? Faith doesn't look for alternatives. It knows what to do, come to
Christ. Now, if you went to Christ, and
you have, if you're a believer, and you've been to Christ, and
He saved your soul, He enlightened you, He called you out of darkness,
And he quickened you to gather with him. And he made you to
know that you're a son and that he chose you and loved you before
the foundation of the world that Christ died for you, put away
your sins for you. Now, what are you going to tell
your neighbor? You going to go there and start
in on him, well, you need to do this and you need to do that?
No. You're going to do everything
you can do to take him down to one who did for you. And that's
exactly what these men were doing. It's the one thing that faith
knows will work. And bringing sinners to Christ
is an act of faith. Faith doesn't look for alternatives.
It knows the way, it knows the means, it knows the place, and
it knows the utter impossibility of hearing from God apart from
the means that God has ordained. They didn't just take this palsied
man anywhere. They took him where men of faith
told him that Christ would be. That's where they went. And then thirdly, I want you
to see these four men who were not afraid to look foolish to
get a sinner to the Savior. Kind of foolish, ain't it, when
you ask somebody from Texarkana to drive all the way over here
to Louisville? Here's the gospel. Kind of foolish when you're looking
at your friends and they're telling you, well, there's a Baptist
church right here on the corner, and there's a Pentecostal church
right over there, and then the Church of Christ, that great
big building down there on the corner, and then the first Baptist
church is up here. It takes up three city blocks.
Why are we going all the way to Louisville? kind of foolish,
isn't it? These men weren't afraid to look
foolish to bring a sinner to Christ. Now if you know somebody
between here and there that's preaching Christ, take them there.
But if you don't, you're going to have to bring them here. And I'll tell you this, everything
faithful men do for the salvation of sinners seems foolish to men. You know, the scripture speaks
often of his means seeming to be foolish to natural men. Several places. Why do you drive
an hour to church when there's multiple churches in your own
area? Why do you contend for certain doctrines when there's
many churches long time approved? Long time approved. Been here
a long time. Why do you insist on and pray
for the presence of Christ in your meetings when you have men
capable of teaching the word of the gospel? Seems foolish
to men. Everything faithful men do for
the salvation of sinners seems foolish to natural men. You can call it what you will,
but these men were not willing to be deterred because of a crowd
of spectators. And that's what most of them
were. They weren't there to see Christ. They weren't there to
hear Christ. They were there to see something miraculous. These men either borrowed or
built a ladder. They didn't jump up on the roof.
They either borrowed or built a ladder. And then they climbed
up on this roof and started taking it apart. It says they broke
it up. Sounded to me like they was in a hurry. Sounded to me
like they was desperate. And they let this palsied man
down to the Savior through a hole in the roof. And all the while,
I suspect a portion of those gathered there were laughing
under their breath. Look at them idiots on that roof. That man inside ain't going to
have nothing to do with this. This is foolishness. This is
just foolishness. They could have sat back here
and waited their turn. And we get the same thing today.
Same thing today. They look up at them guys and
say, boy, they think they're the only ones around here that
has any need of the savers. They think they're the only ones
around here that know anything. We get the same thing. Why do
men think like this? Why do they say things like that? They say it because the preaching
of the cross is foolishness to them who are perishing. That's
why they say it. Foolishness. Because to preach
Christ is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the
wise men, to the Greeks. And how foolish it must have
appeared to the spectators to see these men flailing away at
that roof, taking them sticks down, taking them tiles off,
whatever was up there. And then, fourthly, I want you
to see the Savior in consideration of these men's faith, showing
mercy to these helpless sinners. Now, here's a man, and Christ
is in here preaching, and all these men are gathered, the house
is full, it's full outside, they couldn't even get to the door
because of the press, and they come around to the rear of the
and either built or borrowed a ladder or something and got
up on that roof and started just flailing away and taking stuff
out of there. It doesn't say that when they
lowered the man down that the Lord looked at the man. Look
back there at that text. It doesn't say that. He took
no notice of the palsied man. It said when he saw their faith,
then he spoke to the palsied man. And a lot of times, that's
how faith is born. It's born. The Lord lays a burden
on a man's heart for another, a friend or somebody he knows. Somebody he met, somebody he
said something to, and they acted like they were a little bit interested,
and he just can't get rid of that burden. He starts to pray
for that man. He starts to ask the Lord to
do something for him. And then he gets that man and
he brings that man to Christ. He does what he has to do to
get him to come to here. And when the Lord saw their faith,
the faith of these men holding that rope, Then he spoke to the
palsy man. Now I'm not even going to try
to explain all that this subject entails except to say that God
in his providence shows us here a portion of the means he uses
to bring his elect to Christ. He puts burden on men's hearts
and they bring the sinner. And then they're bringing this
sinner to Him. God displays this precious gift of faith and honors
what He's enabled them to do. Isn't that something? All of
this is of the Lord. The providence is of the Lord.
The disease is of the Lord. The cure is of the Lord. The
means involved is of the Lord. And the faith, the actual faith
that He looks and admires is the faith that He gave. It's amazing to me how he uses
these men, yet never mentions their name. Never mentions. We don't know who they are. We
won't know until eternity, and I don't even know if we'll know
then who they were. And it won't matter. It won't
matter. And I'm just absolutely sure
that suited them just fine. The Lord did what they hoped
he'd do. I can tell you this, I'm not
trying to promote my name in this place. I'm trying to promote
His glory and His person. That's who I want you to look
to. That's who I want you to honor. That's who I want you
to worship and love. Love Him. He's everything. I'm nothing. And then fifthly, I want you
to see the response of these religious men who are ignorant
of how God saves sinners. These men were eyewitnesses of
the glory of God in Christ. They not only heard the gospel
preached, but they saw grace manifested right before their
eyes. They heard the audible voice
of the Son of God speaking to a chosen sinner, and rather than
rejoice in what was taking place, they harshly judged him for his
choice of words. Can you imagine? Now what he said, and I'm absolutely
sure this is why he said it, especially that he said it the
way he did, it contradicted their idea of
doctrine. totally contradicted everything
that they believed. What he said was contrary to
what they believed. So rather than examine what they
believed, they examined him. Rather than trying to prove that
he was in error by the word of God, they reasoned in their own
hearts. And rather than to tell this
palsied man to take up his bed and walk, the Lord said unto
him, son, thy sins be forgiven thee. And then he tells us in
verse six of our text that these scribes reasoned in their hearts. There's a time for reasoning
and a basis for reasoning, but this wasn't it. In Isaiah 118,
it says, come now, Let us reason together, saith the Lord. There's a time for reasoning
and there's a basis for reasoning. He said, though your sins be
as scarlet, I'll make them white as snow. Though they be red like
crimson, they should be as wool. There is a reasoning. There's
a time for reasoning and there's a basis for reasoning. Now the Lord said this to Israel
after he stripped them of all their religious ceremonies and
all their self-righteousness and all their ideas of works.
When he stripped him, he said, why should you be smitten anymore? He said, from the top of your
head to the sole of your foot, you're nothing but wounds and
bruises and future. I've beaten you and beaten you
and beaten you and you just don't get it. Now, who told you to do these
things? He points out the foolishness
of their worship and the foolishness of their self-righteous works.
And then when it gets done, he said, now come, let's reason
together, saith the Lord. When God reasons with a man,
they reason together. God reasons with him by way of
his word, he reasons with him by by way of his preacher and
he reasons it with him by way of his spirit. He never leaves a man, and this
is what I want you to understand, he never leaves a man to reason
in his own heart. That's the last place you want
to go to reason about these things. Our Lord said in Matthew 15,
19, out of the heart proceed evil thoughts. Is that where
you want to go to reason, spiritual things? You want to go to the
source of evil thoughts and ponder things there? Out of the heart proceed evil
thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness,
blasphemies. And all these things, he said,
is what defiles the man. So you're going to go to the
source of his defilement, and that's where you're going to
reason about God? No. No, come let us reason together,
saith the Lord. You reason with the Word of God. You reason with the Gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ, and you reason by way of His Spirit. In another place, he said this,
if the light that be in thee be darkness, is that where you're
going to raise and you're going in that old heart that's full
of darkness? If the light that be in thee, so you thought it
was light, and that's what he's talking about here. If the light,
he's talking about your understanding. If the source of your understanding
be darkness, then how great is that darkness? Reasoning from his false concepts
about God and reasoning from his own false profession of faith,
it seemed perfectly logical that this man, Jesus, had blasphemed
God. And that's what happens every
time a natural man hears the truth and reasons in his own
heart. Our Lord said, there's a way
that seemeth right unto you, but the end thereof is everlasting
destruction. And knowing their thoughts, and
knowing the intents of their heart, our Lord said to them,
why reason ye these things in your heart? Verse 10. But that you may know
that the Son of Man, the Christ, the representative of all his
elect, the head of his church, the Savior, the Son of Man, have
power on earth to forgive sins. And I must tell this man to arise,
get off that bed, take it up in his arms, and go thy way into
thine own house. And I wonder this morning, do
you, do I, do we, all together, believe that the Lord Jesus who
is called the Son of Man has power to forgive sin. Can he actually speak to the
sinner through his gospel and take his blood spiritually by
his spirit and apply it to a man and that man walk away justified. His conscience clear. Can he
do it? I guarantee you he can do it. And he's the only one who can.
He's the only one who can. I believe based on his person
and his offices and his accomplished redemption that he has power
to forgive sins even while we yet walk in this sinful flesh. Isn't it an amazing thing to
know that you're a sinner? and that you sin, every thought
you think is clouded with sin, your worship's clouded with sin,
all of these things, clouded with sins, and yet, in his presence,
he presents you before God, and he applies this to your conscience,
so you know this, you have no sin. You have no sin before God. You're unblemished or no blemish. He said, you're unreprovable. Before the court of God, God
can't even find any fault in you. Huh? Does he have power
to do that? He does. He does. And he received that power from
his father. Based on his shed blood and his
imputed righteousness, All we need do for the sinner is speak
to him and tell him his sins are forgiven for Christ's sake. Will he come to Christ? You know
somebody needs to be brought to Christ? Bring him. Bring him. Could be the Lord will speak
to him. Could be. These men had no guarantee. They
had no guarantee after all that work and letting that man down
that the Lord was going to do anything. He could have just
totally ignored that man. But it was all of him that that
man did this and that they did what they did. It was all of
the Lord. And in the end, that's what we're going to find out.
Every man that we brought, every man that we invited, every man
that came here, heard from the Lord, and the Lord touched him
and did something for him, it was all of the Lord. All of the
Lord. And even though he puts a crown
on your head, you're gonna take it off. You're gonna throw it
right down his feet. Throw it right down his feet
and you're gonna worship him. Worship him. I hope the Lord
teach us this, not just in our head, but in our heart. Thank you.