chapter of Luke's Gospel is a
portion of Scripture that records several events in our Lord's
earthly life and ministry that are very instructive. It begins
with our Lord Jesus appearing to His disciples who had been
fishing, Peter and James and John, they had been toiling all
night. And he told them to go out to a certain place and cast
the net on the right side of the ship. And Peter said, Master,
we've toiled all night and we've caught nothing. Nevertheless,
at thy word, we'll cast down the net. Nevertheless, at thy
word. Let us ever be willing and immediately
obedient to the will and word of our God in all things. And
they cast down the net and took in a great, great draft of fish,
so many that the nets began to break as they hauled them to
shore. A very instructive picture, that is, of preaching the gospel. Gospel preaching is compared
to fishing. I don't pretend to be a fisherman.
The little bit of fishing I've ever done with any success, either
Larry Brown or my son-in-law showed me how to put the stuff
on the hook. I just don't know anything at all about it. Matter
of fact, I kind of embarrassed Larry and Doug one day. We were
out fishing down in Florida. Larry had taken us out on a boat,
and the mate, Captain hopped down at the mate and said, help,
that fellow's got a rod upside down. I had it upside down. But
I don't pretend to be a fisherman. But I'll tell you what most folks
do fishing. is they're very deceptive. They
use a hook, and fish aren't likely to bite a hook. They're just
not likely to. They have to trick the fish.
Gotta make him think he's gonna get a free meal. Gotta trick
him or something. Preaching the gospel is never
compared to fishing like that. That's the kind of fishing most
preachers do. They're deceptive. They've got to trick you into
making a profession of faith. Preaching the gospel is casting
a net. When you cast a net, you go out
to the sea, throw the net in the water, and wait for God to
drive in the fish. That's what gospel preaching
is. We cast the net broadly. and wait for God to gather in
the great harvest of fish. And then Luke tells us about
a leper, a leper who came to the Lord Jesus. What a picture
that is of man in his natural fallen depraved state. Leprous
from head to foot, leprous within and without. unclean, unfit for
God and unfit for society. And this leper came to the Lord
Jesus and he fell at his feet and worshiped him and said, Lord,
if you will, you can make me clean. What a picture of faith in Christ.
If you ever find yourself like that leper, oh, I pray God you
will this hour. unclean, inside unclean, throughout your being
unclean, vile, unfit for God and unfit for society. You will
fall at the Savior's feet and you'll stay there. crying,
Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. You'll stay right at
his feet, right at his feet, until you hear him say, I will
be thou clean. And immediately, the leprosy
was gone. Immediately, he was cleansed.
At the master's word, fallen, dead, doomed, damned sinners,
unfit for God and unfit for society, are brought to life and faith
and the blessed experience of perfect righteousness before
God Almighty and go their way glorifying God. In the latter
part of the chapter, he shows us, he gives us the record, Luke
gives us the record of the call of Matthew, another sinner, a
publican, called him Levi. This man was a cheat. He was
a crook. He was a good businessman and
a religious businessman. He was a member of whatever they
call that businessman's religious association. I've forgotten now.
He was top dog, you know. He was a sharp, rich businessman
who cheated folks to enrich himself. He was a publican and the Lord
Jesus came to him and called him to follow him. And immediately
he left all and followed the Savior. That's what happens when
God calls sinners by his grace. Now I want us to pick up at verse
18 in Luke chapter five. And I want to read a very familiar
text of scripture to you. That's one of my favorite, favorite
stories in the life of our Redeemer. Behold, men brought in a bed
a man which was taken with palsy, a paralyzed fellow. And they
sought means to bring him in and to lay him before the Lord
Jesus. And when they could not find
by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude,
they went upon the housetop and let him down through the tiling
with his couch into the midst before Jesus. And when he, the
Lord Jesus, saw their faith, he said unto him, the man sick
of palsy, may in thy sins be forgiven thee. And the scribes
and Pharisees began to reason, saying, who is this which speaketh
blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
alone? Now, nobody said anything to
the master about this man's sins. They brought this man to the
Lord Jesus because he was paralyzed. He couldn't move a muscle. And
they laid him before him. And the master said, thy sins
be forgiven thee. Obviously, he had a purpose in
what he did. Not only to show mercy to this
sinner and forgive his sin, but to raise the cackles of the Pharisees.
It was his intention to offend them. They said, who can forgive
sin but God? He said, hang on and I'll show
you who God is. Watch this now. But when Jesus,
verse 22, perceived their thoughts, He answering said unto them,
what reason ye in your hearts? Whether is easier to say thy
sins be forgiven thee, or to say rise up and walk, but that
you may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to
forgive sins, that you may know that God's standing in front
of you. He said unto the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee
arise and take up thy couch, and go into thine own house. Verse 25, and immediately, immediately
he arose, rose up before them and took up that whereon he lay
and departed to his own house, glorifying God. And they were
all amazed. and they glorified God and were
filled with fear saying, we have seen strange things today. Strange things, that's my subject. The word translated strange things
here in Luke 5 26 is a very unique word. It's only used here. You won't find it anywhere else
in the Word of God, just here in Luke 5, 26. We use the word
a great deal, but I fear that we use that word, it's translated
strange things far too casually. If you were to write it out in
English, this is the word. We have seen paradoxes today. That's the very word, paradox,
paradox. A paradox is not just something
that doesn't seem to fit. A paradox is something that is
contrary to all common opinion and all common reason and all
common experience. We've seen things today that
you just don't commonly see or hear or understand or experience. We've seen strange things, strange
things, wondrously strange things, gloriously strange things, mind-boggling
strange things, life-changing strange things. The fact is,
everything about God's revelation of himself in this book, everything
about the character of God, everything about God's salvation, everything
about the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, everything
about things spiritual, everything about righteousness, everything
about holiness, everything about redemption, everything about
grace, everything about salvation is strange to the natural mind. Natural men. Natural men who
are irreverent and irreligious, and natural men and women who
are very religious, cannot understand these things. Natural men cannot
understand the things of God, the foolishness to it. He cannot
know them, they're spiritually discerned. In other words, it's
impossible for you or anyone else to understand the things
of God until you're born of God. If you would learn the things
of God, you must be taught of God. Going to a Christian school,
going to a Christian university, going to a Sunday school, coming
to a local church like this, listening to a pastor faithfully
preach the gospel as you listen to me preach the gospel. Even
when the thing preached and taught is certainly true, we'll never
give you understanding of the things of God until you're born
again. Mark, you gotta be taught of
God or you can't learn the things of God. Mark back there, he and
his wife went to Bible college, were missionaries. Just like
my wife and I went to Bible college. Was it Nazarene school? Free
will Baptist Bible college. Those words just shouldn't be
spoken. Free will Baptist Bible college. Served as missionaries
in Africa for years and didn't learn anything spiritual. Learning to read Greek and Hebrew,
that ain't nothing. They can teach that down here
at center college. That ain't nothing. Learn theology, that
ain't nothing. You can go to Princeton University
and learn something about theology. That ain't nothing. If you would
learn the things of God, you must be taught of God. And all
who are taught of God are born of God. And being born of God,
believe God. We who are gods, you who are
taught of God, you who are believers, know and experience many strange
things. We do so continually, and they
ought to fill our hearts with praise, our minds with wonder
and adoration, and our lives with devotion. Let me look at
this subject in four ways. First, let's look at the strange
things of this particular day of which Luke speaks. What did
these people see when they said, we have seen strange things today? They saw things that filled them
with fear and they were sore amazed. I mean, they were utterly
astonished. The words imply they could hardly
believe what they saw. They could hardly imagine that
the things they heard with their ears and saw with their eyes
actually took place. But there he is right in front
of them. These people saw four men acting in exceptional strong
faith. Look at verse 17. It came to
pass on a certain day as the Lord Jesus was teaching that
there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by. Pharisees,
good religious folks, been members of the biggest Baptist church
in town since they were in cradles. Pharisees, they grew up religious. Made a profession of faith when
they were just six or seven years old. Were baptized, they'd been
in church all their lives. Went to Bible college and seminary
and got great degrees and doctors of the law. That is, fellas,
who didn't just know the law of Moses and lived by the law
of Moses, they taught it, they taught it. They were sitting
by, watching him. Watched him, just watched him.
Not wanting to hear anything, just watching. Wanting to catch
him in something. Wanting to catch him to mistake
something. Wanting to catch him to do something
that could say, ah, now we got him, now we got him. They were
sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee and
Judea and Jerusalem. Now watch this. And the power
of the Lord was present to heal them. What a state. Standing in front of them is
God omnipotent. The power of the Lord present
to heal those Pharisees and doctors of the law. Power of the Lord
present to heal their souls. But they didn't have any need
of healing. If they'd had any need, they'd have been healed.
We read in Luke 9, he healed as many as had need of healing.
He still does, do you? Do you have any need? Do you
have any need for God? Have any need for grace? Have
any need for salvation? He has power to heal and he heals
everybody who needs healing. Everybody who needs healing.
Read on. Verse 18, and behold men brought
in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy and they sought
means to bring him in and to lay him before the Lord Jesus,
verse 19. And when they could not find
by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude,
they went upon the housetop and let him down through the tiling
with his couch into the midst before Jesus. Now here's a paralyzed
man who had four friends who cared deeply about him. Four
friends who knew and trusted the Son of God. And these men
who knew and trusted the Savior, they got together. I guess they
were sitting at McDonald's early one morning talking and drinking
coffee and said, you know, you know, Joe, I hear the Master's
gonna be in town today. If we could get him where the
Savior is, the Savior, our Lord Jesus, he
could heal him. Let's go get Joe. Let's go get
him. And they went and picked him
up on a cot, on a couch, on a mat, something of the kind. It's called
here a couch. They went and picked him up and
carried him. And by the time they got to where
the Savior was, there was a huge crowd gathered around them. And
here they stand with their friend. These were caring men. They pitied
their friend. And thoughtful men. They figured
out a way in the midst of this crowd to let their friend down. through the tiling. They went
up on top of the place and tore off the tiling. You can imagine
the commotion. Here the Lord Jesus is teaching,
and they're breaking up a roof, and they got the tiling out of
the way, and they let him down. They let him down in front of
the Savior. Oh, how zealous they were. They would not be stopped,
and they were successful. They got their friend. laid him
right down at the feet of the Lord Jesus. And the Lord Jesus
looked up that hole in the roof and saw their faith. And he said
to that man, thy sins be forgiven thee. And he said to that man,
rise up, take up your bed and go home. And he did. Oh, that
God might raise up such men, faithful and zealous. Oh, that
God might make us such men and women, faithful and zealous,
doing everything we can to get needy sinners in the place where
Christ Jesus is, knowing that if He will, He can make them
whole. God make us so caring for the
souls of man. Does it not astonish you, you,
I'm talking to you and me, does it not astonish you that we,
being moved with pity for the carnal needs of folks,
and we should be, please don't misunderstand me, You wouldn't
think about seeing a man suddenly in an accident somewhere and
you have the ability to pick him up and get him to the emergency
room, look at him and say, well, if you want to go to the emergency
room, I'll take you. You just pick him up and carry him. He
can't go on his own. And yet how little concerned
we are about folks for whom we care with regard to their everlasting
soul. indeed these men saw, or these
people saw. I'll tell you something else they
saw. They saw a man who was a sinner, freely forgiven of all sin by
a man who is God. When he saw their faith, he said
unto him, Man, Thy sins are forgiven thee. Never before had there
been a man to come walking in shoe leather who claimed to have
the divine right and power to forgive sins. But this man could forgive sin
because this man is God. Jesus Christ, our God, is our
Savior. and he freely forgives sin. Our Lord's pronouncement of forgiveness
upon this paralyzed man enraged the Pharisees. It astonished
the Gentiles, but the sinner who was forgiven went his way
rejoicing and glorifying God. Our Lord Jesus, the God-man,
is still in the business of forgiving sin. Oh, perishing sinner, hear
me. If we confess our sin, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. Now let me talk to you a little
bit about confessing sin. I'm not talking about going to
a booth and having some man in a woman's robe get behind there
and you confess your sin to him and go say so many Hail Marys
or whatever you gotta do, rub your rosary beads and all that
idolatrous nonsense. No, well, Brother Dob, we're
Baptists, we wouldn't do that, I know. And I'm not talking about
coming to the front of the church and confessing your sins in the
ear of this preacher. That won't do you any good. And
I'm not talking about coming in front of the church and turning
around and confessing your sins to the congregation. I've said,
I've done terrible things. Even describing it in detail.
No, no. That ain't what it's talking
about. That ain't what it's talking about. I'm talking about confess your sin
to God. I got my son-in-law's eye. Doug
is opening up your heart to God. Hide nothing. Did you get that? Just spread your heart open to
God. Acknowledge what only you and
God know you are. And you won't know it, Lindsay,
unless God shows it to you. You'll never know it. You can't
know it. You still think about sin as
cheating on a test or stealing watermelon or robbing a bank
or shooting somebody or committing adultery. Those are just the
outward manifestation. If we confess to God the dark,
deep, loathsome pit of ungodliness we are. If you dare confess your
sin to God, he's faithful and just to forgive you your sin.
Confess your sin and you'll walk out those doors justified. Confess
your sin and you'll go home redeemed. Confess your sin and you'll go
to glory through the merits of Jesus Christ the Lord. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. The blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. Now here's something
even stranger. These people saw one man forgiven. because of the faith of another
man. These four men, I find this astonishing. These four men,
one on each corner, they found a way to get up on top of that
roof and break up the tiles and they let him down before the
Lord Jesus. And the Bible says very little
about him. The Bible just, it says very little about him. but
these are four most important men in all the book of God. They
let down their friend for the master. Here he is, do your stuff. Here he is, we've done all we
can do. Here he is, you can make him
whole. And the Lord Jesus, when he saw
their faith, when he saw their faith. He said to that man, thy sins
be forgiven thee. When he saw their faith, he said
to that man, rise, take up your bed, go home. He picked up the
bed and walked home. He walked home, carrying the
bed on which he had been carried to the master, forgiven of all
sin, rejoicing and glorifying God. How come? Because of their faith. You mean preacher, I can believe
God for somebody else? No, no, no, no, no, no. No possibility of that. You can't
believe God for your children. You can't believe God for your
husband. You can't believe God for your wife. You can't believe
God for me, and I can't believe God for you. No, no, no, no,
no, no. But these men, believing God, brought a man to the Savior. brought a man to the place where
God the Son was preaching and he saw their faith and healed
that man and made him whole. Made him whole. There's an article
in the bulletin today right at the top. When God created Adam, body,
soul, and spirit in the garden, then Adam sinned. And Adam died, and we died in
Adam. And man, since that day, comes
forth from his mother's womb, body and soul. Body and soul,
just a man. Every thought, carnal, sinful,
unclean. Dead, spiritually. But Christ
comes to make the fallen whole. You remember when John the Baptist
sent his disciples saying, art thou the Christ to do, we look
for another, the Lord Jesus said to those disciples, you go back
and tell John, the lame see, and the deaf hear, and the dumb
speak, or the blind see, and the deaf hear, and the dumb speak,
and the lame are made to walk, and women receive their dead
again. What's he saying? He says, you
go back and tell John, this is the man of whom Joel spoke when
he said the Messiah is coming. This is indeed the Christ of
God. He has power to make the fallen
whole. He comes in saving grace and
suddenly puts in you, puts in me. what we lost in our father Adam. He said, I stored that which
I took not away. He puts in us a new nature, a
new man created in righteousness and true holiness. We're made
partakers of the divine nature so that now this man who came
in a broken body, in a broken soul, goes home a living man,
body, soul, and spirit, rejoicing in God our Savior. They saw here
on this day a display of our Lord's marvelous omniscience.
Verse 21, the scribes and Pharisees began to reason, saying, who
is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
alone? But when Jesus perceived their
thoughts, isn't that wonderful? When Jesus perceived their thoughts,
he heard them thinking just like you hear me talking. He answering
said unto them, what reason ye in your hearts, whether it's
easier to say thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say rise up and walk? The Lord Jesus perceived their
thoughts. I often think of something Brother Maurice
Montgomery said to me a number of times. He joined the military
and was being shipped off to Okinawa and he came back home
and his daddy, Brother Hubert Montgomery, walked out with him
as he started to leave and he said, son, God goes everywhere. God goes everywhere. There's
no hiding from God. Not even your thoughts. Not even
your thoughts. Our Savior here displays his
Godhead, perceiving the thoughts of these men, answered the questions. They didn't even speak audibly. Showed himself to be God and
said, now you want to see who God is? He said to this man who's
paralyzed, rise up and walk, and he did. These men and women
saw strange things this day. They saw a man, a sick man, who
could not lift so much as a finger for his own benefit, who could
not move his hands and could not move his feet, made completely
whole by the word of God. Truly, this was strange in their
eyes. Our Savior here healed this man
of his bodily diseases, so that all standing there were amazed. This was not something that was
hidden in a corner. This is something that was done
publicly. These four men who brought this
man to the master, knew he was helpless. They knew he was paralyzed. The crowd standing around might
pretty well have summarized that he was as well. He probably would
not have laid still on top of the roof while those four fellas
are tearing the tiles off the roof and laid still while they
let him down on a cot before the master. But very late, he
couldn't move. He couldn't move. This was not
something where there's like these modern fake healers who
say, I see a cancer in your stomach and touches it and it's healed.
No, no. It's not something like I see
somebody who's got a problem, maybe something on their brain,
maybe something in their elbow, maybe something in their knee.
Somebody's got a problem and he's gonna heal. No, no, no,
no, no. That's not the way our Lord worked and that's not the
way his disciples worked. Our Lord took this man, Paralyzed. And he said, now let's see if
you can see who God is. Rise and walk. And I thought I got up and walked
better than I can walk now. I used to have pretty good step,
not anymore. He got up and walked like a young man. He got up and
walked away. So it is this day. Our Savior performed these wonders
and gave those powers to his apostles to demonstrate that
they were indeed his apostles. so that men would know that He
who is the Christ is God in human flesh, our Redeemer, and that
He who is God who died upon the cursed tree has redeemed the
people, and He has power to make dead sinners whole. He has power, power to give you
life. power to sustain you in life,
power to keep you, power to uphold you, power to grow you, power
to use you. He has power to give you faith
and power to sustain that faith. He has power to take away all
sin. David, in Psalm 32, acknowledged
his iniquity, his transgression, and his sin. He said, when I
kept silence, your hand was heavy on me. Some of you are right
there. God's hand's heavy on you because
you keep hiding. You keep this to myself. I ain't
gonna talk about that. You keep hiding. He said, your
hand was heavy on me. And my moisture was turned to
drought of summer. There was a drought in my soul,
a barrenness in my soul. And then I confessed my iniquity. and my transgression and my sin. It's interesting. He used those
three words, David, twice in the first four verses of Psalm
32. Those three words, iniquity, transgression, and sin. Those
three words that describe sin in every way it's spoken of in
Holy Scripture. Iniquity, If I try to do good,
that's iniquity, because you can't. Iniquity is missing the
mark. Iniquity is trying to be good,
but you can't. Trying to be righteous, but you
can't. Trying to be holy, but you can't. It's missing the mark.
Trying to keep the law, but you can't do it. You can't do it.
Transgression. Transgression is walking up somebody's
property and they got a white wooden fence all the way around
it and got signs every two feet, no trespassing, no trespassing,
private property, no trespassing. And you take your foot and you
kick the fence down and say, I'll walk on it if I want to.
That's breaking God's holy law. That's another word for sin. Deliberate, willful, malicious,
hateful, God-hating, breach of the law. Sin. Sin. That's what caused me to do it.
It's what I am. That's my nature. My God, here
I am, sin. prayed like this, Pardon my iniquity, O Lord. And here's the best reason I
can give for it, for it is great. Saving a great sinner will get
great glory to the great God. So God save me. pardon my iniquity,
for it is great." Oh, may God be pleased this day to cause
you to rise and walk in the newness of life by faith in His dear
Son. Amen.