Let's read the first several
verses of Matthew 9. And He, the Lord Jesus, entered
into a ship and passed over, and came into His own city. And
behold, they brought to Him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a
bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith,
said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer. Thy sins
be forgiven thee. And behold, certain of the scribes
said within themselves, this man blasphemeth. And Jesus, knowing
their thoughts, said, wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For where there is easier to
say, thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, arise and walk, but
that you may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to
forgive sins. Then saith he to the sick of
the palsy, Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. And he arose and departed to
his house. But when the multitudes saw,
They marveled and glorified God, which had given such power unto
men. In the previous chapter, in chapter
8 of Matthew, verse 18, it says, when Jesus saw great multitudes
about him, he gave commandment to depart unto the other side. When he saw great multitudes
about him, he said, let's go to the other side. And the other
side was the country of the Gergesenes, where he met two men possessed
with devils. Then the whole city came out.
After he had cast the devils out of these, the whole city
there came out and besought him that he might depart out of their
coasts. And here in our text, He goes into a ship again and
passes over into Capernaum and has mercy there on one man. And then in chapter 9, verse
9, it says, He passed forth from thence. You remember how in John 4, 4
it says of our Lord, that he must needs go through Samaria. And then later in chapter four
we see why. Because he met a woman at a well
and told her all things ever she did. And had mercy on that
woman there and then he went somewhere else. Stayed two days
there in Samaria and preached and it says many believed on
him. And then he departed thence and went into Galilee. And our
Lord went from city to city in this manner, having mercy sometimes
on one soul and then departing and going to another place. And
sometimes many believed on him. But the language describing our
Lord's travels and The area there and his activities and the different
things that he did and said reminds us of what our Lord said to Zacchaeus
in Luke 19, 9. He came where Zacchaeus was. It says he passed by that way.
And Zacchaeus went up into a tree because he wanted to see who
this was that everybody was talking about. And the Lord came right
to Zacchaeus' tree. and called him by name and said,
Zacchaeus, you come down. And here's what he said to him
in Luke 19, 9. Jesus said unto him, this day
is salvation come to this house. For as much as he also is a son
of Abraham, he's one of mine. He's one of the ones that I promised
Abraham thousands of years ago. In your seed, the Lord Jesus
Christ, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. For the
Son of Man has come, still talking to Zacchaeus, the Son of Man
has come to seek and to save that, that which was lost. The way that our Lord left the
multitudes and sought out these few reminds us of that. It also reminds us of Luke chapter
15. Turn over there with me and let's look at this together.
Luke chapter 15 verse 1. This is such a blessing and encouragement
to see the distinguishing grace of our
Lord. In 15-1, it says, Then drew near
unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And
the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners
and eateth with them. And he spake this parable unto
them, saying, What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he
lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness.
When he saw the multitudes round about him, he said, let's go
on the other side. Why? Because there's a sheep
over there that's lost. And I came to seek and to save
that which is lost. And go after that which is lost
until he find it. And when he hath found it, he
layeth it on his shoulders rejoicing. People argue for years, decades,
I guess centuries about who the ninety and nine are. Yeah, I
don't know, but I know which one I am. I know which one was
me. Do you? Do you? I'm pretty sure
I know who the ninety and nine are. He calls them just persons. who need no salvation. They're
not lost. He layeth it on his shoulders,
rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth
together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with
me, for I have found my sheep, which was lost. I say unto you
that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner, sinner
that repenteth." Think about that. He's talking about now
one sinner that repenteth. Oh, somebody had good sense enough
to repent. Yeah, the one that the Lord went out into the wilderness
and found and laid on his shoulders and brought home had sense enough
to repent. more than over 99 just persons
which need no repentance. And so our Lord left the multitude
and went where this one man, sick of the palsy, Was and look
at it look back in our text in Matthew 9 and verse 2 And notice
these words Behold they brought to him a
man Let me ask you honestly. I know that we've We've you've
probably seen this point before But let me ask you honestly this
morning. Can we do this? Can we do this? Can we bring to the Lord Jesus
Christ somebody that's in need? I despise the religion of this
world, how they talk about getting people saved. And we don't dictate
anything to the Lord. He has mercy on whom He will.
But let me ask you this. These men brought this man, this
sick of the palsy man, laying on his bed helpless, useless,
miserable. They brought him to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Can we do that? Is this now impossible since
Christ has left this earth in bodily form? Is it no longer
something that's doable? Did His ascension into glory
bodily spell the end of all such bringing of a loved one to the
Lord Jesus Christ for His blessing? I say no. I say no. Of course not. The centurion
knew better than that, didn't he? We just talked about the
centurion. In chapter 8 of Matthew, you remember what he said to
the Lord? Lord, I'm not worthy that You should come to my house.
Just say the Word. Can the Lord do that this morning?
Can you beseech Him this morning to do that like that centurion
did? He doesn't have to be here in bodily form, does He? To bless
somebody? We're not worthy for Him to come
in here anyway, are we? Can we bring somebody and say,
Lord, bless them. Bless them. Can we not from here bring our
loved ones before Him in prayer? And cannot Christ say the word
from glory where He dwells? At the right hand of the throne
of the majesty on high? Is His word less powerful now
than it was then? Is He less merciful? All he need do this morning is
say the word and my children will be healed. My friends, my brother. If our Lord still walked this
earth in bodily form and in his body that the Lord prepared for
him, And you heard that he was in a nearby city. And you knew him. You knew. Of
his power and of his willingness to save. You knew from personal
experience. That he's a gracious Lord. And
someone that you love with all of your heart. Was helpless and
lost. What would you do in order to
help the one that you love? What could you do that would
help them more than anything in the world? And what would
you not do to see them saved, to see their sins forgiven? And again, he entered into Capernaum
after some days, and it was noised that he was in the house. And
straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there
was no room to receive them, not so much as about the door. And He preached the Word unto
them." That's what the Lord came. He's the preacher, the Gospel
preacher. He came and He preached to them.
He didn't have a debate or give them some words to live by. make suggestion. He preached
the gospel to them. He preached himself to them. You remember what they said to
John the Baptist, what he told them to say to John the Baptist,
tell John, when John sent word asking, are you the one or do
we look for another? He said, tell John that the blind
see and the deaf hear. Lepers are clean. And tell him
this, the gospel is preached to the poor. This is what our
Lord came to do, preaching the gospel of himself. He preached
the word to them, and they come unto him, bringing one sick of
the palsy, which was born of four. 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 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." Don't ever
reason in your heart. Look at the Word of God and think
about the Word of God. There's nothing in our heart
worth reasoning about. The Lord said in our text in
Matthew, why do you think evil in your heart? That's all that's
going to happen if you reason within your own heart. Here's
what sounds good to me. Here's what seems reasonable
to me. It's evil. That's what God said. And then verse 7, 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
ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive
sins. He saith to the sick of the palsy,
I say unto thee, Arise, take up thy bed, and go thy way into
thine house. And immediately he arose, took
up the bed, and went forth before them all, insomuch that they
were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it
on this fashion." This man was sick of the palsy. Four men had
to carry his bed with him on it. This is paralysis. He was paralyzed. Usually affected
one side of the body. or the other, and it could affect
certain limbs and not others, but the whole body could be stricken
with this thing. But this man was stricken with
it in such a way that he was utterly helpless and useless. All he could do was lay on the
bed because he couldn't walk, and he was likely unable to move
some or any of his limbs. This person couldn't have come
to the Lord Jesus Christ physically if he had wanted to. He couldn't
do anything for himself. And this is a picture of our
spiritual condition before God. Didn't our Lord Jesus Christ
say in John 6, 65, no man can come unto me except the Father
which hath sent me draw him. We're sick of the palsy. by nature. Sinners don't like to hear this
until Christ changes what sinners like to hear. But we're helpless
to do anything about our sin problem. We all are at the mercy
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Someone might say, oh, well,
he said, rise, take up thy bed and walk. And don't we have to
obey his word? Isn't it up to us to obey Him? Don't you see that this is the
word of power whereby He performs the miracle of causing you to
rise up off your bed and walk? This is the power of God. Once
this man heard this command from the mouth of the Lord, he was
already healed. Look at what he said to the man
the first time. He said at the end there, rise,
take up your bed, and what was the first thing he said to him?
Thy sins be forgiven thee. Where's the man's cooperation
in that? What did he have to do in order for that to take
effect? There's no obedience necessary in thy sins be forgiven
thee, and neither was there any necessary on that man's part in a discretionary fashion, shall
I get up or shall I? No, when the word of power comes,
healing comes with the word. That's what Paul said, I'm not
ashamed of the gospel because it's the power of God unto salvation. The gospel goes forth with power. Thy sins be forgiven thee. That's a powerful declaration
of what Christ has done for you. Not what He's expecting you to
do, or needs you to do. And that's what the Gospel is
also. Now let me be very clear about
this, if I can. There is a Gospel command to
come to Christ. That's to be obeyed. And there
is obedience, to believe on Christ. Our brother talked in the Bible
class this morning about obedience to the Gospel. There is an obedience
to the Gospel. Once you've heard this command,
obey, believe, once you've heard it with the ear of faith, the
miracle's already taken place, or you wouldn't have heard it.
Paul said that that gospel is the power of God into salvation,
and once you hear with power, with God's power, faith being
mixed with the gospel that you hear by God's grace and gift,
You're already saved. Your ears have already been opened.
The power to obey goes forth with the command and you will
obey it. My sheep hear my voice and they follow me. It's not
my sheep hear my voice and then I wait to see whether they'll
follow me or not. And when you do obey the gospel command, you
won't go around and start bragging about how you cooperated with
the Lord in your salvation. Only lost people insist on man's
part in salvation. Save people realize that our
part in salvation is that we needed it. Christ's part is everything
else. Christ is all in salvation. This man had no ability whatsoever
to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, but Christ crossed the sea of
Galilee to come where he was. And to have mercy, to say to
him, your sins are forgiven you. Not they will be if your sins
are forgiven. This is the gospel that we preach. It's the gospel of the forgiveness
of sins by the power, the miraculous power and mercy of Christ. And then he said, rise, take
up that bed and walk. And he didn't need to wait and
see whether the man would obey him or not. The two calls are
the same. The one having to do with spiritual
healing and the other with physical. Same power, same Christ, same
word, same mercy. There was no need for this man's
cooperation with the first, and neither was there any need for
it with the second. Salvation is of the Lord. It
always has been, and it is this morning. And it always will be. Now, let's
consider this amazing, wonderful power of our Lord. He said, I said what I did that
you might know that I have power. Thy sins be forgiven thee. Is that shocking to you? That
our Lord would just walk up to a man and say to this man, among
all these others that are in this house, Pharisees there,
scribes were there, and some publicans and sinners that just
wanted to hear what the Lord had to say. And He says to this
one man, Thy sins be forgiven thee. These just came with this
man on the bed to have his palsy healed. They just didn't want
to see their friend in such pitiful shape. They wanted to see the
Lord heal him of the palsy. But our Lord, you see, instead
of just dealing with the symptoms of our problem, He deals with
the source of the problem. All of our diseases, all of our
illnesses, all of our problems, death itself, all of our infirmities,
all of our troubles, are a result of our sin. Not sin, our sin. I'm sick right now because of
my sin. Isn't that right? All of our problems, all of our
woes and troubles, all of our fears, all of our anxiety, everything
bad. is because of me, it's because
of my sin. So you see, how wonderful this
word from our Redeemer, thy sins be forgiven thee. There went
all of my problems out the window. There went every trouble, every
fear, every care, every woe, every sorrow, every tear. Everything
but joy and blessing and glory. Everything bad is gone. Thy sins be forgiven thee. Look
at exactly what he said to him. Look at verse 2 again in Matthew
9. Son, be of good cheer. Be of good cheer. by sins be forgiven thee. Can
you imagine how miserable this man must have been before this?
Can you even imagine that? Having to just lay on a bed day in and day out, week in and
week out, unable to move, unable to do anything for yourself. Can we even begin to imagine
the misery of that? And here comes our Lord saying,
be of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven thee. And
he hadn't healed him of the palsy yet. He's still laying on his
bed helpless, unable to walk, unable to do anything for himself.
Be of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven thee. It
doesn't matter what else is true at that point, does it? There's
cause for joy. If there's anything that might
make a palsy bed a cheerful place, it's this. My sins are gone. My sins are gone. Did you hear
what Jesus said to me? They're all taken away. Your
sins are pardoned and you are free. They're all taken away. My sins
are all taken away. We ought to sing that every week.
My sins are all taken away. Our Lord said, now you can be
happy. But he's still bedridden. He's
still in the same condition he was in when he got there. Yeah,
but with one big difference. My brother, Tommy Robbins, lay
in bed not long ago with cancer all through his body
and given just a couple of weeks to live. And we were all standing
around like I'm doing now with tears running down our face.
He said, don't cry. This is not a cause for sadness. You know why he was able to say
that? His sins were forgiven. His sins were forgiven. And then let's back up even more
and look at the first word that the Son of God said to this man.
Son. Not man thy sins be forgiven, but son. This is why the Lord
forgave his sins. Because he was one of his sons.
The Lord Jesus Christ, Isaiah said, is the everlasting Father.
And we're His children. We're His children. He addressed
His disciples that way, didn't He? Little children. Little children. Be of good cheer. He said the
same thing to you and I. Little children, be of good cheer. It's your father's good pleasure
to give you the kingdom. Your sins are gone. Every son
has his sins forgiven. Every one. Romans 8, 16, the
spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the
children of God. And if children, then heirs.
If you're His child, you're an heir of God and a joint heir
with Jesus Christ. Well, all people are the children
of God. Nonsense. If you're a child of His, you're
an heir of His. If you're a child of His, your
sins are forgiven. Turn to Hebrews 2 with me. I
won't be long. Hebrews 2. Verse 7. Look at this with me. The language
of this. I wish I could say things right.
I wish I could speak like these things deserve to be spoken.
Thou madest him, my Lord, my Savior. Thou madest him a little lower
than the angels. Thou crowned him with glory and
honor and did set him over the works. of thy hands, now has
put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he
put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put
under him. But now we see not yet all things
put under him, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than
the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory
and honor, that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for
every man. For it became him who are all
things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory,
to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he
is not ashamed, to call them brethren. He's going to bring
all of His sons to glory. And to do that, He suffered death.
He tasted death for us, that we should have the life of God
in Him. John said in 1 John 3.1, Behold
what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we
should be called the sons of God. Son, be of good cheer, thus sins
be forgiven thee. And then verse three in our text,
behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, this
man blasphemeth. In Mark's account, we are told
that they said this, why does this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
only? And like so many that are deceived
in the religion of this world and lost, they were right about
the doctrine, but wrong about the person. So many are like these are very
orthodox in their doctrinal positions. I don't take doctrinal positions
by God's grace. I don't have any positions that
I take. I just pray that God would give me grace to believe
his word, just believe his word. And people who take doctrinal
positions are usually very vocal about letting everybody know
it and know what their positions are. And yet they display in
their self-righteousness and ignorance of the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ. You may have all your I's dotted
and all of your T's crossed, but if you're trusting in your
dotted I's and your crossed T's, you're in bad trouble. You're
in a bad place. you must come to Christ for salvation. The blind man in John chapter
9, he didn't have all the I's dotted yet or the T's crossed,
but he knew the Lord Jesus Christ. He knew who forgave him of his
sins. So if you're in this place where
your doctrine is sound and you want everybody to know it, but
you're wrong about the person, one thing thou lackest, One thing thou lackest. It's
faith in Christ. It's commitment, committed, loving,
submissive faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Whereby God saves
sinners. It's by grace through faith.
If you know the Lord Jesus, you'll be a pretty sound theologian.
But theology won't save you. Our Lord said in John 5, 39,
you search the scriptures for in them you think you have life,
eternal life. And they are they which testify
of me. And you will not come to me that you might have life. So these scribes, they were absolutely
correct in their doctrine. None can forgive sins, but God
only. That's exactly right. That's
the truth. But they were wrong about who Christ was. And Christ
plainly said in verse 6 of our text, He said, I said, thy sins
be forgiven thee that you may know that the Son of Man hath
power on earth to forgive sins. Why can only God forgive sins? And how then does Jesus Christ,
the Son of Man, notice who he called himself, that you may
know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins. Number one. Only God can forgive
sins because all sins are against God. They're not against anybody
else but God. David said, against thee, thee
only have I sinned. And he said that because it's
the truth. You can do me wrong. You can treat me bad. You can
do evil unto me. But when you do, you've sinned
against God, not me. And Christ has this authority
because in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead in a
body. Colossians 2.9. Secondly, only God can forgive
sin because only God can pay for them. Only God can make satisfaction
for sin. The wages of sin is death, but
if you and I, all of us, died all together at once, it wouldn't
pay for one sin. It would not atone for the smallest
of our faults before God. Christ has this power as God
to forgive sins because His precious blood is not the blood of a mere
man, but the blood of God, Acts 20, 28. God purchased his church
with his own blood when the Lord Jesus died on Calvary. And I
say, it must be the blood of God, and it must be the blood
of a perfect man. And I say perfect man, because
if Christ had one sin of his own, then he can't pay for any
of mine. And your lamb must be without blemish. and without
spot, and you were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ
as of a lamb, without blemish and without spot. Why must he
be a man? Because man sinned against God,
and so man must pay the debt of sin. He must be God because
only God can satisfy God, and he must be man because only man
can atone for man's sins. Only one therefore has the authority
The power to forgive sins. The God man. The son of man. Not a son of man. Not any son
of man. The son of man has power on earth
to forgive sins. He did then and he does right
now. He has power. He can say to any sinner he chooses,
thy sins be forgiven thee. And it's done. Only God can forgive
sins, only the God-man can pay for sins, and on the authority
of his own precious blood that he shed, he's able to say, thy
sins be forgiven thee. Could he pay for them? They're
forgiven. He was able to say to that thief
on the cross, today you'll be with me in paradise because he
was paying the way right then for that man to come and be with
him forever in paradise. He was redeeming his very soul
as he hung on that cross. Only God can forgive sins, but
will he? Will he do it? He forgave this man's sins. And
he said to the Pharisees in John 8, 21, then said Jesus again
unto them, I go my way and you shall seek me and you shall die
in your sins. But to this man, he said, thy
sins be forgiven thee. In verse 24 there, John chapter
eight, where I just read, He said, I said therefore unto you
that you shall die in your sins, for if you believe not that I
am, you shall die in your sins. Our Lord could have just said
to this man, rise, take up thy bed and walk, and not said thy
sins be forgiven thee. Both are easy to say, aren't
they? He asked him, which one is easier to say? They're both
easy to say. I can say either one this morning
to you. But both are impossible to make
good on, unless you're the son of man. If I said either, it
would be hypocrisy. It would be presenting myself
in such a way that I'm not. It would be implying that I have
power that I don't have. But the Lord Jesus can say either
one and make good on either one or both. And when He says it,
it's done. It's done. Whatever He says is
done. And He said what He did so that
we might know that He has power to forgive sins. Do you know
this? I'm asking you. flat out, and
I'm asking myself, as I've been asking myself as I studied it,
do I know that the Son of Man has power to forgive sins? If we do, we'll come to Him,
won't we? If we have sins, and we know
the ramifications of that, being sinful before the Holy God. If
we have sins, if we're a sinner, and we know that He has power
to forgive them, we'll say like that woman, if I can just touch
Him, if I can just touch the hem of His garment, I'll be made
whole. I need the Lord Jesus Christ. You'll get to Him one
way or the other, if you ever have that truth revealed to you.
I'll tell you what else we'll do. We'll bring our loved ones
to Him. How do you do that? You'll figure it out, won't you?
If you love him and you know him. If you know he has power,
like these men knew it. They figured out how to get their
loved one to him. Well, boy, it's not gonna be
possible. It's the thought that counts.
It's just a little too crowded. There's a roof up there. And
if we could just bust up that roof and lower him down in there,
the Lord would see that. I'm telling you, I could sit
here and tell you pray for them and witness to them at every
opportunity. You'll figure it out, won't you?
If you know him, you know he has power to forgive sin and
you love him, and you know their need, you know by experience
that the Lord is gracious. that he delights to show mercy.
We will bring our loved ones to him. Our Lord said to that
woman at the well, in John 4 10, it says, Jesus answered and said
unto her, if thou knewest the gift of God, he said, now I said,
thy sins be forgiven thee that you may know that I have power
to forgive sins. And he said to that woman, if
you knew, if you knew, if you knew the gift of God, and who
it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldest have
asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. May
God give us grace to know that our Lord Jesus Christ, who died
for our sins according to the scriptures, By the power of His
precious blood and His authority as the Son of Man, He's able
to forgive my sins. He's able to forgive the sins
of those that I love. Lord, if You will, You can, make
us to know of Thy power, Thy sin-cleansing power. And to bring
our loved ones to Thee, that You might bless them.