chapter 5 and verse 26. I generally, in going through
this series of messages in Luke, have been trying to take large
passages and move through it fairly quickly, but for the last
month, I guess, this text of Scripture has been on my heart.
I've been Studying it, meditating on it, and I believe I have a
message we need from it. On this particular day during
our Lord's earthly ministry, a lot of people spent a lot of
time with him. A good many folks in his presence
observing his work, hearing his word. And when the day was over,
we read, they were all amazed. and they glorified God and were
filled with fear, with reverence, saved. We have seen strange things
today. Strange things. Now this word
that is translated strange things is only used this one time in
all the New Testament. It is the word that we would
normally translate paradoxes. And this is what the scripture's
telling us. These folks saw things that were
contrary to human observation, contrary to human expectation,
contrary to human thinking, paradoxes, things that just were out of
the ordinary. The fact is, God's ways are not
our ways, never have been and never will be. God's works are
never done the way we think they ought to be done. God's providence
is never the way we would order things if we had our way. God's
salvation is not such as men observe and say, well, that makes
sense. This book, in its entirety, is a paradox to men. This book
and everything about this book is exactly contrary to the way
men think. Religion, the religion of this
world, has nothing at all in similarity with the gospel of
God's grace and the worship of God. If we would know Him, If
we would experience his grace, we will observe strange things. Things totally contrary to the
way we thought before. Things totally contrary to human
opinion. Things totally contrary to the
way the rest of the world thinks. That's the reason God's people
in this world are peculiar. Peculiar, not peculiar like those
folks live down there where you do, dress funny, not that way.
No, peculiar in the sense that the world doesn't understand.
Our Lord said, the world knows us not because it knew him not. They don't understand. And you
can't make them understand. Try as you may, you cannot make
the world understand what the world cannot see. Now as we look
at this, text this evening. I want us to look at the context,
and I'll be brief with that because I know I dealt with it a few
weeks ago, but I'll refresh your memories with the context here,
and then I want to show you some other strange things. First,
there are many strange things observed in this particular day. It was a day full of wonder,
so much so that the people were amazed and said, we've seen strange
things today. Well, what did they see? I'll
tell you what they saw. They saw four men acting in an
extraordinary, unusual way, contrary to that which would be commonly
received as good manners, contrary to that which would be commonly
received as respectful, contrary to that which would be commonly
perceived as just being right, but they were acting in strong
faith. You see, faith in Christ makes
men and women do strange things. Faith in Christ will make a man
like Abraham get up, take his family, pack his bags, and kiss
his whole world goodbye and go out to worship God. Faith will
cause men to pack their families up and move to the other side
of the world and live among barbaric tribesmen to preach the gospel
for the glory of God. These four men acted in strong
faith. We're told in verse 17, it came
to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching that there were
Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by. That's what religious
folks are good for, sit by and look, observe and criticize and
do nothing. Which will come out of every
town of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the
Lord was present to heal them. What an extraordinary statement.
The word them is referring to the scribes and Pharisees who
were sitting by. Here's the Son of God, God Almighty. He who by the mere exercise of
his will raises the dead, heals the lame, causes the blind to
see, the deaf to speak. The power of God. That's who
he is. All power is in him. And the Pharisees were sitting
there in the presence of him, who is the power of God to save
sinners. And they went to hell. The power
of the Lord was present to heal them, but they weren't healed
because they didn't need it. They were fine, they didn't need
him. They didn't want him. As a matter of fact, over in
Luke chapter nine, verse 11, we're told that our Lord Jesus
was ministering one day. The very last line is, as many
as had need of healing were healed by the Son of God. You have need
of him? Do you need him? Do you need
him? I'm gonna tell you something. It's true of you who do not know
him. And it's true of you and me right now. If we don't experience
and taste His grace, it's because of our own self-sufficiency and
our own sense that we don't need His grace. Do you need Him? Oh my God, I need Him. I need Him. I need Him now. Do you? This I promise you, if
you need Him, He's yours. If you need him, he created the
need. If you need him, he's yours. All right, read on. The power
of the Lord was present to heal them. Verse 18, and behold, men
sought or 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
him. And when they could not find by what way they might bring
him in because of the multitude, they went up on the housetop
and led him down through the tiling with his couch into the
midst before Jesus. There was a man who was completely
paralyzed. And there were four men who cared
for him. who knew the master. They cared for him. They had
love and pity upon their needy friend. and they figured out
a way. They found out a way. It appeared
impossible. How are we gonna, these four
men, maybe one man can couch down and crawl through the crowd
and get over here, but how on earth are we four men going to
get through these folks who are shoved up elbow to elbow, shoulder
to shoulder, packed together? How are we gonna get before him?
Just give it up. Oh no. There's nobody up on the
roof. And they figured out a way to
get their friend up on the roof, tear up the tiling, and let this
man down before the master. They would not be stopped. And
they got him in the presence of Christ. Let him down before
him. And in verse 20, when he saw
their faith, he said unto him, man, Thy sins are forgiven thee. I can't explain that, so I can't
do much preaching about it. It's the only time we see anything
like it in the scriptures. But here is a strange thing indeed. Here is a sinner, a needy, helpless
sinner, freely forgiven of all his sin by the God-man. Never before had a man come who
claimed to have divine right and authority to forgive sin.
But this man could and did forgive sin because this man is God.
Now, the Pharisees were enraged. How dares this man say your sins
be forgiven you? Because they didn't know he's
God. The Greeks were astonished. They stood by and they looked
at it and said, what's going on? They're wise, learned philosophers. They couldn't figure out what
was going on. But this sinner, He was full of joy. He was full
of joy. Now, hear me, God help you to
hear me. The Lord Jesus Christ, the God
man is still in the business of forgiving sin. All who trust
Him receive a full, free, complete, irreversible part. God is faithful
and just to forgive our sins as we trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ. As we confess our sin before
Him, He declares if we confess our sin, He's faithful and just
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
This is what I'm saying. Right where you are, believe
on the Son of God. and you'll walk out of here tonight
justified, forgiven of everything forever. Forgiven. Turn to Psalm 32. Psalm 32. This is one of those penitential
Psalms that David wrote after the matter of Uriah the Hittite. Nathan had come and declared
to him that God had put away his sin. And David went in and
wrote Psalm 51 and he wrote Psalm 32 in response to his experience
of God's grace. Here in Psalm 32, David says,
blessed is he. Oh, the blessedness of the man
whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed
is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, the man
to whom God will not charge sin. and in whose spirit there is
no guile, the man made new by grace. David said, when I kept
silence, when I refused to confess my sin, when I kept trying to
defend myself, when I kept trying to defend what I had done, when
I kept trying to defend my actions, when I kept trying to justify
myself, when I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my
roaring all the day long, for day and night, thy hand was heavy
upon me. My moisture is turned into the
drought of summer, Stop and think about this. Stop and think about
this. When God's hand lays heavy on
a sinner, there's hope of mercy. When God's hand lays heavy on
a sinner, makes you aware of your sin, when God presses you
down with guilt and you cannot find a way to speak peace to
your own conscience. Listen now. The next line is,
I acknowledged my sin unto thee. And mine iniquity have I not
hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions
to the Lord. David said, all right, enough.
I give up. I'm guilty. I'm guilty. Against you, you only have I
sinned. Now look at this next line. And
thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Now stop and think about
that. Confess your sin and your sin's
forgiven. Confess your sin. You can't find
terms low enough, base enough, groveling enough with which to
confess your sin. So just confess your sin. And
when you stop excusing yourself, when you stop justifying yourself,
when you stop pleading your circumstances, when you stop pleading everything
else and you just acknowledge, God, here I am, sin! It forgives
your sin. It speaks peace to your soul. But this is something else. This
sinner was forgiven because of the faith of other men. Look at verse 20 again. When
he saw their faith, their faith. What does that teach us? What
does that teach us? Certainly it does not imply that
one man can believe God for another man? If that were so, every one
of our children, grandchildren would be converted. Every one
of them. Doesn't imply that. Doesn't imply
that one man can believe another, believe for another. If that
were so, there'd never be a sinner walk out that door without faith
in Christ. I wouldn't allow it. I wouldn't allow it. But what
does it mean? It means, David, God uses means. He uses faithful
men, believing men, as they, because of faith in Christ, labor
to bring sinners to Christ. Sinners are brought to Christ.
That's exactly what it means. In your prayer back there in
the office, we do what we can do. And every now and then, God gives life. Just somebody hears the word
and believes. Let us ever faithfully, faithfully
serve God our Savior then, seeking his mercy and grace for needy
sinners. These men also saw a display
of our Lord's omniscience. Look at verse 21. The scribes
and Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh
blasphemies? Now, they didn't say who is this. They began to reason among themselves.
They didn't come out and say anything publicly. Who can forgive
sin but God alone? But look at this next line. But
when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he perceives yours too. You see,
all things are naked and open before the eyes of him with whom
we have to do. Nothing is hidden from God our
Savior. Nothing, nothing. The Lord Jesus perceived what
these men were thinking and he answered their skepticism before
they ever spoke it. Now this is just one of many
incidental displays of our Lord's deity. The Son of God is God
omniscient. He knows everything. And they saw this sick man, one
who could lift neither hand nor foot. immediately made completely
whole, immediately. Verse 24, but that you may know
that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. He
said to the sick of palsy, I say unto thee, arise and take up
thy couch and go into thy house. And immediately he arose up before
them and took up that whereon he lay and departed to his own
house, glorifying God. Now truly, this was a strange
thing. As an evidence of his true messiahship and divinity,
to prove that he had power as God to forgive sin, the paralyzed
man was perfectly healed before their eyes, and they were all
amazed. Now you who are spiritually sick, whose hearts are plagued with
sin, oh, come to Christ now and be healed. You see, he still
performs miracles of mercy. He said, preacher, how can you
call men to come when you tell them they're dead and they can't
come? Because your coming doesn't depend on you. Our Lord told
this paralyzed man to get up. He couldn't get up, but he did.
He told him to pick up his couch. He couldn't pick up his couch.
He couldn't lift his hand. But he did. How come? Because when
God the Son said, arise, there's power in the word to arise. Oh,
Son of God, speak. And cause now the blind to see,
and the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, cause the dead to live. Come to Christ. Come to Christ.
And I promise you, if you come, He has caused you to come and
he's given you life and eyes to see and ears to hear. He's
given you the faith by which you come. Hear him ye deaf, his
praise ye dumb, your loosened tongues employ, ye blind behold
your Savior come and leap ye lame for joy. Secondly, I want
you to see that the gospel of God's grace is itself filled
with strange things. The scripture tells us plainly
that he who is the creator of man, he who is God incomprehensible
became a man. In order to redeem and save us,
God himself took into union with himself humanity. so that he
who is God, no less God than if he were not a man, has become
himself a man, as fully man as though he were not God, so that
he might live and die as a man in the place of chosen sinners.
Jeremiah considered this and wrote with astonishment. The
Lord hath created a new thing in the earth. The Lord's created
something that's never been seen, never been conceived of, never
did a man imagine such a thing. The Lord has created a new thing
in the earth. Behold, a woman shall compass
a man. And what he's talking about is
that promise God made to Eve. He's talking about the Messiah
coming, the seed of woman. A woman shall compass a man.
The apostle Paul writes about it in Philippians chapter two.
Turn there if you will. Philippians chapter two. Verse five. What a giant step. What a giant step. Giant step
down. Because of his great love for
us, the son of God stepped into humanity. Now look at this. Philippians
2.5, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
You want to serve one another? You want to be instruments in
the hands of God? Step down. Step down to minister
to the needs of one another. Who being in the form of God,
and thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself
of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and
was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. Now this perfectly innocent,
just, righteous man who is God died as the vilest transgressor. and a common criminal under the
wrath of God Almighty because he was made to be sin for us. I cannot say which is the greater
wonder in my mind, James, that Christ came into the world in
human flesh, but this perfectly righteous man was willingly made
to be sin, made sin. God took the horrid, ignominious
load of our guilt, our depravity, our sin, all our sins, all our
sins, those we know about and those hidden deep in our souls
of which we're not even aware, all our sins, and made them to
be his sons. and he killed him. Awake, O sword,
against one that is my fellow, smite and slay the shepherd. The just died in the place of
the unjust, that the unjust might be made just. The innocent died
in the place of the guilty, so that the guilty might be made
innocent. The righteous was made to be
sin, so that the sinner might be made righteous. And now, death. Death. The penalty of sin is
conquered by the death of him who is life eternal, Jesus Christ. Truly, the strangest thing yet,
the most mysterious, unexplainable thing in all the world is the
death of Jesus Christ at Calvary. Well might the sun in darkness
hide and shut his glories in, when God the mighty maker died
for man the creature sin. But then there are strange things
to be observed today. Driving home last night, I was
trying to study and prepare a little bit. Ron and I chat and I'd get
silent, but I was working over things. I've seen some strange
things in the last 30 years. Some real strange things. Strange
things to my eyes and strange things in the eyes of men. I can say with regard to this
day, in which God has been pleased to grant me his grace. I've seen
strange things today. Many years ago, one of the old
Puritans, William Guthrie, visited a dying woman, a woman who was
ignorant of the gospel and unconverted. Guthrie preached the gospel to
her, and as he preached, God gave her faith and she joyfully
believed. And before he left, she died.
When William Guthrie got home, he gathered his family at dinnertime
and sat down. He said, I've seen a strange
thing today. A woman whom I found in a state of nature, I saw in
a state of grace, and I left in a state of glory. Strange
indeed. Strange indeed. I've seen self-condemned,
helpless sinners. completely justified by Jesus
Christ. Amazing love. How can it be that
thou, my God, shouldst die for me? But here I am. Oscar, there
never been a more corrupt, depraved, hell-bent, hell-deserving human
being, topside of God's earth than the one talking to you right
now. Either I say that with absolute
honesty, or I'm the biggest hypocrite you've ever seen. But this sinner is freed of all
sin, just before God Almighty, just,
without sin, without guilt, without any charge against me or any
charge possible to be brought against me, justified by God
Himself. Oh, how strange is the choice
of God's love and grace. He chose me. I'm not telling
you secondhand stuff. I'm telling you what I've experienced.
I'm bearing faithful witness to the grace of God experienced
in my soul. The Lord Jesus came to me by
the power of his spirit when I was in dread, despair, because
of guilt and sin. When my soul was pressed down,
had it not been for the utter terror of going to hell, I'd
have committed suicide when I was a young teenager. But I was just
utterly terrified. And God came to me and he spoke
peace to my soul, giving me life and faith in his son. He knows how to take stout hearted
rebels, break their hearts and renew them by his grace. Oh,
sometimes it happens real quick. And sometimes it takes a long
time. Not because God has a tougher
time with one than another. That's not a problem. It takes
a long time with some because that's the purpose of God Almighty. He intends to bring them by means
of great difficulty. Some have been rescued from false
hope of religion. Some have heard the word for
many years and later were converted. I read years ago about an old
man in his 80s who heard George Whitefield preach when he was
just a young boy. And God granted him life and faith in his old
age. And he said, God graciously brought
to his memory that which he heard Whitefield proclaim when he was
just a boy. But this I know, every instance
of God's marvelous saving grace is astonishing. The wind blows
where it will. You hear the sound there, but
you can't tell where it's coming from or where it's going. So
is everyone that's born of the Spirit. And I've seen God's people
preserved by grace and faith and life in
the midst of heavy, heavy trials, temptations. I've seen evil turn to good,
not by accident, not by blind fate, not by luck, not by chance,
but I've seen evil turn to good by the gracious and wise hand
of God's remarkable providence. Oh my, my, my. If we knew, Brother Scott Richardson
said right here one time, years ago, he said if we just, if we
knew what God knows, if we could see things the way God sees them,
we'd want everything just the way it is. Everything. Understand it? Everything. Wouldn't
change a thing. How come? Because he's doing
good. and that which we perceive to
be evil, he will demonstrate clearly one day to have been
exactly what was necessary for the best possible good for all
his people and the glory of his name. But there are some strange things
yet to be seen. In judgment day, men and women who have lived
good, moral lives, religious men and women, men and women
who have been highly regarded and highly respected will be
sentenced to everlasting damnation, while men and women who have
been vile, wretched sinners, now clothed in the righteousness
of Christ and washed in his blood, shall stand before God Almighty,
are you listening, as chaste virgins. Well, that's not the way of the
world, is it? That's not the way of men, is it? But that's
the way of God Almighty. Strange things, strange things. Old John Newton put it this way,
He said, heaven will be a strange world. And when I get to heaven,
I'm sure I'll see many, many strange things. Things that will
just be shocking to me. He said, I'll be surprised when
I stand before God to see so many people there whom I never
expected to see there. And he said, I'll just be astonished.
To see so many people I expected to be there absent. But the most
astonishing thing of all is old John Newton's gonna be there.
Most astonishing thing of all. I'll be there. How come? Because
God Almighty has saved me by his free grace in Jesus Christ
the Lord. May he do the same for you. Amen. Rodney, come lead us in the hymn.
We'll have the Lord's table together.