the book of Saint Luke chapter
5 and we'll read beginning with
verse 17 down through verse 26 this morning and so listen carefully
follow along in the Bible and it came to pass on a certain
day as he was teaching that there were Pharisees and doctors of
the law sitting by which were come out of every town of Galilee
and Judea and Jerusalem and the power of the Lord was present
to heal them. And behold, men brought in 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 upon the housetop and let him down through the tiling
with his couch into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw
their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. And the scribes and the Pharisees
began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
alone? But when Jesus perceived their
thoughts, he answering, said unto them, What reason ye in
your hearts? Whether it is easier to say,
Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Rise up and walk. But that ye may know that the
Son of Man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, He said unto
the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, Arise, and take up
thy couch, and go into thine house. And immediately he rose
up before them, 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." Now as we have read this portion
of the Word of God to you this morning, I feel there is a definite
message here for each one of us, and I do hope that the Lord
has prepared your heart to receive that which he would give to you
today. This is a very interesting story.
We find that In verse 17, it came to pass on a certain day,
on a certain day in the providence of God, in a certain day according
to God's eternal purpose, the Lord Jesus Christ was teaching.
And it tells us something about his audience. There were Pharisees,
there were doctors of the law, the critics of our Lord Jesus,
the super religious folks were all there and they were sitting
by. and they had come out of every town of Galilee and Judea
and Jerusalem and the scripture says in the last part of verse
17 that it was a unusual day for the Lord's power was present
to heal his congregation. those that had come out to hear
him. The Lord's power was present to heal them. And behold, in
verse 18, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a
palsy. Here was an afflicted man. Here
was a man who was unable to walk about on his own. Here was a
cripple, a man who had been a cripple from his birth. And the scripture
says that they sought means to bring him in and to lay him before
him. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ
was here, God's power was present in this meeting, and these men,
knowing that the Lord's power was present to heal, they wanted
to bring in this man who was sick of the palsy. It was their
friend, he was an impotent friend, and they wanted to bring him
in. Now they found out, of course, where our Lord was preaching,
and there was quite a crowd that had gathered on that day. This
was a big crowd. The scripture says that they
wanted to bring him in, but because of the multitude, they couldn't
get in. And the other accounts that we
read in Mark and in Matthew tell us that they couldn't even get
in and stand by the door, that the multitude filled the house
And there was no more room left inside that they might get this
man before the Master because they were burdened about their
friend, they desired that he would be healed by our Lord,
and they wanted to get him in to the presence of Jesus Christ. Now, I wondered as I was thinking
about this portion of the Word of God, I wondered if someone
might think that maybe these men were out of place. Maybe
they were out of place because they sought means to bring him
in. Now, you see, there are those
that say that if you believe in the absolute sovereignty of
Almighty God, it's not necessary to use any means in getting men
and women into the presence of our Lord. That the Lord can save
whomever He will, whenever He will, in whatever way He chooses
to do it. Now, I believe that the God of
the Bible is an absolute sovereign. I believe He is. But I also believe
that the God of the Bible uses means in the salvation of men's
souls. Now, when I talk about the sovereignty
of God, and I believe that He is absolute, irresistibly, infinitely
sovereign. God is a sovereign. He is an
authoritative God. He is a reigning God. He is a
sovereign God, and He sits on a throne, and He rules among
the children of men. The Bible says that none can
stay His hand or say unto Him, What doest thou? God can do whatever
He pleases, whenever He pleases, and I'm no authority on what
God cannot do. I'm here to tell you that God
can do whatever He will do, and when He purposes to do it, He
can do it. But now look here, to believe
that God is sovereign is simply, and when I make that statement,
it's not something that you say, oh that's a big word, it's an
ugly word, and you know people do get their hackles up when
you begin to talk about God being sovereign and man being helpless
and hopelessly lost and unable to do anything for himself. But
when we preach God up and men down, men do get their hackles
up and they become quite disturbed because we are preaching a big
God and little men. But beloved, that's exactly how
the Bible presents God Almighty. But to believe that God is sovereign
is simply to affirm His right. He is right as God to govern
this universe which He created for Himself, for His glory, and
for Him to rule that universe just as He pleases. Now, He is the potter and we
are the clay. Now that's a fundamental statement
of the scriptures. We are the clay. Our God is the potter. Now listen
to me. We have no more power over God
than clay has over the potter. Is that understood? We have no
more power over God than clay has over the potter. God molds
the clay of Adam's race into whatever form he chooses. From
the lump of fallen humanity, he makes one vessel unto honor
and another unto dishonor. This is his right. Because He
is God. He is absolute God. And He is under no law. Listen
to me. He is under no rule or power
beyond His sovereign will and holy nature. He is God. He is under no law. God does
not have to do things like in the way you think that He has
to do them. Man likes to put God in a straitjacket and say,
God, you must do this. I'm going to do this. You must
do that. Somebody has well said, what
man does cannot change what God has done. What man thinks cannot
change what God has said. What man determines cannot change
what God has decreed. What man wills cannot change
what God has purposed. Now, in saying all of that, I
wanted to establish in your minds that I believe in the doctrine
of the absolute sovereignty of God Almighty. But the question
is, was these men out of place when they sought means to bring
their friend in to the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well
beloved, I think not. They found out where the Lord
was preaching and so they went out and they got this friend
and they picked up his bed and they sought a way to bring their
friend into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now when the
Son of God saw their faith, When the Son of God saw the faith
of the four men who had broken up the tile on the roof, who
had tore a hole in the roof, you see these men, they were
bound and determined, they were desirous, they must get their friend into the presence
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think it is either in Matthew
or Mark, it tells us that they tore up the roof, that they tore
up the tiling. I mean they ruined a good roof
in order to get this man into the presence of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And when the Son of God saw their
faith, you see their faith had moved them. I mean, they believed
that inside of that room there was a power. They believed that
inside of that room there was a person. They believed that
inside of that room there could be a miracle take place and that
God could heal their friend. They believed that what their
friend needed, the Lord Jesus Christ could supply. That all
they needed to do was get him into the presence of Christ. And so the Lord said when he
saw their faith, he said unto this man, He said, Thy sins are
forgiven thee. Get the picture. Here this man
coming down on his bed in front of the Lord Jesus. Very little
room there, but here he comes right down out through the roof.
Here he comes right down in front of our Lord. And our Lord saw
their faith and their determination. to get this man in there. And
so he said unto the man, thy sins are forgiven thee. Now these four men, they could
not do a thing themselves except this for their crippled friend.
They couldn't do anything else. I mean, they were helpless as
this man was himself. To change this man's life, forgive
his sins? No! In no way! And they could
not, of course, heal this man, but they knew that Christ had
what this man needed. Now, beloved, listen to me. Listen
to me. We're very slothful in our days.
Zion is not prevailing in this day and time. And the Bible teaches
that before Zion brings forth, before men and women are brought
into the kingdom of God, Zion must prevail. We're not very
much interested in getting men and women under the sound of
the gospel, but all of us have loved ones, all of us have friends,
all of us know people that desperately need what the Lord Jesus Christ
can do for them. We're unable in and of ourselves
to provide their need. So they must be brought to the
Savior. And these men brought their friend
overcoming the great obstacles that was in their way. And I
wonder this morning if you and I are making any effort Are we
seeking means by which we may get some folks under the sound
of the gospel? Do we believe that there's anything
unique about a service like this? Do we believe that there's anything
goes on when the gospel is preached? Do we believe that there's a
power present in the preaching of the Word of God, in the exaltation
of God Almighty, and the preaching of the truth of the Gospel that
will do sinners good, that will bring them to a place where they
can find liberty of soul and forgiveness of sin? Do we believe
that? Well, if we believe there's something
going on in here, that the church is the place of habitation for
God through the Spirit, if we believe that Jesus Christ said,
I'll be with you always, even to the winding up of the ages,
do we believe that he said to those, he said, where there's
just a few are gathered together, he said, I'm there in the midst. Do we believe that he's here?
Do we believe that Jesus is here? Do we believe that the Lord Jesus
Christ is here in our midst and that the power of God is present
to forgive sinners and to heal those that are wounded, even
dead in sin, trespasses and sin? Do we believe that? Do we have
such faith? in the Lord Jesus Christ, that
we would go out of our way to bring in those that are in need
of the gospel. Now then, if you do believe that,
if you're sober-minded about it, if there's somebody now upon
your mind and heart, if there's a lost sinner that is upon your
heart, if there's somebody in your family that you would just
give anything if they were here this morning, hearing the word
of God, if they were to be touched by the Lord Jesus, if in some
way you could get them under the power of the gospel. Well,
it's the desire of your heart, and you're sober about it, you
want to do it. Well, listen, I know that there
are some things that you can do for lost people. There are
some things. And you will not be out of place
when you do them. And what you can do, you are
responsible to do. And I want to just mention some
of these things here at the outset of our meeting this morning.
Number one, let me say you can pray for those who believe not. I do believe that if you ever,
listen to me, if you ever, ever get interested enough in lost
men and women, that you will call for a prayer meeting. You'll call for a prayer meeting.
You'll say, I've got these two sons, and they're lost. They're hopelessly lost, and
unless God intervenes for them, they'll never, never come under
the sound of the gospel. I've got these three daughters,
or I've got this mother, this father, I've got this dear one,
my sister or my brother, and they're lost, and unless God
touches them, Unless God touches them now beloved listen to Calvinist
is somebody believes that believes that salvation is of the Lord
and when we pray we're not like the Arminians and they get up
and preach like salvation was of man and then when they pray
they pray like salvation was of God and Well, beloved, we
preach like salvation was of God, and we also pray like salvation
is of God. And so we need to call for a
prayer meeting and say, brother, sister, would you meet with me?
And would you pray with me about my brother, about my sister,
about my mother or father? Would you do that? Well, listen,
the old songwriter says, see poor sinners, round and slumbering
on the brink of woe? Death is coming. Hell is moving. Can you bear to let them go? Oh, it's a time to seek the Lord. That's what you can do. You can
pray. You can ask God to do something,
to intervene. You can ask God to do it and
pray that He will seek the Lord because He can do something in
your situation, in your case, and with your loved ones. Number
two, you can tell them what you know about Jesus Christ and His
grace. You can tell them. You see, the
ministry of the gospel as I understand it in the New Testament is not
a ministry of explanation. It's a ministry of proclamation. You are to tell out what you
know. what the Lord has taught you
in your heart. You're to tell out what God has
taught you. You're to be able to give an
answer to those that ask you a reason for the hope that is
within you with meekness and fear. You're to be able to speak
up. Now I'm not saying you must be
a public preacher. No. No, no, you don't need to
be a public preacher, but listen to me. You can tell what Christ
has done for you, and this you are responsible to do. You can
tell friends and neighbors and relatives, acquaintances, what
you've seen, what you've heard, what you've felt, and what you
experience of the gospel. You can tell them of your hope
that you have in Christ. Now the third thing that you
can do is that you can distribute tracks and tapes and books to
those who might profit from them. That which cost you so little,
you know, books and tracks and tapes are plentiful in our day. Good preaching is plentiful on
tapes. And that which would cost you
just a very little might be of infinite value to another person. You see, you can do that. And
you might get somebody interested by just simply saying, I want
to share this book with you. I want to give you this book
for your birthday. I want to do this. I want to
do that. you give them some good literature and you give it to
them. And maybe the Lord will bless
that to the salvation of their souls. You know, we're sending
out a lot of tapes here. We try to send out all that we
can. And hopefully someday, and I've
had a vision of somebody, not the kind of vision some people
have, but I've had a vision of somebody picking up one of those
tapes one day, maybe even after I'm dead and gone, been gone
for years, and listening to that tape and saying, well, that old
preacher there, listen to what he's saying and maybe God will
use him. Maybe God will bring somebody
out of sin's death into life through the listening to the
word of God. And so do what you can. You can
do this. And then fourthly, I think we
can use what God has given us for the support and the propagation
of the gospel of our Lord Jesus. I'd like for you to look over
in the book of Third John third John with me. I just like to
read a couple of verses here to you Listen what this says
beloved thou doest faithfully in verse 5 Whatsoever thou doest
to the brethren and the strangers which have borne witness of thy
charity before the church Whom if thou bring forward on their
journey after a godly sort thou shall do well Because that for
his name's sake they went forth taking nothing of the Gentiles
We therefore ought to receive such that we might be fellow
helpers to the truth now listen to me you may not be able to
preach yourself, but you can help send a preacher and You
can help support a preacher. You can help in the ministry
that our God has given to another man, one whom God has raised
up. And we're told in the word of
God that they which preach the gospel ought to live of the gospel. And we're also told over in the
book of Timothy that those that labor in the word and doctrine,
that they should be counted worthy of double siphon. And so the
preacher can be helped, he can be supported, he can be brought
on his way. You can become a fellow helper
to the truth by standing with and standing by and supporting
those that are preaching the gospel. Now the fifth thing is
you can bring sinners to hear the gospel. These four men are
examples of this. These four men brought this man
to hear the Lord Jesus and what did he hear? Son, thy sins be
forgiven thee. That's what he heard. They brought,
listen, wouldn't it be wonderful if your boys or your girls or
your friend could hear those words from the master. Thy sins
be forgiven thee. That'd be worth a trip to the
building, wouldn't it? That'd be worth a trip to a service
if you could just hear, son, thy sins be forgiven thee. Now if you want, if you care,
If you're going to make every effort, then you get people under
the joyful sound of the gospel, invite them, and bring them in.
The sixth thing I'd like to say that you can do, and not be out
of line in doing it, and not in any way, shape, or form being
infringing on God's part in the salvation of a sinner, is that
you can exemplify the grace of God in your life You can adorn
the doctrine of God so that those who know you will want to hear
the gospel that you believe. You can do that. And I like that. Exemplify the grace of God in
your life. I mean solely that those that
hear you speak and those that look upon your life, that they'll
say, well I'd just like to know a little more about that gospel
that you believe. I'd like to know something about
that gospel that has changed your life and made you what you
are before God. Now these are things that we
can do, and I think we have opened up maybe the text somewhat by
mentioning these things, but these men sought means how they
could bring in this palsied man And so they tore the hole in
the roof and let him down into the midst of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, as we've opened this up, I see two things that I want
to speak a little bit about between now and the time that I let you
go this morning. There are two things here that
I see. One is a doctrine or a teaching here that we find in this text,
and then the other is a question. a question that I want to ask,
and I hope that we can answer it. The doctrine is this, and
that it is. I think the teaching here is
this, and that is that the greatest comfort in the world is to have
your sins forgiven you by the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the
greatest comfort that a poor sinner can receive in this world
from a thrice holy God, is to have God saying to him, thy sins
are forgiven thee. Now then, if If I have not heard these words
from our Lord, if in experience, if in my journey through life,
from the cradle to this time, I have never heard those words
from the mouth of my Lord in my own soul, If I've never heard,
son, thy sins be forgiven thee, that I am destitute of the greatest
comfort which God Almighty can afford to a sinner's heart. I
am destitute of that. Okay, the doctrine. It is taught
here that the pardon of sin is the richest comfort which the
Lord can give to a man. It is so because the pardon of
sin removes the heaviest sorrow which a man can feel. The heaviest
sorrow which a man can feel. Now beloved, let me say that
not many feel this heavy sorrow for sin. There's not many that
feel it. Now a sinner is a sacred thing,
the Holy Ghost must make him so. Only when the Spirit of God,
listen, only when the Spirit of God has come to your heart,
Only when God has touched you and made you aware, made you
sensitive, made you to feel your sinnerhood and your guilt, only
then do you look upon sin as being a heavy, one of the heaviest
sorrows that men bear in this world. To know the burden of
sin is to carry a crushing load upon one's soul. Thoughtful people
who I think have seen things in their true light, honest people
who refuse to be flattered themselves, people who want to be right with
God, all of these will tell you that sin is a misery, that the
conviction of it is very sharp and disquieting to the soul. The conviction of sin is very
sharp and disquieting to the soul. To know that you have sinned
against God, and all sin is against God. David said, against thee
and thee only have I sinned. Sin against light and knowledge,
it becomes a hot arm in the conscience of a man. When a man is sinned
against God and when God makes him aware of his sin, when the
Spirit of God enlightens him to the point where he knows and
feels his guilt before God, then that becomes a hot iron in his
conscience and there's no rest day or night to a soul which
carries this very hate. His sovereign grace and the physician
God when one gets into this awful state of conviction and where
he feels the hot iron of conviction in his conscience. Once let conviction
come on the soul and the world will lose its fascinations. The
amusements of this world are robbed of their enchantments.
Even business wearies a man and domestic joys are deprived of
their sweetness. Once conviction comes on a man,
I've known people who had no more appetite. They lost their
appetite. I've known people that could
not sleep. I've known people until they
got rest in their soul, until God had spoken these words, Son,
thy sins be forgiven thee. Until they heard from God and
were delivered of their sin, They could not lead a normal
life. Guilt on the conscience. It hangs over everything like
sorrow in a funeral parlor. Sin, sin. This is the disease. And when a man is infected with
this deadly disease, he is never comfortable. When a man knows
that he has terminal illness, he can't be comfortable anymore.
He can no longer have comfort. Let him put on the best clothes
that money can buy and he still is not comfortable. You can't
make him comfortable. Let him eat the most palatable
food that can be prepared by the chefs of this world and that
man still won't be comfortable because he has a disease, don't
you see? That is a deadly disease that's
going to ruin him, that's going to put him in the grave. And
this disease of sin is going to put men and women away for
all eternity in that place where the worm doth not and the fire
is not quenched. That place where the lash of
God will be upon their back for all eternity. I'm talking about
men and women going to hell. because their sins are not forgiven.
If you die in your sins, you will perish forever. Jesus said,
listen, He said if you repent not, then you will perish. All
those who die outside the Lord Jesus Christ must face a God
who is absolutely, totally, inflexibly righteous and they must perish
forever if they are not converted, if they are not saved in this
life. Well a man's unhappy then, and nothing can please him till
the disease is taken away, if somebody can find a cure. Now
he'd be very interested in that. So it is with a sinner under
conviction of sin by the Holy Ghost. He gets interested in
the gospel. He gets interested in how his
sin can be put away. How he can receive remission
of sin. How this terrible disease of
sin can be eradicated from his never-dying soul. The pardon
of sin removes the bitterest calls of distress and alarm. Now next then, forgiveness of
sin is a great comfort because it is indispensable. You can
have the world. I mean you can have this world
by a downhill pole, but you'll never be solidly happy brother. Friend of mine, you'll never
be solidly happy until your sins are forgiven. Never will be. You say, well I have hopes of
being. Well, not until your sins are forgiven. You'll never be
solidly happy. A man cannot really be happy
till his sin is pardoned because sin brings more or less a sense
of condemnation and he feels condemned all the time. Picture
a man on death row and you go in and try if you can to make
him comfortable. Give him anything short of a
pardon and he'll hate it. If you don't have a pardon in
your hand, you don't need to come and tell him that he just
inherited a large estate. He's on death row. What's he
going to do with a large estate? Well, how can he enjoy that?
He's condemned to die. If he could just hear that governor,
if that phone would just ring, and he could hear that governor
with a pardon saying, Your pardon. I'm signing the pardon here on
my desk right now. He'd be happy. He'd be happy,
wouldn't he? He'd enjoy anything that you
could offer him. And if he got home and the grass
had grown up three foot around the house, he'd be happy anyway.
It wouldn't make any difference to him. He'd be so happy. If
he could just hear that a pardon had been granted. If he could
just hear that the condemnation had been lifted. Well, such is
the joy of that pardon which comes from our God. Such is the
joy when a man hears it from the Lord. Hears it in the ear
of his soul. God saying, Son, thy sins be
forgiven thee. A man must have forgiveness or
else everything else will be empty to him. What do you have,
friend, that you take comfort in? I'll tell you this, if you're
facing God Almighty and you're facing eternity, separated from
God by your sin, if you ever become a thoughtful person, if
God ever puts his finger on your heart, on your soul, you're going
to become the most miserable person alive until God forgives
you your sin. And until God puts away your
sin. Next note this, that the pardon
of sin is the guarantee, I think, of every other blessing. The
guarantee of every other blessing. Romans 8 and 32 says, He that
spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with him also freely give us all things? Now when Christ
said, Thy sins be forgiven thee, I think that there was no question
at all as to whether that palsied man would be healed also. That he would be able to get
up and walk off from that place. That he would be able to get
up and take that where on he lay and carry it into the house. Be no question about it. Because
God had forgiven him, other blessings would fall in line. The same
love that forgave him. Did it not say, take up thy couch
and go into thine house? Now if God pardons you, you will
never have a need but that God most assuredly according to his
Riches in Christ Jesus provided as he pleases as he sees fit
He said you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness
all these things will be added unto you Covenant mercies they
follow each other like the links of a chain brother They follow
each other like this listen as I read these verses from the
psalm who forgiveth all thine iniquities who healeth all thy
diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth
thee with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies
thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like
the eagles. So you see, pardon is the pledge
of everlasting love and security and the pledge will never be
forfeited by your God. God is faithful so much then
for the teaching of this portion of the Word of God. Let me ask
this question. This is the question I wanted
to ask. Number one, let me give it to you like this. Are we forgiven? Are you forgiven? Is your sins
forgiven? Are they put away? Have they
been cancelled? Has God cast them behind his
back as far as the east is from the west, never to remember them
against you again? Has God put away your sin? Well,
if God has forgiven you, he has forgiven you for Christ's sake.
He has forgiven you for His Son's sake. You say, Preacher, don't
judge me. I mean, I don't know whether
I'm forgiven or not. I don't know whether I'm saved
or not. You say, well, I don't really believe that a man can
know whether or not his sins are forgiven. Do you believe
that this man here in Luke 5, this palsied man, do you believe
honestly that that man went out of that building not knowing
whether his sins were forgiven or not? This man went out of
that building, he knew his sins were forgiven. And so don't anyone
say, well now preacher, how can anybody be sure of a thing like
this? You can be sure of it. just as
sure of it as you're a foot and a half high you can be sure of
it I tell you because it's God that is the author of forgiveness
and those that he forgives he tells them about it his witness
bears witness with their spirit that they're the children of
God well then listen to me I'm sure of this that you can never
have any peace and you can never have any rest as long as you're
in danger of the wrath of God. And we'll know no rest, this
side or the other, until we're certain that our sins are forgiven. Don't you want facts, my friend?
We must never be content till we're sure, until we're infallibly
assured that our sins are put away. that our sins have been
washed away in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, there's
a way by which we may know we're not forgiven. Let me just suggest
this to you just for a moment. We may know that we're not forgiven
if we've never felt that we needed. forgiveness. You know, I've met
a whole lot of people who never felt they needed any. Said, Preacher,
I've never done anything wrong. They were born sinners. They
come forth into this world and they've done nothing but sin
by nature, choice, and practice all of their lives. But they
said, you know, I don't really think I've ever done anything
that I need forgiveness of. Everybody's a sinner. The Bible
says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's
a fellow the other day told me, he said, you know, I've just
been good for so long that I'm wondering if not sooner or later
something's going to break and I'm just going to give way and
get real bad. And I said, well, you say you've been good for
so long. In whose sight have you been good for so long? And
you see, it's in His sight. It may be in the side of his
wife or the side of his children, but in God's sight, how is it
with you this morning? Have you ever done anything that
you need to be forgiven of? Well, my friend, you surely have
if the Bible is true, if God Almighty is true, then you have
sinned and the penalty of sin is death and the gift of God
is eternal life. through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Where guilt has never been sensed and owned, it has not been removed. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. And God will not
heal where he has not wounded. God will not make alive where
he has not killed. And remember it. Remember it.
If you've never been humble before God, so as to acknowledge your
sinnership, you are still, my friend, this very hour, under
the wrath of God. Right now under the wrath of
God. If you say, I'm rich and increased
with goods and have need of nothing, then you can be sure that in
God's sight you're wretched and miserable and poor and blind
and naked. I hope it's not so with any of you here this morning. Again, He has never been forgiven
who does not hate sin. Now I'm not talking about a fleshly
hatred of sin, I'm talking about a soul hatred of sin. Now, the Lord Jesus did not come
into this world to save us in our sin, but to save us from
our sin. Now this does not mean that those
who are saved are without sin. No, we sin every day in thought
and word and deed. Listen, whenever the Lord takes
away the guilt of sin, He also kills the love of sin in a man's
soul. Romans 7 and 15. I suggested
this verse last Sunday morning. For that which I do, I allow
not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. Paul said. And so we do sin,
but the child of God hates sin. And a believer can be pardoned,
but after he's pardoned, he can never live as he did before,
it won't work. Salvation will ruin your enjoyment
of sin. And don't forget it. It will
ruin your enjoyment of sin. It's a fact. Believers cannot
enjoy their old ways. You cannot go back to sin because
you'll be miserable if you do because God puts within you a
principle of grace that causes you to hate sin in your soul
and you'll just not be able to enjoy yourself again in sin as
you did before. Again, you have never been forgiven
unless you've obtained it from the Lord Jesus Christ. The priests
can't do it. The priest can't do it. I hear
these people talk about the priest absolving them of their sin. No priest on earth can forgive
sin. God alone, these Pharisees were
right when they said God alone can forgive sin. Nobody can forgive
sin but God alone. Have you done business with God?
Have you received forgiveness? You see, it was Jesus Christ
that had power on earth to forgive men of their sins. He said to
this man, Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee. Now, the church can't do it either. I've heard people talk about
the church binding men, church loosing men. Listen, when it
comes to the forgiveness, of S-I-N, the kind of sin that sends
men and women to a devil's hell for all eternity, God alone is
the author of forgiveness. And you can't get it from the
priest, and you can dream on. But you don't have pardon until
you get it from the Lord Jesus Christ. And don't you die having
somebody offered you a little piece of paper telling you that
your sins have been absolved because somebody has administered
the last rites to you. You better not lose your breath,
my friend, until you get pardon from the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only one to give you
repentance. He's the only one that can forgive you and say
your sins are forgiven. Now then, once more, and this
is something that you don't hear preached much, and it's something
that I think is most important, it's got to be said, and that
is you don't have pardon unless, unless You forgive others of
their trespasses against you. Now this is something that cannot
be counterfeited. It can only be done by that grace
which was communicated to us in our forgiveness. In our forgiveness. God communicates grace to us
that enables us to forgive others of their trespasses. If you do
not forgive, Jesus said, everyone, his brother, his trespasses,
neither will your Heavenly Father forgive you. There it stands
very clearly stated in the Word of God, forgive us our sins for
we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. A malicious,
revengeful spirit is contrary to the Spirit of God. The truth
is very seldom accepted and believed by members of Baptist churches. Because most members of Baptist
churches are carrying a grudge, some way or another, carrying
something in their system that they're unable to forgive. They come and they look at people
and they, now I'm not saying you gotta forget things because
that is impossible for a human being to do. You can't forget
what people do to you. God can, but he's God. You're
not God. But let me tell you this, you
have to forgive them The same way the Lord forgave you, you
must forgive those that have sinned against you. Now that
doesn't mean that heals everything that ever happened, and it doesn't
mean that everything got to go back just like it was before
the person sinned against you. Just as if they, and now you
see, we're not God Almighty. Now God, He fellowships with
us just as if we'd never committed a sin. But on earth, this is
an impossibility between men and women in this world. It can't
be so. It don't work that way in this
world. But only with God can your sins be forgiven and He
forgive them and deal with you just like nothing ever happened.
But it won't be so in this world by imperfect human beings. But still, there is a spirit
of forgiveness in the heart of God's people. A revengeful spirit,
a malicious spirit is contrary to the spirit of the living God
in the hearts of His people. You are not forgiven if you cannot
forgive. You must do that. You see, I'm
not preaching myself. I'm preaching the Word of God.
I'm telling you what the Bible says. Whatever I do, I'm telling
you what the Bible says. And we've got to be willing to
forgive if we're going to be forgiven. Okay, now let me help
you with something positive quickly. a positive test as to whether
or not I've been forgiven or not, I want to give you this,
you're pardoned if you're a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. The scripture says in Acts 16,
30 and 31, there was a man in prison, he asked those jailers,
he said, what must I do to be saved? He asked the apostles.
And they said to him, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved. I hope you can say, unless I'm
awfully deceived, I am trusting. the blood and the merits of Jesus
Christ. I have committed my soul for
time and eternity to the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, the Bible
says in Romans 8, 1, there is no condemnation to those who
are in Christ Jesus. And Romans 5, 1, therefore being
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. If you, my friend, have trusted
in Christ in the very last minute, In the very last minute, if you've
trusted in Christ, your sins are forgiven, they're pardoned,
they're put away, they are remitted. 1 John 1 and 9 says if we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Well, let this Be of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven thee. Our
Lord said to this man, He said, Son, be of good cheer. That's
in Matthew 9 and verse 2. Son, be of good cheer. Thy sins
be forgiven thee. You may be poor, but you're forgiven. Be of good cheer. You may be
weak. We all are weak. But be of good cheer. Your sins
are forgiven. You're getting old, but your
sins are forgiven. Be of good cheer. I'm nearing
my end, you say, but be of good cheer, dear soul, because your
sins have been forgiven. We may be full of infirmity and
vexed with many trials and troubles. and temptations, but our sins
are forgiven us for His name's sake. So praise the Lord. Now if you're not happy this
morning, and you say, well, Preacher, I believe my sins have been forgiven.
But if you're not happy this morning, I think that's disobedience
to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're not of good cheer,
if you're not of good cheer. Because you know He said be of
good cheer. Examine yourself with judgment
day honesty. Are you of good cheer today?
Are you of good cheer? Well, it will appear you do not
value the gift that cost the Lord Jesus Christ His blood that
He shed on Calvary if you're not of good cheer over your sins
being forgiven. It cost Him His life laid down
to bring you to that place where your sins would be put away and
where they would no longer be against you and appear before
you at the judgment. No doubt if you give someone
something you'd like to see a little gratitude. You'd like to see
a little gratitude in our Heavenly Father's gift. It must be valued. If He has forgiven us, let us
be joyful, let us be happy. If we don't have it, the outside
world will say, well, there's not much comfort, really. Surely
there's not much comfort in what those people believe. Surely
they've never really heard the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord of heaven
and earth, say anything to them. Because you see, if He says,
thy sins be forgiven, we ought never get over that. We ought
never get over it. Oh, how wonderful it is when
the Lord said, when the Lord said, I'm going to blot out your
sins and your iniquities and not remember them against you
anymore. When the Lord said, I put away your transgressions,
I've hid your sins behind me. I put them away. What a wonderful
day it was in my life and I remember it and I didn't get over it.
And I haven't got over it to this day. I never have got over
it that the Lord forgave me of my sins. Now if you don't have
it, Then listen, you can't be of good cheer, we've explained
that to you. Because you've still got this heavy burden on your
soul. But when the Lord lifts it, and He forgives your sins,
I reckon this fella here in Luke chapter 5, he'd have been a nice
guy to go home with, wouldn't you think so Carl? I believe
you could have went home with that fellow. He wouldn't have
had to help him carry his bed. He'd have made it just fine on
his own. But I think he was a happy man. I believe he was. I believe
he was. I just don't see how he could
have helped but be happy. Do you? I mean, here he was. Sins forgiven, healed, and blessed
of God, and been touched with the power of God. All that remains,
the hymn writers said, for me. All that remains for me is but
to love and sing and wait until the angels come and bear me to
the king. The people of God are to be a
rejoicing people because their sins have been forgiven. Son, thy sins are forgiven thee. Well may the Lord stir up our
hearts. There may be somebody that you know But you say, I
just wish they could hear those words, Thy sins be forgiven me. Get them in. Bring them in. Bring
them in. Get them under the sound of the
gospel. And maybe, just maybe, you know the power of God will
be present to heal them. Maybe the Lord will be there.
And if He is, then they might hear those words. God's sovereign,
as we said, He can do what He will. And it just may be. There was a time when He crossed
my path and saved me. If He can save me, He can save
you. He can save anybody else if He saves me. And so the Lord
can forgive. He can forgive sinners. He said
I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He said the whole need not a
physician. He said it's the sick. It's those
that are sinners that need what I've got. If you feel yourself
to be a sinner, come in your heart to Christ. Don't, don't
move a muscle, just come to Him in your heart and trust Him in
your soul. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. God's blessing be with you and
upon you.