That text we read a little bit
ago in Luke chapter 5. Luke chapter 5. Our Lord had been, as usual,
walking through the earth, scattering mercy with the hand of his almighty
grace, performing miracles by his great power, demonstrating
his Godhead and demonstrating his mercy. And in verse 26, when
the day was over, they were all amazed and they glorified God
and were filled with fear saying, we have seen strange things today. Now that word that is translated
strange things is used only one time in the entire Bible. This
is it. It's used just in this one place.
It means paradoxes. These men said, we've seen things
today that human reason cannot account for. We've seen things
today that are contrary to everything we've learned. We've seen things
today that are contrary to everything we've experienced. We've seen
things today that are contrary to the laws and the traditions
and the customs of our religion. We've seen strange things today. Well, what were those things
which they had seen? It was a day full of wonders,
so much so that the people were all amazed and filled with fear. They'd seen things that confused
them. They saw things in the message of Christ, as well as
in the work of Christ, that they were confused. And when people
are confused, they stand back in awe. They don't really argue. They don't really resist. They
just simply can't understand. They said, we've seen things
today we cannot explain. We've seen things today that
we cannot put our finger on and explain away or explain how they
happen. We've seen strange things today.
Let me share with you a few of the things they saw. First, they
saw four men acting in very strong faith. Look in verse 17. And it came to pass on a certain
day as Christ was teaching that there were Pharisees and doctors
of law sitting by. Now, these fellows had come out
of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. I've preached
in a few places like that. These were the theologians, you
know. They heard that Christ was going to be teaching at a
given place down in this area, and they said, well, we'll go
hear him. And so they set back with their smugness. They were Pharisees and theologians,
doctors of the law. They understood Moses and the
law. They understood the things that
were supposed to be said and done. And they had heard about
this man who claimed to be the Messiah. They said, we'll go
see. And so they sat with their smugness sitting by. They were just sitting there
listening to him as he talked. And as they watched and listened,
the power of the Lord was present to heal them. 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 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. Now Mark tells us that these
four men, picked up this fellow's couch. I don't know whether it
was just a rug or a mat that was rolled out and he laid on
and they took it by the corners and picked him up and brought
him to Jesus. But there was a man who was paralyzed, completely
paralyzed, and he had these four friends who believed Christ.
These four men knew somehow that if they could get their friend
to Christ, if they could get him into contact with the Lord
Jesus Christ, Christ could, if he would, heal him, just like
that leper who came. And he said, Lord, if you will,
you can make me whole. These men said, they said to
themselves, if the Lord will, if he will, he can heal our friend. And so they devised a way to
bring him to the Savior. I like these four men. We don't
know their names. We don't know anything at all
about them except what's written here. But they were caring men. They had love and pity for a
sick friend. They saw a man whom they loved
who was in need. They saw a man whom they loved
who was desperately ill. They saw a man whom they loved
who had no power to help himself. And they had no power to help
him. But they knew Christ. And they knew that the Son of
God had the power, if he would, to cause that crippled, paralyzed
man to rise up and walk. They said, let's get him to the
Savior. Let's get him to the Savior. They figured out a way.
The scripture says here they sought means to bring him in.
They came to where the Lord was teaching and the place was packed. Why, there wasn't a place where
you could get in. The doorway was jammed. Nobody could get
in there. It was probably some kind of an open pavilion and
all the sides were crammed full of people. They looked at that
and they said, well, it must not be the Lord's will for him
to be healed today. No, they said, well, there's
a way. There's a way. There's some steps over there
that lead up to the roof. Let's go up there and tear the
tiles off the roof and let him down in the midst. Can't you
imagine something like that happening today? We would be astounded. We'd be shocked. I don't recommend
that you do it unless you got somebody that you want to get
to Christ and then use whatever means you have to to get him
to us. They were thoughtful. They figured out a way to get
this man to the Savior. They were zealous. They wouldn't
allow anything to stop them. And they were successful. They
got him into contact with the Son of God. They brought the
man and laid him at Jesus' feet. They didn't say a thing. They
didn't say a thing. They didn't say, Lord, look at
him. They didn't say, Lord, heal him. They didn't say, Lord, now
we command you to do this. They just laid him at Jesus'
feet. And in doing that, they said,
Lord, here he is. And you are the sovereign king. You are the sovereign God. You
have sovereign power. If you will, you can make him
whole. And they stood back and watched.
They stood back and watched. And the Lord Jesus said, When
he saw their faith, he said unto him, that is, when he saw the
faith of his friends, he said to the paralyzed man, man, thy
sins are forgiven thee. Oh, I wish I could find four
men like these four, zealous, caring men, men who care about
the souls of others. men who know the power of God,
who believe Christ, men who believe that men who are touched with
the hand of God will be made whole. Let them be strange. Let them adopt strange methods.
Let them be crude. Let them be abrupt. But give
me such men as this. This was a strange event indeed. Such men were strange in our
Lord's day and such men are strange today. But these men, brought
a friend into contact with the Son of God. Oh, let me encourage you. Let
me encourage you. I don't know. I don't know how
to tell you to witness to your neighbors and friends. I don't
know how to tell you to best minister to them, but I do know
this. I do know this. If the Son of God is pleased
to save sinners, If God Almighty is pleased to have mercy on sinners,
He will do it through the preaching of the Word. I don't suggest
that you go out here and rope folks and collar them and get
them to make a profession of faith or that you try to get
folks to do something they're not willing to do. But I do say
to you, my friends, my brothers and sisters in Christ, make an
effort, make a real concerted, deliberate effort to bring men
and women who are dead in sin, who are paralyzed with sin, here
into this place. If the Son of God will, He can
make them whole. He can make them whole. That
was a strange thing. These fellas brought a man into
contact with the sea. Oh, it takes a little trouble,
takes a little time, takes a little effort. It requires some cost. Well, I don't want to interrupt
my Sundays. I don't want to be bothered. I'm glad somebody was bothered
enough and bothered themselves enough
to put me in a place to hear the gospel, aren't you? These four men brought a man
and laid him before the Savior. Somehow I just believe, I don't
know, but I just believe that if I work where you work, live
where you live, I just believe I could persuade somebody to
come hear the gospel with me. I believe, Dave, I could figure
out a way to get somebody to come sit down and hear the gospel
with me. I believe I could if I were interested in two things.
If I were interested in their immortal souls and interested
in the glory of Christ. I just believe I could do it.
And I believe if you're interested in those two things, you can
as well. Secondly, they saw a man who was a sinner. freely forgiven
of all his sins by another man. Look in verse 20. When the Lord
saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven
thee. Now, nothing like this never
happened on earth before. It never happened before. There
had been prophets of God who came and they said in the name
of God, your sins are forgiven. You remember, Nathan said to
David, he said, the Lord has forgiven your sins. There had
been others who came in the names of their pagan gods, and they
said in the name of Baal, your sins be forgiven. But here is
a man who by his own name, in his own authority, by his own
power, says to another man, your sins are forgiven. And the Pharisees
were enraged by it. Never before had a man come who
claimed to have the divine right and the divine authority to forgive
sin. But this man could forgive sin
and did forgive sin because this man is God himself. This man
here is himself. This man here is the one whose
law had been broken. He is the one who gave the law.
He is the one who fulfilled the law. And he's the one who forgives
the transgressors of the law. He said, man, your sins are forgiven. Pharisees heard that. They said, who does he think
he is? Why not even Moses could forgive sin? Not even Abraham
could forgive sin. Who does this man think he is? The Greeks were astonished. They
said, we've heard of lots of men and lots of gods, but never
have we heard tell of a man who claimed to be God. The sinner
who was forgiven, he didn't know anything except his sins had
been forgiven. And he was joyful, he was delighted. My friend is
the Lord Jesus Christ, this very same man, this very same thing. today is in glory and he still
forgives sins. He still forgives sins. When he forgives sins, let me
tell you four things about his forgiveness. He forgives sins
fully, fully. Some of you to this day continue
to carry around in your consciences, in your heart and in your mind
a tormenting remembrance of your Savior. And you still have somewhere
in the back of your mind a feeling that somehow or another God's
going to get you for your sin. Somehow or another you still
carry that in the back of your mind and some tragedy occurs,
some event happens and you say, You say it concerning yourself
or you say it concerning others? My friend, if Jesus Christ forgives
your sin, buddy, He's forgiven all your sin. There's not anything
left on the record books against you. Nothing. Nothing. Not one thing. not one crime,
not one offense, not one deed, not one thought, not one word,
He forgives all our sins. My sin, oh the bliss of this
glorious thought, is nailed to His cross and I bear it no more. It is well, it is well with my
soul. The Lord Jesus Christ forgives
sins freely. Freely. I read an article Yesterday,
I believe it was, some preacher having some trouble with somebody,
I suspect it's his wife, but he's saying in that letter, in
that article, that he can't forgive sin until the one who offends
does something to obtain the forgiveness. In other words,
before you can be forgiven, you've got to repent. Before you can
be forgiven, you've got to do something. You've got to come
and seek forgiveness. Not so with the Son of God. He
forgave this sin before the man said a word. He forgives sin. He forgave our sins before we
ever committed our sins. Do you know that? He forgave
our sins when He died on the cross. He put them away. More
than that. He forgave our sins before the
world was, for He's the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. He forgives sin. There's no condition there. No
condition made. And if you make conditions, you
can't have it. You can't have it. People say,
well, I'm going to try to start doing better. You go ahead and
try that starter all you want to. It'll never get anything
done. Never. You can't make conditions for
forgiveness and obtain it. Well, I'm going to start giving,
I'm going to start reading, I'm going to start praying, I'm going
to start going to church. Forget it. Forget it. You can't
make conditions by which to gain forgiveness with God. Christ
only forgives sin freely. It's the only way he does it.
He will not forgive sin on the terms of man's repentance. He will not forgive sin on the
terms of man's faith. He will not forgive sin on the
terms of man's deeds. He will not forgive sin on the
terms of man's resolutions. He forgives sin freely and that
causes repentance and that causes faith and that causes men to
be new creatures in him. He forgives sin freely. Secondly,
our Lord's forgiveness is complete. That goes beyond this matter
of him having fully forgiven all our sins and freely forgiven
our sins. He's completely forgiven. Completely. Let me explain what I mean. We
can almost, some of us can almost grasp Christ forgiving our past. And we might even grasp him forgiving
our present sin. David, he's forgiven all our
future sins. All of them. All of them. All of them. Pastor,
how can that be? He's free in his grace. His grace is absolutely unlimited. Do you mean to tell me it doesn't
matter what a man does, God will forgive his sins? I mean to tell you exactly that,
exactly that. Oh, now you can't preach that
to people. I just did. I just did. Well, that'll cause
folks to go out and they'll live like hell. That'll cause folks
who are born of hell to live like hell. It won't cause forgiven
folks to. It'll cause forgiven folks to
give themselves to Christ. It'll cause forgiven folks to
devote themselves to Christ. He has forgiven already all my
sin of yesterday, all my sin of today, and all my sin of tomorrow. More than that. Now listen to
me. His forgiveness is irreversible. It's irreversible. He said to
this man, thy sins be forgiven thee. And when he said that,
The word could never be changed. This man could never, ever, ever
be charged with sin, not under any conditions, not under any
circumstances. But what if he should go out
and commit this deed or that deed? What if he should think
this evil thought or that evil thought? His sin is forgiven! Oh my soul, that's good news.
Back here in the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter 50. One of these days I'm going to
preach on this text. I never will forget the first
time I saw it. I was sitting in my office one day, many years
ago. I read this verse of scripture
and I thought, my soul, that can't say what it say. You ever
read a scripture and you say, well, what does that mean? It
means just what it says. It can't mean that. That's exactly
what it means. Look at what it says. Jeremiah
50, verse 20. In those days and in that time,
saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for. The all-seeing, omniscient God
is going to seek for Bobby Esther's sin. He's going to look for it,
Bobby. He's going to look. If he finds
it, you're going to hell. He's going to look for it. shall
be sought for, and there shall be none." None. None. Can you believe that? Can
you believe, Father, that God Almighty can't find any sin in
you? He can't find any sin in you. Can you believe that? Lindsay,
I dare believe it. I dare believe it. His Son, by
His precious blood, has washed away my sin. They're gone. Read again. And the sins of Judah,
and they shall not be found. They'll not be found. Well, how
do you account for that? For I will pardon them whom I
reserve. I'll pardon them. In the last day, in the last
day, God's gonna search. They're gonna search for sin
in you. His law will search for sin in you. His justice will
search for sin in you. If you find that in you, in me,
in anybody else, we're gone. We're gone. We're damned forever. If you find any fault, any blemish,
any spot, any weakness, any sin, we're forever damned. Forever. Well, preacher, nobody's perfect.
In Christ they are. In Christ they are. Absolutely
perfect. With his spotless garments on,
holy as the Holy One. This is what I was dealing with
back in the Sunday school class this morning. The reason I was
a little late coming out. I wish we could understand it.
I wish we could understand it. When Jesus Christ died on Calvary, why did the justice and the law
of God kill him? Why? Why did God Almighty kill
his son? Why? There's one reason why. His son was made to be sin. Do you see that? He became accountable
and responsible as our substitute to the holy law of God for our
sin. And when the law of God found
sin on Christ, it said kill it, kill it. And as he being our
substitute became responsible for sin, we have by divine imputation
become responsible in the eyes of God's holy law for his sin. responsible and accountable for
righteousness. So that when the holy law of
God looks upon us, it says reward him. Give him eternal life. Give him eternal glory. Give
him all the bounty of heaven's glory. He's righteous. We become
accountable and responsible for the righteousness of Christ imputed
to us. These fellows saw a man forgiven
of his sin. God is still faithful and just
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And I say to you, my friend,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ this day. Believe him, believe
him, and you too shall have your sins forgiven. Believe him. There
is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation. God won't condemn
you. His law can't condemn you. Satan
has no power to condemn you. For Christ Jesus died and rose
again. Believe him and God will not
charge you with sin. These fellows also saw a display
of our Lord's omniscience. Look in verse 21. And the scribes
and Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh
blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
alone? Now, they didn't say anything
to Christ, but he perceived what they were thinking, and he answered
their skepticism before they ever spoke it. This was just
another of those many incidental proofs of our Lord's deity. The
Son of God perceives the thoughts of men's hearts. He knows what's
in a man. Nothing's hid from him. And so
while these Pharisees and scribes were sitting around reasoning
among themselves, he said, which is easier? Is it easier for me
to say to this man, thy sins be forgiven thee? Or to say to
this man, take up your couch and walk? And the answer was
obvious. Well, anybody can say your sins
be forgiven you. But if you say take up your couch
and walk to a man who's lame, if he walks, then you've got
power. You've got power. If he doesn't walk, then it proves
you're a fake. Take that, Mr. Swaggart and Sheppard. Be healed, they said. Well, let's see. If I say to a blind man, see,
and he doesn't see, and I claim to have the power of God to make
him see, then I'm a fake. That's all there is to it. These
foolish quacks in this day run up and down the country and they
say to folks they have power to heal. cast out devils and
speak in tongues and all that stuff. I ask myself, I sit down
and ask questions like this. Why is he wearing that hearing
aid? Man, if I had power to heal,
I wouldn't wear a hearing aid, would you? Why is that fella
got to have glasses to read his Bible? If I had power to make
a fella see, I wouldn't wear glasses. Why is it then, when
he preaches down there in Africa, He's got to have an African standing
by him interpreting for him. Now, when I go to Mexico and
preach, I've got to have an interpreter, but I don't claim that I can
speak in tongues. If I had the power to speak in tongues, I
wouldn't have to have anybody interpreting for me. I'd speak
to those fellows like they did in the book of Acts, in their
own language. Our Lord said, I have power as
God. I'm going to show you. Get up
and walk. And they saw that sick man, one
who could lift neither a hand nor a foot, made completely whole
by the word of God. Look at verse 24. But that you
may know that the Son of God has power on earth to forgive
sins, he said to the sick of Palsy, I say unto thee, arise,
take up thy couch, and go into thine own house. and immediately
he rose up before them and took up that whereon he lay and departed
to his own house, glorifying God." Now, that was a strange
event. As an evidence of his true messiahship
and divinity, in order to prove that he had the power to forgive
sin as God, The paralyzed man was made perfectly whole. He was healed immediately and
entirely before the eyes of those who beheld him. And he was no
stranger to them, even though they had known this fellow. All
those people in that area knew exactly who he was. They had
seen him on the streets. They had dropped their shekels
in a little box beside him so the man could have something
to eat, something to cover his nakedness. They had seen him
all his life. They knew he was paralyzed. He
couldn't move a muscle. He couldn't move a muscle. And
all of a sudden, that man stood up, perfectly strong, entirely
whole, with full strength in his arms. full strength in his
legs, because God did something for him. God did something for
him. And my friends, the Lord God
still has power, almighty, sovereign power, and he exercises that
power in causing dead, helpless, paralyzed sinners to live. He does that. Yeah, he does that.
Some of you here are spiritually sick. You have a heart plague. Sin has defiled you and sin has
slain you. But if the Lord Jesus Christ
comes and speaks today, if he comes today and performs a miracle
of mercy, If this day he is pleased to stretch out the arm of his
grace, you who are lame will walk, you who are blind will
see, you who are deaf will hear, you who are dead will die. Hear him, ye deaf, his praise
ye dumb, your loosened tongues employ, ye blind behold your
Savior come, and leap, ye lame, for joy. The Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, comes to the dead, He says to you. Do you hear it? Do you hear the Son of God Himself
speak to you? Speak in your heart by the power
of His Spirit. Do you hear it? I speak. And I can't do anything for you.
I can't help you. I can't give you power to believe.
I can't cause you to rise up from your grave and walk. Oh,
but if the Son of God, blessed Savior, if you will this day,
you can speak, by your word comes power to believe. He commands men to do what they
can't do. But when He commands them, they
can do it. He says to the man with a withered arm, stretch
forth your arm. He can't do that. His arm's withered. If he could do it, he would do
it. He can't do it. But when Christ says, stretch
forth your arm, He stretches forth His arm. He says to the
dead, rise up and walk. Lord, that man's dead. They carried
him out to bury him. You know he can't rise up and
walk. He's dead. But when the Son of God says
to the dead, rise up, the dead rise up. He says to you, believe. He commands you in his word to
believe. But you can't believe. You can't repent. You can't come
to him. You don't have the ability. Oh,
but if Christ says believe, you'll believe. If Christ says repent,
you'll repent. If Christ says come, you'll come. There was another strange thing
in the days of our Lord. If ever you've beheld his earthly
life and ministry, if you've ever read the gospel You must
have been like these men and women who went away amazed. You
say, we've seen strange things today. This man standing before them is himself the divine creator.
That's strange. That's strange. Listen to this.
He that is infinite became an infinite. He who made all things
was dependent upon the milk of his mother's breast. He who fills
all things was laid in a manger. He who is the son of the highest
was known as the son of Mary. He who is the Lord of all became
the servant of all. Truly this is a strange thing.
God became a man. And as a man The Lord Jesus Christ
lived on this earth in perfect righteousness for men. He brought
in an everlasting righteousness. He established righteousness
for sinners, which you could never establish. You and I could
never perform God's law. We can never obey God's law and
perform righteousness in this world, but Christ has done so.
At the end of his days, the perfectly innocent, just and righteous
man died as a vile transgressor. and the common criminal. God, there on that cursed tree, hangs
God in human flesh. Men, cleared their throats, spit
in his face. was made to be sin for us. God was forsaken by God. God laid down his life for us. That perfect man, the just one,
died in the place of the unjust. that the unjust might forever
be made just. The innocent one became guilty
that the guilty might become innocent. The righteous one was
made to be sinned so that the sinful might be made righteous.
When he died, he put an end to death for all who believe, so
that believing on him we shall never die. The strangest, most mysterious,
most unexplainable thing in all the world was the death of Christ
at Calvary. That one who hangs on the cursed
tree is an unjustly condemned man. He's been falsely accused, falsely
judged, and falsely condemned. And listen to what he says, Father,
forgive me. They don't know what they're
doing. That one who hangs on that tree, the reason he hangs
there is because he saved others. And like they said, he saved
others, himself he cannot save. If he saves you, Lindsay, he
can't come off that tree. He's got to die in order to give
men life. This Christ, the innocent one,
died in the place of a vile criminal, and that vile criminal Barabbas
was set free. I can picture old Barabbas. He
was a wretch of a man. He was sitting back in that corner
in that cell, probably trying to do what he
could to stupefy his conscience. because the day of his execution
had come. That Roman jailer came down into
that dungeon, and old Barabbas heard the rattle of those keys. He trembled in his boots. And that Roman soldier came over
and unlocked the door, unlocked the shackles off his wrists and
feet. And he said, Barabbas, you're
free to go. Huh? You're free to go. What's going
on? Did you ever hear tell of Jesus
of Nazareth, that Jew who claimed to be the Messiah? Yeah, I saw
him on the streets one day. He's dying in your place on your
cross. Now that's substitution. That's
substitution. If Christ hangs on that cross,
there's not room for Barabbas. There's just not room for him.
He's got to go free. The Son of God hung on the cross under
the wrath of God in my place. And there's not room for me.
There's not room for me. Justice smote him! It can't smite me. That's substitution. Oh, that's strange. But oh, it
is blessedly so. Truly, this is the strangest
form of love, mercy, and grace the world has ever known. Amazing
love! How can it be that thou, my God,
shouldst die for me?" But he did. He did. I'll tell you something
else. going to be strange things to
occur in the end. Strange things indeed. There's
a time coming when you and I are going to stand before God in
judgment. Now listen to me. And good, righteous,
moral men and women are going to be cast into hell, while vile,
unjust, sinful men and women are received into glory." You start off lying to your kids
early. You say, now, Johnny, bad boys go to hell. No, they
don't. No, they don't. Anybody who ever comes to see
himself as a bad boy, I'm talking about as a sinner in the sight
of Almighty God, He's going to get to glory. He's going to get
to glory. Good boys go to hell. Good girls
go to hell. I'm telling you the truth. I'm
telling you the truth. You see, God won't accept your
goodness. He won't accept your goodness.
Your goodness stinks before God worse than a dead corpse in the
desert sun. Your goodness is filthy rag.
Your goodness will not have reached the throne of God. The sooner
you find out that your goodness is sin, and the sooner you recognize
that you have no goodness, that you have nothing to commend yourself
to God, the sooner you might obtain mercy. God saved sinners. Christ died for sinners. The
Son of Man came to seek and to save sinners. The whole don't
need a physician, but they that are sick. The lame don't need
somebody to help them. The ones who walk don't need
somebody to help them, but the lame. The dead don't need somebody
to give them life, but those who live don't have any need
of a Savior. Not at all. On that last day, Sinners are going to cry out for mercy,
and there'll be none. Men shall forever burn body and
soul in the torment of God's wrath, and nevermore. They'll long to die and not be
able to die. Grown men are going to cry like
babies And nobody will care. Nobody will care. In that last
day, God's going to take every sinner, every sinner who
believes on Christ into eternal glory. Every sinner. There is a refuge, like David
said, a refuge for sinners. Believe on Christ and you'll
enter in. John Newton on one occasion said
there are going to be three wonders in heaven. He said the first
wonder will be that I'm going to miss so many whom I expected
to be there who are not there. He said, the second wonder is
that I'm going to see so many who were there that I never expected
to be there. And the greatest wonder of all
is that I myself shall be there. We have seen strange things.
Let me give you this and I'll let you go home. A number of
years ago, this is a true story. An old Puritan, I read this a
long time ago, I believe it was William Guthrie, I'm not sure,
but I believe it was Guthrie. He visited a dying woman who
was altogether ignorant of the gospel. She was unconverted. She had no faith. And while he was there, sitting
by her bedside, Guthrie opened the word and preached Christ
to her. And that woman, when she heard
the gospel, believed it with joy. Before Guthrie left, the woman
died, and when he came home, this is what he said to his family.
They sat down at the dinner table, and he said to his family, I
have seen a strange thing today. A woman whom I found in a state
of nature, I saw in a state of grace, and left in a state of
glory. Some of you came into that door
this morning in a state of nature. I pray that you'll leave in a
state of grace, and I hope soon to see you in a state of glory. Believe, and you'll live. God help you to believe, for
Christ's sake. Amen. Thank you so much, Ruth. That certainly is not my favorite
hymn, but it is one of the most meaningful hymns I've ever read
or ever heard. Let us all be so honest with
God and with our souls as Newton was when he penned those words. My text this evening is Revelation
chapter 2, verses 8 through 11. Revelation 2, 8 through 11. Smyrna, like Ephesus, was a rich
capital city in Asia. It was a coastal city, a city
of great importance, located about 35 miles north of Ephesus
on the Aegean Sea. It was a loyal ally of Rome,
even before Rome achieved such greatness and domination. Smyrna
was a place of emperor worship, like most of the Roman Empire.
They looked upon the emperors as gods, and this city of Smyrna
built a temple to the emperor Tiberius. In a word, Smyrna was
a place of wealth, power, and pagan worship. It was entirely
given over to idolatry. But God, in his gracious providence,
brought a man here to preach the gospel, and a gospel church
was established in this pagan city. We have no way of really
knowing who that man was. how the church began, but it's
very likely if you read the book of Acts, the 19th chapter, that
as all of Asia heard the word from Paul, while Paul was laboring
in Ephesus, it's very likely that he went to Smyrna, preached
the gospel, and established a church there. The church had remained
faithful for many years in the midst of great trial. It was
a sound church in doctrine, strong in faith. and in a spiritually
healthy state. This church at Smyrna had nothing
really that needed to be corrected, nothing that needed to be straightened
out. There were no real problems in the church. As you read this
letter of Christ to the church at Smyrna, you'll notice the
absence of any kind of condemnation, the absence of any kind of reproof,
for the church was in a very healthy state spiritually and
doctrinally. The singular purpose of this
letter to the church was this. Our Lord Jesus Christ was endeavoring
to encourage his people to remain faithful even unto death. For you see, Christ, who knows
all things, knew that severe trials would come upon the church
at Smyrna. He knew that they must face terrible
temptations and tribulation for 10 days. And in this letter,
he wisely prepares his people for the difficulties they must
face. One example of the trials they would have to face in the
future was the martyrdom of their pastor, Polycarp. Polycarp was
an orator of no small stature in his day. He was a disciple
of John the Apostle. He learned the gospel and preached
it faithfully. He labored earnestly in the ministry
of the word for years. And in the year 155 AD, the Roman
government, the Roman emperor, his representative was engaged
in persecution and Polycarp was arrested. He was called upon
to say that Caesar is Lord. to acknowledge that Caesar is
indeed a God, and he refused to do so. His tormentors said
that he would have liberty if he would simply deny Christ.
He said, okay, you don't have to say that Caesar is Lord, but
just don't say that Christ is Lord. Just deny the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the old pastor made that
now famous statement. He said, 80 in six years have
I served him. and he has not denied me yet. How then can I now deny my God,
my King, and my Savior? When his persecutors continued
to press him, Polycarp made this statement as well. Since thou
art vainly urgent that I should swear by the fortune of Caesar
and pretendest not to know who and what I am, hear me declare
with boldness I am a Christian. I am a follower of Christ. I am a disciple of Christ." Well,
that infuriated the Roman procouncil. The tormentor said to Polycarp,
I have wild beasts at hand. To these will I cast thee, except
thou repent. When that didn't break the old
man, His tormentor said, I'll cause thee to be consumed with
fire, seeing thou despises the wild beast, if thou will not
repent. And then polycart boldly defied
his tormentor. He said, thou threatened this
to me with fire, which burneth for an hour and after a little
is extinguished, but are ignorant of the fire of the coming judgment
and the eternal punishment reserved for the ungodly. But why tarryest
thou? Bring forth what thou wilt. And then the order was given.
And the people with great eagerness went about gathering up the twigs
and the branches and the wood to make a fire whereby they would
burn Polycarp. And the Jews, though they despised
the Romans, joined eagerly in gathering the wood for they wanted
to see Polycarp burn. They wanted to smell the burning
flesh of this prophet of God. And so Polycarp laid down his
life, a martyr for Christ in the year 155 AD. He was, for
a while, pastor at Smyrna, and today, as he lit the flame of
glory on this earth, today he still remains a light of God's
eternal glory in heaven above. He was faithful even unto death. Now, that's just a small sample
of the tortures and the terrible persecutions the Church of God
faced in the first and second centuries of Christianity. This
letter then was written by our Lord to prepare his church for
those times of great trial. But remember, this letter is
addressed, though it is addressed particularly to the church at
Smyrna, it is also intended to be addressed by our Lord to you
and I today. It is a message of Christ to
the churches, not just to the church at Smyrna, but to the
church of Christ in Danville as well. Now we don't any longer
need to fear the kind of persecution that the church in those early
days had, not at this present time anyway, not in this country.
Not because men have changed. If you think men have changed,
you are sadly, sadly mistaken and you will find that out in
time. If men had the power to do so, Those who worship other
gods, those who despise the God we worship and the gospel we
preach, if they had the power to do so, buddy, they'd lock
us up and they'd burn us at stake. They haven't changed. They haven't
changed. Your neighbors, your friends,
and your relatives are just exactly like these men and women in Smyrna.
But our God has graciously in his providence restrained the
power of the persecutor. He has graciously restrained
the power of men to do us evil. And yet our Lord speaks very
plainly. And it is still true today that
all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. If we follow Christ and seek
to live in this world for the glory of Christ, we're going
to suffer abuse at the hands of Christ's enemies. Our Savior
has told us very plainly, in the world you shall have tribulation. Now mark it down, my friends.
Mark it down. If you faithfully seek the glory
of Christ, if you and I faithfully declare the gospel of Christ,
If we faithfully endeavor to live in this world for Christ's
sake, as Christ's servants in this world, we're going to suffer
reproach, abuse, and persecution at the hands of men. Our Lord
Jesus dictated this letter to John to comfort and strengthen
us in the midst of our earthly trials and to encourage us to
persevere in the faith of the gospel. Now let's look at the
letter. As the letter opens, immediately,
Christ calls our attention away from our troubles to himself. He says in verse 8, And unto
the angel of the church at Smyrna write, These things saith the
first and the last, which was dead and is alive. Smyrna was a flock of harmless
sheep in the midst of ferocious wolves. The Church of God there
was the object of malicious slander, reproach, and persecution. Her
troubles and trials were many. And like all of us in times of
trouble, the people of God at Smyrna had a danger that they
might fall into the pit of self-pity. That's the way we are, you know.
We get to experiencing a little difficulty, and we begin to pity
ourselves, you know. We get pressed. and get into
a straight, and we think, well, nobody's got it so bad as we
do. Well, our Lord writes to Smyrna to keep them from falling
into that pit of self-pity. In order to prevent that thing
from happening, He says, don't look upon your troubles, don't
meditate on your troubles, don't dwell on your troubles, but rather
look to Me. That's the thrust of the salutation. These things saith the first
and the last, which was dead and is alive. Oh, if we could
learn, if God would graciously teach us not to spend our time
and our energies and our hearts meditating upon the woes of this
life, meditating upon our troubles. If he would graciously teach
us, rather than looking at those things that trouble us, to look
to Christ always. Trust Christ, dwell on Him, meditate
on Him. then our troubles would seem
to us to be insignificant things. I promise you it's so. I often
counsel men and women who have difficulties in trials. Sometimes
they have problems with a child or our problems with a husband,
our problems with a wife, our problems with a neighbor, our
difficulties in life, my counsel to them almost always is bury
yourself in the Word. Just bury yourself in the Word.
Seek to meditate and dwell upon and study and seek an understanding
of the gospel of God's grace in Christ. There's no cure for
care. like the gospel of Christ. They're
just not in it. I promise you they're just not
in it. When you have difficulties and trials and heartaches and
troubles, whatever they are, whatever their source is, just
bathe your soul in the knowledge of Christ and your troubles.
They may not go away. They may not even diminish. They may even increase. But they'll
have far, far less meaning and care to you. Far less. The Lord
Jesus Christ here calls upon every troubled believer to look
to himself, our unchanging, unchangeable, eternal savior, and not to our
cares, not to our troubles. He says, I'm the first and the
last. He is the first, for by Him all
things were made. He is before all things, and
by Him all things consist. Since He is the first, He's the
ruler of all things, and therefore whatever your trouble is, it
comes from Him. It comes from Him. Oh, it may
be that Satan is the one who brings the message, and it may
be that some wicked man is the one who invents the scheme against
your soul, but the trouble comes initially in its essence from
Him who rules all things, and therefore it's good for you.
It's good for you. We may not always be able to
see the good end of the trial, but whatever it is, it comes
from Him who is the first. He is the first, for He is Himself
God, the ruler, the sender of all things, the governor of all
things. He's from everlasting to everlasting,
and He's the last for everything, including your troubles and mine.
comes to an end according to his hand. It shall be brought
to its final end by Christ, and it shall be judged by Christ,
and it shall be to the praise and the glory of Christ. Christ
is the first, for he's the foundation laid in Zion, and he's the last,
for he's the topstone, the chief cornerstone, and the headstone
of the corner in his spiritual temple, the church. And then
our Savior, particularly, would have us to dwell and meditate
upon his most glorious attributes, his most glorious work, his most
glorious character as our all-sufficient, unchanging, exalted mediator
and king. He says, I am the one that was
dead and is alive. Do you remember when Moses brought
the children of Israel to the bitter waters of Marah? They
were thirsty. and they had no water to drink,
and they wanted to drink of the waters of Marah, and they tasted
the waters, and they were bitter, bitter to the taste. So Moses,
at the command of God, cut down a tree, and he put the tree in
the waters, and the waters that were bitter became sweet to the
taste. That's what the cross of Christ
is. The cross of Christ is that tree which cast into your bitter
waters will make your bitter waters sweet. They will make
them and will make them profitable to your soul. Take the blessed
gospel doctrine of blood atonement and cast it into your bitter
waters of earthly trouble. And it will make those bitter
troubles most sweet to you. Whenever you look for something
to comfort you, whenever you look for something to comfort
your heart, encourage your faith, revive your soul and cause your
spirit to dance with joy, meditate on these facts. The Lord Jesus
Christ was dead. He was dead. He who is God, the
eternal one, died as our substitute. He laid down his life for us. He really died for us. He died
for us. Can you understand that? Christ
died for us. Now, if he died for us, what
will he not do for us? What will he not do? What will
he not give us? He gave himself for us. What
will he not give us? How will he withhold any good
thing from us? Not only did he die, but having
died under the penalty of sin as our substitute, the Lord Jesus
Christ rose again for our justification and he is now alive forevermore
seated at the right hand of the majesty on high evermore to make
intercession for us. That Christ who died to redeem
us is now seated on the throne of glory and the power of universal
dominion is in his hands. Now the reason he lives, listen
to me, the reason he lives again, the reason there is a man seated
in glory who is God is to save yourself, to intercede for you,
to protect you, to plead your cause on high, to guide you safely
to eternal glory. That's the reason for his exaltation. That's the reason Christ Jesus
is a mediator upon a throne, a priest upon a throne. He who
cares for our souls rules the world to do us good. This is
Paul's argument. He said, if we were saved by
his life or saved by his death, shall we not much more than be
saved by his life? If we have been reconciled to
God by the atonement of Christ, are you fearful that he will
not preserve and keep you? If Christ Jesus was given himself
for us, if God gave his only Son for us, how shall he not
with him also freely give us all things? Surely when we are
aware of what Christ has done and is doing for us, we can smile
at Satan's rage and face a frowning world. I know, I know from painful experience that my troubles, my earthly
cares, whatever they are, get the better of me. They get the
advantage of me only when I am not looking to Christ. Only then. Only then. When I'm
looking to him, it doesn't matter if all hell breaks loose, Merle,
nothing disturbs my soul's peace. Nothing. Nothing. As long as
my heart is fixed on him and not on myself, not on my earthly
interest, not on my earthly care, not on my earthly troubles, but
on him. Then my soul is at peace. So
our Lord calls our attention first to himself. And then secondly,
he assures us of his constant care. Look at what he says. I
know thy works and tribulation and poverty, but you're rich. but you're rich. And I know the
blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and they're not, but
are the synagogue of Satan. More tender, assuring, comforting
words could not be spoken to troubled believers than these.
Our Savior, he says, he said, I know, I know. He looks right
into Oscar Bailey's heart and he said, I know. I know, I know. But pastor, you don't know what's
going on. Yeah, but he knows, he knows. Now, when a father lets his troubled
child know that he knows everything about the trouble that child's
going through, that's enough for the child. We see the child
trusts its father. When a wife has need and is going
through trouble, it's enough for that wife to know that her
loving husband knows. He knows what the need is. He
knows what the trouble is. He knows what's bothering me.
And if he loves me and he knows my need, he'll care for my need. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ, who
loved you, Lindsay Campbell, and gave himself for you, He
said, I know. I know. Oh, now, if we understand
that, that'll fill our souls with comfort in the midst of
every care. Here, our Savior gives us five
words of assurance. He said, first, I know thy works. I know thy works. Christ, who
is the omniscient God, knows our works. For the unbelieving
religious hypocrite, that fact is terrifying. But for the believer,
for the child of God, that fact is comforting. You see, he whose
glory is our chief delight knows our works for him. And he accepts
them through his blood, through his merit, through the merit
of his righteousness and delights in them. That which we do for
him. Now, please understand me, I'm
not talking about just the works of preaching or the works of
witnessing. outward physical thing for the
good of others, that's included, but that's not just what I'm
talking about. I'm talking about your day-by-day, hour-by-hour,
steadfast commitment to Christ. I'm talking about your heart's
attitude toward Him. He knows. He knows. He knows. He knows what you do, why you
do it, And though you know the infirmity
and the failure of the works, he doesn't know that. He's forgiven all that. He's
removed all that. He accepts your works, not on
their merit, but on his merit and delights in you and the works
that you bring him. He knows the motive of our works. He knows that they're done out
of love for him. Others don't know the motive.
Sometimes we even question the motive. Our group was singing
a little bit ago, I sat in there and I asked myself, I do it all
the time, Don, why are you here? What are you doing here? Why
are you standing before this congregation? Why are you preaching
this message? Sometimes, more often than not,
I question my motives. But He knows my motives. He knows. And that's what Peter realized.
He said, Lord, You know everything. Nothing's hidden from You. Lord,
You look beyond the outward word, the outward deed. You look beyond
the evil of all that I do. You see my heart. You know my
motive. You know that. And he took comfort
in that. In the midst of his most terrible
sin, Peter took comfort in the fact that Christ knows. He knows the inmost motive of
our inmost being. He knows the strength by which
we perform our works is for him, and from him it is the strength
which his grace supplies. And he knows that the works performed
arise from a sincere heart that desires his glory. Believers
never speak of their works. They know better than that. And I hear men and women talking
about all that they've done. All that they've done for Christ
and all they've done or all they used to do. People try to take
some consolation. They are sluggards now. But you know, when I was younger,
I did so and so. People talk about all they've
done. They don't know Christ. They just don't know Christ.
Believers don't speak to God or to one another about their
works, but Christ remembers their works. He said, if a man will
offer so much as a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple,
I'll not forget that. I'll not forget it. He remembers,
he knows our works. And then he said, I know thy
tribulation. This is our Lord's legacy to
his church. He told us plainly that we must,
through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of heaven. There's
no other way. There's no other way. For the people of God, this
world is a place of sorrow. Believers are soldiers in a hostile
territory. Conversion is the beginning of
a lifelong conflict. The worship of Christ is to enter
into warfare with this world. Nobody, nobody can follow Christ. without paying a price for doing
so. You can't do it. You can't do it. If you follow
him, you're going to have to pay a price to follow him. You're
going to have to. And I admonish you to sit down
and count the cost. Sit down and count the cost and
decide now whether or not you're prepared to pay the price. In
those early days of Christianity, believers suffered banishment.
Imprisonment and death by wild beast are burning at the stake
for their faith in Christ. And these days the conflict is
a little more subtle, but it's just as real. If you and I follow
Christ, we will have to march contrary to this world at all
times. We will have to march in a different
manner, march to a different beat, march for a different purpose,
march in an opposite direction. You know me well enough to understand.
I'm not talking about dressing funny. I'm not talking about
eating in a certain way. I'm not talking about your habits
of diet or your attire or any of those things. That's not what
I'm talking about. I'm talking about your principles. I'm talking
about what's inside you. I'm talking about the thing that
drives you, your motive. I'm talking about the object
of your life. If you and I follow Christ, we walk in direct opposition
to this world, in direct opposition. Now, what is it that causes the
conflict? What is it that causes the conflict?
What causes the tribulation? Our Lord is here particularly
talking not about the troubles that you have with a wayward
child, or the troubles that you have with a spouse that's hard
to get along with, or the troubles you have by means of your just
ordinary circumstances in life. That's not what He's talking
about. He's talking about tribulations that come as a result of something
we do. Something we do. I'll tell you
what it is. It is the confession of Christ
that causes the conflict. It's the confession of Christ.
If I do not confess Christ in the teeth of his enemies, I will
have no conflict. I can get along fine. Let me
try to illustrate it for you if I can. I'm working side by
side with a fellow, and I'm conscious of the fact that he despises
Christ. Oh, he may be religious, he might
be a preacher, but he despises Christ as he's revealed in this
book. And you say, well, you know, I've got to get along with
him. No, I don't. I've got to get along with the
son of God, so I've got to get along with him. I've got to get
along with him. Now I can do one of two things.
I can either confess Christ to that man, I don't mean beat him
over the head all the time. I don't mean button-holding him. I don't mean trying to get him
persuaded to your views. I do mean I can faithfully confess
that the Christ he despises is the Christ I worship and create
his hostility and anger. For when I confess the Christ
of God to him, I am saying to him, there is but one God. There
is but one Lord, there is but one Savior, there is but one
King. Now either I'm serving Him, or you're serving Him, or
we both missed Him, but the God you worship is no God at all. I can either confess Christ to
Him, or I can let Him go to hell without confessing Christ to
Him. One of the two. One of the two. It is the confession
of Christ that causes the conflict. I recall number of times things
have happened in this regard, but I was working for a man one
time. I was in college. And every day,
every day, he was trying to persuade me of his Arminian, free will,
works religion. And I finally came to grips with
the fact that I was going to have to be plain with And let
it know, Max, the God you worship is a satanic delusion. And to
follow him is to follow him into hell. Now, I'm not talking about a
shoeshine boy. I'm talking about the fellow
who writes my paycheck every week. And one day I did. He sent me
packing. Of course, I wasn't making him
money, so he called me back. But it created some conflict.
What I'm saying is, We confess Christ and when we
confess him, that's where the conflict begins. The reason Polycarp
was burned at the stake is because he said, no, Caesar's not God. Caesar is not God. If I don't
confess Christ, that lack of confession will be a proof that
I don't truly know Christ. And that's what it amounts to.
Our Lord said, if you confess me before men, I'll confess you
before my father. If you don't confess me before
me and I won't confess you before my father. We confess Christ
initially in baptism. In the New Testament that meant
something. Man was baptized, his family usually had his funeral.
We confess Christ when we defend his honor. We confess Christ
when we press upon his enemies the claims of Christ in the gospel.
We confess Christ when we make his gospel and his glory the
rule of our lives. We confess him. Confess it. Now please understand me. I do
not mean that we've got to be like the Russellites, they call
themselves Jehovah's Witnesses, or like the Mormons. I don't
mean that we've got to go door to door, knock on the doors,
and tell folks that they're going to hell if they don't believe
what we believe. That's not what I mean. That's not what I mean.
But I do mean this. I do mean this. We must, as opportunity
arises, boldly, confidently confess Christ in the teeth of His enemies. Doesn't matter who they are.
Doesn't matter who they are. Doesn't matter whether it's your
mother, your wife, your father, your son, your daughter, your
boss, who it is. We've got to confess Christ.
We've got to confess Him. Now, if we're loyal to Him, it's
going to cause conflict. It's going to cause conflict.
Then our Lord says, I know thy poverty. You see, these believers
at Smyrna were brought to extreme poverty. That's what the word
here literally means. I know your extreme poverty. They were brought to this poverty
because of their confession of Christ. You see, in those days,
it was not at all uncommon for a man to lose his job when he
was baptized. When he lined up with the people
of God and lined up with the Christ of God, his employer would
be a Jew and he'd say, you'll not work here if you follow that
Christ. Or his employer might be a pagan
and he'll say, you'll not work here if you follow that Christ.
And so the people of God were brought into straits by their
confession of Christ. In those days, to be a believer,
from the earthly point of view meant real sacrifice, and it
still does. Believers frequently lose much
by following Christ. Sometimes, most of the time,
the path laid before you as a believer is not the easiest path to take.
It just isn't. You have things laid out in front
of you. And you know good and well, you
know good and well that if you go in this direction, you're
going to be answering your conscience faithfully. You're going to be
answering the word of God, the gospel of God faithfully. You
know good and well that walking this path, you're going to be
walking consistently with the gospel. But you know, if I do
that, it's going to cost me. It's going to cost me. I'm going
to lose that boyfriend, I'll lose that girlfriend, I'll lose
this companion, I'll lose that one. If I do this, I'm gonna
lose that commotion. I'm gonna lose that house. You
got two choices. You can either follow Christ
or you can forsake Christ. Those are the two choices you
have. Those are the two choices. Pastor you, you draw the line
too straight, too plain. That's the way it is. Now that's
the way it is. That's the way it is. And it's
a path, it's a line that's laid out in front of you and me every
day that we live. Consistently, steadfastly, day
after day after day after day, we have set before us situations
in which we must choose either the path of prosperity and ease
and pleasure or the path of loyalty and faithfulness to the Son of
God. One of the two, one of the two. Then our Lord said, but thou
art rich. Oh yeah. It'll cost you to follow
Christ. Don't let these prosperity prophets
of deceit fool you. They say God wants everybody
to be rich. God wants everybody to be happy. God wants everybody
to be healthy. God wants you to have two Cadillacs
and a double car garage. Not likely. Not likely. There's nothing wrong in the
least with prosperity. God has prospered some men who
are faithful men. But there's nothing wrong with
poverty either. Somehow we have got it in our
heads that prosperity is a sign of divine favor and poverty is
a sign of divine displeasure. We got it in our head by listening
to fools preaching to us. That's how we got in our heads.
And it's not so. It's not so. Lazarus was loved
of God. The rich man was despised of
God. Our physical poverty is no indication
whatsoever of our true wealth, and our physical wealth is no
indication whatsoever of spiritual wealth. Do you follow me? All
children of God, don't lay up for yourselves treasures on this
earth. Don't do it. Don Fortner, don't set your heart
on earthly good. Don't do it. But where your treasure is, that's
where your heart is. That's where it is. But our Lord says, you're rich. You're rich. You see, God has
blessed you with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ. You're rich in grace, rich in
covenant mercy, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
You're rich. You're rich by me, rich in me,
rich forever in Christ Jesus. Thou art rich. And then our Lord
assures us that he knows his true people from those who merely
profess to be his people. I know the blasphemy of them
which say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of
Satan." Now listen carefully. There were in Smyrna a large