I did. Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neidert. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Mattawar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now, here's our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. In Luke chapter 5, verse 26,
we read, And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were
filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things today. Now, this is the only time this
particular word is used in the New Testament. Strange. It's where we get the word paradox
from. It means things contrary to the
received opinion. Strange. Now, what was it that
they had seen that was so strange? Well, let's back up to verse
17 of this same chapter, 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. Now here's something strange.
These Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by as the Lord
preached. They weren't there to hear with
a hungry heart. They weren't there to hear a
word from God. They were sitting by as judges
and as critics of the Son of God. Now, that's a strange thing.
When a sinful man sits in judgment of the Lord Jesus Christ to see
whether or not he agrees with what he's saying or whether he
can pick something apart, not hearing with a hungering and
thirsting heart. Now, that is strange. You know,
it's to be feared. that many people become gospel-hardened. They don't really hear the gospel. They're unable to hear the gospel. The Lord said, if any man have
hearing ears, let him hear. Not everybody has hearing ears. And these Pharisees and these
doctors of the law, they were religious, but they were merely
sitting by, not truly entering in to what the Lord Jesus says.
The power of the Lord was present to heal at this time. And during
this time, we read in verse 18, and behold, men brought in a
bed a man which was taken with a palsy. He was paralyzed. He couldn't walk. And they sought
means to bring him in. and to lay Him before Him while
our Lord was teaching in this jam-packed house where you couldn't
even get in. It was so full with the Pharisees
and doctors of the law sitting by, but other people there because
they wanted to be healed, because they wanted to hear the truth.
There were these men, four men, who had a paralyzed friend, and
they were going to do whatever it took to get this man before
the Lord Jesus Christ. They sought means to bring him
in, and we read in verse 19, and when they could not find
by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude,
it was so packed in the house as our Lord was teaching, you
couldn't get anybody in. What did they do? They went upon
the housetop, and they let him down through the tiling with
his couch into the midst before Jesus. Now, picture this in your
mind. Our Lord is teaching, and many people are listening. And
all of a sudden, above him, while he's teaching, the ceiling breaks
up. And men knock a hole in the ceiling. I imagine debris came
down. And all of a sudden, a man in
a cot who's paralyzed is lowered down right before the Lord. Can you imagine what that must
have been like? I can't. What a glorious thing
that must have been. now this paralyzed man had four
friends and this is strange this paralyzed man had four friends
who were going to do whatever it took to get this man to the
lord because they knew only the lord could heal him now remember
the lord came to heal he didn't come to condemn men are already
condemned he didn't come to condemn men he came to save men he came
to heal men The Scripture says, "...by whose stripes you were
healed." And these men knew that the only one who could do something
for their buddy was the Lord Jesus Christ. And they were going
to do whatever it took to get him before the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, verse 20, after this had
taken place, the ceiling was broken up, the man lowered down
right before the Lord, and there he sits, and I'm sure the people
were, what's going to happen now? Here's something strange,
verse 20, and when he saw their faith, we don't know that that
man had a drop of faith. It doesn't say he did, maybe,
perhaps he did, perhaps he didn't, but we know that they had faith.
And what was their faith? Their faith was this, they knew
that the Lord could heal him. They knew that the Lord could
do something for him. They knew the Lord could do something
that nobody else could do because he is the Son of God. When he
saw their faith, I don't know that the man had any, but when
he saw their faith, he said unto him, the man who was paralyzed,
man, thy sins are forgiven thee. Now that's strange. That's not
what we expected. We would have expected him to
say, man, rise up and walk. You're cured of paralysis. But
our Lord said nothing of the kind. He said, man, thy sins
be forgiven thee. All your sins have been forgiven
you. Sins of the past and sins you've
not yet committed. All your sins have been forgiven
you. Oh, what a glorious thing that
is to think about. He didn't heal him at this time,
but he gave him something much greater, spiritual healing. He
said, all your sins have been forgiven thee. He pronounced
this man forgiven. Now, this is strange. This is
contrary to the received opinion, because we naturally think that
there's something you need to do before your sins can be forgiven. We think the forgiveness of sins
comes at the end. If you give up this sin and stop
doing that bad thing and start doing this good thing and start
reading your Bible and start going to church and start being
a good person and turn over a new leaf, why? You'll have your sins
forgiven. Now all that is is salvation
by works. That's all it is. It doesn't
have anything to do with the truth. It doesn't have anything to do
with grace. That kind of thinking is just, you might as well say,
well, if you keep the Ten Commandments perfectly, you'll be saved. There's
no difference. That is just another form of salvation by works. Now,
listen to me very carefully. Salvation does not end in the
forgiveness of sins. Salvation begins with the full,
free forgiveness of sins, all your sins, all the sins of your
past, all the sins of now, and all the sins of the future. They've
all been forgiven. They've all been blotted out.
God said, I've blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions
and will not remember thy sins. They're all blotted out. That's where we begin. You see,
when Christ died and said, It is finished, There were people
who were forgiven who hadn't even been born yet. Everybody
he died for, everybody he represented, he accomplished the forgiveness
of their sins. And God forgives the sins of
all who believe, of all of the elect, of all of his people,
for Christ's sake. Ephesians 4.32 says, Be ye kind,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's
sake, hath forgiven you. Now the Lord looks at this paralytic
man and he says, your sins have all been forgiven. Every single
one of them. Now that is strange to us. I thought forgiveness came at
the end. No, it comes at the beginning. You see when you're forgiven,
here's what you find out. You find out you've been forgiven. You don't do something in order
to be forgiven. You find out you've been forgiven
for Christ's sake. Man, thy sins be forgiven thee. Now here's another strange thing. We see a man doing only what
God can do, forgive sins. Man, thy sins be forgiven thee,
verse 21, and describes And the Pharisees, these fellows who
were sitting by, they weren't entering into what the Lord was
saying, they were sitting by as judges, as critics, looking
for something to criticize, looking for something to condemn. And
the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who
is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
alone? Now, they were right about that.
Only God can forgive sins. As to whether or not our sins
are forgiven, or whether or not we'll have to stand before God
in our sins, it's up to God. We do not have any control in
this thing of forgiveness. If God's pleased to forgive us,
we'll be forgiven. If He passes us by as an act
of His justice, we won't be forgiven. But forgiveness is holy in God's
sovereign hands. Now, this is the opposite of
the way most people present the forgiveness of sins. Here's the
way most preachers present the forgiveness of sins. God loves
you. Christ died for you. That all
your sins could be blotted out. And He wants to forgive you.
But He cannot forgive you unless you allow Him to forgive you. He's waiting to forgive you,
but you've got to let Him. And he can't unless you let him
forgive you. And if you don't let him forgive
you, then he's going to have to send you to hell. That's the way most
people present the forgiveness of sins, as if it's up to you
as to whether or not you'll be forgiven. You can either accept
his forgiveness or you reject it. It's in your hands. Now,
what if I sinned against you? What if I did you terribly wrong? And then came up to you and said,
I've decided I'm going to let you forgive me. Why? You would be offended by that.
You would be insulted by that. And yet that is the way people
present forgiveness. God wants to forgive you, but
he can't unless you accept his forgiveness. There's no truth
to that. As to whether or not you and
I will be forgiven, it's totally up to God. Only God can forgive
sins, and only He has the authority to forgive sins. Now, when those
men saw the Lord Jesus Christ say to that man, Man, thy sins
be forgiven thee, they said, Who speaks blasphemies? Who does
this man think he is, saying, That man's sins are forgiven.
Does he think that he has the authority to forgive sins? Yes,
he does. Because He is God. It is true. Only God can forgive
sins. And Jesus of Nazareth is God
Almighty, the Creator of the universe, who has the authority
to forgive sins. If He's pleased to forgive your
sins, He can forgive them. And you won't have to be condemned. Oh, you want to make me speak?
Lord, forgive me. Now, here's another strange thing.
As we look at this passage of Scripture, we find a man who
can read people's thoughts. Verse 22, but when Jesus perceived
their thoughts. Now, they didn't say this out
loud. Perhaps they whispered to one another, but the Scripture
says the Lord knew exactly what they were thinking. And one of
the great burdens of my life is that it seems like my wife
can read my thoughts. She'll even get mad at me for
things I'm thinking when I didn't say it. That's rough. But she
can't always read my thoughts. She can't always read my thoughts,
but God can. And God does. He reads the thoughts. He's reading
your thoughts right now. He knows exactly what you're
thinking. He knows exactly what I'm thinking. We can't fool Him.
All things are naked and open in the eyes of Him with whom
we have to do." And he saw these blasphemous, wicked thoughts
of these men. And what were they? Well, they
were saying that the Lord Jesus Christ was speaking blasphemies.
Now, what this tells me is that any thought regarding the Lord
Jesus Christ that is somehow beneath Him being God, God manifest
in the flesh, is an evil thought. He read these men's thoughts. Now, let's go on reading. But
when Jesus perceived their thoughts, they were so upset that He said
to this man, Thy sins be forgiven thee, when the cot was lowered
down into their midst. They said, Who is this that speaks
blasphemies? And when Jesus perceived their
thoughts, He answered. He answered them. He knew exactly
what they're thinking. And look how He answered them.
But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said
unto them, What reason ye in your hearts? Whether is easier
to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or rise up and walk? Now what is easier to say? Your
sins are forgiven, or rise up and walk? Well, it's easier to
say your sins are forgiven. I mean, how many Catholic priests
have people come to them and a confession, and they confess
their sins before that priest, and the priest tells them to
hail Mary or whatever it is they tell them to do, and then he
says, your sins are forgiven. You're absolved of your sins. It's easy
to say that, but that doesn't mean they are. It's easy to say
your sins are forgiven thee. I can say that to anybody. Preachers
do it all the time. Protestant preachers. They give
some kind of formula. If you do this, this, this, and
this, your sins are forgiven. Well, you did it. If you walk
the aisle, if you shake the preacher's hand, your sins will be forgiven.
If you turn over a new leaf, all the time they're saying,
your sins are forgiven. People say it all the time. It's easy
to say. What's harder to say, your sins are forgiven, or rise
up and walk? It's a whole lot harder to say,
rise up and walk, because you can see if it happens then. If
I say to a paralyzed person, rise up and walk, and they can't
do it, that means there's nothing to what I said. But if I say
to a paralyzed person, rise up and walk, and they rise up and
walk, now there's power. There's authority. Oh, what powers
in that voice. Now, the Lord says, what's easier
to say? Thy sins be forgiven thee, or
rise up and walk? Well, it's a whole lot easier
to say, Thy sins are forgiven me, because you can't really
prove whether or not they've been forgiven. But when you say to someone paralyzed,
rise up and walk, we can see if there's true authority and
power in your voice, in what you have to say because of who
you are. And so what does he do? He says in verse 24, But
that you may know that the Son of Man hath power upon earth
to forgive sins. that you may know that I have
power and authority to pronounce somebody forgiven if I am pleased
to do it. He then said to the sick of palsy,
I say unto thee, arise, take up thy couch, and go into thy
house. And immediately he rose up before
them. And he took the bed whereon he
lay and departed to his own house, glorifying God. Now they saw
the Lord do this. He said, rise up and walk. And that man rose up and walked. And here we have the authority
that the Lord Jesus Christ has to forgive sins. Forgiveness. Understand this.
I've already talked about this a little bit. Let me talk about
it again. Forgiveness lies in the sovereign will of the Lord
Jesus Christ. If you're going to be forgiven
and go to heaven, it's up to Christ. You don't have any control
of this. People say, won't you accept
Jesus? That's not the issue. Will He accept you? Is He pleased
to do something for you? He has the authority. He has
the right, he has the power to forgive sins, and he's got the
authority and right and power to say, depart from me ye that
work iniquity, I never knew you. The forgiveness of sins lies
in the sovereign authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, who is going to be forgiven? Who's going to be forgiven? I'd
like to read a passage from Luke chapter 18. It's about the Pharisee and the
publican. We read beginning in verse 9,
and he spake this parable, Luke 18, 9, and he spake this parable
unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous,
and they despised others. You see, a self-righteous person
always compares himself with somebody else. And he thinks,
well, I'm better than them. I'm better than them. And they
looked down their nose at other people feeling themselves to
be morally superior. He spake this parable to certain
which trusted in themselves that they were righteous. And they
despised others. And here's the parable. Two men
went up into the temple to pray. Both of these men believed in
God. Both, in some respects, saw their need of Him. They wouldn't
be praying if they didn't see their need of God. Two men went
up into the temple to pray. The one, a Pharisee. The word
Pharisee means a separated one. I'm separate from other people.
I'm somebody special. I'm righteous. The other, a publican. One who worked for the Roman
government. and who collected taxes for the
Roman government and then would add money to himself to get rich. I mean, he was a scam artist.
He was a crook. That's what a publican was. He
was the most despised man of his day. What a profession. Two
men went to the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other
a publican. Now, the Pharisee starts talking
about himself. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself. doesn't say pray to God he thought
he was but it says he prayed thus with himself you see God
does not hear this prayer now he hears by way of judging but
he's not going to answer this prayer of mercy look what he
says the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself God I thank
Thee I give you the credit that I'm so good I thank Thee that
I'm not as other men are you see His righteousness came from
comparing himself with somebody else, not by comparing himself
with God, but with somebody else. He said, I'm not an extortioner. I'm not unjust. I'm not an adulterer. Now, all these things that he
said he was not, he was. He was lying. In his heart, he
was these things. And in his heart, he had committed
all these things. He had been unjust, he'd been
an adulterer, and he'd been an extortioner. And he was lying
when he said, I've not been any of these things. Remember, the
Lord looks at the heart. The Lord said, to lust after
a woman is to commit adultery in your heart already. Sin is
in the heart. And this man had been guilty
of all these sins yet. He says he wasn't. He said, I
fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess.
You can bet he gave 10% of everything. He was so exact. Verse 13, and
the publican. Now here we have the righteous
man, so we thought, the religious man. And the publican, standing
afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven. I
can see the Pharisee praying like that, the publicans looking
straight down, feeling utterly unfit to even call upon the name
of God. And the publican, standing afar
off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but
smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, thee,
sinner." Now the Lord says, I tell you,
I tell you, and this is what makes it so, because I'm telling
you, I tell you that this man, this sinful being, who beat on
his breast and could say nothing about himself but that he was
the sinner. This man went down to his house
justified rather than the other. This man's sins were forgiven.
The other man's sins were not forgiven. This man was justified. The other man was not justified.
Now here's how God forgives sins. He justifies you and then you're
forgiven. He actually says their sins and
iniquities, I'll remember no more. How is it that He can remember
no more? Because there's nothing there
to remember. You see, when Christ died, the
sins of everybody He died for were put away. They were blotted
out. They were removed. They're gone. What sin? If Christ died for
me, I have no sin. And that's why God forgives me
of my sin, because there's no sin to condemn me for. Now, who
is forgiven? The man who comes as a sinner. The man who comes thinking forgiveness
is an entitlement, Lord, I've done this, I've done that, therefore
you need to forgive me, that man will be rejected. But the
man who comes as a sinner, is the one who will be accepted. Now let's go on reading. What's
easier to say, thy sins be forgiven thee, arise, take up thy bed
and walk, but that you may know how that the Son of Man hath
power upon earth to forgive sins. He saith to the sick of palsy,
I say unto thee, arise, take up thy couch, and go into thy
house. And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that
whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying
God." Now, can you imagine the crowd seeing this? All of a sudden,
this paralytic man rises straight up, and he walks, leaping and
jumping, glorifying God for what had been done. Oh, how happy
he was, how thankful he was because of the word and the will of the
Lord Jesus Christ. When our Lord said, rise, take
up thy bed, and walk, could the man have said no? Could the man
have said, I'm not going to accept that or I'm not? No. This is
the call of invincible, irresistible grace. He says your sins are
forgiven. Rise up and walk. And the believer
has his sins blotted out and he rises up and walks from the
deadness of sin by the power of God in the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is the call of invincible,
irresistible grace. Now, let me tell you what would
really be strange. I've dialed this message, Strange
Things, and we've seen some strange things. We've seen a man who
has the authority of God to forgive sins because he is God. We see
these men bringing him, their paralytic friend, to the Lord
and seeking means, doing whatever it took to get him there. We
see the Lord saying to him, instead of, rise up and walk, he says,
your sins are forgiven. And then these people say, who
is it that speaks blasphemies? Who can do this but God? And
he said, well, what's easier to do, say your sins are forgiven
or rise up and walk? And he told that man to rise
up and walk so they could see that he had the authority to
forgive sins. Now, let me tell you what would
really be strange, is that after hearing this message, You and
I don't come to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and say, Lord,
forgive me of my sins. I know you don't have to. I know
it's yours to give or yours to withhold. I know that you're
holy, but oh, how I that you for Christ's sake would forgive
me of my sins. Don't say forgive me of my sins
because I'm going to start doing better and I'm going to turn
over a new leaf and I'm going to give up this and start doing
that. He won't hear that. It's all talk and nothing more.
It's hot air and nothing more. No, you come into his presence
and say, oh, would you be pleased to forgive me of my sins for
Christ's sake. Do you know anybody who comes
like that is forgiven? There's not one who's ever been
turned away who comes and pleads for forgiveness for the sake
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh Lord, forgive me of my sins
for your son's sake. No other reason is needed. Now
we have this message on DVD and CD. If you call the church, write
an email and we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nival, praying that
God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. That's our prayer. Amen. To request a copy of the
sermon you have just heard, send a request to messages at ToddsRoadGraceChurch.com
or you may write or call the church at the information provided
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