Mark chapter 2. Now I love how Mark starts his
gospel. Although we appreciate the genealogies
and the purpose of the Lord giving us genealogies and in other gospels
in Matthew and in Luke, and we appreciate the birth of Christ
being given in these other. Other gospels without the other
ones, we wouldn't have the fullness, would we? Mark is unique in that
he gets right to the point. He gets right to the point. In
chapter one, verse one, he says, the beginning of the gospel of
Jesus Christ, the son of God. And we're going to be in Mark
chapter two, but I want to point out to us that his purpose and
his focus was to say the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
right to the point. This is what he's going to declare
to us. I don't mean to say to us that The other beginnings
are diminished in their purpose. It's all the Lord's word, and
it's all been purpose. I just love the simplicity that the
Lord gave Mark just to get right to the point. He starts with
God's gospel, and he ends with God's gospel. My hope this morning
is the simple message that the Lord has given me would start
with the Lord's gospel, and it would end with the Lord's gospel,
not just this time, but every time I stand. Gospel's the only
hope that we have. This hour I want us to see Christ
as God, as the man that he was, as the great physician, and as
the successful redeemer of his people. Mark declares Christ
clearly as the God-man, just as this, the great physician
with all power. And that's what I've titled the
message this morning, The Man With All Power. The Man With
All Power. Now in Mark chapter two, it starts
with Christ being in a house. He was with the disciples in
a house and word spread in that area that the Lord was in the
house. And so men begin to come into the house and they begin
to press into the house so that there was no more room in the
house. No room that could be, you couldn't go in through the
front door. It was impossible. The scripture tells us these
words, he preached the word unto them. I like that word word because
it's the same exact word Logos that's used in John chapter one.
In the beginning was the word and it's a capital W there. That's
his name. What did Christ preach to him? He preached himself to
them, the gospel. Isn't that a glorious thought?
What did he declare unto them? The same thing we're declaring
right now. He preached the word, the fullness of the gospel unto
them. After that, then they bring a
man that's sick of the palsy, it says. And it tells us that
he was bore by four companions. That tells me it was one on each
corner, more than likely. That's pretty simple, isn't it?
You have a bed, a man's on it, so you're going to have one on
each corner. Now, I want us to notice that palsy, and it's important
that we realize this, palsy is being paralyzed. It's the lack
of use of limbs. The scripture doesn't say how
sick of palsy he was, but we don't have to guess. We know
he was completely paralyzed, wasn't he? How do we know? Because
it's a gospel message. It's a picture of our impotency
coming unto Christ. We can't get to him. We're paralyzed. We could say from the neck down,
but it's from the top of our head to the bottom of our feet.
We're dead. That's paralyzed, isn't it? There's no life in
us whatsoever once we're born. The four is what gives us hope
this morning, because it's what the Lord gives his people. When
faith is bestowed, what's the four things he gives us that's
revealed in the person of Christ? Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. And that's what this represents.
That's what Christ knocked us off of our high horse, didn't
he? And this is a picture of them cutting, they cut open the
roof, we're gonna read it, but I wanna tell us the account and
then read it so we understand it to the fullness. But they
couldn't get in through the front door, they have to cut a hole
in the roof. Then they let him down. Well, it's a picture of
us exalting our flesh and thinking that we're something, but really
we're paralyzed, dead on a bed. We can't do anything. It's going
to take the wisdom of Christ, the righteousness of Christ,
the sanctification of Christ, and the redemptive work that
he completed to bring us down to where we have to be, to humble
us, to cause us to see that we're wretched, that we're dead. And
he gets all the glory in it. That's the picture here. lest God removes the roof of
our unbelief and sends his spirit. I thought about in the Old Testament,
how that the lamp in the temple or the tabernacle, there was
oil that was given forth and there's conduits that was running.
And as the oil was there, the oil would come through the conduits
into the lamp and the lamp would give forth its light. Without
the conduit, there would be no way the oil could come and We
know that that oil is the picture of the gospel. That's what the
hole in the roof represents. We have a hard, stony heart that's
dead. The Lord's going to have to cut a hole and put a new heart
in, isn't he? By faith. And he does it by his
gospel, through his spirit. That's the conduit, isn't it?
The gospel. Unless the Lord lowers us down
and abases us, we'll never be healed of our impotency towards
God. Anytime God makes a person a sinner, He makes them completely
dependent upon Him and His work. Completely dependent. Are you
dependent upon the Lord this morning? Am I dependent upon
Him completely? This paralyzed man had to be
completely dependent upon those companions. He couldn't get up
on the roof himself. He couldn't have lowered himself
down through the hole. He couldn't have done anything
necessary for him to be healed. He had to have help, didn't he?
He had to have all help. He was completely powerless.
You and I are completely powerless in God's salvation. Did you know
that? It's what the scripture tells us. We have no hope of
claiming it as our own based upon our own merits. No, it's
his salvation, salvations of the Lord. We can't get to him
and yet when the Lord reveals his truth to us, we've got to
get to him. Is that not true? Can you relate
to that? I know I can't get to him on
my own, but Lord, I've got to have you. I've got to get to
you. Lord, come to me. Don't leave
me here by myself in my impotent state, in my paralyzed dead state. Lord, come to where I'm at. Lord, you're gonna have to lower
me down to you. I have a 60 foot statue of myself, just like Nebuchadnezzar. I'm high and mighty. I think
I'm something and I'm nothing. Lower me down to you and heal
me. Lord, the healing I need is the
sin that I am. Heal my sin sickness, the death
that I'm carrying around in this body. That's what you're gonna
have to heal. I have no hope if you don't. Understand that It is not just
faith and his abilities that we look to. What I mean by that
is, is we're not looking for a handout from God. It's faith
in the person of the Lord Jesus. Salvation's a person. We're not
just looking for him to hand out something here. We're looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith. That's what faith looks
to, is Christ. And when we look to Christ, sure
we'll trust and believe in His abilities, that He was successful
in redemption, but we give Him the need, just like this man,
to get to Him. That's what faith looks to, is who He is. He is
God. Now, once this man is lowered
down through the roof, the Lord makes a very remarkable statement. He says, son, thy sins be forgiven
thee. Oh, to hear those words from
our Lord. Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. There's hope. If you hear that,
what are we afraid of? What would we be afraid of if
we heard that from the Lord? Nothing, nothing. Well, that's
what we hear on the cross of Calvary, isn't it? It is finished.
Thy sins be forgiven thee. Not because of what you've done,
but because of what I've done. Now let's read this together
in Mark chapter two, verse five. He tells us, when Jesus saw their
faith, whose faith? The four men that lowered him
down and the one upon the bed. When he saw their faith, he said
unto the sick of the palsy, son, thy sins be forgiven thee. But
there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoned in
their hearts, Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies, or who
can forgive sins but God only? And immediately when Jesus perceived
in his spirit that they had so reasoned within themselves, he
said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?
Whether is it easier to say to the sick of palsy, Thy sins be
forgiven thee, or to say, Arise, take up thy bed, and walk? But
yet ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to
forgive sins, he saith to the sick of the palsy, I say unto
thee, arise and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. And immediately he arose, took
up his bed, and went forth before them all. Insomuch they were
all amazed. And what did they do? They glorified
God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion. What got the
Lord's attention. Was it their efforts in lowering
this man? No. Was it their unfailing determination? No. It was their faith. When he saw their faith, now
what does faith do? Faith has got to get to Christ.
Faith has got to have this message. Faith has got to see his face.
And it's only done by the gospel. That's why we come here. These
men had to get to Christ. It wasn't that the Lord was looking
at their good works or their intentions. He wasn't looking
at their merits. He wasn't looking at their choosing
him. He was looking at their faith. When he saw their faith,
where does faith come from, brethren? It comes from the Lord. The scripture
tells us that. He's the author and finisher
of faith. Who gets all the glory for it? He does. It's his faith.
So faith comes from him. What's my hope? That he would
bestow his faith upon me, that he would bestow his faith upon
you, and that we would believe. When he saw their faith, he saw
his faith. And that's what pleases the Father,
isn't it? The faith of Christ. See, it's not one thing that
we can produce or one thing that we do. God's looking for one
thing. He's looking for one thing. Faith. And if I don't have that, I have
no justification before God, no hope of eternal life whatsoever. Faith is our justification before
God. He's looking for one thing, faith. He's the one that's got to put
it there. And if he put it there, he will see it and be well pleased.
Faith is not merely believing that he can do something. Faith
believes that He is seated and that He's accomplished all things.
He can do anything to anybody whenever He wants to. Faith just
believes that God is God. Faith believes that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God. Faith believes that Jesus is
God. 100% man and 100% God. And this is what He's showing
us right here. Whenever he says, so that you
know the son of man hath power. All power, Christ said, is given
unto me, both in heaven and in earth. So he's announcing this
to them. He's saying, so you know that the son of man hath
power to do what? Forgive sins. They confessed. They said, nobody who can forgive
sins but God. Exactly. Exactly. He was God. You and I would never be able
to recognize him as different from any other man unless he
gives faith. faith to look to Christ as all
our hope in salvation. I've already told you I titled
the message, The Man. He said, the Son of Man, so that
you know the Son of Man hath power, all power is given to
me is what Christ said. Faith believes he has all power,
doesn't it? Now I love the wording in verse five, son, thy sins
be forgiven thee. This declaration is a glorious
declaration. It shows us a couple of things.
First thing I want to point out is they literally, they literally
say unto him, God is the only one that can forgive sins. And
as I just mentioned, they didn't realize that they're absolutely
right. God just made them confess that Jesus Christ can forgive
sins, and they didn't even mean to. They weren't even trying
to. They were trying to contradict
him. He said, no, you just told everybody who I am. I'm God. And you can't see it because
you haven't been given my faith. He tells us in another part,
talking to the Pharisees, he says, if you were of my father,
he said, Abraham saw my day and rejoiced. He said, if Abraham
was your father, you would rejoice, but you're not Abraham. You're
of your father, the devil. See, there's only two kinds of
people, those who are begotten of the Lord, given faith to believe
him, and those who the Lord passed by. Thanks be to God, He didn't
choose us based upon us constraining or restraining Him. He didn't
choose us based upon our merits at all. It was all in mercy.
It was all in grace. For by grace are you saved. It
wasn't anything that we had done. This man of the palsy could have
done nothing, nothing to get healed of his impotency, nothing
whatsoever. He was paralyzed. We see the
picture there. Can we not see? But by birth,
Our birthright by our father Adam is death. And we need a
substitute. We need a savior, a savior that
put away those sins. Savior that calls on us and says,
arise, arise, take up that bed and walk. I've healed you, healed
you by my own blood. I've saved you by my own blood.
And I've sat down because the father was satisfied. The second thing we see is the
man of the palsy. He had one real need. By this statement, we see that
he had one real need in coming to Christ. A sin problem. See, faith acknowledges what
we are. Repentance is given the same
time, isn't it? If we never admit what we are, we've not been given
repentance. Faith looks to Christ because
repentance has been given and we recognize we're nothing but
sinners. We're nothing but paralyzed dead corpses. Lord, I have one
need, I'm a sinner. And he said, thy sins be forgiven
thee. Thy sins be forgiven thee. Somebody, I was reading an article
on this. They said, well, it was because
he did something and God was angry with him, therefore he
became paralyzed. The scripture doesn't say that. Most people
have accidents and become paralyzed. I understand that, but a lot
of people are born that way, aren't they? Well, which one is it?
The Scripture doesn't say. All we know is He's paralyzed.
We know this, that if the Lord cast any judgment towards His
people whatsoever, any wrath towards His people, then Christ
was not sufficient upon the cross. It's not how God operates. We're
under grace. And that grace drives us unto him and gives us a desire. Lord, give me the heart that
believes you, that seeks after you. Don't leave me to myself.
Don't leave me to wallow in my sin. I will. Don't leave me in
this. I'll go back to being paralyzed
if you let me. Don't leave me to myself, Lord. This man didn't. He didn't. get an offer where the Lord said,
okay, and I say this, I know I say this often and I'm being
facetious and you know that to be true, but men say that you
need to take the first step. How is this guy going to take
the first step? He can't. How is Lazarus going to take
the first step? He's dead. See, that's the silliness of
false religion is it gives man the power. It dethrones God.
It says you have to make a choice. The only choice this man could
make is cry out, Lord, have mercy upon me. And that's all we can
do. Lord, have mercy. We don't get any glory for that.
That's not a work. That's just us looking to Christ through
the eyes of faith that he's given us. This man needed forgiveness. And forgiveness comes all by
grace. In Colossians 1, it tells us in Christ, not in what we
do, not in what we pray, not in what we choose, but in Christ. We have redemption through his
blood, even the forgiveness of sin. See, he's the only one with
the authority to forgive sins. Why? He purchased the forgiveness
of sins by putting them away on the cross of Calvary. He can
forgive sins. Does that comfort you? He can
forgive, and the scripture tells us that he forgets the sin. He
never remembers them again. How can that be? They're gone.
He's put them away. He's the man with all power,
100% man and 100% God. I quoted this earlier, but I
want to tell you where it's located, Matthew 28, 18. He says, Jesus
said, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Not
some, not most of it, not 99.9% of it. We know this to be true, but
if I iterate it, maybe to that extent, maybe we'll be able to
get a hold of this this morning, that all power is given to him. What does that leave you and
me? How much power does that leave you and me? If all power,
if all power is given to him, all, all power, how much does
that leave you and how much does that leave me? Zero, none, nada. See that hope is that the Lord
did something for us. It's not our hope that we have
a little bit of power and we can exercise that power and the
Lord will be pleased with us. No, he has all the power. So what is our hope? That he
used that power. Not as the thief does. The scripture
says the thief came but for to steal and to kill and to destroy.
Now he has all power. He could have used that power
only according to His will, which we know is impossible for Him
to sin. We know that it was impossible for Him to fail, so we can't
even entertain those thoughts, but understand He chose to redeem
with all that power. He had all power. He could have
just walked by every one of us. He didn't have to choose us.
He was not obligated to choose us. But the Father in mercy chose
a people. The Son in mercy redeemed those
people by His own blood with all power given unto Him by His
Father. And what has he given his people?
Well, he's glorified them with the same glory that he has. He's
made them heirs of God and join heirs with Jesus Christ. Union
with the Father perfectly, made perfectly righteous before him.
The sin's gone. We're no longer paralyzed. We're
no longer dead. We've been given faith. I love
when the Lord says, Go thy way. What is thy way? I got to get
to Christ. That's my way now. I have to
hear more about it. I have to, I've got to have him. last thing we notice is he calls
him a son i love that son take up that bed and walk i i love
the uh the name that he could have called him anything but
he chose to call him son now you can look it up but he don't
mean like i might see a a lad of some kind of young boy that
would be here at the church and i'm like son come over a second
no he's saying The same thing as the father said, this is my
beloved son in whom I am well pleased. That's what he's calling
him. Whereby we cry, I have a father, the scripture tells us, where
his Galatians four tells us that when the fullness of time was
come, God sent forth his son made of a woman. It's the same
word, that same word son right there is the same word he's calling
him. God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law
to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive
the adoption of sons, same word. Because you are sons, you are. So he didn't say you're going
to be. He didn't say you might be. Because you are sons, God
has sent forth his spirit of his son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. See, his blood's already accomplished
that. We've been given adoption. We have sonship, daughtership
in his sight. His children and the sheep of
His pasture. That's who His people are. By His work, by His power, we
have forgiveness of sin in so much that we are His perfectly
righteous children. When? When? Right now. right now. Behold, what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God. Brethren, now are we the sons
of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall
be like him. Why? We're going to see him as he
is. We're going to be made just like him because we are his sons. We are his daughters all by grace.
Now are we the sons of God. This week I was speaking to someone
and they made a statement to me. And you've heard this statement.
Well, we are all God's children. You ever heard that before? We
are all God's children. No, we're not. That's not true.
That's a lie. Everyone is not God's children. If God loves his children and
one of his children go to hell, what does that say about the
love of God? What does what does his love do then? That's not
love at all, is it? Everyone is God's creation. Don't
misunderstand that. That's true. Everything is God's. He owns everything. But no, He
only loves His people. He only loves His children. Only
those whom Christ died for are His children. All by grace, we
are His children. Now this man we're reading about
is called His son. Consider the grace and mercy
that the Lord shows to all his children, to all of us, not just
this man, but all of them. We're unable to physically get
to Christ such as we are. We're born paralyzed. More than
that, we're born dead. Dead trespasses and in sin. That's
what the scripture calls us. And I iterate that a lot, but
you can't preach a man too dead. I mean, Somehow along the way,
men started preaching that dead doesn't mean dead. And I want
to correct that dead means dead. It's there's no life whatsoever,
not a heartbeat. And it's a, it's a rotten corpse.
It's not even that it's been dead for five minutes. It's,
it's what Martha said to the Lord. He's been dead four days.
He stinks. This is what we're taught. This
is our condition by birth. We don't have to do anything
in order to be dead. We're born that way. We are born
spiritually dead. The good news of the gospel is
the scripture says, and you, who, his children, his people,
his elect, you hath he quickened. What does that word quickened
mean? To be made alive. You hath he quickened who were
dead and trespasses and in sin. You mean I'm not dead anymore?
Not if you've been given the faith of Christ. That's life,
isn't it? Seeing Christ is life. Seeing
Christ is forgiveness of sin. Seeing Christ is salvation. By God's grace, he says unto
his people, thy sins be forgiven thee arise. Then there's four
that we see that bore us. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification
and redemption. That's him. That's that's who
God hath made Christ unto us. He's made him wisdom. Well, we
don't have anything else to say that we know anymore. But Christ,
we don't have any wisdom anymore, do we? We used to think we knew
a lot. You remember, maybe some of you were in false religion.
I thought I knew a lot of stuff, and that's all it was is just
junk. I didn't know anything. Paul said, I counted it all but
dung that I may win Christ. All those things, forgetting
those things which are behind, forget about them. I got to have
Him. He's our wisdom. He's our righteousness.
I thought I had done a good job of buttoning my shirt of self-righteousness.
When I got to the very top, I had missed the first buttonhole.
I had to undo the whole thing, and then I realized, I'm dead.
I can't unbutton it myself. Lord, you're gonna have to unbutton
it. And then you're gonna have to give me a new garment. This
garment isn't good. I have no righteousness. That's
what he does. He robes us in his righteousness
being made into us, wisdom, righteousness, and our sanctification. We've
been made holy. How holy do you have to be to
go to heaven? As holy as God is. Now, how are
you and I gonna get holy like that? We can't. He's gonna have
to do it. And how does he do that? He gives
us his faith. It's all his work. It's all for
His glory. He is our wisdom, our righteousness,
our sanctification, and He is our redemption. He redeemed us.
Those are the four. He was successful in His redemption,
wasn't He? Do you have any doubt that He was successful? No. No,
He was God. I know He did exactly what He
purposed to do before time ever began. It couldn't be stopped.
It couldn't be hindered. He redeemed His people. There's
no doubt. problem I'm seeing is, is I'm
this impotent dead man and I'm afraid he's going to leave me
to myself. Lord, don't leave me to myself. And he says, I
bore you with wisdom, with righteousness, with sanctification and redemptions.
Since the day of your birth, you just didn't know it. But
when the time came, the fullness of time, Christ took the roof
off of our stony heart and lowered us down to where he was. And
he said, arise, take up thy bed and walk. And he called us. Then
he revealed everything he'd already done, didn't he? He didn't, it
wasn't an option. He said, arise. And we arise
and see all that it is, is goodness and mercy behind us and grace
and truth in front of us and Christ Jesus, 100% all the way
around us. He does it all and gets all the
glory. He has all the power. He's the only one that has all
the power. He's the only one that has the power to heal. He's
the only one that has the power to make alive. He's the only
one that has the power to justify. Christ is just and the justifier
because of what he accomplished on the cross. You and I can't
justify ourself. We're guilty. The most simple
analogy I can give us, if you were in a court of law and the
judge found you guilty of murder, Is that judge going to acquit
you? Is he gonna let you go? Are you
gonna justify yourself by saying, well, I was at the wrong place
at the wrong time, or I'm a changed man now, look at all the good
things that I've done in my life. See, that's how silly false religion
is. God doesn't just have them accused, God has them found wanton. God has us found guilty before
the law. Lord, I can't keep your law,
it's holy. You're going to have to do the
work. What did the Lord do? He took my place. He took my
place in that court. And the Lord said, death is the
penalty. And the Lord said, I will die
in their stead. And everyone that Christ died
for, now the law has been satisfied. Now justice has been satisfied. Now the consequence has been
paid. Now the father says, I'm well pleased with you. Why? Because righteousness has been
imputed. Because he's redeemed his people.
He's put away their sin. It doesn't exist anymore. We're
no longer guilty. No longer guilty. Now look in verse 12 with me.
Notice this. Immediately he arose, took up
the bed, and went forth before them." Now, I like that word
immediately. It's used just about every time
the Lord healed somebody, the word immediately followed. Now,
sometimes it was said within the same hour, but it was all
appointed to his will and purpose, of course. But here he says immediately. I love that. I mean, you can't
get no more instantaneous than immediately. Why was it immediate? Because he had the power, and
when he spoke, it happens. That's what he does. What happened
at the very beginning, Genesis chapter one, in the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth. God said, let there be
light. How long did it take light to be formed at that point? It
was immediate. See, we're dealing with an immediate
God. He does everything immediately in his time. All he has to do
is speak the word of truth, and you and I will arise, and you
and I will wake up from our dead state, and you and I will see
the truth. He'll give us faith. It's immediate, isn't it? Immediately he arose, took up
the bed, and went forth before them all, insomuch that they
were all amazed and glorified God. Every single person there
glorified God. Do you know why Romans 14 tells
us, for it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall
bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. Not confess to
men, confess to God. Confess the man, the Lord Jesus
Christ has all power. That's the confession. The man,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you believe on the son of
God? Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? If you do, you
believe he is God 100%. There is no doubt whatsoever.
He's God and he has all the power. Jesus Christ is the Lord, scripture
tells us. Jesus Christ is Lord, and that's
what's gonna be confessed. Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory
of God the Father. I've got good news if you see
yourself as dead, if you see yourself as sinner, you see yourself
as paralyzed, impotent, come to the great physician. Come
to the great, he's the only one that can heal. He has the power
to heal. These men said, we've never saw it on this fashion.
We've never, what does it say at the end here? We never saw
it on this fashion. Never seen anything like this
before. Isn't salvation miraculous? You take a sinner, a wretched,
vile sinner and make them perfectly righteous. How can it be? Because
the cost was his blood alone. And he shed his precious blood
alone and he made his people perfectly righteous, accepted
before the father. He's the only one that can heal
us of our sin because of this. No amount of good deeds can heal
us. No amount of good intentions can make us whole. The Lord's
not looking for our intentions. Don't be deceived. The Lord's
not looking for your good deeds. He's not looking for our choice.
He's not hoping that you'll let him do something. He's looking
for the faith of Christ. And if he doesn't see it, hell
will be our eternal home. If he doesn't see the faith of
Christ, hell will be our eternal home. Lord, give me your faith. Lord, bring me through that,
that hole in the roof. I'm impotent. Give me, give me
Christ. He's the only one that can heal
me. He's the only one that can forgive sins. He's the only one
that has the power to forgive sins. Men go to priests all the
time saying, forgive me, father, for I have sinned. That man doesn't
have authority to forgive sins, does he? Jesus Christ does. Jesus
Christ is the only one that does. And here's the best news. that a sinner will hear, call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin.
That was before he was born. That was a prophecy. And did
he? Father said, sit there here at my right hand until I make
thy enemies by foot so I'm satisfied with your sacrifice. Every single
person Christ died for is now redeemed. Their sin hath been
put away. because of this, there's no other
name given among men whereby we must be saved. See, if we
have that confession, Jesus Christ, if we've been given his faith,
we must be saved. Do we see that? It's what the
Lord said. We're just taking him at his
word. If we've been given his faith and we believe the Lord
Jesus Christ, we must be saved. That's what salvation is, is
seeing Christ. Now, lastly, look at verse 16
with me. Sometimes I get in my own way
when I try to declare the truth unto you, and I'll preach two
or three messages in one message, and then I'll kick myself for
it. So this morning, I've really tried not to do that. At the
end, though, I don't want to leave this chapter without seeing
this precious portion. We saw that Christ healed the
man, which makes him the great physician. Now I want us to take
great comfort in what he says right here in verse 16. When
the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners,
they said unto his disciples, how is it that he eateth and
drinketh with publicans and sinners? When Jesus heard it, he said
unto them, they that are whole have no need of the physician,
but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners, but sinners. Are you a sinner? He came not
to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. If you see yourself
as sick, come to Christ right now. Come to Christ. Don't move
a muscle. Come to Him with the eyes of
faith that He has given you. Flee to Him. Run to Him. Cleave unto Him. Confess Him
in your heart. If you see that you're a sinner,
Christ says, thy sins be forgiven thee. Take up thy bed and walk. Come to God's Lamb. He's the
one that bore the sin of his people and put them away. Believe
that. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
It's a requirement, but it's not something you can produce.
We confess that, don't we? Lord, I believe. Help thou mine
unbelief. You're going to have to cause
me to believe. That's what we beg for. We beg that the Lord
would cause us to believe. How do we come to Him? Well,
we don't move a muscle, as I just said. We come to Him in the heart,
the new heart that He's given. We come to Him with the eyes
of faith that He's given. We beg for healing. We beg for life.
We beg for salvation. Do you remember whenever the
disciples were gathered with the Lord and many people came
to Him and the children began to come unto the Lord and the
disciples were shooing them away? He ain't got time for you. Don't
bother the master. Isn't it amazing that everybody
that came to the Lord with a need, not everybody, but a lot of the
men and women that came to the Lord with the need and even children,
the disciples were like, he don't have time for you. He's much
too busy. Isn't that blind Bartimaeus?
They said, Jesus, our son of David, have mercy on me. They
said, shut up. Don't talk. He's got no time for you. You're
just a blind beggar. That's who He came to save. Do
we see that? The blind beggar, the ones with
palsy, the ones that are impotent, the children. Suffer the little
children, He said, to come unto Me and forbid them not. For such
is the kingdom of heaven. If you want salvation, come to
Christ as a little child, as a baby, confessing that you know
nothing. But Christ is all in salvation. Christ is salvation. That's what
you have to come confessing. If we confess anything else,
we're not coming as a child. Suffer the little children to
come unto me and forbid them not." If you want to come to
Christ, come. There's nothing preventing you.
Anybody that's ever came to Christ, he is in no wise cast out. The
only thing that would prevent us is our stubborn pride. Our
pride, our sin is what separates us from the Lord. But the call
has come. We preach a whosoever will salvation.
Whosoever will, let him come, take of the water of life freely.
We're not just saying you're not welcome because you You're
not elect because of this and you're not elect because we don't
preach that garbage, do we? No, we preach that Christ died
for his people and successfully redeemed, but there's a general
call that goes out and says, come, whosoever will. Christ said, come unto me all
you that are labored and heavy laden. Are you labored and heavy
laden? See, that's the qualification. If you see yourself as a sinner,
if you see yourself as impotent, if you see yourself as unable
to save yourself, he's given that gift. Come to Christ in
your heart right now. Right now, beg for healing, beg
for life, beg for his salvation. Understand that when we do come
to him, we're coming to the man, the Lord Jesus Christ, with all
power. He's the man with all power.
We come to God begging for his Christ. Someone heard me mention mercy
beggar many times, and I do mention that often. But as I was having
a conversation with someone, they said, I'm not a beggar.
I'm not a beggar. And I said, boy, I am. I am. And if the Lord's made you a
sinner, you are too. We're beggars, aren't we? We're beggars of mercy.
We're beggars of grace. We're not beggars. We've never
seen that he has all the power. See, a beggar can't do anything
to better their circumstances. This man could not have done
anything to better his circumstances. He could have got religion. That's
not going to do him any good. He's still lame. He's still paralyzed. Wasn't just lame, he was paralyzed.
Couldn't do anything to help himself, could he? See, that's
us. We've got to see it. And only the Lord can reveal
it. Lord, show me that I'm the paralyzed one and you're going
to have to do all the healing. If a sinner sees that, God's
the doer of it. And we cry out for mercy. Here's the good news
of the gospel. Here's the rest that we have.
Christ said in John six, all that the father giveth me, all
that the father has given me, they will come to me. They will
come to me. Why? Because the father gave
him to him and he redeemed them. And in time he gives them the
faith and they come to him. And what does he say? And I will
in no wise cast them out. I will in no wise cast them out.
What does that mean? He's going to receive those that come to
him with faith for salvation. The last thing I want to tell
us. It doesn't matter about your age. Does it matter about how
smart you are? Well, I'm thankful for that,
aren't you? I haven't anything to do with my intelligence. Doesn't
matter how, uh, There is no qualification for this salvation regarding
the flesh. Qualification is, is you're a
dead dog sinner. There is no merit within you
whatsoever. This call goes out to everyone,
man, woman, boy, and girl, regardless of age, creed, color, it doesn't
matter. Come to Christ. Don't allow your
pride to stand in between you and God, because that's all that
will stand between you and God. Lord, if you see pride in me,
abase it. Show me that truly I'm the one
paralyzed. Show me that I have to have you.
Don't allow me to have any confidence in this flesh. Abase me. Lower
me down. Lower me down and cause me to
cling to you. And if you can hear these words that I'm saying
this morning, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on
him. Believe on him. He's the man
with all the power. They said, who has authority
to forgive sins but God? You know what we say to that? Truth, Lord. Christ is God, and
you have all the power. Have mercy on me, the sinner. Can you say amen to that?