How's everybody doing? Hope everybody's
well. Remember those who requested
prayer. Mark Lambert has been added to the prayer list, so
remember him in your prayer. Any word on Debra? She recovered
any? She's still unresponsive? OK. I didn't remember Debra Lindsey
and Earl Holden's family. And I pray for each other. We
lost Wayne. Arlene's got a birthday this
week. 29 again. For the 40th time. I saw
an interesting thing the other day. People love to put things
on the internet. It starts off sounding good and
it makes you feel bad. So you enjoyed your birthday
today, you passed another day of your birthday. He said, sometime
this year, you'd pass the day of your death day. And that's
true, and I said, well, what a nice bummer. Let's begin our worship service
with hymn number 266, Fade Each Earthly Joy. Wayne's favorite
song, that's right. Wayne's favorite hymn. Fade, fade each earthly joy,
Jesus is mine. Break every tender tie, Jesus
is mine. Dark is the wilderness. Earth has no resting place. Jesus alone can bless. Jesus is mine. Tempt not my soul away. Jesus is mine. Here would I ever stay. of clay, born but for one brief
day. Passed from my heart away, Jesus
is mine. Farewell, ye rings of night,
Jesus is mine. All that my soul has tried left
but a dismal void. Jesus has satisfied. Jesus is mine. Farewell mortality. Jesus is mine. Welcome, eternity, Jesus is mine. Welcome, oh, love and bless. Welcome, sweet scenes of rest. Welcome, my Savior's breast. Jesus is mine. The next hymn will be hymn number
466. everybody term me to mark gospel
according to mark read the first 14 verses my message is never this way and again he that is Jesus Christ
entered into the perineum after some days and it was no is that
he was in a house Straightway, many were gathered together,
insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much
as about the door. And he preached the word unto
them. And they came unto them, bringing one sick of the palsy,
which was born of four. When they could not come nigh
unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was.
And when they had broken it up, down the bed wherein the sick
of the palsy lay. And when Jesus saw their faith,
he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven
thee. But there were certain in the
scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, why does this
man speak such blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
only? And immediately when Jesus perceived
in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto
them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts? Whether it is
easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven
thee, or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk. But that
thou but 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, take up thy bed, and go thy way unto thy
house. And immediately he arose, and
took up his bed, and went forth before them all, insomuch that
they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it
on this fashion. Let us pray. Our Father, we are
so thankful for your mercy and grace this hour. We are thankful for sovereign
divine election, which chose out of this fallen race a number
that no man can number, chose them to salvation. We thank you, Father, that Jesus
Christ came into this world, born of a woman, born under the
law, to redeem them that are under the law. took on him the likeness of sinful
flesh, yet without sin, and destroyed sin in the flesh. We are thankful that his perfect
sacrifice satisfied your holy law, satisfied and sated your justice, and propitiated you for all the
sins of your people. We are thankful that we can think
such things and read of such things in your word. Father, we ask this hour for
those who are sick, going through trials, those on our prayer list,
we pray you'd be merciful to them. We pray for their healing and
strengthening, for the healing of the hearts of those who've
lost a loved one. Help us, Lord, to worship you
in spirit and in truth this hour. Would that you would show us
your Son, high and lifted up and exalted, having finished
the salvation of his people, worthy of praise and honor and
glory, power and salvation. Help us, Lord, now. We pray in
Christ's name, amen. Christ liveth in me, hymn number
466. What's far from God and dead
in sin, no light my heart could see. But in God's Word the light
I found, now Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. What a salvation this, that Christ
liveth in me. As rays of light from yonder
sun, the flowers of earth set free. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation is that
Christ liveth in me. As lives the flower within the
? So praise of God of truth and
grace ? His spirit dwelleth in me ? Christ liveth in me ? Christ
liveth in me ? Oh what a salvation this that Christ For wondrous thought I dwell
That Christ liveth in me Christ liveth in me Christ liveth in
me ? What a salvation is that Christ
liveth in me ? Now Stan and Steve, receive the
office this morning, please. Let us pray. Our Father, merciful,
slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy, who will in no wise
clear the guilty, but have reserved thousands for mercy. We thank
you that you have given to us the gift of life and faith and
granted us repentance for our sins. We know that all good and
perfectness comes from above, from the Father of lights in
whom there is no variableness, no shadow turning. As we have
received these things at thy hand, let us return them unto
thee with joy and thanksgiving, remembering where we got them.
We pray in Christ's name, amen. Yeah. The. I invite your attention back
to the Gospel according to Mark. Now this account, this taking
place, is recorded in Matthew and in Luke. And each of those
accounts ends with the word, We have seen strange things today. And in our text, it ends with,
We never saw it on this fashion. We never saw it on this fashion.
And what transpired this day was a collection of remarkable
things, every one of them glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's
a great deal to glean from this passage, the most important of
which is that those present on this occasion learned a wondrous
fact and an essential truth of the gospel, and that is this,
they learned that the man standing before them in the midst of this
crowd, the man preaching the word of God to them was God Almighty. He was God Almighty. What a thing
to learn! I can't imagine that, can you? It was an astonishing
thing. It was an amazing thing to realize, at least to hear
it from his own lips that he was God. and he had the power
and the right to forgive sin to forgive sin in that collection
of humanity there were many most in fact that were enamored with
Jesus and had packed the house when they heard that he was preaching
in the vicinity he was in locally a very popular preacher except
with religion they didn't like him much but the people did There
were also many sick folks that came to his meetings with various
afflictions who sought out Christ because they had heard that he
had healing power, that he was able to heal people, even raise
people from the dead. Also, there were some who were
afflicted with the pervasive disease of self-righteousness
called the scribes and the Pharisees that spied on Christ. They went
to these meetings, too, to catch him in some error. that they
might bring accusation against him by the religious espionage
that they practiced. We can reasonably surmise that
the account of the people glorifying God did not include these Pharisees
and scribes, because whether it was a miracle
that he did or words that he said, those accusers were always
ready and willing to discount him. by any and every manner
they could conjure up. When they said who can forgive
sins but God, they were saying this man ain't God. This man
ain't God. Only God can forgive sins. But this day things were done
that had never been done in this fashion. It's important to know
that Jesus was very popular with a certain class. of people, namely those who were unpopular
with religion. Sinners and publicans found themselves
drawn to him. Those in need and past religions
help found him out. Immediately following
this account, our Lord called a publican a tax collector named
Matthew, or Levi, later named Matthew, to follow him and sat
at his table. Sinners flocked to him and were astonished at his doctrine
because he spoke with authority, unlike the scribes and the Pharisees
say of the scripture, never a man spake like this man. speaks with authority. What does
that mean? Well, evidently the scribes and
the Pharisees just sort of chanted the words, read them out, and
more or less kind of ruled people's lives with their laws and their
regulations and their traditions. But when he spoke the Word of
God it was entirely different. People understood what he said
And they were amazed at what the Bible actually said. His
words stirred the hearts of sinners, struck them down where they lived,
and his words engendered self-righteous indignation among religion. Our
Lord never had a problem with sinners. You will not find any
of them having a problem with Him, nor Him having a problem
with them. But religion hated Him. And I
dare say that religion hates him today. The true and living
God is hated by religion today. Oh, they talk about Jesus. They
talk about a life better because of Him. They talk about getting
better and getting wealth and getting health and such things
as that. And He is a real good character
for your self-help narrative of your life. but they hate him as he is. This
is true of our Lord Jesus Christ. Generally, people flock to him
like crazy for the stuff he could do for their natural life. What
he could do for them in nature and in the flesh, they were tickled
with that. But when he opened his mouth
and began to speak, that's when they wanted to throw him off
a cliff or stone him to death. because he spoke the Word of
God. The Pharisees believed that they
spoke for God and deserved the attention of the people. Their
messages and manner were full of accusation, judgment, legal
requirements, and self-aggrandizement, but nothing for the ruined and
the helpless and the sick, not even a finger was lifted to help
relieve the burdens that they themselves laid on men according
to Matthew 23. There was no Christ in their
words. They kept the Bible safe, these
Pharisees, through the wars of the Maccabeans. They kept the
Bible safe, and we owe them a debt of gratitude for that, that they
kept the Bible, but they made it their book. And the one theme
of Scripture they didn't get, the one song they could not sing,
the one poem they could not recite, and that was simply this, that
this book the Lord Jesus Christ said, testified of him. And the Pharisees who accused
him, he said, you won't come to me for life. Now why wouldn't a person come
to Christ for life? Because they believe they already
have a life. And in fact, if you listen to
religious circles and the things they say, they have a life and
they invite Jesus to be a part of it they have a life and they
want something to enhance it but they don't want a new life
because they already got one they don't have any idea that
their life is a living death they are dead men walking and
their life will soon pass off this mortal call and die and
here was a man in this crowd of people pressed a man from
Nazareth who never went more than 50 miles from his hometown that drew crowds of men and women
and told them to leave the Pharisees alone Leave them alone. Leave the power of religion alone. There's nothing to it. He said of these religious leaders,
they were blind leaders of the blind and they would both end
up in a ditch. He said they were snakes, but
not just snakes. They were poisonous snakes. They
were vipers. and they were vultures picking
at dead men's bones and he told people if you follow them they
will lead you into a ditch and turn their followers into two-fold
more the children of hell than they themselves are what boldness
our Lord spoke against religion I've never been that bold I've
been bold a couple times and got in trouble for it but I'm
nothing like our Lord Jesus Christ My mommy used to say, Timmy,
sometimes you're too hard. And I said, I ain't never matched
the hardness and the toughness of our Lord Jesus Christ with
religion. He said, you'll watch your graves.
Go out to the graveyard, open it up, see what's inside. That's
what you are, dead men's bones. outside this day this house it
was so practice listen to God's Word being spoken by God's Prince
preachers was not Charles There's no way to get into the
house. It was so packed. I used to run a butcher shop
in Winston-Salem. Small building. I think it was
20 feet across and 50 feet deep. I had 24, 30 feet of counter,
different types of meat from beef to pork to chicken, turkey.
Fatback, cow udder, you name it, I had it all. On the first
of the month, when food stamps came out, the place was packed.
It was so packed that people were outside the store, 20 or
30, and they couldn't open the door to get in because the people
were packed in that little eight foot of space between the door
and the counters. Had a tremendous business. Sometimes
it was that way. That's the way it was this night.
It was such a crowd, they were pressed together and our Lord
Jesus Christ stood in the midst of them that nobody could open
the door. Nobody else could get into the place. But bricks and mortar will not
stop one who has need of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't have to invite you to
Jesus. I don't have to press you. If you need Him, you will find
Him. You will seek until you find
Him. Over in Mark chapter 7, it says this in verse 24, And
for thence Christ arose and went to the borders of Tyre, and sighed
and entered into a house that would not have man know it. but he could not be healed he
could not be well he is he's got the sinners in need it says
and a certain woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit
heard of him and game and found him and fairly easy she found
him sinners in need will find crises was no way to get in this
building So four men had a friend who was stricken with palsy,
and they believed that Jesus Christ could heal him. The press of the thong and the
closed door, no big deal. Let's climb up on the roof. Let's
get up on the roof. They ripped off the roofing tiles
and lowered down the man, the sick companion, right in front
of the Lord. Now here they are. They went right to where he was.
probably hear him talking right here and they begin to take apart
this roof I guess they hooked some kind of course to the four
corners this bed and they laid him down like an elevator right
into the front of the Lord Jesus Christ they interrupted the preaching
because they were in desperate man they were desperate man with
a desperate need their actions showed their love for their friend
and their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord acknowledged
that. He says, the Lord, in verse five,
says, when Jesus saw their faith, he said of the sick, a palsy,
son, thy sins are forgiven thee. The words of Christ are intriguing
and instructive. The record is that he said when
he saw their faith. Their faith. He said not to them
but to the man who was sick. My son, thy sins are forgiven. Their
faith speaks of the four men who brought the sick friend as
well as the sick man himself perhaps. We know that no one
is saved by another's faith or even by their own faith. This
is a very instructive statement and worthy of our attention.
These men loved their sick friend. They loved him to Christ. They
loved him to Christ. Their faith in Christ brought
this man to be healed. This spiritually speaks, I believe,
of prayer. I'll be honest with you, I don't
know a great deal about prayer. I'll be honest with you too,
a lot of times when I pray, I don't think I'm really praying. I go
ahead and do it anyway. But there have been a few times
in my life when I have prayed. And it's usually when I have
been stripped of all hope in this world and there's nothing
left for me to cling to but Jesus Christ. down and do business
with God. I think it was old J. Wimberly
said one time that God wants to speak to me or for me to speak
to him and he has to keep the pressure on. He has to keep the
pressure on. That's true. You know that's
true. We cannot save our friends. and
our loved ones even though we believe that Christ can save
them. We can however bring them to
Christ in prayer and if possible in
public worship where the gospel is preached. These men and their
actions were real and viable reasons for calling out the names
of our friends in prayer because it is recorded in the Word of
God And I'm still astonished when I read it. I'm thinking,
well, maybe I've got this wrong. But I've read it. And I've read
it in the Greek. And I've read it in three or four different
translations. And it always comes out the same. When he saw their
faith, their faith, he said to the man
with the palsy, my son, thy sins are forgiven thee. He
told the sick man that his sins were forgiven. This sick man's
estate mirrors our natural estate in sin. We are diseased, and
our disease is terminal. We cannot recover. We have no
ability to better our estate. We are impotent and sure for
death, already dead in trespasses and sin. The best our friends
could do is tote us around in our ruin. that's the best our
friends can do, and then bring us to Christ. When our Lord healed
this man, He did it in a very instructive manner. He did not
immediately heal him of his physical malady. He had palsy. I don't know exactly what the
disease of palsy was. It's quoted several times in
Scripture, but usually it means that a person has become impotent. He's impotent. He can't do anything.
He needs to be carried about. He needs to be carried about.
But our Lord didn't heal him of his physical malady immediately. Our Lord did this for this man
and for very specific reasons. This is first seen in how our
Lord refers to him. Our Lord calls him my son. My
son. this might be just a kind way
of speaking except for what our Lord told his son. He said, my
son, thy sins be forgiven thee. Christ did not say to everyone
he healed, thy sins be forgiven thee. He didn't say that to everyone
of them. Many times he said, thy faith
has made thee whole. There were some who came to him
but were healed and never even came back. Thank them. Never
showed up again. Some he healed and never even
returned. Who says my son? The everlasting father. Who's that? For unto us a child
is born. and unto us a son is given, and
his name shall be called Wonderful Counsel of the Mighty God, the
Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." Who is Jesus Christ? He's Father, He's Son, He's Spirit. For in Him dwelleth the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. I saw a little argument on Facebook
the other day where a fellow says, we pray to the Father,
we don't pray to Jesus. know God from a goose because
if he knew if he prayed to Jesus he'd be praying to the Father.
We pray in the name of Jesus unto the Father but we're praying
to Christ. He's the God we know. He's the God we know. In Him
dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead in a body, in a body,
a human frame. This Son is addressed by the
everlasting father. This is the son that was given
to him before the world began in the eternal covenant of electing
grace. This is a son adopted and spiritually
born into the family by the word of God. Secondly, the Lord said
what he said to this man because there were those in this room
that despised him and thought him to be nothing more than the
carpenter's son. It's just a carpenter's son.
saying what he said he knew that the scribes and the pharisees
were always working and standing by on the periphery which suddenly
perked their ears and it did my son thy sins be forgiven thee
what a stir that must have made in the pharisees heart they immediately
began to reason in their heart that's one of the things pretty
much screws up most of our lives, this reasoning stuff. Especially when it comes to the
Word of God, don't try to use your reason. Approach it in faith
and believe what you read, because it's the truth. The reasonings
are unspoken thoughts running around in their corrupt craniums.
In their minds they accuse our Lord of blasphemy." They didn't
say this out loud. They said, what's going on in
their brain? This is blasphemy. This is blasphemy. Who can forgive sins but God? Maybe they didn't speak out because
they were outnumbered in that crowd that day. I don't know,
but they didn't speak out. But it was going on in their
head, and they were foolish enough to think that nobody knew it
but them. In their minds, they accused
our Lord of blasphemy, but He was but a man, and He had forgiven
sins, which is an afterreader that belongs only to God. While
they were thinking, their thoughts were being broadcast into the
mind of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were being read like an
open book. Another astonishing thing this
day, another thing that we never saw in this fashion. Our Lord called them on their
thoughts. because men look at the outward appearance but God
looks on the heart. Whether they were truly indignant
about what Christ said is in doubt since the reason they were
there was to gather some ammunition against him. Their thoughts were
ordained to the Lord because their accusation turns out to
be one of those instances of the gospel according to the enemies
of Christ. There was a whole gospel according
to the enemies of Christ inscription. and said he hath Beelzebub. He
does. He has Beelzebub and all his
angels and they are all ministering spirits, ministering to those
that shall be their salvation. He saved others, he cannot save
himself, you see. That's right. Either the substitute dies or
those for whom he dies do. he saved us he can't save him
no he can't because he's dying in the room instead of his people
the enemies of Christ spoke of Christ what they didn't realize
in their hatred for him they were actually honoring him and
glorifying him and it's right here they said in their mind
who but God can forgive sin They had conjectured that no one but
God could forgive sin, and they were absolutely right. God had
forgiven sin that day. Our Lord used this teaching moment. He confronts them with their
thoughts and their hearts and asks them a question that they
could only really have one answer. They had heard Him say, Thy sins
be forgiven thee, but they had not seen Him heal this man. Our
Lord shows them that He is God because forgiveness and healing
requires what? Divine power. Only God can heal. Only God can
forgive. So He puts the situation back
concerning their thoughts. In verse 8 it says, Immediately
when Jesus perceived in His Spirit that they so reasoned within
themselves he said unto them why reason ye these things in
your heart? whether it is easier to say to
the sick of the palsy thy sins be forgiven thee or to say arise
take up thy bed and walk which do you think is easier? nor do you think that the power
to do these things is different as to its soul son of man he said the son of
man hath power on earth verse ten but ye may know that the
son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins he saith that
the sick of the palsy arise take up thy bed so you'll know that
I have power to forgive sins I'm God I'm going to show you
that I have power to forgive sins. I'm going to tell this
man who it took four men to bring him to this thing and hang him
down through the roof, this man who can't walk, this man who's
impotent, I'm going to say to this man, you'll understand that
I have power to forgive sins because I say to this man, get
up off that bed. Arise and take that bed roll
and throw it on your shoulder and get on out of here. And that's
what he did. Son of Man. That's often a term
in the Old Testament used to refer to the Messiah and how
our Lord referred to His humanity when the Word was made flesh,
the Son of Man. The term on the earth refers
to our Lord's earthly ministry that will culminate in His substitutionary
sacrifice that will put away sin. The Son of Man came to earth
to forgive sin. That's why He came to seek and
save that which was lost. we who know him and know by the
word of God that our sins are forgiven never cease to marvel
at that because we know what we are and to know knowing what
we are in our hearts and our minds and our weakness and our
frailty and our darkness to know that God has said, my
son, thy sins are forgiven thee. How many of them? All of them.
It's one of those generic terms, thy sins. Which ones? All of
them. Thy sins. So to prove that he's God, he
said to the impotent man, arise, take up thy bed, and go thy way
into thy house. And there was no rehabilitation
period. you have to go to rehab said he immediately walked right out of that place as the formerly sick man walked
out whole the crowd erupted in praise amazed they glorified
God why not he was right in the midst of them and what he had
done they glorified God the God who healed this man and forgave
his sins that's who they glorified we never saw it on this page
today we've seen period over 45 years preaching
the gospel I've seen some astounding number preach the message one
time up in Michigan first John 3 made the state for preach the
message you get you get you'll be okay if you get finished preaching woman church
pastor I get it I get it Jesus Christ He has power on earth to heal, and power on earth to forgive
sins, and He has forgiven the sins of His people. There is
no sweeter thing than the knowledge of that, if you know what you
are. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name, Amen.