We all are in need of God's forgiveness.
The Remnant Church
Forgiveness - Luke Neer
Well, good morning everybody, how are you guys this morning? I never get tired of that, never get tired of that. Well my name is Luke, I'm blessed enough to get to serve as one of the pastors here at the church, and I get the opportunity to speak with you guys this morning. So I hope you guys are ready, a little bit kind of serious, a little heavy. That last song we were just singing, it's so funny how God works, how He fits things together, because it's exactly the point of today, we don't have anything to bring. All we have is our junk, our baggage, we don't have anything to bring. We're not anybody special, we don't have some special gift to bring our Savior when we come to Him. All that junk that we bring to Him then requires forgiveness and grace and mercy. And that's what I want to talk to you guys about this morning, is how important that forgiveness is, and what it looks like, and how He did it for somebody in His word. So does anybody in here struggle with forgiveness? Do they struggle to forgive people? Yeah, me too. And isn't it funny that in our arrogance and pride, because we get hurt, we are really quick to forget that our sin caused so much that somebody had to die for us, was that terrible, was that awful, was that oppressive? But if somebody says the wrong thing to us or looks at us cross-eyed, we can get upset with them and then hold a grudge, right? And we forget just what our Savior did for us. But it goes beyond that, it's much more than that. Jesus knows the condition of our heart, He knows the condition of every single one of your hearts in here today, and He knew the condition of this guy's heart, and we'll get to Him. But forgiveness, nothing's more characteristic of Jesus than forgiveness. We're eager for vengeance, God's eager for forgiveness. In fact, we're never more like God than when we love our enemies and do good to those that harm us. That's when we prove that we're children of God. Forgiveness is man's greatest need and therefore God's greatest gift. In the gospel, the message of the gospel and the message of the church should be of forgiveness. That's what we should be looking at, that's what we should focus on. God will forgive your sin, you just have to bring that to Him. You have to come with repentance and faith. God will do that, but that requires us to come. So the message of the church, we don't want to get it skewed. The message of the church isn't about a good self-image, it's not about church membership, it's not about involvement with the community. It is about a message, plain and simple that you are a sinner in need of repentance. You need forgiven, that's the message of the church. Anybody that comes through the doors of a church is coming to what? Here's something that's going to change their life. You know it will change their life when you realize that you are a sinner in need of a Savior and you need forgiven, that will change your life. That needs to be the message of the church. That should be the overarching message of the church. Jesus did that and God's the only one that can do that. We can forgive people that do something to us, right? Brandon, if you say something mean to me and I say, "Man, I forgive you for saying that," right? "I forgive you, I can do that." I can't forgive the sin. Only God can forgive that sin. In Romans, chapter 4, verses 5 through 8, Paul says this, he says, "And to the one who does not work but believes in him, who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness." This is David also speaks of the blessings of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. God himself does this. He justifies the ungodly and it further says the faith of that ungodly person is counted as righteousness. So God justifies the ungodly on the basis of faith, right? We don't come without what faith. The Holy Spirit brings us, and when the Holy Spirit brings us, it brings us by faith to what repentance? We come by faith. I believe, God, that you are the only one that can do this. I realize the condition of my heart, how broke, bankrupt, and dead I am. And by faith, I believe that you can save me. He designed it and he followed up with that by doing what? He sent Jesus to pay that penalty for you and me so that I don't have to pay that. He says, "No, I'll send my son to take care of that for you. You also have to recognize your condition. You have to recognize where you are, where you sit." And when you recognize that and you come to that point, Jesus says, "Come to me and I'll do what? I'll forgive you, bring it and I'll forgive you." Jesus does not turn anyone away that comes by faith with repentance. Did you know that? Not a beautiful thing. And only God can do this. We can't do that. We don't have the ability to forgive somebody of their sins. We don't have the ability to cleanse somebody. Only God can do that. Only God's the person that can do that. All sins against God, it doesn't matter. All of it is against God. He's the only one that can be the judge and can execute what? That forgiveness. He's the only one. Nobody can forgive sin but God alone. That's why Jesus came because He has to pay the penalty for that sin. I read a stat. This is interesting. I read a stat that says 77% of all Americans believe that personal salvation is a result of good works. I'll say that again, 77%. That means 7 out of 10 people think they can get to heaven by being a good person or doing good things. You're in trouble if that's what you think. I'm not good enough. You're not good enough. 76% of evangelical surveyed believe that man is basically good. Paul says what? There's none good, no, not one. Even Jesus said that. He said, "Why do you call me good teacher? Why do you call me good? There's only one good that's God." Jesus said, "It's only me. It's only God." There's not a good person out there. That's why we need Jesus. If you want to cut to the chase and you want to cut the heart out of the church, just tell people they're all good and you'll cut the heart right out of the church because the message isn't, "Hey, you're a good person. It's okay. The message is you're a sinner and you need Jesus." We have to remember in this world there are people who think that they're going to make it based on themselves and that is not true. Seventy-seven percent, seven out of ten people. Jesus didn't believe that. That's why they killed him. "Hey, if you live by the law, you're good." Jesus says, "No." It's more than that. It has to be more than that. You can't do it on your own. The point of the law is to show us that we're sinful, to show us we fall short, to show us we can't do it. It's the whole point of the law. Luke's gospel, this is where we're going to be. Sorry, I know we'll be a Matthew. Luke's gospel. He talks about these different things. We have a tremendous amount of evidence already packed into this. Here's evidence already. In the first five chapters of Luke, the evidence that Jesus is God, that he's the Messiah, he's the Son of God, the Savior, the Redeemer of the world. And not only that, but we've seen his power over disease, his power over demons, his power over natural creation, and he's controlled, the fish, and the sea of Galilee. Already seen as power. You can go through the first five chapters of the book of Luke and you see his power already. Now we get into verse 17 in Luke chapter 5, I had you confused, Luke chapter 5. So I want to start, verse 17, we'll read through this whole passage here, but this is a story of the paralytic man. His buddies all tore the roof off and dropped him down in, but it goes way beyond the fact that he could walk. Jesus sees to the heart of this guy and he heals him not just physically, but he heals him spiritually as well. So starting in verse 17, read the whole passage here. So I'm reading from the ESV, by the way, it says, "On one of those days he was teaching Pharisees and teachers of the law who were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem and the power of the Lord was with him to heal. And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, but finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed, through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw their faith, he said, "Man, your sins are forgiven you." And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, "Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, "Why do you question in your hearts? Which is easier to say? Your sins are forgiven you or to say rise and walk. But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." He said to the man who was paralyzed, "I say do you rise, pick up your bed and go home." And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been laying on and went home glorifying God. An amazement sees them all and they glorify God and were filled with all, saying, "We have seen extraordinary things today." There's a lot happening in this passage. Jesus is healing, big crowds. We all know wherever Jesus went, crowds followed, right? The guy couldn't go anywhere. He's a superstar. He's doing healings, he's doing miracles, people are following. So first off, where he's at, there's this huge group of people. There's this guy that's paralyzed, can't walk. His four buddies are nice enough to bring him and they go, "We can't even get in." I wonder which one of the guys go, "I got a really good idea." Which one of them said that? And the other three, right? All of us have that group of friends. I know that I did, I used to. You got that group of friends, well the one guy goes, "I got a really bad idea." And the other guys go, "Okay, let's go. Sounds great. You just follow him, you know? Hey, let's take him up on the roof and we'll lower him down." And Jesus not only saw his need for his physical healing again, but he could see right through his heart. That's what makes this story so precious. So let's break this down real quick. Verse 17, verse 17, "On those days he was teaching the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and the power of the Lord was with him to heal. So the Pharisees and the scribes are already there. They'd all heard about him. Certainly everybody had heard his message. There's a big crowd there and the Pharisees and the religious leaders of the day, they were always trying to what? Catch him. How do we catch him? He's got to be doing something today. I think they stood around and went, "We heard he's going to be here today. Let's see if we can catch him again." Right? We'll catch him in something. He's surely going to mess up. All these people are here. There's a pretty good opportunity for us to catch him in something. So we have all of them there. We have the crowds, he's healing. This is a big spectacle. I couldn't imagine seeing the type of things that we would have seen in that day wherever Jesus went. Spectacle constantly. Let's keep going. Verse 18 and 19, 18 and 19 says, "Behold, some men were bringing on a bed, a man who was paralyzed and they were seeking to bring him and lay him before Jesus, but finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus." So in the middle of all this stuff that's going on, you've got these four guys that bring their buddy and they do what? They tear a hole in the roof and they drop him right down in. Well, that's kind of rude, isn't it? Jesus is kind of busy doing stuff. All right. Can you imagine being in there and all of a sudden the roof's being tore off? You know what the heck's going on here? Something I want you to notice about these four guys and also this paralytic is they didn't care what anybody thought. We need to get our buddy in here. We believe that this guy can heal him. We've heard good things. We want him in here to be healed. They didn't care what anybody thought. They didn't care what anybody was going to say. They didn't care if anybody thought they were crazy or rude or impatient. They didn't care about any of that. What did they care about? They cared about the fact that they had a friend in need and they what believed that this man could heal their friend. You see their belief, but also you can see what they don't care what anybody thinks. What if somebody came in here today and hopped up on the roof and started dropping somebody in here today? We don't freak out. What are you doing? These guys didn't care. They didn't have a single care in the world. The cool thing about this is the forgiveness occurs and the claim that Jesus makes comes really quick. As soon as they bring him in here, he makes that claim real quick. Let's keep going. Verse 20, verse 20 says, "And when he saw their faith, he said, 'Man, your sins are forgiven.'" Now, in Matthew, Mark, or Luke, there's no record that there is any kind of conversation. He didn't talk with these guys first. He didn't see what was going on, nothing. There's no conversation. What did he see? He said, "I see you. I see your faith," and he says, "What, your sins are forgiven." Now why would he say that? They didn't say anything about him being sinful. None of that even came up. They lowered him down on this cot, this stretcher, whatever this thing would have looked like. And all that would have been present to see is that this guy can't walk. He's got something wrong with his legs. You can't see somebody's heart condition. All the crowd can see is, "What, this guy can't walk." And these crazy dudes are lowering him down. Jesus saw right to the heart and knew exactly why he was there. And he says, "I see you. Nobody else sees you, but I see you." Not meaning they don't see you lowering you down, I see your heart, I see what you're doing. He cuts right to the chase. And what he saw was persistent, intense, relentless faith that literally dismantled the roof to prove it. Pretty embarrassing thing to do. None of us like walking into a room where there's a bunch of people, let alone tearing the roof off a house and dropping somebody in the middle of it, right? These guys didn't care. Their friend was in need and they brought him. They had faith that Jesus was going to do something and they would go to any length to make sure that their friend got in there. So the issue here doesn't seem to be about sin, right? It seems to be about the fact he's paralyzed. From the outside, we're going, "This doesn't look like he's got any problems with sin or any of that. He's just paralyzed, right? He's got a problem." The fact that he can't walk or can't move, well, he's here just to get healed, get his body right and then he's just going to go. And Jesus says, "No, you need more than that." And I know why you're here. So Jesus noted the faith of all of them, not just the four friends, but the man as well. Nobody will ever be forgiven without faith. This is a cool part. He will ever be forgiven without faith and nobody will ever be forgiven their sins without repentance. What happens when we come to Christ? If you're saved in here today, what happened? You came by faith with repentance. I have faith, Jesus, that you can forgive me of my sins, that you can heal my broken heart. You can wash away all of my transgressions. I believe that by faith. That's what this guy was doing by faith. But Jesus saw was not a man that had physical illness, but a man that had a heart that needed healed, who was seeking out forgiveness. We can't be forgiven by proxy, just because those four guys brought him in there. It's like, "Hey, my four buddies did this, right? Can you forgive me because of the faith of my friends?" No. Your friend can lead you to that place, but they can't save you. His friends brought him to this place. They didn't save him, did they? Jesus did the work. It wasn't the faith of his friends that brought his forgiveness. It was his own heart, and Jesus seeing his need. Jesus healed people who didn't have faith. Here's the crazy thing. This is going to blow your mind. Jesus healed people who didn't have faith. He healed some people who had a little bit of faith, and he healed other people who had a lot of faith. Here's the thing though. He never saved anybody who didn't have faith. Salvation's always been by faith and always with repentance. Jesus did a lot of healing for people, right? Jesus could heal somebody's physical ailment at any point in any time, right? But the people who were saved, that he saved spiritually, they weren't saved unless they had what? Faith. All throughout scripture, he does miracles, and he does healings, and he healed people who had none, people who had a little bit, people who had a lot. But he only saved the ones that had faith. So the indication here is that Jesus knew what this man needed, and it wasn't just a healing. It was the fact that he needed forgiveness of his sins and he needed his heart wash clean, not just his body healed. Jesus, we know, messenger from God, but the real cry of this guy's heart was not the physical need. The real cry of his heart was to be forgiven, and he knew God was a God of mercy, and his heart he wanted to be forgiven, and Jesus read his heart in that moment. Jesus can read your heart, he can read my heart. We can try and hide what we need, but Jesus knows, he knows exactly what we need. And we can even try and mask it. It doesn't matter. He still knows, he still sees. Maybe this guy had heard Jesus preach forgiveness because he did everywhere he went, he preached forgiveness, right? We know that. Jesus preached that all the time. He preached the good news to the poor, the prisoners, the blind, the oppressed. He did that all throughout his ministry, didn't he? We know that that's what Jesus did. He preached that men were sinners desperately needing forgiveness. When he preached that message in the synagogue, they tried to throw him off a cliff. Remember that? They didn't like that too well. They couldn't stand the idea that they would have to reassess themselves as sinners. The Pharisees did not like the idea that they would have to come to the conclusion that their heart was dirty. Jesus saw to this guy's heart and he goes, "Hey, you need more than this." The Pharisees, well, it's hard to save those guys because they can't see it. This man didn't have a problem with that. He knew his sin, he knew he needed mercy and forgiveness. And when the Lord looked at this man, he saw not a paralyzed guy. He didn't see a paralytic at all. He saw a sinner that needed saved. God was merciful and he forgave him because he knew what this man wanted. We can't do that without repentance. We can't have forgiveness without recognizing that. And I'll probably sound like a broken record, but we need to understand that. We need to understand what this means. He knew he couldn't earn salvation by works. He knew he didn't have any self-righteousness. Jesus could see right straight to his heart. He could see to his heart. We have to know, "God, we can't hide from you. You see my heart." If you're in here today and you don't know Jesus, he sees your heart. No matter how much you try and hide it, no matter how much you try and mask it, he knows your heart. He knows your condition. If you're here today, you're brought here today for a reason. Jesus had this set up before you even were born. He knew that you'd be here today. This was set up. Why? Why does he have you in here today? I don't know if this man believed about Jesus. I don't know if he believed all these things. He certainly believed that he was preaching forgiveness. He certainly believed that he could heal him. I don't know all the things this guy might have believed about him. All he knew is, "Hey, this guy can probably heal me. Take me here. I've heard stuff. Bring me here. I have faith that this guy can heal me." So Jesus in that moment on his own right, on his own authority, healed that guy. And he said, "I see you." He says, "When he saw their faith, man, your sins are forgiven." That fast. It can be that fast for you. It's that fast for anybody in the room who's a believer in Jesus Christ, it was that fast. God's able to forgive sin. He's the only one that can do it. And Jesus did it. And he was making the loudest statement possible when he did that for that guy. And in front of all those Pharisees, those religious leaders, and in front of everybody else that was there, is a pretty loud statement. People were there getting their physical ailments healed, and Jesus forgave this guy's sins and made his heart clean in front of everybody. God's the only one that can do that. He is the only one possible to do that. I can't do that. I can't do that, okay? Some guy in a box at a church can't forgive you for your sins. You can't go to somebody and say, "I need you to forgive me of this," and they can do that. Nobody can do that. Jesus is the only one that can do that. If somebody tells you different, they're a liar. We all, all fall short. The Bible tells us that. For all of sin, fall short of the glory of God. This guy was no different. Like I said, I can forgive my friend for doing something to me. I can say, "Hey, man, I forgive you, but I can't forgive the sin, right? Only God can do that." If you don't know that you're a sinner, you've made a serious error in your diagnosis. All of us are sinners, that's why we need Jesus. If you're in here today and you think, "Hey, I'm okay because I'm a good person," you are sadly mistaken. You are in trouble. But Jesus says, "Hey, you don't have to be." I can offer you the forgiveness. I can offer you something that only I can give you. Not anybody else. You can't earn it. You can't get there. You can't achieve it on your own. Everybody says, "I can do this for you." Seventy-six percent of evangelicals believe that man's basically good. Seventy-six percent. It's no wonder the churches are so busy entertaining people and making sure that they think that they're good instead of making sure that they know the condition of their heart. We should all praise God that we go to a church that teaches this because there are a lot of churches out there that don't and we need to pray for those churches. So, moving on, verse 21. Verse 21 says, "And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, 'Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but our God alone?'" So here's the confrontation. Here they come. They show up all the time and every time they show up they always seem to get into the mix, right? So here we go. Here's the confrontation. The scribes begin their reason. The brain starts spinning. Can you think about this? They know God. They know all about God and they go, "Wait a minute. Only God can do this. This guy is blasphemy. This isn't true. Who does this guy think he is? Only God can do this." He just declared a guilty guy innocent. He doesn't have the power to do that. You hear him chattering on their little group and talking real fast and freaking out. "We're going to lose the crowd. They're not going to follow us anymore." Their theology is right. Is God the only one that can save? Sure is. Is he the only one that can forgive? Sure is. Their theology was correct. They just didn't recognize that God was staying in front of them. So their minds are just going crazy and I'm sure Jesus is continuing to teach and speak while their minds are going like crazy because he can see their heart and read their mind anyways. And that statement that they made is correct. Only God can do this, but Jesus wasn't blaspheming was he? Because Jesus is who? He's God. What they were saying is who's this guy that can speak in this way, who can forgive sins? And frankly, they're standing around looking at each other going, "What are we going to do about this guy?" To them, he's just stacking on another layer. This is just another thing that we can get him with because he's blaspheming. This isn't true. Only God. Only God. Your theology is good. Your theology is great. This is the first time in Luke's gospel that they accused Jesus of being a blasphemer. This is the first time. So here you go. This is where you can stack. We get him. And as you go through the records of the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, right? We know this becomes their constant what? This is their argument. He's a blasphemer. Jesus is a blasphemer. He's a blasphemer. Every time he claimed to be God, he was blaspheming. These guys are chattering and going crazy and going nuts. He can't say this. He can't do this. He's ruining everything. He can't just go around forgiving people of their sins. Only God does that. They're incredibly upside down. I wish I could have been there to see him. I don't know about any of you guys. I would have loved him in there to see him. Just to see him just going like crazy. Ultimately, what he did, he did by the power of God, right? Not by Satan. They accused him of that. They had to have an explanation that was supernatural, so they attributed that to the works of Satan. They accused him of being a blasphemer. All these things, they stacked on about Jesus. They did it so long and so often that finally they get the whole population against him. They get the Romans to execute him and then they get rid of him. They couldn't see the Messiah right in front of him. The worst crime you could commit within the framework of Judaism was blasphemy because blasphemy was a direct assault on God. So as soon as Jesus said this, they went, we got him. Now Jesus knows exactly what they're thinking. He can see them. He knows claiming to be able to forgive sin is saying to a man that your sins are forgiven. You're now exonerated. You move from the category of guilt to innocent. You are washed clean. You have no more against you. That's what Jesus is saying here. Do you understand that? Do you grasp that concept for us? Do you realize that everything that we've done, we will do every single sin that we will commit or have committed is washed clean? Do you wrap your head around that? All of us, when we think about our life, can go, "Man, I've done some really bad things." My life's not over, so I'll probably do bad things again, right? But we look and we see that and we go, "Man, but that's all forgiven." Do you live out of that? Do you live like you're forgiven? Do you realize what Jesus did for you? Not only what He did for you, but what the cost was? Forgiveness is something I think a lot of times we can take really lightly because we can almost have a tendency sometimes to have an attitude where we go, "Well, I'll be forgiven." That's a dangerous attitude. Or we don't even necessarily sometimes think of the cost, how much it costs Jesus for us to be forgiven. What did it cost God? I want you to think about that. There's a lot of people in here who got kids, right? What did it cost God? It cost Him His Son for us to be forgiven. Forgiveness is something in our world that doesn't get taught in the church with a capital seeing the way it needs to be taught. "Hey, you're good. It's okay. You can get there. Do these good things. Just make sure you're a good person. Do the best you can. Be the best that you can, and you'll be fine." If we're not teaching repentance and forgiveness, then we have a big problem because we can't get there on our own. And forgiveness is something that we can't get back to God without. I can't stand before God without forgiveness. That's why I need Jesus. He's the one that makes me right. He's the one that makes me clean, not me. God is the judge. He's the one that tells us the only way that you can be forgiven is by me. Verse 21, again, the scribes and the Pharisees begin to question, saying, "Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" Remember that, right? God and God alone. Their theology was good. They just didn't realize who was in front of them. Verse 22, "When Jesus perceived their thoughts," right? See, he could already see what they were thinking, knew what they were thinking. He answered them and said, "Why do you question in your hearts?" He knew everything they were thinking. He knew exactly what they were thinking. And this one time, he knew the thoughts of their hearts, the Pharisees and the scribes. And they clearly didn't know who was standing in front of them. And he already knew what they were thinking. Anybody else here sometimes? Anybody else struggle multitasking? Now imagine, okay, and this is what I think about in Luke's brain. When you have two people trying to talk to you at the same time, it instantly causes anxiety. It doesn't. You have to be like, "Hey, you have to stop so this person can keep talking or vice versa," right? Now, can you imagine Jesus already can hear what these guys are saying. He already sees their hearts. He already sees that. And you hear God how he just takes all that nose, controls and understands all of that. We can't handle it if two people are talking to us at once. Jesus goes, "I already see these guys' hearts. I can see what's going on in their mind. I see what's going on in their heart. I can see this all." And I know what they're thinking. I know what they're saying, even if they don't say it. We can't hide from God. He knew everything that was going on. Mark 2.8 says, "Jesus knowing or aware in his spirit that they were reasoning that way with themselves." He knew exactly what their thoughts were and the implication is, "Why are you reasoning like that in your hearts?" That's what Jesus is saying. "Why are you reasoning like that in your hearts? Why are you thinking that?" Look what I just did and you can't see what I just did in front of you. Why are you guys thinking this way? What more would you need to see? I have the authority to forgive sin and it's been done and you don't even realize who's standing in front of you. So think for a second. God knows what people are thinking, so I'm going to hit you rapid fire here, scriptures. It's not up there. I just have it here. So follow me. You can write these down. I'll try and go a little slow. So 1 Samuel 16, 7, verse Samuel 16, 7 simply says, "The Lord looks on the heart." Can't hide, right? He sees it. 1 Kings 8, 39 says, "For you know the hearts of all men." 1 Chronicles 28, 9 says, "For the Lord searches all hearts and understands every intent of the thoughts." 9 17, 10 says, "I, the Lord, search the heart." Ezekiel 11, 5 says, "I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them." That's a scary one, isn't it? And Jesus knew all this because He was God. John 2, 25, it says, "He knew what was in the heart of man." John 6, 61 says, "He knew what was in the heart of man." Matthew 12, 14 says, "He knew what was in the heart of man." He knew exactly what those guys were thinking. He knew what the guy was thinking that got dropped down through the roof. He knew what the four guys were thinking that dropped him through the roof. He knew why he was there. He knew what the guy was asking. He knew what they were thinking, good and bad. And they were making a bad mistake, Pharisees. Verse 23. Yeah, just like that. Exactly, right? I'd cry too. They were making a terrible mistake. Verse 23 says, "Jesus says this to him. He says, 'Which is easier to say? Your sins are forgiven you or to say, 'Rise and walk.'" Jesus confronts him right away. Okay, "Which is easier to say? Your sins have been forgiven or to say, 'Rise and walk.'" See, that's a little provocative. It's not easier to do, but it's easier to say, okay? So the question, Jesus kind of gets the real issue. So the first thing I want you to think about is which one would be easier to do? He's asking the question of Pharisees, which would be easier? One's easy to say, one's easy to do. Because Jesus could go, "Well, I'll heal this guy and clearly he can get up and walk after I heal him, and that will be an easy way for you to see this," right? I can heal the body, right? But it's awfully hard, but it's hard to heal this whole, isn't it? Jesus says, "What's easier to do?" Well, if I do this, you'll see it, and then it'll be proven to you. If I say, "Your sins are forgiven and you're good to go," nobody can see that, right? Because only who sees the heart, God sees the heart. So he gives them that question, which is easier. Got to realize, well, for God, he can do anything. So the answer is, it's easier to say, "Your sins are forgiven." It's not easier to try and prove it to him. It's impossible to man and possible to God. That's not the question. The question is, is it easier to say, and that's easier. It's easier to say, "Your sins are forgiven." It's easy to say that because you can't see it, it happened. It's not visible. He didn't all of a sudden get up and permanent have a halo around him. He didn't get up and go, "Wow, I'm perfect now. I'm a perfect person." You can all see it now. Ask me a question. I'm perfect now. It's not possible. They can't see it. But if he heals his legs, right, and he gets up and walks, and everybody's going to go, "Oh, wow." Jesus is trying to continue, right? Continue here to answer the questions that's rolling around in their heads. Verse 24, "Keep rocking here. But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on Earth to forgive sins. He said to the man who has paralyzed, "I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home." Now remember, man can do neither. God can do both, okay? Man can do neither. God can do both. They don't believe he's God, Pharisees, right? And they believe that he's saying to that man, "Your sins are forgiven," which means he's, "Well, he's being a blasphemer because he's not God." And he's saying it doesn't prove that it happened, but if Jesus can heal the man, which only God can do, maybe they'll believe that his sins are forgiven, right? You know that the authority there, that the Son of Man has authority on Earth to forgive sins? I mean, he's got the authority. It's not easy to say to somebody, to say to somebody, "Rise, take up your bed and walk," because if they don't do it, you're in trouble. If they don't do it, you're in trouble. You immediately reveal that you're a fake. So I want you to think about this. God says, or Jesus says here, "Your sins are forgiven," and then he says, "Pick up your bed and go walk out of here." If I tell you that your sins are forgiven, and then I heal you and tell you to get up and walk out of here, are you going to believe me that I might have, might have healed that guy's heart? His sins might be forgiven, he'd be more apt to believe that, right? Because he was. He healed them physically. But if that guy doesn't get up and grab his bed and walk out of there automatically, you go, "Not fraud, caught you." So we couldn't have done the other thing too, right? Because he didn't do this. So we can't do the other thing. Jesus is the only one that can do that, right? And because that guy was healed, what, not only physically but spiritually, you'd have a hard time not believing that Jesus couldn't do that after you saw what you saw. Verse 25, "And immediately he did what? He rose up before them, picked up what he'd been laying on and went home glorifying God." He did exactly what Jesus told him to do and all of his bones were hardened perfectly. Now follow me through this, because this is really cool. So think about it. If you're paralyzed, your legs don't work or if they're broken, they don't work. Think about all the stuff that would be messed up in your legs that would not work. Think of all those things that are messed up. Now in the moment that it took Jesus to say rise, pick up your bed and go walk out of here, every single problem that was needed or that needed fixed was fixed. So think about the bones, think about the legaments, think about the joints, think about the blood flow, all of that stuff. I want you to think about that for a second. And then I want you to wrap your head around the fact that in the moment it took Jesus to say those words he was healed, he stood up, he grabbed his bed and he walked out of there. Nowhere here in Scripture it doesn't say, well he took about 10 minutes to regain his balance and kind of had to stretch out a little bit and kind of had to do some of these before he kind of took off or anything, right? No, it says he rose up, he picked up his bed and he took off. Now when you think about forgiveness, forgiveness isn't something that you have to earn. It isn't something that you have to chase. When Jesus said you're forgiven, what happens? Todd's talked about this before, right? You transfer from the domain of darkness into what, the kingdom of light, that quick. Think of all the things that have to be healed in your legs if you can't walk. And when Jesus forgives you of your sins and heals you and washes you clean in that instant, you are fixed. Now can you imagine this guy? Not only has he been what? He's been physically healed, but he's been spiritually healed as well. Now how exciting are you when he says, hey, rise up, pick up your bed and walk out of here? Not only do I get to walk out of here, physically fixed, but I'm walking out of here spiritually fixed, this guy came to get his legs fixed and Jesus said no, that's not why you're here. You're here because this is broken. And even if he wouldn't have healed his legs and he forgave his sins, guess what? This is still fixed and at some point he'd be perfect again, right? This forgave the heart and then fixed his body. The guy got to walk home. The best part wasn't that he was walking home. The best part that he was cleansed of his sin, that's the best part. That's the most important part of this whole story. Not that Jesus healed this guy with a physical ailment, but that he forgave him of his sins and he healed his sin. Your healed his heart. I don't know what that guy expected when he started out that day. "Hey man, I'm going to go see if this guy will do me a favor. I'd sure love it if I could walk again." He got way more than he thought he was going to get. It's said here, it was filled with praise. What did he do? It says immediately he rose up, picked up what he'd been laying on and went home doing what? Look at the end, glorifying God. He was glorifying God. He was filled with praise. He honored God and with thanks and joy and you can be sure by now he knew who Jesus was. There wasn't a question in his mind who Jesus was. I just met God and he healed me. The guy came laying in on a stretcher and he left walking home carrying that stretcher and the more important part of this is I'm confident that that guy not only walked home but he walked into heaven on the day that he died too. Think about that. Do you know Jesus today? Do you know how important forgiveness is? This guy is walking home forgiven and fixed. This is a guy we're going to see in heaven some day. I bet he's got a great story, how they get you down through there. Finally, I'll read verse 26, "An amazement sees them all and they glorified God and we're filled with all saying we have seen extraordinary things today." I don't think they were just talking about the fact that Jesus performed a miracle and fixed the guy's legs. I don't think that's the only thing they were talking about. This is the crowd. You got the man on one side who just been regenerated both physically and spiritually. You got the Pharisees on the other side who just plunged deeper into their resentment. Think about that. Now they're really mad at him. Now we've got to really work to get this guy out of here. You've got the group in the middle. You've got the crowd in the middle and you're always going to see that. Those people that are always there just for the show, I don't really necessarily want anything out of this. I'm just here to watch and see what happens. Maybe have a good story to tell my friends. You've got the group there in the middle. All the way through the story or the stories of Jesus, you go through the gospels and you're going to see the believers who are transformed. You'll see the angry hostile religious leaders who hate and escalate everything because they don't want Jesus there. Then you'll see the mass in the middle that mixed multitude divided between like the onlookers, the half-hearted disciples and then you've got the ones who are truly wanting to become disciples. You're going to have that mixed crowd always. We see that. They'd seen salvation, they'd seen forgiveness, they'd seen regeneration. All through here, through the gospels, we see the crowds like that shocked by his power. The power of his miracles, his healings. For some it was temporary, even superficial, but here's the cool thing. For some people it was the real thing. I'm asked Mandia if she'll come up. I want to ask you guys, where do you sit in the crowd? Is this the real thing for you? Do you sit in awe of Jesus and realize who he is and what he's done? Do you sit in the middle where you're just kind of that onlooker, where you're on the fence, where you're really not sure? I don't know. I've heard this stuff about Jesus. I've seen him do these kind of things, but I'm not real sure. Are you in that last group that you just resent him? Do you have some issues in your own life? Do you have things that you question God about? Are you angry with God that you sit in that resentment side? You say, "No, I'll be okay. God can't do this for me. I'm going to have to take care of it. I don't think that he can. Which group are you in today?" Not only that, but I want to ask you today, where are you at right now in your life that you need to go to God and say, "Hey, I need forgiveness here. Lord, I've been hiding. I know that you see my heart, but I've been trying to hide it from you. I don't know what that is. Do you have that going on in your life right now? Because God sees us. He knows us. You've got to be honest with ourselves. But notice something at the end of verse 26 here, it says, "They've seen extraordinary things that says amazement sees them. They were filled with awe. If you know Jesus today or even if you don't know Jesus today, I want you filled with awe in who Jesus is and what he can do in your life. He can make you right in an instant. All it takes is for you to come by faith and know where you sit and know that you are dead, poor, bankrupt, sinner in need of a Savior, and he won't turn you away. He'll answer you. God is mighty and powerful. God is active. God is present and he stood right there in the middle of that crowd and showed everybody who he was, but not only just healing that guy so he could walk out of there, but healing him and washing his sins away. He walked out of there knowing that not only was he healed physically but he was healed spiritually. So where are you today? That's what I want you to ask yourself. Where are you today? I've been explaining the gospel to you since we got started. This is the reason that we need forgiveness. God made everything perfect. He made it all perfect and you know what happened? We disobeyed and sin entered the world because we disobeyed. He said, "I have one rule. I'm God and you're not. Just listen to me. Follow me. Obey me." And we didn't and because of that sin entered the world and now we live in a world where sin runs rampant. All of us are guilty. None of us are without sin and the world for 2,000 years that we think of since Jesus came has had the opportunity to what? To be back right with God. Jesus came here and died on the cross for you and me. He bled. He died. He was beaten. He was spit on. He had his beard pulled. He was mocked. He did all of that for you because you're sinful and you can't fix it on your own. Jesus offers forgiveness. He offers a right relationship with God. The only way you can get back to God, the only way that we can come back to God is through Jesus Christ because what He did on the cross for you and me. You and me have to realize that that condition only can be fixed if we come by faith with a repentant heart saying, "I believe you're the only one that can fix me." You can't do enough. You can't chase enough things. You can't try and have enough stuff. You can't try and fix things with the things of the world because there's not enough. None of it will ever fix you. None of it will ever fix you. You'll never have enough money. You'll never have enough stuff. You'll never have enough people in your life. There's not enough that you can do to go, "Hey, I'm okay. I'll make it. I'll be all right. You can't." The only one that will fill that hole in your heart, that emptiness that you have in your heart right now, the only one that will fill that is Jesus Christ. And if you're in here today and you don't know Him, you know that hole you have in your heart. And so does he and he can fix that for you today. He can forgive you and he can say, "Come on in. My son, my daughter, I've been waiting for you." And in an instant, you're made right again. You're washed clean. God no longer sees you in the dirty rags of your sin. He sees you like he sees his son in that righteousness. He sees you bathed and clean and he sees you just like he sees Jesus. You can have that today. We're not promised tomorrow. You're not promised this afternoon. But one thing we are promised is all of us are going to stand before Jesus. And when we stand before Him, what is He going to say? Here's what I want you to think about today. And you stand before Him. What is He going to say? Is He going to say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant. Come on in." Or is He going to say, "Turn away from me, I never knew you." If you aren't sure today, make that sure. If you don't know, you've got an opportunity today. There's going to be people up here to pray with you, to pray for you. If you don't know Jesus, today is the day. And if you have sin in your life that you go, "God, I haven't brought this to you." There'll be people up here, come to the altar, pray, get down on your knees. Do whatever you need to do to ask God, say, "I need you to clean me today. I have this. I'm hanging on to this. This has been something that I haven't brought before anybody. This is something that I have. God sees your heart. He knows where you're at. He knows those things that you're trying to hide. He doesn't want you to do that because when you try and hide that from Him, all you're doing is furthering your relationship away from God. Come up here, know the Jesus of the Bible, know the Savior, but don't leave here today not knowing if you died today where you would go. Roman says, "If you confess with your lips and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is Lord and was raised from the dead, you'll be saved." It's that simple. If you don't know, again, there'll be people up here to pray with you, find anybody in the blue shirts. Some of us roll around the back. You don't have to be scared. You don't have to be worried. You don't have to be embarrassed. These four guys dropped a paralyzed guy through a roof and didn't care what anybody thought. That guy walked out of there forgiven of his sins and walked out of there clean and walked out of there with eternal life. Don't be embarrassed today. Don't be worried about what people think. Your eternity is not anybody else's concern but your own. Don't leave here today without knowing that. If you aren't sure, make yourself sure today. I would say, Todd says this all the time, "Don't leave here. Don't leave here without knowing." If you want to be changed, come be changed. If you leave here unchanged, that's your choice. Don't leave here unchanged today. (gentle music)