In the providence of God, we now find ourselves in Mark's gospel, chapter two, we will be examining verses one through 12, in a few minutes. I've entitled my discourse to you "Jesus Power and Dominion." And we're going to see that manifested in many ways in the text before us. This is a magnificent text that speaks of Jesus, power and compassion, to forgive sin. And I'd like to think about that with you for a moment.

You know, our greatest burdens are because of sin, our sin, the sins of others. And our greatest need is forgiveness, right? We need that every moment of the day, and to capture the solemnity of those realities before we look at the text, I wanted to remind you of John Bunyan's testimony in this regard, and his allegory found in the dream, written in his great work, the Pilgrims Progress. Here's what he said. "As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I came to a place where there was a den. Inside I lay down to sleep, and as I slept, I had a dream. In my dream, I looked up and saw a man clothed and rags standing in a certain place with his face turned away from his home. He carried a book in his hand and a great burden on his back. As I watched, I saw him open the book and began to read. And as he read, he wept and trembled. Then not being able to contain himself any longer, he cried out in anguish, asking, 'What shall I do?' He speaks of living in a wilderness, which refers to a place of desperation, a place of desolation, a place of distress and drought, a place of hardship, temptation, and all we have to do is look around us and see that this is the wilderness in which we live.

He spoke of the world, this wilderness of this world, and we know biblically, that he's referring to the realm of Satan's rule in opposition to Christ. Second Corinthians four four tells us that Satan is the god of this world. First, John 5:19 tells us that "the whole world lies in the power of the evil one." And we're told in first John two verse 15, and following "Do not love this world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, but it's from the world." Bunyan spoke of being clothed in rags; he was aware of this. And of course, this is referring to the rags of our sinfulness, reminiscent of Jesus parable in Matthew 22.

You will recall that a man was invited by the king to attend his son's wedding. But he was rejected because he wore his own clothes rather than the clothes that were provided for him by the king himself. So Bunyan was very aware of his desperate need for the robes of righteousness. As we read in Romans 13:14, we need to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. He mentioned how his face was turned away from his home. The speaks of Luke's account in Luke 14:26 where Jesus says, "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple." In other words, our love and our devotion to Christ must be so strong that our love and devotion to everything else is in comparison, hatred. And we see here that he had carried a book in his hand. Of course, this refers to the Bible. The Holy Spirit uses his word to bring conviction. He was sent to the world to bring conviction of sin, righteousness and judgment. Second Timothy 3:16. We're familiar with that great text, that "all scripture is inspired by God, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." And then he makes the statement that he had this great burden on his back. You remember that burden on your back when you came to saving faith in Christ, that burden of sin that was weighing you down? That's what he's referring to. He was deeply aware of his own sin and God's judgment. Unlike the Pharisees that were publicly bragging about perceived righteousness. We read in Luke 18:13, that the tax collector, standing some distance away was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast saying, God be merciful to me the sinner.

And because of all this Bunyan says, "What shall I do?" And there he's using the language of the Philippian jailer. In Acts 16:30, who you will recall, fell before Paul and Silas, and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Bunyan goes on to say, well, still in this condition, he returned to his home not wanting his wife and children to perceive his distress. He restrained himself as long as he could. But he couldn't hide it for long, however, because his anguish only increased and finally, he bared his soul to his wife and children and began to talk to them. "Oh, my dear wife," he said, "and my children, the fruit of my body, I, your beloved friend have lost all peace because of a great burden, weighing heavily upon me. What's more, I have been informed that our city is most certainly going to be burned with fire from heaven. And unless some way of escape can be found by which we can be rescued all of us, you, my wife, and sweet children, as well as myself will come to a dreadful end in this terrible destruction. At this, his family was greatly perplexed. Not that they believe there was any truth in what he was saying, but they feared he was losing his sanity. Since nightfall was approaching, they quickly helped him to bed hoping that some sleep might settle his troubled mind, but the night was as disturbing to him as the day and instead of sleeping, he groaned and cried all night. When morning came, his family asked him how he felt. He said worse and worse. Once again, he began to tell them about his fears, but they were not receptive and their hearts began to harden. They also thought that perhaps they could drive the mental illness away by treating him harshly and rudely. Sometimes they ridiculed him. Sometimes they rebuked him, and sometimes they totally ignored him. Consequently, he began staying in his own room, pitying and praying for his family, and also grieving over his own misery. At times, however, he walked alone in the fields, sometimes reading and sometimes praying. He spent several days this way."

The story goes on to talk about how eventually, an evangelist came along and shared with him the good news of the gospel, and he tells the story of many things that happened to him. And finally, on his pilgrimage, he reaches the cross. And here's what he says. "Now I could see in my dream that the highway Christian was to travel on was protected on either side by a wall, and the wall was called salvation. Burdened, Christian began to run up the highway, but not without great difficulty because of the load he was carrying on his back. He ran this way until he came to a place on somewhat higher ground where there stood a cross. A little way down from there was an open grave. And I saw in my dream that just as Christian approached the cross, his burden came loose from his shoulders fell from his back and began to roll down until it tumbled into the open grave, to be seen no more. After this Christian was glad and light. He exclaimed with a joyful heart. Through his sorrows He has given me rest, and through His death, He has given me life. Then he stood still for a while to examine and ponder the cross, for it was very surprising to him that the side of the cross alone had brought him complete deliverance from his burden, so he continued to look and watch until springs of tears welled up in his eyes and came pouring down his cheeks. Then as he stood watching and weeping, three shining ones suddenly appeared and greeted him. 'Be at peace,' the first announced, 'Your sins are forgiven.' The second one, stripped off his tattered clothing and dressed him in bright new garments. After this, the third one set a mark upon his forehead and handed him a scroll with a seal on it. He directed Christian to study the scroll as he traveled, and to present it upon his arrival at the celestial gate. They then left Christian and he leapt for joy three times as he went on his way, singing." And then here's the poem that he wrote, "I came this far burdened with my sin, no, nothing could ease the grief I was in until I came here. What a place is this? Must here be the beginning of my bliss, must here the burden fall off my back, must here the chords that bound it to me crack? Oh blessed cross blessed grave, blessed rather be the man who there was put to shame for me."

Oh, what a glorious thing it is to be forgiven, right? And I'm sure we could all tell a similar story, a testimony. And what a magnificent truth it is to be suddenly clothed in the righteousness of Christ, to be sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise and to have God's name on our forehead, so to speak, showing possession and protection from God Himself. Now all of this is dramatically displayed in our text this morning. Let me read it to you. Mark chapter two beginning in verse one. "When Jesus had come back to Capernaum, several days afterward, it was heard that He was at home. And many were gathered together so that there was no longer room not even near the door. And He was speaking the word to them. And they came bringing to Him a paralytic, carried by four men. Being unable to get to Him because of the crowd. They removed the roof above Him. And when they had dug an opening, they let down the palette on which the paralytic was lying. And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven.' But some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts. 'Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone? Immediately Jesus aware in His spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves, said to them, 'Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts? Which is easier to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven' or to say, 'Get up and pick up your palate and walk'? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.' He said to the paralytic, 'I say to you get up, pick up your pallet and go home.' And he got up, and immediately picked up the pallet, and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God saying, 'We have never seen anything like this.'"

Here, beloved, we see as the Greeks would say, "Jesus Exousia", his authority, his dominion, his power over all things, not only could he heal the sick, but also he had the authority to forgive sin, because he reigns supreme over all of his dominion, all that he has created. And this is Mark's purpose in his gospel, to communicate these magnificent truths to every reader. So here we have another fascinating account that exalts our Savior and King, the Lord Jesus. And I've divided it into three categories to help us understand some of the dynamics here. And frankly, these are some of the dynamics that we see in evangelism when we try to present the truth of the gospel to other people, we're going to see, first of all, the gift of saving faith, secondly, the miracle of regenerating grace, and then finally, the tragedy of willful unbelief. And I hope to make this passage come alive for you, so that you can apply it to your life but also I want you to see some of the more modern parallels, especially regarding the willful unbelief. Because what you can see, if you look, are the same dynamics at play today as they were then; the actors are a little different. The strategies are a little different, but ultimately the goal is the same.

So let's look closely at the text. Verse one "When he had come back to Capernaum, several days afterward, it was heard that He was at home," probably with Peter and Andrew once again. Now you will recall in the previous verse and chapter one, verse 45, after he had healed the leper, remember that we read that he "could no longer publicly enter a city but stayed out and unpopulated areas, and they were coming to Him from everywhere." So a period of time has elapsed. Now we're not sure how much, probably weeks if not, maybe a few months. He's been out in the hinterlands now spreading the Good News of the Gospel, to try to avoid the crowds. And now he slips in secretly. But eventually, people find out that he's there. Verse two, "And many were gathered together so that there was no longer room, not even near the door. And He was speaking the word to them." As I pondered that, I naturally thought, I wonder what he said to them." He was speaking the word to them." Well, we have a little sample, and another passage, actually in several but let me just give you one. Later on in Mark chapter eight, beginning in verse 34, we read, "And Jesus summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, 'If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake, and the Gospels will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of Him, when He comes in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels.'" That's a little sample of what he would have been speaking about. Now, let's think about the crowd that had gathered there. Most of them were merely thrill seekers. Therefore, most of them were bored silly with all the things that he was saying. They had no interest in spiritual things, especially the Jews, because they were the sons of Abraham. They didn't need what Jesus was selling. Most people just wanted to see another miracle. I might add that most people who attend the typical evangelical church fall into these very categories. Some of you no doubt are that way; you're not here to hear the life changing truths of the gospel that you might grow in Christ. Most people aren't interested in those types of things, they come to church, because it's kind of the traditional things to do. Makes you feel a little spiritual. Some come because they're lonely and this is a place where they can meet friends. Some come because they want to be entertained, or they want to have some opportunities for their kids through the children's ministries. But they're not really here to worship Christ. They're not really here to immerse themselves in the word and be changed by it. Some come because they're looking for benevolence. They hope if they have some needs, they can get a free handout from the people with the church. And of course, then there are those who come for the right reasons. And I know the vast majority of you are here because you want to see Jesus. In fact, I have a plaque right here in front of me. That is, engraved in it says it says "We would see Jesus."

Now, I have to laugh. When I think about this. Imagine right now, if Jesus was traveling around Middle Tennessee, and he was healing people, and word gets out. Just imagine what that would be like. And then we announced that Jesus of Nazareth is going to speak be speaking at Calvary Bible Church today. Why you, we would have to have the National Guard brought in todirect traffic, there's no way that you would be able to come in here. Plus, you would have all ofthe mob violence. My goodness, you would have all of the leftists out there when giving their stuff and, and you know, because Jesus wasn't, you know, affirming their agenda. But most people would come because they would want to see those miracles or whatever. By the way, Jesus is here today, you realize that, and I might add that Jesus is still performing miracles. When you have the chromosomes of a mother and a father come together and create a child, that is a miracle of God. An even greater miracle is when a person who has absolutely lost and dead spiritually, suddenly is born again. That's the miracle of regeneration. So that's most of what was there at the door.

But there was also a hostile group in attendance. This was a group that stalked Jesus like a pack of hungry hyenas. They were called the Pharisees. These were the gatekeepers of religious Judaism. Think of it this way, this was the first century cancel culture. That's what they were all about. They had their own political agenda. By the way, Pharisee means "separated one", and there were about 6000 of them in the first century. They considered themselves to be the most spiritual. They were the elite amongst the people. They had all of the answers. But things haven't changed much have they? You have this in every culture in every country. And within the sect of the Pharisees were the scribes. They were basically the scholars. They were the lawyers to hold everybody according to the law. I was thinking about this, they were kindalike President Biden's newly created disinformation governance board, with the loonie Ministry of Truth czar Nina Jankowicz. Boy, you talk about the fox guarding the hen house. And so, I mean the same dynamics are at play here in the first century. So the Pharisees were the spiritually elite, you might say they were the woke of Judaism, they could see things that nobody else could see. And they were going to hold everybody accountable. And as we study them, we see that they were arrogant. They were condescending, greedy, corrupt hypocrites. They looked down on everyone, even their own Jewish kinsmen. And they especially hated the Gentiles, the tax collectors, and anyone else that they considered to be sinners. They hated anyone that got in their way of accomplishing their political agenda to maintain power and prestige and gain financial support. So they were the religiously correct, they were the fact checkers of the first century. And they saw Jesus as a threat to their agenda. So with all the crowds clamoring after Jesus, they saw that their power was beginning to wane. So they needed to do something. And their "something" was to somehow entrap and discredit Jesus, to get him to do or say something that violates either Jewish law or Roman law, or hopefully both, because they wanted to indict him for either blasphemy or treason and get rid of him, which they eventually did. Now, I would submit to you that Satan continues to use the same strategy today. You may not see it, I hope you will, after what I have to say but the same type of thing goes on today.

Satan hates Christ and all that belongs to him, and he wants to eradicate Christianity;authentic Biblical Christianity. And he will do this through legalizing unrighteousness and criminalizing righteousness and then prosecute those who refuse to obey their standards of law, his standard of law and morality. And this has been and still is the priority of what is called Cultural Marxism, that is so dominant in our culture today. I want you to see the parallels. I want you to connect the dots with what's happening today, and what Satan has done down through the years. We know that in the first century Satan attacked Christ and all those who belong to him through the elites of the first century, the same dynamics are at play today. Now, what's sad is most conservatives, many of which really don't know Christ, they focus on the material or the economic aspects and failures of socialism, Marxism, but they ignore the far greater, more nefarious goal of Marxism and that is to eradicate all religion through militant atheism. And gullible Christians of all political stripes, not just Democrats, Republicans as well. They fall for this, even the clergy and they are blissfully ignorant of Marx's goal of an atheist utopia. Karl Marx said "Religion is the opium of the people. Communism begins where atheism begins. Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality." Satan's up to the same type of thing. In Paul Kengor's classic work "The Devil and Karl Marx," he says, quote, "Marx envisioned a new morality without God. The path to Utopia was a classless, albeit godless society. The classless society, which would be a worker's paradise, would, said Marx, make its own history. It is a leap from slavery into freedom, from darkness into light. Belief in God stood in the way of the totalitarian desire to transform human nature. God was a competitor to communist control of the body, mind and spirit of man that Marx and Lenin wanted to redefine in their image." Now, it should be no surprise that Marx, who was thoroughly satanic, I mean to the core, wanted to fundamentally change human nature. I mean, naturally, Satan wants his own version of regeneration, right. He's the master counterfeiter. He wants to make a man a new creature in Satan. And that Americans cannot see the evils of Marxism invading our country, as well as many evangelicals, is a testimony to the satanic forces behind it. Now, the left's never-ending obsession with social justice and redeeming what they consider to be marginalized people groups, no matter how statistically almost irrelevant they are, I mean, less than 1% of the population are transgender, for example. Nevertheless, the fact that they move towards somehow freeing all of these people should be a testimony to the nefarious goal that they have in mind. I mean, we live in a society filled with victims these days, except for bible believing born again Christians.

Again, Kengor explains "The left's relentless search for victims," which is a baffling phenomenon if you stop and think about it, that can only be explained by Satan's use of cultural Marxism,  here's what he says. "In a crucial respect classical Marxism and cultural Marxism will always bear an essential, enduring commonality. One that explains a lot about today's modern left. Both classical Marxists and cultural Marxists see history as a series of struggles that divide the world into hostile and antagonistic groups of oppressors and the oppressed. Both seek out victim groups as the anointed group that will also serve as society's redeemer group. The victim group becomes the agent for emancipation and ushering in the new and better world. The Marxist must always then be on the search for the newest victim class, which in turn must always be made aware of its victimization. Its consciousness must be raised in classical Marxism, that was simple. The victim group was identified by class and economic realities. It was the proletariat. It was the factory worker. But in Cultural Marxism, this has not been so simple because the culture is always changing. The victim group is constantly being searched for a new by the cultural Marxist. The group one year might be women. The next year African Americans, the next year another group. Today there's a hard push by cultural Marxists to tap the LGBTQIA plus movement as the champion victim group. Lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders, queer persons, intersexual, asexual and on and on. Thus, a leading cultural Marxist like Angela Davis, could stand at the January 2017 Women's March in Washington DC, before a sea of oblivious girls wearing pink hats modeled after their genitalia and recite a litany of politically correct grievances. In her casting about for victim groups, the former communist block cheerleader hailed the transgender Chelsea Manning. She hailed trans women of color, our flora and fauna and intersectional feminism and denounced white male, hetero patriarchy, misogyny, Islamophobia, and capitalist exploitation. Victims, victims, victims. " End quote.

Well, my point with all of this is to get you to see how Satan is at work today and Satan is the master counterfeiter. Satan has his own standard of unrighteousness, shall we say? He has his own standard, his own law, and he will do it and he will punish anyone who will violate it. And hence, he would like, or hence he used the Pharisees in the same way. They had their own standards, and anybody that didn't follow what they said, were in trouble. Progressive, democratic cultural Marxists in the 21st century, is the same way. And they really have a pattern that they use. This is what the Pharisees did. This is what the cultural Marxists do today.

And I think we have this list that can go on the screen. First of all, they would criticize, criticize, criticize, criticize, I mean, think of critical race theory, manufactured outrage, an endless hunt for micro aggressions, and so forth. But then they would move from criticizing to propagandize, they would spread lies and misinformation. And we say this all the time in our culture, and then they would organize. That's what Barack Obama was, a community organizer, mobilize the disenfranchised groups to somehow promote their agenda, and then they would legislate, let's make laws that Christians absolutely cannot obey. I mean, can you get any more depraved than children being exposed to drag queens and then that's followed up with incarcerate and ultimately eradicate. Dear friends, we see this diabolical dynamic at play in the Pharisees in the first century, throughout Jesus ministry, until finally the masses said, "Crucify Him!"

Now back to the crowd. They're listening to Jesus, including these wicked Pharisees and scribes that are embedded with them. This is where the plot thickens, as they say. Verse three, "And they came bringing to Him a paralytic, carried by four men." Beloved, here we are going to see the magnificent spirit powered gift of number one, saving faith, the gift of saving faith. Now let's imagine the scene. This man was paralyzed, he was utterly incapable of moving on his own. Now, unlike the leper, whose appearance symbolizes the horror of sin, here we have a paralyzed man whose inability to move symbolizes man's utter helplessness, his utter inability to find recovery in himself. He is utterly dependent upon God to show him mercy. My what a picture of total depravity, right? Or as is often called, total inability. I want you to remember this, because all men are active haters of God as we read in Romans eight and verse seven, because all men are spiritually dead apart from Christ dead in their sins. Ephesians two one, because they cannot accept the truth they cannot even on understand it, as we read in First Corinthians 2:14, therefore man can do nothing to save himself. He is totally dependent upon God to accomplish His salvation as a gift of His sovereign grace. And we're going to see this play out here. Verse four, "Being unable to get Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him. And when they had dug and opening, they let down the palette on which the paralytic was lying."

By the way, this was plan B, Luke helps us understand that. In Luke 5:18, the same account we read "And some men were carrying on a bed, a man who was paralyzed, and they were trying to bring him in, and to set him down in front of Him." You know what it's like in a big crowd when everybody's fascinated with something, you can't get through. And that's what was going on here. Especially if there's four guys carrying a guy on a bed, you know, they're just not going to let you through. And it goes on to say, "But not finding a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher into the middle of the crowd." And I love this, "in front of Jesus." Isn't that great? They figured out, exactly, I mean, not behind, I mean, right in front of Jesus. My what a picture of people that love others enough to bring them to Christ. What a picture of that. Now houses in the first century, and frankly, a lot of them to this day in Israel had an open roof above the first floor, they had thatched roofs. They had mud and straw and different things, tiles on top of that. And that's what we read here. They went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd in front of Jesus. What an amazing scene. Imagine, Jesus is standing there speaking and all of a sudden there's stuff falling down. And he's probably talking and looking up and the people are, what in the world's going on and then all sudden, here comes this dude coming down on ropes. What an amazing scene, right in front of Jesus.  Verse five. I love this. It says, "And Jesus seeing their faith." Now let's stop there. Jesus saw their faith. I mean, how can he do that? Because He's God, because he's omniscient. He saw their faith. He knew that they wanted something far more glorious than physical healing. They wanted forgiveness. By the way, all of those men were saved, iIn that encounter. Jesus knew they were among the elect, part of his bridal church for whom he would die, he could see that, he could discern the sincere, as well as the insincere. Another way he can do that today, he can look in your heart right now. And he can see if you're sincere or if you're phony.

We see this by the way in John two beginning in verse 23, an example of this, it says, "Now when Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. But Jesus on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man. So he could see who was and who wasn't sincere. SoJesus sees their faith. Now we know that faith is a gift from God. Ephesians two eight and other passages. This is something that God gives; it is a, catch this now, little theology lesson, very important. Faith is a result of regeneration. Regeneration is just that, that giving of spiritual sight to the blind, it's raising the spiritual dead to spiritual life. It's that supernatural impartation of spiritual life to the spiritually dead, it means to be born again. Now, remember, the act of faith does not initiate the Spirit's work of regeneration, right? The act of faith does not initiate the Spirit's work of regeneration. The very opposite is true. It is the Spirit's work of regeneration that initiates the act of faith.

And this brings me to the second point in our little outline, that is the miracle of regenerating grace. Now, we won't take time to go there but let me remind you in John three eight with Jesus encounter with Nicodemus, he describes the great mystery of regeneration by comparing it to the wind that blows where it wishes. And the point is we may experience the effects of the wind. But those effects are not the wind itself. In the same way we can see the effects of regeneration. But those effects are not regeneration itself. Now, from a temporal perspective, if you want to try to split some theological hairs here, you could say that regeneration and saving faith occur simultaneously at the moment a person is born again, the moment they repent and believe in the gospel. But simultaneity does not rule out causality. One still causes the other. Let me give you an example of this from Scripture. In Second Corinthians 4:44. You recall where Paul illustrated this by comparing regeneration to the giving of spiritual sight to the spiritually blind eyes of a sinner. So that they can see the light of the glory of Christ. And of course, we can understand that can't we? As soon as blind eyes are opened, what happens? They instantly perceive light. However, seeing light didn't cause the eyes to be opened, right? His sight was the consequence of his eyes being opened. The same thing is true in regeneration. So what has been going on here, these men, by the power of the Spirit, had been convicted of their sin, somehow; in God's great love he's calling them to Himself. They have heard the truths of the gospel, they know who Jesus is. And then by the miracle of regeneration, he's opening their eyes now to see the light of the glory of Christ. And give them the gift of faith. And then, of course, the result of regeneration is sanctification. We're made a new creature in Christ, the old things passed away. And we begin that process of being conformed into the likeness of Christ. So Jesus knew these men were sheep of His pasture, I think of John 6:37, where Jesus says, "All that the Father gives Me will come to me." And obviously, he knows who the father has given to him. "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and he one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me that of all that He has given me, I lose nothing but raise it up on the last day." So this helpless man and his friends, had faith in Jesus to heal this man physically, and to heal them all spiritually.

Verse five, "And Jesus seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, "'Son, your sins are forgiven.'" By the way, the Greek construction here indicates that there were some specific sins that Jesus was very aware of. And obviously, this man was to, even though I came to faith as a nine-year-old boy, I can still remember being convicted over my sins. They weren't as grand and as horrible as they might have been had I lived without Christ for more years, right? But when we come to Christ, we're aware of our sin. And Christ is aware of them far more than we can even imagine. Because we see the snowflake on the proverbial tip of the iceberg. And that's all Jesus sees at all. So he says, "Your sins are forgiven." Jesus knew that they longed for forgiveness as well as healing. And instantly now this man is that was paralyzed both physically as well as spiritually received new life. This is the miracle of regeneration, isn't it? We're given a new nature. One day we're going to get the new body. I'm not paralyzed right now. But I as I get older, I feel things kind of moving in that direction. We all do. Your sins are forgiven. Yes, you are guilty. But you because of your faith, have been pardoned. Oh, what glorious words. Beloved, this is our greatest need, forgiveness of sins, it reminds me of that verse in the lyrics of David's hymn, It is well with my soul, my sin we sing, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought, My sin not in part, but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh my soul. Words of Pau'sl sermon to the men of Israel comes to mind. Acts 13:38, we read what he said, "Therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. And through him, everyone who believes is freed from all things from which you could not be freed through the law of Moses." In other words, you can't earn your way into the kingdom. And likewise, Paul said in Ephesians, one beginning of verse seven, "In Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished on us." Oh, dear friends, please hear this. Jesus forgives sin. He paid the penalty of our sins. He nailed them to the cross. You know, you can either trust Jesus to be your Savior, you can either trust Jesus to be the one who paid for your sins, or you can reject Him, and you can pay for your own sins in the eternal torments of hell.

Well, this was too much for the religious elites, the Pharisees could see their power slipping away. So it was time to, you guessed it, criticize propagandize, organize, legislate, incarcerate and eradicate. And so they set the whole thing into motion. And we're going to see this throughout Jesus’ ministry. And here we come to the tragedy of willful unbelief. Verse six, "But some of the scribes were sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, 'Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming who can forgive sins, but God alone?'" Well, you know what? That is true. And that was exactly Jesus’ point. That he was God. And to claim equality of God, of course, in Judaism, was the worst blasphemy of all. I must remind you and warn you that Jesus has the authority to forgive sin. So I think of what He said in Matthew 28:18, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth." And Jesus said in John chapter five, beginning in verse 22, "For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son."

Then he continues in verse 27, "He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth, those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds, to a resurrection of judgment." And we see various passages that describe the judgment where Jesus will stand as the Holy One who has been offended and who will pronounce that judgment. We see the great white throne judgment in Revelation 20, for example, verse 11, we read this, "Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it," referring to Jesus, "from whose presence earth and heaven fled away and no place was found for them." In other words, the unsaved will stand in open space, no place to hide before the Lord Jesus. "And I saw the dead, the great and the small standing before the throne and books were opened and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them, and they were judged every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."

Now back to our text. Jesus is now manifesting his deity in front of everyone. Verse eight, "Immediately Jesus aware in His spirit, that they were reasoning that way within themselves," in other words, he's reading their minds, He says to them, "'Why are you reasoning about these things in your heart?'" Again, this is proof that he's God because he's omniscient. But he says something very curious, "'Which is easier to say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven or to say, Get up and pick up your palate and walk?'" That's an interesting statement. Great question. I mean, both of these things are impossible for man to do. God alone can forgive sins. God alone could heal a paralytic. And of course, that's precisely what Jesus wanted them to see. He's basically saying, which is easier to irrefutably validate my claim to deity, to say "Your sins are forgiven," I mean, anybody can say that I mean, how you know if that's really going to happen, or to say, "get up?" Not only get up, pick up your pallet, not only get up and pick up your pallet, but walk. Oh, my, obviously the ladder is the most compelling. Could there be any greater way of demonstrating the veracity of Jesus claim to be God very God? Verse 10, "'But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.'" And I want to pause there for a second, it's very interesting that he used the phrase "Son of Man." He knew that they knew that that was a messianic title, out of Daniel 7:13. They would have been very familiar with that. So he says, "'But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.'" It's like he turns to the paralytic, looks at him and he says, I say to you get up, pick up your pallet, and go home. "And he got up, immediately picked up the pallet, and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and we're glorifying God saying, 'We have never seen anything like this.'" I mean, they were absolutely astounded. Luke tells us in Luke 5:26, that they were all struck with astonishment, "ekstasis," this is the theGreek term it can also be translated, to be put in a trance to be it to put it this way, it's takeyour breath away, speechless. They just couldn't believe it. But then that gives rise to a doxology inevitably. And that's why it says they were awestruck with astonishment and began glorifying God. And it says, "And they were filled with fear", "phobos" in the original language. It here in this context it speaks of just an all-consuming, reverential awe. They knew that they were in the presence of the Most High God. And it says that they were saying, we have seen remarkable things today. So they departed glorifying God, but not the Pharisees. Now think about what just happened here from the perspective of the scribes and Pharisees. They knew that Jesus had read their minds. They knew also that he claimed to forgive sins. But then they saw with their own eyes, that he healed a paralytic. So what does this prove? He's a fraud. He's a blasphemer. You see, dear friends to the unregenerate who are willfully unregenerate, who willfully refused to believe, two plus two is always five. Doesn't matter how you present it. This is a demonstration of willful unbelief. I mean, come on. The man was healed right in front of their eyes. Luke 5:25 says "Immediately he got up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home glorifying God." I mean, it's astounding. I mean, it would be a miracle of enough that suddenly he could move. But then he gets up. And then he picks up this bed that he's been walking on. He carries it out in front of everybody.

But we know that the Pharisees continued their campaign of terror against Jesus, despite the opposite. Beloved, please hear this. Truth never is considered when a political agenda is at stake. And Luke six, six later on, we read how Jesus healed a man whose right hand was withered. And here's what happened. "But the Pharisees themselves were filled with rage and disgust together what they might do to Jesus." Luke 11:15, "He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons." And then we read in that passage, how Jesus just absolutely raked him over the coals. He calls them "concealed tombs" and so forth. So they step up their attacks, verse 53, and following says, "When He left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to question him closely on many subjects." In other words, it's the mob following him, "plotting against Him", it says, "to catch Him in something He might say." Dear friends, how sad to see so many back then, as well as today, reject the person and the work of Christ. Maybe you don't reject him completely, but you live as if he makes no difference. You just live for yourself. Some of you young people spend your life on the silly little gadgets, living in a fool's paradise, allowing your mind to be poisoned by garbage. I want to ask you, what are you going to do with Jesus? A lot of you adults, just live out your life, trying to make a buck trying to have a good time watching a little television, being entertained. All of those things are nice and fine. But what are you doing with Jesus? Do you believe he is who he says he is? If you do, then you need to worship Him. You need to serve him and honor him in your life. And for those of you who know nothing of what I'm talking about, it's because you have never become fully convinced of the heinousness of your sin, and how offensive it is to a holy God. And until you come to that place by the power of the Spirit, you will never long for the forgiveness that only Christ can give. And I pray that today will be that day. Why isn't it wonderful that we serve a living Christ, who has the power and the authority and the dominion over all things? And that he has saved us by His grace? Oh, what a glorious Savior. Let's pray together. Father, thank You for these eternal truths that Speak to our hearts so clearly. And even though we continue to see how Satan uses the various aspects of political machinations and culture to somehow thwart your purposes and destroy your people, nevertheless, Lord, we are so thankful that you are ultimately sovereign over all things and that you are going to build your church come what may. And so for this reason, we rejoice in great boldness. And we pray that you will use us as instruments of righteousness. To bring the gospel to those who are in desperate need of healing, not just physically but spiritually. We thank you We give you praise in Jesus’ name. Amen.