Scripture reading tonight is going to come from Isaiah chapter 43 and Mark 2, 1 through 12. I'm going to ask you to stand for the reading of the word. In Isaiah 43, you're gonna start at verse 14, and you might be aware that there's lots of parallels between Mark's gospel and the book of Isaiah. There's a drawing on the suffering servant of Isaiah, and there's three reasons why I chose this passage. There's a mention of the Holy One, the Redeemer, and maybe you'll remember in the gospel of Mark where the demon cries out, are you the Holy One of God? There's also two other instances why this text connects And that's the pardon of sin in the middle of conflict with Israel's leaders. And we're gonna see that in the scribes, forgiveness and conflict. I'm gonna read this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, for your sake I will send to Babylon and bring them all down as fugitives. the Chaldeans who rejoice in their ships, I am the Lord, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King. Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea and a path through the mighty waters, who brings forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power, they shall lie down together, they shall and not rise. They are extinguished. They are quenched like a wick. Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth. Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The beast of the field will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I have formed for myself. They shall declare my praise. But you have not called upon me, O Jacob, and you have been weary of me, O Israel. You have not brought me the sheep for your burnt offerings, nor have you honored me with your sacrifices. I have not caused you to serve with grain offerings, nor wearied you with incense. You have brought me no sweet cane with money, nor have you satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins. You have wearied me with your iniquities. I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. Put me in remembrance. Let us contend together. State your case, that you may be acquitted. Your first father sinned, and your mediators have transgressed against me. Therefore, I will profane the princes of the sanctuary. I will give Jacob to the curse and Israel to reproaches. I'm turning over to Mark chapter two. I'm gonna read verses one through 12. And again, he entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that he was in the house. Immediately, many gathered together so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And he preached the word to them. Then they came to him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. And when they could no longer come near him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where he was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven you. And some of the scribes who were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, why does this man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sin but God alone? But immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, he said to them, why do you reason about these things in your hearts? Which is easier to say. to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven you, or to say, arise, take your bed and walk. But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. He said to the paralytic, I say to you, arise, take up your bed and go to your house. Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, we never saw anything like this. Well, I imagine it's been some time since you were in a large crowd of people. Maybe you have a concert or a stadium or some gathering. It's been a while, hasn't it? And we might have forgotten the tremendous energy, excitement, anticipation that can fill a large crowd of people. There is a certain type of energy that fills a congregation when there is a wedding. If you would just imagine at the back doors that they swing open and there's the bride and there's this energy when we all look upon her. The part that's fun is watching the first connection of the husband and the bride. You want to look and make sure you can see that moment where they see each other. It's also pretty exciting when the pastor pronounces them man and wife, and then there's the kiss. And the party's also pretty fun too, the first dance, the wine, just the enjoyment in the crowd. It's a great energy. Well, there's another type of energy, if you would imagine a street fight. The first punch thrown, the knuckles hitting the jaw. There's this collective, it just happened. All right, a very different type of energy, but still an energy in the cloud. And if we look to, crowd, as we look to nature, there's energy, tremendous energy before lightning strikes. I don't know if you've ever heard of a phenomenon called St. Elmo's fire, but it's reported by ship captains and even hikers. Right before lightning strikes, the air is really charged and metal objects or sharp pointy objects will give off this sort of blue plasma. It's not lightning, it's burning off the extra charge. And then people report that there's a hiss and a crackle. and then a tremendous strike, okay? Now, why do I bring up the energy in a crowd at a wedding, the energy in a crowd in the first punch in a street fight, and then the bolt of lightning? Because that helps us understand our text. All three of these things will happen in a tiny room. There is the love of Jesus Christ in pursuing his bride, forgiving a man's sins and healing him, It's also the first of five encounters with the scribes. It's gonna happen in the blink of an eye. And then there's that lightning strike moment where the man gets up, okay? All three of those things are gonna help us understand the movement of our text. Again, the kiss of a wedding ceremony, the first punch thrown, and the jarring lightning strike. We're gonna see the love of Christ. the conflict and the war that he wages, and his tremendous power to heal. The central event of our text is the miraculous healing of the paralytic. And we might ask ourselves, what's a miracle? What would you tell your son or daughter, maybe they're nine or 10, and they ask, Dad, what's a miracle? Well, it's a supernatural event where God has intervened. and it's plain because it's not the normal order, it's not the normal way that things get done in nature. Why does Jesus use miracles? Well, the gospel writers constantly are linking the working of miracles to authenticate the message of Jesus Christ. Well, what happens when we link all of the miracles together? What's the grand message that Jesus is bringing? The grand message that gets authenticated by the miracles is that the kingdom has been inaugurated, that we've entered into a new age, a messianic age, that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all scriptures. Do you remember when John the Baptist is languishing in prison? And he's like, this is not the way that I was thinking the kingdom of God was gonna go. And he asks the disciples to ask Jesus a question. Are you the one, or should we look for another? You remember what Jesus, how he responded? He says, go tell John the things that you have seen and heard, that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. Our text has two of those authenticating signs. We're gonna have a lame man rise, and we're gonna have the gospel preached in a poor village. Now, previous passage, we have another sign. Man's cured of leprosy. A really short compass. We have the authenticating signs that the kingdom of God is drawing near in Jesus Christ. Well, there's one more facet for us to look at and that's the connection between miracles in the New Testament and signs and wonders in the Old Testament. We start pulling on some strings and we realize that there's a connection between Moses and Christ. The greatest concentration of miracles is one in the Exodus and then again in the New Exodus. Right? So it's a mistake to just study the miracles by themselves. We have to see what's the result. Where are they leading? Well, the signs and wonders that Moses performed initiated a launch sequence, this unstoppable process where the power of God was going to deliver and destroy, and nobody could do anything to stop it. And we should see that in the miracles of Christ as we take them at a whole, the sequence has begun. There's another countdown to a new age. It's not gonna be stopped by the scribes. They're gonna play a part. They're gonna help accomplish the plan of God in giving us the death of God. They're gonna fall right into his trap. There's gonna be the blood of the lamb. It's needed in both. And Christ is gonna fulfill all scriptures. There's gonna be a new Red Sea crossing, right? So the new exodus is not freedom from bondage to Egypt, but it's freedom from bondage to sin. So Isaiah is also interested in announcing this new exodus. But when am I free from my suffering? When am I free from death? There's another exodus. there's another cosmic crossing, and that's the one where not everyone makes it. The wicked will be no more. And so we're in this incredible pattern where God is dealing with our enemies, first breaking the power of sin, but we're still in this world. And then he will break in the final day of judgment our suffering and death, and he will deliver. Something wonderful has begun in the ministry of Christ and nothing can stop it. The unstoppable power of God gives us this confidence. It was over before it began. It's sure, it's certain, it's going to happen. Now we're going to come back to a miracle and we're going to look at it in isolation. So I said we don't want to make the mistake of only studying miracles in isolation because we missed the point that they are authenticating the launch sequence of the exodus and the new exodus. But we are going to come back and look at a miracle in isolation. And it might feel to you like rereading a chapter of C.S. Lewis. or re-watching a Lord of the Rings movie. You already know how it goes, but we're going to dive back into a good book and study it some more, and see what we can see about the person of Jesus Christ, and pursue him, and love him. So we're going to have, sort of, pretend like you don't know how this is going to end, so that we can really enjoy where we're about to go. Again, what I said that in our text, we're going to look at the love of God, we're going to look at the wisdom of God. Don't you love it how He always outdoes the scribes and the Pharisees. They are chasing and trapping and pushing. And he just has this divine wisdom where he knows what they're thinking. And he can always get out of anything that they bring at him. But he also uses them to accomplish his purpose. He's a master. And then we're gonna see the lightning strike, this incredible powerful moment where a man who can't walk gets up at the voice of his power. The central event in our text is the healing of the paralytic, but here's the central message of our text. Jesus forgives sin. That's what the miracle authenticates. We're gonna look at the text into three headings. First, the response of faith in verses one through five, then the response of the scribes, and lastly, the continued revelation of the Son of God in verses eight through 12. Let's look at verse one. Mark begins, and again, he entered Copernicum after some days. And a crowd gathers, and so we might ask the question, what happened the last time he was here? Why is everybody running? What's brought the scribes to the table? What is motivating four men to rip off a roof? Well, we can look back in Mark chapter one, verse 21, and just trace the events that are happening. Jesus is in the synagogue and he's teaching. And the people are astonished at his teaching. And the message is that he doesn't teach like the scribes. He teaches with power and authority. And then there's that unclean spirit that cries out from the back or the front, we don't know where he was sitting. And the demon cries out, I know who you are, the Holy One of God. And Jesus silences the demon. There's astonishing reality that Jesus has power over the demons. Well, immediately after that event, they go to Peter's mother-in-law's house, and she's sick. And Jesus heals her, takes her by the hand, gets her up, and the proof of her being healed is that she's immediately able to serve again. And so here is this man who silenced the demon, cast him out, and healed the sick, and the crowds come running. They crowd around the door, and you know what he does? He does it all over again. He heals people of many diseases, and he casts out those with demons. Next morning, Jesus gets up, and he goes away to pray, and Peter's looking for him, and he's a little bit frustrated. Like, we've got a great thing going on. Like, let's ride this wave. but Jesus has withdrawn, and he refocuses Peter and says, I've come to preach, right? So we're gonna go into other towns and preach the gospel, and it refocuses the disciples on what Jesus is here for. Well, in our text, when it says, after some days, that time period allowed Jesus to go to other villages and to preach. Now, you might remember the healing of the leper, and when the leper is healed, He's told not to tell anybody, but he tells everybody. And now Jesus can't travel freely and they're coming to him in the wilderness. His fame is spreading. It's difficult for him to travel. He's becoming famous. Well, that's where we pick up. Jesus is re-entering Copernicum and probably coming back into that same house, a home base. Now this town was about 20 miles away from Nazareth where Jesus grew up, had better access to the Sea of Galilee. and a phenomenal crowd is gathering. The house can't contain the visitors. There's standing room only and men are flying like doves to the window. There's this impenetrable thicket of people surrounding the door you can't pass. Nobody is waiting for Jesus to show up and to teach in the synagogue. They're just coming straight away, right? What do you think the atmosphere is like in that room? It's pretty electric, right? Where you see the king, there you see the court, and Jesus is holding court, bestowing his favors, challenging his adversaries, and showing his mighty power. Well, that atmosphere Must have been supercharged waiting for an electrical storm to strike, waiting for the explosive power of Jesus. They know what he can do. What's he gonna do this time? There's an unbelievable display of love that will be shown. The crowds are crushing in. And in a room of standing room only, the scribes are sitting there, right? This is where the two presences are introduced to us. You have the crowds, you have Jesus, and you have the scribes. Now the people might have thought that they were in luck. Here are the scribes. We're at a Ligonier conference. This is great, we've got Jesus and all of our leaders. But this is gonna be the place where Christ gives the first strike on the pawns of Satan. He's gonna break the power of a corrupted religion, You see, Satan couldn't stop him in the wilderness, and the demons are defenseless, and so now this has turned into a proxy war. It's a war to wake the people up. Are they gonna be awake? Are they gonna join Jesus on this new exodus? Not everyone's gonna make it. Some are gonna die in the Egypt of bondage to sin, and never realize what Jesus Christ was offering. Well, what's Jesus do once the crowd gathers? He preached the word to them. He fed them. He preached the gospel. He preached that the kingdom of God was drawn near. We have an overview of the content in Mark 1.14. And this is the message that Jesus was preaching. Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. He's preaching the inauguration of the new messianic age. He's preaching the necessity of faith and repentance. He's preaching what he'd been declaring all throughout Galilee. And for those that have eyes to see, he is preaching that the nearness of the kingdom of God is actually drawing near to them in the person of Jesus Christ. There's already been more than enough evidence to prove that this is the divine one, the holy one. But while he's preaching, he gets interrupted. The roof falls in. at least part of it, part big enough to lower a man, a grown man, on a bed. Let me read verses three and four. And they came to him bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men, and when they could not come near him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where he was. So when he had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. So the roof in those days were wooden beams and they were filled in with mud and brush. And they get up there and they dig it out. They unroof the roof. And they don't stop until that hole is big enough to lower a man down. This man is in a miserable condition. He's lost the power to function. His arms and his legs don't move when his brain tells them to. Now, these four men, believed that if they could just get the paralytic to Jesus, they wouldn't have to carry him home. They had no expectation of that. They were buying a one-way ticket. This wasn't a return trip. We just are gonna get you there and that's gonna be sufficient. And so we see in their faith, they're not gonna be denied. They're creative, they are fervent, they're persistent. All we have to do is get this one to Jesus. They refuse to give up. They put action to their faith as James tells us. They're creative and they're sacrificial. Someone's gonna have to pay for the roof, right? It's gonna take some time, some labor, some money, and all of a sudden this act of love is sacrificial. It's gonna be expensive. So we see the faith of these four friends as persistent, and fervent, and creative, and motivated by sacrificial love. And we can make an application here. If we're gonna bring the world to Christ, it's gonna require this. It's gonna require our love, our persistency, our fervency, our belief that all that we need to do is bring men unto Jesus Christ. Now, the men were seeking an audience with the king in his court. It just happened to be in a house. And where is the king's court held now? It's in heaven. And so if we're gonna drag men before Jesus, we're gonna do it with intercessory prayer. That's what we're gonna do. And it's gonna have some real world costs. It's gonna be costly, it's gonna require sacrifice. My family, particularly my father, was profoundly impacted by Francis Schaeffer. In the 70s, Schaeffer let the broken drug-addicted world into his house. And when they came in, they came in with their addictions. And they came in with their drugs, and they came in with their relapses. And you think back to that analogy of the wedding, isn't it so great to get all those wedding gifts from your friends, all those precious mementos? Well, guess what? Cigarette burns in the sheets. cleaning vomit up off the rugs. They let their wedding presents be wiped out because they believed that Jesus was the only answer, and they needed to get men near the gospel to preach to him. Well, how does Jesus respond? This is the hiss and the crackle before the lightning strikes. This is the part where we have the first punch thrown, and he's gonna engage the scribes. Let me read verse five. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven you. Here the kingdom of heaven is drawn near. The king has made a royal declaration and in this proclamation, he has also provided for the forgiveness of sins. He has the authority to do it. He has the right and the power to heal body and soul. He just canceled this man's debt. Imagine if someone paid off your house and your car and your school loans. It would be exhilarating. And here Jesus is doing more than that. He's paying off a debt that would land a man in debtor's prison unto God in hell forever. And he is totally set free. He's gonna undo the disease, but first he's gonna deal with a soul-choking sin. He's gonna dispel the darkness, but he's going to embrace this man with a language of adoption. Listen to the language. Son, your sins are forgiven you. And here we see the Godhead operating through the God-man, Jesus Christ. And here the Father is receiving. And the Father responds to our prayers and our faith, and He responded to the faith of these four men and the paralytic. Now, Christ is the great physician, and you know how dangerous it is when your doctor only takes care of your symptoms and never actually deals with the root cause? You can actually be very, very endangered because you think everything's fine. but you're dying and you don't know it because you have your symptoms taken away. Here's what Jesus does, the great physician. He's not gonna just alleviate the symptoms. He's gonna deal with the actual cause. Science has not been able to take away our suffering, our sickness, or our death. And Jesus is gonna deal with this man's sin. He's gonna reconcile him to God. It's the root cause of all sin, all suffering. have the symptoms taken care of but not be reconciled to God would be to escape one disaster and fall prey to another. And this is a lesson on how we ought to arrange our prayers, right? Lord God, deal with my sin. So often we can pray about those things that disturb us, maybe our circumstances. What about the thing that disturbs God? It's our life of sin that disturbs God, and we should pray that God would deal with our sin. Certainly pray for our nation, we pray for our circumstances to change, but the first thing to pray for is, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Make me new, make me whole. Well, now we're going to enter into the response of the scribes, the response of the faith. They've come because of the prior ministry of Jesus, and here we're gonna see the response of the scribes. Mark 2 is gonna be the first of five encounters with the scribes. And by the time we get to chapter three, they're ready to kill him. They're already plotting to put him to death. And in our text, you're gonna see the scribes reason in their hearts. They don't say anything directly to Jesus. In the passages that follow, those other events, they start asking the disciples questions. And then they become bold enough to ask Jesus questions. And so we're really on the very first event of dealing with the scribes. Jesus stepped forward to display his great love, but he's also stepped into an arena at the very same time. He has come to break the stranglehold of a corrupted religion. He has come to combat bondage with freedom. He's coming to deal with their legalism, and he's combating it with his love. They had law-bearing traditions, and Jesus is coming to give a right view of the law. Now, the scribes know if they can't stop him, that they're gonna lose their power. They're gonna lose their prestige. The elites are panicking, we could say. You know, John's ministry sent tremors through the elite class. That ministry was in the wilderness. It didn't come out of Jerusalem. They had no control over it. They debate forgiveness, and here's Jesus who actually forgives men and heals them. The people are already saying that he teaches with authority, not like the scribes. You know how that stung them? Jesus is emerging as a new center around which Israel would be organized. There's new lines being drawn, a new power center. The crowds are flocking, and there's a sting of jealousy that even now is pricking their hearts. You might just ask a critical question. There were many miracles that happened. Why does Mark include this particular miracle? Well, he includes it because it offended the scribes. It was designed to do so. Because the scribes are offended at Christ's claim, he claims to have power to forgive sins. He's gonna use an Old Testament allusion to the Son of Man, and he's gonna claim authority for himself. If Jesus wins, I lose. And we can contrast the scribes with the four men. The scribes are sitting, and the four men are active. The four men have love, and the scribes have indifference. The four men in the paralytic are exercising their faith, And we're gonna see the scribes being critical. Now the great irony of our text is that the paralytic can't turn the pages of his Bible, can't unroll the scroll. And here is a class of people that copy and recopy the scriptures, and they count the spaces in the letters to ensure accuracy, and they can't reach out with the hands of faith and take hold of Christ. And the man that can't move his hands can reach out in faith and grab a hold of Jesus. We're gonna find that they're gonna be poisoned by venomous malice and that they're eager to slander Jesus. It's gonna drive them to the wicked conclusion that what Jesus is doing is blasphemy. Now blasphemy is irreverent, profane, impious speech about God. Leviticus 24 required the death penalty. Death was always the plan. So the enemies of God will work the plan of God for him. and then the pit that they dug will be the hole that they fall into after God has accomplished his purposes. Luke's account tells us, in addition, that scribes and Pharisees had come from every town in Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. This just isn't a local synagogue gathering. This is a fact-fighting party from the Sanhedrin. This is Israel's Supreme Court. And one of their jobs is to deal with false prophets. But the true prophet of God will give them an unanswerable argument. in his claim to be able to forgive sins, and then the proof of the demonstration of power. Jesus knows why they are here, and he's gonna give them something to pin on him. He meets them on their own turf, and he calculates an outrageous statement that's designed to trap them with the implications of his healing. And guess what? They're gonna take the bait. Let's see how they respond. And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, why does this man speak blasphemies like this? Why is this man, is a pejorative sense, who is this guy? Why is this one saying this? Now this why is not the why of wonder, it's the why of indignation. And here's what they are asking themselves and thinking to themselves. Who can forgive sin but God alone? And so what we wanna say about the scribes is they've got correct doctrine. Only God can forgive sin, but they are not applying that doctrine. Yes, only God can forgive sin, that's true. It is false that Christ cannot forgive sin, for he is also God. By the statement of Christ, he's either God, a madman, or evil. You know what they're ultimately gonna conclude? that he's evil, that the power he is undeniably manifesting is because it's from Satan. They're gonna blaspheme the Holy Spirit as they accuse Jesus of blasphemy. Now you'll know that this is the first and last charge against Christ and it's the one that he dies for. And so now let's look at the revelation of the Son of God in verses eight and nine. But immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, he said to them, why do you reason about these things in your hearts? Which is easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven you, or to say arise, take your bed and walk? Point blank, Jesus asked them about the thoughts in their head. Can you imagine how unnerving that would be? Don't you think that would be proof of divinity? How did they get past that? Christ has immediate full knowledge of their thoughts. He not only knew their thoughts, he knew the thoughts as they were in process. So here's an analogy. Someone can read your emails, but that's not what Jesus is doing. He's watching them type their emails. He's watching them backspace, edit, make corrections, and keep going. He not only knows their thoughts, he knows the direction, he knows where they're going. He's watching them process. He's watching them reach towards the conclusion of blasphemy. Revelation 2.23, all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart and I know to give each one according to his works. Now let's go back to the paralytic for just a moment. Jesus forgave his sins because he knew them all. He knew every single sin in the mind of the paralytic. He knew all the particulars. And that's why it's not absurd for Jesus to forgive sins he doesn't have knowledge about. He has knowledge of all of our sins. And he's willing to pardon those things that no one else knows. He is offering pardon even now in the gospel. Well, Jesus has been preaching that the kingdom of God has drawn near and they're dead to it. When he interrupts their internal dialogue, they still don't get it. You see, they're not warmed by the presence of Jesus Christ, they're hardened to it. Israel's enemy is no longer a foreign king. It's not unbelieving Pharaoh. Israel's enemy is now Israel. It's like beating the communists and waking up one day and your communists are your leaders. They're on the inside, they've infiltrated. What is Jesus gonna do? Jesus meets them again, boldly on their terms, and he asks a riddling question. And this question is a setup. Jesus is preparing for a physical miracle to validate a spiritual miracle. And he's gonna give this as evidence to a bewildered people that are asking themselves, what's going on? And here's the connection they're about to make. God is like one of us and he's standing right here. This is an unasked sign of divine power and Jesus backs the scribes into it. Which is easier to say is really a question of authority. He's gonna again prove the invisible by giving them visible proof. Verse 10 and 11 here. But that you may know, this is the certainty, that you may know with certainty that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. He said to the paralytic, I say to you, arise, take up your bed and go to the house. So he uses the term son of man here. And the son of man can just mean the human one, but it can also be that divine figure referenced in Daniel 7. The one that comes to the ancient of days riding on the clouds, who is like Yahweh, but distinct. Scribes should have known this, copying this text. It's a fitting description because in the son of man, we know something of the destiny of Jesus, that he's gonna die. And the ambiguity is useful. The listeners have to answer the question, who is the son of man? Is he divine or is he just a man? The scribes are gonna decide he's just a common man. He's guilty of blasphemy. And when Jesus tells the paralytic to get up, all of a sudden this comes to a very quick head. Is this the moment where Jesus is shown to be a fraud? Is this where the scam is up? Is this where things can finally go back to normal? Man, aren't we all looking forward to that? But what if he gets up? Did that mean his sins were forgiven? Does this one have the ability to forgive sins? Is he God? Does he have the same power as God? Is that gonna lead us to the conclusion that something new has happened, some new factor in the equation? Well again, I said that these were from the Sanhedrin, they're here to deal with a false prophet, and Deuteronomy 18 tells you how to deal with a false prophet. With dealing with a false prophet, deciding if it's true or not, when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing doesn't happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously, you shall not be afraid of him. There's another principle in the chapter, the prophet that lies dies. Right, you see how critical this moment is? What happens? Lightning strikes and he gets up. Power goes out from Jesus, there's a lightning strike moment and the man gets up. Now it took an act of faith for the paralytic to move. He had to believe that what he could never do, he can now do by the command of God. And so one lesson that we would have is that God always enables with power, the things that we are asked to obey. And so we can no longer use the excuse of besetting sin. Well, I'm just powerless before it. Yes, you are. You can do nothing without Christ. But in him, you can do all things. God gives you the power. He enables you. And in this moment, the paralytic, we see the visible tides of God's grace. And underneath it is this deep undercurrent of the profound love of God. He goes home and he's carrying his bed. You know, he didn't need any therapy sessions. He didn't need any retraining for muscle coordination. 100% healed. He's got no guilt, no bitterness, no tension. And yes, he's gonna wither again and he's gonna die. But inside of him, he's got a well of life springing up to eternal life. You know what this miracle proves? This miracle proves that Jesus can forgive your sins. This is done without restitution and without sacrifice and that boggles the minds of the scribes. I thought we had to be in the temple for this pronouncement to happen. It all seems so easy, you just said it and it was done. And we'll understand that the cross of Jesus Christ clarifies this confusion for us. And the crowd is coming to their senses. They've been hit with this incredible explosion, and they're reeling at Jesus' powerful, effective work of bold authority, and they're realizing an entirely new thing is happening. God is like us, a man. Unprecedented power over disease, And demons, we knew that, but we've never seen the forgiveness of sins like this before. All are amazed, but we know that all don't have faith. The scornful, fault-finding scribes, they don't have a change of heart. They just can't deny what they've seen. They're not gonna accept it. And unbelief is working at the deadly result. Exodus 8 verse 19, the magician said to Pharaoh, this is the finger of God. But Pharaoh's heart was hard, and he would not listen just to the Lord had said. So Pharaoh's hard heart corresponds to the scribes and the Pharisees. The Exodus had delivered from the bondage of Egypt, but now Israel's new bondage to their own leaders, and they're all of a sudden in need of a new Exodus. God has spoken through this one and they're afraid. If this was a movie, this is where you cue the Exodus, New Exodus soundtrack. It's happening. God has spoken to them and they're afraid. Isaiah 43 comes into play, the passage that we read. I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake and remembers your sins no more. This verse, as you remember I had said, comes in Isaiah in a passage of confrontation with Israel's leaders. They've abandoned God. They're misleading the people. They have religious observances, but they've abandoned Yahweh. This is what it said in verses 27 and 28. Those I sent to teach you rebelled against me, so I disgraced the dignitaries of your temple. I consigned Jacob to destruction and Israel to scorn. Here the tables are turning, and Jesus is disgracing. the wicked scribes and Pharisees who are keeping the people in bondage. A new liberation is coming, and it's coming in the new exodus of Jesus Christ. Here's what they missed. No one can forgive sins except God, and this man forgives sins and authenticates that claim with a miracle. The conclusion is a radical one. God is bodily present with us in this man, Jesus Christ. So some lessons for us. Do you understand who the Son of Man, the Son of God, Jesus Christ is? And are you even now preparing to meet him in the skies when he comes? Are you assured that your sins are forgiven? It's fun to think about the assurance of faith issues that the paralytic would not have. I'm walking. I guess I'm forgiven. I'm still able to move. It still stands. With our sins, are we confessing them? Or are we strangled by them? Under the guilt of them, the oppressive guilt, besetting sins. The Almighty has power. He has power to give to us. And there's power even now in this room for freedom, for the new exodus of God. Maybe you don't think that you need a great physician. Well, the scribes didn't think that, and they didn't get anything. What will the master find you doing when he returns? Will you be busy about kingdom activity? Will you be fervent and persistent and creative and self-sacrificing to bring the world to Christ in love? You might think of the paralytic as a walking sermon, right? Everyone that sees him walking, he's got a story to tell. But over time, he might meet some people that only knew him as a healed man. Would he become tired of telling the story of what Jesus did for him? Didn't come up in conversation because it had to and now it's a choice. By the way, I couldn't move and now I can and Christ healed me and he also forgave all my sins. Did the story grow old with him? Now, if the paralytic is a walking sermon, Apostle Paul tells us that we are living epistles. So I want you to think about what Jesus has done for you personally, for your family, his providences, and just ask the question, are you tired of talking about it? Or is it fresh and new, and you need to talk about it, because something radical has broken in, and we're all going somewhere soon. May the peace of God, who is soon appearing, be with you all, in Jesus' name, amen.