Friends, Faith and the Forgiveness of God, Part 1

Lord, we are once again thankful for this day. We are thankful, Lord, that you have brought us together. We are thankful, Lord, that you are sovereign and that in your sovereignty you have allowed us to to gather together on this Lord's Day to worship you and to praise your glorious name. And we do ask that today as we open your word we would see remarkable things. We would see what those people saw on that day in Capernaum some 2,000 years ago when you did a great and mighty work in the life of one man who was paralyzed.

When they saw remarkable things because they saw the Living God at work. May you open our eyes, Lord, that we might see those great things out of your law. We ask in Jesus' name, Amen. Turn with me in your Bible, if you would, to Luke chapter 5.

Luke chapter 5 and we continue receiving snapshots from Luke concerning events in the life of our Lord. And each snapshot shows us one more side of our God. One more aspect of why it is he does what he does. And he wants us to get a full picture of our Lord. And so the snapshot he gives us today is Luke chapter 5 verse number 17 and following. It goes as follows. And it came about one day that he was teaching and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem and the power of the Lord was present for him to perform healing.

And behold 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 the front of him. And not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof, let him down through the tiles with his stretcher right in the center in front of Jesus. And seeing their faith he said, friend your sins are forgiven you. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason saying who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?

But Jesus aware of their reasonings answered and said to them why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier to say your sins have been forgiven you or to say rise and walk? But in order that you may know the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins he said to the paralytic I say to you rise take up your stretcher and go home. And at once he rose up before them and took up what he had been lying on and went home glorifying God. And they were all seized with astonishment and began glorifying God.

And they were filled with fear saying we have seen remarkable things today. My prayer is that as we study this snapshot of our Lord that you would see remarkable things about him. It will take us a few weeks to get through this section because there is so much here. But I will let you know that the most important message, the greatest of all messages is in verse number 20. Friend your sins are forgiven you. That's the gospel. That's the good news. And every great preacher preaches that message. He preaches the message of forgiveness.

Because Christianity truly is the only religion that provides forgiveness. It's the only one. And with that forgiveness the assurance of eternal life. Without that there is no assurance, there is no eternal life, there is no forgiveness because only God can forgive man his sins. And every great preacher realizes that because only God can forgive sins that he must preach man's condition as well. He must be able to articulate what the Bible says concerning the condition of man so man then is able to realize that he needs cleansing from God.

Only a man who sees his condition as wretched, vile, and sinful before God will go to him and ask for cleansing. But our Lord is the one who forgives sins. The great gift of forgiveness is the greatest of all gifts. That some way somehow God would provide through his Son Jesus Christ atonement for your sins and mine. In order that we might be released from our sins. That we might be set free to serve the true and living God. Listen to what the Bible says over in Acts chapter 10 verse number 38.

Therefore let it be known to you brethren that through him that is Jesus forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. That's the message. Over in Ephesians chapter 1 verse number 7. In him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our trespasses. According to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight. Over in chapter 4 of Ephesians verse number 32 it says this. And be kind to one another tenderhearted forgiving each other just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

Forgiveness is that great message that we the people of God are to preach to a lost world. Outside of that we are to be tenderhearted we are to be forgiving even as God himself has forgiven us. I'm afraid that a lot of us don't understand forgiveness. If you have a bitter spirit this morning you don't understand forgiveness. If you have a brother that you are unwilling to forgive you don't understand the forgiveness of God. See those who truly grasp God's forgiveness humbly and willingly forgive others their sin.

They don't well up within themselves a bitter spirit towards those who have offended them. They forgive because they know they are unworthy of forgiveness yet God granted that freely to them. The Bible says this in Luke 24 verse number 46 thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem.

Jesus was concerned that his men that when they would go out to preach the gospel that they would preach a gospel that emphasized the condition of man and the cleansing of the son of man that man was a sinner and was in need of repentance and when he repented of his sin God would grant him forgiveness through his son because of his work on Calvary. When you are forgiven God becomes your friend. Friend he says your sins are forgiven you. Can you imagine God calling you his friend? The only way you can be a friend of God is if you've been forgiven if not you're his enemy.

James 4 tells us that if you're a friend of the world you're an enemy of God right? But if you're a friend of God you're an enemy of the world and so we realize that when God forgives us we now become his friends. Mark's account and Matthew's account says son your sins are forgiven you. When we become forgiven we are adopted in the family of God and we become sons of the living God. We become the friends of God. God when he forgives you is going to take you to heaven. When he forgives you he grants you eternal life.

When he forgives you he no longer is your judge. Why? Because judgment for you was passed at Calvary. Your sins were placed on Christ. He was judged by his Father in heaven as if you were being judged on that day. And he no longer now was your judge but he is your friend because you have received the forgiveness of God. Now we understand that message as Christians because that's the message we preach. We understand what the New Testament says about the forgiveness of God but you must realize to understand the story that in the Old Testament it was all about the forgiveness of God as well.

God by nature is a forgiving God. God by nature is a Savior. To save you he must forgive you of your sins. So way back in Exodus chapter 34 you have these words recorded in verse number 6 and 7. Then the Lord passed by in front of Moses and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving-kindness and truth, who keeps loving-kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. Moses needed to understand that God is a forgiving God that he forgives man his sin, his transgressions.

Nehemiah 9 verse number 17. But thou art a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in loving-kindness. How much and what is the extent of God's forgiveness? Psalm 103 verse number 12 says, As far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us. How far is the east from the west? It's infinite. And that's how God forgives us our sins. The Bible says over in Micah chapter 7 verse number 18, Who is a God like thee who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of his possession?

He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot. Yes, thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Our God is a forgiving God. Our God is the God who blots out our transgressions. Our God is the God who separates our sin from us as far as the east is from the west. He throws them in the depths of the sea never to remember them again. The Bible says over in Isaiah 55 verse number 7, Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the Lord and he will have compassion on him and to our God for he abundantly pardons.

He abundantly pardons. Isaiah chapter 38 verse number 17 says this, For thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. Psalm 45 I'm sorry Psalm 43 verse number 25 says I even I am the one who wipes out your transgressions for my own sake. Why does God forgive you your sin? For his glory. For his honor. God forgives you because it's all about him. We think it's about us. Oh have we been sold a bill of goods. Salvation is not about us. Salvation is about the glory of Almighty God. And God says I wipe out your transgressions.

I forgive your sins. I do it for my sake. I do it for me. So that my glory will be put on display. So people will see the kind of God I am. That I am kind. I am loving. I am abundant in mercy. I am a forgiving God who throws your transgressions behind my back. Who throws them in the depth of the sea. Who separates them as far as the east is from the west. See the Old Testament was very clear that God was forgiving God. So we come to Luke chapter 5 and what does Jesus say? Jesus says friend your sins are forgiven you.

Now wait a minute. How can Jesus forgive someone's sins? Because only God can forgive sins. Isaiah 45, 43, 25 as we just read. I and only I God says can forgive sins.

And Jesus says friend your sins are forgiven you. Well verse 21 the Pharisees said well wait a minute. There isn't anybody who can forgive sins but God alone. Well theologically they're right. They're right on target. Nobody can forgive sins except God. So either Jesus is God or Jesus is a blasphemer. There is no middle ground here. There's no gray area here. Either Jesus is God or he's not. If he's not he's a blasphemer and let's all just stone to the death right now and kill him because he's a blasphemer.

Or he truly is God in the flesh. So the Pharisees reason within themselves rightly. Now we have a first in the Gospel of Luke.

A first when it comes to a very direct and blunt statement that Christ gives concerning the forgiveness of sins.

We know that Christ is a preacher and a teacher. We have emphasized that throughout the Gospel because that's what he did. And everywhere he went he would preach about the forgiveness of God. He would preach about the poor, the blind, the oppressed, the downcast, the captive. And how he came with the good news to set them free. Well the good news is the news about the forgiveness that comes from God alone. But for the very first time we have recorded in the Gospel of Luke a very direct statement that Jesus says your sins are forgiven you.

Jesus claims to have the authority to forgive sins. We can't do that. Now we can forgive our brother if he sins against us. But we can't exonerate man from his sin and from his guilt. We can't do that. We have no authority. We have no power. But God can. God himself can do that. But we know that Jesus is God. Because we've been studying the Gospel of Luke. We know that the Gospel of Luke emphasized in Chapter 1 through the first three and a half chapters the identity of the Messiah.

He truly is God. And then we saw in the middle of Chapter 4 the ministry of the Messiah proving to us that he's God. Then we've seen the authority of the Messiah proving once again that he has authority over disease, over death, proving that he's God. Authority over demons. Only God has that authority. And now we come to another aspect of Jesus the Messiah that Luke wants us to see and that is the priority of the Messiah. The priority of the Messiah is to forgive man his sins. First John 3, 5 says that the Son of Man appeared in order to take away your sins.

That's why he came. First Timothy 1, 15, this is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

Luke 19, 10 the Son of Man, which is the key verse of the the book of Luke, came to seek and to save that which was lost. And so we understand that the priority of the Messiah proves to us once again that he's God. Because only God can forgive you of your sins. Nobody else can forgive you of your sins. And so we come to Luke chapter 5 and Jesus makes this statement, friend your sins are forgiven you. What an amazing statement. Look how the story begins. Verse number 17. And it came about one day.

You know Luke's a physician with precision but right here he's not really precise concerning the context of what's going on here. He's precise with what takes place in the story but you know he kind of wants to cut through all the rigmarole and get to brass tacks. But you got to read Matthew's account and Mark's account to understand what exactly is happening here. What one day is this? Well we know it happened in Mark chapter 2 at the beginning of the second chapter so we know that it happens early on in the ministry of Christ.

Because Mark gives us that piece of detail. Matthew's account, Matthew chapter 9, tells us that it happens after he returns from the land of the garrisons. That is, remember there was a man who was demon possessed and Christ came to the land of the Gadarenes and he landed there on the shore and as he came upon this man, or this man came upon him, remember he came running at Christ and he was kind of a wild man and in him was legion. There were a myriad of demons in this man and Christ would cast out the demons, send them into the swine, and of course the swine would run off the cliff into the sea.

Well Matthew's account tells us that it happens after he returns and it happens in the village of the city of Capernaum. So now we know the city, we know about the time it took place, we know the event that took place before it, but Luke skips all that and helps us understand that it was one day, one specific day, one unique day. Now we know that the religious establishment had already set in motion the drive to kill him. Because we know from John's gospel in John chapter 5 what took place at the pool of Bethesda in the city of Jerusalem.

That Christ had healed a man who had been sick for for 38 years. He healed him on the Sabbath. It says in verse number 17, my father was working until now and I myself am working. Verse 18, for this cause therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him because he not only was breaking the Sabbath but also was calling God his own father, making himself equal with God. So they had already pegged Jesus as a blasphemer and they had already set in motion the wheels that would lead to somehow entrapping him.

So they have begun to dog him. They have begun to set in motion the avenue by which they would entrap him and kill him. Because in their mind he was a blasphemer. Remember he'd already come to Jerusalem in John chapter 2 and overturned the money changing tables in the temple and already indicted them because they had made his father's house a den of thieves. He had already performed many many miracles and so there was a whole bunch of people following him. In fact we saw last week that there were so many people wanting to see him that he had to slip away by himself either early in the morning or late at night in order to spend time alone with his father because he was always around people or may I say people are always around him.

They always wanted to be with him. So no matter where he went there was a huge crowd of people. He had healed everybody who came to him and people were already angry with him. Remember back in Nazareth in Luke chapter 4 when he preached the gospel in his own hometown how infuriated with him they were, how enraged with him they were that they wanted to take him out of the synagogue and throw him off of a cliff and kill him because he told the Jewish people that they were poor, they were blind, they were imprisoned, and they were downtrodden and that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him and he came to preach the good news to the Jewish people and they hated him because of that because they didn't see themselves as poor, they saw themselves as rich.

They didn't see themselves as in prison, they saw themselves free. They didn't see themselves downtrodden, they saw themselves as happy. They were the people of God, they were the chosen nation. So they have already tried to kill him at least one time but he escaped to the crowd in a miraculous way because it wasn't his time to die. But here on this day in Luke chapter 5 we have those who seek to put him to death. His message was the direct opposite of Judaistic theology and they hated him because of it.

He confronted them on their sin. As popular as Jesus was, he truly was hated by man. That's why they killed him. As popular as he was, as great as he was, when he opened his mouth and preached the truth, people would stand in amazement as to what he said. But the implications caused them to be enraged with his message because it confronted their comfortable lifestyle. You know people like that? People who want to live a comfortable lifestyle, hear the word of God, they're not too happy are they? Not too excited about what they've heard because Christ would have to call them into account for their sin.

And he had to tell them that they were poor, blind, naked, oppressed, prisoners in need of a savior. And the only way to have the good news would be to repent of your sin. Well people love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. They love their sin, they don't want to repent of their sin. They don't want to turn from their sin. They want to relish in their sin. And it's kind of add God to their present lifestyle. Well Jesus never allowed that. Reminded them of a conversation my son Cade had with me the other day when he came into the house and said, hey dad, he came in with his Bible.

He had been sharing the Bible with the neighbors. He says, hey dad, if someone becomes a Christian, can they remain in their same religion too? In other words, he says dad, if, he says, because I'm talking to, the neighbor boy gave me his name, he says, I'm talking to him, he goes, he wants to know if he can still do his present religion and accept Jesus. I said, well what do you think? He says, I don't think so. I said, I think you're right. In fact, I know you're right. Because you see what God wants to do is transform your life.

You just can't add God to your existing religion. It just doesn't work. You see, Christ said, if any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. That's the gospel message. If any man come after me and hate not his father, mother, brother, sister, yea, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. So when you follow Christ, you turn your back on everyone else and everything else that's not following the same direction. Of course, Cade's like, how am I going to say all that, you know?

So I said, just go out and tell him no, if he gives his life to Christ, that's it. That's it. And so, you see, we tend to think that Jesus' message can just be added to my present lifestyle. It cannot. Jesus transforms your lifestyle because he's transformed your life. That's the gospel message. That's the power of the Word of God. That's the power of the Word of God. And here comes Jesus preaching this message. And the religious establishment, they hated him. All religion, listen, all religion hates Christianity.

There is no religion that loves Christianity. Because every religion is a system of works. Christianity is a system of grace. Every religion is based on my works. Christianity is based on God's work. Religion provides for you no forgiveness of sin, but Christianity provides for you the forgiveness and the release of your sins. Why? Because it's not a work. It's all by the grace of Almighty God bestowed upon man. It's his work that does that. And there's no man who can change his condition. There's no leopard who can change his spots.

Only God can change a man. And that was the message that Christ came to give. And so, Jesus offended people. He offended just about everybody he came in contact with. In fact, if he hadn't offended it by now, he will by the time he dies. Why? Because he preached the truth. If you don't want to live the truth and obey the truth, the truth message will offend you. The truth message will make you uncomfortable. The truth message will make you angry. The truth message will cause you to run away and not stay.

And that's why in John chapter 6, many disciples said these sayings are too hard for us. We're out of here. You ever met people like that? We've had a lot of them in our church. They've come and they've said, this is just too hard, I'm out of here. I'm gone. I don't want to hear that message. I don't want to be a part of that. And they run. Because it's the truth message. It's the gospel message. It is the only real message to preach. Because it's the only message that brings forgiveness of your sins.

And what can be more important than that? Forgiveness. And that Jesus would say, friend, your sins are forgiven you. Let me begin our outline.

That's all introductory material. By looking at the Pharisees. The Pharisees, the friends, and their faith. The Bible says, it came about one day that he was teaching.

That's all he did. That's what Jesus did. He taught. He was a teacher. Luke emphasizes that over and over and over again. He was a teacher. He was a preacher. Jesus came to preach and teach the truth. Why? Because faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. It doesn't come because of a miracle. It doesn't come because of a movie. It doesn't come because of a drama presentation. It comes because the Word of God is preached. That's why when you read the book of Acts, the apostles were preachers.

They weren't musicians. They were preachers. There's nothing wrong with being a musician. But faith doesn't come because someone played a note. It comes because the Word of God was preached and it was taught. So Luke, one more time, injects in there what Jesus was doing because this is what Jesus did. He came to preach and teach the truth. And so he sets in context for us the fact that Jesus, once again, is doing what he always does because he's a teacher. So he says, on one day he was teaching and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there.

Let's look at point number one, the Pharisees. Let's look at their presence and God's power. Their presence. Why were they there? They were there because the text tells us that they had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. Folks, this was a religious conference. This was where the Pharisees got together, some of the teachers of the law, verse number 21 calls them scribes, and they gathered together in this facility. Whether it was a house, we do not know. We know it was in some facility where Jesus was teaching and these Pharisees were there.

These teachers of the law were there. These scribes were there to hear what Jesus was saying. Why? Because they came to entrap him. They were looking for some bit of material that they could use against him to kill him. The Bible says they were sitting there.

We know where they were sitting. They were sitting in a prominent place because Matthew 23 says they always sought the most prominent position, the most prominent place because they loved to be seen by man. So I guarantee that they were sitting closest to Jesus. So everybody could see them there. They had this great obsession to be viewed by all. They wanted to be seen. They wanted others to look at them.

They wanted others to recognize them. They were into themselves. And they wanted to make sure that as they sat there everybody saw them. We know that from Matthew 23. So they were there. Now the word Pharisee means to separate. See from Hebrew which means to separate. So they were the separated ones. They were separate to the law, supposedly to God and supposedly to righteousness. I say supposedly because their separation did not lead them to God nor did it lead them to righteousness. They thought it did but it didn't.

They were the keepers of the law. They hated everything that violated their separation. The Pharisees were devout. They were devout to a system because their commitment was to the interpretation of the written law and the oral traditions. Their commitment was not to the Savior and to the Scriptures but to the system that interpreted the Scriptures and the Savior. You follow me? They were not devout to the Savior. They were devout to a system. It was a system of religion that they had developed because they were keepers of the law, protectors of the law.

They had all these different rituals, all these different rules that Matthew 23 says became a burden upon the people. They were so into keeping the law that they made all these rules to make sure people didn't stray from the law. The problem was they saw those rules as from God and that if you didn't obey their rules you'd never get to heaven. And that's why Christ said over in the book of Matthew chapter 15 that they substituted tradition for the commandments of God. It wasn't the text that was most important.

It was their tradition that was most important. And these Pharisees were there. Now listen carefully. Remember in Matthew 5 verse number 20 Christ says that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

That statement alone on the Sermon on the Mount, that Mount of Beatitudes sermon was an indictment against the religious system of Judaism. Because everybody saw the Pharisees as religious people. I mean not only did the Pharisees tell them they were religious but they made all these laws to help people understand what religion truly was all about. There were some 6,000 of them during the days of Christ. Now not all 6,000 were there in Capernaum on this day I don't imagine but there were quite a number of them there to hear the words of the Lord.

You see the problem with the Pharisees is this. They lived under a delusion. And that delusion was that what they did would get them to God. You know anybody like that? That delusion that says I am good enough to get to God if I do these things. If I keep these laws. They believed that if they kept their man made traditions it would make them right with God. That is a damning delusion. But there are a lot of people in religion today that had that same delusion. These Pharisees. The Bible says that teachers of the law were also there.

Those are the scribes. They were the Ph.D. people in theology. They were the ones who were the theologians. They were the elite ones and they were along because they would be able to judge whether or not what Jesus said was really in the Old Testament or not and if he interpreted it correctly as if Jesus needed his own words to be interpreted. But they were there because they were the protectors of the law of God. So this was a high level conference. You got the Pharisees. You got the teachers of the law.

And you have scores of other people. How many of them are around we do not know in this house. But they were there in this house. And the Bible says this.

Not only the presence of the Pharisees but the power that God possessed. It says this. The power of the Lord was present for him to perform healing. Remember Jesus in the incarnation as Philippians 2 describes that great kenosis, that great self-emptying. He was there. Why? Because in the incarnation is the highest aspect of his humiliation where he set aside his divine attributes, submitted himself to the will of the Father, to the power of the Spirit of God. That is why when you read Luke chapter 3 verse number 22, Luke 4, 1, Luke 4, 14 and Luke 4, 18 it all speaks about how the power of the Spirit was upon him.

How he worked under the power of the Spirit because it was God's Spirit that energized him and empowered him. And so Luke wants us to know one more time about the power of the Spirit of God upon him to do the works of healing. The reason he healed is because of the power of the Spirit of God. So when the Pharisees committed that unpardonable sin by attributing the works of Christ to Satan he said that they blasphemed the Spirit of God. He didn't say you blasphemed me but you blasphemed the Spirit of God because it was the Spirit of God that did all the work.

But the presence of the Spirit of God and the power was upon him. Let's use the point number two and that is the friends.

Everybody needs to have a friend like this guy had. And everybody needs to be the kind of friend that this guy had. The and behold, remember last time about the leper, and behold there was a man full of leprosy. Luke says stand amazed. Wait till you see what's going to happen next. Behold some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed. Two things I want you to notice.

Their purpose in coming and their persistence in coming. Mark tells us that there were four men. Four men carrying this pallet or carrying this stretcher like this bed that this paralyzed man was on. Now we don't know why he was paralyzed. We don't know whether or not he had stroke. We don't know if he had MS. We don't know if he had a spinal cord injury. We don't know if he had a birth defect that he was paralyzed from birth. We don't know. The Bible doesn't tell us. All we know is that the guy cannot move.

He can't move his body. Can't move his legs. Can't move his arms. Can't move anything. He's on a stretcher. But he has four friends. Four friends who want to bring him to Jesus. And he's on a stretcher. He's on a stretcher. So I want you to notice their purpose.

It was to get him to Jesus. Every true friend, listen carefully, always seeks to bring you to Jesus. You have a friend that doesn't have your relationship with Jesus as the highest emphasis of your relationship. They are not your best of friend. Your best friend has one purpose, and that is to bring you closer to Jesus. Oh, by the way, parents, parents, if you say your children are your friends, you have one purpose for your children. That's to bring them to Jesus. If you're here today as a parent and don't have that purpose, you have a problem.

Didn't mean to alliterate that, but it just came out that way. As a parent, that's not your purpose. You have a problem. You will have a problem in your family, and you'll have a problem in your relationship. These men were the friends of this man who was paralyzed, and they had one purpose. That was to get him to Jesus because they knew who Jesus was. They believed that he was sent from God. They knew that he could heal their friend. They had the faith to believe that Jesus was the only one who could do for their friend what no one else could do because their friend was ostracized.

Their friend had a stigma. That stigma was well-versed in John chapter 9 when it talks about the man born blind, and the disciples asked Jesus, who sinned, this man or his parents? Remember that? Because the popular opinion was that if you have something that you were born with, it was because you had sinned or your parents sinned, or if you have this disease and you can't move, it's because you sinned against God. That is the normal thought process of the Jewish nation. You were this way because you sinned.

This man was ostracized. He was all by himself, and his friends were going to make sure he got to Jesus because they truly loved this man. They were his friends. So I want you to notice their persistence.

Listen to what it says. They were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of him, and not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and led him down to the tiles with his stretcher right in the center in front of Jesus. Now their persistence is this, that no one was going to let them in. There was no handicap access in this house. There was no way to get him in. You can imagine these guys coming, excuse me, excuse me, we need to see Jesus. See Jesus?

I'm too busy seeing Jesus. I'm not moving out. I'm not going to give you my spot. I'm not moving out of the way. Plus the guy was paralyzed. He must have committed some sin. He doesn't need to be here anyway. What's he doing here? So you can imagine them going around trying to get in through windows, through doors, excuse me, we'd like to see Jesus, excuse me, no one is going to let him in. So somebody had this great idea. They're not going to let us in through the window. They're not going to let us in through the door.

Then we've got to find a way to get in. The only way to get in is through the roof. Mark's account says that they unroofed the roof. Can you imagine this? So these guys crawl up into the house with this guy who's paralyzed and they begin to rip off the tiles and rip off everything that's there. And you can imagine what has taken place as Jesus is sitting there. He's teaching all these people and all of a sudden stuff begins to fall from the ceiling. And everybody begins to look out. You've got mud, you've got grass, you've got tiles.

It's just a pitiful thing. And everybody's thinking what is going on? Now imagine the owner of the house. Can you imagine somebody coming to your house and beginning to rip off your roof? He must not have been too happy. But the faith of these men, listen, was costly, courageous, and creative. They believed that Jesus could do what nobody else could do and they were bound and determined to get to Jesus no matter how much it cost them. So they unroofed the roof. Now this man was desperate. These men were desperate.

It shows us their passion, their drive, their desire. This man had friends that would do for him whatever it would take to get him to Jesus. That, my friend, is a true friend. Whatever it takes to get him to Jesus, we're getting him there. I don't care what it costs us. We've got to pay for the roof? We'll pay for the roof. We're getting him to Jesus. This is their persistence. Now can you imagine? Imagine this. You're sitting there. The room was filled with people. It is so crowded. You can't get through the door.

You can't get through the windows. You can't get in there. How big this house was, we don't know. But you couldn't get in. And I'm sure there were people outside standing, listening to what Jesus was saying. But as soon as the roof began to be unroofed, and the sun began to peek through, and the light began to show down, and there were these four guys, and they got right to the exact spot where Jesus was. They had to calculate everything. Okay, if Jesus is over there, we've got to get up over there, and we've got to unroof the roof there, because we're going to get him right dab in front of Jesus.

We're going to put him right there. So Jesus has to see him. Jesus can't miss him. He'll be right before him. So you can imagine what's taking place. At first, people are kind of shocked, and then they become a little, maybe a little angry about, you know, we're being annoyed.

It's like when someone's cell phone goes off during the sermon. People get a little annoyed with the guy who forgot to turn off his ringer. You know what I'm saying? And so they're getting a little bit annoyed, a little bit perturbed, and then all of a sudden comes this stretcher down in front of Jesus, and the place goes completely silent. And they must be asking themselves the question, is Jesus going to heal this guy? What is Jesus going to do? Well, this is the point number three, their faith.

And I want you to notice what Jesus saw, and then I want you to notice what Jesus said. I know I'm a little over time today. I've only got 12 minutes left on the tape, so I've got to finish this in 12 minutes. If you ever want to know how much time I have left, all you've got to do is turn around, look at the big numbers they got there in the back of the window.

They tell me how much time I got left. I usually just ignore them anyway. It doesn't make any difference. Anyways, listen to what Jesus saw. It says this, and seeing their faith. Now, it wasn't the faith of just the four men. It was the faith of the five men. The paralyzed guy and the four guys who carried him. And seeing their faith. Now, how did Jesus know they had faith? Jesus knows everything. He's omniscient. If he chooses to take up that attribute at will, he can. But you know, true faith, listen carefully, true faith is always, you finish the sentence, seen.

Right? True faith in Christ is always visible. I mean, these faith without works is what? It's dead. These guys, man, they demonstrated their faith. They lived their faith. It was visible to everybody that these guys believed that Jesus was the healer of all man's diseases. But the man who was paralyzed was not looking for a physical healing. He was looking for spiritual healing. And Jesus knows that because Jesus sees his faith. He sees it. This is dismantling faith. This is overcoming all obstacle faith.

This is true, genuine faith. This is believing faith. And God saw their faith. Now, we know that Jesus healed people with no faith, right? We know Jesus healed people with a little bit of faith. And we know that Jesus healed people with great faith. But there was no healing. There was forgiveness. Right? There was no healing. This was forgiveness. And there's, if there's forgiveness, there's what? Salvation. You see, this is something because Jesus saw a penitent heart. Jesus doesn't grant forgiveness to just about anybody He chooses to.

He grants forgiveness to those who truly have a broken and contrite heart, who truly repent of their sin, who have a penitent heart, who truly are contrite over their sinful condition. God's forgiveness is not unconditional. It is conditional. It's conditioned on man's repentant spirit. His love, unconditional. His forgiveness is conditioned upon a man repenting of his sin. This man had a repentant heart. This man had a contrite heart. And Jesus saw it. Nobody else saw it, but Jesus saw it. Jesus saw it.

And strangely, nobody spoke. The man made no request. But Jesus saw his heart. Jesus saw his mind. And Jesus calls him friend. Before he says anything else, he says, friend. Jesus never calls anybody a friend lightly. Jesus can only call you a friend if you're forgiven of your sins. Never at any time did this man deny he needed forgiveness. Not once. Didn't say a word. Because I truly believe this man knew his sinful condition. And God said to him, friend, your sins are forgiven. That's what he said.

Literally, your sins are dismissed. Absent. Gone. Can you imagine that? They're gone. He wanted forgiveness. Jesus knows that. And because no one's ever forgiven without faith and repentance, he saw their faith. He saw the man's repentant spirit. God didn't save him because his friends had a contrite heart. God saved him because the paralyzed man had a contrite heart. He had a repentant heart. That's why God saved him and dismissed his sins. I want you to notice something.

Sat in the middle of this house with the Pharisees who remained unforgiven. And down from the roof comes this man, vile, wretched, sinful, paralyzed man who desperately needed to see Jesus. And he received forgiveness. There are two kinds of people in the world. Mark them down. There are those who are diluted and therefore are damned. And there are those who are desperate and therefore delivered. Which are you? The Pharisees were diluted. They were damned. But the sinner, the paralyzed man, he was desperate.

He was delivered. And I can't but notice this whole story and ask myself the question, who is truly paralyzed?

The man who physically was paralyzed? Who could not move physically but spiritually was energized? Or was it the Pharisees who just sat there and would not move, would not budge, but although physically they could walk, spiritually they were paralyzed. And I'm reminded of what Paul said in Romans chapter 5 verse number 6, for while we were still helpless at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. While we were unable to move spiritually, while we were paralyzed spiritually, we could do nothing.

Christ died for the ungodly. I wonder if you've been delivered. If you've ever gone to God out of desperation because you know your condition, you've experienced His deliverance. If not, and you're diluted into thinking that somehow what you have done will gain favor with God, instead of being delivered, you will be damned for all eternity. And I trust that today from this story you would realize that you need to give your life to Christ. Let's pray together. Father God, we thank you for today and all that you've done.

You are so good, so true to your word. I thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness. And I pray, Lord, for those who are here today that none would be diluted into thinking that they're saved, when in reality they're not. But they would come out of desperation to the ultimate deliverer, Christ Himself. In Jesus' name, Amen.