to Psalm 103 and then in the New Testament Scriptures to Mark chapter 2. So first Psalm 103, we'll read the entire Psalm. Let's give our attention to the Word of God. A Psalm of David. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame, He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children's children, to such as keep His covenant, and to those who remember His commandments to do them. The Lord has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all. Bless the Lord, you His angels, who excel in strength, who do His word, heeding the voice of His word. Bless the Lord all you his hosts, you ministers of his who do his pleasure. Bless the Lord all his works and all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Let us turn to Mark chapter two. Here we read of our Lord Jesus Christ once again performing great miracles and preaching the word. Let's give our attention to Mark chapter two. We'll read verse one down through 12. And again he, our Lord Jesus Christ, 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 not 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 were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts. Why does this man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins 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 the paralytic, your sins are forgiven you, or to say, arise, take up 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, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Amen. Please be seated. As we prepared to hear the word of God preached, let's all pray together. Let's all pray. Our Lord, our God, we give you thanks for your word, and we pray for the help of your spirit now to come, to illumine it, to help me as I preach, to help every hearer rightly understand and apply your word. We ask that you would feed us with the rich food of your word, that you would help us to grow in godliness, to live in obedience, and to worship and serve you alone. We pray these things in Christ's name, amen. Turning to Mark chapter two for the preaching of the word this morning. And here you have this great miracle of our savior, Jesus Christ, as he restores this paralyzed man, gives him the use of his arms and legs once again. The Heidelberg Catechism, question two, many of you are familiar with the Heidelberg Catechism, but question two of the Heidelberg Catechism asks this profound question that I'd like to begin with today. How many things must you know in order to live and die? in the joy of the gospel's comfort, or the joy of knowing Jesus Christ, that he has purchased you with his own blood, that you belong to him, and that he is your hope in life and in death, really to recap question one of the catechism. But how many things must you know in order to enjoy this comfort, to live and die in the joy of this gospel comfort? Well, the catechism tells us that there are three things that you and I must know to enjoy the comfort of the gospel. We must know first how great our sins and miseries are. We must know, secondly, how we are to be delivered from all our sins and miseries. And then lastly, how we are to thank God for such a deliverance. You could sum it up this way. Guilt, grace, and gratitude. The guilt of our sin and misery. the grace of God in Jesus Christ that delivers us from all our sins and all our miseries, and then gratitude, the way in which our lives are to be shaped by a thankfulness to God for so great a salvation, for delivering us. This really, this idea of guilt, gracing, and gratitude, as we see it summed up in the second question of the Heidelberg Catechism, I think helps us with a template, provides us a template for understanding the gospel accounts, particularly what we have before us here in Mark chapter 2, the deep guilt of sin. the matchless grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and then the gratitude to God, glorifying Him for so great a deliverance. To help us understand something of the context here in Mark chapter two, just a few comments regarding the opening of Mark's gospel. Here is Jesus Christ, the beginning, if you read chapter one, verse one, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Here is the Promised One, the Messiah, the One long foretold by the prophets of old. Here He is, Christ, the Promised One, the Messiah, the One who identifies with Israel of old in His baptism as He goes through the waters of baptism, identifying with Old Testament Israel, and then being sent out into the wilderness through His 40 days of temptation. Jesus is, in this way, He's encapsulating a new exodus. He is the better Israel, the one who succeeds in every place where Israel of old failed. He's identified with Israel in His baptism, and then He succeeds in 40 days of temptation. over the fiery darts of the wicked one, relying upon the Spirit of God, fully successful in every way where Israel of old had failed. You have, in some respects, a new exodus here. Here is the promised one. Here is the Messiah, the one in whom the Father is well pleased, our Lord Jesus Christ. And now what does he do as he's been tempted? He's come through the waters of baptism. He's been tempted by the wicked one. He's been successful in his temptations, relying upon the Word of God rather than on the passing lies of the serpent. What does he do? Well, as we read the rest of Mark 1, we find him busy. healing and preaching, casting out an unclean spirit, healing a leper, healing Peter's mother-in-law, preaching the word. So it's as if there's a bit of tension now as we turn the page to Mark chapter 2. There are crowds gathering and wanting to see and hear this promised one, this Messiah. Who is Jesus of Nazareth? What has He come to do? What is the source of His authority and His power? What is He able to do? The crowds are gathering. It's as if you and I can anticipate the tension here. Who is, in fact, Jesus of Nazareth? What is the source of His grace and power? And particularly, how can He meet the needs of those who are broken in sin and misery? Perhaps you today are asking the same question. How can Christ, this promised one, this one who's been revealed in the gospel, how can he meet my deepest need, forgive my sins? Well, these are questions that we should have in our minds as we come to the text before us, as it focuses us upon Jesus Christ, the man who forgives sins. Let's first understand, as we study the text together, I first want us to understand something of the story. No doubt even you young children, and for those of you who have grown up in the church, this has been a familiar portion of God's Word, a familiar narrative of God's Word. I don't want the familiarity of it to lose its force and the way in which it demonstrates the power of our Lord Jesus Christ. What's going on here? Well, our Savior enters Capernaum, the city, after some days away. He enters into a house, perhaps Simon Peter's house, and He soon gathers a crowd. They want to see and they want to hear this one who is able to heal the sick, who's able to cast out unclean spirits, who's been preaching this gospel of the kingdom. A crowd soon gathers and they fill the house and likely the courtyard around the house as well. You see the detail in the text that there was not even room near the door to receive this great teeming mass of people. And what does Christ do? He preaches. the word to them, to this teeming mass of people crammed into the house and then likely all around the door in the courtyard outside. Well, soon along, and we're familiar with the story, along comes the paralyzed man carried by his four friends, this man who has no use of his arms and his legs, likely paralyzed for some time, totally helpless, again carried along by the four friends. But sadly, there's no room for them in the house, is there? They can't get through. Until they remember, perhaps the stairs by the outside of the house, and they quickly bring their friend up on the roof, and the text literally says that they unroof the roof, they uncover the roof where our Savior Christ is teaching the word, and quickly lower their friend to our Savior. How will Jesus respond to this interruption in His teaching? We should feel the tension at the end of verse four as this paralyzed man has been lowered to our Savior Christ. There's this interruption in teaching, the roof has been opened up. How will Christ respond? What will He do? Our Savior looks at this man in his helpless condition. He sees his deepest need and he says this, son, your sins are forgiven you. At first, that may be surprising to us, right? Because the man is, he cannot walk, his arms and legs completely lifeless. What is our Savior doing here? Some of you are familiar with the idea of a bait and switch in advertising. The idea, maybe you've experienced this, where you go perhaps to a car dealership, you've seen a vehicle advertised for sale, and you think that you would like to take a look at such a product. and see it for yourself, but when you arrive, there's something altogether being sold. There's a switch to another product or another car, and you feel as if you've been lied to. It's a deceptive technique used by advertisers. But no bait and switch here with our Savior Christ. It's not as if He has advertised the healing and the restoration of health, and now He's giving something else. No, He sees the man's apparent need, and yet meets his deepest need, his deep need of forgiveness. We'll come back to that in a few moments. But then in the text comes conflict, conflict with the scribes who are sitting there, who are seeing this miracle happen, who are seeing our Savior proclaim the forgiveness of sins. And the scribes wonder, they think to themselves, how dare Jesus forgive this man's sins? How dare he pronounce this forgiveness? Doesn't he know that only God can forgive sins? Who does he think he is? He's blaspheming. But then imagine the surprise then. as our Lord tells them what they're thinking, uncovers their pretentious thinking and their pride against Him, and answers with a riddle of his own, which is easier to say. which is easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven you, or to say, arise, take up your bed and walk in verse nine. And our Savior then demonstrates that he has power to do both. Power to forgive, to restore this man to communion with God, to make him new, to restore his heart and to bring him into communion with God. and also to heal him, to demonstrate the power of his resurrection, to bring about life and health even to those in misery. Certainly the crowd then responds with wonder and amazement, we never saw anything like this. a miracle that demonstrates our Savior's glorious power, His might to forgive sins and to make those who are sick whole. What does this miracle teach us? We've seen something demonstrated here of our Savior's power, but what can you and I learn from this mighty miracle of our Savior Christ? Well, first, the first thing that I want you to meditate with me in our remaining moments together, I want you to think about our deep need of forgiveness, even your deep need of forgiveness. You see this in the condition of this paralyzed man as he comes brought by his friends. He's helpless. He's unable to move himself, his arms and legs completely lifeless. And his physical condition should point you and me to our spiritual condition, that just as this man was impotent, completely unable to move himself, you and I by nature are unable to move ourselves to God. We're unable to please Him. We are broken in our sin, desperately wicked and in need of forgiveness. Reflect with me on this connection that we see in God's Word between sin and sickness, or even the misery that sin brings. You know, we confess this. We saw it in the Heidelberg Catechism a moment ago, but also in our own Westminster Catechism. It says that the fall brought all of us into an estate of sin and misery. Something that I like to say, keep emphasizing, that you can't have sin without also having misery. That sin always brings sadness, brokenness, and suffering. Don't we see that here with the paralyzed man? It's a fulfillment of what God told our first parents in the garden when they sinned, or even before they sinned. God told them, plain as day, in the day that you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will surely die. A process of death and decay will begin. You'll lose communion with me, God is saying, but you'll also begin this process of physical death. physical decay, and misery. Again, sin always brings this misery, ultimately resulting in death. This is the truth of Romans 5. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned. Death, that ultimate result of the misery of our sins. Even all of creation, think with me of this, that all of creation groans under the curse, the curse of misery. Romans 8, 22, for we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. So there's a connection here. Think of the connection between sin and misery, suffering, pain, and even death. We see this in Psalm 41 as well. Hear the prayer of the psalmist David. Psalm 41, verses 3 and 4. David prays, the Lord will strengthen him, speaking of the one who is sick, the Lord will strengthen him on his bed of illness. You will sustain him on his sickbed. I said, Lord, be merciful to me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against you. So here the psalmist is sick, he's on a sick bed and he's praying, Lord, heal my soul because I've sinned against you. Again, a very poignant illustration of that connection between sin and sickness. Now we want to be careful here. I'll give you the caution really of Job's three friends. What we don't want to assume is that there's a sickness or a discreet, discrete period of physical sickness and suffering that corresponds to every sin. It's not as if sickness is always a direct result of specific sin. We don't want to commit the error that Job's three friends committed. But what we do know and what the Scriptures are abundantly clear on is this point. that whenever we see sickness and misery and suffering and ultimately death in our lives, it reminds us that we're sinners, that we've sinned and come short of the glory of God, that we've gone our own way, and that our deepest need is not even the physical brokenness and the suffering and the sickness that you and I all encounter in one way or another, but our greatest need is that of forgiveness, forgiveness of our sins and reconciliation to our God. That's our greatest need. Verse 5 further reinforces this as our Savior, as I said a moment ago, Christ looked at this paralyzed man's apparent need, his need of physical restoration. and met his greatest need, his need of forgiveness, reconciliation to God. Before we move further in the text, what I want to drive home is this understanding of our deepest need. Understand your deepest need. Don't misdiagnose it. Don't push away the conviction of sin. Recognize that you need forgiveness. And if you're outside of Christ this morning, if you don't know the Lord Jesus as your King and as your Savior, I urge you to think deeply on your own need of Him, to repent of your sin, to turn from it to Christ, to not treat the Lord Jesus as so many do in our own day as some sort of life coach or someone who gives advice or someone who's merely given to us to make us healthy and wealthy, the lie of the prosperity gospel. Don't think in those ways. Understand your great need of forgiveness, that you stand condemned before God. Repent of your sins. Run to Jesus Christ. He is, and we'll see this in a moment, He is a willing Savior and an able Savior, one who can forgive your sins and renew you in fellowship with God. Look to Him. Run to Him. Do not misdiagnose your greatest need. There's a second thing that the text teaches us, as I mentioned a moment ago, and it is our Savior's unique power to forgive, our Savior Jesus' unique power to forgive. Again, we see this in verse five. Son, your sins are forgiven you. As certainly as you and I are in desperate need of forgiveness, desperately wicked apart from God, our Savior Christ is able to forgive. Here in verse five, he looks at the man and pronounces a direct forgiveness, a direct absolution of sin and guilt. The grammar here in the text displays a present action. Son, your sins are forgiven. This is unlike anything a prophet of the Old Testament could have done. It's even unlike anything a Protestant minister does in the proclamation of gospel pardon every Lord's Day. What the prophets of old did, what your ministers do, and the proclamation of the assurance of gospel pardon is merely recognizing the forgiveness that God has already made known through His Son. What Jesus does here is something altogether different. It's direct, in the moment, on the basis of His own merit, on the basis of His own righteousness, and in His own name, He forgives this man's sin. what a minister of the gospel does and the assurance of pardon is merely recognizing the forgiveness that God has already proclaimed through His Son Christ. This is something altogether different, and it's an authority that's reserved to Jesus Christ alone. Him and He alone has this authority. It's unlike what you even see with Nathan and King David in 2 Samuel 12, this sort of pronouncement. Nathan told David there as David had repented of his sin with Bathsheba, his sin against Uriah the Hittite. Nathan tells David, the Lord has put away your sin. But here with Christ, there's something altogether different. Son, your sins are forgiven you. This is what provoked the scribes to such anger that here is our Lord Jesus Christ taking to himself, assuming to himself the power to forgive sins. And this is what provoked their anger and their wrath. Who does he think he is that he can forgive sins in this way? And that may be a question in your mind as well. How can Christ so directly for His own name in His own power forgive sins? Well, the text then as we continue to move forward in it, it demonstrates that Christ has all power to forgive, that He is God manifest in the flesh, that He's no mere man. that He indeed is God manifest in the flesh. The Word made flesh and dwelled among us. We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And you see proofs in the text as to the true identity of our Savior. First, in verse 8, as Jesus perceives in His Spirit that the scribes were reasoning in themselves, He tests their hearts. He knows what they are thinking. This is an authority. This is a power that only God has. 1 Samuel 16, 7, God sees not as man sees, for man looks on the outward appearance. but God looks on the heart. As well, Psalm 7 verse 9, you test the minds and hearts, O righteous God. So here Jesus demonstrates that he is God because he has power to perceive the deepest thoughts and intentions of our hearts. And for those of you who know Jesus Christ, This is a comfort. This is a comfort for you, that your Savior Christ, despite your own weakness, your own sinfulness, the temptations of the wicked one, even your failures of the past week, that He knows your heart and yet forgives you freely of His own grace. But for those of you who don't know, if any of you do not know the Lord Jesus, this should terrify you. the fact that our Savior Christ, by His Spirit, is able to perceive what no one else is able to see. Indeed, men look on the outward appearance, but He knows the deepest thoughts of your heart. May this thought, may this reality drive you to Him. And again, we see a clear testimony of his identity. As he does not push back on the accusation of the scribes, only God can forgive sins. He doesn't push back on that claim. He doesn't say, oh, you've misunderstood. I was not pronouncing this forgiveness in my own name. No, he doesn't correct the scribe's thinking in verse 7. Who can forgive sins but God alone? He recognizes that what they are confessing is biblical truth. Only God can forgive sins. So Jesus here, He does not push back on their thinking, but maintains that He indeed has this power because He is, in fact, God manifest in the flesh, that He is the eternal Son of the Father. But perhaps there are remaining questions in your mind as you think about your need of forgiveness and our Savior's power to forgive. You would confess that He indeed, you know the teaching of the scriptures, that He in fact is God manifest in the flesh, that He is able to forgive. But perhaps because of the weight of your own sin and guilt before God, today you're asking this question, can he possibly forgive me and my sins? You know the depth of your own sin, you know something of your own guilt before God, and you wonder, can God be merciful to me? Is Christ not merely able but willing to forgive? And it's as if our text drives us to a climax in verse 10, that Christ here demonstrates not merely that He can pronounce the forgiveness of sins and that He's able to do it, but that He's willing that for this very reason He came into the world to forgive. Verse 10, but that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive. The text again reaches a climax here. It's as if our Savior is saying, for this very reason I came. I came to bring forgiveness to ruined sinners. I came to redeem that which was lost. I came to bring rebels against God back to Him. This is the mission. This is the very reason I came. It's instructive that our Savior uses this title, the Son of Man, to speak of Himself here in verse 10, that He is the Son of Man who has power on earth to forgive sins. You might recall that this title comes from Daniel chapter 7. where Daniel in the visions of the night sees one like the Son of Man. I'll read Daniel 7, 13 and 14. I saw in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed." So what is Daniel saying in chapter 7 of his prophecy? He's saying one who has a kingdom and dominion and all power, that this coming Son of Man would be God Himself, one with all authority, one with all dominion. But the gospel of Mark helps us understand how this kingdom would be brought, particularly how forgiveness of sins would be won. Yes, this Son of Man would be a glorious king, one with all dominion, with all authority. but He would be one who is humbled, who brings His kingdom about through pain and suffering and torment. We read on in the Gospel of Mark as our Savior uses this title to describe Himself, and we see that though this King, He's one with all dominion and power and authority, yet He's humbled. He undergoes all the suffering and all the miseries of this life for us to redeem His people and to bring all glory to His Father. That this Son of Man came, as we read in Mark chapter 10, not to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. Three times in this gospel Jesus tells His disciples, the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. Yes, the Son of Man is one with all dominion and authority, but he brings about his kingdom, and he brings forgiveness to sinners through humiliation, through his own suffering, through particularly his own death on the cross. So how do you know that the Son of Man has all power to forgive? Because he has suffered in your place on the cross of Calvary. He's borne the wrath of God against your sin. He has conquered. over all of his enemies, and to him belongs this kingdom, dominion, and glory." Yes, he is willing to forgive because he has done everything necessary to secure that forgiveness. And don't miss those little words on earth in verse 10, that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. John Calvin put it this way, that so strong is our inclination to distrust that we never venture to believe that God is merciful to us till he draws near and speaks familiarly to us. that you and I, because of our sin, because of the darkness of our own hearts, that we're inclined to not believe the glories of the gospel, to not believe that Christ is one who's able and willing to forgive because of the depth of our own hearts. But you see what these words on earth teach us, that here is God manifest in the flesh, who condescends to sinners, who comes in close, Calvin again, forgiveness of sins ought not to be sought from a distance, for Jesus Christ exhibits it to men in his own person, and as it were, in his own hands. Here, offering the full and the free forgiveness of sins. The son of man has power on earth to forgive sins, to redeem, to restore, to forgive even your sins, Christian. If you're sitting under a great weight of guilt this morning and you're wondering if God can be merciful to you, reflect on this truth that the Son of Man has come. He's come to this sin-cursed, broken world. He has come that your sins may be forgiven and that you may have life in God. And then one last truth that our text teaches us. Certainly we see here our neediness, we see Christ's great ability and willingness to forgive. And then a vindication, we see lastly a vindication of this forgiveness. As he looks at the paralyzed man in verse 11, I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house." And what happens? Immediately, the paralyzed man arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that they all were amazed and glorified God, saying, we never saw anything like this. So our Savior Christ looks at the man. He demonstrates indeed that he has all power to forgive as he brings this man to restored health, his arms and legs surging to life once again and restores him even to his family. Arise, take up your bed and go to your house. Our Savior here demonstrates that he He's come to forgive and that He has power to restore, to make all things new, to bring about the new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells, that He has power to really do it all, to forgive our sins, to restore us to communion with God, and then ultimately in the new age, in the coming day, to make all things new, to bring about that new heavens and new earth that you long for, Christian, that new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells. Here's a foretaste of the powers of resurrection brought into the current time. where Christ fulfills all that was foretold of Him in the Old Testament Scriptures, a coming one who would make the blind to see and the deaf to hear and the lame to walk again. Here is the Son of Man who has power to forgive and also power to make all things new. And how should you and I respond when we behold the glories of our Savior, one who forgives us and restores us and promises us restoration even in the age to come. We ought to worship and sing His praises as the crowd did there in verse 12. They were amazed and they glorified God. They delighted in the power of Jesus Christ. So how much more should you and I, on this side of the cross and the resurrection, how much more should you and I sing God's praise, delight in Him, worship the glorious Son of Man who has brought forgiveness to us, who has demonstrated that He has power to make all things new? Do you worship? Do you gratefully sing God's praise? Do you, as you meditate on the forgiveness of your sins, on the power of Jesus Christ, do you worship and glorify and delight in Him? Certainly this is the only appropriate response. Now verse 11, of course, our Savior looked at the paralyzed man, told him to arise, take up his bed, and go to his house, restoring him not merely to a physical location, but really the word there has reference to his family, to his household. Go back to your family. So you could imagine this once paralyzed man with his arms and legs working once again, returning home and telling his family at the end of the day, I met a man today who made me new, who gave me the power to use my arms and legs once again, who brought me physical healing, but there's more. I met a man, the God-man, the only man who forgives sinners, and he forgave me. Bless his name. Let's pray together. Oh Lord our God, we give you thanks for the glories of the gospel. Thank you for our Savior Jesus Christ, that He in fact is the Son of Man who has power on earth to forgive sins. Thank you for His sinless life, His glorious miracles, His death on the cross of Calvary, and the power of His resurrection. We ask that you would teach us these truths, that you would humble us, teach us our great need of you. We ask for those who, any who might yet be outside of Christ, that they would repent of their sin and flee to Jesus Christ for forgiveness and grace. We ask that we would sing your praise, delight in you, and worship your great name. We pray these things in Christ's name, amen.