In chapter 1 of Mark, in verse 38, Jesus said, Our Lord was proclaiming the good news about himself. It includes many warnings. It includes much about our sinful condition and other things besides. It is all a part of good news. It is all pointing towards our forgiving Savior. Keep in mind that the miracles Jesus walked were done to show forth his authority and to confirm his ministry. They were not an end in and of themselves, but the signs pointing to himself. This particularly comes out in the first part of our text and our first point, as we will see. So our text is Mark chapter 2, verses 1 to 22. Our theme is our forgiving Savior, and our three points are forgiveness, gathering, and bridegroom. So, first of all, in point one, forgiveness, that's coming from verses 1 to 12, which is, of course, the healing of the paralytic man who was let down through the tiles of the roof. Jesus came to save His people. And to be saved, we need forgiveness of sins. And here we find Jesus putting forgiveness before healing. which fits in line with the purpose of his coming that Mark had just said. Mark had reported that he said that he came to preach, and now we find one of the results of that preaching is the giving of forgiveness. Further to that, remember that leprosy is taken as a symbol of sin. It's also, and therefore instructive of the immediate context, is the cleansing of the leper. For it flows that our Lord makes clear His purpose was to preach the good news, then immediately cleanses a leper, and now directly and bluntly forgives someone's sins. Now, of course, this passage is a very familiar one, beloved of children's talks and such like. Often the emphasis is on the faith of the friends, which is not the point, or the faith of the paralytic, which is not the point. Or the healing of the parvoletic. which is not the point. All these things, of course, are true, and they're likely to be noted. They're not to be understated. But the point here is our Lord's forgiveness of sins. Because the question the Lord asks is, which is easier? Is it easier to say, your sins are forgiven? Or is it easier to say to the paralytic, get up and walk? And the answer is, it is much easier to say, your sins are forgiven. Because how do you favorify that objectively? So people go to the Roman Catholic confessional, he hears the confessional and then at the end he gives his absolution and says, your sins are forgiven. Prove it. I can say to you, your sins are forgiven. I can walk down the street and just walk up to every stranger in the street and say, your sins are forgiven. In other words, it's saying it's easy to say it. But the question is, do we have the authority to say it? Now, I have the authority to say, your sins are forgiven if you're trusting in Christ and repenting of your sins. I have the authority to say that. But does Jesus have the authority just to say to somebody, your sins are forgiven? And in a sense, the Lord acknowledges that issue Himself. Because He says, which is easier to say, but then He says, verse 10, but that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. And then, of course, He heals the paralytic. You see, the healing can obviously be verified objectively. So he's saying your sins are forgiven. That's easy to say. How do you know he can say it? Because he then says the hard part, stand up and walk. So he stood up and he walked. Because if Jesus didn't have the authority to stand up and walk, the Pilate would have been lying there and saying, I can't walk. And then they would have questioned and saying, well, If you don't have that authority, how do you have the other? But you see how the miracle has been used to point to the authority of Christ. It's a sign pointing to him. And it's also interesting that the forgiveness of sins came first. Jesus saw the faith. He does say that, he saw the faith, and then he forgave the sins. He said, your sins are forgiven. He didn't see the faith and say, ah, you're healed, stand up. No, he forgave the sins first. The scribes then questioned his right to forgive sins, and then he healed the paralytic to show he had that authority. Now, I'm not saying the Lord wouldn't have healed the paralytic if he had asked, but the paralytic didn't actually ask. In fact, we've no words from those, we just know they lowered him down. And there's the thing. What did he promise in Mark 1.38, or what did he say was his purpose? To preach. He came to preach the good news. He came to preach, to tell people of the kingdom of God. And a part of all of that is he's declaring the sinner to be forgiven. And in that sense, that's how our sins are forgiven too, because Christ is the one who forgives us our sins. He procures our forgiveness by His death on the cross. But it's His forgiveness. And that is the point of this part of the history of Christ. We tend to concentrate on the coming through the floor and everything else. Through the floor, through the roof. The point is he can forgive sins, which is what the scribe didn't like him saying, but it's what then he showed he had the authority to do. And as he shows that he has the authority to forgive the paralytic sins, it shows also the right and the ability to forgive our sins when we turn to him. And therefore, we are secure. So you see here that we have this situation of our Lord is healing, our Lord is forgiving sins, He's in this house which is crowded out, and then, of course, He then, when the time comes, He leaves this house, and as He leaves this house, He comes to calling another disciple, which leads us on to our second point, gathering, verses 13 to 17. I'm sure the calling of Matthew is no doubt as familiar to everybody here as is the healing of this paralytic man. It's about as simple as it gets. Matthew's sitting down at the seat of custom, that is, he's a tax collector, so he's sitting there. People are coming down and paying his taxes. Jesus walks past, he says, follow me. Matthew stands up and follows him. I mean, there isn't, in one sense, much you can do with that text except to say he was obedient. He immediately followed. Now, we're not told if Matthew had heard or spent any time in the presence of Jesus, that we're not certain of. However, when you consider the other disciples that are called in chapter 1, they did know Jesus before they were called, because that calling was later on. As we know, remember, Mark is compressing a lot into that chapter 1. It's probably reasonable that Matthew had heard something of Jesus or heard him speak. Maybe he had spoken to him personally. We don't know. It's not beyond probability that he knew something of the Lord, but he may not. Either way, Matthew has straightforward, simple, uncomplicated obedience. Jesus said, follow me, he followed. And then Matthew had a meal in his house. He had a meal in his house with Jesus and with the other disciples and quite a lot of other people as well. Naturally, many of Matthew's colleagues came along and then we have this general description of sinners. Many sinners were there. Now, the word or the usage of the word sinner here simply indicates there's an obviousness regarding their sin. The word is used here generally, and as the word is used generally, I'll just keep the meaning general. There was something obvious about it. People would have known they're living some kind of wicked lifestyle in some way or other. It's reasonable to assume that Matthew probably invited most of them. I say most of them, because in that kind of culture, they may have been friends of friends who just decided to come along, quite possibly. And of course, they were welcome because they were coming, not so much because of Matthew, because of course, they were wanting to hear Jesus. Jesus, as it were, was the main person that was there, so they were coming. At least, I think the implication of the passage would be they were there for Him. then enter the Pharisees and the scribes. They were separatists. That is, they did not eat or spend time with such people. Neither, for that matter, did they care for such people's souls. How could they care for the souls of people that they wouldn't even talk to? So, of course, they have this famous complaint. They want to know why Jesus could sit with such riffraff. All these sinners, all these bad people. And Allah's answer is equally as famous, is it not? Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Now that is a text that's often badly abused. But Allah's point is that he came to save sinners. Those who are self-righteous, and in this occasion we're talking about the Pharisees and the Scribes, those who are self-righteous would not listen because they didn't see their need. And until they saw their need, that their sinners They would not heed the call. Our Lord is not saying that there are some who do not need His salvation. He's not saying there are some who aren't actually sinners because they're naturally righteous. The rest of Scripture would speak against that. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Go to Romans 3.23. Go to the first chapter of the first epistle of John. And it's quite clear we're all sinners and many other places. But he's talking about those who see themselves as being righteous. They don't want to go to the physician. It's like those who are clearly not well, but they don't want to go to the doctor. You think, well, you might not want to go to the doctor, but that doesn't mean you're not well. But you see, the ones that were referred to as sinners and the tax collectors, they knew they were not doing that well morally. They knew that they had their problems. So of course, they flocked to here. Now, in the same way, we need to examine ourselves. We need to make sure we're not going to be like the Pharisees and the scribes, thinking, well, I don't need this because I am a righteous person. I'm okay. We're not. We also have to be sure that when we come and we understand that we're not, we're trusting in Christ for salvation. We then have to be sure that we're not looking down upon those who don't know Christ as their Savior. In other words, We are to sit with sinners. For one thing, we are sinners, saved by grace, yes, but we're still sinners. And we're to sit with sinners, not partake in their sin, not join with them in what things that they do which are wrong before God. But Jesus wasn't joining in with their sins. He was sitting there having a meal and talking to them. But the Pharisees and the Sadducees wouldn't even do that. Neither would the scribes. They were separatists. They kept apart. We don't have anything to do with these people. See, this is the gathering. These are the gatherings that our Lord, in a sense, loves. Being in amongst people that actually want to hear what He has to say. Being in amongst those who know, yes, I am a sinner. Lord, help me. Which is what we all are here today, tonight. We all know Christ is our Savior, and because we all know Christ is our Savior, we all know that we're sinners. Because we all know that we are sinners, we therefore know that we need Christ, and by needing Christ, we turn to Him. And because of the graciousness that we have received, we therefore should desire for other people to have that same graciousness. So therefore, we are in amongst people who don't know you as Lord as their Savior, and because they don't know the Lord as their Savior, we spend time with them. Yes, we befriend them, we get to know them. We just don't join them when they want to sin. So you have a meal, for example, like Jesus is having here. I don't know whether everybody having that meal was staying sober. But I do know that Jesus was saying, Stover, He wasn't partaking in the sin of drunkenness, He wasn't partaking in the sin of gluttony, but He was with them, spending time with them, in the gathering. Because remember, any goodness that we have is not because of ourselves, it's because we have a forgiving Savior, and He's cleansing in our lives. That one who came down, the one who is the bridegroom who's come down to earth to save his people, which leads us to our third and final point, the bridegroom, verses 18 to 24. So the disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to him, Why do the disciples of John and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast? Now in Matthew 9, verse 14, tells us that the disciples of John are the ones who actually asked the question. Although here in Mark, it does make it look and appear as if the disciples of John are asking, but the Pharisees wanted to know as well. So kind of coming from both of them. Mark's slightly more ambiguous there, and there's no reason why it's not both that are asking, both wanting to know. Either way, considering the source, or at least part of the source coming from the disciples of John, I take this to be a genuine question rather than one trying to entrap Jesus. Because as we know, the Pharisees were continually asking questions with the intention of entrapping Jesus, trying to make him say something that would get him into trouble so that they could get him out of the way. But the disciples of John, John has declared this is the Lamb of God. So, I would say that the disciples of John were not coming. They might not have understood it all, but they understood. John spoke well of him, but they want to understand more. So, Allah says John the Baptist, of course, was the bridegroom's friend. So he came in that way. John the Baptist lived in the wilderness, preached the baptism of repentance, was clothed in camel's hair, ate locusts and wild honey. I'm not saying that was necessary. I don't think the Bible means that was his only diet, but it shows the austerity or the basicness of the diet. He ate wild locusts and honey. That lifestyle would lend itself to fasting. He was also the last of the Old Testament prophets. He came preaching repentance. Repentance, lamenting for our sins. That would lend itself in fasting to lamenting. Jesus came as the bridegroom himself with glad tidings and lived like no other. He lived sinlessly. He came with the rejoicing news. He's come to save his people. That lends itself not so much to fasting, but rejoicing in gladness. So that's the first part of the answer to their question, why aren't they fasting? But Jesus goes on and he gives the example of the cloth and the wineskins. Now the point of the cloth and the wineskins is to halt the mixing of things which are essentially different. Remember the Galatian church, we went through the Galatian church in the evening service of the book of Galatians. and how some were trying to mix the Old Testament ceremonies with the New Testament worship. In other words, to be circumcised and baptized. They've been baptized, so now let's get circumcised. You have communion, so let's have the Passover. Let's bring in all these different parts of the Old Testament ceremonial worship and so on. In other words, they were attempting to keep alive the ceremonies and ordinances of the Old Testament and place it side by side with the gospel of Christ. That you cannot do. They do not mix. In the same way, some of the early church, in other words, passed the book of Acts into what's called the early church, the time of the early church fathers. Some of them tried to mix Christianity with Platonic philosophy. Or they included heathen forms of processions and stuff like that. Or today, the intermingling of modern liberal cultural norms with Christianity. All of these are unshrunken cloth on an old garment and new wine into old wineskins. Now, back in the day, cloth would need to be cured So as to soften it, it makes it malleable, it softens it. And in doing so, in the cure of it, it shrinks. So if you sewed the new piece on without shrinking it and curing it first, the unshrunken bit would be on something. As soon as you began to wash and it would get cleaned, it would start to shrink. And when it shrinks, it would create a tear because it would pull the stitching out and the hole would be made. Likewise, the Weinsteins, they were made of goat hides. A goat hide, the new ones, are soft, malleable, like a goat skin. So when you put in the new wine and it's fermenting, and it produces gas, the goat skin could expand. But as time passes, the goat skin goes hard. So if you put new wine into the old goat skin, which is hard, and then you put the stopper on, the gas is formed, because it's no longer malleable and it's hard, well, of course, it ruptures, because the gas expands, there's no room, so it ruptures the old wineskin. So therefore, you take shrunken cloth for the old garment, and equally, you take new wineskin bottles made of the goatskin, and you put the new wine in that. It's imagery from the day of Christ, simple imagery. It's to show incompatibility. That's the point, that two things are not compatible. There was a difference on the same principle. We can't keep our old sins with our new life in Christ. Yes, we have the battle against sin, but we should never consider our sins as something that sits comfortably with our Christian life, because that's unshrunken cloth and an old garment, new wine into old wine skins. In other words, it's incompatible. It is incompatible, therefore, for the disciples to be fasting when they're with the bridegroom while he's upon earth. We're told in other places at a time when you'll fast after he's gone, but during that time, it wasn't the time for it. But that's our bridegroom, the one who came. John proclaimed, Christ came. And in conclusion then, our bridegroom came to save us from our sins, to save us from hell. Our bridegroom came because forgiveness of sin is at the core of our needs. It's not the only thing we need, but it is number one. Because if we don't have forgiveness of sin, then we have no hope of salvation and can only look forward to an eternal hell facing the wrath of God and knowing nothing else. It is more important than physical healing. It's not saying physical healing is not important to us. But when the believer dies, they'll go to heaven and they'll never know suffering again. There is no point in having physical healing and then going to hell. Seek first the kingdom of God, that's what we're told. Seek first the forgiveness of sins, that's the most important thing. Because the forgiveness of sins by trusting in Christ for salvation, that's the thing that we will keep through into eternity. Which is why we have to repent and believe the gospel. We don't wait. Many are in hell who have waited till the last minute to find that the last minute was sooner than they expected. There is no safe way to hold back and to decline Christ. But when we trust in Christ for salvation, we remember that we are saved sinners. and saved only by God's grace, so we're no greater than anyone else. Therefore, we don't lord it over anyone if we think we are better than them, because we're not. We don't join people in their sin. Rather, we point the sinner to Christ, the same Christ that we ourselves have turned to. And when we do tell people the gospel, We don't confuse the good news with legalism or liberalism or any other system. We simply tell them the gospel of Jesus Christ.