Good morning, brethren. So this morning we want to look at a topic that I've entitled who but God can forgive sin. Our day is a day in which men either think there is no God or the God they claim to know does not exist anywhere but in their imaginations. The fool says in his heart, there is no God, as we're told. The fool actually claims to believe this and desperately hopes it's true. But this is not the case with our God, the God of the Bible. The triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has demonstrated through power and precept that they are, not only that they are, but they are worthy of our drawing near to them. So today we will do this. We'll tackle this critical question that every man does ask, or every man should ask, and no man should stop asking until they come to the final and proper resolution of the question. We'll look at it from Luke chapter five in verses 17 to 26. But before we turn there, let's seek our God's help. Our Father in heaven, we're thankful for this day, thankful that we have the high privilege of singing your praises, of reading your word, of drawing near to you that you might draw near to us. Lord, we ask that you would help us to be careful how we handle the word, both in the proclaiming of it and the receiving of it. We pray that you would help us to be careful how we hear. We pray, O Lord, that you would come to us because we acknowledge, Lord, that without the operation of the Holy Spirit, there's none of us that can benefit from your word. And we acknowledge that the unconverted cannot even receive your truth. So we ask, O Lord, that the Holy Spirit would fill this place, would take that which is yours and apply it to that which is yours. We pray that your son would have the glory in all these things. For we do come to you in his precious name. Amen. So again, we'll be reading Luke chapter five, beginning in verse 17. This is on page 1185 in the Pew Bibles. And as you're turning there, the approach we'll take today is we'll look briefly at the setting. We'll look at the central question of the Bible. We'll look at the charge of blasphemy. We'll look at the challenging question of questions, and then we'll decide what to do with those answers we've looked into. So Luke chapter 5, beginning in verse 17. Now it happened on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present to heal them. Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before him. And when they could not find how they might bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus. When he saw their faith, he said to him, Man, your sins are forgiven you. And the scribes and Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone? But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered and said to them, Why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven you, or to say, rise up and walk, but that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. He said to the man who is paralyzed, I say to you, arise, take up your bed and go to your house. Immediately he rose up before them, took up what he'd been lying on, and he departed to his own house, glorifying God. And they were all amazed. And they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things today. So we will look now at the setting here. And the setting really comes right out of the very context of what we're reading. In verse 17, we see that it was a certain day. This was a day in history. This is not an allegory. This is a historical event. It's a certain day. And we're told in Mark chapter 2 that this certain day this event occurred in Capernaum. So this is a certain day in Capernaum where the Lord Jesus is. And we see secondly that he's engaged publicly in teaching the multitudes. Verse 17 tells us, now it happened on a certain day as he was teaching. So what we're going to see later on comes in the context of the Lord Jesus teaching the word of God. And this is significant because while he will have detractors, they do not accuse him of heresy. They don't accuse him of mishandling the word of God. There's none of that. But he is in the midst of teaching. And thirdly, he was in the midst of or in the company of a very watchful group. Again, if we look at verse 17, it says he as he was teaching that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by. who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. And this term sitting by is significant. They were not on their feet, crowding around the Savior as the rest of the crowd were. They were sitting by and perhaps they were lying in wait, but certainly they were not eager hearers that were there seeking to learn from the Lord Jesus Christ, but they were sitting by. Now, fourthly, Jesus observed very real and very strong faith. We go down to verse 20, it says, when he saw their faith, we might ask, well, what faith did he see? Again, this is just by way of context. Well, if we look at verse 18, then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before him. So when they could not find how they might bring him in because of the crowd, they went up onto the housetop to let down the bed through the tiling in the midst of the Lord Jesus. Now, again, Mark tells us that there were four men. Four men are carrying a man. who is not able to walk or carry himself. We don't know the distance they've traveled. We don't know how far they've come. But they've come to this place where Jesus is and they're trying to get in and they cannot get through the crowd. And they don't give up and turn away. They turn and they look for another way. We can see the text and a lot of sermons are preached just about the fact that they went up onto the roof. And I'm not going to get into all of the detail to that. But to say the least, they were very industrious. They were very committed. They were not easily turned away. And they went up. All right. Now, I always want to stop and say one thing here. You'll notice from their actions that real faith produces actions, actions that speak much louder than words. Now, this is our context then. This is the setting for the extraordinary questions and the marvelous answer from the Lord Jesus Christ. So we will turn now to the first of those questions, the central question of the Bible. This is from verse 21. And as we go to verse 21, we're going to see that this was the central question, the question of who is this? Now, if you're reading verse 21, you're going to say to me, that's not all it says. And you're right. It says that the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, who is this who speaks blasphemies? But I'm going to break this down first. We'll get to the blasphemy section in a bit. But here I want to just deal with this question, who is this? Because it is an important question. The question of who is this appears in one form of another from cover to cover in the scriptures. And I want to show you some examples of this briefly. If we go to Genesis chapter 3, verses 14 and 15, we have this question not asked, But it's almost demanded here, it's almost begged here. Genesis 3, verse 14. So the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, you are cursed more than all the cattle and more than every beast of the field. On your belly you shall go and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. And you see, the unasked question is, who is the he? Who is it? Right here in the very beginning of scripture, right here in the very big dawning of time, the question comes in in the scriptures, who is he? Who is this? We go to Job. If you turn to Job chapter 19, and again, we're just gonna walk through these briefly. In Job, we have his confident trust in the Redeemer, the Redeemer he does not name, right? Job 19, and this is one of my favorite passages of scripture. Job 19, beginning in verse 23. Oh, that my words were written. Oh, that they were inscribed in a book, that they were engraved on a rock with a pen, with an iron pen and lead forever. So Job has something he wants everybody to know. What does he want everybody to know? Let's hear what he has to say. For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth. And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself and not another. And my eyes shall behold and not another. How my heart yearns within me." What is Job saying here? He's saying, I know right now in all of my extremities, all of the difficulties I've been in, there is a Redeemer who is alive now. But at the end of time, He's going to stand upon the earth. I know He's my Redeemer, a personal Redeemer. And He's going to come. Now, He knows that He's going to die. He's going to go into the grave. One day, He knows He's going to be He's going to be raised up. And he says, I'm going to see with my eyes. In other words, he's not saying, I'm going to see him in the future generations of my progeny down through the years. And someday they'll see him. I myself am going to see him. Now, Job doesn't say who he is. And the question really begs, who is it, Job? Who is your Redeemer? We go on. We go to Proverbs chapter 30. We have a more direct asking of this question. Agar, or Aguar, is very direct in asking this question. Proverbs chapter 30, he says, it says, the words of Agar, the son of Jacob, his utterance. This man declared to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Uchel. So what he says is recorded by witnesses. Surely, and perhaps some will relate to this, surely I am more stupid than any man and do not have the understanding of a man. And that's quite an honest and humble assessment of himself. I neither learned wisdom nor have the knowledge of the Holy One. And then he asks, who has ascended into heaven or descended? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has bound the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? And then he asks, what is his name? And what is his son's name, if you know? You see? Who is this all throughout Scripture? The prophets and the angels long to understand this. First Peter tells us this in chapter one. Of this salvation, the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. To them it was revealed that not to themselves but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven Things which angels desire to look into. So the prophets are telling us about the Christ. Telling us about what he's going to accomplish. Telling us about what he's going to suffer. And they want to know and they long to know. And they searched and they did not find out. And the angels who knew the identity of the Lord Jesus were looking down trying to figure out what in the world is going on with the Son of God. But we have this throughout the scriptures. Who is this? The disciples also ask this question. Mark 4 and Luke 8 recorded for us. And you'll immediately recognize the context. They say, who can this be that even the wind and the sea obey him? They've been with him. They're walking with him. They've heard him teaching. They've seen some of his signs. And he stands up in the boat and he says, peace be still. and creation obeys the Creator. And they marvel, who is this? Well, this is the question that we're asking. This is the question that the Pharisees are asking, albeit not with good motives. But let's go further to the other part of the question, because it comes in and it concerns us, the charge of blasphemy. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, who is this who speaks blasphemies? Now the charge is clearly stated. We can't get around it. It's there. There's no ambiguity whatsoever. The charge is that Jesus has spoken blasphemy. Well, what is blasphemy? Blasphemy is to speak evil, especially in a defamatory way, against God. Right? Against God. Now, it doesn't matter whether it's to curse God's name, or to say that God lacks the power or authority that he has, or to say that God is evil in the way he does things when the scriptures tell us he's good. But in any way, for Jesus, being a man in their eyes, to take the place of God was blasphemy because it had the effect of drawing God down or drawing man up to God. And they were jealous in this sense for God that blasphemy should not be allowed. All right. I want to just read what Ray Summers in his commentary on Luke says about this. He says, speaking of the scribes and Pharisees, they believed that the forgiveness of sins was the prerogative of God only. And we agree. Therefore, for anyone else to assume to forgive sins was for him to assume the work of God and hence to blaspheme or revile God. Their approach was a syllogism, a way of reasoning. And their major premise was this, only God can forgive sins. Good. Minor premise for man to claim to forgive sins is to blaspheme. But here's where they go wrong. They conclude, therefore, this man is blaspheming God. Well, Summers goes on to say what Jesus did next, would change the force or the reasoning of their syllogism, it would become this. Major premise, only God can forgive sins. So no change there, right? Still only God can forgive sins. The minor premise, this man evidently or obviously forgives sins. And what's the conclusion when you reason rightly? Therefore he must be God. Or at the very least the power of God is working through him. And so that's what we see here regarding this issue of blasphemy. But how serious is blasphemy? Jesus is accused of blasphemy. How serious would it be to be guilty of blasphemy? We can see this from one passage. We'll look in Leviticus chapter 24 beginning in verse 10. And I'll read from verse 10 to verse 15. Now the son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel, and this Israelite woman's son and a man of Israel fought each other in the camp. And the Israelite woman's son blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed. And so they brought him to Moses. His mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan. Then they put him in custody, that the mind of the Lord might be shown to them. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Take outside the camp him who is cursed, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him. Then you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. So how do we end up this question on blasphemy? How serious is it? It's really serious. It's really, really bad. When this incident happened in Israel, they brought the man to Moses, who was leading the nation of Israel. He was, all judgment had been committed into his hands. And he wasn't willing to render judgment. He went to the Lord. Lord, what would you have me do here? The Lord renders judgment. The Lord says that blasphemy, speaking against God, is punishable by death. Those who heard it had the solemn responsibility of laying their hands on the head of the one who had blasphemed, indicating his guilt and testifying before the congregation. And on the basis of their congregation, the whole congregation came together and stoned him to death. That's serious. That's really serious. All right, so that's that. God's judgment revealed in Leviticus is nothing less than capital punishment. So we have here the Lord Jesus being accused of blasphemy, a serious charge. Now I want to ask this question or make this statement. If Jesus was guilty of blasphemy, it would have been a great evil. And in that day would have been deserving of death. That's clear from the scriptures. We have no argument with that. But the question really comes down to, was Jesus guilty of blasphemy? And it's deeper than just a yes or no question. If Jesus is guilty of blasphemy, then what value would his atoning death on the cross have? None. Because he'd be a sinner. It wouldn't be a perfect sacrifice. It wouldn't be spotless. He would have no value as the Redeemer. So we've noted that there's this crucial nature of this charge of blasphemy. But we want to step back and let the Lord Jesus answer this charge for us. His answer is going to come in response to the next question, which we'll now take up, which is the challenging question of questions. And this is from verse 21. In verse 21 the question is, who can forgive sins but God alone? Does God, here's the question, does God alone have the right and authority to forgive sins? Now I want to ask the children a question. Before we go running so long, we go really quickly. We say, of course, only God can forgive sins. Children, do your mother or father ever ask you to forgive your brother or your sister? Do mom or dad ever ask you to forgive them? Do you ever see your mother or father asking each other for forgiveness? Hmm. I hope so. I hope all of this is true. So if you've ever granted forgiveness to someone who has sinned against you, how do we reconcile this question of whether God alone can forgive sins? And this, I think, is not a minor point. What is the point? There is a difference between the forgiveness of sins between man and man, which is commanded, and the forgiveness of sins committed against God by God. We need to make that understanding clear. Look at Matthew 18, verse 21. I'll just read it briefly. Then Peter came to him, that is to the Lord Jesus, and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times? And Jesus said to him, I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. So what's the point? Peter's coming to the Lord Jesus and he wants to know, how often do I have to forgive my brother? Peter's assuming he has a responsibility to forgive. And he thinks, well, if I say seven, that's really impressive. And the Lord, of course, says, no, no, Peter, you've got it all wrong. You've got to forgive a whole lot more often than that. So if we just think of this verse alone, we could say in one sense, it is not God alone who forgives sin between man and man. All right? So we need to understand what Jesus means when he declares that the paralytic man's sins have been forgiven. All right? Because he clearly indicates that he is forgiving this man's sin against God. Verse 24, I think, makes this very clear. it frames it really well, that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. What is the point? God is in heaven. God forgives sin. If sin is going to be forgiven against God, it's forgiven in heaven. But the Lord Jesus is the Son of God who's come down from heaven. He's on earth. And he's saying that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. You see, if he's not talking about sins committing against God, it's kind of a pointless statement. Because all men have the right and the power to forgive sins between one another. But only God has the power to give sins between man and God, right? So the Lord Jesus is clearly forgiving the paralytic's sins against God. We might ask now, do the scriptures teach that God forgives sin? Psalm 99 verse 8 shows us very clearly when it says, You answered them, O Lord our God. You were to them God who forgives, though you took vengeance on their deeds. Right? A title is given to him. It's addressed to God. You, O Lord, our God, you were to them God who forgives. Very clear that God forgives sins. And by the way, we shouldn't pass over the rest of that verse too quickly. Though you took vengeance on their deeds, sometimes we are guilty of thinking, well, I confess my sin, God has forgiven me, therefore there'll be no consequences from it. Not so. Very often our sins have consequences that God will visit us upon, not in the way of a judgment as he will on the day of judgment, but there are costs to our sins. You were to them God who forgives, though you took vengeance on their deeds. I think that's an important aspect of God's forgiveness. Numbers chapter 14 states this in verse 18. The Lord is long suffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children to the third and fourth generation. So the Lord is the one who forgives iniquity and transgression, but it says he doesn't clear the guilty. How can that be? How do we reconcile the two? Well, he gives He forgives iniquity and transgression by taking the guilty party, washing them in the blood of Christ, making them no longer guilty but righteous in Christ. Those sins he passes over. But the one who remains in their sin, unrepentant, unwashed in the blood of Christ, not trusting in the Savior, he does not clear those guilty. I think that's very clear from our Bibles. Matthew 19 says this, it shows that the salvation of men certainly involves the forgiveness of sins, that it's impossible unless God does it. Matthew 19, 25, when his disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished, saying, who then can be saved? But Jesus looked at them and said, with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. What is the point? The point is that man cannot take away man's sin against God. Man cannot atone for his own sins. Man cannot make himself right before God. It is impossible for man to be saved, which includes the forgiveness of sins. Only God can accomplish it. That's the teaching of the text. In 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, He, God, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So we have to conclude that the Bible does teach that God forgives sins. But how did Jesus respond to the question? When He saw their faith, they said to Him, He said to a man, your sins are forgiven. But you go down to verse 22. But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said to them, Why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier to say, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Rise up and walk? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. He said to the man who was paralyzed, I say to you, Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house. Well, sometimes in scripture, the Lord quotes scripture to show who he is, right? In fact, in one place he stands up and he says, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing, right? We have those testimony of scriptures. Other times he says to men, if you don't believe me, believe for the sake of, for the work's sake, right? But here he does what only God can do in several points, right? First of all, Jesus reveals the thoughts of their hearts. challenging them why they are even having these thoughts. Who but God alone knows your innermost thoughts? God knows your thoughts. God is the one that searches the heart. God is the one who knows the words before they form upon your lips, right? So Jesus perceiving their thoughts, he's demonstrating that he is God. He's doing what only God can do. But he also, he challenges them concerning the degree of difficulty of what he said. And the basic He's basically asking if it's actually easier to say, for a man to say, your sins are forgiven, or to say, rise up and walk. And some of the commentators reason this way through it. As they're reasoning in their hearts about the Lord Jesus, they may be saying, well, it's easy for him to say your sins are forgiven, because none of us can go into heaven and see the eternal record. None of us can see this man's heart and know what's in there. So he could say, it's easy, you know, your sins are forgiven. We have no way to catch him in this. But if he says rise up and walk, then we got something. But the Lord Jesus says to them, we'll find the spot here. After he perceived their thoughts, he answered and said to them, why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven you, or to say, rise up and walk. You see, in one sense, Jesus is saying, look, talk is cheap. Let me show you something. He's going to move on from just the words to power. So he's going to, in verse 24, he's going to make his purpose and his power plain. He says, but that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. You see, the Lord Jesus is saying something. We're here at this moment for one purpose. I want you to know who I am and what power I have. He says, but that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. That's his purpose. He said then to the man who is paralyzed, again, to fulfill his purpose of showing who he was, he says to the man who is paralyzed, I say to you, arise, take up your bed and go to your house. And his power is seen in the obedience to that command. Now we need to see this as we look at the fruit from what the Lord Jesus does here. First of all, we see in verse 25, that immediately the man, he rose up before them. He took up what he'd been lying on and he departed to his own house, glorifying God. And they were all amazed and they glorified God and were filled with fear saying, we have seen strange things today. But notice something. This man was healed and he obeyed. That's important. Now, I want to just stop for a moment. I think we might be prone to think that the man's sins were forgiven when he rose up off the ground. And that's not true. Previously, Jesus had only declared his sins forgiven, and forgiven they were. If the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed. That paralytic was as forgiven as any man has ever been while he was still unable to move on the ground and he could do nothing outwardly. Jesus had declared him forgiven. The point of his obedience was that Jesus might show others what Jesus had done for the man. So previously Jesus had declared he was forgiven, and he was. But now Jesus commands action that attests to Jesus' power and authority. And this man's obedience proves it all. That man glorified God. The man glorified God. He was healed. And the scriptures say he glorified God. We don't know exactly what that was. Perhaps it was rising. Maybe it was giving thanks. Maybe it was praising God. Maybe it was testifying to others. But the man glorified God. And I have to say, the true fruit of regeneration always glorifies God. If you're not glorifying God, it's likely there's been no regeneration. The people glorified God. This was the next one. The people glorified God were amazed and filled with fear. Right? So they saw something amazing. And they too glorified God because they had no other explanation for it. But it says they were filled with fear. This is a good reaction. When we hear from God and we behold his power, there ought to be a holy reverence in us. The people did not suppress the truth and unrighteousness as the scribes and Pharisees did. They glorified God. Now, there is a marveling over strange things that they had seen. And this is a good thing. Think about it when we hear the preaching of God's word or when we remember our own conversion. We have to recognize that we've seen strange things when wicked, sinful, selfish, polluted men and women turn from their sin to trust the God they once hated. Those are strange things that only the power of God can accomplish. Of course they marveled, just as we did when God saved us, or when we have seen the clear proof of God saving other sinners. Well, let's summarize this teaching from the scriptures. We have seen that the central question of Holy Scripture is the identity of the promised Messiah. Who is this? The Lord Jesus. We've considered the charge of blasphemy leveled against Jesus, and we found that it's false. He proved it was false when he raised this man up from his paralytic condition. He demonstrated that. And it's clear that that was for the intention of the scribes and Pharisees, but all who would read or hear God's word. God is speaking and wants us to know that the Lord Jesus Christ is not guilty of blasphemy. He really is God, and he really does take away sins. And we've pondered the crucial question of who but God can forgive sins. And the answer is no one. No one but God can forgive sins. So as we think about these things, how do we deal with the answers to these questions? It's really important. We don't come to hear a sermon to mark something off on our calendars as done, not to feel entertained, not to feel like something that we have a conscience about is satisfied. We come to hear what God has to say to us. And if God is speaking, we have a duty to respond to our God. First question, have you personally dealt with the central question of the Bible, who is this? If men from the dawning of time throughout all recorded redemptive history have been asking, who is this? Have you taken time to ask the question yourself, who is this that the Bible holds forth as the Son of God? Who is this that the Bible has described for us as the promised Messiah? Have you dealt with this question? Who is this? If you haven't, you're in a desperately terrible way. But perhaps you have. Perhaps you could say, yes, I've thought about who this is. And I've come to the conclusion that the Bible teaches that Jesus is the Messiah. And I've cast myself upon him. Well then, brother or sister, rejoice with great joy. Because you've met the only one in all of time and space that can take away your sins and reconcile you to God. And you are in a happy place. Secondly, have you examined the evidence presented in Scripture to determine if Jesus is guilty of blasphemy or is indeed the promised Messiah? Again, the second person, the triune Godhead. We see the charge laid out for us in Scripture. You see, the Bible doesn't hide questions that are hard for us. It lays them open that we can examine them. We need to examine the questions of Scripture. We need to examine the evidences of Scripture. We need to come to the right conclusions. Thirdly, and this one I think is really important and I want you to please carefully hear me on this. And I want to state it as plainly and as clearly as possible. Any man whoever he is, any religious figure, no matter who they are, any religious organization, no matter what their label, any man, religious figure, or religious organization that claims to forgive the sins you have committed against God is guilty of blasphemy. That's clear from our text. Only God forgives sin. If any man, if anyone other than the triune God declares your sins against God forgiven, run for your lives. You're dealing with a heretic who's guilty of blasphemy. And it happens all the time and I'm not going to run down the list of who they are. Those men, those religious figures, those organizations who dare to take the place of God are not to be trusted in spiritual matters at all for a single moment ever. And if you're under a system like that, or you're tempted to go under a system like that, think about what was said of the Lord Jesus. He would have been worthy of death if he had actually blasphemed. He didn't blaspheme because he's a son of God. Anyone presumes to do what only God can do needs to be considered an enemy of your never dying soul. Fourthly, if you examined the question and the evidence around the most important question in the Bible, who but God can forgive sin? This is a really important question. Who but God can forgive sin? Because the question sort of forces us to deal with ourselves, right? We have to deal honestly. And if we deal honestly, what do we say? We say, I'm a sinner, you're a sinner. God says we're sinners. Who are we to argue against God? All have sinned and all fall short of the glory of God. We're all sinners, therefore we need a Savior. God says that you and I natively are unrighteous. There's none righteous, no not one. God says we're unrighteous. If we're unrighteous, somebody needs to take away our unrighteousness. Somebody needs to make us righteous. God says that you are not good enough and cannot be good enough to ever enter into heaven on your own. In Romans chapter 3 we're told, by the works of the law, that's by good deeds, by obeying commandments, by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. So that says there's nothing we can do. There's no finagling we can do. There's no bargaining with God. We cannot get into heaven if we go on our own merits. So again you come back. to this question, who but God can forgive sins? If I'm a sinner, if you're a sinner, and only God can forgive sins, what are we gonna do about our sin? We must go to Him. We must determine that God is the one who forgives sins. We need to go to Him that He could be God who forgave, right? So it's an important question. We just can't say, okay, well, I heard about this sermon. The question was, who forgives sin but God? Well, that's good. What do you do with it? If you're a sinner, you've got to go to God. You've got to confess your sins. You've got to bow down and acknowledge that you're naked and guilty before Him and condemned. And the only thing keeping you alive is His kindness. And the only thing that'll keep you out of hell is the blood of Jesus Christ applied to you by the Holy Spirit when you turn to God in repentance and faith. It's an important question. Fifth, are you in the wickedness and laziness of your own heart sitting by as the scribes and Pharisees were? This is a really challenging question. I don't know everybody's heart. I don't know how many come here sincerely desiring to worship God, to praise God, to learn of God, and to obey him. But the scribes and Pharisees, they came to a big gathering. They came to a place where one was preaching God's Word, but they were sitting by. I have to ask you, if you come to this place to hear the word of God, which has been opened in your hearing, but perhaps you're lying in wait to poke holes in the sermon, which, by the way, wouldn't be terribly hard, but to poke holes in the sermon, or worse yet, to mock at God and blaspheme the Son of Man by not believing His claim to forgive sins. He's been talking to you and has called you to faith and repentance. Maybe many times, maybe many years, you've come and you've only been sitting by, not wanting to get too close to the Savior, not wanting to enter in by faith, just wanting to be close enough to be with the people who believe. That's not good enough. It's wickedness. It is sin if you're just sitting by to be amused or to satisfy someone else. You must come to the Savior. Since only God can forgive your sins, have you gone to Him and confessed your sins and sought the forgiveness only He can offer. There's only one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. There's no other name given to us under heaven by which we must be saved. Search the world over. Go through all of the phone books, if they exist, or the online registries. Find another name where it says next to it, by this name you can be saved. There is none. It is only the Lord Jesus Christ. Knowing that, by the way, knowing that He is the Savior will not save you. Knowing or believing that He is the Savior will not save you. Crying over your sins will not save you. These are all good things. But you must go to Him. That is an act of faith to go to Jesus. To bring your sins to Jesus. You have to go to Him. You need to go confessing your sins. owning your sins. You have to go handling your sins, agreeing with his righteous judgments against you concerning your sins. And you have to go having no other hope, no other back door, no other way to get around it. You need to go to God in this broken way, and you have to go trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. His work is finished on the cross, and you need to go and plead with him to forgive your sins. That's how you receive forgiveness of sins. that's active on your part. God has bid, and you must obey. Now Jesus came to save sinners, and when he does, there is fruit that proves that God has done a mighty work in a sinner's heart. And again, this goes back to our passage, but in our passage today, the paralyzed man, whose sins were forgiven, produced fruit and obedience. So are you producing the fruit of obedience? If you profess Christ in this place, does your life square with what he calls it to? Are you walking in holiness? Are you serving God? Are you gentle and kind and doing all the things that pleases God? This man actively glorified God. Well, how? Well, perhaps it was by singing God's praises, perhaps by proclaiming what great things God had done for him. Are you doing that? Am I doing that? Do I sing God's praises? Do I tell men what great things Christ has done for me? Or are you claiming to belong to Christ and failing to obey Him, failing to witness for Him, failing to open wide your mouth and sing His praises? To me, it's incongruous that a man or a woman is saved by the grace of God, and they can be indifferent to the Savior. indifferent to his worship, indifferent to serving him, not willing to open up their mouths and speak, not willing to sing his praises, not willing to get their hands dirty and get in and do the work of ministering when there's an opportunity. Again, I don't want to hurt anybody's tender conscience here, but we should examine ourselves. Do we bear the fruit of obedience and glorify God? And now I want to close with this because Spurgeon says it far better than I could ever say it. So bear with me. I think you will find this helpful. Spurgeon says this, when the Savior afterwards raised this palsied man to health and strength, he did not do it to let the man himself know that his sins were forgiven. The man knew that already, and did not need any more evidence of it. But Jesus did it for another reason. To the scribes and Pharisees He said, that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. He said to the man, saying to Balsy, I say unto thee, arise and take up thy bed and go into thine house. Those unbelieving men had not evidence enough that Christ could forgive, but he to whom Christ spake wanted no further proof than the power of that voice in his own conscience. And if he shall speak to thee, my hearer, thou wilt not want any books, about the evidences of scripture, the proofs of inspiration, and so on. To thee, this indisputable miracle of pardoned sin shall stand forever as a holy memorial of God's almighty grace. It shall be unto you for a sign, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off, that God has pardoned you and spoken peace to your soul. And this God shall be your God forever and ever. to every soul that is in a similar case to that of the poor, pausing man, lying, repenting, and believing in the feet of Jesus, his word gives the comfortable assurance, believe in thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven thee, and leave it, and go in thy way. Amen, Mr. Spurgeon, amen. Brethren, please bow with me in prayer. Our God and our Father, we are so thankful to you for Holy Scripture. We're thankful that you have shown us this question of who is this. You've shown to us that the Lord Jesus has not blasphemed you. You have shown us the most important question for what God alone can forgive sins. We're so thankful that it is salvation is of the Lord. We're thankful that you have made this known to us through your word. Father, we come to you. you on your own terms, in partaking of that free and sovereign grace and salvation that you offer in the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray, O God, that you would seal your truth to our hearts and help us, we believe, to go forth to serve and to obey you, to glorify you in all things, which is our great desire. O Father, we ask these things through Jesus our Lord. Amen.