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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/shad-kember-jr/god-can-forgive-sins/
Reading tonight is going to be in Mark's Gospel. Mark's Gospel and Chapter 2. Mark's Gospel and Chapter 2 and since most of us are familiar with the story we're just going to break in at verse number 5.
Mark's Gospel 2 and verse number 5. When Jesus saw their faith, He said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. But there were certain of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, why doth this man thus speak blasphemies?
Who can forgive sins but God only? And immediately when Jesus perceived in His Spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, He said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts? Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Arise and take up thy bed and walk?
But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins. He said to the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, Arise and take up thy bed and go thy way into thine house. And immediately He arose and took up the bed and went forth before them all in so much that they were all amazed and glorified God saying, We never saw it on this fashion.
So, I want you to notice and I guess to tell you the origin of my focus on this particular theme is, as you know, it's very helpful to listen to other men preach the gospel. And so whenever you listen to them preach, your mind goes off in different tangents and different directions.
So, this was one I was listening to them, our brothers preach the gospel the other night in Miriam. It's very refreshing to hear the gospel. And this was one of the themes that was touched on was what it takes for a person to be forgiven.
And the first thing in a list of words that started with G was the word God. And just from there, my mind went off into this little focus, which is where we're going to park our message for tonight. And hopefully you can take a little look at it and hopefully it can be helpful to you if indeed you are interested in obtaining the forgiveness of your sins.
It is absolutely correct that for your sins to be forgiven, first off it takes God. And I think that's what we have got here acknowledged even in the comments and criticism of the enemies of the Lord Jesus.
They said, who can forgive sins but God alone. So, I just want to take that little statement and put over it these three words. God can forgive sins. So, that tells me a little simple thing. There is a possibility tonight.
And we hope that that possibility will turn into a personal reality in the forgiveness of your sins. We have a case of it here in the very man that the Lord Jesus spoke to in this home in Capernaum. He said to him, son, be of good cheer.
I'm borrowing from Matthew's gospel too. Son, be of good cheer. Your sins be forgiven thee. I don't know if the man wasn't of good cheer. But from that moment forward, he certainly had opportunity and reason to be of good cheer.
Another verse is coming to my mind where David himself quoted by Paul in Romans chapter 4, writing a thousand years and plus before the occasion, speaks about all the happinesses of the man whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
All the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity. And that is a capturing for us of the fact that God can forgive sins. If we were to read in the Old Testament in Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse number 34, God, it says, will forgive.
I will forgive their iniquities. God can forgive. And it's predicted in the Old Testament. We've just sung it as God's grand prerogative. And it was something that was prophesied and God is prophesying it in the relationship of a nation that will see the salvation of the Lord.
And God says, I will forgive their iniquities. God will forgive. God can forgive. And on our verse and story that we have read tonight, God does forgive. And there is ample case studies where we able to sum them all up and you could have the time and the patience to listen to all their stories.
One by one, they can vouch for this reality that God can because God has predicted he would. And as a result in their personal experience, each person saved can say tonight that God does forgive sin. This man, this day received the forgiveness of sins.
Son, be of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven thee. So it's a wonderful thing to be forgiven. Why can or why does it have to be God alone that can forgive sin? These people were absolutely right. It takes God alone who has the authorization who has the right to forgive sins.
But why would we, why can we, are we just going to stop there or can we explore that and find out something more about that? So here's a list of things I would suggest to you for your consideration. The reason that God can forgive your sins tonight is because he's the judge.
God is the judge. And that tells me he has the authority. He has the authority obviously to condemn you for your sins, but in wonderful mercy tonight, because he is the judge, he is the one who is officially authorized.
He is personally qualified. He is the only one who can actually give you a true, a true forgiveness, a true pardon, a complete pardon. It will be an official pardon from the bench of the highest of size in the universe.
God tonight can forgive sins. That's a wonderful possibility. And we learned tonight that God can forgive sins because God is the judge. And that means he has authority to do so. The second reason that comes to my mind, why he can forgive sins is because he's wise.
And that tells me that he has the ability to recognize what is sin and what is not. No one's going to snow God. God's not going to be confused about the matter. He is not going to be deliberate in there and somewhat in a dilemma and uncertain just what to do with your case.
He is one who was wise. He is one who is all knowing. He is absolutely unlimited in his intelligence, his insight into understanding your particular guilt and your particular case is absolutely flawless.
It is fault free. And this is a God tonight who can forgive your sins because he is wise. He has the ability. A third reason why he can forgive your sins is because he's actually the law giver. And the Bible tells us that there is one law giver who is able to destroy, who is able to save and to destroy.
As the law giver, like most judges, they don't make the law. They're just tasked with actually applying the law and making sure that the law is carried out. But here is one tonight who is not only the judge, but he's the law giver who has actually written down the very laws that you have violated and broken because of your sins.
So this God tonight has carefully analyzed the situation. He has a full appraisal and a full appreciation of what righteousness really is. And he understands and thoroughly comprehends what unrighteousness is.
And in his divine assessment and in his official administration of this moral universe, God is the grand legislator. He is the law giver. He is the one law giver. And what does that tell me? That tells me that as the law giver, he's able to do just that because he has morality.
You and I are all twisted, fallen, broken, guilty, contaminated, confused sinners. Our sense of right and wrong, at its very best, will still be skewed and subject to flaw. But here is one who has absolute impeccable morality, absolute impeccable holiness.
And this one who is absolutely sin free, a God who is a just judge. The Bible tells me that God judges the righteous and that God is angry with the wicked every day. So I want to tell you tonight, this is the God that can forgive your sins because he understands the whole framework, the whole constitution of the laws that he has put in place, which are inviolable, which are unassailable, which are unchangeable, which are representative of his sterling upright character.
And before such a judge tonight, you stand completely condemned. This is the God tonight that wants to bring about your blessing and salvation. Why is he able to be the judge that can forgive your sins?
Why is he the God that can forgive your sins? Well, because he has actually provided the means for it to happen. You know why? Because he has mercy. He has mercy. So he's the judge. He has authority. He's wise.
He has ability. He is the lawgiver. He has morality. He knows how to make the laws up. He is the one that has provided the means to make it happen. He has mercy. And that's what we want to tell you about tonight because this weekend is the historic occasion as we have just heard mentioned when God's lamb, when the Lord Jesus was the great provision so that your sins could be forgiven.
The Bible tells us that apart from the shedding of blood, it is impossible for sins to be remitted. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. Without someone dying, your sins cannot be forgiven.
So from the divine point of view, the prerequisite for the forgiveness of your sins is someone has to die. And the one that deserves to die in relation to your sins is you yourself, because you're responsible for those sins.
But the story of the cross is that there the God of heaven constructed a plan in which the one who never sinned, nor could, nor ever did, is the one who would die at the cross, and God would make him pay so that God can forgive sins.
You get a little picture of that in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, when there was sin that was committed, the person had to, must have been an embarrassing thing. Although you couldn't know it 100 for sure.
Because sometimes a man would take an animal to the priest and have it sacrificed because he was just really grateful and he wanted to worship God. He wanted to thank God. But of course, and maybe this is more often than the other one, people when they did wrong, they had to take that long walk to the gate of the tabernacle and present, they had to approach, and they had to approach to the altar, and they had to approach to the authorized priest, and they had to approach with the proper animal.
And then they had to put their hand on its head. And they had to feel it quiver and take its last breath as its blood was shed. And in silence there, nobody's talking. It's a grim situation. And that little animal is going to die.
And the Bible says that that animal will be accepted for him. That animal is going to be accepted for him. And on the basis of that sacrifice, and that animal, it says there will be atonement made for that person.
And if you combine and look at other verses, you'll get the not only the acceptance of the sacrifice, you not only get atonement being paid for the guilty. But you have these precious words, his trespass, which he has committed shall be forgiven him the forgiveness of sins.
So that's as plain and simple to understand as God can make it. Because at the cross, we're not talking about an animal. We're talking about God's Son. We're talking about your approach, not to a priest, but to the God of heaven, and the authorized priest, and the accepted sacrifice.
And the altar is the cross, and the Lord Jesus is the one, and he is the priest, and he is the sacrifice, and he is going to shed his blood. And they're combined at the cross is the wonderful process that is necessary, so that your sins can be paid for.
So that God can forgive sins, who can forgive sins, but God alone. And all alone, God undertook your cause, and your case, and your condemnation. And it was laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Son, who had never sinned, was punished by God, and became answerable for your sin, and took the responsibility, and stepped into your place.
And at the cross, God's Son shed his blood. And the prophecy of long ago, I will forgive. And the possibility God can forgive. In the case of the man in Mark chapter 2, became a personal present reality.
God did forgive. Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee. Did you know that tonight, you could have that same blessing from the same person, based on the same process, of a price without par, without anything even close to it, that was paid at the cross of Calvary by the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is forgiveness, God does say, through the blood. Both sin and guilt are put away through the blood. I was nearly tempted to give that hymn out tonight, even though I don't think it's in our believer's hymn book, but I thought we could sing it by memory anyway.
Better than singing it by memory, is being able to experience it in reality. And to know that your sins are all forgiven. Your sins are all gone. But I want to say to you tonight as well, the reason why God alone can forgive your sins is because He was there when it happened.
Every time you sinned. You never committed one sin. With God in absenteeism, He was present. He's omnipresent. He's not present, He's not only present everywhere, He's present everywhere all the time.
So there's never been any lapse. You know what I'm telling you? I'm telling you that He is the one that has observed your sin. So He's got firsthand history. And it's not just that He observed your sin.
It's actually that your sin, when you committed it, even though you might have been unaware of it at the moment when it happened, is actually sin that was specifically targeted against God. It was an expression of the hatred and hostility of your human heart.
And at the cross, the God that was offended because of your sin. And you know, God's not in heaven saying, yep, that was sin. I just saw, yep, that's a sin. There's another one. Yep. Yep. He's not just sitting there giving an intellectual appraisal and analysis of what you have done.
Do you know that every time you have sinned, God is so holy that it has profoundly insulted Him? The Bible speaks about the wrath of God. It's a God that is outraged because of your sin. It's a God that's never become accustomed to it.
It's a God that has outlawed your sin. It's a God that has observed your sin. It's a God that has taken into your account your sin. And even at this very moment, if you are not saved, the Bible says that the wrath of God is upon you.
And you're so blind. And you're so oblivious to it. That in all probability, you'll pass the entire day today, completely relaxed, calm and cool as a cucumber. I don't know where that expression came from.
That's exactly the thing. You're just sitting there completely complacent, completely relaxed. Do you know, I remember the night that I got saved. And I know they can talk, you know, they talk about the danger of simply a person being scared into getting saved, and their conscience doesn't get awakened.
Okay, I understand that. But I was reading Romans three the night I got saved. So I think it talks about sin a bit there. So I knew I wasn't a little angel. And you're not either. So don't be sitting there smirking either.
Right? You know, because but you know what, I remember that night, that it had come to such a crisis point. That in my little mind, I made up my plan, impossible, impossible it was. But you know what, when you're desperate, you can make up even impossible plans.
I want to ask somebody tonight, are you are you desperate to get saved? That night, I remember I made up my plan that I'm not even going to sleep the entire night. You ever tried to do that? You ever tried to stay awake the whole night?
Well, maybe when you got to sleep over, you got somewhere, you know, there's something to do. There's fun to be had. But that night, I made my plan, I was not going to sleep the entire night. You say that was a stupid thing to do?
Yeah, maybe. But why do you think I did it? Because I was afraid that if I fell asleep that night, I might not wake up in my bedroom, but I might wake up in hell in the morning. I didn't even want to take any chance at all.
I didn't want to postpone it. That night, I was absolutely, completely terrified of going to hell. The wrath of God is real. And the reason why God is the one who is particularly equipped and particularly the one to forgive your sins is because he's the one that has been personally offended by your sin.
He has sensitivity. So we can just go down through the list. Why can God forgive sins? He's the judge. He has authority. Why can God forgive sins? He's wise. He's got ability. Why can God forgive sins?
Because he's the lawgiver. He has morality. Why can God forgive sins? Because he's the one that was there when it happened. He has history with you and you have history with him. His history is spotless.
Your history is sin filled. Why can God forgive sins? Because he's the one that you've offended by your sins. He has sensitivity. He's holy. But why can God forgive sins? Because he provided the way in which it could happen.
And he punished Christ at the cross. Because he wanted to be able to forgive your sins. And the only way sins can be forgiven is if first of all they're punished. If first of all they're paid. And because a sacrifice has been accepted upon the altar, atonement has been made.
And Christ's sacrifice has been accepted for you in your place. Instead of you being sacrificed, Christ was. And as a result, the trespasses that you have committed based on what Christ did can be forgiven you.
I will, God will forgive sins. God can forgive sins. But tonight, God does forgive sins. Don't let another day pass without receiving the forgiveness of sins. You know what the alternative is? The alternative is eternal condemnation by the same God who could forgive your sins tonight.
Be wise. Think it carefully. Make the choice with wisdom. It's your opportunity. And it could be your last. May God help you to be saved even tonight, shall we pray?