WWUTT 2306 Jesus Heals a Leper and a Paralytic (Luke 5:12-26)

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Jesus healed a man who was covered head to toe in leprosy. He healed another man who was paralyzed, couldn't even walk on his own.

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But these miracles demonstrated that Jesus has authority to forgive sins when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible study in the word of Christ. For he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

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Tell your friends about our ministry at www .wtt .com. Hey, once again, it's Pastor Gabe.

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Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Luke, we are still in chapter five, and reading today of Jesus cleansing a leper and healing a paralytic, showing to us that he has authority even to forgive sins.

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Let me begin reading here in verses 12 through 26. Hear the word of the Lord. While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy.

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And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.

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And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him saying, I will be clean.

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And immediately the leprosy left him. And he charged him to tell no one, but go and show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing as Moses commanded for a proof to them.

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But now even more, the report about him went abroad and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities.

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But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray. On one of those days as he was teaching,

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Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem.

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And the power of the Lord was with him to heal. And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus.

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But finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus.

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And when he saw their faith, he said, man, your sins are forgiven you.

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And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question saying, who is this who speaks blasphemies?

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Who can forgive sins but God alone? When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them.

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Why do you question in your hearts, which is easier to say your sins are forgiven you or to say rise and walk, but that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

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He said to the man who was paralyzed, I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.

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And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying

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God. And amazement seized them all and they glorified

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God and were filled with awe saying, we have seen extraordinary things today.

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And it's really this miracle here that points us to the reason for these miracles that Jesus performed.

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It's so that we would see that he had authority not only to heal these diseases, but he had authority even to forgive sins.

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And both of these miracles even point to that. Let's go up to verse 12 once again.

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Jesus was in one of the cities and there came a man full of leprosy.

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Now, as we understand that description, it means that from the crown of his head down to the sole of his foot, this man was covered in leprosy.

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Now, if you're not familiar with the disease, if you don't know anything about it, you can always do a Google search, although I don't really recommend it.

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It's not for the squeamish. But if you've ever heard it described to you before, then you understand leprosy as being a skin disease.

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It may not be terribly common in our part of the world, but there are parts of the world where things are not able to be as clean, where leprosy is still a problem.

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So there are people in the world today that still suffer from it. And it is primarily a skin disease.

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It's a chronic bacterial infection specifically that can cause all kinds of sores and lesions and abrasions on the skin, but it can also affect the eyes.

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It can affect a person's nervous system so that they feel a chronic sense of pain all the time and can also affect a person's respiratory system and so that they have difficulty breathing.

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As we see it in scripture, it is often something that is described as a kind of a skin disease.

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When you see it in the law, and you look into descriptions of it that are given in the first five books of the

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Bible, in Genesis through Deuteronomy, then you see there also the precautions that needed to be taken.

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Whenever a person was found with leprosy, they were supposed to be isolated away from everybody else. And when the leprosy was healed, it was supposed to be inspected.

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That person had to make sacrifices even, a sacrifice of cleanliness. And it would be the priest who would officially declare whether that person was clean.

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That's important, of course, because of what Jesus tells this man who has been afflicted with leprosy, that he's going to go and show himself in the temple.

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When a person was known to have leprosy, at this time during Jesus' day, during the time of his earthly ministry, when somebody was found to have leprosy, they couldn't be in the city, they had to be outside.

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And then you've probably heard of things like leper colonies that would have been outside the city gates where the lepers lived.

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They could not be along the roadway, they had to be on the other side of the road. They had to cover themselves so that the grossness of their disease would not be in the eyes of others.

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And if anybody ever came near to them, or if they were ever moving through a crowd or coming near a crowd or anything like that, they had to shout unclean.

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They had to say that they were unclean so that people would keep away. So it's pretty significant here that when

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Jesus heals this man, he not only just heals him, but he also touches him. So this man is full of leprosy.

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And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.

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He has all faith and confidence that Jesus can heal him. This is the one

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I've heard about, who's going around healing diseases. He's speaking things with the authority of God and he's healing diseases with the authority of God so he can heal me too.

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And you don't see any doubt in this man when he comes before Jesus and says,

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Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. If you will, it's by the will of God that we are cleansed.

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We are to have faith. We are to put our trust in Jesus and believe. And if we do so,

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God has promised that he will cleanse us. But ultimately it is by the will of God that a person is cleansed.

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Not because they did anything to merit God's favor, but because God showed favor, because it was

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God's desire that one would be healed, cleansed of their sins. And so it is here with Jesus that he is willing to heal this man.

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And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. Again, that's also demonstrating the power of God because no one touched lepers.

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I didn't wanna catch any leprosy, but Jesus touches this man because he's not only gonna heal this man, but this man's leprosy is no threat to him.

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He is God incarnate. And Jesus says to him, I will. I am willing.

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Be clean. And immediately it says the leprosy left him.

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He could take his bandages off or the garments, the scraps of sackcloth that were probably wrapped around him.

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He could take all of that off and see youthful skin underneath. This man was completely healed.

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Immediately the leprosy has left him. But Jesus charged him to tell no one.

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Instead he says this, go show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing as Moses commanded for a proof to them.

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And that's taken from Leviticus chapter 14. Now here's what we have at the very beginning.

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This is actually a long description. I'm not gonna go all the way through it, but here's a few verses here at the start of Leviticus 14.

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The Lord spoke to Moses saying, this shall be the law of the leprous person for the day of his cleansing.

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He shall be brought to the priest. And the priest shall go out of the camp and the priest shall look.

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Then if the case of leprous disease is healed in the leprous person, the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed, two live birds and cedar wood and scarlet yarn and hyssop.

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And the priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthen well vessel over fresh water.

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Anyway, on and on it goes with the ceremony that needs to be taken to declare that this person has actually been cleansed and he would make a sin offering as well.

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And so here where Jesus heals this man, he tells him to follow the instruction of going to the temple and showing himself to the priest so that it can be seen that a genuine miracle has been performed in Israel, real and authenticated and witnessed by the priests who are serving there in the temple.

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Because this man as a leper would have been written down in a leper's register so that it was known that he was unclean.

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So he can't come into the temple and try to sacrifice because we know him to be unclean.

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And if he's gonna have his name taken off of that record, well, then he has to show that he is clean.

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And so that's what he comes to do. Now, the man has been so afflicted with leprosy that nobody's gonna think that immediately this man could be cured.

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It would have to take weeks and weeks and weeks, but here he's gonna just show up and show himself to the priest in the temple and they're going to see for themselves and it will be a proof to them.

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You know, later on in chapter nine, Jesus will send out the 12 apostles and this is where he tells them to go from town to town.

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You're gonna have authority to cast out demons, to cure diseases, and you're gonna proclaim the message of the kingdom of God and heal.

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And he says to them, take no money for your journey, no bag, no bread, just your tunic.

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And in whatever house you enter, stay there and from there depart. And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town, shake the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.

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Really a similar kind of wording that's used there in Luke 9, 5 as what we see here in Luke 5, verse 14.

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So you're gonna show yourself to the priest as a proof to them. There is also going to be in that proving a testimony against them because of course the

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Pharisees would testify against Jesus as being the son of God, but the fact that this leprous man would go into the temple and show himself as being cleansed is a testimony to the fact that Jesus is in fact the son of God.

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So it would be a proof even against them. But in verse 15 it says, but now even more the report of him went abroad and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities, but he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.

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There were times and places where Jesus thought it right and appropriate and moved with compassion would heal the diseases of many.

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But there were other occasions when he would not do that. We saw that in Nazareth in the previous chapter when

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Jesus had revealed himself through reading from the prophet Isaiah that he was in fact the

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Messiah that Isaiah had prophesied about. And the people wanted to see miracles performed by him, but Jesus said that he wouldn't do them and they tried to kill him because he had said that.

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So there were occasions in which Jesus had chosen not to heal, but other times moved with compassion he would indeed heal.

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And so we see in this story, Jesus willingness to cleanse this leper. I am willing, so be clean.

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But again, the fact that he's described as being full of leprosy from the top of his head down to the sole of his foot, this is also a picture of the fact that we are full of sin from the crown of our head down to the very bottom of our feet.

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There is no part of us that has not been corrupted because of our sin and rebellion against God.

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We are so thoroughly and totally sinful that we need a savior who will forgive us of our sins.

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And that's what this next miracle demonstrates that Jesus is in fact that savior. Here's verse 17.

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On one of those days as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who would come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem.

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And the power of the Lord was with him to heal. Now the power of the Lord was with him always, but this is just simply to say that Jesus was going to do healing among them that day.

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Faith was strong among those who would come to him for healing. And so it is

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God's will that Jesus would perform this miracle here. Verse 18. And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus.

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This is the same account that we've already read in Matthew and in Mark.

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Such an important healing miracle because of what Jesus says in connection with this miracle.

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Verse 19. Finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let down, and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus.

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This is already demonstrating the faith of these men believing that Jesus can heal their friend so that they go to great lengths to make sure their friend would be before Jesus and receive healing.

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Verse 20. When he saw their faith, he said, man, your sins are forgiven you.

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And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question saying, who is this who speaks blasphemies?

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Who can forgive sins but God alone? And when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, why do you question in your hearts?

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Which is easier to say your sins are forgiven you or to say rise and walk? Now I'm gonna present that same question to you.

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I did this previously when we were in Matthew and in Mark also. You answer the question, which is easier to say?

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Is it easier to say your sins are forgiven you or is it easier to say rise and walk? What is the significance of that question?

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You can say to a person, your sins are forgiven you, but you can't prove it. There's nothing external.

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There's nothing that you can do on the outside. There's no power that you can demonstrate to show conclusively that what has happened is what you said.

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Your sins are forgiven you. That's something that happens on the inside. That's something that happens in a way that we cannot see with our eyes or perceive with our senses that a person's sins have been forgiven.

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So you can say that someone's sins have been forgiven and you don't have to back it up with proof because how can you do that?

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How can you prove something that, I mean, is otherwise gonna be unseen? But then the other question, which is easier to say, rise and walk.

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Why is that one harder to say than your sins are forgiven you? Well, you can say your sins are forgiven and that's an internal thing.

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So there's no way externally you can prove it. But to say to a person rise and walk, that one you've got to prove.

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If you're gonna tell somebody to rise and walk, then he needs to do that. He actually has to stand up and walk.

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And then you will see the power and the authority in the person that tells a man that he can rise and walk.

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Well, if he can show that power through the healing of a man, just by speaking a word to him, then he also has the power and the authority to forgive sins and to make this declaration that your sins are forgiven you, it must be true because he could make a lame man walk.

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So verse 24, but that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

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And he said to the man who was paralyzed, I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.

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You know, in the book of Deuteronomy, I believe this is chapter 13, where the Lord warns

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Israel to beware those who come to you performing all kinds of signs and wonders and saying prophetic things.

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But then they tell you to follow after other gods or there may be a false prophet. This is in chapter 18.

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There may be a false prophet who comes in among you. And he prophesied something in the word that he says comes to pass, but then he tells you to follow after other gods.

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Well, you shall not listen to that false prophet or that dreamer of dreams. If a false prophet comes to you and declares something and it doesn't come to pass, well, then he spoke a word that didn't even come from the

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Lord anyway. So there's these tests that are given with regard to these false prophets or false teachers who will even perform great signs and wonders to lead you astray.

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Jesus warned his elect about that in Matthew 24, as well telling the disciples, beware those who will come to you performing great signs and wonders.

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So as to lead astray, even if possible, God's elect, see, I have told you beforehand, he says to them.

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But of all these miracles, of all the signs and wonders that Jesus says

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Satan or a false prophet may do to try to lead you astray, none of those signs and wonders are healing.

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The only one who can truly heal is Jesus and the ones to whom he has given that authority.

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Satan doesn't do that. That's never a miracle that Satan performs to try to lead astray the people of God because he can't do it.

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Only God can do this. And so it therefore demonstrates the authority by which

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Jesus both heals and tells a person that his sins are forgiven.

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The proof behind him being able to say your sins are forgiven is demonstrated in the fact that he was able to tell this man, rise and walk, and he did.

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But that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. And then he says to the man,

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I say to you, rise and pick up your bed and go home. And immediately he rose before them and picked up what he had been lying on and he went home glorifying

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God and amazement seized them all. And they all glorified

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God and were filled with awe saying, we have seen extraordinary things today.

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We are lame as well. We are afflicted with leprosy in the sense that we are covered from head to toe in our sin.

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We are lame in that we can't do anything for ourselves. We can't even raise ourselves up off of a mat to follow

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Jesus. The only way that we can be healed of our infirmities is to come to the

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Lord Jesus Christ and put our faith and our trust in him. And then the thing that afflicts us, which is actually worse than leprosy and worse than being a quadriplegic is our sin.

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And that which afflicts us so mightily and is the reason why we die and would be the reason why we would go to hell if left untreated.

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That very disease that afflicts us is what Jesus forgives when we come to him and we place our faith and trust in him.

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He cleanses us of all unrighteousness. 1 John 1 .9, that we may stand before him as holy.

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He alone has the authority to do this. So turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and live.

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Heavenly father, we thank you for what we've read, a great reminder of the authority that Jesus has to forgive sin.

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And now may we follow in the pattern of holiness, the instruction and the call of holiness that he has given to us.

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If we've been cleansed by Christ, then let us walk. We've been lifted up off our mat.

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Let us walk after Jesus. Let us declare ourselves clean and show ourselves as a testimony of the goodness of God in our lives, that we may be holy and upright before you until the day of Christ.

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It's in his name that we pray, amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the

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Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website, www .wutt

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.com and click on the Give tab in the top right corner of the page. Join us again tomorrow as we continue our