Blasphemer or God? Matthew 9:1-8

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In any story, there are main characters, and then you have a supporting cast.
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In the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, there is no question who the main character is.
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The main character is Jesus. What is so remarkable about human history is that the one who created all things becomes the main character in the story that he wrote.
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2 ,000 years ago, he took on flesh and accomplished what he set out to accomplish.
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As 1 Timothy 1 .15 says, Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
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Indeed, Jesus came on a rescue mission, and when he died and rose again, that mission was accomplished.
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The Gospel of Matthew, as we have seen thus far, is taking us through his short time on earth where he accomplished everything that he set out to accomplish.
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To this point, indeed, we have seen that the creator of the story of life entered the story of life as life's main character.
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We have seen evidence that Jesus is not a mere man sent from God, but rather the
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God -man sent by his Father. We have seen that he is the
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Messiah who brings to completion the forever promise of the line of David. He was born of a virgin.
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He was worshiped by Gentile star watchers. God the
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Father spoke from heaven and called him his only son. The Spirit of God descended on him like a dove.
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He was tested by Satan, but unlike Adam, he passed the test, resisting temptation to sin.
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He then preached the best sermon in the history of the world titled, The Sermon on the
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Mount. He healed people. He called people to count the cost and leave everything to follow him.
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He calmed a raging storm with a word, and he was able to cast out legions of demons with a word.
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Who is this man? He is God, and he is man.
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And this morning, we are going to see him do something that only God can do.
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And what he does is going to once again, send his biggest earthly opponents into a frenzy.
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At this time, I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me to Matthew chapter 9. We will be looking at verses 1 through 8.
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If you're using a red Bible in the pews, it's on page 967. The sermon is titled,
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Blasphemer or God? And here's our big idea. There is only one man who has authority equal to God.
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There is only one man who has authority equal to God. And we're going to see three observations in these eight verses.
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But before we jump in, let me give you a little recap of where we have been. The last three Sundays, we have taken a break from going verse by verse through Matthew.
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The place where we left off on December 6th, the last time we were in Matthew was the end of chapter 8.
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In that story, we saw two demon -possessed men. What we saw is their possession was different from the first episode of demon possession in Matthew.
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These two demon -possessed men were inhabited by legions of demons. These men were tormented severely.
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Their lives were being destroyed. Their bodies were abused. And these demons led them to be violent.
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The townspeople bound these men by chains, but that didn't matter because the demons were so strong.
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They were able to break through these chains. They were able to drive these men out into the countryside. These men were desperately in need of help and only one could help them.
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And he approached them. And when Jesus approached the two men, the legions of demons inside them knew who was approaching.
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They knew that Jesus was not just a man, but he was God. And he is God. Thousands of years ago, before Jesus witnessed
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Satan and all his demons get cast out of heaven for rebellion against God, they remembered that.
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These demons know that Jesus will cast them into the lake of fire in the future.
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That is why in this text, they ask him if he is going to cast them into the lake of fire before the time. The time being the final judgment at the end of the age.
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They are terrified of Jesus and plead with him to send them into the pigs. Jesus granted their request.
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And these demons entered 4 ,000 pigs. They run down the hill and they drown the pigs.
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And this was, of course, the talk of the town. But the townspeople had a similar response to Jesus as the demons.
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They too were afraid of him. To be in the presence of perfection showed them their sin.
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To be in the presence of the one that had power over evil showed them the trouble they were in.
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They did not want Jesus around. This is what sinners do. They run from righteousness because they love the darkness rather than the light.
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That's what the Apostle John always wrote. They love darkness rather than light. What we saw in this text is that Jesus' absolute power over evil frightens the guilty.
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Everyone who does not know Christ fears judgment. But no one has to fear judgment if one trusts in Christ for their salvation.
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That's why he went to the cross, so that you don't have to fear judgment. And this is my prayer for everyone in this room, that everyone would know
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Christ as their Lord, Savior, and treasure. And in this way, you await only blessing, not judgment.
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Now this leads us to our text this morning. I'm going to begin by reading the first two verses of chapter nine, where Jesus once again does something that shows he is more than a man.
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Let's read this together. And getting into a boat, he crossed over and came to his own city.
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And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed.
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And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven.
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Now, as I already showed you in our previous text, Jesus healed the demon -possessed men.
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He performed this miracle on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee in a region known as the
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Gadarenes. After some time, he returns to the western side where he spent most of his time during his life and ministry.
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Jesus' hometown was Nazareth, but as we know, he famously was rejected by his hometown.
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And so his adopted home became Capernaum, according to Mark 2 .1,
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which is a parallel text to this account in Matthew. We already saw Jesus heal
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Peter's mother -in -law in chapter 8 of Matthew. And it was at this home,
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Peter's home, that was really Jesus' home base. This is where he probably slept, where he and his disciples spent a lot of time.
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What Mark 2 .1 tells us is that this is where Jesus was as these people are carrying this paralytic to him.
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Now, our account in Matthew does not explain the difficulty they went through to reach him, but Mark does.
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What Mark 2 .1 tells us is that when people heard that Jesus was at this home, crowds pursued him.
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We've already seen this. Wherever Jesus was, people would follow him.
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In the past, I've described it as like Tiger Woods on a golf course. As he goes from hole to hole, the crowds would follow him.
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Wherever Jesus went, the crowds would follow him. He was the greatest phenomenon on earth at this time.
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And by the way, he's the greatest phenomenon there ever has been and ever will be. But the proof is in the pudding, right?
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And it is in the pudding because people just went wherever he went, unlike anything anyone has ever seen before.
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Mark 2 .2 tells us that many were gathered together so that there was no more room in the house, not even at the door.
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And Jesus was preaching the word to them and they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.
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So what we see here is that as they carried this man to Jesus, they couldn't get through the door. The front door was overcrowded.
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So they had to come up with plan B. Mark 2 .4 tells us what that plan was.
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And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him. And when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay.
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So what we read here is that they cut a hole in the roof in order to get to him.
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What is interesting is that many homes in this region of the world at this time had two floors.
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Today, it's pretty common, right? Two floors, but at this time, this was the most common thing. There's a lower level and there is an upper level.
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When Jesus ate the last supper, what did they call it? They call it the upper room.
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So they were on the second floor. So the second floor in homes was the place of fellowship. The men carrying the paralytic would have known this.
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They would have known this is where socializing happened. So what they did is they cut the hole in the roof.
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Now, hopefully, Peter has insurance, has a hole, is now in his roof. This is my cheesy joke of the sermon.
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People laugh at the coming after it, not the joke itself. You like that? But Jesus is not bothered by this, of course.
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They cut the hole in and they drop the paralytic through.
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Let's read Jesus' response to them. It's so interesting how Jesus responds to different people.
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And as you might imagine, his response is very positive to these men and the paralytic they are carrying.
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And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven.
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So what we read here is that Jesus saw their faith. What we learned from the Mark account is that four men carried this paralytic.
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And of course, we know what a paralytic is. He can't walk. And he hasn't been able to walk for years, possibly his whole life.
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Now, the text does not say his faith or some of their faith, but their faith.
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So everyone, all five of them, the four men carrying the paralytic and the paralytic have faith here.
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And this is how faith works. This is how salvation works. You believe in Jesus and what happens?
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Your sins are forgiven. And that's what we see in this verse. Jesus sees their faith and what happens?
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Their sins are forgiven. Just like the centurion of chapter eight, these men believed that Jesus had the power to heal.
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They believed that he was from God. They knew that he was not just a miracle worker, like a magician, but that he was holy, meaning he was entirely pure.
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In the previous chapter, we saw that the people did not want him around, not so much because he was powerful, but because of what kind of power he had.
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He had holy power, righteous power. One of the greatest preachers of the 20th century was a
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British man by the name of Dr. Martin Lloyd -Jones. He was a physician by trade, but also a preacher.
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For 30 years, he pastored Westminster Chapel in London. This is an interesting story that happened to him while he was pastoring at this church.
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A woman who had been involved in the occult, the occult meaning magic, where it's very demonic.
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Lots of power, but it's evil power. She came to his church.
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And what she said to Martin Lloyd -Jones is that she was familiar with power.
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She knew what power was because she experienced it through magic. But the power she experienced when she walked into Westminster Chapel was a holy power.
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That's what she told him. She sensed it. She walked in the door. She said, I'm used to power, but this is different from the power that I'm used to.
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This is a different kind of power. The power that in this church is a holy power, where before she was used to only evil power.
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The people who followed Jesus during his ministry knew how powerful he was. He healed people.
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He cast out demons. He calmed a big storm. But they knew he was perfect morally.
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This is why sinners were so uncomfortable around him. As we saw with the townspeople from the other side of the
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Sea of Galilee. Remember, they told Jesus to get away. There's an account in the
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Gospels where Peter tells Jesus, get away from me, for I am a sinner. And he did that after Jesus did a miracle.
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But here we see something different. The paralytic and the men with him had faith.
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We get the impression as we read this that as they approached him, they were afraid.
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And they were afraid because of the one they were standing before. These men had more faith than the disciples who were almost overtaken by fear when the storm came in the previous chapter.
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And remember, Jesus rebuked them because they were so afraid. But the men and the paralytic, we can imagine this, they still tremble a little bit as they approach him.
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But Jesus does not rebuke them. But he is encouraged by them.
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We know there is some trembling here because at the end of verse two, Jesus tells the paralytic to take heart. To take heart is to take courage.
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We need courage when we're afraid. These are comforting words from Jesus.
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He says, you don't need to be afraid. Be strengthened. Take heart. This is really what
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Jesus was saying here. He says, you no longer have to be afraid of anything. It was not that the man's fears had not been real and well -founded.
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After all, an unrepentant sinner is separated from God and under divine judgment.
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That's a lot to be afraid of. But when he repents in faith, he no longer has reason to fear because he is no longer under judgment.
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Out of everything happening in the world, what should we be most afraid of? I'm talking about people on planet
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Earth. God, His judgment. Because we as sinners stand condemned before Him.
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And if we are saved in Christ, the fear is gone. This is the most marvelous thing ever.
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You could have the worst day in the world, but if you have Christ, that's a good day. Every day is a good day because you are forgiven in Christ.
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To be forgiven means that God no longer counts your sins against you.
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There's no judgment awaiting you, but only blessing, as you will dwell with Him forever in eternal bliss.
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And this is what he's telling the paralytic. You don't need to be afraid anymore. You are forgiven.
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Jesus even shows the intimate fellowship He wants with the paralytic. That's so wonderful about God, about Christ.
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He doesn't just want to forgive us. He wants to be our friend. We join the family of God. We have this deep, rich, intimate fellowship that is found nowhere else.
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He calls Him, My Son. How sweet is that?
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You don't need to dread God. You are forgiven. And my prayer is that everyone in this room would know Christ and so that you would indeed be forgiven.
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One of the most famous figures from church history, I've mentioned him many times, is Martin Luther. Before his conversion, he was a
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Roman Catholic that thought he needed to keep doing good things or else God would throw him to hell.
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He was never at rest, but always overtaken by anxiety. He couldn't sleep at night.
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He was tormented by this fear that God was going to throw him into hell. But once he understood the
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Gospel, truly understood the Gospel through reading the Bible and understood that salvation comes through faith alone and not based on our own merit, everything changed for Luther.
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This is what he wrote when he realized through his proper reading of the Bible that he could be completely forgiven in a moment by believing that through faith alone in Christ alone, apart from works, one could be forgiven.
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This is what he wrote. My situation was that although an impeccable monk,
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I stood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage
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Him. Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that the just shall live by His faith.
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Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy,
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God justifies us through faith. As it is written, he through faith is righteous shall live.
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Thereupon, I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise.
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The whole Scripture took on a new meaning. And whereas the justice of God had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet and greater love.
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This passage of Paul's became to me a gate to heaven. You can just see the relief as he shares this quote.
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Oh, he was so tormented and now he's free. He is forgiven and nothing can change that.
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It's not based on your works. It's based 100 % on what Christ did on your behalf.
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This is what the Lord says to all of us who believe, do not fear, do not dread. Your sins are forgiven through faith.
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How sweet it is to live in that. There is one man who has authority equal to God and the first observation is that he alone can forgive sins.
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The second observation is this, some refuse to recognize his unique standing.
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Some refuse to recognize his unique standing. Verses three through seven, we'll see this. What Christ said to the paralytic rubbed his greatest enemies on earth, the
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Jewish leaders, the wrong way. Let's read what they say in their hearts in verse three.
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And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, this man is blaspheming.
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We'll stop right there. So the verse tells us that the scribes thought he was blaspheming.
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In another parallel account to this in Luke 5 .21, we learn that the Pharisees were also present as they see this miracle performed.
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And now to remind you, the Pharisees were a Jewish sect, a party that strictly held to the
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Old Testament. But their problem was that they elevated tradition over the
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Bible. And this is what happens when this takes place is that false teaching takes over.
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The scribes were very similar to the Pharisees. They were just as lost, just as corrupt.
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They were the teachers of the law, of the rabbinic tradition, this false teaching. So these two groups were closely tied together.
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And one more thing that they both had in common is that they both hated Jesus. During His ministry,
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He ruffled their feathers unlike anyone else. Eventually, these are the people who are going to murder
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Christ by delivering Him up to Pontius Pilate to be crucified.
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But here in verse three, they accused Jesus of blasphemy as He forgives the sins of the paralytic and the other four men.
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When you say something false about God, this is blasphemy. If you ascribe to someone else what only belongs to God, this is blasphemy.
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By forgiving sins, Jesus is doing what only God can do. So the Jewish leaders call it what they think is right.
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They call it blasphemy because of course they don't think that Jesus is God. The scribes and Pharisees are right about one thing, that only
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God can forgive sins. According to Scripture, Isaiah 43, 25, the
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Lord says, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.
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Psalm 103 verse 12 says that as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us.
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Only God can do this. And anyone who says they can do it when they can't is a false prophet.
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But what these leaders are doing, what these Jewish leaders are doing is denying reality. Another Jewish leader named
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Nicodemus said this concerning Jesus in John 3, 2, opposed to what these Jewish leaders are saying.
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He said, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.
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They know the miracles that he has done, but their hatred of him blinds them.
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They see him as a problem and a problem that they need to get rid of. What we know, as I already explained earlier in the sermon,
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Jesus is the God -man. He is forgiving sins here, but we are also going to see him do something else in verse four.
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But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, why do you think evil in your hearts?
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This is unnerving. Jesus can read their thoughts. Wouldn't that be horrible if the people around us could read our thoughts?
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It's a blessing that people can't, but you know what? God can read your thoughts. So there's no such thing as a secret sin. God always knows what we are thinking.
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And Jesus, as the God -man, knows what they are thinking. They are thinking that he is a blasphemer.
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Only God can forgive sins. No one else. And Jesus calls them on their false thinking.
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He says, why do you think evil in your hearts? So in reality, who are the ones committing blasphemy here?
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If Jesus is indeed God, then they are the ones committing blasphemy by calling him a blasphemer.
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People do this all the time. They will say Jesus was a good teacher, but he is not
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God. People will spread lies. They will spread falsehoods about him. When people lie about Jesus, righteous anger should rise in our hearts because it's blasphemy.
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What the Bible says about Jesus in its entirety is who Jesus is.
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And sometimes people try to be nice. They're like, oh yeah, he was a good teacher. It's blasphemy. And we should not say, oh, well, that's a...
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Yeah, we can agree on that. We should say, no, he is God. And unless you believe that, you are greatly mistaken.
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It's a grievous sin to say that Jesus is not God. We must understand that.
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Now, how Jesus responds to them in verse five is very interesting. He says to them this, for which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven or to say, rise and walk.
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So Jesus asked them a rhetorical question here. And when you ask a rhetorical question, the answer is obvious.
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These wicked Jewish leaders already know what Jesus has done. They cannot deny that he has done miracles in their midst.
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What Jesus is saying here is that if I can do the miracles of healing people from their diseases and casting out demons, then of course
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I can forgive sins. When Jesus heals people, he is healing the symptom of the problem.
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The reason people needed healing is because of the havoc of sin. Sin leads to diseases and sickness and all the pain in the world.
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The reason those men were possessed by demons is because there is sin in the world.
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So if Jesus can take care of the destruction of the sin in the world, then he can take care of sin by forgiving it.
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Now, Jesus is about to do this miracle right before their eyes. So that they can see him deal with a symptom of sin to show that he can also take away the spiritual problem of sin.
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Let's read this in verse six. So he says, Rise and walk, but that you may know that the
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Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He then said to the paralytic,
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Rise, pick up your bed and go home. What Jesus means here is that I want you to know that I have authority on earth to forgive sins by healing this man.
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In other words, you can see with your eyes that I heal this man. And therefore, you cannot question the unseen thing that the paralytic and these other four men's sins are forgiven.
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Anyone can say someone's sins are forgiven. I could tell you that right now. Your sins are forgiven.
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But it doesn't have any authority. It only has authority from God. And so Jesus is saying, anybody can just say your sins are forgiven, but you know what?
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I'm gonna prove it by doing something that no one else can do. And that is this man who hasn't walked for years and years and years, all of a sudden is gonna spring up and start walking.
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As Jesus commands this man to stand up and walk, instantly he was healed as we read in verse seven.
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And he rose and went home. So as the Jewish leaders are looking on, do you think they believe in him now?
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Right, we've seen the evidence. Let's believe. Of course not.
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Because evil people don't care about evidence. Their hearts are hardened even more.
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It's frightening to think of how hard the human heart can get. Jeremiah 79 says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.
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Who can understand it? Humans are not inherently good.
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Now, some people aren't as bad as they could be. And there might be a hint of goodness for the fact that through God's common grace, he can do that.
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But we must understand that the Bible is very clear that we are sinners. We have evil hearts.
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We need a savior. And by nature, what a sinner will do is sin. You don't need to teach your children to do evil, to do bad things.
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They know how to do that. You do need to teach them how to do good though. And you would think that if you see overwhelming evidence, you would believe the evidence.
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But this does not happen unless God opens up one's eyes to believe. Remember all the miracles from Exodus?
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You know, Pharaoh saw all these miracles happen before his eyes. All this judgment happened before his eyes.
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But the Bible says in those verses that he hardens his heart even more. Romans 121 says, for although they knew
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God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him. But they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.
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The depth of the wickedness of the human heart is hard to fathom. We see how far the sinfulness of the human heart can take one in this text.
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These Jewish leaders had God in the flesh, the author of life in front of them.
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And they wanted nothing to do with Him. They wanted their sin.
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That's what they wanted. And as we see this narrative play out in Matthew, as I mentioned before, these are the ones who are going to kill
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Him. Could you imagine having that on your record? You killed the
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God -man. That's how bad these people are. Now, let's look at ourselves here.
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If you and I are honest, we know where our sinful hearts can take us. This is why we need the forgiveness of Christ.
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This is why we need God to set us on a new path where we leave the old behind. 2
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Corinthians 5 .17 says, the old has gone. Behold, the new has come.
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But this was not the story of the Jewish leaders, nor is it the story of anyone who continues down the path of sin, never repenting, and never receiving forgiveness from God in Christ.
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It's a dark story indeed. There is one man that has authority equal to God.
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And the second observation is that some refuse to recognize His unique standing. And here's our third and final observation.
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In verse eight, others reverently embrace His unique standing. So now at the end of this narrative, we see the appropriate response to this incredible miracle that Jesus performed.
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Let's look at this. When the crowd saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God who had given such authority to men.
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So this is the appropriate response as they see this miracle. Of course, the
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Pharisees are thinking, this guy's a blasphemer, but the crowd is amazed. And it says that they fear.
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Their response is one of fear. And the Greek word used here for fear is phobio. And that's where we get the word phobia.
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If you're afraid of something, you have a phobia. This is where it is important to understand the difference between sinful fear and holy fear.
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In the previous text to this one, Jesus rebuked the disciples for their sinful fear. They were afraid of their problems rather than trusting
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Jesus to help them with their problem. But holy fear is different.
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Holy fear is not fearing your problems or fearing punishment like Martin Luther did before his conversion, but rather having a healthy trembling before God because you realize how great he is.
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And this fear leads you to have the highest respect for God. And this fear leads you to worship him because in his greatness, he alone is worthy to be worshiped.
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These people who just witnessed Jesus heal the paralytic know that they are in the presence of greatness.
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And this leads them to tremble and leads them to experience an awe and wonder at whose presence they find themselves in.
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Our worship of him is one where we admire him for his greatness. And we overflow with joy realizing that our sins are forgiven and we are forever binded in fellowship with him.
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And we worship him because we know how great he is. So the only fear that should define a
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Christian's life is a healthy trembling of God where we are awestruck by his greatness and where we joyfully live our lives for him.
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And we do this because we think so highly of him.
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When he tells us to do something in his Word, we do it. That's what a faithful disciple does.
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Think of those people in your life. You respect more than anyone else, especially those in authority.
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It might be a parent, a teacher, a coach, maybe even a pastor,
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I don't know, a commanding officer in the army. I remember when I was younger, the opinion of my high school cross country and track coach was so important to me.
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Later on, I coached with him while I was an assistant and he was the head coach and his opinion still mattered to me.
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There were times when he was disappointed in me and it hurt a lot because I didn't want to let him down.
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But when he was pleased with my performance, I was overjoyed.
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You don't want to let people like that down. You want them to be pleased with whatever they tell you to do.
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And these are people you respect, deeply respect. They're in authority and it brings you great joy when you please them.
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It's this way with God. Your highest respect is for Him. When you truly come to fear
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Him, you want to please Him above all else and this will show in your life. So this is what we have seen in this text this morning.
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Here's our big idea as we wrap up here. There is one man that has authority equal to God.
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And we've seen three observations. The first observation is that He alone can forgive sins.
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The second one we saw is that some refuse to recognize His unique standing. The Jewish leaders did that.
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People all over planet Earth right now are refusing to recognize that He is
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God. And the third observation is that others reverently embrace
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His unique standing. So as we close, may we praise Jesus. For He is worthy of our worship and may we be forever grateful that this man who has the highest authority has forgiven the sins of anyone in this room who has true faith in Jesus Christ.
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My prayer is that every one of you would understand that the one who has the authority to forgive sins wants to forgive your sins.
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And this is why He went to the cross to save many when He paid the penalty for our sins.
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And my prayer is that everyone here would understand that. That everyone would turn to Christ and trust
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Him. And I know many of this room have, but I'm just saying that my prayer is that 100 % of the people in this church would be in heaven one day where we could continue our fellowship, right?
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We can go from Eureka to heaven. Just change the addresses, right? That's all we'd be doing. With new bodies though, too.
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So this is my prayer for our church. He wants to forgive us.
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He doesn't stand over you like a judge. You did wrong. You did wrong. You did it again.
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I'm not gonna forgive you anymore. That's not how Christ is. Christ, He wants us to turn from our sins.
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And by His grace, we do. But He is a forgiving Savior. He saved us.
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He's got a big heart for us. And how wonderful is that? Matthew 11, 28, it says that,
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I am gentle and lowly in heart. He is for you if you are in Christ.
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And if you're not in Christ today, He will be for you if you turn from your sins, if you trust in Him. So at this time, let's bow our heads in prayer.
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Father in Heaven, we know, Lord, that You are the judge.
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And Jesus, Your Son, is going to judge the entire world in the future.
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But we also know, Lord, that while You are a just God, while You will send people to hell who are still in their sins,
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You are also a forgiving God. And Lord, You love forgiving sinners.
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Indeed, Jesus is a friend of sinners. Not people who love their sin, but people who hate their sin and want to be freed from their sin.
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And Lord, may we long more and more to never sin again, because that day is coming for everyone who knows
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Christ. There is a day coming where we won't sin. And thank You, Lord, that You have forgiven us for everything we have done, because we deserve punishment for our sin.
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And Jesus faced hell for us at the cross. How wonderful that is.
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What a friend we have in Jesus. He not only forgives us, He is our friend.
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And He will always go with us. And we say thank You. It's in His name we pray.