Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] All right, let's go to Matthew chapter number nine, Matthew chapter nine. And tonight we're going to finish up this account of the healing of the man sick with a Palsy in Matthew 9. If you want to go ahead and go to Luke chapter five, we'll just put a little paper there. We'll just briefly look at Luke chapter five to get kind of a different side of that story.
[00:00:26] Matthew 9. If you want to look at Luke 5.
[00:00:33] All right, Matthew 9. We'll just reread the the portion we read this morning, verses one through eight. Bible says, and he entered into a ship and passed over and came into his own city. And behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy lying on a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy, son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee. And that's what we're going to talk about tonight. And behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, this man blasphemeth. And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, wherefore do ye think ye evil in your hearts? For whether is easier to say thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, arise and walk, but that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins. Then saith he to the sick of the palsy, arise, take up thy bed and go unto thine house. And he arose and departed to his house.
[00:01:28] But when the multitude saw it, they marveled and glorified God, which had given such power unto men. Would you pray with me again? Our Lord, thank you for the opportunity to meet together once again with your people. Lord, thank you for the chance to look into your word. Thank you for the opportunities and the power and effect of the Gospel and how that you are obviously still working in the hearts of people. And Lord, even as we read this, these different passages and we see these people that came to you to be healed, we're reminded of people who have great needs and they know it and they are often seeking answers and seeking healing in some fashion or form. And Lord, I just pray that you would help us to be available, help us to be yielded to you, to be surrendered to you. Help us to see more about our Lord and Savior here tonight as we look at this passage of scripture. Guide us, Lord. Help me to say what your people need and bless the reading and study of your word. Tonight we ask in Jesus name, Amen.
[00:02:31] So this man comes to Jesus. One thing is interesting to me is this man did not come to Jesus.
[00:02:39] He did not come to Jesus in order to be forgiven. You notice that the man came to Jesus for physical healing of paralysis. And he received, obviously he received physical healing from paralysis, but he also received forgiveness of sin. Now when you read it, I don't know if you picked up on it this morning when you read it, it kind of makes you wonder, why did Jesus do that? What does that have to. What is the Jesus saying? Thy son be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee. What does that have to do with his request? What does that have to do with his healing? I know it's as I read it, I was, I just couldn't really put two and two together. Now obviously the Lord said this on purpose. In fact, he says in verse number five and six, he says, for whether is easier to say thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say arise and walk. And I think in this case, if knowing that what Jesus did say caused such a problem, that I think the answer is it would have been easier to say rise up and walk. They wouldn't have said nearly as much. As odd as that is, you know, to heal someone physically of a permanent life altering illness for which there's no apparent cure, and yet that would be easier to just say rise up and walk than it would be to say thy sins be forgiven thee. And yet Jesus said the more difficult thing, I think, than the more easy, the easier thing to say because he's making a point. Look at verse six. But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins. So the reason Jesus chose to say the thing that would cause the great amount of controversy is because the Lord is making a point. And so even if we don't, even if we, I say we, you might understand it. I don't directly make the connection between forgiveness of sin and this man and his where he's at in his, you know, in his illness.
[00:04:51] Yet the Lord said it on purpose in order to make a point, right? He's making a point. He's using, this is key here. He's using a miracle to show something about Himself.
[00:05:09] Don't get hung up on the miracles. So many, I mean, there's denominations of people that get hung up on the miracles as if the miracles existed for their own sake. Now we know that our Lord was prophesied as we saw in Isaiah 53.
[00:05:25] He bore our sicknesses and took our sorrows, our infirmities. We've seen that already. Like the Lord showed compassion through his miracles, the Lord fulfilled prophecy through his miracles. The Lord showed his power through His Miracles. But it wasn't just about healing people, because there were many thousands of people that weren't ever healed. It wasn't having. It wasn't a miracle. Ministry like has been so perverted and twisted in our day. That's not what it was about. The miracle served a purpose. The primary purpose was that they were signs. They were signs. They were designed not to focus on that.
[00:06:01] But another thing. That was the main point. And that's exactly what happens here. The miracle is for another thing. And I'll explain that to you as we get toward the end. But on that subject, apparently this man, and I'm reading between the lines, and I think you probably would too, and are too, this man. I think we can assume that this man is in this place, he's sick, he's paralyzed as a result of some sin maybe he committed because Jesus does heal him. So I'm making that assumption. It doesn't directly say it, but I'm making that assumption.
[00:06:38] But so the fact that they're mentioned together indicates that. Take a peek, if you would, at John, chapter five, because you see kind of the same thing in this other instance with a blind man.
[00:06:58] Actually, I apologize. Not a blind man, just a man in verse five that had an infirmity. 30 and eight years. That's all it says he had an infirmity. But notice this man is by the pool of Bethesda, and he's waiting for the angel to stir the water and to be healed. Look at verse number 14. So Jesus heals him.
[00:07:18] And then he got up and carried his bed. The Jews stopped him, said, you can't carry your bed on the Sabbath day.
[00:07:23] And then right after that, verse 14, he sees Jesus. Afterward, Jesus findeth him in the temple and saith unto him, behold, thou art made whole. Notice what he says. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come, come unto thee.
[00:07:41] So I think there's a relationship between these two, inasmuch as Jesus warns him, look, I healed you. I forgave you. Beware, your sins are forgiven. Beware, beware. Look at what your sin, where your sin brought you. Now, I forgave you and healed you. Now you need to be, you know. Is that not a good lesson for us now? Not that every time we sin, the Lord strikes us with an illness, although that does happen, that is within. That is a scriptural truth that can happen. But if the Lord, if we sin and God deals with us on that sin, and we repent of it because we know the conviction and chastisement and correction of God, in our life, the reminder is, beware, beware. Don't go back to it. Don't go back to it. You need to run away from that thing as fast as you can get, lest a worse thing come upon thee, which is to say, you go back to it. The correction is going to be even worse, and you're going to wish, in other words, the Lord. The way I like to think of it is the Lord says, I can make you wish you had not done that. And he can, can he not? He absolutely can. And so, going back to Matthew, chapter nine, this man came for healing and received forgiveness. And I find that to be true with a lot of people. A lot of people feel like they need one thing, and in reality, the Lord knows they need another, right? They feel like they need one thing. They don't know that they need another. You know, it's like, you know, you get sick, you have. You know, you have some sort of illness, and, you know, your head hurts or, you know, you have abdominal pain or whatever the case might be, and that's what you feel.
[00:09:33] But the surgeon comes into the room when you're at the ER and they says, actually, you need surgery or you need an appendectomy, or you need something like that. And so they give you not what you necessarily want, but they give you what you need, which takes care of both. And that's kind of like what. What happens with this man. This man's greatest need was not physical healing, but his need for forgiveness.
[00:09:58] And notice that Jesus did not know what I say. Jesus did not pronounce that God forgave the man.
[00:10:07] Jesus forgave the man. That's a little difference. See, Roman Catholicism teaches that the Church has the power, via the priests, to speak in the place of Christ, to pronounce forg.
[00:10:22] I'll read this to you just so you know. I'm not making it up. This is the Catholic prayer of absolution, stated as stated during confession, which is called the sacrament of reconciliation or the sacrament of penance, which is. This is the prayer of the priest during the confession. This is verbatim. It says, God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son, has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins through the ministry of the Church. That's the key. That's the key. Through the ministry of the Church, may God give you pardon and peace. And I absolve you. The priest speaking now. I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[00:11:08] Yeah, that's. It's interesting you said that, because it is actually blasphemous. And you'll see why in just a minute. That is actually exactly what they accused Jesus of, of blasphemy.
[00:11:20] Jesus here does not pronounce the man.
[00:11:24] Pronounce to the man that God has forgiven him. Jesus himself is taking that power upon himself and saying, I forgive you.
[00:11:36] You know what?
[00:11:38] That is blasphemy. If any of you said it, or if a Catholic priest says it, it is absolutely blasphemy.
[00:11:47] So this is quite a statement the Lord makes. And they picked up on it immediately. What does it mean to blaspheme? To blaspheme simply means to speak or act in a way that shows contempt for God, for sacred or holy things or religion. So it's to speak against it or to speak of it in such a way that it somehow lessens it or shows contempt for it and not in its proper place.
[00:12:19] They claim the Jews in verse number three, they said, this man blasphemeth. They claim that Jesus was blaspheming God because they believed that only God could forgive sins.
[00:12:35] The truth is, they're right.
[00:12:38] They were scripturally and doctrinally right. Have we not covered this with the Scribes and the Pharisees as opposed to the Sadducees? The Sadducees were liberal. What they believed wasn't right, they didn't believe the truth. But you had the scribes and the Pharisees doctrinally orthodox. Doctrinally sound, just as lost as they could be. Notice. Run with me to Isaiah. Look at three verses in Isaiah, really quick. Isaiah 43 to begin.
[00:13:08] Isaiah 43, verse number 25.
[00:13:23] God speaking here says this. I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins. See that? Look at Isaiah 44, verse 22 says this. I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions. And as a cloud thy sins return unto me, for I have redeemed thee.
[00:13:53] So God says, I'm the one doing the erasing. Here I look at Isaiah 55, Isaiah 55, verse number seven.
[00:14:15] This verse is perfectly clear. Perfectly clear.
[00:14:20] Let the wicked forsake his way.
[00:14:27] This is not the verse I was thinking of.
[00:14:30] Let me see if in the context here, I don't know how.
[00:14:55] This is not the verse I was thinking of, although it does relate. I'll just go ahead and read it. Isaiah 55, verse 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Off. To get that other verse too, it must have been on the same page, but just in a different spot. But the verse I was referring to, it actually says that God alone, God alone, only God pardons anyhow. So this is a scriptural truth that these Jews believed. So when Jesus said that, they were rightfully startled that a man as they would make such a pronouncement to take the power upon himself to forgive sins. Now let's bounce around a little bit. Look at, if you would, Luke chapter five and that place in Luke I was telling you about earlier. And I want to show you why they said he's blaspheming. Just to clarify it. So we're all on the same page. Luke 5, verse number 21 says this.
[00:16:01] Luke 5, verse 21 says. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Now they explain it in this verse. They didn't in Matthew, but they explain it here. Who can forgive sins but God alone?
[00:16:20] Now, so the summary of what they're accusing him of is basically that Jesus being a man, is taking a divine prerogative of God and applying it to himself.
[00:16:39] And that is to say that is blasphemy in the sense that it is taking something that rightly only belongs to God and is taking upon a man. It is lessening and is actually showing contempt for something that belongs only to God. Right. That's why they say it's a blasphemy. Look at a couple other places in John, John, chapter 10, John 10. And then Matthew 26 is what will be after that. John 10, verse number 33.
[00:17:16] This would not be the only time that they would accuse Jesus of blasphemy.
[00:17:24] And this is a. Just so you know, I actually used this verse when talking to Jehovah's Witness about a month ago or so when we were downtown. Notice, you know, John 10, verse 30, I and my father are one. Just note that in your mind. You know what that is? That's a proof text for Jesus deity. Right?
[00:17:47] Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. The question is, if Jesus is not saying that he is God, then why are they trying to stone him? Well, we don't have to wonder the answer because they tell you why they're doing what they're doing. Verse 32, Jesus answered them, many good works have I showed you from my Father. For which of those works do you stone me? Verse 33. The Jews answered him, saying, for a good work we stone thee not. But for blasphemy. Now, what do you mean, Jews? And because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God, that's blasphemy. That's the idea of blasphemy.
[00:18:24] The idea of showing contempt for God by taking something that is his place alone.
[00:18:31] It is his place alone. So that's why they were going to stone him. So whenever you're speaking to Jehovah's Witness on the subject of the deity of Christ, and this is sort of what we're talking about tonight, when you go to verse 30, they're going to say, oh, well, Jesus wasn't saying that he's just the Son of God. Well, the Jews didn't think he was just the Son of God. The Jews knew exactly what he was saying. He's saying that thou, being a man, makes thyself God. They knew exactly what Jesus was saying, and that's why they were going to stone him. And you know what? They would have been right if he was not very God. Right if that were not true. Look at verse number 36 in the same context. Say ye of him whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world. Thou blasphemous. Because I said I am the Son of God. Right? Verse 30. I and my Father are one, makest thyself God. Verse 33.
[00:19:28] I am the Son of God. The Lord is using these altogether. I've tried to show you this before.
[00:19:36] But anyhow, this is to be the Son of God, is to be equal with God. And that's exactly what they understood when he said it.
[00:19:43] Look at Matthew 26 for our last one on this point. Matthew 26. There was another time that they accused the Lord Jesus of blasphemy. Matthew 26 and verse number 65, 26, verse 65.
[00:20:10] Look at 64 or even 63 to kind of get a running start here. But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, thou hast said, which is to say, yes.
[00:20:30] Nevertheless, I say unto you, hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. So what did Jesus just claim?
[00:20:38] This is the climactic point in the Gospel, right here. What does he claim? He is demanded by the name of God, right? His Father. I think that's probably why he answered, to be honest with you. But he has demanded, are you the Son of God? Tell us now.
[00:20:56] And Jesus says, yes. And then he says, you're going to see me coming in power in the clouds of heaven, right?
[00:21:08] What is he saying? He is taking a divine attribute and a divine prerogative and applying it to himself. And they say, then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, he hath spoken blasphemy. What further need have we of witnesses? Behold, now ye have heard him, heard his blasphemy. See that? So why did they crucify him finally, and ultimately it was because that Jesus claimed to be who he was. That's the bottom line, which is blasphemy. So going Back to Matthew 9, when they say this man blasphemeth, they first of all, they have a point, right?
[00:21:53] Who can forgive sins but God only. That's also doctrinally correct.
[00:21:59] And the reason why that's true is simply this is that sin is ultimately against God himself. That's the thing. The reason why only God can forgive sins, as we saw in Isaiah, is because sin is ultimately against God himself. We might sin against another. We might sin against the law of man, the law of the land.
[00:22:29] But it is ultimately, and this is. And this is the key, it is most importantly a transgression of his law of God's law, whatever transgression it might be against another man. You know, in Psalm 51, verse 4, in David's confession Psalm, he says, even though he has sinned against Uriah, even though he has sinned against Bathsheba, even though he has sinned against his own child, who will die, right?
[00:22:58] He says, lord, against thee the only have I sinned in verse 4, Psalm 51, verse 4, even you. Go back to the. Go back, if you will, with me to the Garden of Eden. This is what. This is what we call the principle of first mention, right? Which is the principle in biblical interpretation which says you can learn the core truths of a subject based upon its first mention in Scripture.
[00:23:27] Look at the Garden of Eden. Look at the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. Think about it with me.
[00:23:32] Think about it with me.
[00:23:35] Was it wrong to eat fruit? No.
[00:23:40] Was it? Was it when Adam and Eve ate the fruit and the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, did it hurt them? Well, no. Like it wasn't poison.
[00:23:50] And when they ate that fruit, did it bring Harm upon another, like we often think of. Often our sin does. No.
[00:23:58] So then, if that's the case, what made it evil?
[00:24:04] I mean, there was nothing in like, as we would view it, nothing inherently bad. Didn't hurt others, didn't hurt oneself, and it wasn't poisonous. So what made it evil?
[00:24:16] One thing and one thing only. And this tells us something about sin which relates directly to our lesson here.
[00:24:24] The thing that made it evil was the Creator's commandment.
[00:24:29] You know, that even something that in any other case is permissible. If the Lord says it's not right, it's not right. I've used this illustration in Cambodia many times. But if you know, is it morally wrong for somebody to walk out into the street? Well, of course not. Is it morally wrong for one of my children to play in the front yard? Well, of course not. But the moment mom and dad say, do not play in the front yard or do not cross, go into the street at that moment because mom and dad said it, it becomes morally wrong, not because it is wrong inherently. And see, this is the key thing that people get messed up on. And where their understanding of sin is so off is that they think sin is something that hurts others or hurts themselves.
[00:25:20] None of that was true in the Garden of Eden.
[00:25:23] Sin is about God.
[00:25:25] It's about God's commandment.
[00:25:28] It's about God's Commandment.
[00:25:31] First, John 3, 4 says this, and you've seen this before, that sin is the transgression of the law. That gives a definition of it.
[00:25:39] Okay, all of that in mind.
[00:25:44] Because sin at its core, in essence, is a transgression of God's law. Only God has the right and authority to forgive it because it is against him. Right? Yeah. You sin against another, you slander someone, or you use foul language to another, or you curse someone, or you steal from someone. Yes, you have sinned against that person. But at the top of the pyramid is not that. At the top of the pyramid is you. And I must answer to a living God whose commandment we have violated. You know, there are times when the commandments of men and the commandments of God don't agree. As an example with what brother David said, where the commandment of man forbids something and the commandment of God permits it. Doing that thing is a sin, as it were, against the laws of man, but not so in the laws of God. And the reverse is also true, where there are times when the laws of man permit something, the laws of God forbid it.
[00:26:48] But, you know, somehow we Americans have in Our mind, if we just. If we just don't break the law, then we're good.
[00:26:57] Well, that's not true.
[00:26:59] We cannot focus solely on others and if our sin and judge what we do based upon how it affects others or think about, well, they forgive me, so I'm good. So we have this idea in our mind, as long as I don't break the law, I'm good. Or as long as I don't hurt someone else, I'm good. Or as long as the other person really deserved it, I'm good. Are there times people deserve something?
[00:27:28] I mean, I speak as a man. Are there times people deserve, you know, what they get? They deserve to be cursed at. Are there times that they do? Yeah, I mean. I mean, if you go and buy desserts, of course they do. Stupid.
[00:27:42] But does that mean it's permissible for you to do it because they deserve it? Well, no. Because. Why not? The commandment of God. So what does that tell us as a believer? There are no excuses, right? There's no reason to do it because we're not looking at man. We're not looking at what people deserve or don't deserve. Not that we are right judges of that anyhow.
[00:28:06] Our focus is on what the Lord says.
[00:28:09] We think, as long as I can save face before men, I'm good.
[00:28:16] We think, as long as the other person will forgive me, I'm good. None of that's true. You know why? Because the most important aspect on this subject is ignored, which is God himself.
[00:28:30] And all of these statements I gave you as just as examples are ways that we try to escape from facing God about our transgressions of his law.
[00:28:44] Here's the thing. If we do not go to God directly and confess to him, no matter what we do with another, no matter what we pay, as far as our crime in the sight of the laws of man is concerned, we remain unforgiven.
[00:29:05] Period.
[00:29:06] See that?
[00:29:08] Look at Luke 15:18.
[00:29:10] Luke 15.
[00:29:14] Luke 15, verse number 18.
[00:29:29] This is in the middle of the story of the prodigal son. He's in the hog pen.
[00:29:34] Verse number 18 says this.
[00:29:36] Now this young man is speaking to himself before he's getting ready to repent here in his heart, which is going to bear fruit in his life. Verse number 18. He says to himself, I will arise and go to my Father, and will say unto him, here's the key, Father, I have sinned. What does it say? Against heaven and before thee. This is the duality of sin.
[00:30:03] It cannot be. Well, he got right with His Father. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. If you forget the vertical part, you might say, or the upward pointing part, right about the Lord, you have forgotten the most important thing. And here's the thing. If we get right with God, it is not possible to get right with the Lord and leave our relationship with our fellow man out of order.
[00:30:29] What did Jesus say in the model prayer? What did Jesus teach in the Sermon on the Mount? He said, if you don't forgive, then I'm not going to forgive. The Father will not forgive you. So they're connected, but there's a dual layer. We sin against another. We sin in the sight of God. We got to deal with both. Just like this man says, in against heaven and before thee, he had to confess both.
[00:30:52] Now, going back to Matthew 9.
[00:30:54] If Jesus indeed was not God in the flesh, if their assumption of him that he was but a man, though a teacher, if Jesus. In fact, we'll go further. If Jesus is as this world has described and understood of him, he's a religious teacher, this would have been their statement of blasphemy. Would have been right.
[00:31:24] And so where do we go with this?
[00:31:28] The entire question on this subject of whether Jesus has the power to forgive sin is actually a question of who he is.
[00:31:39] I know I've said this over and over, and I promise I don't plan this.
[00:31:46] Let me just illustrate it. I mean, I know you guys are probably bored with it, but look at chapter 8, verse 8, chapter 8, verse 8 of Matthew. The centurion answered and said, lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof. But speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers unto me. And I say unto this man, go. And he goeth, and to another come, and he cometh. And to my servant do this. And he doeth it.
[00:32:14] Jesus is.
[00:32:16] Jesus has power. He is the One, the Lord of all. What he says goes right. That's essentially what he's saying. Who is Jesus? The centurion states that. Look at verse 27.
[00:32:30] But the men marveled, saying, what manner of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him? Here we go again in chapter 8, verse 27. The question is, who is this man? He controls the weather and nature.
[00:32:44] Then we go to verse number 2029 as well. The devil's speaking. They cried out, saying, what have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God. You see that three times in Matthew. The question of, who is this guy?
[00:32:59] What is he? What kind of man is this, that has this kind of power over and over. And here we go again.
[00:33:06] Who has power to forgive sin?
[00:33:09] It's the same question.
[00:33:12] Here's the thing. I think Matthew's trying to make a point.
[00:33:19] No, just like I said this morning, it wasn't that he was covering every. Every event that happened in Jesus life because. But he's making a point. He's trying to say, look at what he did.
[00:33:31] He's telling you who he is. People pay attention.
[00:33:40] If God is the only one with the power to forgive, and if Jesus is very God, as he is, whose place he is taking, right, he is asserting, then this means that there is no forgiveness available apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:34:06] If God alone has the power to forgive, because sin is a matter between one and God. And if Jesus is very God, as he says here, that means there's no way to be forgiven outside of Christ.
[00:34:19] That means if you're a Muslim or you're a Buddhist and you seek some means, some sacrifice, some work, some ritual, some rite at the end of which you think, finally your sins are absolved, they're not.
[00:34:38] If you think that by practicing the right of the rite and the sacrament of reconciliation, which is confession, if you think by practicing that your sins are absolved, they're not.
[00:34:54] Because forgiveness of sin is a power that is reserved to the Lord Jesus Christ and only available by Him. You understand? So what does that mean?
[00:35:08] That means unless one comes to Christ by faith, because I mean, Acts chapter 1040, I think is 43, says that we receive remission of sins, forgiveness of sin, by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. All right? So if there's some other way, we're trying to be absolved and cleansed and forgiven and pardoned from our sin beside him, not a religion himself, right?
[00:35:36] We are not forgiven.
[00:35:38] All right?
[00:35:40] And if we're not forgiven, you know what that means.
[00:35:43] Our sin remains.
[00:35:46] We are yet in our sin. That's quite. Listen, that's. That's quite an indictment. That is to say you're going to die in your sin. Those who trust in some other way of forgiveness, their sin remains. If God hasn't forgiven you, then your sin remains, right?
[00:36:05] This is a serious matter.
[00:36:07] This is a serious matter.
[00:36:14] You see, in Roman Catholicism, actually, as Brother Rob said, in Roman Catholicism, they have usurped Jesus authority and power to forgive sin by claiming to speak in the place of Christ.
[00:36:31] I actually looked it up. I can't remember off the top of my head. It's like a Persona Christi, which is to say in the person of Christ.
[00:36:40] In other words, I am speaking on the behalf of Christ, saying, you are forgiven. No way.
[00:36:47] They're actually doing the very thing that the Jews claimed Jesus was doing.
[00:36:57] You know what? Talk is cheap. I'm almost finished. But talk is cheap, ain't it?
[00:37:03] I guess that kind of came across a little weird. Ms. Pam picked up on it immediately. He's like, then why don't you shut up?
[00:37:10] No, I'm not quoting you.
[00:37:13] I'm not quoting you. Talk's cheap. So here you see, any man, any man in any religion, and religions do it, right? They can claim to confer forgiveness upon a person using words. And religions do it all the time.
[00:37:34] And Jesus could have done that. He could have said, you're forgiven and that'd be the end of it. And here's the whole purpose. The reason he said this at this moment is because he attached this statement to a miracle.
[00:37:49] Because when this man got up and walked out, nobody there could claim that he wasn't forgiven. Who's going to claim it? The man who is paralyzed is getting up and walking away. Nobody's going to say that Jesus did not forgive him, for he healed him. So he attached the truth he's conveying to the miracle, which is the whole purpose of the miracles, right?
[00:38:19] And so in chapter eight, we saw Jesus had power over disease. In chapter eight, we saw Jesus had power over the heavenly hierarchy. We saw that Jesus has power over the devil in chapter eight. And now we see him as having power over the forgiveness of sin. All of those things are prerogatives that belong only to God.
[00:38:41] He is making a statement not just in word and not just using a proof text, which is good. But he's demonstrating who he is by his action. Now watch this.
[00:38:57] In the New Testament, in the Gospels, Jesus assumes and asserts certain divine prerogatives. And by doing so, in every case, he is either God indeed, or he is a blasphemer.
[00:39:12] He assumes omniscience. In Matthew 9, 4. Here it is. And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, right? Said the fact that Jesus knew their thoughts, 2nd Chronicles 6:30, says this. Then hear thou from heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive and render unto every man according to all his ways. Listen to these words. Whose heart thou knowest, for thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men. That's a prerogative of God. Only God can claim omniscience. And yet Jesus claims it.
[00:39:48] Jesus accepted worship from man. Matthew 14:33. Then they that were in the ship came and worshiped him saying of a truth, thou art the Son of God. John 20:28. Some of you know this is one of those proof texts, right? And Thomas answered and said unto him, what My Lord and my God, right? He accepted worship, which is a prerogative only that belongs only to God. Jesus asserted pre existence. In John 8:58, Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am. John 17:5. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before. Before the world was. He claimed pre existence.
[00:40:37] And then we see Jesus claimed authority over the very commandments of God. Who has the right to usurp God's authority and make a statement about being the Lord over one of God's commandments. And yet he did. For the Son of man is Lord, even of the Sabbath day.
[00:40:57] And then we saw in chapter eight, he had power over nature and power over devils.
[00:41:03] All of these. Every time Jesus asserts a divine prerogative and claims a right, authority or power that belongs only to God, he is saying, this is who I am.
[00:41:18] So listen, on this subject of who Jesus is, the whole argument, for those of you that engage with people who deny this, the argument is not based upon several proof texts that we can go to. It's not that flimsy. It's woven into the very fabric of Scripture. You got proof text, John 1, 1, John 10, 30, John 20, 28. In John, you can go to a lot of others, right? Those are proof texts and they're good and they're fine. But it's not just that. Everything Jesus did demonstrated it. Everything Jesus claimed, everything he asserted, demonstrate that he was very God and he was not shy to assert his place as such. And really that was the core question. What did the Ethiopian eunuch say? We've been studying in Sunday school. What did he say when he finally understood what Philip was telling him? What was his answer?
[00:42:17] I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. It was a question of who he was, right? It was a question of who he was.
[00:42:28] So we see our Lord once again shows he has the power of forgiveness. Let's pray.
