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Psalm 103 Mark 2 By Peter Dart

29/12/1996

Psalm 103.
It's a bit of quiet in the pews, thanks.
Okay, Psalm 103.
The Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the children of Israel.
The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy.
He will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever.
He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities.
For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy towards those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him.
For he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust.
As for man, his days are like grass.
As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.
But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him
and his righteousness to children's children,
to such as keep his covenant and to those who remember his commandments to do them.
The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.
Bless the Lord, you his angels who excel in strength, who do his word,
heeding the voice of his word.
Bless the Lord, all you his hosts, you ministers of his who do his pleasure.
Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
Let's pray.
Our God, we come to you this afternoon.
Lord, we just remember the things that we've just read of.
Lord, that you haven't dealt with us according to our sins.
And Lord, that you do not hold your anger forever.
Lord, you've designed through the death of your own dear and beloved son
to draw men and women and boys and girls to yourself.
Lord, you've purposed to save them.
So that your anger will no longer be upon them.
Father, we thank you that that anger which was due to us for our sins,
which are many, have been placed upon the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
And Lord, that he suffered those things which we should have suffered.
And he suffered them in our place.
Lord, we thank you that in this that mercy is rejoiced against judgment.
And that mercy has won over that need for wrath
because of that sacrifice which is made for us.
Father, we just pray this afternoon as we come here
that you would just lift our hearts in worship and praise.
Lord, truly we sing joy to the world. The Lord has come.
And Lord, we just pray that in our hearts this day
we would truly receive him as our King.
Lord, he who is our King.
Lord, that we would be willing subjects, willing servants
and willing ministers of Christ.
Lord, we pray for any here this afternoon who do not know the Lord.
We just ask, Lord, that they would also be made willing
in the day of your power that they would be made willing to serve the Lord Christ.
That they would be made willing to believe in his name.
Lord, that they would see their sins and trust in his mercy.
That one who is merciful from everlasting to everlasting.
And we just thank you for these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Now, I thought we'd just have a couple of favourites
and then look at the scriptures.
Look at the scriptures.
Forgotten where it's in one of the books of the law.
It's either, I don't know, one of them.
But it says that the fire shall be burning on the altar
and it shall never go out. Ever.
We receive the Holy Spirit and that fire burns on and on
but we certainly desire more of it.
We'll just read now from the beginning of Mark's Gospel
in chapter 2, sort of early on.
Mark's Gospel chapter 2.
And it says, the heading, at least in the New King James,
is Jesus forgives and heals a paralytic.
That's a paralysed man.
And again he entered Capernaum after some days
and it was heard that he was in the house.
Immediately many gathered together
so that there was no longer room to receive them.
Not even near the door.
And he preached the word to them.
Then they came to him bringing a paralytic
who was carried by four men.
And when they could not come near him because of the crowd
they uncovered the roof where he was.
So when they had broken through they let down the bed
on which the paralytic was lying.
When Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic son
your sins are forgiven you.
And some of the scribes were sitting there
and reasoning in their hearts
why does this man speak blasphemies like this?
Who can forgive sins but God alone?
But immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit
that they reasoned thus within themselves
he said to them why do you reason about these things
in your heart?
Which is easier to say to the paralytic
your sins are forgiven you
or to say arise take up your bed and walk
but that you may know that the son of man
has power on earth to forgive sins.
He said to the paralytic I say to you
arise take up your bed and go to your house.
Immediately he arose, took up the bed
and went out in the presence of them all
so that all were amazed and glorified God saying
we never saw anything like this.
Let's just pray.
Now father as we come to your word this afternoon
we just pray that you would continue to speak to us.
Lord overcome those things which are just the words of
man Lord and just take your true and holy word
and write it in our hearts.
Lord teach us that our Lord Jesus Christ
has authority and power over all things
and Lord that he can indeed forgive sins
and is willing to do so.
We just pray that you would just teach us now
in Jesus name. Amen.
Amen.
Now when you study the different miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ
and particularly the healing miracles
they all teach us something about sin.
Each disease that's dealt with
teaches us something about the nature of sin.
And it also shows us what the Lord's power is to deal with sin
not just the sickness concerned.
Merv went through this a little bit I think last week
but just to go over a couple of things.
And when we look at leprosy we see the uncleanness of sin.
The way it defiles the whole man.
It's an uncleanness and the Lord can make clean.
The Lord raised the dead and we know from the scriptures
that a person who is still in their sins is dead spiritually.
And like death itself is without power, without hope,
without any ability whatever to act.
But just as the Lord could stand in front of the tomb of Lazarus
and call him to come out and the dead answered
so he can do the same to those who are dead spiritually.
He can call one minute there can be cold indifference
in someone's heart and mind
and the next minute exactly the opposite.
A desire to believe and to repent and take hold of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And possession, the Lord dealt with a lot of people
who are possessed with evil spirits.
And possession speaks about the hold that sin has over a person.
It's an unbreakable hold.
It's a vicious hold.
And we can't let it go in our own strength.
The Lord must break the hold.
And then one could go on blindness like spiritual blindness.
Not being able to see the things of God.
Deafness, not being able to hear.
Now we hear the words that are preached but we don't really hear and understand.
And we see that in all of these things that the Lord Jesus Christ is able to save to the uttermost
those who come to God by him.
But this miracle probably more than any others connects
or gives us this relationship between the sickness and the sin
because it speaks about it.
The healing of this paralysed man connects, joins together the Lord's authority and power to heal
with his authority and power to forgive sins.
And in the story as we read it,
by healing the paralysed man the Lord demonstrated and showed that he had power.
And showed that he had power.
He said to them, is it easier to say your sins have forgiven you
or is it easier to say take up your bed and walk?
Well it's easy to say your sins are forgiven.
Thousands of priests do it every day all around the world.
Pronounce forgiveness over people but they have no authority to do it.
They have no authority at all.
But the Lord Jesus Christ to show that he had authority and power to forgive sins
said to the man that thing which outwardly at least is the hardest
and that is get up and walk.
And the man got up and walked.
And there's also isn't there, there's a sort of parallel I think between this man's spiritual and his physical condition.
Now I just want to look at just a few things that this story of our Lord healing the paralysed man teaches.
What sort of details are there in the incident?
Well let's take the man himself.
He was paralysed and a person who is paralysed is without strength.
Once the nervous system is severed in such a way that a person can't walk it's incurable.
And we see by the way he had to live that he was helpless. He needed his friends.
He needed people to help him. He had these four people who came along and carried him around.
Now this is exactly what sin does to us and this is what it's all meant to point to.
Sin renders us completely unable to do anything for ourselves.
We can't move. We can't act.
A paralysed man is in bondage to a body that doesn't work.
Sort of locked into it. Really locked into a body that just won't work.
And as sinners we're spiritually in bondage to a body of sin which does not work.
Now Paul says that. He says what I want to do I don't do. What I don't want to do I do.
And I can't help doing either because sin works in me.
Just like the paralysed person we're helpless.
And I think if we look at this man it's fairly clear that he was aware of more than a sickness of body.
How do we know that? Well because the Lord said to him, the first thing the Lord said to him is your sins are forgiven you.
The Lord will not do that to someone who has not turned from their sins.
And I think this man came to the Lord with an awareness of two needs.
He was fed up with a body that didn't work and he was fed up with a life that didn't work.
He knew that he had sin and he came to the Lord.
The second thing about him is that he really knew what his need was. How could he avoid knowing what his need was?
How could he get away from it? He lived with it day and night. Not able to move. Not able to get up and look after himself.
The most simple things.
He was aware of it. Acutely aware.
There are some sicknesses that we can have that don't show themselves quite so obviously.
A cancer can be there for years and not show itself until the end.
A heart disease can be there for years and you don't know that it's there.
And in the main sin is like this. We're usually ignorant as people who haven't come to the Lord Jesus Christ, who are not in Christ, who don't know him.
We're sort of ignorant of our sin. It's sort of like that lingering heart disease or cancer that might be there, but we don't know that it's there.
We act as if it's not there.
But this man is aware of his problem.
He is like one who has become convicted of sin and awakened to sin.
And this thing of being convicted of sin is the first step towards our coming to Christ.
It's the first sign that God is dealing with us when we're convicted of our sin.
This man was convicted and aware of what was going on.
And he comes to the Lord. And that's the third thing.
He came to the Lord Jesus. Now this is probably the most remarkable thing about this story, at least about what this man does.
Is that he came to the Lord Jesus and he doesn't come in any ordinary sort of way.
What an extraordinary way to come in. I mean he starts breaking up the house.
Or getting his friends to do it. I don't think anyone who came into our house that way would be too welcome.
Fairly unorthodox.
See, he doesn't come to the Lord Jesus meekly, but he comes with determination.
He wants something and he's going to get it. Now does that seem greedy? I don't think so.
I think that's the very attitude with which the Lord wants us to come to him.
We come with a determination to receive what he's willing to offer.
And he doesn't come in fear, but he comes in faith.
A person who's truly convinced of their sin won't let anything stand in their way.
That's what this really shows us. He was completely overtaken by this illness.
He quite clearly knew that he also needed forgiveness of sins because the Lord forgives him.
And nothing is going to stop him. The whole house is crowded. Crowded out.
They can't get in. They can't squeeze through the door. They can't pass his bed over people's heads.
They can't do anything. They can't get in through windows.
So they walk up onto the roof and they start breaking up the roof and they drop him down through the hole in the roof.
Let's just have a look at a passage in Matthew chapter 11. It's an unusual passage.
Matthew chapter 11 and verse 12.
From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force.
People who are under conviction of sin will not let anything stop them.
They'll go forward and they'll make sure that they make their way into the kingdom.
In John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, there's one scene in the interpreter's house where he sees this man standing outside this palace of gold.
And there are these big hefty guards at the door. And there's a whole lot of people standing outside saying,
And there's a whole lot of people standing outside saying,
These guys don't look too friendly and they back off.
But there's one fellow just comes straight out of the middle of them, grabs his sword and hacks his way through and gets through.
And it says,
Come in, come in, eternal glory you shall win.
The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it. Now I'm not suggesting that we take sohoots. That's not the point.
The point is that there is a determination.
The Lord Jesus said,
Strive to enter the narrow gate. Strive to enter. For many will seek to enter who will not be able.
There are lots of people standing outside of the gate thinking that they'd like to enter, wanting to enter.
But the Lord says strive to enter.
And that's exactly what this man does here.
Remember the story that the Lord told of the talents.
He gives one talent to three people and the first one comes back and says, Your one talent has made ten.
He gives out another talent to another fellow. He comes back and says, Your one has made five.
They've invested it. They've done something with it.
And then the last one comes back and he said, I tied mine up in my handkerchief. And here it is back.
And the Lord rebukes him because he's done nothing with that which he's received.
If you hear the word of God week by week, do something with it.
It's there to invest. It's there to believe.
The gospel is preached in order that you may believe. Strive to enter in. Strive to enter into the kingdom.
I'm not like that man who just tied up the talent in his handkerchief and said,
Well, I knew you were a pretty hard sort of man, Lord, so I didn't try too hard.
I didn't do too much.
Now, I'm not trying to sound Arminian here, but now the Lord says, Strive to enter.
He says it. And we receive the word of God and it's given to us to believe.
And that's what this man does. He breaks up the roof of the house.
He'd be sued for damages these days, but he breaks up the house and the Lord received him.
And the next thing is that something very simple is said about him.
Very simple.
It says, Jesus saw their faith. The man believed. He believed.
He not only saw his need, but he knew who the Lord Jesus Christ was,
and he trusted him. And he trusted him to help him.
Now, if you look through Mark chapter one, now we sort of think,
Well, this is at an early stage in the Lord's ministry. How did he know enough?
But we read in chapter one of Mark, say verse 15, or verse 14,
Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom and saying,
The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.
This is the message which the Lord Jesus Christ was preaching everywhere in Galilee. Repent and believe the gospel.
And this house in Capernaum was full because people had heard it and knew what the message was.
The man knew what Christ was preaching. Repent and believe the gospel.
And then if we have a look at verse 21,
Then they went into Capernaum. This is the city where the miracle we've just read about took place.
And immediately on the Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and taught.
And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
They already knew the power of his teaching.
Now there was a man in this synagogue with an unclean spirit.
And he cried out saying, Let us alone. What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth?
Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.
Now this crowd gathered in this house in Capernaum knew this message.
They knew that this man possessed with the demon had spoken and said who the Lord Jesus Christ was.
But Jesus rebuked him saying, Be quiet and come out of him.
And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him.
Then they were all amazed so that they questioned among themselves saying, Who is this? Or what is this?
What new doctrine is this? For with authority he commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.
And immediately his fame spread throughout all the region around Galilee.
He was known. And this man had enough of the gospel to save him.
The message to repent and believe, this declaration that he was the Holy One of God
and that he could deal even with demons, with power and authority.
And this man comes to him believing. He believes in the Lord Jesus Christ.
No more or less than any of us. He knows who Christ is and he believes in him.
He comes to him. He comes to him for help and he believes.
And judging by the Lord's response, I think that it's clear that he doesn't just have faith for healing,
but he has a full and true faith. Just like that faith that Peter had when he made his confession.
The Lord says, Who do men say that I am? And then who do you say that I am?
And Peter said, That you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And the Lord said, Flesh and blood hasn't revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
This man was in the same position. Little information. Not as much as we have.
But he believed. You don't need a lot of information.
You don't need to understand that the gospel is simply a call to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
To believe in him and to turn from our sins.
And then we see the Lord. Let's just notice well what the Lord's response was to this man and to his friends.
It says, When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven you.
Now let's never forget how simple the gospel is. I've just said it but we'll repeat it again.
The scriptures say, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
Paul says, Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
In that day that you call on the name of the Lord, out of a pure heart,
knowing that you're a sinner, with nothing to offer, and everything only to receive from him, you will be saved.
And that's all. That's all it says. There were all these scribes sitting around with their learning and their debates and everything like this.
The scribes knew the scriptures off by heart and memorised whole books.
But the Lord doesn't take any notice of that. He just says to this man, says that he saw their faith and he says to him, Son, your sins are forgiven you.
Now we also notice that there were those sitting around, these scribes, who would immediately come in and undermine the simplicity of this gospel.
They ask a question. They ask two questions actually. They say, Why does this man speak blasphemy like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?
Now the second question is a good question. But their first question means that they're condemning him out of hand before they've even looked at the issue.
Now it's right that we should examine the credentials of anything that we're told.
But the scriptures are not saying here that we should just swallow everything that's given to us.
But these men condemned the Lord Jesus Christ out of hand before they'd even discussed the matter.
But the thing is this, that they really were without excuse because like that man, they knew all these facts.
They were only there because they knew of his reputation. They knew of his preaching to repent and believe.
They knew who he was. They knew that he'd cast out these demons, that he had power and authority over them, but they would not believe.
It's as simple as that. And you can have as much theology and everything else as you like. But without faith, it's nothing.
And the second thing is that they really had no right to interfere.
They had no right to interfere but they had no excuse because they'd seen just what this man had seen, probably more because they could get around to see it.
They had no excuse at all.
And then we see that the Lord in the end really shows them who he is. They challenged him on that point and he shows them who he is.
They said, who can forgive sins but God alone? And he demonstrates his power and his authority.
And the first thing that he does is that he demonstrates exactly what they ask. He demonstrates his Godhead.
He demonstrates that he's God. He says, okay, if you want to test for this thing, which is easier, for me to say your sins are forgiven you or to tell this man to get up from his bed and walk?
And he proved that he had power and authority in this matter. He proved he's Godhead.
Let's just have a look at Hebrews chapter 7.
Verse 25. Therefore he is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them.
For such a high priest was fitting for us who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners and has become higher than the heavens.
But does not need daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins and then for the people's.
For this he did once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness.
And that Lord who stood there and said to that man, my sons, your sins are forgiven, he had no need to offer a sacrifice for sins firstly for himself.
He was to offer a sacrifice for the sins of this man. And in his purity he could say to him, your sins are forgiven you.
And then it says the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness. But this man had no weakness.
And it says but the word of the oath, the promise, which came after the law appoints the son who has been perfected forever.
And that's the one who could say to this man, take up your bed and walk and he could say to him, your sins are forgiven you.
Not like a priest says it. Not like waving a magic wand over someone or saying words that are supposed to do something and don't.
But when the Lord said to that man, son, your sins are forgiven you, wiped out forever. That was the end of them. Past, present, future. That man's sins just went.
It's also we have here that the Lord Jesus Christ demonstrates the power of the Gospel.
And that's what I'm just saying here, that the Gospel is not just a matter of words and formulas.
This is where systems like Roman Catholicism lead people so much astray, rituals and forms and words.
But we can be guilty of exactly the same thing. We think that words are going to make a difference.
But the Gospel is not in word only but in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance.
And when the Lord Jesus Christ comes and pronounces over a man or a woman or a boy or a girl that their sins are forgiven, that's final.
And that's what he's demonstrating to these scribes and Pharisees, the doubters.
He's not just saying that by letting this man walk I'm showing that I have power to do this, but also that when I forgive sins they are really forgiven.
It's the truth. It's not an imaginary thing. It's not just a psychological trick with our conscience.
But when the Lord Jesus Christ says to us, my son or my daughter, your sins are forgiven, they're completely put away and forever.
And it's just a passage in Romans chapter 9 and we'll just see how this works.
Verse 11, Christ came as high priest of the good things to come with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands that is not of this creation.
Now going on with verse 12, Christ came not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood.
He entered the most holy place once for all having obtained eternal redemption.
So we see that when the Lord Jesus Christ says your sins are forgiven, he does it by his own blood and it says that by that he's obtained eternal redemption forever.
No need to go back to the priests over and over again for the same thing. The Lord Jesus Christ when he puts away sins, puts them away forever.
Having obtained eternal redemption, verse 13, for if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh,
how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works.
The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ not only removes the guilt of sin and obtains eternal redemption, it removes the conscience of sin.
Now I know we struggle with sinners as believers and I know that we're often weighed down by our sins and they're a burden to us.
But compared to what they were, the Lord Jesus Christ through his blood has removed and cleansed our conscience from those things.
And he's cleansed our lives from dead works. There are so many things that we once pursued that we no longer pursue.
And it says that he's cleansed your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
One thing about this miracle that the Lord did was that this man who could do nothing suddenly just got up and walked.
He forgave him his sins but he also gave him a walk. He gave him a life to live.
And the life that we now live in the flesh, it says that we live by the faith of the Son of God.
We've been given a walk and the Lord Jesus Christ when he forgives our sins not only takes away the penalty, not only takes away the consciousness of sin or the conscience of sin,
but he also strengthens us to walk in his way. And that's the significance of this miracle.
The man got up, forgiven, and able to walk. Able to walk physically, able to walk spiritually.
And as it says here, where the conscience cleansed from dead works to serve the living God.
And that's the effect of salvation. It gives us a walk. It gives us a life which is now in service to God and not to ourselves.
And then the very last thing we read is that the people, the people who saw these things, it says immediately he arose, took up the bed and went out in the presence of them all
so that all were amazed and glorified God saying, we never saw anything like this.
That there's no greater testimony to the power of the gospel than to see people get up and walk.
To see sin is forgiven and to see the power of the gospel at work in people's lives.
What an evidence it is. And these people saw this and they said they'd never seen anything like it.
But what happened in the man was even greater than what happened on the outside because he was made a new creature and given a hope,
an eternal hope, not just a hope in this world.