Mark chapter two one through 12 is our text. Appreciate brother Vogt again for reading that for us earlier. Mark chapter two one through 12. Amen. Alright.

Mark chapter two. In a moment, we'll read verses one through four again but before we do that, I want to read a few verses off the screen here this morning. First Timothy one fifteen, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of who I am chief. That's the words the apostle Paul in his first letter to Timothy. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.

Acts chapter 26 and verse 18. To open their eyes and to them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. Again, this is the apostle Paul giving testimony before someone of the mission that God had given him to preach the gospel to the Gentiles that they too might be saved and receive the what? The forgiveness of sins that God has to offer through Jesus Christ and then Ephesians chapter one and verse should be seven here. In whom we have redemption through his blood, that is the blood of Jesus Christ, the what?

The forgiveness of sins. According to the riches of his grace. Let's go to the Lord in prayer once more. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for the offer of forgiveness.

Lord, that you have purchased for us. And that you offer to us. Through faith. Lord, thank you for your sacrifice. Thank you for the suffering that you took in my place and thank you for forgiving my sins.

Lord, that I might know you, that I might be part of your family, that I might receive one day that place reserved in heaven for me. Lord, thank you for Jesus Christ, my savior, and my God. The only God, the only one who can forgive sins. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.

We look in Mark chapter two and Jesus had already been healing as we looked at on Wednesday nights. In the area of Galilee, he had healed people of of many myriad of diseases and illnesses demonstrating his power as God. This story is a bit unique in that. He makes a very specific point here as Mark records in his gospel concerning not only man's need for physical healing but particularly man's universal need for what? For spiritual healing, healing, for forgiveness, of sins.

Look if you would in Mark chapter two, we'll begin in verse one. Again, he entered into Capernaum after some days and it was noise that he was in the house that he was there. The news spread and so, as people had been doing, they they they crowded him quickly. They flocked to him. There was a great multitude of people that came quickly to hear his preaching, his teaching, and some to be healed as well.

So, we read in verse two and straightway, many were gathered together and so much there was no room to receive them. No, not so much is about the door and he preached the word unto them. So, they were crowding around this house where Jesus Christ was and he he stood near the doorway and he he taught those that were in the house and those that had gathered outside the house. He preached to them the word, the word of God, his word because the word of God is his word by the way. Verse three, and they come unto him bringing one sick of the palsy which was born of four and would when they could not come nigh or near unto him for the press, the crowd, they uncovered the roof where he was and when they had broken it up, they let him, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.

So, so here is this man. He is so sick, so ill, that he he can't get up. He's bedridden and these four friends bring him to Christ. They can't get near Christ. So, they walk up the outside steps.

There were steps outside that walked up onto a flat roof and they they walked up there on top of the roof and they tore through the roof and and they let him down inside so they could get him to Christ. So, here is the picture we have. First thing we see in our story is the man with the need. We have a man with a need. Clearly, this man has a physical ailment.

This physical ailment has caused such suffering that this man is now rendered bedridden. I I had a grandmother that passed away when I was 18 years old. She came to live with us after my grandfather passed away when I was four. She lived with us from the time I was four till six and then my mom could no longer take care of her. She got to where she couldn't get up.

She was bedridden and for the next twelve years of her life, she lived in two different nursing homes. It was a difficult situation for her, I am sure but she needed full time care and so for those twelve years, we'd go visit her every now and then but it wasn't an easy situation. To be bedridden for twelve years, the last twelve years of her life. This was the condition this man found himself in. He was bedridden.

Couldn't get up. Couldn't do anything for himself. Dependent upon the help of others. He's in bad straits. He is without hope.

I am sure that they try different medical treatments to try to treat whatever his ailment was so that he could get back up out of that bed but nothing worked. And so he was likely near the end of his rope so to speak concerning these things. Like many today, he was at the end of his rope physically and most likely emotionally. Things look quite bleak but there is one who can bring hope into the bleakest of situations. His name is Jesus.

That's right. No, Christ did not come to deliver us from all illness and suffering in this life. By the way, if you know the Lord one day, he will deliver us from all illness and suffering when we stand before him in heaven, okay? But not all in this life but he did come to change our lives in every way. To give hope to the hopeless, peace, and joy, and healing where before there was none.

In John ten ten, Jesus said, I am come that they might have life and that they might have it won't what? More abundantly. I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. There are things that come up in the lives of men and women. Things that are unforeseen, things that sometimes are temporary, sometimes things that are lasting, sometimes things that can be fixed, and others that cannot be fixed.

But there is a way to have peace and joy And an abundant life. Even in the midst of trials and unforeseen struggles in life. And that is to know the creator of life. The sustainer of life. The giver of eternal life.

And that is Jesus Christ. Some people today find themselves in situations that seem to be without hope but yet, the ones that know Jesus when you talk to them, you find hope. I'm I'm I'm going to just can't help myself, Steve, but mention you for a moment. Brother Steve Morris comes to our church every Sunday several years back. He had a stroke and it put him in that wheelchair that he's in.

But you know something? Against all odds, Steve gets up and gets himself ready, gets to church, and comes with a smile on his face and comes with a joy in his heart. A peace that passes all understanding and testifies the grace of God. His body might be at this time confined to that wheelchair but his heart and his spirit are not. Jesus is the answer.

Jesus is what gives him joy and peace and hope and he does the same thing for us. If we'll let him, if we'll let him. Christ came to bring healing and peace and joy and hope and he did. This man desperately needed it. Again, he was very likely at the end of his rope so to speak.

He had a physical ailment but he also had a a spiritual ailment, a spiritual ailment. He was suffering from a spiritual problem from which all men suffer which render us spiritually dead. In Ephesians two, it says, we are dead in trespasses and in what? Sins. We are separated from our God by our sinful condition.

In Isaiah 59 and verse two, it says this, but your iniquities have separated you from your God and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear you. Is that a problem? That's a problem. Isaiah says to Israel, your sins have separated between you and your God. You keep praying and praying and see absolutely nothing and the reason is, your God can hear you but he has chosen not to hear you because you have not repented of your what?

Of your sins. Your sin has separated you from your God, not his choice, your choice. And he will not hear you. And so nothing changed in Israel of their condition. We reminded in second Chronicles seven fourteen.

That if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves. Repent of their sins. Then God says, I will what? Hear from heaven. Forgive their sins and will heal their land.

One of the problems we see in society today, do we have problems? Yes, we do. Violence in our cities, violence on our streets, hateful rhetoric and division, immorality, run rampant, people without peace. What's the solution? Jesus Christ is the solution.

What's the problem? Man's sinful condition. We must repent. If we do, will God hear? Yes, he will.

Man's need is repentance of his heart because we are sinners. It says in Romans three twenty three, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All of us have or are born with the spiritual condition which must be dealt with. If you don't deal with it, is it going to fix itself? The answer is no.

Can you fix it apart from Jesus? The answer is no. But there is one who can. This man had this spiritual ailment, the same as all of us. He was a sinner.

He was separated from God by his sin. That sinful condition brings eternal hopelessness apart from Christ. Eternal hopelessness that I I don't think I have that up here. I'll read it. Ephesians two twelve, That at the time you were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world.

Before you come to Christ for salvation, you are without what? Without hope. He is the only hope for a lost world. Lost, consumed, and enslaved in sin. There is hope in Jesus.

But there is no hope without him. There is only eternal hopelessness. So, the spiritual ailment renders us spiritually dead, internally hopeless, and wholly dependent upon the mercy of who? Upon the mercy of God. Hold your place in Mark and turn if you would to Romans chapter three.

I don't have enough space on my slide up there to put all this up there. Romans chapter three. And describes the condition of this man and the condition of all men. Romans three ten. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.

There is none that understand it, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of their way. They are together become unprofitable. There's none that do with good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre there.

With their tongues, they have used to see. The poison of asp is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction, misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. This is the sad condition of mankind. In sin.

How did this, how did this happen? Romans five twelve. If you'll turn over a page to Romans five twelve. One, wherefore, wherefore, as by one man, that's Adam, sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have what? Sin.

Well, it tells us. You go back and read about it in Genesis chapter one, two, and three. How the God created Adam and Eve and put him in a place till the Garden Of Eden. Gave them one command that they couldn't do. Just said, you can do any, you can eat of any tree.

You just can't eat of this one. Just leave the one tree alone alone and they listen to the lies of the devil and they sinned against God and they became sinners and so did all of their offspring and that would be who? That would be us. And so all of us became sinners and all of us took upon ourselves both physical and spiritual death that comes thereby as a result. But if you look in Romans six twenty three, one more page over, you'll see this, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is what?

Eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. There is a way out. There is a solution. There is There is a fix A way of deliverance from our condition and that is through Jesus Christ. He is the only one who can forgive us.

He is the only one who can change us. He is the only one via his death on the cross. And his power to save men from sin. That can change our eternal destiny. Jesus Christ is the answer to our spiritual ailment.

So, we see a man with a need, a physical need, a spiritual need. Second of all, we see a man with friends. No one gets help in a vacuum. And so we see this man here had what? He had friends.

He had somebody who cared about him. True friends, true friends who cared enough to take extreme and time consuming measures to get their friend to Jesus. They were not deterred by the crowd. Or the roof. They found a way.

They found a way because they cared about who? They cared about their friend. They stopped whatever they were doing. They put him on a cot. They carried him.

When they couldn't get to him, they didn't stop and turn around and go, well, we'll wait another day. Maybe we can get him to Jesus then. No, they climbed up the steps. They took time to dig through the roof and lowered him down. They were caring, loyal, and committed friends.

They were true friends. Now, let's see if I can get to the verse I want up here. Proverbs eighteen twenty four. A man that hath friends must show himself friendly and there is a friend that what? Sticketh closer than a brother.

Are you that kind of friend? You may have a friend who needs that kind of friend. Jesus Christ is that kind of friend. He is a friend who will stick with you through thick and thin. If you will come to him and receive him as your Lord and savior.

When times get tough, Jesus will not leave you. He will be there for you. He says, I will never leave you nor what? Forsake you. These friends were true friends as well.

When times got tough, they didn't give up on their friend. They went the extra mile to help them. What kind of friend are you? Particularly to the needy. It seems that often we're friends when times are easy and we kind of disappear when times get tough.

What kind of friend are we? Are we that kind of friend that disappears? Are we the kind of friend that goes the extra mile? We need to be more like our savior. We need to be more like these men.

Who they saw their friend in need and they went the extra mile like Jesus went the extra mile for us. No one is helped in a vacuum. Thus, no one is saved in a vacuum either. No one is saved or delivered. This this man was will see delivered from his illness but he was also delivered from his sinful condition.

Romans ten thirteen through 15. Romans ten thirteen through 15. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, what? Shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?

And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher and how shall they preach except they be sent as it is written. How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. Now, you look at this passage, you might think, oh good. Well, this don't include me because I'm not a what?

No. I'm not a preacher, okay? Say, well, it's you know, how shall they hear without a preacher? Okay. Well, that's that's the guy up here and that's not me.

Let's see and that's wrong. See, actually, the word here preacher means proclaimer. It's not a word. It's not a title given to the pastor of a church or an evangelist or a missionary. It's a word that applies to all who have something to what?

Proclaim. And the fact is you meet people every day that I will never meet nor any other preacher. You are their preacher. You are called to tell them because if you don't tell them, how will they believe? And if they don't believe, how will they call upon him to be their Lord and savior?

How beautiful are the feet of those who take the good news of the gospel to those who need it. That see the need of others around them because the people you rub shoulders with, they're going to die one day and they're either going to heaven or they're going to hell. Do you believe that? If you believe it, should you not do something about it? You cannot choose for them.

You cannot make them. What you can want, you can tell them. You can give them the good news and then let God and the holy spirit use it to draw them to himself. This man would never have been before Jesus in this time, in this place, to be healed of his physical condition, and possibly ever to be healed of his spiritual condition had not four friends cared enough. To take him to Jesus.

Who have you brought to Jesus lately? Who have you brought to Jesus? Who have you brought to church lately? Who have you brought to a Bible study lately? Who have you brought a track?

Lately, who have you told lately? About Jesus Christ. That is our privilege to introduce people to Jesus for they need him. This past week, I'm I'm looking into buying another car. I would say new but it's far from new.

But my 25 year old Grand Marquis has finally bit the dust. And I'm looking and buying another car. I went to look at one in Tampa, somebody that works on the Air Force Base there and met him outside the Air Force Base and looked at his car and I smelled antifreeze. And I, oh, that's not a good thing. So, we talked about that.

As it turns out, he spent the last three days fixing the antifreeze leak. I appreciate that. He seriously wants to get rid of this car. But you know what else I got to do? I got to stand out there in a parking lot off the side of MacDill Air Force Base for forty five minutes as the storm was rolling in and talked to him about the Lord Jesus Christ and we had a wonderful conversation.

I don't think the man is yet saved. His name is Bobby. If you might think about him, I'd appreciate it. He is a Roman Catholic by birth and I don't believe he's saved and so if you could pray for Bobby, I'm going to get to see him hopefully Monday. Supposed to bring the car to my mechanic to have it looked over.

So, pray if you would for Bobby. He needs the Lord. As we go throughout different tasks of our day, we run into people and opportunities and so many times, we pass them by because talking about a car is more important than talking about the Lord. Now, sometimes, you don't get in that nice of a conversation. Sometimes, it's only a brief moment and it passes but you never know if you don't want.

If you don't try, if you don't open your mouth and say, hey, yeah. You know, this this week, he said I did this and I, oh, I went to church. Yeah. We are his feet and hands and voice that Jesus has left here To point others to Jesus, To care enough. To pray for them.

And to tell them. There's a movie put out by the Bill Rice Ranch. It's called When Silence Speaks. The movie is largely about two men. One man's name is Gordy or Gordon, Gordy.

And the other man's name is Oliver. Gordy was born deaf. And because Gordy was born deaf in a very backwards area in the hills of Tennessee, he never learned really to sign well. And people just gave up trying to communicate with Gordy. So, Gordy is now about 50 years old.

Gordy has never been saved because nobody ever thought that he could be or that they could communicate with him till this new preacher came into town. And he found a way to communicate with Gordy and at the age of 50, Gordy trusted Jesus Christ as his savior. There's another man. The man's name is Oliver. Gordy works for Oliver.

Oliver is rough around the edges. Doesn't want to have anything to do with God or Jesus but when Gordy gets saved and he starts to see the difference in Gordy's life, God softens his heart. And Gordy is able to take the preacher to Oliver. And Oliver gets saved too. You see, you never know and those that need it most and those who may be the most willing to receive it are sometimes those that slip through the cracks because nobody bothers to tell them.

So, we see a man with a need, a man with friends, and back to Mark chapter two verse five, a man forgiven. In chapter two verse five, it says, when Jesus saw their faith and I guess that would include the man who was laying there in the cot. When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy son, thy sins be what? Thy sins be forgiven thee. Jesus gave him what no one else could.

He gave him the forgiveness of his sins. Only God can do that. Only God can forgive a sinner from his sins. A priest cannot do it. A pastor cannot do it.

A friend cannot do it. The only one who can forgive you for your sins is the one who atoned for them by suffering from them on the cross of Calvary and the one who created and made you Jesus Christ. In the rabbinic rabbinic Hebrew teaching of the day, the Jews believe that if you suffered like this man was suffering, that it was a direct result of a sin. Now, we don't know that this man's suffering was a direct result of a particular sin. It may have been but all suffering that we face in this life was a result of the entrance of sin into the world.

This man was suffering Those around him assumed it was because of a particular sin and maybe it was. Jesus saw a greater need than a man laying flat in a bed. He saw a man on his way where? To an eternity in hell. And before he healed his body, he healed his what?

He healed his soul. When he saw his faith and he forgave him. Of his sin. It is not all that helpful to fix the malady that someone is suffering from. If you do not bring and introduce them to who?

To Jesus, the one who can fix the root problem. If you bring an alcoholic to meetings and he gets sober but you don't bring him to Christ, you have a sober condemned sinner. If you help a drug addict to get clean but you don't bring them to Christ, you have a drug free condemned sinner. If you bring, if you'd help to teach and counsel someone to change some of their behavior that is destroying their life, you have a reformed, condemned sinner. If you help them to see the error of their immorality and again, they change their behavior, then, you might have a moral condemned sinner.

If you free them from their medical condition or their cancer or their disease, Without Christ, you have a can't one freed from cancer but yet still a condemned what? Sinner. You have a healthier condemned sinner but you still have a lost sinner on their way to hell apart from who? Apart from Jesus Christ. It maybe that this man could've had his need met medically today, whatever was ailing him physically.

But there's only one who can treat the root problem of his life and of his soul. And that is Jesus. And as the same thing that is true of everyone today. They need Jesus. They don't just need medical attention though they may need it.

They don't just need sustenance though you might can help. They don't just need counseling or reformation in the end. They need Jesus. Jesus said this, in Matthew chapter 12, Matthew chapter 12 beginning in verse 43. He says, when the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places seeking rest and findeth none.

Then, he say it, I will return into my house from whence I came out and when he is come, he findeth it's empty, swept, and garnished. Then, goeth he and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself and they enter in and dwell there and the last state of the man is worse than the what? First, even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation. He said to the Jews among who he was talking, you're all about the outside. You clean, try to clean people up and you look all nice and clean and pious on the outside but you haven't dealt with the heart and in the end, if you don't deal with the heart, the condition of the man is worse.

Then, it was in the beginning. Praise God. This man came to the right place. He came to Jesus and he got the help that he needed. He got the help and he was forgiven.

And you can be too. If you will come to the right person for help. Sadly, this morning, if you look in verse six, look if you would back in verse six of Mark two. It says, but there were certain of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, why doth this man speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only?

So, you had the Pharisees. These are religious ones. The ones who were cleaned up on the outside but Jesus said inside, you're like sepulchres full of dead man's bones. Decay and corruption, you're ugly on the inside and God sees the heart. They stood there in judgement over Christ.

They said, what is this man doing? He's blaspheming. Only God can forgive sins. What's the answer to that? Jesus is God.

That's true. Only God can forgive sins against God. But Jesus is God. That they were not willing to accept. They were men with a problem but they were men with a problem unawares.

They did not recognize their lack. They thought of themselves as teachers instead of pupils. They did not recognize the son of God. He came unto his own and his own received him not. He came and the religious crowd, the leaders, the priests, the scribes, the the rabbis, the teachers, and Israel did not recognize him because they were too caught up in who?

Themselves. To see the savior standing before them. They did not recognize his prerogative to forgive. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He is the one we have wronged.

It is his choice and prerogative to forgive or not. And if we come in faith and repentant heart, he has promised to do what? To forgive. They didn't see that. They didn't perceive his ability to know their minds.

They were caught by surprise when Jesus later in the passage expressed that he knew what they were thinking. Bible says in Psalm one thirty nine, Oh Lord, thou hast searched me and know me, thou knowest my downcity and my uprising, understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue but low, oh Lord, thou knowest it all together. I can't see your heart or see into your head today and maybe that's a good thing.

But God can. God can. He knows what's going on in that head right now. He knows what's going on in your heart. He knows what's going on in your life.

There's nowhere to hide from him. He knows. And he's the one that you need to deal with. And he's the one who will show you mercy and forgive you. If you will confess before him.

Confess your sin and confess him as Lord. Number three, they did not perceive his right to judge. Jesus is the creator. Jesus is the law giver. James four twelve says, there is one law giver who is able to save and to destroy.

Who art thou that judges thy brother? Or judgest another? There is one law giver and one who is able to save and destroy. Who's that? That's Jesus because he's the creator.

We are his creation. He is our sovereign Lord and our lawgiver and he alone has the right to judge eternally for sin or to forgive those who have sinned against him. And finally, they could not see his power or could not accept his power to forgive and heal. They could not accept it but praise God, there was one there that day that could accept it. Who was that?

That was the man lying in the bed. He could accept it and he did accept it. Have you accepted it? Have you accepted his forgiveness in your life? So, we see the man not only forgiven but finally in verse eight, we see the man healed.

It says, immediately, when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reason within themselves, he said to them, why reason you these things in your hearts? Whether is it easier to say of the sick of the palsy, thy sins be forgiven thee or to say arise and take up thy bed and walk but that you may know that the son of man hath power to forgive on earth to forgive sins. I say it to the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, arise, take up thy bed, and go thy way into thy house and immediately, he rose, he took up the bed, and went forth before them all and so much that they were all amazed and glorify God saying, we never saw it in this fashion. Did Jesus have to heal him in this manner? The answer is no.

Did he have to say, first, your sins be forgiven. Did he have to do it publicly? The answer is no but he did it this way. He forgave him first. He healed him second to drive home a point to all that were standing there watching him.

That Jesus Christ is God, that Jesus Christ alone has the power not only to heal physical ailments but to save men from what? To save men from their sins. He displayed his compassion and his power. He authenticated his ability to forgive this man of his sin by healing him from his what? From his physical ailment also.

James two seventeen and eighteen, it says, even so faith but hath not works is dead being alone. Yey, a man may say thou hast faith and I have worked. Show me thy faith without thy works and I will show thee my faith by my works. James said, if you want to see my faith, here's how you see my faith. You see it in my what?

In my works. Jesus said, how do you know I have the power to forgive men from sin? You see it by my what? By my works. He demonstrated the power to do what they could not see by doing what they could see.

He didn't have to do it, but for their sake, he did it. That they might see and that they might know that he was the Christ, the son of the living God and the savior of the world. The only God, the only messiah, whereby we must be and we can be saved. Hebrews seven twenty five says this, wherefore, he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him. Seeing he ever live it to make intercession for them.

The same God, the same Jesus that healed the man that day and forgave him of all his sins as the same one who stands, sits before the throne of God on the right hand of the father in heaven who is there to hear our prayers and intercede for all who come to him by faith and he's able to save you from your sin just like this man and one day, he will save you from it all when you stand before him in heaven. You shall be like him. No more sin, no more suffering. Because of what Jesus did for you on the cross. And what Jesus offers to you today.

If you will receive it by faith. If you will receive the help that we offer you here this morning. If you will receive the words of the message of the gospel, if you will receive Jesus Christ and his power to save men from sins and his sacrifice in your behalf on Calvary. He is able to save you the way he saved him. And the way he saved me.

Are you forgiven today? You can be. If you'll come, we'll give an invitation in just a moment. I plead with you, come. We'd love to show you from God's word how you can be saved and know it and one last question, Christian, Are you praying for them?

Because he wants them to be safe too. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord. For your goodness to us. Thank you for your love and mercy.

That you have shown to us. Lord, I thank you for place in heaven reserved for me not because of anything that I have done because of my savior who did it all for me. Lord, I pray if there's one here today that's never accepted your offer that today would be their day of salvation that we would come, they would come. As we sing this hymn of invitation in just a moment. And I pray Lord, we who know you as savior, would be burdened more.

To reach the lost for Jesus. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.