Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2417
“When He saw their faith, He said to him, Man, your sins are forgiven you.” Luke 5:20.
I HAVE read to you the narrative of the healing of the man taken with the palsy and many of you remember that, last Sabbath evening, I preached upon the Pharisees and the doctors of the Law who were “sitting by” [Sermon #1991, Volume 33—“Sitting By”] I tried to represent the position of many in our congregations who are just “sitting by.” I preached to the outsiders of the congregation on the divers reasons which led to this, “sitting by.” I must confess that I did not reckon on so large a blessing as I have already seen as the result of that sermon. When I came here on Monday afternoon, that being Whit-Monday, when everybody is supposed to take a holiday, I was surprised, on my arrival at about three o’clock, by a friend running up to me and saying, “We are glad you have come, Sir, for there is already a room full.” There is quite a nice number of friends who have come forward from the congregation and who, one after another have said, “We cannot be sitting by any longer. We feel that we cannot remain among the sitters-by, but that we must come in and partake of the Gospel feast and join ourselves with the disciples of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
This blessed result of my sermon has set the bells of my heart ringing all the week and I have felt deeply thankful to God for it. I said to myself that as I had taken one arrow, which had sped so well, out of that quiver, I would take another! Having spoken to those who are “sitting by,” I think I will now speak to those who are not sitting by, but who, indeed, are the principal persons in the congregation, namely, those who are sick and sorry and who need the Savior. For this palsied man who was let down by ropes through the ceiling was the most remarkable person in that congregation! We may readily forget those Pharisees and learned legal gentlemen, but we can never forget this man to whom, as soon as ever they “let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus,” the Savior said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” I trust that, at this time, there are some present in this audience who are not sitting by, but who are already praying, “God be merciful to me!” Some whose prayers are rising to Heaven in accents like these, “Lord, help me!” “Lord, save, or I perish!”
You are the principal persons in the congregation, both to the preacher and to the preacher’s Master! He cares more about you and about what shall take place in you, than about any of the Pharisees or doctors of the Law who may be sitting by. God is glorified in scattering His miracles of mercy where there is the greatest need of them. Our Lord Jesus, when the poor man was let down by his four friends through the ceiling, said to him at once, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” Matthew puts our Savior’s words thus, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you,” while Mark’s record is, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” Well, Jesus may have uttered all of these words and all the different versions of the story may be correct, for it is not every man’s ear that catches the whole of every sentence that is spoken, and we may be glad that there are three Evangelists who have recorded what the Savior said. There is no real difference in the sense—and the difference in the words may only show that Jesus said all three sentences.
I am going, on this occasion, to talk a little about this man, first, before his forgiveness. Next, a little more about his forgiveness, itself. And then a little about what followed after his forgiveness.
I. First, then, let us think of this man BEFORE HIS FORGIVENESS.
We are not told much about him. If I indulge in imagination a little, you will take it for what it is worth. This man, it seems to me, first, had faith which went out towards the Lord Jesus. Evidently, as I read the narrative, he had been suddenly paralyzed. This affliction usually comes up all of a sudden—men who have been about their business as actively as usual have been, in a moment, struck down with paralysis. This man appears to have been completely paralyzed, so as to have been unable to move and, as he lay in that helpless state, he heard that Jesus of Nazareth had come to the city— and he believed that Jesus of Nazareth was able to heal even him. It does not strike me that his friends would have brought him to Christ unless he requested it. The most rational explanation of the whole proceeding seems to me to be this—he believed in Jesus as able to heal him and he continued to cry out earnestly—and to pray that he might, somehow or other, be taken into Christ’s Presence. He could not stir hand or foot, but he had friends—and he begged those friends to take him to Jesus.
Well now, there never was a soul, yet, that had faith in Christ but what Christ revealed Himself more fully in the way of love to that soul! If you know that you can not save yourself. If you believe that Christ can save you and if your one anxiety is to be laid at His feet that He may look upon you, and save you, He will assuredly accept you. “Him that comes to Me,” He says, “I will in no wise cast out.” Whether he comes running, or walking, or creeping, or borne of four, so long as he comes, Christ will accept him! And if his faith is but as a grain of mustard seed, our Lord Jesus will not let it die! If there is but a smoldering faith, He will not quench the smoking flax. Do you believe this? If you do, let it cheer you and comfort you. There is already something that is well with your soul! It was better to be paralyzed and to have faith in Christ than to be walking upright like the Pharisees and lawyers who had no faith in Him! The apparent wretchedness of your condition is not the real wretchedness of it—it may even turn out to be the blessedness and the hopefulness of it! If you believe in Jesus, I care not how far you have fallen, or how great is your inability—if you believe in Jesus, you are brought into contact with Omnipotence and that Omnipotence will heal you!