Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3227
“Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.” Matthew 9:2.
[Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon concerning the man sick of the palsy are as follows—#2337, Volume 39—THE PHYSICIAN PARDONS HIS PALSIED PATIENT; #2417, Volume 41—FIRST FORGIVENESS, THEN HEALING and #3016, Volume52—GOOD CHEER FROM FORGIVEN SIN.]
OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST did not say to the palsied man, “Be of good cheer, your palsied limbs shall be made strong and well again.” But before He had cured that terrible malady, He bade him be comforted because his sins were forgiven—as if that would be a sufficient reason for rejoicing even if he should remain palsied! If he should be carried away from the Presence of Christ upon his bed just as helpless as when he was let down from the roof into the middle of the crowded room, that would be quite a secondary matter compared with the all-important fact that his sins had been forgiven. David truly wrote, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered,” and he is blessed even though he is sick of the palsy, or suffering from all the diseases to which flesh is heir! You remember, too, how the Prophet Isaiah wrote, under the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit, “Comfort, you, comfort you My people, says your God. Speak you comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her”—what? What shall be the special cause of comfort to the Church of God?—“that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned.” She might be in great trouble and distress. Her land might be trodden under the feet of invaders. Her sons and daughters might be fainting in her streets, but as her iniquity was pardoned, she had good ground for comfort! To quote another instance that is a close parallel to our text, our Lord said to the woman in the city who was a sinner—who had washed His feet with her tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head, and kissed them, and anointed them with ointment—“Your sins are forgiven…Go in peace.” And, truly, when sin is forgiven, we may go in peace!
This is the subject upon which I am going to speak—whatever there may be to cause us sorrow, if our sins are forgiven, we have good reason to be happy. First, I shall try to show you that the pardon of sin brings true happiness. Next, that those whose sins are forgiven ought to be happy. And thirdly, a solemn warning in conclusion that there is no true happiness for unpardoned souls.
I. First, then, as Jesus said to the man sick of the palsy, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you,” we learn
that THE PARDON OF SIN BRINGS TRUE HAPPINESS.
Time would fail us to show all the ways in which the forgiveness of sin is a perennial fountain of consolation, but note, first, that it is one of the surest signs ofDivine favor—anyone who is in the enjoyment of it, certainly has abundant reason for being glad! God may give a man great riches, but that would not, in itself, be a token of favor. It might even be quite the opposite! God may give a man great success in his enterprises, but that, also, may be no evidence of favor. God may even permit a man to have his heart’s desire and to be filled with this world’s follies and pleasures—yet that might be a proof of Divine wrath rather than of the Lord’s favor. He may have said concerning him, “Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.” But if a man’s sins are forgiven, there is no doubt about God’s favor in his case!. That brief sentence, “Your sins are forgiven,” is a clearer token of the favor of God than vats bursting with new wine or barns packed to the roof with golden grain! If your sins are forgiven you, you have the King’s guarantee to prove that He loves you!
Forgiveness of sin is also a proof of Divine Election—not merely a sign and token of God’s present, favorable regard, but an evidence of that ancient favor which God had in His heart towards His chosen even from eternity! There are
many common mercies that God gives freely to all sorts and conditions of men. “He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” But the pardon of sin is a special blessing reserved for His own peculiar people, whose names He wrote in the Lamb’s Book of Life and whom He gave to His Son in the Covenant of His Grace—and whom Christ reclaimed by His precious blood when He “loved the Church and gave Himself for it.” These are the people in whom God takes a peculiar delight—and these are they whose sins are forgiven them for Christ’s sake!
If you, my Brother or Sister, are one of these highly-favored ones, then you have good reason to be happy! Think for a minute or two upon what this pardon is, and then you will see what cause you have for happiness. Isaiah tells us that Jehovah has laid upon Christ the iniquity of all His people so that this crushing burden has been removed from all of us who are truly His—and surely he who has had such a load taken off his heart and conscience must be a happy man! In Psalm 85:2, we read, “You have forgiven the iniquity of Your people, You have covered all their sin.” If we have believed in Jesus, our sins are covered even from the sight of God by the Propitiatory Sacrifice of Christ, and they are so concealed from our own eyes that we no longer think of them as condemning us! Can any of us realize that this is our case and yet remain unhappy? In Isaiah 44:22, we read, “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions and, as a cloud, your sins.” You have sometimes seen the clouds dissipated and scattered so completely that not a vestige of them can be seen—that is how our sins are driven away by God—so shall we not be happy? Sometimes the pardon of sin is called the casting of sin behind God’s back into the depths of the sea. At another time it is said that, “the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none. And the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found.” And then there is that wonderful description of the work of “Messiah the Prince” which Gabriel gave to Daniel, “to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins.” What stronger expression than that could ever be used? If it is Christ’s work “to make an end of sins,” we may be quite sure that He will do it and that there will be an end of them for all who believe in Him! Therefore let our hearts dance for joy as His gracious Spirit assures us that our sins are as completely annihilated and put away as if they had never been committed!