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TOPIC: Spurgeon - C.H. - Sermons from Luke (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 14 LUK 5:20 First Forgiveness, Then Healing
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Intended for Reading on Lord's-day, June 16th, 1895,
Delivered by
C. H. SPURGEON,
At the hyperlink Newington,
On Thursday Evening, June 2nd, 1887.
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." 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 a room full already. 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 Saviour Jesus Christ."
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.
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 upon a sudden; men who have been about their business, as active 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 at his own request; 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.
This man, I believe, further, thought that Christ could heal him, but he began to feel his great sinfulness. I am certain that he did, because Jesus never does forgive where there is no repentance. There was never yet the fiat, "Thy sins be forgiven thee," until first there was a consciousness of sin, and a confession of sin. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." This man, lying there paralyzed, wept at the thought of his past life, his omissions and his commissions, his falling short and his transgressions, and his heart was heavy within him. He seemed to say to his friends, "Get me somehow to the great Prophet; get me within sight of this wonderful Saviour. Oh, get me within touch of him, that I may be restored, that I may have this great load, which presses me down so sorely, taken off my heart! Worse to me even than the paralysis is this awful sense of sin. Take me, oh, take me into the presence of this Messiah, this Son of David, that he may have mercy upon me!" That I conceive to have been his condition before the word of pardon was spoken to him.
They resolved to do it if they could; and he was willing to be carried to Christ. Four stout stalwart men said, "Yes, we will get you to him somehow, though it is a difficult task, for the house is small, the room is crowded, and there is sure to be a press about the door." "But," said the poor man, "Oh! try to do it, for it is my only hope. If I could but get where Jesus could see me, he would look on me, and save me. Oh, get me to him, get me to him!" The palsied man would make no dispute about how it was to be done, so they carried him to the door of the house, and then they said to the people crowding around, "Make way for this poor palsied man," and he would say, "I pray you, friends and neighbours, make way;" but they could not; perhaps they, too, had their friends who wanted to be healed, or they themselves had an anxiety to hear the great Teacher, so they pushed and pressed to get as near him as they could. You see, those quibbling Pharisees and doctors of the law had got in first, and they blocked up the road. They are always in a poor sinner's way. What must be done? The poor man's bearers would have abandoned the task, I think, but he said, "No, do not give up trying to get me in; it is my only hope. Oh, get me to him! Get me near him!"
There he lies upon his mattress, on the floor of the house, just before the Saviour's eyes, exactly where he wanted to be. Here I address myself to some who would give all that they have if they could but be brought under the eye of Jesus. The one thought of such a sufferer is, "Oh, that I could be near him! Oh, that I could be near him! Oh, that he would look on me, and cure my helplessness, and pardon my sin!" What a wonderful picture this scene would make! The crowd are obliged to make way, or else they will have to bear the man and his bed on their heads; so he is dropped down into their midst, and there he lies. The great Preacher has been preaching, and he stops. There is an interruption which is indeed no interruption to him. His discourse is but broken off for a minute, to be illustrated with engravings, that men may see, in after years, that what they have heard is but the letter-press, and that the miracle which is now to be wrought shall be the engraving which shall convey the Teacher's wonderful meaning to all eyes. So the poor palsied man lies there before the Saviour.
II. Now, in the second place, we are to consider THE FORGIVENESS ITSELF.
Observe, that the pardon of sin came in a single sentence. He spake, and it was done. Jesus said "Man, thy sins are forgiven thee," and they were forgiven him. Christ's voice had such almighty power about it that it needed not to utter many words. There was no long lesson for the poor man to repeat, there was no intricate problem for him to work out in his mind. The Master said all that was required in that one sentence, "Thy sins are forgiven thee." The burden of a sinner does not need two ticks of the clock for it to be removed; swifter than the lightning's hash is that verdict of absolution which comes from the eternal lips, when the sinner lies hoping, believing, repenting at the feet of Jesus. It was a single sentence which declared that the man was forgiven.
Now, my hearer, hast thou never been forgiven? Art thou in thy pew, and yet lying at that dear Master's feet, and dost thou desire above all things that he should say to thee, "Thy sins are forgiven thee"? And dost thou believe that he can say it, and wilt thou accept it from him as being by divine authority? If so, I think he says it to thee, for in his own Word he declares that they who believe in him are forgiven. He says to each one of those who are penitent, and believe in his grace, "Thy sins are forgiven thee." Take thou the absolution, and go thy way. Do as Martin Luther did, in the days of his dark distress, when a brother-monk said to him, "Dost thou not believe in the Creed, and dost thou not say, 'I believe in the forgiveness of sins'? Now believe in the forgiveness of sins for thyself." Trust Christ's Word, and thou wilt be believing what is absolutely true. Trust it, take the comfort of it, and go thy way. It is thus that Jesus Christ, by the preaching of the gospel, and by the revealed Word of God, says authoritatively to each penitent, "Man, thy sins are forgiven thee."
Observe, also, that this sentence contains no conditions: and the blessed gospel, speaking to every repenting and believing sinner, gives him absolute forgiveness. Behold, the tally is destroyed, the record of thy debt is nailed to the cross and as for thy sins, they are like the Egyptians when the Red Sea swallowed them up, the depths have covered them, there is not one of them left, however great or many they may have been. If thou art now a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, he says to thee now by his Word, "Man, thy sins are forgiven thee." I pray the blessed Master by his Holy Spirit to make his Word come home to many here with power. Oh, that those dear lips, which are as lilies dropping sweet-smelling myrrh, did themselves speak to you! Oh, that those wounds of his, which are mouths that preach pardon to sinners, might speak to you, and say, "Thy sins are forgiven thee." There is no mouth that speaketh pardon like that gash in his side, out of which his very heart speaks, as he says, "I have loved thee, and given myself to death for thee. Thy sins I have borne on the tree, and put them away once for all. Man, thy sins are forgiven thee." Oh, that Jesus himself might thus speak effectually to many of you!
III. Now I close by noticing, thirdly, what followed AFTER THIS MAN'S FORGIVENESS.
I believe that, first, there was an inward peace that stole over his soul. If you could have looked into the face of that palsied man, whilst still palsied, and lying there in that hammock, you would have seen a wonderful transformation. Did you ever see a face transfigured? If you are a soul-winner, you have often seen it. All human faces are not beautiful, some are absolutely repulsive; the countenances of some who have lived long in sin are dreadful to look upon. Yet I have noticed faces, that at first I could scarcely endure, when the persons have been gently led to the Saviour, and they have perceived the love of God to them, and have at last believed, and felt within their soul the kiss of peace, why, they have looked positively beautiful! I should have liked to have had them photographed, only it was too sacred a thing. Speak of physiognomies; the grace of God is such an eternal beautifier that the face, from which you would have turned away in disgust, and said, "There can be no good thing behind that countenance," is absolutely changed by the Lord's mighty working. I say not that a single feature may be altered; the person may be the same in feature, but, oh! what a marvellous difference there is in the expression of the whole contour of the countenance when free grace and dying love have cast their magic spell over the spirit, and the Holy Ghost has made the dead to live, and the person has been born again in Christ Jesus. Well, that change took place in this man's mind, I am sure it did, when Jesus said to him, "Thy sins are forgiven thee." He was in no hurry to be raised from his palsied state; he does not appear to have said a word, and those scribes and Pharisees looked on with their malevolent countenances, but they did not frighten him; he lay quite still, and was in no haste even for the Master's next blessing. It would come in due time, he knew it would, and he was of good cheer, for had not Jesus said to him "Be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee"?
The Saviour said to this man, "Arise, take up thy couch, and go into thine house." Now observe his precise obedience. "Immediately he rose up before them all." The tendency of a paralyzed person is to be paralyzed in will. There are some persons, no doubt, who have ailments that can easily be cured if they believe they can be cured, because there is not much the matter with them after all; but this man was completely paralyzed, yet he so fully believed in Christ that up he rose, and stood before the Master. Then Jesus said, "Take up thy couch." I think I see him undo those four ropes, and quickly he shoulders his mattress. "Walk," says the Master, and he walks. "Go into thine house," says the Master. He might have stopped, and said, "No, Lord, do let me stay and hear the sermon out;" but no, not a word did he say about it, but off he went to his own house.
Now, lastly, this man, it is said, "immediately rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house glorifying God." I think I hear what he said. "Glory!" he cried, "Glory be to God!" He felt so glad, so happy, that he took up his bed before them all, and as he walked along he glorified God; and would not you have done the same if you had been paralyzed, and had been restored as he had been? And will you not do so? If you have been sin-bound, and Christ has set you free, surely, you will take the earliest opportunity of telling others what Jesus has done for you, and you will seek to glorify his name. I did not wonder when a brother lately said to me, "I have been spending all the morning in the workshop telling the men that I have found the Saviour," and one, last Sunday, turned to his wife in this Tabernacle, and said, "I am saved!" She said to him, "Don't disturb the worship," but I almost wish he had done so. What a mercy it is to be saved! Salvation puts a new sun in our sky, and a new joy in our hearts. Believe on Jesus, and this salvation is yours. God grant that it may be, for his dear Son's sake! Amen.
Luk_5:12-20
Verse 12. And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy:
12. Who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
13. And he put forth his hand, and touched him,
13. Saying, I will: be thou clean.
13. And immediately the leprosy departed from him.
14. And he charged him to tell no man: but go, and show thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.
15. But so much the more went there a fame abroad of him:
15. And great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities.
16. And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.
17. And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them.
And when the power to heal was present, the patient to be healed was very soon present, too.
There does appear to have been, according to Mark, some breaking up of the material that formed the roof of the house where Christ was. It was not altogether such an easy matter as some have imagined to let this poor palsied man down into the presence of Jesus; and if some of the dust from the roof fell down upon the Pharisees and doctors of the law who were sitting by, it would only be what they were accustomed to throw into other people's eyes.
Christ has eyes with which he can see faith. You and I cannot see it; but he can: "When he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins be forgiven thee." This was going to the very root of his disease. Jesus knew what the man really ailed; he was palsied in spirit as well as in body, and Christ removed the root of his disease by forgiving his sin.
The gentlemen I alluded to just now began to reason. It was just like them; instead of beginning to praise God, they "began to reason,"—
See, Jesus can perceive thoughts. I have heard of "thought-reading"; here is a true specimen of it: "Jesus perceived their thoughts, and said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts?"
Anyone can say, "Thy sins be forgiven thee," or, "Rise up and walk," but to forgive sins, or to give the power to rise up and walk, equally needs a God. If God be present, and can make the palsied man arise and walk, he is also able to forgive his sins.
With awe, and reverence. They felt that God had come very near to them, and they perhaps said, like Jacob of old, when he was afraid, "How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." They were filled with fear,—
Oh, that we might see such "strange things" in this house to-night, and whenever we meet to worship God!
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