Sermon in Rockford 14.10.2012

Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, let us unite our hearts in opening prayer and thanksgiving.

Eternal, almighty God, Thou who hast created everything that we see, and hast given life to all, our dear Heavenly Father, we approach Thee this morning, simply asking of Thee, dear Father, preserve us here in this begun faith, grant unto us the power and strength to endeavor against the onslaughts of that threefold enemy which besets us every day.

Dear Father, we simply ask, increase our faith. But we thank Thee, dear Father, for this, our daily bread, for our homes and our families, and all that is needful here in this temporal life, with which Thou hast blessed us so abundantly.

But above all, dear Father, we thank Thee that Thou gavest unto us Thine only begotten Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus, who prepared that way of salvation unto us in such a simple way that through His merit work, we are heaven acceptable before Thee, trusting upon Thy word and believing.

Dear Father, we thank You that Thou hast called us here. We ask, dear Father, this morning, open Thy word unto us wherever Thy word is spoken this day and feed and nourish us.

We who so oftentimes are so doubting, we who so oftentimes are so slow to do that which Thou hast taught us to do, we who so oftentimes feel our sinfulness and our weakness, we ask, dear Father, grant unto us from Thy word uplift and comfort us.

And we pray as Thou hast taught us. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

And that's found from the gospel according to St. Mark from its second chapter, beginning from the first verse. And these words are in Jesus' name as follows:

And again he entered into Capernaum after some days. And it was noised that he was in the house. And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door. And he preached the word unto them.

And they came unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy which was borne of four. And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was. And when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins are forgiven thee.

But there were certain of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only?

And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, He said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts? Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Arise and take up thy bed and walk?

But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, then he saith to the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, Arise, take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.

And immediately he arose, took up his bed, and went forth before them all, insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion. Amen.

First of all, I want to certainly bring you greetings. I've even seen here now this morning that you have other visitors here in Rockford. I know in Cocado it's always so nice to have visitors from out of town at services.

But I certainly want to bring you those greetings of love and God's peace from the believers from Cocado. We're just down the road a ways.

And yet it seems, you know, in this whirlwind of life that we're living, that it seems that there's so little time for visiting and fellowship, which is so important.

And the Bible even reminds us, As you see that day approaching, gather together all the more. It is important.

And also I'd like to bring greetings. I was just a little while back in Seattle at their fall services, and many asked to relay their greetings here to Minnesota. And I very gladly bring those greetings here too.

It's nice to be here in your midst.

As we mentioned on our church calendar, the topic, the theme for this day speaks on to us of faith and unbelief.

There's been a battle there since the first human couple. One of their boys went into unbelief from that day, from that day when the serpent came and beguiled Adam and Eve.

The battle began there.

You know, once I was visiting with some unbelievers in their home, and there were many unbelievers there. And they had called me to come there. They had some questions for some reasons, which I won't go into.

But I went there with fear and trembling.

And yet, dear brothers and sisters, don't we have the greatest reason to rejoice and to thank God?

And, you know, what is required of us? It's just simply trust upon the word of God. Believe and trust upon that word.

But yet I went trembling. And they were questioning about faith.

And I began my discussion there in the garden. I began it with Adam, and how Adam had his duty there in the garden of Eden that God had given unto him.

And, oh, God saw that he was missing something. And so he took a rib from him and created Eve.

You know, boys and girls, you youth, dear brothers and sisters, when you think of the garden of paradise where man began, how it must have been because, you know what? There was no fear. There was no trembling. There was no anger. There was no impatience. There was no pain. There was no suffering. There was only peace, joy, and righteousness.

You know, you little boys and girls, even when you think of lions, you know, they're kind of a ferocious animal. And yet the lion and the lamb lay side by side.

There was no death. There was no pain. It must have been remarkable.

And into that then the serpent came and deceived man. And sin came.

And from that time on, sin, inherited sin has beset every person that has been born.

Every child, every baby that is born is born with the Holy Spirit.

God has created man to be eternal.

You, boys and girls, you don't know how fortunate you are that you're there in a believing home.

You have a believing mother and father, believing loved ones around you, and they're in that security of that little home.

Then you're taught and reminded and taught, you know, what does God's word say?

You know, one of the most important lessons, I think, that we could learn and relearn and learn again, and it's important to your mothers and fathers at home, you children, to know and to learn this.

It's what's often been called as the golden rule of Jesus.

And it just says, do unto others as you'd want them to do unto you.

You know, if we tried to do this, it'd be wonderful.

But it's a lesson that we need to learn and relearn again and again, isn't it?

I was speaking to those, that group of unbelievers there, and then I related unto them that sin came there onto the earth.

And then I asked them that maybe it was somewhat simpler in those days, because there was faith and there was unbelief.

Today, when we look around us in the world, we, I don't know what it is, but many years ago, I already heard there was over 2,000 different religions and faith and teachings in the world that Satan has brought.

You know, man has tried to construct their stairways to heaven.

I mean, we have many, even in our little village there, very upright and moral and good people.

And they're busy building their stairway to heaven through their good works and merits.

For naught.

You know, in our text here, it's a wonderful, it's a wonderful portion of God's word.

But, you know, just think now, and you've experienced it here.

You now have these split services here, and people fit fairly comfortably in here.

I'm sure in the morning it's much more, much more, maybe less comfortable or something.

But before you started this, I mean, you were just, I mean, there was people throughout the entire building.

Well, on this day when Jesus was in this home, I mean, it was filled with capacity.

I even talked about the doorway that people couldn't even get in.

People were standing, and isn't it wonderful?

Isn't it wonderful to come to the hearing of God's word?

We come here to the feet of Jesus to hear what Jesus has to say unto us.

It doesn't matter who sits here before us.

Who serves us.

That makes no difference.

But we have this prayer in our heart that God would open His word unto us.

That's the prayer, and that's important, boys and girls, when you come here, when you come in through those doors to pray to God that God would open His word.

That the Lord would teach us.

That He'd remind us.

And oftentimes we're troubled, and that He would uplift and comfort us, and remind us how important it is to put sin away.

Sin attaches onto us, and it's so important to endeavor under those footsteps of repentance, and believe the gospel message.

Because it is from the Lord Himself, that message.

This message that this unbelieving, paralyzed man heard as he lay in that room, Son, thy sins are forgiven unto thee.

What a wonderful message, isn't it?

That was the best message He could have.

His friends had brought Him there.

They were true friends.

They had heard of the Lord of life, and that glorious message of the forgiveness of sins.

And that's why they brought Him there that day.

They heard that the Lord of life, Jesus was there in their little town.

And they knew that He was in this little, in this house.

And they were so happy.

There were four of them carrying this man, this unbelieving man there.

But when they got there, they were dismayed that they couldn't get anywhere near Jesus.

Because there were people everywhere.

They couldn't even get through that door.

And so they were thinking, now we need to bring our friend before the giver of life.

And so then they went on a roof.

Do you think that attracted any attention?

I mean, boys and girls, just think now, sitting here and debris starts falling from the ceiling, and soon sunlight, rays of sun come through the roof.

And you look and you see faces looking down at you.

And that's what happened this day.

And they lowered down that stretcher with ropes from the roof.

And you know that paralyzed man, that man that was sick with palsy, somehow they lowered him down right before Jesus.

Isn't that incredible?

It is.

Boys and girls, you are very near to Jesus this morning.

He is here with us.

You know, when you go home, he is there with you.

That is the kind of Lord we have.

He's promised, I will lift and I will carry.

But you know, in that assembly, there weren't only believers there.

There were many unbelievers sitting there listening.

And it says that he preached the word unto them, the living word of God.

And their ears were pricked.

Do you remember the first time when Jesus went back to Nazareth?

That's where he grew up.

He had been gone from there.

The first time when he went there to preach, he went into the synagogue there.

And I'm going to read that.

It's such a comforting portion in many respects, but also, such an important reminder unto us.

And so he went into the synagogue and he walked in and, you know, after the worship service there, then, as custom was, then they gave the Bible to Jesus.

Well, you know, it wasn't the Bible like we have now.

In those days, the Bible was in different books, and they were in scrolls.

They were rolled up in scrolls, and they gave Jesus the scroll of the prophet Isaiah.

And then Jesus, well, he wouldn't have even had to open it up, because Jesus knew the word of God by heart.

But it says that there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah, and when he opened the book, he found a place where it was written.

And this is what he read:

The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty them that are bruised, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

And it says here, and he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down, and it says, and the eyes of all of them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.

And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

That's all that's recorded that he said.

I'm sure he said much more.

But this is what is recorded in the Holy Bible.

It's enough for us.

It's a reminder.

Jesus took that portion of the prophet Isaiah that was prophesying of the Lord Jesus, and he reminded them, the spirit of the Lord is upon me.

And because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

This is what Jesus wanted to do.

The work of God.

To preach the gospel to the poor.

Dear brothers and sisters assembled here, I'm sure that you feel in yourselves your poorness and weakness.

I know I do.

I came here with fear and doubt.

And even now I need to ask that, Could I believe these and all my sins forgiven?

I've promised to believe.

This gospel, it is the power of God unto salvation.

It says here, in that synagogue on that day, I'm going to read from that 22nd verse, and it says, and all bare him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.

Dear brothers and sisters, it was the same thing on this day in our text that we read.

And he preached the word.

And they marveled at the living word that they heard.

Unbeliever and believer alike.

It is a powerful word.

It is a living word.

It gives life unto the dead.

But you know, in this synagogue, when Jesus went back to Nazareth for the first time, we heard, and there were believers and unbelievers there too in that synagogue.

And we heard, they all wondered at the gracious words which they heard.

They marveled at the living word.

They felt the power of that word.

But it says here, and they said, Is not this Joseph's son?

Parable of the sower.

Sowing the word of God.

Some immediately the devil came and taketh away that word.

That is what happened in that synagogue.

But not before they wondered at the graciousness of what he preached.

But they felt, they felt a tiny taste.

And the devil came and took it away.

And now they were so darkened by their unbelief that all they could see was the carpenter's son.

That is what unbelief does.

In our text, it says, and straightway many were gathered together insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door.

And he preached the word unto them.

I'm going to read what Luke also records of this incident.

He gets into a little more detail who was there.

It says in this way, and it came to pass on a certain day as he was teaching, there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem.

And it says, and the power of the Lord was present to heal them.

Now, in this house now, were these Pharisees and these doctors of the law self-righteous ones, those doctors of the law and those Pharisees who looked down upon the sinful people?

You know, they were in that high and lofty position.

They were doing the law of Moses, or so they saw it.

It's impossible.

There's not anybody who can fulfill the demanding law of God.

Self-righteousness teaches one that it's possible.

Self-righteousness teaches us that it's good to do good works and merits, that that's how we get to heaven and so on.

It's a lie.

The Bible says self-righteousness is a filthy rag before God.

And yet, Satan is so deceiving, he is able to convince many people that they are heaven-acceptable through their works.

Even though it so clearly says in the Bible, by faith are ye saved, not of works, lest any man should boast.

So these self-righteous ones, doctors of law and the Pharisees were sitting in that midst too, and they saw this stretcher being lowered into the house, and Jesus simply told that man, Son, thy sins are forgiven unto thee.

What better words could one hear?

One who is in total darkness of unbelief through this message of the Lord receives the light of heaven, the light of the Lord Jesus.

I am the light, the truth, and the way.

One sees clearly the way to salvation and to heaven, that narrow way.

In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, one is translated from the darkness of unbelief into the light of God's kingdom.

That is why, dear brothers and sisters, beloved youth and boys and girls, that it's important for us to remember our loved ones who have been deceived by Satan into unbelief.

To pray for them that God would grant unto them this grace of repentance, that he would grant unto them a penitent heart, that they would desire this, what you and I have.

You know, those Pharisees and the doctors of the law, when they heard the words of Jesus, they didn't say anything.

They only were thinking it in their heads, but they were all thinking the same thing: Who can forgive sins but God alone?

That was 2,000 years ago.

You know, if you would go to your unbelieving neighbors, boys and girls, beloved youth, if you would ask your unbelieving friends, Do you think Jesus forgives sins?

And I bet you all of them would say, Of course Jesus forgives sins.

2,000 years ago it wasn't so.

And these Pharisees and the doctors of the law who could recite also the holy scriptures by heart.

They knew the holy scriptures.

It's amazing, the darkness of unbelief.

Because time and time again the prophets of old, our heavenly Father, gave those promises of the coming of the Savior of mankind.

And yet they thought in themselves, Who can forgive sins but God alone?

There's another Bible here and immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they had so reasoned within themselves he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?

Whether it is easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Arise, take up thy bed and walk?

But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins.

And then he said to the one sick of the palsy who was still there before him, I say unto thee, Arise, take up thy bed and go thy way into thine house.

Luke records he picked up his bed and he was rejoicing and thanking God.

It says here in this portion, and immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all, insomuch that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.

You know what many in the world stumble upon today?

The self-righteous lawyers, teachers of the law, scribes, the Pharisees stumbled upon this: Who can forgive sins but God alone?

It is only God who forgives sins.

They somehow overlooked what the Holy Scriptures said of the coming of the Lord of life who preaches the gospel unto the poor, the message of glad tidings.

Today people stumble on this: How can you forgive sins? How can you forgive sins?

That is what they stumble on.

And yet in living faith, oh the simplicity of faith, the smallest child who is able to speak often reassures mother and father, Believe sins forgiven in Jesus' name, a little preacher of our Lord.

Many times our children have preached unto us the gospel.

We have had need of it.

Dear mothers and fathers there in your home congregation, preach this gospel mothers and fathers unto yourselves, unto your children, and you children and youth preach it to your mother and father.

It doesn't matter how old you get, they're still your mother and father.

They still need reassurance.

They need that reassurance and comfort of the gospel.

You know, when you read in the Acts of the Apostles, it so clearly states there when Jesus appeared before Saul, that bright light, all he heard was the voice, and it was the voice of Jesus.

He heard it in audible form instructing him to go there to that city and it will be told thee what thou shalt do.

And then God appeared unto Ananias and told him to go preach unto Saul.

And Ananias was fearful.

He knew what Saul had done.

He had persecuted the believers, cast him into prison.

But he was obedient and he went to preach the gospel to Saul.

And Saul believed that same gospel message and his eyes were opened and he was no longer blind.

He could see.

In the 26th chapter of Acts, I'm going to read that portion to you.

It's a portion and some of those words then that Jesus spoke unto Saul that isn't recorded in the beginning of Acts where the incident took place, but now he's before King Agrippa and much royalty and he's preaching unto them.

And it's in that 26th chapter of Acts and he starts there and he says, And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

And I said, Who art thou, Lord?

And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.

But it continues.

Jesus continued speaking unto Saul, But rise and stand upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of those things which thou hast seen and of those things which I will appear unto thee, delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee.

And why was he sending them unto the people, the Jews and the Gentiles alike?

And it says here, To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive the forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

This mission command that Jesus gave before he left to go and preach unto all the world was given unto his own, even unto the youngest child, to preach the gospel of the kingdom.

Dear brothers and sisters, thank God that he has first of all led you here to God's kingdom, that he's placed you in a believing family, mothers and fathers in their poorness and faultiness who endeavor to teach you.

But above all that he's preserved you in living faith to this day.

Thank God for this.

And remember the mission command of our Lord Jesus.

It is meant unto you also.

Many people stumble on this today: Who can forgive sins?

But they say not God alone but Christ alone.

You have this duty given from God.

And I wish to encourage you, dear brothers and sisters.

You know this endeavor of faith is difficult, isn't it?

First of all, we battle against this sin-corrupt flesh that we carry which desires those things of the world that Satan is so freely offering unto us.

We battle daily against this sin-corrupt flesh which preaches unbelief unto us.

But thank God that we have within us the spirit of our heavenly Father which continually reminds us and speaks unto us of the simplicity of living faith.

We battle against the unbelieving darkened world which would want to place honor and glory unto us, which would want to give unto us of its sinfulness and pleasures.

And we battle against the principalities of power itself, the tempter, the serpent, the enemy of the soul, that darkened horned form of Satan which comes daily to battle against us.

And the battle is fierce, dear brothers and sisters.

There's not one here who can boast that it has been a good endeavor.

No, there's not one.

But we all bow our heads, Oh Lord, increase our faith.

But even this, dear brothers and sisters, how God has prepared the way of salvation in such a simple way.

It's not dependent upon the amount of faith that we have.

Jesus said that if you have the faith of a mustard seed, you could say to those rocky mountains to move and they would move.

So it's not dependent on the amount of faith.

And thank God the Bible reminds us that even that smoldering flax of which we oftentimes feel ourselves to be, that flickering candle, He will not extinguish but He comes again and again.

Dear brother and sister, dear beloved youth, dear children, He comes.

Son and daughter, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven unto you.

This is the message of our Lord and Savior Jesus this morning unto you.

Be of good comfort.

Believe all sins and doubts forgiven in Jesus' name and precious blood.

This is the power of God that He grants unto us so that we have defeated Satan again.

We have mortified these deeds of the body and again we have come to victory.

And again life continues and again we hear the gospel and we go to victory.

And so it is from victory to victory to victory that we endeavor on the way to heaven.

And dear brothers and sisters, be of good comfort.

Where else would we go?

Even as the apostles, the disciples cried unto Jesus, Lord, where would we go?

For thou hast the words of life.

That's why we've come here this morning to hear what Jesus has to say unto us.

Be of good comfort, thy sins are forgiven in Jesus' name.

Amen.

The Lord bless us and keep us.

The Lord make His face shine upon us and be gracious unto us.

The Lord lift up His countenance upon us and give us peace.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Amen.