Rise and Walk!
Notes
Transcript
Jesus is Willing and Able to Cleanse us from Sin
Jesus is Willing and Able to Cleanse us from Sin
Sin is much like the destructive disease of leprosy:
Leprosy deadens the nerves so that you cannot feel pain. Sin deadens the conscience so that we do not see our guilt before a holy God.
Leprosy eats away at the flesh through infection. Sin eats away at our soul.
Leprosy and sin both carry a death sentence!
The man came to Jesus - “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” At the word of the Lord immediately the leprosy left him!
Jesus is both willing and able! He and he alone can cleanse us from from sin!
Jesus Has the Authority to Forgive Our Sin
Jesus Has the Authority to Forgive Our Sin
The teachers of the law were assembled, but were powerless to help the man. The law cannot save. It can only condemn.
Romans 8:1–4 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
Forgiveness is the the release and removal of sin! Jesus has the authority to forgive, remove our sin.
The power to heal lies solely with the Lord!
Notice the four friends. It is their faith in the ability of Jesus that brought the paralyzed man to the Lord. In effect they were saying, “If we can just get him before Jesus he can change him!”
In the Pilgrim's Progress Christian was under the burden of the guilt of sin. It nearly drowned him the slough (swamp) of despair. It grew larger at the foot of Mount Sinai. But when He walked up Calvary’s hill his burden suddenly fell away forever at the foot of the cross.
The man was powerless to help himself, but by the assistance of other’s faith in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ he was forgiven of his sins and made to stand and walk!