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[0:00] Well, we've got a new president. I'm not sure if you watched the swearing in, the inauguration ceremony this past Friday. I did. And essentially what happened was the people of the United States were authorizing Donald J. Trump to make a variety of very important decisions for our nation.

[0:20] So he was sworn in as our 45th president and be given the authority to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States against all threats, both foreign and domestic.

[0:33] And one of the rights of the presidents we were reminded of at the end of President Obama's term was the right for the president to grant clemency to federal prisoners.

[0:46] And that clemency comes in one of two forms. There is the pardon in which the president pardons a federal criminal of his crimes. And then there's the commuting of a sentence in which the president reduces the penalty of a federal prisoner.

[1:05] But what you need to understand is that whether a federal prisoner is pardoned or his sentence commuted, it doesn't necessarily mean his offense has been expunged from his record.

[1:17] That's a whole different legal proceeding. This morning what I want just to point out is that the office of the President of the United States has the authority, the right, to forgive criminals, federal criminals, of crimes committed against the United States of America.

[1:38] I've been wondering all week if there's people coming in here who feel imprisoned by the fear of their past sins.

[1:52] And this morning we're going to see that Jesus Christ has the authority, the right, to forgive crimes against God. And not only forgive them, but to wipe clean our records.

[2:09] And what you're going to see is that this right to forgive sin is the right of the Son of Man. Jesus' favorite self-designation.

[2:21] Last week we saw Jesus on the Sea of Galilee. And we saw Him in the country of the Gadarenes.

[2:35] And He exercised His authority. He is the storm pacifier. And He is the demon defeater. And one of the things I wanted you to see last Sunday was that this same Jesus who exercised authority over the storm and over demons, that same Jesus is our Jesus.

[2:55] He's with us today. He is Emmanuel, God with us. He promised at the end of Matthew 28 to, Lo, I am with you always. As the all-authoritative Son of Man.

[3:09] And so this morning we're going to follow this passage. These three episodes are going to be taken all together. He's the storm pacifier.

[3:20] He is the demon defeater. And this morning we're going to see He's the all-authoritative sin forgiver. So would you open up your Bibles to Matthew 9.

[3:34] And I'm going to read verses 1-8. And I pray that God would show you that Jesus is unique in His authority to forgive sins.

[3:50] And getting into a boat, He crossed over and came to His own city. And behold, some people brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, Take heart, My son.

[4:03] Your sins are forgiven. And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, This man is blasphemy. But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Why do you think evil in your hearts?

[4:19] For which is easier to say, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Rise and walk. But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

[4:30] He then said to the paralytic, Rise, pick up your bed, and go home. And he rose, and he went home. When the crowd saw it, they were afraid.

[4:41] And they glorified God, who had given such authority to men. So this morning, what we're going to do is we're going to walk through this passage. I'm going to point out some things.

[4:52] And then I want to help you see why this passage is in your Bible. And then, we're going to help you bring the truth of this passage to bear on your life today in 2017.

[5:05] So let's get back into the story. We'll walk through it, and then bring it to bear. So let's look at this situation in Capernaum in verse 1 of chapter 9. Jesus got in the boat, and he crossed over and came to his own city.

[5:20] So he was just in the country of the Gadarenes, Gentile country, right? And he left there. He was begged to leave by the residents of the country of the Gadarenes.

[5:32] Remember, Jesus is with us, right? But they did not want him with them. And so he got in his boat, came back to Capernaum. That's his own city. And so what you need to know is that Jesus, the storm pacifier, the demon defeater, has now crossed back to the Sea of Galilee and is back in his hometown, Capernaum.

[5:55] And what you need to know about Capernaum, though it's not named, that's his present hometown. So if Jesus had a mailing address, it would have been something like 7 Seaside Drive, Capernaum, Galilee.

[6:12] And that's where he was living. And there are a couple parallel accounts of this in Mark 2 and Luke 5. And those accounts provide a little bit more vivid color to actually what happened.

[6:26] Matthew has a tendency to keep things really lean to make his point, where the other gospel writers, they're a little bit more expansive. And so we're going to be looking to Mark 2 to provide a little color here as to actually what took place.

[6:40] One of the things you need to know is, hey, Jesus moved. He moved from Nazareth to Capernaum. He knows what it's like to move. But that's on the side.

[6:52] So in verse 2 of chapter 9, we read this. And behold, remember, and behold. That's one of Matthew's favorite ways of saying to grab your attention, something's happening here.

[7:02] And behold, some people brought to him, Jesus, a paralytic, lying on a bed. Now, we're not told. Matthew doesn't go into details about who's carrying him.

[7:16] You know, where are they coming? Where is Jesus? And so in Mark 2 and Luke chapter 5, we learn that this is probably Jesus' own residence in Capernaum. And so they're bringing, they hear he's in town, he's at home, and they bring this paralytic to him.

[7:32] A paralytic is someone who couldn't walk. And if they couldn't walk, they're dependent on other people. Their life is being made difficult because of that, to say the least.

[7:44] We're not told how many people are carrying him. From Mark 2 and Luke 5, we learn that there are four people, four friends of this paralytic carrying him to see Jesus. And what we learn from Mark 2 and Luke 5 is that when these four carrying this paralytic show up to Jesus' house, they can't get in.

[8:08] The place is packed. Jesus is preaching. He's got a crowd there. And so if you open up the door and try to get in, it would have been like a fraternity house party.

[8:18] The place was packed. You probably would, some BO smell would have come out. There's so many people in there. And so these guys bring in the paralytic, go up, they open the door, this place is packed.

[8:30] What are we going to do? We can't get him in. And so what they end up doing is they bring him up the side stair to the roof of the house. And there wasn't much precipitation in this part of the world.

[8:44] And so the houses were made out of kind of mud and straw. And so what these four guys do who are carrying this paralyzed guy, they get the great idea. Let's tear open a hole in the roof and we'll lower our friend down right in front of Jesus.

[9:03] We learn this from Mark 2 and Luke 5. Now if you're in the room, could you imagine all of a sudden debris falling from the ceiling? A hole opening up? And this kind of body descending down in front of Jesus?

[9:17] Could you imagine that? So Jesus sees them coming in. In one sense, you've got to admire the creativity of this.

[9:31] Jesus sees them and he sees their faith. And the next thing we see at the second half of verse 2 is a really surprising pronouncement.

[9:45] Jesus says to the paralytic, he sees their faith. He says, take heart, my son. Now, if you were one of the guys bringing the paralytic, let's say the paralytic weighs 120 pounds.

[9:58] And so you're carrying 30 pounds across Capernaum, right? I'm going to bring my friend to the healer guy. And I bring him up to the door. The place is packed.

[10:08] We're like, what are we going to do? Let's bring him up on the roof. We'll make a hole. We bring him up on the roof. We make the hole. We lower him down. And we get him right in front of Jesus, the healer.

[10:21] We know this guy is going to do something. And we're like, okay, he's in position. Do your thing, Jesus. And so we hear Jesus say, take heart, my son.

[10:32] And we're looking at each other, me and my three buddies. And we're like, oh, yeah, here it comes. And he says what? Your sins are forgiven. Amen. If I were there, I would have been something like, what did he say?

[10:47] What did he say? Hold on. Okay. Let's shake him. Maybe he doesn't realize that he's paralyzed. Let's shake him to make sure he knows what the problem is.

[10:57] And Jesus knew what the problem was. I would have been a little disappointed myself. It would be one of those things where you're expecting a really nice Christmas present. And you get something else. You're kind of like, aw.

[11:08] What we don't realize is that Jesus is actually addressing this paralytic's greatest problem.

[11:21] I mean, that's why Jesus came. What we see happening in this house is Jesus, the Son of Man, on mission. So we would all have been surprised if we were in there, whether on the roof or down below.

[11:37] And it turns out there are some people in there that weren't just surprised. They were offended. Look at verse 3. And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves.

[11:51] Scribes and Pharisees were kind of running in the same pack. Scribes would have been kind of the Old Testament experts. If you had a question of how to live your life in a righteous way, you go to one of the scribes and they'll tell you what to do.

[12:03] They were the religious professionals. And so we had some religious professionals in the room who take issue with what Jesus just said. In fact, they say this man is blasphemy.

[12:16] This man being Jesus. He just said blasphemy. Now, here's what blasphemy is. Blasphemy is when you attribute to a man something that only God himself can do.

[12:29] And so what we read in Mark 2 and Luke 5 is that these men who said this man is blasphemy, they go on to say only God can forgive sins.

[12:40] Only God can forgive sins. The reason why Matthew doesn't include it is because he's writing to a Jewish audience. They already know. This is a serious charge.

[12:52] Only God can forgive sins. It's interesting. The scribes bring up the sin issue. Because sin is something that the scribes recognize that we all deal with.

[13:04] We're all sinners. Sin is a crime against divinity. Crime against God. We either disobey something he requires or we do something he forbids.

[13:18] And what we know is that only God can forgive sin because our sin is against God. And so what these scribes are saying is that this Galilean is claiming something that only God can do.

[13:35] He's claiming to forgive sins. Only God can do that. And then Jesus responds. In chapter 9 verse 4 we read, but Jesus knowing their thoughts, literally seeing their thoughts is what the original language writes.

[13:56] He says, why do you think evil in your hearts? Mark 2, Luke 5 both bring out Jesus is probably knowing what they're thinking. He's got an insight that belongs to God.

[14:07] And he says to them, why do you think evil in your hearts? What's the evil? The evil is this. The evil is thinking that Jesus is blaspheming.

[14:20] When in fact, he has full authority to pronounce forgiveness for this paralytic sins. That's the evil. Attributing to him something that's not true.

[14:31] Saying that this claim is false. And then he says something very interesting. In verses 4 and 5.

[14:44] He says, why do you think evil in your hearts? And then he asks this which is easier question. Notice he says, which is easier to say? He's not saying which is easier to do.

[14:56] He's asking which is easier to say. Which is easier to say? Your sins are forgiven or rise up and walk? Which is easier to say? If you were there, what would you have said?

[15:06] I would have said, well it's easier to say your sins are forgiven. Do you know why? There's no need for visible verification of that. If you say that, how do you know someone's actually forgiven or not?

[15:20] It's easier to say that. But we all know that only God can forgive sins, right? It's harder to say get up and walk because immediately there is going to be proof in the pudding.

[15:33] Either the person is going to get up and walk and show that this guy has authority to heal a paralytic or he's shown to be a fraud. And so Jesus says, hey, what is easier to say?

[15:47] Your sins are forgiven or get up and walk? The obvious answer is it's easier to say your sins are forgiven. In verse 6, he drops the boom.

[16:00] What Jesus is about to say is that it reveals he's been in control of this thing the whole time. This is a messianic setup.

[16:13] This is, he is on mission. He's looking to get something done. He says to these people, these scribes, verse 6, but that you may know.

[16:31] It's a purpose statement. So that you know. So that you know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins. So that you know that what I just did actually resulted in his immediate and complete forgiveness.

[16:49] Just so that you know that, that I have the authority for that. Just so that you know. He does what? He turns to the paralytic and tells the paralytic, get up and walk.

[17:07] Go home. Do you see what Jesus is doing? Jesus is using the visible healing miracle to verify the invisible forgiveness miracle.

[17:23] He's saying the harder thing to say is going to prove the easier thing to say that only God can do. So, he says this to the paralytic.

[17:39] And now we're all in suspense. Because if the paralytic doesn't get up and walk away, it reveals Jesus doesn't have authority to heal this guy of his paralysis. And it points further to the fact that he's a sham.

[17:51] That he doesn't have the authority to forgive sins. Which really means that he is blaspheming. Which should result then in dragging him out of the house, picking up stones, and killing him.

[18:02] But if he does stand up and walk, not only does that show that he has authority over the paralysis, it starts to evidence, verify that his other claim to forgive sins is legit.

[18:15] Which points to the fact that he's not blaspheming. That he is the Son of Man. He's God in the flesh. And he can.

[18:26] Forgive sins. So what is the immediate result in verse 7? And he rose and he went home. The physical healing evidences the spiritual healing.

[18:41] Jesus has authority to not only heal paralysis, he has authority to forgive sins. An authority only God possesses. It shows him to be the Son of Man.

[18:54] He's not blaspheming. He's speaking authoritatively for God. Because he is God. God in the flesh.

[19:05] Just think about it this way. This paralytic who was carried into this house, was carried in unable to walk, and he leaves walking, right?

[19:20] Miracle. And this paralytic who was descended down before Jesus, is called out by Jesus to rise up.

[19:33] His sins had been forgiven. It verifies who Jesus is claiming to be.

[19:45] The Son of Man. The crowds, they were afraid. It's the Greek word phobia. It's this kind of dread involved with this.

[19:58] I mean, if you were there, what you're seeing is an act of God forgiving this man. Not just healing him. They were astonished.

[20:10] Dreadfully astonished. And then they start glorifying God. They start praising him for God to give such authority to men. And not just any men.

[20:21] This man. And not just any man. God with us man. The Son of Man. So why is this passage here?

[20:35] Well, the demon defeater, the storm pacifier, he is also the sin forgiver. And so what Matthew is helping us see here is that Jesus has all authority to forgive sins.

[20:50] And not just sins in Capernaum in the house. In the first century. He has authority to forgive sins today. Here in this room.

[21:02] And not just some of them. All of them. What I want you to see now is that Jesus has the right to forgive all of your sins because of who he is and what he has done.

[21:20] Let me just draw your gaze to that. Who he is. Jesus is the Son of Man. Son of Man. Billy started to explain this to us a couple weeks ago that Son of Man is a title.

[21:34] It's an authoritative title. And it's Jesus' favorite title to refer to himself. In the book of Matthew alone, he references himself with Son of Man 30 times.

[21:48] Titles communicate role. I carry some titles. I'm a husband. I'm a father. Jenny and I were at a dinner party this past Friday and I was called the reverend.

[22:03] Typically don't go by that. I'm also assistant coach. We're on my kids' teams. Titles communicate roles.

[22:13] You've got your own titles. Packer fan? The title that Jesus has right here is this Son of Man.

[22:26] It's a messianic title. It's a title that belongs to the Christ. Remember that the Gospel of Matthew was written to a primarily Jewish audience.

[22:38] And so in this house, when Jesus starts talking about the Son of Man, I'm the Son of Man. They're going to start thinking about something.

[22:48] They're going to start thinking about Daniel chapter 7, verses 13 through 14. Daniel is given a vision. Let me just read it to you, okay? I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a Son of Man.

[23:05] Bing! That's it. Now listen to how this Son of Man is described. And He came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him, the Son of Man was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.

[23:26] His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. It is indestructible.

[23:36] Do you know who He's talking about? Does this ring a bell? Does this sound familiar? Jesus is the Son of Man. And so when Jesus says that you may know the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins, these scribes are thinking, beep, beep, beep, beep, Daniel 7, 13, 14, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.

[24:00] The Son of Man is a title that carries kingdom authority. This is the coming King.

[24:13] So when the Jews in the room would hear Son of Man and they're familiar with the Old Testament, they'd be thinking that this guy is saying something about establishing the Messianic kingdom. And as the Son of Man, He's not blaspheming.

[24:27] He's not blaspheming. He's not blaspheming. Now, the spin of the Gospels is this. The surprising twist is that the Son of Man would establish His kingdom not by military might, nor by political maneuvering, nor by financial clout, but the Son of Man would establish His kingdom through a humble, servant-hearted act of self-sacrifice on a cross.

[25:04] Jesus is the Son of Man, the all-authoritative King who's got a heart of a servant. He's the Son of Man and He is on a mission.

[25:17] Jesus has the authority to forgive sins because of who He is. He's the Son of Man. Earlier in the book of Matthew, we learn that Jesus is Emmanuel.

[25:30] Matthew 1. Joseph is freaking out because his fiancée is pregnant. An angel of the Lord comes to him and basically says, don't freak out, Joseph.

[25:43] The child in your lady, she was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And by the way, you should name Him Jesus. Jesus, in chapter 1, verse 21, gives the reason, for He shall save His people from their sins.

[25:57] Do you know, do you know what the name Jesus means? The name Jesus is a Greek form of a Hebrew name, Joshua. Yeshua.

[26:09] And Yeshua literally means God saves. He will save His people from His sins. It's in His name. When He was born, His name was His mission.

[26:22] God saves. God saves sinners, His people, from their sins. And so here in Matthew 9, we see Jesus exercising His authority over paralysis to prove His authority over sin.

[26:37] He came to rescue His people from their sins. He's on mission. And just to make something clear here, this forgiveness business in Matthew 9, this, take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven, this isn't kind of a fringe benefit.

[26:57] This isn't some kind of incidental thing. It's not an appetizer to get out of the way for the main course of healing. The main reason why Jesus came was to forgive sinners of their sins.

[27:12] His teaching, preaching, and healing serve His mission to save sinners. So at the heart of His kingdom's mission is a rescue mission to save sinners from their sins.

[27:27] He's got the authority, He's got the ability, and He's got the desire to rescue sinners. His authority is that He's the Son of Man, God in the flesh.

[27:39] That's why He came. He's the authority to forgive sins because of who He is. He's God on a mission. And that is a mission that is being carried forth even to today.

[27:55] He's alive, and He's at work. It's who He is. Now, what has He done?

[28:05] He has the authority to forgive sins because of who He is. He's the Son of Man, right? But, on what basis does He exercise that authority?

[28:17] If He has the authority to say, your sins are forgiven, on what basis does the sin, is that sin forgiven? How can it be forgiven? Well, in Matthew 1, remember we learn that in the name Jesus, God saves.

[28:35] Matthew 9, we see Jesus in this house forgiving the paralytic of His sins. And then in Matthew 20, verse 28, just before the triumphal entry, Jesus says, the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve.

[28:53] The Son of Man, Daniel 7, 13-14, came not to be served, but to serve. Serve. In what way? To give His life as a ransom for many.

[29:07] How is Jesus going to save? By giving His life as a ransom for many. A ransom is a kind of a payment to rescue someone from captivity.

[29:19] And what Jesus is saying is, my life is going to be a ransom payment to rescue sinners from their sins. Now fast forward to Matthew 27. Jesus, Emmanuel, the Son of Man, God saves, in person, cries out, Eli, Eli, Lame Sebek Tani, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

[29:42] Three o'clock, that first Good Friday afternoon, darkness is all over the land. And what is happening there is Jesus is bearing the wrath of the Father for all of the sins of people who would one day believe in Him.

[29:58] He's on mission. The Son of Man gave His life as a ransom for many.

[30:12] And so He says, my Father, my Father, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And then moments later, He says one last thing. He says, it is finished. John 19, 30. Payment done.

[30:24] Ransom paid. And then He gives up His Spirit. He gives His life for you and for me. If there is any question about the effectiveness of His death on behalf of sinners to forgive their sins, three days later, Jesus is raised from the dead.

[30:46] And it's like this stamp that says, payment for sin sin accepted. So what we see, what I'm trying to show you here is that Jesus has the authority to forgive sins because He is the Son of Man and that authority is the authority to apply the power of the finished work of the cross to a sinner so that they're completely forgiven.

[31:14] sin. Acts 4.12 says, and there is salvation in no one else. There's no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

[31:25] There's no other person. No, no other option. None. He is the only one that can save us from our sins. He's the only one that can forgive us of our sins.

[31:35] Jesus exercises His authority as the Son of Man to apply the forgiving power of the cross to pardon sinners and wipe clean our slate.

[31:47] this passage points to the authority of Jesus to forgive sins and His authority is grounded in who He is and what He's done.

[32:02] What's interesting is that this paralytic is forgiven of His sin for what Jesus is about to do and for us living on this side of the cross we're forgiven for our sins based on what Jesus has done.

[32:16] We're forgiven So what? So Jesus is the Son of Man.

[32:30] So He gave His life as a ransom for many. He's on mission. So what? Well, let me ask you this. Do you have regrets over past sins? Are you ever lying in bed at night and it's those moments where past thoughts, past sins, past hurts, they find their way into your mind and you just sit there dwelling on it?

[32:55] Maybe you're watching a TV show, you hear a song and it stirs something up and it reminds you of something that you did in the past that hurt a lot of people. Do you have regrets?

[33:06] regrets? One of the things that unites us is our regrets. We all have regrets for past sins but this morning I want to ask you do you have the right kind of regret?

[33:24] Do you regret that your sins are first and foremost a crime against the living God? There's no question that when we sin it's usually against other people and we can hurt other people and that's sad.

[33:38] That's hurtful. But sin is always an offense against God. He is the one you have offended. Do you remember King David in 2 Samuel 11?

[33:53] He committed adultery with Bathsheba and then he murdered her husband Uriah to cover it up. And he didn't repent of that. It wasn't until 2 Samuel 12 when the prophet Nathan says you're the man that David feels his regret towards God.

[34:15] He recognizes that this adultery and this murder were sins against God and so he penned Psalm 51 as a result. And in Psalm 51 4 David writes against you and you alone have I sinned.

[34:30] Did he sin against Bathsheba? Oh yeah. Sin against Uriah? For sure. But what he's saying is first and foremost I've sinned against the living God. Does your regret over your past sin does it move Godward?

[34:46] Do you recognize that you've sinned against him? When you start when you start to realize that your sins are against God you're going to start realizing your need for God to forgive you.

[35:00] If you don't realize your sins are against God you're not going to see a need for forgiveness. When God helps you to realize that your crimes are not just against others but against him the Bible calls that a gracious kind work of God.

[35:23] It's a work of his spirit convicting you of your wrongs against him. Showing your need for a savior. Maybe you walked into this building and you're realizing now for the first time that the wrongs you've done they're not against just people they're against God himself.

[35:41] that's God's kindness to you. He's showing you your need for the only one that can forgive you of your sins.

[35:53] And that's Jesus. That's why he came. He's the son of man. He's the authority to forgive all of your sins because of who he is and what he's done.

[36:05] That's the gospel. When we proclaim the gospel the good news it's the good news to sinners. And it's the good news that Jesus is who he is and he did what he did and he makes it available to all.

[36:22] So this morning do you need to be saved from your sins? Do you need forgiveness? Maybe you're coming in here like that paralytic who is more aware of his physical needs than his spiritual needs.

[36:41] needs. This morning maybe you need to hear Jesus say to you take heart my child your sins are forgiven. the way to access that is you just confess it.

[36:56] You confess to Jesus who is alive who is raised from the dead. You confess to him your sins need forgiving and that he alone provides forgiveness. He has authority to do that.

[37:08] So you go to him and you say I confess Lord Jesus I have sinned against God and I can only be forgiven through the blood of Jesus I'm trusting that you are going to forgive me now as I come to you.

[37:26] If when you come to Jesus in light of who he is and what he's done and you seek forgiveness from him for your sins you can be assured that he's forgiven it all.

[37:41] He paid it all. He promised to not just pardon your crime against God but to wipe clean your slate. To clear your record of wrongs done against God.

[37:54] Only God can do that. Jesus has the authority to do that because he's God. In Colossians 2 verses 13 and 14 we read this.

[38:14] And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh God made a lie together with him having forgiven us all our trespasses having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands this he set aside nailing to the cross.

[38:46] If you come to Jesus and ask him forgiveness take heart child your sins all of them are forgiven. I'm just going to press into one more thing here.

[39:08] If you're a follower of Jesus and you have some deep-seated regrets over past sins so much so that you fear that you're afraid you're afraid you ask a question like this well I'm I'm pretty confident God forgives these sins but this sin this secret sin this sin at the very back of the closet if you're asking that question I want you to ask this question with it did Jesus ransom payment on the cross cover that too?

[39:58] Have you murdered someone? I'm not joking Maybe you've aborted a baby Maybe you were part of aborting a baby Maybe you actually took an adult's life Does the ransom payment of Jesus cover that?

[40:23] Yes Adultery? Yes God forgave David both his adultery and his murder Racism?

[40:37] Yes Homosexuality? Yes Pornography? Yes Drug addiction? Yes Stealing from your family? Yes Stealing from others?

[40:50] Yes Jesus pays it all Drunkenness? Jesus pays that too Self-righteousness? Jesus pays for that on the cross Pride?

[41:04] Jesus paid for that Gossip? He paid for that too Being harsh with your kids? He pays for that Anger? He pays for that Every sin poured out on Christ in full on the cross All of it He paid it all Even the stubborn ones that you wonder about He paid for those too His finished work on the cross has been applied to that His grace is amazing If that's you listen to Jesus Take heart my child Your sins are forgiven When we were singing earlier I jotted these words down Rely thee on His precious blood Don't fear your banishment from God There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in

[42:08] Christ Jesus As a church His mission is our mission The primary reason why Jesus came was to save sinners from their sins Do you know how many people if you do a half mile radius sweep of this building right now do you know how many people are dead in their sins We have got the message that when spoken and believed provides full forgiveness because it's based on the authority of the Son of Man who He is and what He's done This message is called the gospel and we're going to proclaim the gospel in this city in a variety of ways and when people respond in faith we're going to do our best to make them into disciples of Jesus those who follow Him and all that He commands that's our mission

[43:09] His mission is our mission which means this your neighborhood that's your mission field your apartment complex God's put you there let them know of the forgiveness God offers in Christ we've got a new president we're praying for him he's been given authority to make decisions for the good of our country he can forgive federal criminals but he can't save you from your sins against God no man can only the son of man can Jesus can forgive to the uttermost the crimes that you have committed against him he has authority to forgive sins he's paid for it all let's pray God we do ask that today would be the day of salvation for people who come into this building and they did not know that they were sinning against you and that you provided for them full forgiveness in the finished work of

[44:20]  Jesus God would you do a work now that only you can do for the glory of your name the building of your church and the spreading of your fame among the nations it's in your name we pray amen