The Healing of the Paralytic, Part 2

The point: May God ever give us those dimensions. If it's fanatical religion, then may the number of the fanatics become legion.

A pastor in South Carolina recounted how some 'old guard' members considered people bringing Bibles and discussing their experience with Christ as 'fanatical religion.' Martin uses this to introduce the idea of eagerly engaging with Scripture.

This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, May 13th, 1984, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. In the brief ministry I just recently completed in South Carolina, Thursday evening and Friday, the pastor was recounting to me one of the trials through which he passed in the church to which he came some six years ago, when people began to carry their Bibles and follow as the preacher read and preached. Some of the old guards said, we don't like this fanatical religion. And when someone said, what do you mean by this fanatical brand of Christianity? Well, he said, this whole id...

0:03 - 1:05 Read in full sermon

The point: We can come bringing them to Jesus, not on a mat or cot as these did physically, but bring them in the wings of prayer and intercession to our blessed Lord, saying, Lord Jesus, if you will, you can.

The four men carrying the paralytic is an analogy for believers bringing those paralyzed by sin to Jesus in prayer and intercession, as they cannot come to Christ themselves.

Yes, it does include the paralytic, but surely it refers to the four. It was faith that moved them to bring their friend to Jesus. What a beautiful picture it is of what we do when we come to our blessed Lord with those who cannot help themselves, who are held in the paralysis of their sin. They have no legs to walk or run to Christ. Sin has paralyzed them. Sin has indisposed them. Sin has caused them to be utterly indifferent, perhaps, to Christ and to His gospel. But as men and women of faith, sin has paralyzed them. Sin has

44:25 - 45:13 Read in full sermon

The point: We can come bringing them to Jesus, not on a mat or cot as these did physically, but bring them in the wings of prayer and intercession to our blessed Lord, saying, Lord Jesus, if you will, you can.

Martin contrasts the passive expectation that God would 'park the crowd' or send an angel to clear the way with the active determination of the four men to overcome the obstacle of the crowd.

And the second thing we see about the practical actings of faith in the passage is this. It impels us to overcome obstacles in our determination to get to Jesus. It impels us to overcome obstacles in our determination to get to Jesus. When they came to the house and saw the crowd at the door, they didn't stand back and say, well, if it's the will of God we get to him, he'll send an angel to park the crowd.

45:41 - 46:10 Read in full sermon

The point: We can come bringing them to Jesus, not on a mat or cot as these did physically, but bring them in the wings of prayer and intercession to our blessed Lord, saying, Lord Jesus, if you will, you can.

Martin uses the example of hyper-Calvinists who might passively interpret obstacles as God's will to do nothing, contrasting it with the enterprising faith of the four men.

They did not expect the intervention of an angel, nor did they stand back passively like hyper-Calvinists and say, what will be, will be, and we glorify God by submission to his will. If it was the will of God for us to get our friend to Jesus today, there would have been bad weather and the crowd would have been just...

46:20 - 46:41 Read in full sermon

The point: Men and women of faith are not those who sit back and passively lie down and play dead every time they face an obstacle. They press ahead in the conviction that the God whom we serve is the God who brought His people to …

Jesus commended the Syrophoenician woman who triumphed over His initial 'insults' and apparent rejection, demonstrating that true faith presses through obstacles.

Faith acts not only in holy submission when confronted with an evident act of God that blocks up our way and we must cry, not my will, but thine be done. But all too often, the very thing God has set before us to test our faith, we, with our weak faith, piously call it an indication of the will of God that we should just back off and passively acquiesce. You remember in the Gospels again and again how Jesus commended those who triumphed over obstacles. That poor woman, that Syrophoenician woman who came seeking a blessing, Jesus insulted her, called her a dog, said, that it was contrary to his...

48:30 - 49:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Men and women of faith are not those who sit back and passively lie down and play dead every time they face an obstacle. They press ahead in the conviction that the God whom we serve is the God who brought His people to …

Martin cites the parting of the Red Sea and the falling of Jericho's walls as examples of God's people pressing ahead in faith, even when faced with seemingly impassable obstacles, and God acting powerfully.

They press ahead in the conviction that the God whom we serve is the God who brought His people to the edge of the Red Sea with an Egyptian army behind them and mountains to the left and the right and an impassable sea in front of them and He parks Red Seas.

50:29 - 50:47 Read in full sermon

The point: God commands you this morning to repent and to believe the gospel. But you say, I know enough of my Bible to know that as a dead sinner, I have no power to repent and believe. God must give me the power before I can do w…

Martin creates a hypothetical scenario where the paralytic argues with Jesus, saying he can't get up, to illustrate how sinners might argue against God's command to repent and believe, waiting for a 'zap' of divine power.

How do paralyzed men get up? Pick up a bed and go home. If he had said, paralysis be gone, strength be imparted. Now, Mr. Palsied man, you're no longer palsied and paralyzed with the strength that I've commanded to come. Now, get up, pick up your bed and go home. No, you see, he doesn't do that. And again and again in the miracles of our Lord, he commands those who are being healed to do the things which presuppose that the healing has already come. You follow what I'm saying? Now, suppose this man thought like a lot of people think in our day. He's lying there on his pallet, on his little cot...

54:37 - 55:33 Read in full sermon

The point: God commands you this morning to repent and to believe the gospel. But you say, I know enough of my Bible to know that as a dead sinner, I have no power to repent and believe. God must give me the power before I can do w…

Martin uses the paralytic's hypothetical argument to illustrate the 'curse of hyper-Calvinism,' where sinners wait for a conscious infusion of divine power before making an effort to repent and believe, potentially perishing in their sins.

commands the sickness to leave and the energy to be imparted. Then when I feel the intervention of your power, I will then comply with the directive of your command. But he didn't do that. No one had spoiled him with the curse of hyper-Calvinism. You know what the curse of hyper-Calvinism is in the method of grace? Listen to me. Some of you, if you don't get hold of this humanly speaking, may perish in your sins. God commands you this morning to repent and to believe the gospel. But you say, I know enough of my Bible to know that as a dead sinner, I have no power to repent and believe. God mus...

56:22 - 57:30 Read in full sermon