Thank you for all of the blessings of the last few weeks. It has just been a bonus trip for me, and honestly, I can tell you of a truth, I hate to go home. Love going home, be great to see the kids, great to see the doggy, great to be home kind of in a routine for a few days, but we will miss you, and I mean that with everything that in me is. Trust that the Lord's blessings will be upon you. I distinctly remember coming back here once after many visits, and on the Saturday morning prayer meeting, I remember, and I won't even call the name, but there was one name that was prayed for over and over and over and over again. Every Saturday that I was here, every Sunday out before the gospel meeting, the same name was called amongst others. And I remember coming back one trip, and I didn't hear it. And so about two weeks or so, two Sundays into the trip, I asked somebody, I said, by the way, I noticed that you're not praying anymore for, and I named the gentleman. They said, you didn't hear. He got saved. What a joy it was. It just brought to me, uh, the, the understanding again, not just of the faithfulness of God, but of the truth that the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous avails. Now there are some of you here tonight, and your names are called every Saturday morning at seven o'clock and every Sunday evening at six. And what a joy it would be if the Lord be not come the next time that we return to have another name or two or three or four. that I'll have to ask. Whatever happened to so and so? You're not praying for them anymore. Oh, haven't you heard? They were gloriously saved. This will be our prayer, and we join the people of this island in that prayer, even as we leave you tomorrow afternoon. Matthew's Gospel, chapter nine, please. Verse number four, breaking into the narrative, Matthew nine and verse four. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whether is easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Arise and walk? But that you may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, that he says to the sick of the palsy, arise, take up your bed, and go into your house. And he arose and departed to his home. And when the multitude saw, they marveled and glorified God, which had given much power unto men. A few more pages to the back, please, to Mark's Gospel, chapter two. The Gospel of Mark, chapter 2. Our reading here begins at verse number seven. Mark two seven, Perhaps six for connection. 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, your sins are forgiven you, or to say, arise, take up your bed and walk? But that you may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, he saith to the sick of the palsy, I say unto you, arise, take up your bed, and go your way into your own house. Same story, slightly different verses. If I were to put a title over the message tonight, it would be this: Can people honestly know that they have been forgiven by the great sovereign God of the universe? Every believer here tonight with a smiling heart and a smile on their face can say, yes, thank God. A person can know the forgiveness of such a holy God. In this account, though we only admittedly broke into the narrative for the sake of time, there was a person who was sick with a particular ailment, and he could not walk. And he was brought to the Lord Jesus, and as often happened, the Lord Jesus spoke to him, just simple words. Get up. Take up your bed and walk. But before that, he said, what is easier to say, take up your bed and walk, or your sins be forgiven you? Now here's the di- the dilemma that the Savior faced. There are people, you know them and I know them, and we may have a few here tonight, and their whole ability is only this: if I can see it, if I can touch it, if I can smell it, if I can taste it, you know what I mean, then I'll believe it. Now, it is easy to see a man who you know has been sick with a particular ailment for many years. You understand that it is such a God of power and might, God incarnate in human form, when he can simply say, get up, take up your bed and walk. If a man who had been crippled and was known as a cripple in that town for many years took up his bed and walked, I must tell you tonight, that would be something that everybody could understand, and they would believe. But the salvation from sin is a very private thing. You, you see, we don't walk around wearing all of our sins. They're known, many of the, m- many of them, to us and to God only. And God knows them intimately, but we spend a lifetime building a veneer of respectability to clothe ourselves. Now you will find some people, for many years their lives have been ravaged by alcohol or drugs or whatever, and you look at their faces. As my dear friend Rusty Goodman used to say, they look like one hundred and eighteen miles of real bad road. Their faces are just lined. They look like road maps of all the lousy streets they've walked down. You look at them and you just know, you know for a fact that they are sinners. Sin takes a toll, takes it physically, takes it emotionally, takes a toll spiritually. But most people aren't like that. You see them and they look normal, and they're very nice looking and respectable and respectful people, but God doesn't look that way. And so when sin is exposed before God, and when a person becomes exceedingly aware of the exceeding sinfulness of their sin, it's the type of thing that is very, very private. The, the night that I was saved, I would imagine that with the exception of the fact that when I got onto my knees, I was frowning, actually crying, and when I got off of my knees, a new creation, I remember beaming from ear to ear. So other than the fact that my countenance had changed, I basically looked like the same person. Kind of sad when you think about it, isn't it? Wouldn't it have been nice if God made me prettier when he came in and saved my soul? But it's a private thing. It's an internal thing. And these mockers and scoffers and doubters, when the Lord Jesus said, son, your sins be forgiven you, there was no manifest proof that they could hang their hat on, that indeed that man's sins had been sa- had been forgiven, that he had been saved. But the Lord Jesus said, which is easier for me to do? A rhetorical question. To say, son, your sins be forgiven thee, only that man and God knew that at that moment his sins had been forgiven. But then he said, you get up, arise, take up your bed and walk. One very public, one very private. But there are two verses, and it's the reason that I read the same account from both gospels. Who, we read in Matthew chapter nine, who hath power on earth to forgive sins? That you may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins. And in Mark chapter two, who can forgive sins but God? No man can forgive but God only. So tonight, if you honestly wonder, can I be forgiven of all of the things that I have done? The answer is simply yes, and I say that tonight with all of the delight in my heart. Can an entirely holy God unconditionally forgive a sinner? It's a good question, isn't it? If we knew anything of the holiness of God, if we knew one one millionth of one percent of the holiness of God, we would be stricken tonight with an utter terror because of how holy God is. But we might actually ask that question or answer that question by asking another one. Why do we need to be forgiven? Why do we need the forgiveness of sins? Maybe you're here tonight and you have bought into one of the great lies that has been propagated in the last couple of centuries, or couple of millennium, actually. And it is this. If your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds, if you are more good than you are bad, that's all God's looking for. I need to ask you a question, and if you won't go any farther with me tonight, then only go as far as history with me tonight. Why did the Lord Jesus have to die and suffer for sins? As the Bible says, the just for the unjust. Why did he have to die if just being more good than bad was enough to fit us for God's heaven. Why did he have to die? I've asked people that before, and it's obvious that they've never thought it through. They have never really understood that that's why he died. He died, my friend, because we can never be good enough to satisfy God. Why do we need to be forgiven? By the way, the definition of forgiveness is to pardon or to cease resentment, one from another. Here's the dilemma. Our sin has alienated, alienated us from the God of the universe. Remember, he is infinitely holy, and as such, he cannot countenance sin. Sin is something that is absolutely abhorrent to the God of the universe. He cannot look upon it. It's the reason why, at a place called the Skull, Golgotha, when his own son was literally made sin for us. This is why the he- the heavens, from the heavens right down to the earth, they were cloaked with a blackness, darker than any midnight. Man was not allowed to look upon sin, as sin was literally taking over the Lord Jesus on the cross. But God, whose only well-beloved son was suffering for sin, could not look upon sin. He is that holy. So sin had alienated us from God. You see, there are two types of guilt and sin. One of them is positional, and this is an argument, by the way, that we need to say and to stress with those that believe that if you are more good than you are bad, you'll be fitted to meet God. We are sinners positionally. We were born in sin. We were formed in iniquity. Listen to how it's even strengthened. It was under the blanket indictment of sin that our parents even conceived us, because they too were born in sin. We are sinners. Every human being since Adam has been, and every human being after Adam will be, even those perhaps not yet born. We are positionally guilty. Romans three and ten, Paul stresses this in saying that all the world will be shown to be guilty before God. There's none righteous, he says. There's none that does good. There's none who seek after God. There is no peace in the wicked, and there is no one who actually fears God. It's a real indictment. We are positionally guilty as sinners. And so if you're here tonight and you say, wait a minute, buddy, I'm a pretty good person. You go around and ask the people on Spanish Wells, and you name my name, and you ask if anybody here has ever been defrauded of one cent by me. Well, that would be wonderful if we could say that of you. You go around Spanish Wells and you ask anybody if they've ever heard me curse. You go around Spanish Wells, in fact, go over to Russell Island, you go over to Jean's Bay on the mainland, you go up and down Eleuthera, and you call my name, and if anybody knows my name, you ask them if they have ever seen me drunk. You go to my family, ask my kids what kind of a dad I was, what kind of a mother I was. Listen, friends, we're not here tonight to be unkind and to point fingers. We're here only to open the word of God and to read to you and to tell you what God says. For frankly, what we say is not that important, but what God says is eternally important. And positionally, you and I are born guilty, sinners before God. But we are also conditionally guilty. I think of that fifty first Psalm. David had such a sense of uncleanness and of his wrongdoing. He yearned for God's compassion, for his understanding, and for his restoration. That's what he wanted more than anything else in life. That is what he yearned for. And conditionally, he knew that he was a sinner. I don't think anybody has ever been born from above, saved, without understanding to one degree or another, I am a sinner. I have sinned before God. We are positionally and conditionally sinners. Genesis one twenty six tells us that we are created in the image of God, and we are also created for the glory of God. But then sin entered the human race, and death by sin. And so as human beings, ever since Adam, we are each one accountable to God for our own lives and for our own sins, every one of us. Young people, you may be here tonight with godly mom and dad. You might have parents, as I did, who have only one real, honest to goodness desire in life, and that is to see your soul saved. Treasure that, by the way. Treasure it deeply. But I must tell you that if your mom or your dad and every one of your brothers and sisters, grandparents, aunts, uncles, everybody, if everyone in your family is a Christian and you are not, that's no guarantee whatsoever that you will be saved, for it's a very personal thing. And again, I say, we are accountable for our lives and for our sins. And so what would happen if a person dies with unforgiven sin? Death, you know, is the great equalizer. Somewhere in the world today, a very wealthy man died. Somewhere in the world today, a very wealthy woman died. All over the world today, people with varying degrees of poverty died. And for the very first time, perhaps in all of their lives, for a split moment of eternity, they were equal. They died. Undoubtedly, Luke's Gospel, chapter sixteen, tells us the most stark contrast of stories in all of the New Testament. Talks about two men. Men, they were as different in life as they could possibly be. It's really quite remarkable how Doctor Luke paints the word pictures in Luke chapter sixteen. He talks about a rich man who lived in what only can be described as a palace. By the way, don't think that Luke sixteen, specifically verses nineteen through thirty one at the end of the chapter, don't think that that's just another parable, an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. The Lord Jesus often spoke in parables. This was no parable. As he spoke these words, vividly recorded by Doctor Luke, he said there were two men. One of them was rich. He lived in a grand palace. He fared sumptuously every day. That means that he dined with the very best of them. His whole manner of life was the way you kind of expect that the excessively rich people will live. That's the way he lived. There's a beggar man who was outside of the palace gates. His food were the crumbs collected by the servants, scraps of food, leftovers, we might call them, that the servants would have brought out to feed the beggars outside the gate. His weakness was so great as he lay there with sores in his body. He couldn't even fend off the dogs that came to lick his sores. What an awful picture. There came a moment in time when two men, as disparate in life as you can possibly be, crossed the very same moment, they both died. And then they were as different in death as they were in life. For we read that Lazarus, and by the way, in a parable, proper names are never given. Lazarus died, and in this most unique euphemism for death of a saint, the Bible says that he was carried by the angels into the bosom of Abraham. Kind of a neat but quaint way of putting it, isn't it? The rich man we read also died, was buried, and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment. He asked for one drop of water to cool his parched tongue. And you know one of the things that tra- uh, to me is tragic about that story, it shows us that those who die with unconfessed, unforgiven sin go out into a lost eternity with an intact memory. So, as he pleads for his case, for a drop of water to cool his tormented tongue, for Abraham to go, Father Abraham, he calls him, to go and warn his five brothers, lest they ever come to this same place. Here is what the Lord says, son, remember, you in your lifetime received good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he's comforted, and you are tormented. Was he consigned to hell because he was rich and had it easy in life? Was Lazarus carried by the angels into the very presence of God because, after all, this is a payback for such a rotten life as he had sitting outside that rich man's gate? Was this God's way of rewarding him in eternity because he had a terrible life while in life? Not at all. Not at all. Read the chapter carefully, and you will find this. The rich man ignored God, and Lazarus made sure that his sins were forgiven. You know why God must punish sin that is not forgiven? First of all, he hates it. You know, hate's a strong word. You really should never use that word. To say to somebody, I hate you, is a very strong word. And it's the kind of word, to be honest, that's just one very, very brief step away from disaster. Don't ever say I hate you. It's a strong word. But when we think of sin and its exceeding sinfulness, and we think of the amazing holiness of God, there is only one word that God chooses to use. He has a hatred of sin. It absolutely is repulsive to God, for it has taken his pinnacle creation, mankind, and driven an impenetrable wedge in between himself and a relationship that he has always wanted with his creation. God has a hatred of sin. Reason number one why he has to punish it. Another reason is that it is really nothing but man's ultimate rejection of the claims of God. God has told us very faithfully, you are sinners. I despise sin. You cannot save yourself. I have given you everything you need in the person of Christ. You cannot win your way into heaven by being good. I sent the only human being that was perfect, and he was crucified, and he bore your sins in his own body to the tree. And if we die with unforgiven sins, it's an ultimate rejection of his claims. And we might also add that our forgiveness cost him the very best that he ever had. He who owns everything. He who is all and in all. He who is the alpha that never had a beginning, and the omega that never will have an ending. Who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, as the chorus says, and the wealth in every mine, and let's be honest, everything else too. It's all his, every bit of it. He who owns everything had one pearl of inestimable price. It was his son, and he sent him to become the answer for sin. How can we experience the forgiveness of that kind of a God? First of all, you understand that we will have to align ourselves with his way of thinking. We can't think our way anymore and expect the forgiveness of God. We can't continue to go through life. Friend, honestly tonight, please listen. You cannot continue to go through life thinking that there might just be enough of a kernel of goodness in you to please the God of heaven. You cannot. So tonight, please allow the Spirit of God to align your thinking with his, and acknowledge to God what he and what you know extremely well. I am a sinner. I am a sinner. I have to tell you, it's not fun to come to that place. I won't do it tonight, but if I ask for a show of hands of all the Christians, really saved, born again people tonight, who had a wonderful, wonderful fun time coming to the place where they had to, naked before God, say, I am a lost, guilty sinner. If I asked how many thought it was a fun experience, I wouldn't have one hand raised tonight. It's not fun, but it's necessary. We have to accept the finished work of Christ. Simply say, Lord Jesus, I need you to forgive my sins, and I accept you as personal Savior. Will you do that tonight? Will you do that tonight? I think of some of the last words that the Lord Jesus said, recorded in the Gospel of Luke chapter twenty three. Here's what he said. Father, forgive them. That's what he wants. He does not want you to die in your sins. He does not want you to escape his clutches and go into that lost eternity from whence there is no escape. He longs for you to come tonight, and in confession of sin and repentance, trust the Lord Jesus as Savior. If we can help you tonight. Brother Frank is here. Brother Roddy is here. There are others here tonight. What a joy it would be to point you to the Savior. Make it known, would you? Do not go home and go to sleep tonight, please, without knowing the forgiveness of God. Tomorrow may just be too late. Father, we do pray tonight for those that are in our midst who do not know Christ. Father, we look back to those days when we were so carefree, and the pleasures of this life were pretty much what we lived for. And the things that probably drove us the most were just getting away from the constraints of things Christian. And yet, our God, we bless thee from the bottom of our hearts, as we look back on it now, that our lives were preserved, our souls were preserved, till that moment when we were finally dealt with by the Spirit of God, and as it were, held over the very flames of hell. When we recognized how vulnerable and risky our position was, we were broken. Father, bring someone to that point tonight. Life at best is very brief. It's like the falling of a leaf, like the binding of a sheaf. Father, the prayer of every believer tonight is that anyone without Christ might be in time. Fleeting days are telling fast that the die will soon be cast, the fatal line be passed. Father, may all the souls here tonight be in time. Take thy word, we pray, Father, and burrow it deeply into some soul. Grant that there might be salvation in this house, even tonight. We pray a similar blessing on this island and throughout this gorgeous Commonwealth. On a global basis, our Father, save souls, we pray. But our hearts tonight are heavy with burden for those that are right in our midst. Save them, we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen.