God's message and method are revealed through the story of Jesus healing the paralytic man, emphasizing the power of faith and the importance of preaching God's Word. The sermon highlights how Jesus, as the Son of Man, has the authority to forgive sins and demonstrates this power by healing the man, proving His divine authority. The core lesson is that God uses His Word as the primary tool for salvation and transformation, and that true faith involves bringing others to Christ, even through unconventional means like breaking through a roof. The message concludes by urging listeners to accept Christ's forgiveness, give Him their hearts, and actively serve Him, underscoring that salvation begins with the forgiveness of sins.
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the word unto them and they come unto him bringing one sick of the palsy which was born of four when they could not come nigh unto him for the flesh they uncovered the root where he was excuse me 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 be forgiven thee but there were certain of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts. Why did 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?
You'll notice he knew what their hearts were thinking. He knows the secret intent of our hearts. whether we express those thoughts or not, he understands. Whether it is 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 has power on earth to forgive sins. He says to the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed and go thy way into thine house. And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all, in so much that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, we never saw it on this Passion.
Our subject tonight is the messenger, the message and the method that God uses. God has a way of using his message and his message only. In his sovereign grace he selects his messengers And that is absolutely sovereign grace when he selects a certain man or a certain woman. And then there are certain methods that God employs when he wants to get his message across. Or we might suggest also this message will bring out the old-fashioned way of soul winning in a new-fashioned way. You'll notice it was noise abroad that he was in the house. The Lord Jesus was the center of attraction.
There was no potty going on in this house, but the Lord Jesus was in the house, and it was noise abroad. They passed it from person to person, that Jesus Christ is in that house, and thus the multitude accumulated. In Matthew's gospel you find there was no room for him in the inn. Here there's no room for the multitude. Quite a difference, isn't it? There he comes as the king in Matthew's gospel. There's no room for him in the inn. When you had the thought of a king, you had the thought of subjection. And men and women don't want to be subject to Jesus Christ. They don't want him to be king of their lives. They don't want this man to reign over them.
But in Mark's gospel he comes as the servant. This is something else. And the multitude come. And there was no room for the multitude. No room in the house. You'll notice he preached the word unto them. I love that. He preached the word unto them. The Lord Jesus Christ, He didn't come to entertain them. He didn't come to present a program. He came to preach the word unto them, and that's what He does today. He doesn't want to entertain people, neither should any preacher or any messenger that He selects or chooses. He's not inappropriate to entertain people, to make them laugh, to tell stories, or present a program. His responsibility is to preach the word unto them, the word of God.
The word of God supplies a universal need. It's information of the very highest importance. I couldn't entertain you tonight with anything more important than the word of God. I couldn't engage your interest with anything any higher in importance than God's precious word. This is utmost. This is the highest. This is the most important. This is essential. This is a must. God's precious word. Again, the word of God puts forth the claims of God upon his creatures. The claims of Christ are presented in the word.
And when I preach the word of God, I'm preaching God's claims upon you. In other words, it's God's letter to his creatures. As a creator, He has written a letter, his mind, his will to his creatures, that is to the unsaved. But then when one becomes a Christian, he's one of God's children, he's in God's family. Now it's a letter from the father to the child. There's a great difference there. God has his family in the midst of creation. Everyone in this world, there are possibly two billion people, everyone is God's creature. God created that individual. But in those two billion people, there is God's family.
There are those who have been born again. The whole mass are spoken of as the children of the wicked one, born in sin, shape, and iniquity. But in that two billion, there are those that God speaks of as my children. They have come to my son. They have received him, and to his end, and many have received him. To them gave he the power, the right, the authority to become the children of God. So God has a letter, his word, and it comes from the Creator to his creatures, first of all. And then he has a message in particular to his family, his sons and his daughters, and that too is the word of the living God.
It constitutes God's final court of appeal. This is the final court of appeal. There is no other court. The word of God is final. That's it, period. God's precious word. When God speaks, that is it. What is the special theme of God's word, redemption? Right from Genesis, right through to Revelation, the one theme of God's precious word is redemption. He preached the word unto them, the whole word, not tradition. No, he didn't present tradition. Jesus Christ preached the word unto them. And friend, that's what I love to do.
I've been trying to do it for some thirty-six years now, and if I lived another thirty-six years, which is hardly likely, but if I were to, I'd still have the same message to preach, God's Word, God's Word. See, if Spurgeon was asked one time why it was the people flocked to hear him at the great tabernacle in London for over forty years. See, Spurgeon began preaching at the age of sixteen that Prince of Preachers. and he died at the age of fifty-nine. He was asked why the people came to hear him week after week, month after month, year after year. He said, I can't tell you unless it's this. He says, during all my life's ministry, I had one message.
I will not deviate from it. I have one message, and that's Christ and him crucified. I give them God's word, and God's word will wear. It never wears thin. It wears constantly. I preach God's word unto them. I preach Christ, says the H. Ferdinand. And then that's all I have to give is God's precious word. And don't ask me to change, for I wouldn't change. There's plenty of God's word. There's a wonderful variety in your Bible. You have evangelical truth. That's the wonderful gospel for the unsaved. You have devotional truth, something that warms and fills your heart. You have doctrinal truth, you have prophetic truth, you have practical truth, that truth that gets down into the feet of God's people and shows them how to walk.
And so you have a wonderful variety in your Bible. No need to be staved or be on one string all the time. He preached the word unto them. You know, an Englishman one time visited Scotland and on his return he was asked what he heard. And this happened back in sixteen fifty, one of these old timers. They had some wonderful divines back in those days. Men of God, sober, pious, devout men of God, giants in the Word of God, penetrating powers of perception. They go right down into the depths of the Bible and bring up its riches. This man was asked what he heard in Scotland.
He said, I heard rare things in Scotland. Oh, you did. What do you mean by rare things? Well, he said, I heard a majestic looking man, and his name was Blair, a great preacher. And he said, as I heard him preach, he preached of the majesty of God. And he said, I went to hear another man. He said, he was a little fair man, and it happened to be Rutherford. My sister gave me Rutherford's letters when I was saved. About a year she gave them for the birthday gift, Rutherford's letter of a man of deep piety. And he said, I went to hear this fair little man, Rutherford, and he showed me the loveliness of Christ. He said, that was his message.
And he said, I went to hear another man. His name was Dickens. He was an old man. And he said, he showed me my heart. Now here are three men. They all had a different message, and yet their message coincided. The first one showed him the majesty of God. He preached the word unto him. The second showed him the loveliness of Jesus Christ. He preached the word unto him, another facet of that same blessed book. And the third one showed him his heart, his need of that Christ, and his need of relationship with that majestic God. They all preached the word, various lovely pages, of this same blessed book.
You know, people today, they don't want God's Word. They don't want God to tell them anything. They want to tell God something. In these latter days, you often see excerpts in your newspaper about what should be preached. But I'm going to tell you something that shocked me a week ago right here in our local hospital. You know they've taken the Bible out of those hospital rooms and replaced it with a book written by men. I asked the patient for the Bible. There's a book there. That patient is in this room tonight. And I picked it up. And it's a book written by men about the Bible.
And they've taken the Word of God out of our rooms in the hospital and replaced it with the writings of men. that shows you the trend we're living in. They don't want the old-fashioned gospel today. They want to tell God what to do. God, you do this and you do that. Instead of listening to God tell man what he should do. That's the terrible trend with him. Now you'll notice in connection with this incident that we have read about the palsied man. There are four men quite prominent. Their names are not mentioned. They're unknown ones. these four men who picked up this palsied man and took him into the presence of the Lord Jesus.
You know that's a wonderful thought. Their names are not given. It reminds you of the third of Acts, where there were men who brought this crippled man and laid him at the beautiful gate where Peter and John were passing through. The names of those men are not given, unmentioned workers. Time and time again in your Bible you read about individuals. Their names are not given. Unmentioned workers. unnamed laborers. But you know, it's wonderful that God has all the names down. Many people are brought to this chapel. I see them come. I see their hands go up as visitors. I never inquire who brought them, but God does.
Many of those people get saved who are brought here. And we seem to forget the one behind the scene, the one who brought that individual. But God doesn't forget. Unmentioned laborers. unnamed workers, and there were four of them. You notice they must have had a lot of compassion for this fellow, this palsy man. They had pity on their friend. Now, he may have been a relative, we don't know. He may have been a friend of these four fellows. He may have been an absolute stranger, but something stirred within their hearts as they saw this poor palsy man. And their thought was, we've got to get this fellow into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And these four men, they had pity upon this poor fellow. As I say again, we don't know whether he was a relative, a perfect stranger, or a friend, but they were concerned they had the compassion for this needy soul. Christian, do we have a compassion? Do we have pity upon men and women we see from day to day? asking ourselves the question as we observe them. I wonder if he's a Christian. I wonder if she's a Christian. Is there that compassion? Is there that concern within our hearts? This poor fellow, you'll notice he was palsy or helpless, hopeless, feelingless.
In other words, we would say today he was paralyzed. Paralyzed. No feeling. No feeling. You know the body can be looked upon as an index for the soul. You find the body referred to time and time again when the Lord Jesus healed bodies. He doesn't seem to be in the healing business today the way he was in those days because we didn't have the New Testament in those days. Most of the miracles were on the body. They were Christ's credentials. He was showing that he was the Son of God. And before the Bible was given, there were a lot of miracles performed. But after the Bible was given, we had the New Testament in our hands. The miracle day seems to have ceased to a great extent.
But those miracles on the body were an index of miracles today performed upon the soul. For instance, you read in your Bible about a blind man. We were speaking of a blind man and a dead person this morning. A blind person physically is but an index of the soul being blind. When you think of a person with a diseased body, you find a diseased body in your body. And the Lord healing those diseased bodies. But I think of a disease far greater, more dreadful and awful than even cancer. And that's the disease of the soul.
There's a disease greater than cancer that's eating away at your soul. And it's the disease called sin, the parent of all other diseases. Sin. And it's constantly working. It's painful. It's sin. And it's working away and knowing away constantly. And doctors can't stop it. It's the disease known as sin that's working at the human heart, the human soul. We read in our Bible about a lady and she was crooked. couldn't straighten herself up, she was bent right over. Find that, I think, in the eighteenth of Luke. Likely when she was a girl, she could walk straight.
But then something turned her attention down, and she began bending and bending. As the years passed, she bent the more, until finally she couldn't straighten herself up, and all she could see was the ground. That's all that was before her, and by day and night she couldn't straighten herself up. You know, some people are like that spiritually. They got their eyes on this old world pretty early in life, and they see nothing else now. All their attention and all their interest is down. This crude old world. They have no time. They can't even look up now, having got the time to look up and recognize God. And that crooked body is an index of the crooked souls of men and women today and men and them are crooked.
You read about deaf people, getting their ears open, speaking of souls that are deaf. dumb people. The Lord healed dumb people. He opened their lips and loosed their tongues so they could speak. How wonderful when a person is saved. Their soul is silent until they come to know Christ and then they can speak. And we notice this morning about the corpses, those who were dead, and those bodies and indexed of the souls within, dead in trespasses and sins. So the bodies often looked upon as an indexed of the soul. You'll notice where this man was. It was in Capernaum this happened. You know, Capernaum is a city condemned by Christ in Matthew chapter eleven.
He says, Woe unto you, Capernaum. If the mighty deeds which were done in Sodom and Gomorrah had been done in thee, they would have long ago repented in sackcloth and ashes. It will be easier for Sodom and Gomorrah in that day than it will be for thee. O Capernaum which art exalted to heaven shall be thrust down to hell. There was his denunciation, his condemnation on Capernaum, and this man was in Capernaum, a place that was condemned. And you know you're in a world that's under condemnation. This world is condemned. You're in a world that's condemned, hastening on to certain judgments, an awful collision with Almighty God, and that collision is not far distant.
Terrible events are rushing toward us with lightning rapidity. And this world's got to meet its maker. It's got to meet its God. And all roadblocks seem to be taken away these days and with lightning rapidity, this world with its human fate is rushing on to that awful impact with an angry God who rejected His Son. You'll notice these men made a decision, these four men. Their decision was to bring this man to Christ. Another thing you'll notice, their unity. They joined heads. It must have got together. It'd been nice to observe this incident. See these four men talking. What are they talking about? What's running through their minds?
Well, inside that house is the Lord Jesus. Outside that house there's a multitude. Every square inch is taken up. A capacity crowd, inside and out. But here's a palsy man. This man's in desperate need. We've got to get this man in the house where Christ is. And there's a conference going on. They've got their heads together. Then they get their hearts together. Then they get their hands together. And one takes a hold of this leg. Another one takes hold of the other one. One takes this arm. The other takes that arm. But Paul and they're going to carry this man into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here you have unity in action. All of them carrying one man. You know the Bible says in Psalm how good, how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. There the Lord commanded the blessing, even life, whatever more. These fellows, these four had one objective, one objective. They want to get this man into the presence of the Lord Jesus. They had one direction to go. You can imagine what would have happened if one of these fellows said, ah, what's the use? I'm giving up. And he lets go. Maybe he lets go one of the legs and one of the arms. Supposing the two on the right side decide to go right, and the two on the left side decide to go left, but pull the poor fellow in two.
In other words, these four had to stay together. There had to be unity of objective and unity of direction. How wonderful it is when there's unity among God's people. They've got one thing in mind, getting poor sinners into the presence of the Lord Jesus to see them saved. One aim, one purpose. They're concentrating on one thing. They're pulling together with one thing in mind to get this person in the presence of the Lord Jesus to see this person reached in faith. A friend of mine, the name of Fred Schwartz, I don't think known to anybody here. He drew a track one time where I say drew a track because it didn't have any words on it.
He didn't write it. He drew it. But it had a message, a wonderful message. And the message was this. He had two dogs and they were tied, a rope between. And over at this side of the page, he had a big dish with lots of food in it. And over on this side of the page, another big dish with a lot of food in it. And these two dogs were tied together. And one would pull and scratch, and he'd be pulling the other one just as he's about to take a bite, the other one would pull the other way. And back they'd go, and they were going two and fro, two and fro. Neither one was getting a bite. They were pulling against each other. And then he just turned the page, the last page, the two dogs were in the middle of the page, having a conference.
And one nodded his head to the other one, and the two of them walked over and cleaned up on this dish, and the two walked back over there and cleaned up on that dish. I thought, well, that's a good message. Let's pull together. That's the message of the track. And they got their purpose. They got what they wanted. And that's what you have here. Four men pulling together. And the result was that this man... was healed by the Lord Jesus Christ. You know this humility attached to working for the Lord. Two have got to follow. Now there were four men. Two had to go at the front and two had to take up the rear. And the two who were tying up the rear, bringing up the rear, didn't say, well, we ought to be at the front up there.
We want the prominent place. We should be first. Oh, no. You know, Spurgeon said, takes more grace than tongue can tell to play the second fiddle well. How to, that is? The man who plays the first fiddle today generally takes all the bows in an orchestra, the first fiddle. He's supposed to be the best. And, of course, when he plays a solo, he takes the bows. The man who plays the second fiddle, he's hardly noticed. But let me tell you, the second fiddle is essential if there's going to be harmony. and somebody's got to play the second fiddle. And as far as I can see in my Bible, I think those who play the second fiddle will get a greater reward than those who play the first fiddle.
It takes a lot of grace. I admire a man who's willing to play second fiddle, willing to take the back plate, and let someone else go forward if necessary. Just as long as there's harmony, just as long as there's unity, just as long as we get the job done, we've got one objective. We want to see this man blessed. And who am I after all? We've only got what God's given to us. And so these two poor men got their heads together and two were willing to go before and two were willing to go behind. Some have got to leave, that's evident. Some are good leaders, others are not good leaders. And it's nice when everybody knows his and her place. You know, it was quite a task here.
It was labor carrying this man under the circumstances. Let me tell you, Christian, it's worth these days to do something for Christ. It's not easy. You don't find many women running, knocking at your door, asking how to be saved, although I had the thrill of death this week. But I'd like to see that all up and down my street. You know, it's wonderful when people come asking how to be saved. It's thrilling, but they're rare today. They're few and far between. People are going in the other direction. Instead of seeking Christ, they're running from Christ. And it's real work to win souls to Christ.
It's labor. Here they are carrying this fellow. There was a wait to be born. And I'll tell you it's a grand thing when God puts a burden upon Christians' heart, a burden of lost souls. Someone's got to bring them to the meeting. Some don't have transportation. They need to be brought. Now there's a labor. Prayer is a labor. It's a burden. God places it upon the heart. And you can't sleep sometime. You can't rest. Someone's a burden upon your heart. They're not Christians. They're not saved. They need Christ. There's the labor. Paul speaks of those who labored constantly in prayer. Prayer is a labor. Preaching is not easy either.
I've been at it for thirty-six years, and I can think of many things that would have been a whole lot easier than preaching. I never lost a minute's sleep before I started preaching. I'd go to bed and sleep like a babe, but I'll tell you I've lost many an hour's sleep and many a night's sleep, many a time walking the floor since I've been preaching, burdened about the need of the people, burdened about my responsibility to preach the gospel. It's not easy. If anyone thinks that preaching the old-fashioned gospel was a good job, It's just a profession. He's mistaken. And anybody who's in it for the money and for the job, better give it up right away.
There's something far beyond dollars and cents. It's human souls that need Christ. And it's a burden. It's a work. It's a labor. These fellows, you know, they had a great determination these four. They were undaunted by any opposition. Here's the great multitude gathered there. they might have given up the idea. Why, fellows, there's no use trying. Look at this crowd packed and jammed here. How are we going to get them in there anyway? There's only one staircase, and that's an outside external staircase that goes up to the flat roof. Why, it's just impossible. It's a good idea to get this fellow in there to the Lord, but we might as well give it up. It's an impossibility. The odds are against us are crowded around here.
No, sir. These fellows were determined. Let me tell you, there are all kinds of opposition today. The world, the flesh, and the devil are going to oppose you. You've got a nature in you, even though you're a Christian, that'll oppose you working for Jesus Christ. The world has no sympathy with you, and the devil certainly is unsympathetic towards you doing anything for Christ. There's all kinds of opposition. There's the pleasure world, the business world, the sport world, the religious world. Yes, and even unsaved relatives and friends are not cooperative. but it's grand to see Christians with determination. I'm determined. I'm going to live for Christ. I'm determined I'm going to win some souls with Jesus Christ, although the odds seem against me.
It seems I'm bucking myself against a brick wall. Sometimes the current seems too strong, but I'm going to go against the current. I'm determined I'm going to live for Jesus Christ and be a soul winner. Godly determination is a grand thing. Then there's something else here, and that's some self-sacrifice. These fellows broke that roof up. Who's going to pay for it? Well, the logic of conclusion would be that they paid for it. They broke it up. Somebody's going to have to put his hand in this pocket to pay for this roof that these fellows broke up to let this man down to the presence of the Lord. So there's always a sacrifice of this kind in connection with the Lord's work. You know this breaking up the roof.
always reminds me of something when I first started out to preach Mr. Taylor we had about four or five back we had ten men who could preach in the church that I was brought up in Mr. Taylor was a wonderful teacher one of the best teachers and he used to call me his Timothy and he was like the Apostle Paul to me if I had any problems I'd run to Mr. Taylor But I remember the time when he was a quiet man, the man of few words, but when he spoke there was plenty of weight with what he said. And one time he said, Brother Lester, will you open the meeting for me on Sunday night? He says, preach for about twenty minutes. I said, all right, Mr.
Taylor, I'll do that. I'll be glad to. So I got up and I went out of hammering tongs, hitting the forefoot, waving my arms, shouting at the top of my voice. When I was through my twenty minutes, I... stopped and took my seat and it took Mr. Taylor about two minutes to get from where he was up to the platform. He took his time opening his Bible and finding his text and all this time with a silence, a hush. What a calm after the storm. Well, he said, ladies and gentlemen, he said, our young brother has broken up the roof and I'm going to let you down into the presence of the Lord. Well, that was my job. I broke up the roof all right.
In other words, many women have got to be shown their loss. They've got to be shown their sinners. They've got to be shown that on the way to hell, the roof's got to be broken up. There's got to be conviction before this conversion. And so that was my task, and ever since I've tried to do both. Break up the roof and let them down to the presence of the Lord at the same time or in the same sermon. So we'll try and let you down now. I hope it's not a letdown, unless it's a letdown into his presence. So here you see the originality of this situation. Why the door is the orthodox way to get people into the house. Get them into the door, but you can't.
The door is jammed. People are filled the door and all inside the house. You can't get them in that way. Well, we've got to think of another way. Originality comes into play here. So these fellas, they get up on the roof. Finally, however, they got through the crowd and got up that outside staircase. I don't know, but they got up there on top of that flat roof and whatever tools they had where they had picked or hose or whatever they had in those days. I don't know, but they went to work on that roof and there were tiles on that roof. That's how the roof was made. Tiled. And you can hear this commotion. They must have done some calculating. Just where would the Lord Jesus be now?
We want to get right above them. so we can let this man right down in front of him, right at his feet. Finally, these men, however, they did it with all the crowd surrounding, I don't know, but they found out just where he was standing, and they got right over him, and then the commotion, the pounding, and the hammering, and the dust beginning to come down. I wonder what the Lord must have thought. Evidently, he knew all that was going on, but I can see these old proud Pharisees kicking up a fuss and kicking up a lot of dust from belief. Who's up there causing all this commotion? Finally, you can see right through the roof. They've got a big enough hole. All the debris coming down.
They had to get a good-sized hole there to let a whole man down. A living man. They certainly had to break up the considerable of the roof. Finally they got a whole big enough. They let this man right down into the presence of the Lord Jesus. There is not one word of complaint on the part of the Lord Jesus for interrupting what he was doing. He was so delighted. In his heart he knew what was going on. He was perfectly sympathetic. Finally they let this man down into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's the man now where they want him. My shows the confidence these four men had, what faith they had in Christ's ability. My, they were willing to go to any length, go to any labor, just to get this man into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If we get him there, we know the Lord will take over. Here is their faith in the person of Christ, his willingness. They had no idea, never entered their mind that once we get this man into the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ or at his feet, He will rebuke us and tell us why do we go to all this trouble. No, we know our Lord better than that. We know that once we get this man in there, Christ will heal him. Christ will take over. Our labor will not be in vain. They knew that. They had faith in Christ's ability to heal this man. They had faith in Christ's willingness to heal this man. Do we as Christians have faith in his ability?
When you bring someone to this meeting, do you have faith that he is able to save that person? Do you believe that he's willing to save that person? Do we as Christians really believe, or at least four men believe, they believe that if they get this man into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ would do his part, but it was a major part. and he would heal this fellow and that's exactly what he did. Here you have old-fashioned soul winning in a new-fashioned way. It wasn't the orthodox way to get this man into the door.
It was unorthodox. It was a new invention, if you will, but they broke up the roof and they got this man into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and today we have to employ all kinds of things that are new. The message is the same, the person of Christ is the same, but methods may change. For instance, they never dreamed of TV a hundred years ago, and yet the TV has been a method that God has used to reach many people. But I'll say this, the TV has also been used of the devil to damn men and women. But the Lord Jesus has used the TV. Billy Graham, as well as others, have won many souls to Christ through the TV.
It's a new method. radio became a new method how i used to rejoice when i used to be on the radio day after day after day in the carolina and here when i first came i loved the radio something new the trend the message doesn't change we're still preaching christ and in crucify datification bible school i don't suppose that was thought of fifty years ago but all kinds of new ways in which we can win men and women to Christ today. We're living in new, new days. But there is one thing that need never change, and that's the message of the gospel. One may not always agree with Billy Graham's methods, but friend, I agree one hundred percent with his message.
He preaches Christ and Christ crucified, and many are one to Christ through Billy Graham's preaching. So we have the old-fashioned gospel presented in a new-fashioned way. original. You know, God is no strict character when it comes to how a person is saved. God can save a person under any circumstances. He may use an employ method, but we don't have any idea that he would use or employ. You know, I've never seen a soul saved the wrong way yet. I never have.
I've seen some people get saved in strange ways, certainly weren't Orthodox. They didn't come in through the door, they came through another way, but we got them into the presence of the Lord and we saw them saved. The Lord is not confined to just one way and one way only, that is to getting people to Christ when it comes to getting them to Christ. Christ is the only one who can save them, but getting them to Christ, to where Christ can save them, there may be various methods. I'm going to tell you one that is quite interesting in my life. Her name was Mamie Mabry. Her sister-in-law was saved, the first one to get saved when I went to Winston-Salem some thirty-two years ago, thirty-three years ago.
When Mrs. David Mamie got saved, Mrs. Mamie Mamie, she was furious because she was a church worker, a very religious individual. My, she didn't like to hear her sister-in-law talk about being born again and knowing she was going to heaven. Here she was in the church trying to work her way to heaven, sophisticated, and thought that her good life and her good character and all was going to take her to heaven. And then to hear her sister-in-law talk about she knew she was saved. She knew she was going to heaven. Her sins were forgiven. It infuriated her. And she hated the ground I walked on. And if I went to see Mrs. David Mabry, I'd go in the front door and maybe go out the back door.
She wouldn't stay in the same heart. And due to one time I had a series of meetings to my surprise. In fact, it was after I'd been in Winston-Stalem five years, and I'd had eleven big campaigns in Winston-Stalem running seven to eight weeks in length each one. And this last campaign, who should be sitting my audience, but Mabry, Well, I thought this is something. This is something. One night after the Lord's power was present in that service, there were eight people remained behind, sitting in their seats. They didn't get up when the congregation got up. They just stayed there, under conviction. One of them was Mamie Mabry.
So I went up the front, and she came up the front, and she sat down. She's a very well-built lady. It was a very... large compliment. And she'd used a lot of makeup, lipstick, bruise, powder, very heavy on it. And she'd been crying during the meeting and running her fingers down her face. Now, if you ever saw anything like a messed up billboard, you ought to have seen her that night when she's up the front. She looked at it. And I looked at her and she looked at me. I said, Mamie, do you want to be saved? She said, I do. You really want to be saved. She said, yes, Mr. Wilson, I want to be saved.
I found out now I've been all wrong. I'm lost. I'd like to know I'm saved. Well, I'm glad, mainly. I prayed for you a lot. That seemed to touch her heart because she knew how she felt toward me. So I began speaking to her. I took my Bible. I read verse after verse to try and show her the way of salvation. Text that I had used to point many others to Christ. I took the ordinary procedure of showing them how they're lost and how they can be saved on the authority of the word of God by receiving Christ. No, it didn't matter what text I seemed to use, it didn't seem to get the light through to naming. I used illustrations that I'd used many times to point others to Christ, and they saw the light, but not naming.
And I suppose I sat there for a half an hour, and these other people were still sitting back in the audience wanting to be saved. And she was a lady with a quick temper. So finally I said to her, I said, Mamie, you don't believe God? God's a liar. And I swam my Bible shut and stood up. I said, God's a liar as far as you're concerned. She said he isn't a liar. I said he is a liar. She said he isn't. I said he ain't. And I could see her face blushing and her temper rising. I said, tell me one thing that you believe that God said. Just one thing. She said, I believe I'm a sinner. I said, you don't believe that at all. She said, I do. She said, I do believe on the sinner.
Tell me another thing God says you believe. Well, I believe that Jesus died for me. I said, you don't. She said, I do. I said, you don't believe it. She said, I do believe it. She said, I do believe it's in the Bible. Well, you don't believe what God says. I do believe what God says. What else do you believe in the Bible? Well, I believe if I accept Jesus Christ as my Savior, I'll be saved. You don't believe that at all. She said, I do believe it. It's in the Bible God says it and I believe it. You don't believe it. She said, I do believe it. I believe if I accept Jesus Christ as my Savior, I am saved. The Bible says, I thought, well, something should have happened. And I didn't reply.
And I was silent for about fifteen seconds. And she looked up to me, she said, Mr. Wilson, I'm saved. I'm saved. It sank in. Here she was and she was mad. And it finally sank in. God said it. And I'm saved. I never saw anyone saved like that sin before. I never tried to use that method. But here is an unusual case. It's not the orthodox way. But that lady saw after all that is taking God and his precious word that saves the soul, resting upon what he says.
God says it, I believe. So God will use his word. I want to say this, although God may employ different methods, I could tell you another one of the lady, Mrs. Sprintley, husband, his brother rather, was a Methodist minister. She was attending my meeting. He was opposed to attending my meeting. He went over to see her one evening after she came home from work. And he blessed her out because she was coming to my meetings in the big tent up in the corner. After all, he said, What's the fellow preaching? She said, Well, I know one thing. I found out I'm lost going up there. Oh, I lost nothing.
You've been a member of the church all your life. She said, Well, I found out I'm a lost sinner. What else does he preach? Well, he preaches that If you're lost and you come to Christ and you believe Jesus died for you on the cross and shed his blood to put your sins away, if you accept that, you're saved. And he gets it out of the Bible. That's God's word. And she said, I believe he's right. Oh, he's wrong. He's wrong. She said, no, he's not wrong. He's right. You accept Jesus Christ as your Savior while you're saved. The Bible says it. But she got saved, arguing with her own brother. These things are rare. It only goes to show, friend, when you take God of this word and you mean it, you're assured about that thing.
You're deafened. You're emphatic. Jesus Christ died for me and I've got God's word for it. You're saved. And I would say, God, you would believe it the same, with the same earnestness that those two I've referred to believe in. Christ died for you. He shed his blood for you. that you might be saved, that you take God of his word and rest upon it, you shall be saved. What a reward these men had. You'll notice verse five, when he saw their faith. Imagine that, the faith of the four men, when he saw their faith. What did he do? He healed this man. How much faith depends upon the Christian. What a reward was there. There is when the Lord healed this man.
And in conclusion, He said in verse five, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. That's where we all begin. I'm here four expressions in your New Testament. Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. And over in Proverbs, rather, twenty-three, thirty-six, son, give me thy heart. Son, go work today in my vineyard in Matthew chapter twenty-one and twenty-eight. And in Luke fifteen, Son, Lord, ever with me. for all that I have is thine. Notice those four things in this we close. It begins here, friend. Son, thy sins be forgiven.
He doesn't say, Son, give me thine heart. Your heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. He doesn't want it. He wants you to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. When you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, then he says, Son, Thy sins be forgiven thee. Then after you're saved, he says, Son, you'll notice the relationship, Son, give me thine heart. He wants you. He wants your life after you're saved. Then he says, Son, go work today in my vineyard. He doesn't say, sinner, go work today in my vineyard. The sinner can't do anything for Christ. A person can't work for Christ until he's saved.
Son, go work today in my vineyard. And then, Son, Thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine, all the resources you need, I'll supply. He doesn't say, sinner, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine, he says, Son. And it begins with thy sins be forgiven. This is where you must begin, the forgiveness of your sins. then give you a heart to him which means your life then go work today not tomorrow tomorrow maybe too late work today in my vineyard what resources what companionship what association son now whatever with me i'll never leave me nor forsake me now whatever with me and all that i have is done whatever you need i will supply it all stems from the conversion of this palsied man Thy sins be forgiven.
That's where you must begin to be a Christian. Your sins need to be forgiven. They may be forgiven tonight. Will you be willing to let the Lord Jesus Christ forgive you all your sins? We've tried to let you down at His feet. Into His presence. Poor, palsied man. Will you let Christ touch you? Will you let him save you? Will you let him do it right now? What a happy soul you'll be henceforth. You'll want to give him your heart. You'll want to work in his vineyard. You'll want his company and companionship. Do it now. You shall be saved. Shall we pray?