Near, still near. That's our
prayer, that the Lord would come nearer to us tonight. Let's open
tonight's service with number 59 from the softback temple,
number 59. Hallelujah, Christ is reigning. Number 59. The name of the Lord is our great
and high tower. We run to him, trusting his infinite
power. Hallelujah, Christ is reigning. Praise Jehovah, our God. Sovereign Savior, we will praise
you. We trust you, our God. Our Savior, who died to atone
for our sins, is exalted on high, and He sovereignly reigns. Hallelujah! Christ is reigning. Praise Jehovah, our God. Sovereign Savior, we will praise
You. We trust You, our God. Though tempted and tried, we
are not in despair. Our Savior is ruling, so why
should we fear? Hallelujah! Christ is reigning! Praise Yehovah, our God! Sovereign Savior, we will praise
you. We trust you, our God. Though tempted and tried, we
are not in despair. Our Savior is ruling, so why
should we fear? Hallelujah, Christ is reigning. Praise Yehovah, our God. Sovereign Savior, we will praise
you. We trust you, our God. Yes, Satan may roar, but he cannot
devour, for Jesus has broken the serpent's dread power. Hallelujah! Christ is reigning! Praise Jehovah, our God! Sovereign Savior, we will praise
you. We trust you, our God. God's sovereign decree and his
covenant shall stand. And all who trust Jesus are safe
in his hand. Hallelujah, Christ is reigning. Praise Jehovah, our God. Sovereign Savior, we will praise
you. We trust you, our God. Please be seated. Good evening. It's good to have
a lot of visitors with us tonight. I'm not going to try to acknowledge
all of them, but we're very glad you're here. If you'd like to
open your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 9 for our scripture reading
tonight. Romans chapter 9. just a few verses that I hope
will be an encouragement to sinners and that will complement the
passage that I want us to look at in Luke. Beginning in verse 10, and it
came to pass as Jesus sat at meat in the house. That's where,
I'm sorry, Matthew chapter nine, verse 10. What did I say? Matthew
chapter 9 verse 10. And it came to pass as Jesus
sat at meat in the house. I'll just pause right there for
just a moment because I hope and I believe that's where he
is right now. He's sitting at meat in his house. He said, where two or three are
gathered together there, I am in the midst of them. And the
meat is the bread of life. He is our food. And behold, many
publicans and sinners came. Is that you? The gospel's for
sinners. It's for sinners. This is a faithful
saying. It's worthy of all acceptation,
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Men and women,
boys and girls who have no righteousness whatsoever of their own, completely
dependent upon Christ for all the hope of their salvation. And sinners came and sat down
with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it,
They said unto his disciples, why eateth your master with publicans
and sinners? Why would he do that? But when
Jesus heard that, he said unto them, here's the answer to that
question. They that be whole need not a
physician. If you're whole, you're not a
sinner. But they that are sick, are you
sick? Are you sin sick? to the Gospels
for, look at verse 13. But go ye and learn what that
meaneth. I will have mercy and not sacrifice,
for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we come with great hope before thy throne
of grace, believing that we have an advocate, Jesus Christ, the
righteous one, who makes intercession for us, presents himself on our
behalf. We pray, Lord, that you would
enable us, by the power of thy spirit, to be blessed with faith
that we might rest all our hope on him. For, Lord, apart from
him we are but publicans and sinners. We're in need of a righteousness,
a righteousness that's greater than that of the Pharisees, a
righteousness that's pleasing and acceptable in thy sight.
Lord, if you don't bless us with Christ as our righteousness,
we will have no hope. We pray that you would bless
your word, pray that you would comfort sinners' hearts, Pray
that you would provide for us a place of rest. For it's in
Christ's name we ask it. Amen. Let's stand together once again
and we'll sing hymn number 168 from the hardback hymnal, number
168, Even Me. Let's all stand. Lord, I hear of showers of blessing,
Thou art scattering, full and free. Showers the thirsty land
refreshing, Let some drops now fall on me. Even me, even me,
let Thy blessing fall on me. Pass me not, O tender Savior,
let me love and cling to Thee. I am longing for thy favor, whilst
thou art calling, O call me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Pass me not, O mighty Spirit,
Thou canst make the blind to see. Witnesser of Jesus' merit,
Speak the word of power to me. Even me, even me, Let Thy blessing
fall on me. Love of God so pure and changeless,
blood of Christ so rich and free. Grace of God so strong and boundless,
magnify them all in me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Pass me not thy lost one bringing,
bind my heart, O Lord, to thee. While the streams of life are
springing, blessing others, O bless me. Even me, even me, let thy
blessings fall on me. Please be seated. You open your Bibles with me
to Luke chapter 7. Luke chapter 7. I've titled this message the words
of verse 35, but wisdom is justified of all her children. What does that mean? Wisdom is
justified of all her children. What the Lord's saying is that
all my children, all my children believe everything I say. That's
just, He is our wisdom. Let's look back in verse 29,
and all the people that heard him, speaking of John the Baptist
and the publicans, justified God. They believed John's message,
and they justified God by obeying John in baptism. But the Pharisees and the lawyers,
the self-righteous, those who weren't sick, those who were
trusting in their own righteousness, they refused or rejected the
counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of Him. So
our Lord is drawing a line between those who are the children of
God and those who are not, those who justify the word of God by
faith and those who reject the message of the gospel by unbelief. So now in verse 35, when the
Lord says, all my children, every single one of them, they justify
wisdom. They justify it by believing
it. He goes on to illustrate this in verse 31 when he says,
and the Lord said, wherefore then shall I liken the men of
this generation and to what are they like? They are like unto
children sitting in the marketplace and calling one to another and
saying, we have piped unto you and you have not danced. We have
mourned to you and you have not wept. For John the Baptist came
neither eating bread, nor drinking wine, and you say, he hath the
devil. And the Son of Man has come eating
and drinking, and you say, behold, a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber,
a friend of publicans and sinners. John came singing a dirge, and
they did not mourn. The Lord Jesus Christ came giving
the hope of salvation, and they did not rejoice. But, look at
verse 35, but wisdom is justified of all her children. All the children of God believe
the word of God. They just do. God has given them
faith to believe it. They bow to it. They rejoice
in the message of the gospel. Now the word wisdom here is used
to describe none other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The
scripture says in 1 Corinthians 1, but of him, of God the Father,
are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us our wisdom,
our justification, our sanctification, and our righteousness. So God
has placed us in Christ. Christ is our wisdom. When Solomon
wrote the book of Psalms, he personified wisdom by saying,
seek her, seek her like silver and gold. Oh, she's your life,
is what he goes on to say. She is your life. James said, if any man lack wisdom,
let him ask it of God, who will give it to all men liberally
and upbraid if it not. Oh, the Lord delights in showing
mercy towards sinners. He delights in revealing himself
to lost mercy beggars. And that's what he's saying when
he said, but wisdom, wisdom, the Lord Jesus Christ himself
is justified of all her children, every single one of them. The
writer of Hebrews goes on to tell us that in Christ are hidden
all the treasures of wisdom. Wisdom is God. It is. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. If we know him, we have wisdom. And that wisdom, being the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, is justified. She is held up. He is believed by all her children. All those who are birthed by
the power of God into the family of God. All those who are given
new life. All those who have been given
sight. They believe Christ. Wisdom is justified of all her
children. None of them say, well, yeah,
but, what about this or what about that? They believe God. God has given them faith, and
that faith in Christ is the evidence of their salvation. They justify the gospel. The
unbeliever hears the gospel, and to them, the scripture says,
it is foolishness. It is nothing but a stumbling
block. They trip over it. They cannot believe it. They
resist the truth of God just like the Pharisees and the lawyers
did to John the Baptist preaching. They resist the truth of the
gospel because it strips them of their righteousness and gives
to the Lord Jesus Christ all the glory for salvation. But
they refuse to believe it. And so they say, well, it's foolishness.
And the stone of stumbling, the stone that was rejected by the
builders, God has set as the head of the corner. The whole
house rests on this stone. And Christ, our wisdom, is justified. He's justified. He's believed
on by all her children. All her children. To them that
are called, the wisdom of God is the gospel. The power of God
is the gospel. So that Paul said, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth. Everyone, there's no difference
between the Jew and the Greek, the rich and the poor, the male
and the female, the bond and the free. They all justify, every
single one of God's children justify the gospel through faith. They confess their belief in
it. They're not, what? They're sinners. They're sinners. They believe
what the Lord has said to them about themselves. I touched on
this Sunday morning, having a healthy self-image. And I want to have
a healthy self-image. I want you to have a healthy
self-image. But to have a healthy self-image, we need to see ourselves
as God sees us. And as God sees us is how we
are. How does God see us? Well, I
remind you of that Syrophoenician woman who sought the mercy of
the Lord for her daughter that was possessed with a demon. And
the Lord ignored her, didn't he? And the disciples tried to
get her away. They were embarrassed by her.
And when she finally did beg for mercy, the Lord looked at
her and said, it's not right to give the children's bread
to dogs. And what did she say? What did
she say? Truth, Lord. Truth, Lord. That's what I am. Oh, won't you
just push a few crumbs off the table for this dead dog, mercy-begging
sinner. That's what I am. That's what
you said I am. That's what I am. Do you believe yourself to be
that? Do you believe that? Do you believe yourself to be
the chief of all sinners? Do you believe yourself to be
in need of God's grace and of God's mercy more than anybody
else? I mean, really, anybody. Anybody
else. Scripture says, you say, well,
you know, let me give you an illustration. A couple weeks
ago, Eric and I were in Alaska, and we were standing on the street
corner in Juneau, and Alvin walked up to us. And Alvin was a nice
enough guy and it was obvious that he wanted something. Alvin
was a Eskimo who lived on a little island with about 500 people
and it was obvious after a few minutes that Alvin was the town
drunk and Alvin had to come to the city of Juneau in order to
get away from all the people that knew him and he was just
trying to get a few dollars to buy some alcohol. And we talked to him for a little
while, and afterwards, Alvin didn't look good. I mean, he
was a homeless drunk. And Eric and I got to talking
to each other afterwards. There was a time when I would
have said, but for the grace of God, there go I. And then
I realized, Alvin's never heard the gospel, never. Alvin's never enjoyed the benefits
and the blessings that God has given to me. Alvin's never sat
in a gospel church and fellowshiped with God's people. Alvin knows
nothing of the Word of God. He's been given no privileges,
no opportunities, no blessings whatsoever from God. And here
I stand as one who has been blessed beyond measure beyond measure. And I continue to rebel against
God. I continue to have so much unbelief. And I'm able to say, when I look
at someone like poor Alvin, Alvin, and I was able to talk to him
this way, I'm worse than you. I'm worse than you. I can't say
but for the grace of God. Why? Because to whom much is
given, much is required. To whom much is given, much is
required. That's how much has the Lord
blessed you with? How many opportunities has he
given you? How much light has he shed in your heart? How many blessings have you enjoyed?
And yet how much sin remains in you? Believers are able to esteem
truly, genuinely, humbly one another more highly than themselves
because they truly believe that no one in this world is in need
of more grace than they are. Do you believe that? Do you believe
that about yourself? Oh, what a sweet fellowship God's
people have when everybody does believe that. When the Lord makes
us to be true, bonafide, mercy-begging sinners. We can't look down at
anybody, can we? We can't stand in judgment. We
can't not forgive anybody. We can't have an attitude towards... Lord, Our Lord told a story about a
publican and a Pharisee that went to the temple to pray. And
the Pharisee looked up and he said, oh God, I thank thee that
I'm not like other men. I tithe, I fast, I do all these
things that obviously he's looking over out of the corner of his
eye at this publican who would not so much as even look up,
but smote himself upon the breast and said what? Oh God, have mercy
upon me, the sinner. The sinner. And the Lord asked
this question, which of those two went to his house justified? The one that justified God. The
one that justified God is the one who went to his house justified. What a sweet thing it is to be
with God's people who believe themselves to be the chief of
all sinners. It just puts out the fire of
jealousy and controversy. It puts out the fire of division
and dissension. It just does all that, doesn't
it? And one of the worst places to be is in a religious place
where everybody's pretending to be more righteous than the
next guy. And everybody's competing to see who's more holy than the
next person. And wisdom is justified of all her
children. Have you justified the Word of
God, which declares you to be a sinner? Now, I don't want you
to get stuck there. I don't want you to get stuck
there. I don't want you to wallow in
the guilt and the false humility of being vile, which we are. Paul said, in me, that is, in
my flesh dwelleth no good thing. To will is present with me, but
how to perform that which is good I find not. I'm a sinner. Everything about me is sinful.
I have no righteousness. What's my hope? Oh, the Lord
gave to that Syrophoenician woman hope, didn't he? He healed her
daughter, forgave her, drew him to himself, told her that her
faith had saved her. He healed that publican who went
to his house justified. How does God see you and me?
Outside of Christ, in this old man, everything about us is sinful. And that's how we're to see ourselves.
And in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, our advocate, our
righteousness, as he is, so are we. perfect, sinless, righteous
before God, able to approach the very holiness of God, able
to come into his throne room of grace with boldness, with
confidence, knowing that he's pleased to give mercy to those
who seek him in Christ. All the children of God justify
the wisdom of God. Wisdom is justified of all her
children. All her children. Yes, we can
say with Job, behold, I am vile. Yes, we see ourselves as impotent,
blind, halt, and lame. And that's what gives Christ
all the glory, isn't it? That's what gives him all the
glory. He's everything. He's all, and he's in all, and
all my righteousness before God is in him. Oh, to be found in
him. To be found in him. That's where
I want to be. I want God to view me in Christ. Wisdom is justified of all her
children. God has made it clear that apart
from his electing grace, none would be saved. Had God not chosen
a particular people in the covenant of grace before time ever began. I was listening to the radio
today and they were talking about How many billions and billions
of years these things were? Now, I don't know about all that,
but before the billions, before the trillions, before time, whenever
it was, whenever it was, God had a people. He chose them in
Christ. He wrote their names in the Lamb's
Book of Life. He elected them according to
His good pleasure and goodwill. And wisdom is justified of all
of her children. We don't say in response to that
glorious truth of God's sovereign right to have mercy upon whom
He will have mercy and whom He will, He hardens. We don't say
to that like the Pharisees would say, well, that's not fair. We justify that glorious truth
as the beginning of the gospel. There'd be no salvation apart
from that. There'd be no hope of anyone
being saved had God not chosen a people. Wisdom is justified
of all her children. When I talk to somebody about
the gospel and they bow up about election, they bow up about God's
sovereignty, I know that either they are I
know they're not a child of God right then. Pray that they would be. They're
either reprobate or they're a lost sheep. Because all the children
of God justify the truth of the gospel. And you cannot have the
gospel without electing grace. You can't have it. There's no
gospel apart from that. If the Lord Jesus Christ is not
the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world,
if we've not always been seen in him, if we're not justified
in Christ outside of time, then that means that something we
did in time had an effect on our salvation, and that means
that salvation is not of the Lord. and make salvation an offer
that God makes to men, and the offer has to be accepted or rejected,
and now salvation's in your hand, isn't it? Can't be that way. Wisdom is justified of all of
her children. When the Lord Jesus Christ died
on Calvary's cross, He bore in His body all the sins of all
of God's people of every generation. He bore your sins. If you're
able by the grace of God to justify the wisdom of God, to say, Amen,
truth Lord, yes, this is my only hope. My only hope is that the
Lord Jesus Christ was my substitute. He was my sin bearer. He satisfied
your justice. He quenched the fire of your
wrath. He suffered your condemnation
and judgment for all my sins. Every sin you've ever committed.
The sins you're committing right now. Right now! And the sins you'll commit the
rest of your life. Are you trusting that the Lord
Jesus Christ atoned particularly for God's elect and satisfied
when he hung his head and said, it is finished. Was it finished? Was it really finished? Or was
there something left to be done? Was there something you had to
do in order to make what he did work for you? Wisdom is justified of all her
children. Do you believe that apart from
God's calling grace, that you wouldn't come? You wouldn't come. That He had to make you willing
in the day of His power. He had to give you ears to hear.
He had to open up your eyes. He had to give you faith. You
couldn't come up with any of that on your own. And that that
call of God is irresistible. that when he puts his hand on
you and calls you to himself, there's no if, ands, or buts
on your part. It's justifying the wisdom of
God by saying amen. Amen to the gospel. Lord, I bow. You've made me to
come. Coming was not a decision. Coming
was not a choice. Coming was something that God
caused to happen. Just like he breathed life into
Adam's heart, so he had to breathe life into this dead sinner. I was dead in my trespasses and
sins. I couldn't come, I couldn't believe,
I couldn't hear, I couldn't see. Wisdom, wisdom is the gospel. Wisdom is Christ. And it is justified
by all her children. all her children. Do you believe
that you are completely dependent right now as a believer for God
to keep you? Has he shown you enough of your
sin as a child of God to know that if he took his hand off
of you, you'd fall? You would depart? You would leave
him? You'd have nothing to do with the gospel. The enticements
of this world would so captivate you that you'd be caught up in
them wholly. And that you are as dependent
upon him day by day for him to keep you from falling and to
present you faultless before the throne of God. Wisdom is
justified of all her children. All her children. These things
are not debatable, are they? They're not negotiable. They're
not... We don't sit around and say,
well, those things, you know, that we need to... No, this is
the wisdom of God. And it's justified of all her
children. Every single one of them. If God has given you the faith
to justify his wisdom, Where does that leave you? Where does
that leave you? It leaves you humbly seeking
more grace. More grace. It leaves you with
the light that enables you to see your sin for what it really
is. Or at least, at least in part,
you see the the unbelief and the evil that remains in your
heart. And you continue to come to Him
just like you came the first time. And you can't stand in
judgment against anybody. Isn't it amazing that the publicans
and the sinners were never uncomfortable coming to the Lord? Never. They were welcomed in His presence.
He didn't make them feel they weren't intimidated by Him. They
weren't afraid of Him. They came to Him and He received
them gladly. Ought we not to be the same way? If the Lord's received you and
He's received me, is there anybody worse? Is there
anybody worse? Now, the reason I say that is
because I want us to look at the rest of this chapter. or
the next several verses, at least anyway. Verse 36. Here, oftentimes
in the Word of God, the precept of the doctrine is laid out,
and then God gives an illustration in order to shed more light on
how this is actually experienced in the believer's life. So if
you're able to say, yes, I, by God's grace, justify the wisdom
of God. I justify the wisdom of God that
I am a sinner completely dependent upon God's grace. The chief of
all sinners in need of grace more than anyone else. I justify
the wisdom of God in that I believe that the only hope that I have
of being saved is that God would choose me because I'm not capable
of choosing him. I justify the wisdom of God by
believing that what the Lord Jesus Christ did in his life
of perfect obedience and in his substitutionary death on Calvary's
cross is the only hope of my righteousness, the only hope
of my justification before God. I justify that wisdom. That's
the evidence of being a child of God. Wisdom is justified of
all her children. I justify the wisdom of God that
makes it clear that God has to miraculously. Nicodemus, you
can't see the kingdom of God unless you're born again. I've
got to be born of God. And to be born of God is just
as much, maybe more, I guess we could say more. We've got
less to do. When a baby, I've heard a woman
say one time, that baby wants out. That baby doesn't want out. The baby doesn't want out, he
really doesn't. It's your body that wants him out. That baby
would stay there forever. But the woman's body gets to
the point to where that baby's too big, we gotta get rid of
this thing. And so the baby doesn't have anything to do with its
birth. It's the mother that's birthing the child. And so it
is with our spiritual birth. We just stay right where we are
forever. If the Lord didn't push us out, and give us life. Yes, I justify that wisdom. I believe that. And I know that
I'm dependent upon Him now as I've ever been in my whole life.
Now the Lord's going to illustrate how this is experienced in the
believer's life. Look at verse 36, and one of
the Pharisees, now we're talking about the Pharisees who don't
believe, they can't justify the things of God, versus the publicans
and the sinners who do believe. And one of the Pharisees desired
him that he would eat with him. And at the Pharisee's house he
sat down to meet. Note, no hesitation. Now let
me ask you, just stop right there for just a moment. If the Lord
was willing without any hesitation to go to the house of a Pharisee
and sit down with him at meat. How much willing, how much more
willing is he to come to your house, my house, sinners and
Republicans? Oh, Lord. The Lord said you have
not that because you ask not. He wasn't talking about you don't
have the possessions that you want because you haven't asked
for them. He was talking about fellowship with Christ. He was
talking about walking in union and fellowship and enjoying the
presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in your life. Oh Lord, would
you come to my house? Would you sit at my table and
have meat with me? Would you feed my soul with the
bread of life? Would you do that for a dead
dog sinner like me? Even me? We just sang that hymn,
didn't we? Even me? Do you believe what
you just sang? Even me? Lord, me? Of all people, would you have
mercy on me? Can you say that? And behold, a woman in the city
which was a sinner. I mean, she was known of everybody. She'd been seen on the street
corners at night many times. She was a notorious sinner in
that city. Everybody knew the kind of life
this woman lived. And she knew that Jesus sat at
meat in the Pharisee's house. She brought an alabaster box
of ointment and stood at his feet behind him weeping and began
to wash his feet with tears and did wipe them with the hairs
of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with ointment. She's begging for mercy. She's
pleading for his grace. She's a sinner. Can you see yourself in this
woman? You're either gonna be her or
the Pharisee. There's no in between. Well,
I'm not quite as bad as her, but I'm not a Pharisee. No, there's
no middle ground. You're either this woman or you're
a Pharisee. The Lord's illustrating now what
he just declared in doctrine. Now when the Pharisee, which
had bidden him, saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This
man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner
of woman that touched him, for she is a sinner. If he was a real prophet of God,
that's what they thought. Oh, the self-righteousness. Let
me tell you what the worst sin before God is. No doubt about
it. No question about it. The worst
sin that you and I can commit before God is not to be a notorious
sinner like this woman. It's self-righteousness. You
think this woman thought that she was the worst person in that
room? You know she did. Was she? No. The self-righteous Pharisee who
was robed in his religious garb was the worst sinner. The worst
sin that you and I can commit is self-righteousness. That's
it. Looking down your nose at someone
else. Standing in judgment against
someone else. Believing yourself to be better
than someone else. It's the worst sin of all. It's
the worst sin of all. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Simon, I have someone to say unto thee. And he saith,
Master, say on. There was a certain creditor
which had two debtors. The one owed 500 pence and the
other 50. And when they had nothing to
pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which
of them will love him most? And Simon answered and said,
I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto
him, thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the woman and
said to Simon, seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house,
and thou gavest me no water for my feet. But she hath washed
my feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
Thou gavest me no kiss, but this woman since the time I came in
hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not
anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore
I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, They weren't as many
as Simon's. There's no evidence from this
passage that Simon the Pharisee ever became a believer. But had he been saved, he would
have been doing the same thing this woman did. And he'd be doing
the same thing you would do and I would do, worshiping the Lord
Jesus Christ. pleading with him for his mercy,
believing yourself to be the worst person in the room. Wherefore I say unto thee, her
sins which are many are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom
little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto her, thy sins
be forgiven. And they that sat at meat with
him began to say within themselves, who is this that forgiveth sins
also? And he said to the woman, thy
faith hath saved thee. Go in peace, in peace, peace
with God, peace with man, peace with yourself. Why? Because I've been forgiven. I've
been forgiven. You see, justifying wisdom, which
is what all God's children do, happens when we're forgiven.
And when we're forgiven, we love. We love Christ, we love his word,
we love his people. All we just do. Matthew chapter
18, the Lord told about a man, a king, who had a servant, who
owed him, I forgot how many talents it was, millions and millions
of dollars. 10,000 talents. Talent, from
what I understand, was like a pound of gold. So millions of dollars. And the master came to a servant
and said, pay up. And the servant said, be patient
with me and I will. He couldn't do it. He couldn't
pay it. But the master forgave him, forgave
him all his debt, erased it, cleared it. And then that servant,
which had been forgiven, went to one of his servants who owed
him 300 pence and said, pay up. pay up. And the servant said, please
be patient with me and I will. He could have paid it in time.
And he beat him and abused him and
took his property away from him for the 300 pence. And the king
found out about what had happened. What did he do? He threw him
into the prison to be tormented by the prison keepers. Have you been forgiven 10,000
talents? Have you? Is there anybody that you can't
forgive? Is there anybody that you can't
be merciful towards? As much mercy as you've gotten? You see, the truth of all God's
children justifying wisdom is seen in believing that what the
Lord has forgiven me of is infinitely more than anything that anybody
could ever do to me. What mercy. Wisdom is justified
of all her children. You don't know anything about
forgiveness. You don't know anything about the love of Christ. You
don't know anything about Him putting away your sin and having
peace with God. Oh, I plead with you, ask Him
to have mercy on you. Ask Him. And what a, what a balm
of Gilead that is among God's people when they're able to love
and forgive one another in the spirit of Christ. Let's pray
together. Our heavenly father, we ask that you would bless your
word to our hearts. with the power of thy spirit,
call us to thyself. Cause us to justify wisdom, to
believe that all our righteousness is found in Christ and that he
is all our forgiveness before you. That our offense to you,
Lord, is infinitely more than anything a man could do to us.
Oh, Lord, would you give us a spirit of grace? Would you enable us
to forgive and to love and to encourage and to esteem one another
more highly than ourselves? We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Tom. 121 in the Sopac Temple.
Let's stand together. Grace, how good, how kind, how
free. Grace, this wandering sinner
found. Grace has cleansed and set me
free. Grace poured out from Jesus'
wounds. Grace poured out from Jesus'
wounds. Grace devised the way of life. Grace brought our Emmanuel down. Grace imputes His righteous light
to God's loved and chosen sons. To God's loved and chosen sons. Praise cause Christ, our holy
Lord, to assume our sin and shame. In our place condemned he stood,
paid our debt, our souls redeemed. Paid our debt, our souls redeemed. Thank you, Lord, for grace divine,
given to such worthless worms. Through your grace, your glory
shines. We, for grace, your praise return. We, for grace, your praise return. It's up to you. You can talk
for all of us.