Luke 7 36 and one of the Pharisees
desired him that he would eat with him and he went into the
Pharisees house and sat down to meet and behold a woman in
the city which was a sinner when she knew that Jesus sat at meet
in the Pharisees house 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 the ointment. 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 this is that toucheth him, for she
is a sinner. And Jesus answering said unto
him, Simon, I have some what 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? 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 unto Simon, seest thou this woman? I entered into thy house. Thou gavest me no water for my
feet, but she hath washed my feet with 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 are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom
little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto
her, thy sins are 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. Now this man Simon
clearly didn't think very much of the Lord Jesus Christ, but
he desired to have him over for dinner. either out of just curiosity
or maybe he was impressed by the things that he was hearing
or perhaps had witnessed for himself. Just from chapter six
alone we see that our Lord had already done many mighty miracles
and I'm sure this man had at least heard about that if not
witnessed it himself. So he invites the Lord for dinner
but he didn't treat him with even the common courtesies of
the day. It was common to greet one another with a kiss and to
To provide water for somebody to wash their feet as they came
into the house and things like that So you see where this man
was he was He called him master. He was interested enough to have
him over for dinner, but he didn't treat him very well He was back
and forth. He was In a bad place That's a bad place to be our
Lord has a way of destroying lukewarmness If you're lukewarm,
you probably won't be for very long. You'll go one way or the
other because our Lord causes that. Maybe you're here because
people you love make a big deal out of the Lord Jesus Christ
and his gospel. And so you have some interest.
But if it was up to you, if you were left to yourself, if there
was no influence at all upon you, you wouldn't be here this
morning. You're not willing to refuse to come to just outright
take a stand in your rebellion. to dismiss out of hand the gospel
and to actually actively oppose it, but you're not really, you
don't really care that much either. That's a very, very bad place
to be. Our Lord told John in Revelation
3.14 to write to the church of the Laodiceans this, These things
saith the amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning
of the creation of God. I know thy works, that thou art
neither cold nor hot. I would that thou wert cold or
hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm
and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Simon
called him master. In verse 40, But he didn't greet
him with a kiss, we find out in verse 45. He invited him to
dinner. He didn't just walk away and
forget that he'd ever heard of him at all. But Simon's self-righteousness,
in verse 39, Simon's self-righteousness caused him to think wrongly concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his pride, he looked
at Christ and said, if he was a prophet, he wouldn't have anything
to do with that woman. Self-righteousness will always
cause you to think wrongly concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, always. Why did our Lord not decline
Simon's invitation to dinner? Some say that Simon was someone
who loved little and that that was still salvation. He just
didn't love him that much, but he still loved. Did you notice
that the Lord didn't apply, he applied the parable to the woman,
but he didn't apply it to the man, Simon, at all. Not a good
sign. Why didn't the Lord just decline
to come? I'm sure that he did decline others. One man said, I'm going to follow
you from now on. And the Lord said to him, don't
bother. You wouldn't like it. Isn't that
pretty much what he said? I don't even have a place to
lay down my head. You're not ready for that. You don't want
that. So why didn't he just decline this invitation to dinner? If
this man was lukewarm, if he was just idly curious and nothing
more, then why bother at all with him? Well, think about what
our Lord accomplished here at this dinner. He reassured and
personally forgave one of his sheep. He knocked Simon off of his lukewarm
nest. God would prefer cold or hot.
And I don't know which way Simon went for sure. Not a good sign
that our Lord didn't apply this parable to him at all. But I
don't know. But I guarantee you I'm pretty
sure anyway that Simon didn't stay lukewarm. He either got
cold or hot. You reckon? And so our Lord accomplished
that. The truth causes that. There's
going to be hatred Simon either resented that and bowed up and
didn't like the Lord humiliating him the way that he did. The
Lord turned the tables on him now. He either bowed up and hated
the Lord or the Lord had mercy on him, one of the two. And also, you know what else
the Lord accomplished that day? That day, 2,000 some odd years
ago, he taught us the gospel. This morning, we're going to
hear the gospel because of what he did that day. Right there
on that night at Simon's house for dinner, he was teaching the
gospel to people who would not even be born for another 2,000
years. Verse 37, behold, a woman in
the city, which was a sinner when she knew that Jesus sat
at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment. She was a sinner. And I thought
when I read this verse, wouldn't there have been a better time,
a more convenient time for her to do that? Think about that.
It doesn't look like she was invited for dinner. And Simon
either thought that maybe the Lord brought her with him and
so didn't say anything about it. Or maybe Simon knew her already,
but it kind of seems like she's crashing the party here. Doesn't
really seem like the best time. Maybe, you know, When the Lord left that night
and maybe on the way she could have encountered him or maybe
when she could have found him by himself or something. Not,
not, didn't it just seem like a strange time? You know when the best time is
to come to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ though? Right now. Right now. It's not just the
best time, it's the only time. It's the only time. For he saith,
I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have
I secured thee, comforted thee. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Now. Not now is the accepted
time, today is the day of salvation. Now is the day of salvation.
Right now. Isaiah originally wrote those
words as being the words of God the father to God the son and
Paul applies them here by saying now since what he had just said
in chapter 5 is true in 2nd Corinthians there that God hath reconciled
sinners to himself by the death of his son and By substitution,
by the exchange of our sin for his righteousness, based on Christ
crucified, God has accepted reconciled sinners unto himself. Now is
the time of salvation. Seeing that God has done that,
seeing that Christ has come, seeing that salvation is accomplished
for his people, now is the time of salvation. Not that sinners
weren't saved before Paul said that or after he said that, but
now is always the time. Now was the time when Paul said
that and now is the time today Now is the day of salvation seeing
this morning that Christ That God hath reconciled sinners to
himself by the death of his son. You know when salvation is right
now Right now Because of what Christ accomplished on Calvary
It is urgent and compulsory for sinners to be reconciled to God. It's urgent, it's right now,
it's necessary. Well, the Lord is, you know,
the Lord's in the house, but it's so crowded. We can't get
in. Maybe later all the fuss will
die down, you know, we can bring our loved one to him. But wait
a minute, now is the accepted time, though. Now is the time of salvation.
Let's make a hole in the roof and lower him down But how are we even going to
get him up there now But it wouldn't be right to make a hole in this
man through now You see what happened. They understood something
that now is the time of salvation now Isaiah 118 come now And let us reason together, saith
the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. Now, verse 38, 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. This is love. that willingly
humiliates self. Anybody looking on this she's
groveling at his feet she's weeping and apparently the tears were
just pouring out of her face it was enough to wash his feet
with and she's wiping his feet with her hair she's down behind
him under his feet where he sat and she's washing his feet and
anybody looking on would say that's degrading Not to a sinner,
it's not. She ought not to grovel like
that. You know David, King David's wife told him pretty much the
same thing one time when he danced before the Ark of the Covenant.
She said that you ought to act, you're the king, you ought to
act with a little bit more dignity. Do you remember that? It's in
2 Samuel chapter 6. And here's what David said unto
her. David said unto Michael, His wife who said you you shouldn't
dance you shouldn't you know He took his robe off and danced
before the ark because he was rejoicing that God's that ark
was symbolic of the favor blessing presence and communion of God
We don't want to be without that That's the mercy seat that's
where God meets with that's Christ and And he rejoiced and danced
before the ark. And she said, look at you acting
like a fool. You're the king. You need to
act with more dignity. You know what he said to her?
It was before the Lord, which chose me before thy father and
before all his house to appoint me ruler over the people of the
Lord over Israel. He said, I wasn't dancing for
you. I was dancing before the Lord. So what are you doing commenting
on it? And he said this, therefore will
I play before the Lord and I will yet be more vile than thus and
will be base in mine own sight. You think this is groveling?
You ain't seen nothing yet. You think this is not, that I'm
not very, you know, dignified to worship the Lord Jesus Christ? It's not very dignified. It's
not very, it's kind of debasing, you know, to get at his feet
and to, We've been to kiss his feet. That's degrading not to
a sinner. It's not We're gonna be more
vile than that, aren't we? And this is love this is love
that humiliates self and this is love that Sacrifices she brought
with her something very costly and very valuable the scripture
tells us Worship that is cheap and convenient is useless Lukewarm
and disgusting to God She was a sinner. And according to the
text, she was a sinner who for some reason had the idea that
God had forgiven her of her sins. She saw in Christ forgiveness
of sin. That's what the parable is all
about now. That's why the Lord is saying that's why she's acting
like she's acting. You don't like it, Simon. You
think it's degrading and disgusting even and scandalous. But you
know why she's acting like she does? Forgiveness of sin She was grateful and she was
in love and she came uninvited apparently She spared no expense
and she caused a scene without any regard for what anyone else
thought about her except him Now later our Lord compared this
woman's treatment of him with Simon's But that's not what she
was doing She wasn't sitting there thinking, well, Simon didn't
even provide any water for the Lord to wash his feet. I better
do that with my tears and my hair. No, she didn't think that.
She just did what she did because she loved him. That's what we do. And let's
never do anything else. Faith worketh by love. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. Let's don't ever do anything.
That's not an act of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Working
faith, faith which works, the kind that God gives, not the
kind you worked up in some kind of a religious fervor. And we never do anything. We
don't do anything out of an attempt to be better than anybody else
or to be accepted with God or to put on a show of religion.
That's what the Pharisees did. And our Lord told his disciples,
don't you do what they do. Don't you do it what they do
or why they do it for the reason they do it. Do not as the Pharisees
do. May our Lord Jesus Christ and
our love for him be the motive of all that we do. We serve him
because we love him. We love him because he loved
us. If we had any idea what it means
to be a sinner, we wouldn't rest until we found out if the Lord
would cleanse us or not. And if we knew what it meant
that he had forgiven our sins, had washed them away in his own
precious blood, we would be as this woman. You know what our
Lord said in verse 45 about her? She hath not ceased. to kiss
my feet. May we never cease to kiss his
feet. Verse 39, and 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 this is that touches him, for she is a sinner. There's all kinds of wrong with
this. All kinds of. This reveals our problem. This
is us by nature. First of all, we're self-righteous.
Simon is saying I wouldn't even let this woman touch me if he
knew who she was he wouldn't let her She's not even worthy
to touch me. She didn't she shouldn't even
be here. I'm better than that Let me tell you something this
morning if you are better than anybody you are lost If you are
better than Hitler you are lost you don't know what sin is you
don't know who Christ is If you are better than Charles Manson
Charles Manson just recently died finally He died a long time
ago, didn't he? Oh, evil, evil. If you're better than him, you're
lost. You're blind. Secondly, he was ignorant of
who Christ was. Simon said the problem here is
that this Jesus doesn't know who this woman is. The real problem
is that Simon doesn't know who Christ is. Simon didn't know
anything about the forgiveness of sin or the love of Christ.
And these things were not just doctrines to this woman. She
didn't just know the doctrine of the forgiveness of sin. She
knew the forgiver of sins. She was in love with him. Simon
was ignorant, thirdly, of why Christ came. He didn't come to
call the righteous. but sinners to repentance. Luke 15, the Pharisees said,
this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. And they said
that as a scandalous thing. But he taught them thereafter
that the whole reason he came was to seek and to save that
which was lost. That's why he was there. To receive
them. To receive sinners. Simon fancies
himself to know something about what sin is Think about that. He said I this man doesn't realize
what's going on here. I know I know seeing when I see
it She shouldn't even be touching him The Lord Jesus Christ was the
only one in the room who knew what a sinner this woman was Even she didn't know But he did. The Lord Jesus Christ knew exactly
what she was. He knew the depth and the evil
of sins. He knew the price of sinfulness. He knew the cost,
and he willingly bore that cost for her, old Calvary. Verse 40, and Jesus answering
said unto him, Simon, I have some what 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? Simon answered and said, I suppose
that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, thou hast
rightly judged. I think one of the important
lessons that's easy to miss in this is that religious pretenders
often can answer the questions right. They can answer the questions,
right? Are you a sinner? Oh, yeah. Oh,
yes, I've done some terrible thing. Do you deserve hell? Oh,
yeah. Is Christ the only way to salvation? Yes, of course.
It's not just those who outright deny Christ that are lost. There
are those. But Paul said in 1 Corinthians
13 2, although I have the gift of prophecy and understand all
mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so
that I could remove mountains and have not Love what is this
whole passage in Luke chapter 7 about? If I have not love I am nothing
People's problem is not that they don't understand the gospel.
I Know that most people are confused about some things that they they
can't answer all the questions, right? I understand That there
are some things that people don't know, that they've just never
heard. They're ignorant of them. But also know this, the root problem
is that they hate the Son of God. That's the problem. This is the condemnation, that
light came into the world. And we loved our darkness and
hated the light. Simon judged rightly, but in
judging rightly, he condemned himself. Our Lord tells us in this story
why this woman was doing what she was doing and why he allowed
her to do it. All of Simon's questions were
answered by this simple beautiful story. Why was this woman doing
this? Why the tears? Why the box of
ointment? Why that sacrifice? Why the humiliation
in the ministering and by the way that box of ointment is a
very clear and beautiful picture. What was that box of ointment
for? It was to make her more beautiful, more desirable. That's
what that ointment was for. That's our works by nature. Why
do we do what we do? To be more attractive to God,
to be accepted of God, to build up ourselves, to make ourselves
look better. But what needs to happen? Break it and lay it at his feet.
anoint his feet with it. He is our acceptance with God.
Remember in Ezekiel, I clothed thee, I decked thee with jewels.
You were beautiful with my comeliness. That's the only beauty that there
is, his comeliness. Why all of this though? Why the
kisses? Why the ministry? Why the humiliation? Because
she loved the Lord Jesus Christ. And she loved him much according
to him. She loved him a lot because he
had forgiven her a lot. She loved him to the point of
humiliation and sacrifice because she was a great sinner. The parable our Lord teaches
that a sinner is a debtor Someone who owes a debt to God that can
never be paid And in this matter of our sins God must be paid
back if you owe me money I may just say look just forget about
it and and let's just go let's just forget it ever happened
But it doesn't work that way in spiritual things. I God must
be paid the honor and the glory and the obedience and the service
that is due unto him because he is holy. He cannot just let
it go. He ceases to be God if he just
lets it go. Sin must be punished. All sin. And we are the sin. We are the
problem. Sin itself is not punished. But
the sinner is punished. Because we're the problem. Not
just what we did. Unless as in the parable The
sin the debt is forgiven It's forgiven If God were able to
just say I'll take the loss, you know, that would be wonderful
enough But when you understand that God cannot do that When
you understand by his grace and by his gospel that God cannot
lose his honor and glory and yet he can forgive and he does
forgive and If he does, if he loses his honor and glory, he
ceases to be God and that can never be. Then how can he forgive? The answer, the simple clear
teaching of the gospel is that for God to forgive you, someone
else must pay the debt. Someone else must suffer for
the sin, must satisfy God on behalf of that sinner that is
forgiven. There's only one that can satisfy God for sins and
that's God himself. So God the Son agreed with God
the Father and God the Holy Spirit in the eternal covenant of grace.
The Son agreed to be surety for those sinners whom God loved
and chose in Christ from the foundation of the world. So you see God not only does
not make you pay, but he paid himself for your sins. God will provide himself a lamb. He not only Doesn't charge you and punish
you for your sin if you're his But he himself is charged and
punished in your place And an understanding of this
That's where much love comes from Because herein is love,
not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son
to be the propitiation for our sins. That's when we'll say,
I love him because he first loved me. Why did this woman do what
she did? Love. Forgiveness. Because of sin, because her sin
was great and she saw it washed away. She knew who she was and
she knew who he was. That's why. She did what she
did. Why did the Lord let her do this?
Why would he let her do that? Simon had that question to him.
Why would he even let her? If he knew, if he was who he
said he was, he wouldn't let her do that.
Why did he let her? Why did he? What she was doing was worshiping
him. Why did he let her? Because he's
worthy of it. Because he is the Lord. Because he is indeed the
forgiver of sins. There's nothing more right than
for Christ to be worshiped and honored and adored The Lord said
to the woman at the well that he seeketh such to worship him
Of course he let her do He deserves to be worshiped. There's nothing
that a forgiven sinner would rather do Than worship him verse
44 And he turned to the woman and
said unto 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 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, are forgiven. For she
loved much, but to whom little is forgiven. the same loveth
little. The Lord turned the tables on
Simon, didn't he? Simon was reasoning in his heart
and looking down on this wretched woman and thinking about how
much better he was than her. But the Lord made it sound like
Simon was the shameful one and that the woman was the smart
one, the better one of the two. You notice that Simon, you didn't
even You didn't do anything just a basically decent person would
do he completely turned the tables on him. That's what the gospel
does The lord knows how to abase the
proud he knows how to bring us into the dust And the lord acknowledged that
she was a sinner he didn't make any excuse or Minimize he said
that she had many but he also said she's forgiven of them Our
sins are forgiven. There are many. They're terrible. They deserve hell. But they're
forgiven. They're forgiven. I love this
passage in Colossians 112. Let me read you this. Giving
thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered
us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the
kingdom of his dear son, in whom we have redemption through his
blood, even the forgiveness of sins." Did you notice at the
end of that passage, it's saying redemption through his blood
and forgiveness of sins are the same thing. Even the forgiveness
of sin. Another way of saying redemption
through his blood is to say this, forgiveness sins So what our
woman what our Lord is saying of this woman who was a sinner
is This when he says I forgive her. What's he saying? I have
redeemed her with my precious blood It's the same. That's what
the forgiveness of sins is its redemption through his blood.
That's what he said But he hadn't died yet Not an experience that's true
The cross had not happened. That's true. But his blood is
eternal, though he shed it in time. He knew when he said, when
he said, Thy sins are forgiven. He knew what he was resigning
himself to. He knew the cost of that. He knew the price of
the forgiveness of sins. He was resigned in eternity to
be her surety, to be her sin offering. to be her lamb before
God, her savior. May we never cease to kiss his
feet. Do you see that in him? He who
willingly redeemed you with his own precious sin-atoning blood,
John said, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins
in his own blood. We're not worthy to even touch
him. That's true. To even be in his presence, yet
he came where we were and laid hold of us. And now, Paul said,
since he apprehended me, all I want to do is apprehend him.
Philippians chapter 3. Since he laid hold of us, I just
want to lay hold of him. When we had nothing to pay. Doesn't say we didn't have enough. That don't quite cut it, does
it? We had nothing to pay. He frankly, you know what that
word means? Freely forgave us. May we never
cease to kiss his precious feet. And we understand what that means
in gospel terms. He took our debt. To frankly
forgive is the redemption through his blood. It's he took our debt. He took our sins He bore them
in his own body on the tree. He suffered the wrath of God
against my sin for me in my place Now if you just read verse 47
you might misunderstand look at verse 47 again in our text
wherefore I say unto thee her sins which are many are forgiven
for she loved much and If you just read that out of context,
you might say, well, Christ forgave her sins because
of how great her love was. Kind of sounds like that, doesn't
it? But don't read just that verse.
Read the whole context of it. Remember the parable. Remember
the story that our Lord told. It's a mistake that many make
for the same reason. When scripture is taken out of
context, the whole gospel is missed. The truth of God is missed.
Remember the parable. Was she forgiven because she
loved much? Or did she love much because she was forgiven much? Now we're on the right track.
Now we understand because we see that the whole word of God
Teaches and preaches that we love him because he loved us
first We came to him because he came to he said you have not
chosen me. I've chosen you and then we chose
him But he chose us first Verse 48 and he said unto her If we had any idea what this
means I Your sins are forgiven. All of my sin is against Him. My sin, the only way to see it
right, is to see Christ on the cross. With me having spit upon
Him, ripped out His beard, beat him, punched him in the face,
mocked him, and nailed him to that tree, and laughed in his
face while he bled out. That's the only way you're ever
gonna see your sin right, is to see that every sin you commit
is that. It's hatred for the Son of God,
it's murder of Christ in your heart. Every last one of them
in thought, word, and deed. You cannot see your sin in its
reality any other way or anywhere else but in Christ crucified. And it cost him his own precious
blood. The very soul of God's Son was
made an offering for your sin and yet he freely, and he knows
that. Do we know that? And yet he freely
says, your sins are forgiven. Your sins are forgiven. And up until now, he's been speaking
to Simon. This is the first thing he said
to the woman. Up until now, it's just hearsay. It was wonderful
hearsay. The gospel's a wonderful message,
even when God is speaking it to other people. Even the angels
desire to look into these things, though he took not on him their
nature. It really doesn't pertain to them, not directly. But when
Christ speaks forgiveness to you. Well, there's nothing else like
that. And nothing else will do. When I hear the gospel, Christ
is not just speaking about me. And not just speaking about himself,
but he himself is speaking to me. He is revealing Himself. He is revealing my sin and what
it took to pay for them. He's revealing His love and mercy
and grace. That's what love is, Christ crucified. And what do we preach? Christ
crucified. It's not just somebody telling
me about Him. That's not what I'm doing this
morning. That's not what's happening here. It's Christ speaking. He
said, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. Is that what
happened to you? He uses these means. He does so through a preacher.
But he must speak to your heart. He must say to you. He personally
must say to you personally, your sins are forgiven. And this is
how he does that. By the preaching of his gospel. She never said anything. She
never said a word. And yet she said a lot by what
she did. And think about this everything
that she said by not saying anything Was about him Everything she said what by her
actions It was her love for him in action, but it wasn't about
her love It was about his forgiveness It was about his worthiness Look
at verse 47 again and see that I say unto thee, her sins which
are many are forgiven, for she loved much. The reason she loved is because
he forgave. And so every expression of love
that she bestowed upon him was what? What was it saying? How much, how much he forgave
me. What a debt he paid at Calvary.
What a work he accomplished. What a salvation he finished.
The message preached by what she did was Christ forgiveth
sinners. Christ crucified. Verse 49, and
they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves,
who is this that forgiveth sins also? That's a good question.
Who can forgive sins? The one who is sinned against. All sin is against God, against
thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight,"
David said. Who can forgive sins? The only one who's able to satisfy
God for them. That's who. Who can forgive sins?
Just one. Just one. There is none other
name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. And he said to the woman, thy
faith hath saved thee, Go in peace Now her actions were commendable
and we could have focused just on that this morning like religious
people like to do You know, look at what wonderful things she
did how important it is, you know to To do you know to do
works of service for the lord It doesn't say thy works hath
saved thee It doesn't say that actions have saved thee It doesn't
even say that love hath saved thee thy faith have saved thee. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. Can faith save? I've had good
Calvinists say to me, faith can't save, depends on where you got
it from. If the Lord says your faith saved, faith saves. You
reckon? That faith saved, didn't it?
Because it was not of herself, it was the gift of God. Not of
works, lest any man should boast. Do you love The Lord Jesus Christ. If you do, then you know why,
don't you? And how much you love Him will
have a lot to do with why you love Him. Because He forgave all of my
sin. And it was great. But why did
he do that? God so loved that he gave. God loved. Every blessing of
God can be traced back to the love of God. The free, electing,
distinguishing love of God in Christ. May God show us His love for us that we might
love him much And honor him Let's pray