Sarah, that song went better
with our sermon anyway. Let's turn to Luke, Luke chapter
7. Our subject is who loves much? The main point of my text is
found in verse 47. Look there with me. Our master
said, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven. For which cause
she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven,
the same loveth little. To whom much is forgiven, the
same loveth little. But to whom little is forgiven,
the same loveth little. Forgiveness is the tie that binds
every believer to Christ and binds us to one another. This is what motivates us to
obey Christ. It's what motivates us to love
Christ. It's what motivates us to want
to serve Him and live for Him. And it's what motivates us to
love one another. We all together have experienced
God's forgiveness of our sin. This is the tie that binds believers. And the more you see yourself
a sinner, and the more you see God has forgiven you, the more
you love, the more you love. It's knowing that our sins are
many and that they're forgiven by Christ. makes us love more. That makes us love much. But
the opposite is true also. To whom little is forgiven, the
same loveth little. Religious folks like Simon the
Pharisee do not see themselves to be great sinners. They do
not see themselves to be worthless sinners. And because they do
not, they love not at all. They love not at all. I want
to look at the woman, and then at the Pharisee, and then at
the Lord Jesus. In verse 36 we read, one of the
Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him, and he went
into the Pharisee's house and sat down to meet. Now our Lord
had begun to attract some popularity. Before this he had raised a man,
a guy, a fellow that was dead. He raised him from the dead.
And as fame went abroad, people knew about him, so this Pharisee
probably just out of curiosity, had him to his house. Now, in
those days when they had a dinner, the important folks would sit
at the table. They would recline at this table, and others would
sit around the sides of the room and listen to them as they spoke.
And this was an open house. People could come in and sit
in around the walls of the house and listen. So this was a lot
of people present here. And it says in verse 37, And
behold, all of a sudden, all of a sudden, this was to everyone's
surprise, a woman in the city which was a sinner, when she
knew that Jesus sat at meet in the Pharisee's 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 ointment. This was a woman in the city
which was a sinner. That means her trade was sin. That's how she made her living
in the city. And everybody there knew who
she was, and they knew what she was. And Christ knew it. But most vitally, she knew it. She knew it. The Lord had taught
this woman the gospel. The Lord had revealed to her
Christ. He made her see her great, great
sin. She knew that beyond even her
trade, that all she was was sin. When she breathed, she sinned.
And she knew this. She knew this. And she saw how
much, how much the Lord had forgiven her of her sin. Now brethren,
only God can make a sinner know this. Only God can make us know
how great our sin is and how great Christ has forgiven us
our sin. And that's the only way. That's
the only way we'll love Christ and love our brethren. The only
way. And in proportion to how much
he reveals, that's how much we'll love. Joseph Hart said, He's
a great songwriter, and he wrote this. To understand these things
are right, this grand distinction should be known. Though all are
sinners in God's sight, there are but few so in their own. To such as these our Lord was
sent, they are only sinners who repent. What comfort can a Savior
bring to those who never felt their woe? A sinner is a sacred
thing. The Holy Ghost hath made him
so. New life from him we must receive, before for sin we rightly
grieve. This faithful saying let us own,
well worthy tis to be believed, that Christ into the world came
down, that sinners might by him be saved. Sinners are high in
his esteem, and sinners highly value him Now first of all we
see in the woman We see in the woman what our Lord taught here
to whom much is forgiven the same loveth much That's what
we see in this woman The greater sin that we see that God has
forgiven More we see our sin the more we see God has forgiven
us our sin the more we're willing to own Christ as our Savior and
The less ashamed we'll be of our Lord Jesus, the more we'll
own Him to be our Savior. She knew there was a host of
people in that house. She knew that house was full
of folks. And she knew they knew who she was and what she was.
And she didn't care. She didn't care. Verse 37, when
she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, she
came to where Christ was. She didn't care. The person who
does not see themselves as a sinner is totally ashamed of Christ.
A person who doesn't know they're a sinner, they're ashamed of
Christ. That's what it is that keeps sinners from coming to
Christ. They can't admit their sin. They don't see their sin.
They think they're righteous and they don't come to Christ.
They're ashamed of Christ. They're ashamed to identify with
His people. Who wants to identify with a bunch of sinners? Only
a sinner. Only a sinner. The more sin we
see that God has forgiven, the less ashamed we're going to be
to own Christ as our Savior. To own Him as our Savior. And
the less ashamed we'll be to identify with Christ's people.
That's why the self-righteous, you see in religion, where they
have to have a law, the law of the Sabbath day, they have to
have that to make them come to God's house, where God's people
are. Christ's people don't need that.
You know what we need? We need to know our sin and how
much it's been forgiven by Christ. That's what constrains us to
come to the house where Christ is. And it makes you know there's
nothing worth forsaking the assembling of yourselves together with God's
people where Christ has promised to meet us. It's because you
love much. You love much. Two, we see here
the greater sin that God has forgiven, the more we see it,
the more precious Christ is to us. And so the more sacrificial
our love will be to Him. The more we see our forgiveness,
the greater sin we see, the greater forgiveness we see, the more
we'll love Him and the more sacrificial we'll be in our love to Him because
He's precious. It says here, she brought an
alabaster box of ointment. That's precious ointment for
her precious Savior. She saw and she understood that
her sin was put away by a great price. The precious blood of
Christ as of a lamb without spot and without blemish. The more
precious Christ is to us, the more precious will be our brethren
who Christ redeemed. He's going to be more precious
to us and those brethren Christ redeemed will be more precious
to us. God's free forgiveness is what makes us love one another.
It's free forgiveness. Believers are the closest thing
we have to Christ. And if He's precious to us, His
people are going to be precious to us. And that makes us willing
to give our very best for Christ and for His people. for the furtherance
of his gospel, for the good of our brethren, for his house,
whatever, we want to give our very best for Christ, sacrificially
to Christ. Now, people who don't see their
sin, people who don't understand forgiveness and aren't forgiven
much, they need a tax, they need a tithe to make them give. God's people don't need that.
We need to see how great our sin is and how greatly God has
forgiven us for Christ's sake. That's what makes you sacrificially
give the best for Christ. The greater sin is, the greater
we see God's forgiveness, the more meek it makes us. It says
here in verse 38, she stood at his feet behind him weeping.
She stood at his feet behind him weeping. to every sinner
that sees what a great, great sinner they are. The more they
see their sin and the more they see His forgiveness, Christ's
feet are that much more precious. His feet are precious. How beautiful
upon the mountains are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings,
that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth
salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth. The more sin's
forgiven, The more you behold it, the more beautiful his feet
are, and the more beautiful the feet of them he uses to preach
the gospel to you. His preacher and his people.
It doesn't take, it's not just his preacher he uses, it's all
his people he uses. And they become precious to you. Their feet are precious because
they brought the gospel to you. She stood at his feet, and she
stood there behind him, weeping, weeping. The whip of the law
won't create humility. You know this is so. If somebody
has done something that offends you, and you're harsh with them,
and you're hard with them, and you let them know in no uncertain
terms how wrong they are, most of the time, you're going to
receive that same harshness right back. The whip of the law won't
humble a person. What does it? Beholden, you're
a sinner, worthless, undone, worthy of hell, and yet God in
His great infinite mercy has forgiven you for Christ's sake.
That's what humbles us down to Christ's feet. That humbles His
people. These were bitter tears, bittersweet
tears. They're bitter because she saw
her sin and she knew her sin is what crucified Christ, what
would crucify Him. But they're sweet tears too because
She knew He would put them all away. Bittersweet tears. Our Lord said, Blessed are those
that mourn. Happy are those that mourn. Blessed
are the meek. Blessed are those that hunger
and thirst after righteousness. You see these things? This is
what seeing your sin and God's forgiveness of that sin, that's
what this works in His people. Those who don't see their sin
are proud. They're self-righteous. They're
arrogant. They're hard-hearted. The more
you see your sin, you know, you just can't... If you see your
sin, really own your sin, and see how terrible it is, and you
see that God sent His only begotten Son, and Christ laid down His
life, you can't be haughty and arrogant toward another sinner.
Can you imagine the Apostle Paul being arrogant and haughty towards
some other sinner? When he saw what a great sinner
he was and how great he was forgiven, that's what brings you down.
That's what makes you meet before the Lord at His feet. The more
sin God's forgiven us, the more we want Christ to be honored.
We want Him to be glorified. We want Him to be adorned. You
picture her, she walks into this house and there she sees her
Redeemer. She sees Him who redeemed her
and He's laying there reclined on a pillow at the table and
she looks down at His feet and His feet haven't even been washed. That was the custom in that day.
You traveled around in sandals and your feet would get dirty
and they would be hot and they would be hurting and when you
entered to a house somebody washed your feet. They had a servant
there with water to wash your feet. And they greeted you with
a kiss. And they welcomed you into the
house. None of that had been done for Christ. The Lord of
Glory is there. The Prince of Life. God Almighty. And nobody had done that for
Him. And she sees Him sitting there and sees His feet in that
condition. That's one of the reasons she
mourns. She wanted him to be honored
so she began to wash his feet with her tears and wipe them
with the hairs of her head and she kissed his feet and anointed
them with ointment. She wanted her Savior to be honored.
She wouldn't stand for her Savior to be disrespected by his feet
not being washed. She washed his feet with her
tears. She wanted him to have the glory
for her salvation. You know the scripture says a
woman's hair is her glory. She took her glory, she laid
it down on his feet and dried his feet with her hair. You see
that? She wanted him to have the glory.
She wanted him to be adorned. She kissed his feet. She put
that precious ointment on his feet. And that will be our desire
toward our brethren who Christ redeemed. Remember what Christ
told them that night? He bowed down and He washed the
disciples' feet. And He said, what I've done to
you, you do to one another. It doesn't mean literally you
have to wash one another's feet. It means you do whatever is necessary. If their feet need washed, you
wash their feet. But whatever it is that we can
do for one another. You want your brethren to be
honored. You don't want the honor. You want them to have the honor.
You don't want your brethren to be, for you to be glorified
over your brethren. You want them to be glorified
for whatever it is that they've accomplished or they've done.
You want them to be adorned. Why? Because you see Christ in
them. You see them as representing
your Redeemer who did this for you and who you want to have
the honor and the glory and the adornment. That's what happens
when you see how great your sins are and how He's forgiven them.
Christ said, to whom much is forgiven, the same loveth much. Now, let's look at this Pharisee.
Our Lord said, to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth
little. Now, it doesn't mean that Simon
was forgiven. He showed no love at all to Christ,
and he showed no love at all to this woman. One, the person
who doesn't see himself a sinner, especially a great sinner, That
person who doesn't see himself a sinner thinks nothing of Christ. He doesn't think anything of
Christ. Look at this, verse 39, Now when the Pharisee which had
bidden him saw, he spake within himself, saying, This man, do
you see the contempt in that? This man. If he were a prophet,
he would have known who and what manner of woman this is that
touches him for she's a sinner. He's saying Christ is a liar.
He said he's an imposter. If he knew, if he was a prophet,
he'd know who this woman is and what she is. He had no love for
Christ. He had no love for Christ. Because
why? He didn't see his sin. He didn't
know what a wretched sinner he is. He didn't know anything about
forgiveness. And that person who doesn't see
himself a great sinner thinks nothing of Christ's people. Simon
thought in himself, he said, I know who and what man or woman
this is. She's a sinner. He would not
have let her come in his house. Don't you know he despised and
he was so offended when this sinful harlot walked into his
house? Let alone let her kiss his feet
and wash his feet. Makes you wonder how he knew
who she was, don't it? How did he know who she was?
What she was? Here he is a sinner. And if she
would have tried to kiss his feet, he would have said, stand
by thyself, come not near me, I am holier than thou. Who does
that? Who is hard hearted? Who is unforgiving? Who is unmerciful? Who is unloving? A person who has not seen what
a great sinner they are. And the less we see of our sin,
the more we'll be that way. The more hard, the more unforgiving,
the more unloving, the more self-righteous, the more proud, the more arrogant.
And that's what the Pharisee was. Now let's hear the Lord
Jesus speak in verse 40. And Jesus answering said unto
him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith,
Master, say on. He's so hypocritical. calling
him master. And he's thinking this in his
heart. He's thinking in his heart, this man's not a master. This
man's not a prophet. He's not God. And yet he answers,
Master, say on. Christ said there was a certain
creditor which had two debtors. The one owed 500 pence, 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. Now get this first. There are
degrees of sin and there are degrees of sinners. Our Lord
spoke here of one who owed 100 pence and the other 50. You and
I who've heard the gospel preached, we've heard the gospel of God's
electing grace, of His redeeming grace, His regenerating grace,
His preserving grace. You and I who have heard the
gospel preached, we will be judged by God as far greater sinners
than those who have not heard the gospel if we reject the word
of our Redeemer. You get that? To whom much is
given, much is required. But notice here, they were both
debtors. They both were debtors. All are
guilty before God. All are guilty before God. And
notice, no sinner can pay his sin debt either. We have nothing
with which to pay. We're sinners. We're sinners. Christ alone is the sinless one.
We can't pay because we're sinners. I can't pay my sin debt. I owe. I owe. And I can't pay that wages
of sin is death. I can't pay Eternal death. But I can't even try to die for
anybody's sin. Christ is the sinless one. He's
the only one that had with which to pay. And He bore the sin of
His people. And He bore the justice of God.
And He paid everything His people owed to justice. And the only
way any sinner is saved is because God frankly forgives us. You know what that means? He
frankly forgave them. That means unconditionally. Without
a cause in them. And that's the only way any sinner
is going to be chosen and redeemed and saved is without any condition
in you or me. It's by Christ alone. But now
listen. Look who's saying this. Yes,
there are degrees of sin. There are degrees of sinners.
But look who's saying this. Christ is saying this. Not a
sinner is saying this. Christ is saying this. You and
I, brethren, We don't see our sin as lesser and greater. We don't go around looking at
our sins and thinking, well, I'm not as bad as that person
because we're not as those who compare themselves with themselves. That's not who God's people are.
He's made us see that we're sinners, so we're not looking at lesser
sin and greater sin. We're not attempting to justify
our sins. That's not what God's child is
going to do, not by God's grace. We see all our sin is great.
It's all great because it's against a great Redeemer. It's great
against our great God, our Father. It's all great sin to us because
He's made us see it's great. This is the one who loved us
and gave Himself for us. We can't call some of our sin
lesser sin. We see what a great price it
cost our Redeemer. What's sin? If you had to pick
a sin and say, well that's a lesser sin, would it keep Christ off
the cross? No. So we're not the ones who are
going around trying to determine, well that's less, I'm going to
let myself slide on that one. No. There's sin that our Lord,
all sin, God hates all sin. And He hates the sinner. But
there are some sins that scripture says that he hates worse than
other sin. And one of those sins is the
Pharisee right here, pride, pride. And I'm convinced, Fred, that's
our greatest sin is pride. You and I have a Simon in all
of us. And that's our greatest sin is
pride. We can't justify any of our sin
because we see the grace and the love it took for God to forgive
us in Christ. Now this woman exemplifies that
one who's forgiven much will love much. But as Simon exemplifies,
one who does not see themselves a sinner, one who does not see
their need of forgiveness loves little. Or as Simon's case, not
at all. Not at all. Now let's notice
this, the Lord Jesus honors those who honor Him. Our Lord honors,
she came in there and she honored Christ. Do you think He's going
to stand there and let this Pharisee scorn her? He defends His people. Look here in verse 44, And He
turned to the woman, and He said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered thine house, thou gavest
me no water for my feet. He didn't even show him the common
respect of washing his feet. She's washed my feet with tears
and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no
kiss. You didn't even greet me with
a holy kiss. This woman hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My
head withal thou didst not anoint. This woman hath anointed my feet
withal. Wherefore? He's saying, why does
she do this? Wherefore? Why does she do that?
I'll say unto thee, her sins which are many are forgiven,
for which she loved much. You get that? That's why she
did this, because she saw her great sin and how much it was
forgiven. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth
little. Simon's self-righteousness made
him too proud to even provide water for our Lord. This woman
came and washed his feet with her tears. Self-righteous pride
kept Simon from seeing what a sinner he was. He thought nothing of
the Savior. He thought nothing of this woman,
but seeing her sinfulness. She came down to Christ's feet
and loved Him all the more. She wasn't pointing at sinners
in that room. She didn't raise up and defend
herself to Simon. She didn't point out his sin
or anything. Why? She saw herself a sinner,
a great sinner who had been greatly forgiven. The more we behold
our evil ways and the more we see God's free forgiveness of
our sins, the more we'll hate ourselves and our own sight,
we'll hate our iniquities, we'll hate our abominations, and the
more we'll love Christ. Ezekiel 36, 31, God says, then
shall you remember your own evil ways and your doings that were
not good and shall loathe yourselves and your own sight for your iniquities
and for your abomination. Let me tell you what will cure
us looking at other sinners and being critical of other sinners,
seeing what a sinner we are. Seeing what forgiveness we've
been given, that's what will make us forgive others. And if
we don't see that, we won't do it. We won't do it. You know,
there's men and women who would never walk around and say this
out loud. They'd never say, I'm so close
to perfect that Christ just didn't have to pay for many of my sins.
Nobody would say that out loud. But when we want love and forgive
and be merciful to one another, we're screaming that to the top
of our lungs. That's what our Lord is saying
right here. That's what Simon was saying right here. I don't
need forgiveness. That's what he was saying. The
Lord Jesus not only defends His child, He assures His child and
He speaks peace to our hearts. Look here at verse 48. And He
said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. Thy sins are forgiven. And they
that said it meet with Him began to say within themselves, Who
is this that forgiveth sin also? They had seen Him raise the dead.
And now they hear Him say, Your sins are forgiven? They said,
Who is this? And he said to the woman, Thy
faith hath saved thee. Go in peace. Here's all these
people in this house. Here's this mighty Pharisee.
And the only one there who knew who Christ was, was this notorious
sinner that everybody looked down on. You know who Christ is? I'll
tell you who He is. He's the sovereign Savior who
knows your sin and mine. He knew Simon's heart and He
knows my heart. He knows your heart. He knew
her heart. That's who He is. This is Christ
who loved His people and came down and laid down His life for
the sins of God's elect. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
who purged all the sins of His people completely. This is Christ
who comes and preaches the gospel to us in our heart and reveals
to us what a great, great sinner we are and then forgives what
great forgiveness He's given us by His blood. This is Christ,
brethren, who defends His people. If you're ever in this woman's
place, where you have somebody who's been critical of you, and
who won't forgive you, and who's looking down their nose at you
like she was, wait on the Lord. See who defended her? See who
defended her? Christ defended her. Christ defended
her. And Christ will defend His people.
He will defend His people. and He will make you to know
in your heart with assurance, thy sins are forgiven. What do I do? What do we do to
have forgiveness of sin? Thy faith hath saved thee. Your faith apart from any works
in you, your faith apart from any value in you whatsoever,
that faith God gave, that faith that lays hold of Christ alone.
That's how we're saved. That's how we're saved. And Christ
said to her, now, go in peace. Go in peace. You reckon she left
that house that day too concerned about what Simon the Pharisee
said about her? You reckon that was much concern
to her? I doubt it. She probably left there that
day praying for him. Lord, I pray you make him see
his sin. Make him know what a sinner he
is. Break his heart. Make him merciful. Make him forgiving. Make him to know what great forgiveness
you've given your people. That's what forgiveness will
do. To whom much is forgiven, the same loveth much, much. But to whom little is forgiven,
the same loveth I pray God will bless it. Our great God and our Father,
we thank you for this word. We pray you bless it, pray you
make us to understand what sinners we are and what forgiveness we
have in Christ. Don't let us forget this, Lord.
Don't let us. Every time we become proud and
the old Pharisee in us raises his head, bring us to see, Lord,
how great our sin is and how greatly you've forgiven us. Keep
us at your feet. Keep us loving you, adorning
you, honoring you, glorifying you, and keep us loving one another. We pray it in Christ's name.
Amen. How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
in a believer's ear! It soothes his sorrow, heals
his woes, and drives away his fear. It makes the wounded spirit whole
and calms the troubled breast. Tis manna to the hungry soul
and to the weak.