So Lord, may you graciously help
me, I turn your prayerful attention to the gospel according to Saint
Luke chapter 7 and verses 41 and 42. Luke 7 verses 41 and
42. This is the parable that Jesus speaks to Simon the Pharisee. Luke 7 verse 40 and 41. And Jesus answering, said unto
him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on. 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? Verses 41 and 42. We have in this account in the
word of God a Pharisee who, the Pharisees generally were against
the Lord Jesus, they despised him. But we're told here that
there was a Pharisee, who we later find is called Simon, who
desired that Jesus would come and eat at his house. He obviously had some interest
in Jesus. We don't know all his motives.
But here was one who desired to show kindness and hospitality
to the Lord. Jesus admittedly he didn't do
all the the civilities that you might
normally do of washing feet and giving him a kiss and and anointing
his head but he did give him he asked him to come to his house
and so Jesus came and we notice here you see how that Jesus was
said to be a the friend of publicans and sinners. And yet that did
not exclude him being willing to go to this Pharisee's house.
I think that's important. There can be this idea that only
Jesus would mix with publicans and sinners. And if you happen
to be amongst the Pharisees, well, Jesus would not mix with
you. But that was not the case. You see, I do feel in what we
read in Romans, The Bible makes it so, so clear that there is
a uniformity of all human beings. A uniformity in this sense that
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There can
be this idea that, well, you know, the Pharisees, Jesus didn't
like the Pharisees and he liked the publicans and sinners. He came to seek and save that
which was lost. And publicans and sinners and
Pharisees were lost without the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul,
who was a Pharisee, makes this absolutely clear in Romans 1,
he goes through how the Gentiles had gone away without God and
gone into corruption and believing that all the things against God
and how they were wrong. And then he turns to the Jews
and says, well, yes, you've come short too. And he comes back
in chapter three to say, basically, Jews and Gentiles are all in
the same boat, in the sense that we've all come short of the glory
of God. And so I want to just perhaps
balance that up. There can be this idea, Perhaps
in preaching that you're always getting at the Pharisees, but
actually we know that there were Pharisees that were saved. We
have Nicodemus. Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. He talked to Jesus and at the
end of John chapter 3 we wouldn't know necessarily which way it
went with Nicodemus in terms of whether he actually embraced
what Jesus said or rejected it, but we do know that later Nicodemus
was found when Jesus had died. He was there with Joseph of Arimathea,
another one of the Sanhedrin, probably a Pharisee I guess,
and they were there. taking the body of Jesus off
that cross and giving it an honorable burial. You see, it was not universally
that the Pharisees hated, or the Pharisees generally were
against Jesus, that's absolutely true, but it wasn't universal.
And you see, it is a wonderful thing that when we realize that
the public and sinners needed saving, but so did the Pharisees.
And so Jesus here, right at the beginning, and one of the Pharisees
desired him that he would eat with him and went into the Pharisee's
house and sat to meet. I do think this is an important
point in the sense that we live in a world which is traveling
fast away from the way that the Bible has told us to live. It's
traveling fast in the wrong direction, away from all the standards of
godliness in the word of God. If we're to bring up our children
in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and to keep them
from living like the totally ungodly and living in immorality
and so forth, then there's a direct tendency, if we're not careful,
to be much more on the side of the Pharisees, as it were, to
be kept from doing those evils around us. But we need to realize
that In one sense it's a blessing to be kept, but we need to be
made right ourselves. So I want to say that as an introduction,
to balance up what we have here. So we have in this account, so
this Pharisee asked Jesus to come for a meal and he agreed
to come. He came and he obviously didn't
have done to him this washing of the feet, he didn't complain.
He quietly sat down to the meal and had this meal that the Pharisee
provided. And behold, a woman in the city,
which was a sinner, so this was a woman that was well known to
be one who was classed as a sinner. When she knew that Jesus sat
at meat 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. So here we
have Jesus having this meal and it seems that the way they used
to sit was sort of sideways somewhat so their feet were sort of behind
them and she came while he was eating and then showed this affection
towards him in this weeping and washing his his feet with her
tears and wiping them with her hair and then anointed them with
this very expensive alabaster box of ointment showing her love
towards the Lord Jesus. Why did she have such a love
towards the Lord Jesus? Well we're going to find out. Now when the Pharisee which had
bidden him saw it. So this is Simon the Pharisee.
So Simon has asked him to come to his house for a meal. He's
given a nice meal to the Lord Jesus, as far as we can tell.
And he thinks within himself, this man, if he were a prophet,
would have known what manner of woman this is that toucheth
him, for she is a sinner. So Simon the Pharisee's looking
on and thinking, well, This woman showing this affection in the
sense of worship really to the Lord Jesus for what he has obviously
done, it's clear later on that she's realized the forgiveness
of sins. And she knew that she was a sinner
and she had obtained mercy. She had obtained mercy. And when the Pharisee which had
bidden saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if
he were a prophet, would have known what manner of woman this
is. So he questions, surely, if he should have realized that
this woman was not of a high standing. Remember, Jesus came
to seek and save that which was lost. This is what Jesus did. He came. This was his purpose.
So the fact that she was doing this was not Jesus it didn't
indicate that he didn't know who she was in fact Jesus shows
very clearly that Jesus knew exactly who this person was and
exactly that she had been a great sinner but she'd obtained mercy
and that's that's the great wonderful thing she'd obtained mercy. Well
Simon is starting to think low thoughts really of the Lord Jesus
as a result of what he's allowing this woman to do. So Jesus speaks in verse 40,
and Jesus answering said unto him. So it's as if Simon has
said it openly. He hasn't. But Jesus, being a
prophet, could read Simon's thoughts. He knew what Simon was saying
inside and answered that, even though Simon had not articulated
that. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Simon, I have some what to say unto thee. And he saith,
Master, say on. There was a courtesy here. He was willing for Jesus to speak.
And he calls him Master. And then Jesus comes with this
parable. There was a certain creditor. So somebody who had loaned money,
as it were, to people. And this creditor, which had
two debtors. So there was a person who had
some money, and he'd loaned the money to two different people.
And we have here one owed 500 pence. and the other 50. Now, if we think of another parable
that took place that you might remember when people went to
work in the Lord's vineyard or the person's vineyard for a day,
the agreement was that if they work for the day, they got a
penny. So, and that was the agreement. And the thing that was upset
some of them was that they got a penny for just working one
hour. But the point I'm making here that a day's wage was something
like a penny. So here, if you've got somebody
who owed 500 pence, okay, that's 500 days labour, it's probably
one and a half to two years wages that were owed to this person.
So think of that in today's money, could be 40, 60,000 pounds worth,
something like that, in today's money, depending on obviously
what you're earning. So a considerable sum. and the other owed 50 pence. So that would be more like two
months wages, two month pay packet. So 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. So we have here different
amounts that these people had to pay, 1,500, 1,50, a factor
of 10 difference between how much they owed. But there was
a similarity, a sameness about them, because they both came
to a position when they could not pay back that money that
they owed. They couldn't do it. And when
they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them Both. Both of these, the 50 pence and
the 500 pence, he forgave. He freely forgave it, frankly
forgave it. Obviously that was a cost to
the creditor. He'd lost his money. And of course when we think of
salvation and forgiveness, yes, it's free. The free grace of
Jesus Christ, but the expense, the cost, is Calvary. What it cost for
the Lord Jesus of life and glory to declare that these are saved,
that these have forgiveness. There was a tremendous cost to
the Lord Jesus Christ and the Father as he gave his only begotten
Son. So in this parable we have these
two debtors We have them frankly forgiven. And then Jesus ends
the short parable with this. Tell me, therefore, which of
them will love him most? Which one? So one's been let off two years
wages and one's been left two months wages, which one would
be more grateful for that debt to have been cancelled? Well,
Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, thou hast
rightly judged. So here Jesus is setting up a
parallel between Simon and the woman and really the 500 pence
debtor and the 50 pence debtor. There's a parallel going on here
and Jesus is using that to teach a very powerful lesson. which one will love the most
and then he goes and says and he turned to the woman and said
Simon seest thou this woman I entered into thy house thou gavest me
no water for my feet but she has washed my feet with tears.
So this woman you see clearly we know now from this parable
as well that she had an understanding of what the Lord Jesus had done
for her. She had an understanding of her
sin. And this is so vital. In real
religion, it's an understanding of our sinnership. An understanding
that we are sinners. And yes, she understood that
she, it seems that she was a notorious person for sin in that area. And she understood it. You could
have somebody who was notorious for sin but didn't think they
were that bad themselves. They wouldn't necessarily be
sorry for it. They might just think that was acceptable. But
this woman, she'd come to hate her sin. And she'd come to confess
her sin and come to find forgiveness. We don't know what earlier contact
she had with the Lord Jesus. Perhaps did she hear those words,
come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest
to your souls. What did she have? We don't know
for sure. But she obviously, she'd been forgiven. And that's really important to
get the order here correct. And Jesus said, Thou gavest me
no kiss, this woman, since she came in hath not ceased to kiss
my feet. My head with oil thou didst not
anoint, but this woman anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore
I say unto thee, her sins which are many. Simon, you thought
I didn't know that she was a sinner. You thought I just didn't know
who this was and why would I allow this woman to come near me? Jesus
is saying, I know exactly who this woman is, I know exactly
what she's done, but I've forgiven her. Because I came to seek and
to save that which was lost. Wherefore I say unto you, her
sins which are many are forgiven, for she loved much. That means
therefore she loved much. The love, you see that in the
parable, the love that those debtors had to their creditor
was as a result of his cancelling the debt, wasn't it? You look
at it, it says, when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave
them both. Tell me therefore which of them
will love him most. So the love flows from what the
Lord Jesus Christ has done for them. We love Him because He
first loved us. The love is a response. It wasn't
that the Lord Jesus saw such a love in this woman who was
a sinner and therefore forgave her. No. The love was a reaction,
a response. to the fact of the forgiveness. Well, you might say, well then,
if it's that way round, then how is it that Jesus then pronounces
that she has been forgiven at the end of this? Well, I see
it this way. You think of it in your own lives
as you start to appreciate the things of God and call out for
God for mercy, that the Lord would have mercy on you. And
you start to have a sense that there is hope in the Lord Jesus
Christ for salvation. There is hope in him, as we have
a text like, come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. There's a hope that, well, maybe
it's for me, maybe I will have a hope in that. And you see,
there's a going out of faith, like it was on the One of the
dying thieves, he said, Lord, remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. It was not assurance, but it
was a prayer. It was a prayer that the Lord would remember
him. But here, I believe that she had in her soul some sense. of forgiveness. Then she had a, and then he talks
directly to her, you see, and he said to the woman, thy faith
has saved thee, go in peace. She had an assurance that that
was done. Assurance that yes, and that's
very precious, isn't it, to our souls when we have a sense of
our sin and we run to the Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness,
but then to have an assurance that it is well with me. Well you see this love then that she had was a
result of her forgiveness, a result of the Lord Jesus having forgiven
her. Wherefore I say unto thee her
sins which are many Jesus knew exactly. He knows us individually,
like that woman taken at the well at Samaria. Go call thy
husband. I have no husband. Yes, you haven't
got no husband now, but you've had five. And the one you've
now got is not thy husband. Yes, that's correct. He knew. He knew this woman. And he was
going to show Simon that he knew exactly what was going on. He knew exactly what was going
on in Simon's heart too. Wherefore I sound to thee, her
sins, which are many, are forgiven. For therefore she loved much. She was, as it were, Jesus put
it, she was the 500 penny debtor. She was the great, she was greatly
in debt and she realized it. And she came to the Lord Jesus
for mercy. And she obtained mercy. But look
what Jesus says then. But to whom little is forgiven,
the same loveth little. So you look at this account and
the parallelism here, it seems to me to indicate that there
was something of a forgiveness also in Simon. But he hadn't
appreciated at that time at all the depths of his sin. And therefore, he loved very
little. He loved enough to ask Jesus
to his house. It was a certain cost, and obviously
it wasn't a popular thing for Pharisees to do, to ask Jesus
to your house, was not the done thing amongst the Pharisees.
It was something that would have cost him something in terms of
his street cred with the other Pharisees. But he asked Jesus. He had some sort of an appreciation,
you might say. There's lots of things wrong
here with Simon, and I can't see how you can say that. If I go through the Gospels,
there were so many things wrong that the disciples said and did,
which Jesus had to correct so many times. Take for example
what Peter said when Jesus said that he was going to After Peter
had said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus
said that he was going to go to Calvary to suffer, to bleed,
to die, and to rise again the third day. Peter, point blank,
disagreed that that was going to happen, and he was going to
do everything he can to stop it happening. Well, if that's
all we read of Peter, we would wonder what he thought of Calvary,
wouldn't we? But we know that Peter came to
love Calvary, came to appreciate Calvary, came to preach in his
letters about the precious blood of Christ. He came. And so, I
don't know, but we don't read any more of this character Simon,
but could he not have been one of those who needed to have his
eyes opened much more to his own sinnership? And is there
not something for us here, you see? You might, because you see,
there can be this idea that if, well, you know, the 500 pence
debtor, they obtained mercy. And this Pharisee that in one
sense, the Pharisees were living upright lives for the most part. I know there was, Jesus did get
onto them because they were white on the outside and inside there
was a lot of rottenness as well. But there was in an outside sense,
they were upright. living people. And they were
honorable people in that sense. They were good citizens in that
sense, as I understand it. But you see, and there can be this idea, well,
you see, unless you go out and act like this woman who was known
to be a notable sinner, there's no hope for you in the gospel.
But I don't see that in the Word of God. He came to seek and to
save that which was lost. See, what is the cardinal sin?
Because many people preach this, I've listened to many sermons
on this, and they're all really hard on the Pharisee. Oh, totally
wrong. But we have here that he said,
he that loveth, he has been forgiven little, loveth little. And he
didn't love not at all. And you see otherwise the parallelism
of the parable and what happened with Simon and the woman breaks
down. And you see not all the people that
came to be Christians and came to embrace the Lord Jesus were
notable sinners in the sense that there was Lydia, whose heart
the Lord opened. We don't read that she was a
profligate lady that was known to be in the town as somebody
who was known to be a terrible woman. We have Cornelius. who was an honourable man and
he loved the things of God and worshipped all ways we read,
him needed to be sent to expound what it was that needed to be
done. We have to be, I'm not at all
saying that the Lord won't save those who have gone to the depths
and depravity of sin. Clearly, this woman was there,
and the Lord Jesus in the gospel makes room for them. But really,
we also have those that are more, shall I say, under the title
of the Pharisee. They're looking down on others,
and they're saying they're thinking that they're better than them.
Is that right then? Of course it isn't. But it's
another sin like adultery and another sin like murder. It's
a sin. We're all sinners. Some sin,
as it were, by murdering and adultery and stealing and things
like that, and some sin in a proud way, in self-righteous way. And it seems there can be a preaching
that seems to say that the gutter sins of murder and adultery,
they can be forgiven, but if you ever have self-righteousness,
whoa, you can't be forgiven then, the Lord won't save you. No.
All sin is wrong. All sin is wrong. But you see, I mean if I was to ask you to
say, okay, what is the worst sin? What is the worst sin? If we want to know what the cardinal
sin is, what is it? Is it self-righteousness? Is
that the cardinal sin and all the others can be forgiven but
self-righteousness gone? This is the cardinal sin. John's
Gospel chapter 16. talks of the coming of the Spirit
of God. And what it will do, John 16
verse 8 says, And when he is come, he will reprove the world
of sin. What's he going to reprove the
world of then? What particular sin? And of righteousness and
of judgment. And verse 9 says, of sin, because
they believed not on me. That is the cardinal sin. Not
self-righteousness. I'm not saying self-righteousness
is good any more than I'm saying murder is good. I'm saying it's
not the cardinal sin. Simon was somebody who was a
sinner that needed saving by grace. He needed forgiveness. He needed mercy. He needed to
come to realise his need for a mercy. And in God's mercy, there were
those that believed amongst the Pharisees. There were those,
if you look in Acts chapter 15 and verse 5, we read this, but
there arose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed,
saying that it was needful to be circumcised. Okay, they were
saying something that wasn't very helpful, but it says here
that there was a Pharisees which believed. feel that there's an importance
to balance things here, that the cardinal sin is not self-righteousness,
it is a great sin. The cardinal sin is not coming
for mercy to the Lord Jesus Christ. Not realizing that we need mercy. And really what the Lord Jesus
was saying, I go to dinner to publicans and sinners because
they need forgiveness. I go and eat at the Pharisee's
house because he needs forgiveness. He thinks he's much greater than
this lady who's known as a notable sinner. He looks down on her. But he needs his eyes opened.
He needs the Lord to show him what he is. And then he'll realize,
who was it in the Bible that declares himself the chief of
sinners? It was a Pharisee, wasn't it?
It was Paul. Paul declared himself of sinners,
whom I am chief. I know he was involved with persecuting
the church, but we know from his other side that he said,
as touching the law, blameless. He was blameless. And I do think
this is important because there can be amongst The people in
our churches, there can be this idea, well, you know, if you
go out and sin some great sin, some magnificent sin, then you
can come and be saved. No. What is it that shows us
our sinnership? What was it, what made Isaiah,
in Isaiah chapter 6, cry out, woe is me, for I am undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. Why did he say that? In Isaiah
6, verse 5, it says, Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone,
because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst
of a people of the unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. That's why they'd seen the holiness
of Christ. It didn't mean that he'd just
suddenly gone out and murdered somebody. He saw the holiness
of God. reflected on the unholiness of
himself. We think of it like this sometimes.
Sometimes on a sunny day, you can have a shaft of light coming
through the window, can't you, into your house. Very bright
light sometimes. And if you look at that shaft
of light, you can see all the dust dancing around in the beam
of light that comes into your room. Now you might say, well, that's
funny. Wasn't doing that yesterday when the sun wasn't shining,
there wasn't any dust in my room obviously. Did the light make
the dust? Or did the light show the dust?
Well it's obviously the latter. The dust was there, but the light
shining through in that shaft of light showed the presence
of the dust. It didn't make the dust, it showed
the presence of the dust. And that is so with a view of
Christ, the light of the world, as it beams into our hearts,
as it did to the Apostle Paul's. Saul of Tarsus on that Damascus
road, a light shining above the brightness of the midday sun.
It shined into his heart and showed that he was a sinner. Yes, he was a Pharisee. Yes,
he was self-righteousness. But he was a sinner that needed
saving. And each one of us, you see,
whichever classification you come into, whether you're self-righteous
or whether you're in open sin in some ways, whatever your classification,
we need salvation. We need mercy. And it's not that
we need to go out and say, well, you need to go out and commit
some fantastic sin and then you can come back and be safe. No.
No, no, no. No, if the Lord opens our eyes,
you see. There was a little maid, a little
story goes of a minister that visited a household in Scotland,
I think it was, and there was a little maid that didn't know
much, couldn't read or write, and he called her to come to
the Bible reading, and he said, do you pray? She said, no, I
don't. He said, I'll teach you a prayer
to pray then. He said, Pray this prayer, Lord, show me myself. And she went away and prayed
that for some time. And the minister then came back
sometime later to the household and they said, oh, that maid,
oh, she's in a lot of trouble, you know. She's very distressed,
that maid that you told to pray that prayer. She was very distressed
because the Lord had showed, the beam of the light of God's
holiness had come into her heart and showed her what she was.
She hadn't gone out and committed some great external sin. But
you see, he then called that little maid and said, I want
to give you another prayer now. I want you to pray, Lord, show
me thyself. And you see, that is the mercy
of God in Christ. Yes, the mercy of God in Christ. I think showed some civility
to the Lord Jesus. He wanted him to come to his
house, and I think if we rightly understand what Jesus uses as
a parable, there was some love in the Pharisee's heart towards
the Lord Jesus. Admittedly, much less than this
woman, his view was that he had much less sin, you see. This one needed to grow then,
didn't he? He needed to come to realise the exceeding sinfulness
of sin. And we pray that, don't we, for
our children? They may not come to chapel. I remember I came
for many years and I didn't appreciate the exceeding sinfulness of sin.
I didn't appreciate that. I didn't really understand it.
And there can be an acceptability, there can be this idea, I think,
you know, if you're brought up in a Christian household, it
can easily be that you come to the conclusion, like Paul, Saul
of Tarsus, that he'd walked a lot more honourably than the people
around him, and that he was an honourable citizen in that sense.
But the great message of the Gospel is we all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. Whether you're with your
friends going to the nightclubs and getting drunk every weekend,
yes, that's wrong. But if you come to the house
of God and never get drunk all your life, and you never lay
hold upon the hope set before you in the Gospel, you will also
perish of sin because they believe not on the Saviour. And so we
need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not promoting going
out and doing evil, but I'm saying that we need to know forgiveness. We need to realize the Lord needs
to show us that we're unclean. All our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags, and we need that mercy. And you see here, it's
clear that the love that flowed in this woman's heart towards
the Lord Jesus was linked with her sense of the debt she owed. The debt that the Lord Jesus
had cancelled. And you see as we go on and the
Lord leads us, I think if the Lord showed us all the debt we
owed immediately, it would crush us. But the Lord shows us a little
here of the sin and then shows a little of himself. And a bit
more of the sin and then a bit more of the self. Line upon line,
precept upon precept. So the Lord leads us on to make
himself to be precious. Because you see, that is what
the Lord is doing in our lives. Now, so we have then, there was
a certain creditor, two debtors. They were both debtors. Yes,
one greater than the other. One had gone to nightclubs every
weekend and the other hadn't, as it were. The one owed 500
pence and the other 50, and when they had nothing to pay. And that's a wonderful thing.
You see, those who've gone out with a reckless life perhaps
and then come back to realize the preciousness of the Lord
Jesus and to confess their sins and to say that they've been
sinful and they've done evil, That's a precious thing, and
it's a wonderful testimony when the Lord has done that. But I
don't think it's any less of a miracle when somebody who has
been kept from all the outward forms of sin, as it were, and
walked an honourable path outwardly, can come and say before the people
of God, I am a sinner. And I have, I'm ashamed of myself. I have come short of the glory
of God to confess that they are evil, even though their neighbors
say, oh, they're most nice people. Most, I think they're very, yes,
they're very good people. They go to the house of God.
Well, you see, the Lord's people know that they're not good people,
and they need a savior, and they need salvation, and they need
forgiveness, and that is what That is why Christ is precious
to the people of God. It's because He is precious.
And He has made a way at Calvary in this forgiveness that He freely
gave both of these people. I believe in a sense both Simon
and both the woman. Although Simon at this time didn't
seem to appreciate it. But we don't know what he had
to go through. Peter didn't appreciate it, did he? If we took Matthew
16 and left our last reading of Peter there, he said, this
will not happen to you. And Jesus said unto him, get
thee behind me, Satan, thou saviest not the things of God. If that
was the last we ever read of Peter, what would we think of
him spiritually? I don't know. I don't know. We'd probably write
him off, I guess. But the Lord had further work. You see he
came to seek and to save that which was lost. That's what he
came to do. The lostness of the Pharisee.
The lostness of the ungodly in the filth of this world. Both
lost. Both far off from God in different
ways. Yes, perhaps described as the
500 and the 50 pence debtor. But all bankrupt. All bankrupt. And all in need
of mercy. Wherefore I say unto thee, her
sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. This was
the response and as we come and we appreciate something of what
the Lord has done for us, the only response is love. That's the only sensible and
right response. And you see that The problem is here, if we have
no love and we have no response of love, where's the evidence
that we're children of God? Where's the evidence that our
sins have been forgiven? We can lose the evidence when
we lose the love. And that's what David did in
Psalm 51. He lost the evidence that he was a child of God. He
lost the evidence. Why? Because he lived like the
world and he acted ungodly. And he prayed, restore unto me
the joy of thy salvation. and the Lord had his blessing.
Amen.